Posts of mai 2015

Wilshere’s abusive ant-Spurs chant

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Jack Wilshere celebrated Arsenal’s FA Cup triumph with another string of expletives aimed at Tottenham after an all-night party. ||| Jack Wilshere celebrated Arsenal’s FA Cup triumph with another string of expletives aimed at Tottenham after an all-night party with his team-mates. Wilshere sang anti-Spurs songs from the balcony last season following the open-top bus parade in north London to markArsenal’s 3-2 victory over Hull City in the FA Cup final. And, despite a warning from the club about his behaviour, the midfielder heaped more embarrassment on Arsenal as he celebrated their historic 12th FA Cup, sealed by a 4-0 win over Aston Villa . Young children, along with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, were present at the celebrations as Wilshere chanted: ‘What do we think of Tottenham?’ before adding: ‘And what do we think of s***?’ Wilshere then continued with another anti-Tottenham song riddled with expletives before the microphone was snatched from him.The midfielder was pictured...

SA’s 2010 huge ticket sales shock

The controversy swirling around SA’s 2010 World Cup has deepened further with fresh allegations levelled at Fifa. ||| Johannesburg - The controversy swirling around South Africa’s 2010 World Cup has deepened further with fresh claims that Fifa allegedly identified serious issues with South Africa’s bid two weeks before choosing it as the host nation – but did nothing about it. This was because football’s world governing body was more concerned with putting on a good “TV show” when it named South Africa as the winning bidder, according to a new report, which also says the tournament has left the country with “an oversupply of underutilised stadiums”. The report says South Africans are still shouldering the financial burden of the tournament years down the line. The research, published by a British academic days before nine Fifa officials were charged with decades of corruption, appears to undermine the idea that the organisation has been a positive force in Africa – a factor...

Mbalula’s statement on Fifa saga

Fikile Mbalula’s remarks on allegations that South Africa paid a bribe to secure World Cup hosting rights. ||| Cape Town - In the wake of the latest media revelations, South Africa’s Minister of Sport and Recreation Fikile Mbalula on Sunday issued a statement on the allegations that the government of South Africa paid a bribe to secure the rights to host the 2010 Fifa Football World Cup following remarks attributed to Safa President Dr Danny Jordaan. “We remain concerned at the ongoing media speculation which only plays into the hands of those whose objective is to tarnish the good name and integrity of our country. We reject these falsehoods with the contempt they deserve. As a government and people of South Africa we are enjoined to combat such propaganda against our country. “Accordingly, we appeal to all our people, media included, to desist from speculating on names of individuals who may or not be implicated in the allegations. Equally, we call on all those involved in...

Fifa probe: Blatter may be quizzed

Fifa boss Sepp Blatter may be questioned as the corruption investigation continues. ||| Zurich - South Africa denied that a $10-million payment it made in 2008 was in any way a bribe to Fifa for the 2010 World Cup, in the latest twist to the massive corruption scandal engulfing world football's governing body. Two separate investigations are being carried out by American and Swiss authorities for alleged rampant and long-running corruption within Fifa, with several top officials arrested and accused by US investigators of taking tens of millions of dollars in bribes. Several top football officials have been questioned by Swiss investigators, and Fifa President Sepp Blatter too could be quizzed “in the future if needed”, according to Swiss prosecutors. The biggest-ever scandal to rock world football erupted on Wednesday when seven Fifa officials were arrested in their Zurich hotel as part of the US probe. They and seven others were charged for racketeering, wire fraud and money...

Birds’ wings clipped

Moroka Swallows have been relegated from top-tier SA soccer for the first time in their 68-year history. ||| Johannesburg - Famed Soweto club Moroka Swallows were relegated on Sunday from top-flight South African football for the first time in their 68-year history. The once-powerful Birds dropped out of contention for top place in a promotion mini-league after losing 1-0 at Black Leopards. A Roggert Nyundu goal after 32 minutes at a packed stadium in Thohoyandou condemned Swallows to lower-league football. Swallows finished second last in the 2015 Premiership, forcing them into a double-round mini-league with Jomo Cosmos and Leopards, who came second and third in the second division. Cosmos, owned and coached by 1980s South African football legend Jomo Sono, will gain promotion on goal difference if they win at Swallows on Wednesday. Any other result would bring Leopards back to the top tier. The South African Premiership offers unrivalled African domestic club football riches...

International breaks boon for Terry

Chelsea’s John Terry believes quitting international football helped him keep his fitness for the English season. ||| Sydney – Chelsea captain John Terry thinks quitting international football three years ago helped keep his fitness at a level where he was able to play every minute of the London club’s triumphant English league season. Only four players, three of them goalkeepers, had previously featured in every game of a Premier League title-winning campaign before Terry turned out in Chelsea’s 38th and final match of the season against Sunderland last weekend. “I was delighted to play every minute,” the 34-year-old told reporters in Sydney on Sunday. “At my age you get written off as well, so it was nice on a personal note to play all the games. “I don’t know what it’s down to. The manager and the staff deserve credit for the way we train. “(Not playing) internationals as well, I feel I’ve benefited from those couple of days off. “So the manager and the staff deserve a lot...

FA Cup wins ‘must fuel Gunners’

Arsenal must not rest on their laurels after their FA Cup win, but aim for PL glory as well, says Theo Walcott. ||| London – Arsenal must not rest on their laurels after successive FA Cup victories and instead use one of the side’s “best squads” to inspire them to Premier League glory next season, according to forward Theo Walcott. The England international scored the opening goal in Arsenal’s 4-0 thrashing of Aston Villa at Wembley on Saturday as the Gunners retained the trophy they won against Hull City the previous season. In the Premier League, however, Arsenal, who have not won the title since 2004, were never a factor in the title race and finished 12 points behind champions Chelsea in third place. The Gunners were languishing in sixth place at the turn of the year but finished the season in blistering form and registered impressive away wins against Manchester City and Manchester United in the league and cup respectively. Those victories fueled talk that the Gunners had...

Real boss leaks Benitez signing

Real boss Eduardo Fernandez de Blas has let slip that Rafa Benitez is to become the club’s coach. ||| Barcelona – Real Madrid vice-president Eduardo Fernandez de Blas has accidentally let slip at the meeting of a fans group that Rafa Benitez will be the new club coach. Benitez will leave Napoli at the end of the season and has been hotly tipped to take over from Carlo Ancelotti at the Bernabeu but so far there has been no confirmation. “Ancelotti is an absolute phenomenon and we give him all out appreciation,” Fernandez de Blas told the Madrid members group. “Until three days ago he was the best trainer in the world as two years ago it was Jose Mourinho and from this week onwards it will be Rafa Benitez.” Italian Ancelotti was dismissed a year after he ended 12 years of Champions League failure and led Real to a record-extending 10th European crown, as well as a King’s Cup triumph. Former-Liverpool and Chelsea boss Benitez, who once had a stint as a Real youth team coach, is...

Trip to Oz no jaunt: Mourinho

Pandering to fans Down Under, Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho insists his team’s Oz visit is no jaunt. ||| Sydney – Even with his third Premier League title in the bag and the season over barring Tuesday’s exhibition match against Sydney FC, Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho’s appetite for success remains undimmed. The Portuguese was on vintage form when the English champions arrived in Australia on Sunday for a match expected to attract a crowd in excess of 83 000 to Sydney’s Olympic stadium. His players were mobbed at the airport on arrival from Bangkok by a crowd Belgian international Eden Hazard described as “very crazy”. And it is that passion, Mourinho said, which made it crucial the trip Down Under was not treated as a jaunt. “We feel always responsibilities,” he told reporters. “We were in Bangkok, we went to the stadium and there were 45 000 fans with a blue shirt. You cannot lose, you cannot go for fun, you have to go for a result. “We are still celebrating, yes, we are already...

Skipper Harry Nyirenda believes homeground advantage will work in the Leopard’s favour on Sunday.

Leopards in hunt to claw Birds ||| Johannesburg – Black Leopards skipper Harry Nyirenda is confident his team will collect maximum points when they host Moroka Swallows in their final National First Division promotion/relegation fixture at Thohoyandou Stadium today. The Malawian international insists that home-ground advantage will come into play as they are a pretty difficult side to beat in Limpopo. “The players know we have to give 110 percent when we play at home,” said Nyirenda. “We make things difficult for our opponents, and with our supporters behind us, it is a morale-booster.” Having lost 2-0 to Swallows at the Dobsonville Stadium a week ago, Nyirenda says they are prepared this time around and will not let their chances of promotion to the Premier Soccer League (PSL) slip away. “It was difficult when we played them in Soweto, but we have learnt from that loss. “This is our chance to go to the top (of the three-team mini league). “We want to compete in the top league....

Danny: Yes, we paid R120m

But soccer boss denies that it was a bribe to secure the 2010 Fifa World Cup ||| Johannesburg - Newly-elected Nelson Mandela Bay executive mayor and South African Football Association (Safa) president Danny Jordaan has confirmed that the 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC) paid $10 million (now about R120m) after South Africa won the bid to host the 2010 Fifa World Cup. But he has insisted this was not a bribe. This is the first time that South Africa has confirmed to paying money to a football association then led by former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner, the man at the centre of the bribery claims that have rocked the soccer governing body. Warner is one of the officials arrested and indicted this week by the FBI in connection with alleged corruption and bribery at Fifa. The admission follows a week of denials from local football authorities and the government, that South Africa had paid a $10m bribe to secure the hosting of the 2010 World Cup. Jordaan, who was the 2010...

Rio calls it a day

Former England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand announced his retirement from football. ||| London - Former England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand announced his retirement from football on Saturday after being released by Queens Park Rangers. The 36-year-old centre back earned 81 caps and won six Premier League titles, the Champions League, two League Cups and the Club World Cup during a 12-year spell with Manchester United where he made more than 400 appearances. Ferdinand, whose wife Rebecca died from cancer this month, made 12 appearances for QPR last season after joining on a free transfer from United but was released following the west London club's relegation from the Premier League. “After 18 years as a professional footballer, I now feel it's the right time for me to retire from the game that I love,” Ferdinand told BT Sport. “I'd also like to thank and pay tribute to my wife Rebecca and my family, including my mother and father, for their sacrifices,...

Blatter facing massive challenges

As Sepp Blatter was re-elected Fifa president he made almost exactly the same speech he did in 2011 about the need to pull together and root out corruption. ||| Zurich - It was like time had stood still. As Sepp Blatter was re-elected Fifa president on Friday he made almost exactly the same speech he did in 2011 about the need to pull together and root out corruption. The reputation of soccer's world governing body had been dragged through the mud and had to be restored, said the Swiss. The trust of the football family had to be won back and words had to be turned into action. Even the metaphor was the same as he talked about guiding the Fifa ship out of troubled waters and into a placid harbour. But this time Blatter's challenge, as he enters a fifth term that which will take him to the ripe old age of 83, is considerably greater than four years ago. Not only has Fifa failed to change its scandal-plagued image, it faces an even bigger credibility crisis after United States...

FA Cup history beckons for Wenger

Ask Arsene Wenger where he keeps his extensive medal collection and the manager of Arsenal is not sure where it is these days. ||| Ask Arsene Wenger where he keeps his extensive medal collection and the manager of Arsenal is not sure where it is these days. He is not the type for a showy trophy room. ‘I don’t know,’ he admitted, as he prepared for this evening’s FA Cup final against Aston Villa at Wembley Stadium. ‘I am not a collection man. I am always focused on what’s next. I think the guys who come and clean the house come and take them.’ He was joking, of course, but over the past 19 years as manager of this club he has mopped up three Barclays Premier League titles, five FA Cups and five victories in the Community Shield. Wenger remains true to English football and its rich heritage, respecting the traditions and the core values of the FA Cup as he closes in on a record-equalling sixth victory as a manager. He is aware of George Ramsay’s achievements, the man who won the...

Blatter slams US, Uefa

Sepp Blatter has said that the events in the run-up to his re-election as Fifa president “do not smell right.” ||| Zurich - Sepp Blatter has said that the events in the run-up to his re-election as Fifa president “do not smell right” and he was the victim of “hate” on the part of European soccer's governing body Uefa. Blatter implied that it was not just a coincidence that Swiss police arrested seven leading soccer officials, including Fifa vice-president Jeffrey Webb, two days before the Fifa Congress and presidential election. The seven have been detained pending an extradition request from the United States where they are wanted on corruption charges. The arrests were connected to a bribery scandal being investigated by U.S., Swiss and other law enforcement agencies that has plunged Fifa into the worst crisis in its 111-year history. “No one is going to take it off me that it was a simple coincidence (that) this American attack (happened) two days before the elections of...

Chelsea in Falcao talks

Chelsea opened talks with Radamel Falcao and his representatives over the possibility of taking the Colombia striker to Stamford Bridge. ||| Chelsea opened talks with Radamel Falcao and his representatives over the possibility of taking the Colombia striker to Stamford Bridge. Falcao flopped during his season on loan at Manchester United from Monaco, scoring just four goals in 29 appearances before manager Louis van Gaal confirmed last weekend that he had decided not to go ahead with a permanent deal worth £44million. The 29-year-old’s brief spell at Old Trafford is still believed to have cost United £40m, comprising his £285,000-a-week wages and a £6m loan fee, although it’s understood that Falcao is prepared to accept a significant pay cut to secure his next move. His agent Jorge Mendes has been offering the former Porto and Atletico Madrid striker around Europe and is said to be increasingly confident that a deal can be done with Chelsea, the newly crowned Barclays Premier...

Rooney targets silverware as captain

Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney believes finishing in the Premier League's top four last season was essential for the record 20-times English champions. ||| London - Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney believes finishing in the Premier League's top four last season was essential for the record 20-times English champions. United came fourth in Louis van Gaal's first campaign in charge, improving on their seventh-place finish under David Moyes 12 months ago. “Top four was a must, really,” Rooney told the United website on Friday. “We had to get ourselves back into the Champions League and we've managed to do that. Hopefully that will provide a springboard for us to go and fight for silverware next year.” Rooney said he enjoyed working under former Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Netherlands coach Van Gaal. “It was exciting really, to have the chance to work under him,” he added. “The record he has got shows that he is a top manager and since he's come in he's been fantastic. “He...

Blatter has surprise to improve image

Sepp Blatter says he knows how to create a better image for Fifa and promises to unveil surprising plans. ||| Zurich - Sepp Blatter says he knows how to create a better image for Fifa and promises to unveil surprising plans on the first working day of his fifth term as president. Buoyant after being re-elected at the Congress of soccer's ruling body on Friday, the 79-year-old Swiss told Fifa TV he would have time to work on his plans after the “tragic events” involving officials at his organisation earlier this week. “This gives me now the time because I was said to be responsible with what's happened. I take the responsibility and we have to build up now a better image of Fifa and I know how to do it,” said Blatter. “I cannot disclose it now but we will do it as from tomorrow morning. We have a meeting of the executive committee and they will listen to me, they will receive some information or some messages, some of them will be surprised.” Neither Blatter nor his opponent...

Santos sues Neymar, Barca over transfer

Brazilian soccer club Santos said it filed a suit with Fifa seeking compensation for a breach of contract in the transfer of forward Neymar to FC Barcelona. ||| Sao Paulo - Brazilian soccer club Santos said it filed a suit with Fifa seeking compensation for a breach of contract in the transfer of forward Neymar to FC Barcelona, adding to the controversy that led to the resignation of the president of the Spanish champions. Modesto Roma, the president of Santos, said the team filed the suit against Barcelona, Neymar, his father and marketing firm Neymar Sports e Marketing. “Santos believes that Barcelona, Neymar and his company violated the transfer contract and therefore, it claims compensation of damages,” Roma said in a statement. The suit comes as Brazilian authorities began to investigate allegations of corruption in its soccer industry following a U.S. probe that led to the arrests this week of top officials at Fifa. Barcelona have been accused of tax fraud by Spanish authorities...

Brazil to review suspicious contracts

The Brazilian Football Confederation will review any contracts under suspicion in charges filed by US prosecutors, the group's president said. ||| Rio de Janeiro - The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) will review any contracts under suspicion in charges filed by United States prosecutors, the group's president said on Friday and ruled out resigning. Marco Polo Del Nero, who took over from jailed former CBF chief Jose Maria Marin last year, said he was saddened by the corruption charges against his longtime friend and former boss, but he denied any involvement in bribery schemes laid out in indictments filed in New York on Wednesday. “I won't resign because I had nothing to do with it,” Del Nero told a press conference at CBF headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. “I knew nothing.” Del Nero did not specify which contracts would be reviewed. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation found evidence of millions of dollars in bribes paid for a 1996 sponsorship deal between Brazil's national...

Blatter wins Fifa election

Sepp Blatter has won Fifa's presidential election, establishing himself as a politician who can weather any storm. ||| Zurich - A new election triumph in the midst of a corruption scandal established Fifa president Sepp Blatter as the politician who can come through any storm. Unapologetically divisive, Blatter has had to deal with scandal virtually since his first day in office. And Blatter knows that he still has a long way to go to reach the aim he outlined Friday of getting Fifa in a safe port “where the boats will stop rocking.” “He sees it all like a marathon. And he is one of the most determined men you will meet,” said one Fifa executive member about the 79-year-old Swiss official. Blatter, who has been at Fifa for 40 years, 17 as its president, went into the vote revered by some as the beautiful game's 'Jesus' and scorned by others as a rogue clinging to power. The arrest on Wednesday of seven Fifa officials wanted by US authorities for accepting tens of millions of...

Blatter charms in last election pitch

Sepp Blatter used all the tricks of the old master he is after 17 years in the job to woo delegates in his last speech before the election. ||| Zurich - Incumbent Fifa president Sepp Blatter used all the tricks of the old master he is after 17 years in the job to woo delegates at the Fifa Congress when he made his final election pitch before voting began for a new president on Friday. The 79-year-old Swiss, who has been president since 1998 and is seeking a fifth term, gave a far more assured delivery than his challenger, 39-year-old Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan. Prince Ali looked more nervous and his speech was a little lighter on substance than Blatter, who got a round of applause when he told the 209 delegates he “did not want to leave them”. Blatter, who joined Fifa in 1975, said he felt that he had only been at Fifa for a short time and wanted to stay longer. “What is time anyway. I find that the time I have spent at Fifa is very short,” he said, “The more one ages...

Palestine drops Israel Fifa suspension bid

The Palestine Football Association dropped its motion on Friday asking for Israel to be suspended by Fifa. ||| Zurich - The Palestine Football Association (PFA) dropped its motion on Friday asking for Israel to be suspended by Fifa. The motion had been included on the agenda at the Fifa Congress but PFA president Jibril Rajoub said he had been persuaded to back down. “I decided to drop the suspension but it does not mean that I give up the resistance,” he said. The PFA has accused Israel of hampering its activities and restricting the movement of players between the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel cites security concerns for the restrictions it imposes and the country's football association has argued that it has no control over security forces. Soccer's world governing body has been trying to settle the matter for two years and Blatter this month travelled to the region and meet Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmud...

Blatter set to win new term

Sepp Blatter is expected to be re-elected, defying growing calls for him to step down in the face of corruption scandals. ||| Zurich - World soccer boss Sepp Blatter was expected to be re-elected on Friday, defying growing calls for him to step down in the face of corruption scandals engulfing the sport's governing body. Addressing delegates at Fifa's annual Congress in Switzerland, where members will later vote to decide the organisation's presidency, Blatter promised more transparency and urged members to remain unified. Europe, which accounts for all but three of the countries that have ever made it to a World Cup's final match, is particularly keen to banish the 79-year-old Swiss. But Asian, African and Latin American states are expected to rally around him. Each of the 209 countries in Fifa has an equal vote. On a visit to Berlin, British Prime Minister David Cameron told Blatter to go “the sooner the better”. Chancellor Angela Merkel said the dirty side of soccer must...

Fifa to ref Safa dispute

Safa’s eThekwini Region is embroiled in a battle with the national football association that has now been referred to Fifa. ||| Durban - The SA Football Association eThekwini Region is embroiled in a battle with the national football association that has now been referred to the Federation Internationale de Football Association’s legal division (Fifa). In the midst of this battle, Safa eThekwini on Thursday launched two separate high court applications against their bank, FirstRand Bank Limited, to have their bank account unfrozen and almost R300 000 transferred back into this account. In court papers, Safa eThekwini’s president, Alpha Mchunu, said they learned from their bank branch that this was done on instruction from Safa’s head office. The bank’s attorney, Jason Michael Smith Incorporated Attorneys, on Thursday confirmed to the Daily News that they were not opposing this application and had complied by re-instating the account and transferring the money. According to Mchunu’s...

Fifa’s culture must change

Fifa's culture must change if it is to reclaim its credibility, a senior official told delegates at its annual congress. ||| Zurich - Fifa's culture must change if it is to reclaim its credibility as an open and honest organisation, one of its own senior officials told delegates at its annual congress on Friday. After Fifa president Sepp Blatter had spoken at the start of proceedings, repeating his nautical analogies about steering the good ship Fifa back to calm waters, Domenico Scala, chairman of the Audit and Compliance Committee, issued a stark warning. “A change of culture within Fifa is essential if the organisation is to eliminate improper conduct,” the Swiss-Italian told delegates, adding that the change had to be articulated by football's leaders. Fifa was rocked on Wednesday when seven officials were arrested in an early morning raid in Zurich as part of a joint United States/Swiss investigation into widespread malpractice involving a wide-ranging spread of Fifa activities...

Bomb scare at Fifa congress

Zurich police confirmed they were responding to a bomb alert at the venue where Fifa is hosting its annual congress. ||| Zurich police confirmed they were responding to a bomb alert at the venue where Fifa is hosting its widely-watched annual congress, amid a massive corruption scandal rocking world football's governing body. Zurich police spokeswoman Brigitte Vogt confirmed to that a bomb alert had been received at the venue. “The police are there,” she said, refusing to provide further details. – AFP from Soccer Soccer Extended RSS http://ift.tt/1EDyq...

Platini haunted by Heysel disaster

Uefa president Michel Platini said he is still haunted by memories of the Heysel Stadium disaster on the 30th anniversary of the tragedy. ||| Uefa president Michel Platini said he is still haunted by memories of the Heysel Stadium disaster on the 30th anniversary of the tragedy during which 39 football fans died. The former French midfield star was playing in the Juventus side against Liverpool on May 29 1985 in the European Cup final when the Brussels stadium became synonymous with tragedy. Platini's second-half penalty sealed Juventus' 1-0 victory, but the result was completely over-shadowed by the disaster which resulted in British clubs banned from European competition. Several Liverpool fans were eventually found guilty of manslaughter after the 39 mostly Juventus fans were killed and some 600 supporters injured after a wall collapsed. “Thirty years ago, I played in a European Champion Clubs' Cup final at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. And I continue to play in that final,”...

They knew Warner was corrupt

Kevin McCallum says all those who have wanted to win the right to host the World Cup, courted a certain Jack Warner. ||| Here’s the thing about Jack Warner. No matter how much football officials knew about his penchant for a decent backhander, all those who have wanted to win the right to host the World Cup bid courted him. They knew he was corrupt, overbearing and hungry for money. They all knew, but Warner had the power over the three Concacaf votes and they needed them. Those votes helped South Africa beat Morocco 14-10 in the 2010 bid. South Africa went out of their way to get them. At the time, it was believed they had just pimped out Nelson Mandela to Warner to get them, but the allegation of a $10-million backhander organised by two co-conspirators and paid through Fifa, suggests they felt the need to sweeten the pot more. In his book, ‘Foul!’, Andrew Jennings outlines just how much Madiba was put through the mill to keep Warner happy. “Ten of Fifa’s committee attended...

How Blatter gained Africa’s support

Fifa's mission, which it shares with every sports governing body, is to expand the game it administers. ||| Fifa's mission, which it shares with every sports governing body, is to expand the game it administers. That is hard to achieve in a country incapable of watching its own national team on television. Such was the case in Mauritania, a large West African nation with a population of 3.5 million, before Fifa's development money arrived in 2013. The money was closely followed by a visit from the Fifa president, Sepp Blatter. The studios were quickly built. “We now have a TV production unit, one of the first of its kind in Africa,” explained the president of the Mauritanian Football Association, Ahmed Ould Yahya, at the time. “We've signed a contract with the national broadcasting company and we show matches every week. That is really changing the image of the game in the country.” Before the money arrived, Mauritanian football had effectively collapsed. It had never played...

Russia, Qatar caused crisis - Blatter

Fifa may have avoided its current problems if Russia and Qatar had not been chosen as hosts, Sepp Blatter said. ||| Zurich - Scandal-plagued Fifa may have avoided its current problems if Russia and Qatar had not been chosen as hosts of the next two World Cups, President Sepp Blatter said. “On Dec 2, 2010, here in Zurich, when we decided on the two World Cup hosts in one session, if two other countries had emerged from the envelope, I think we would not have these problems today. “But we cannot go back in time, we are not prophets, we cannot say what would have happened,” added Blatter, who did not elaborate on his comments. Russia was chosen as the host nation of the 2018 World Cup and Qatar for 2022 at a single vote in Zurich in 2010. Blatter also questioned the timing of Wednesday's arrest of seven soccer officials, including Fifa vice-president Jeffrey Webb, in a dawn raid on a luxury Zurich hotel. They are being held in custody pending an extradition request to the United...

Villa slap £32m price tag on Benteke

Tim Sherwood has admitted he is powerless to stop Christian Benteke leaving Aston Villa. ||| Tim Sherwood has admitted he is powerless to stop Christian Benteke leaving Aston Villa after revealing the Belgian striker has a release clause. Liverpool are readying a bid for the 24-year-old, who has scored 12 goals in 14 games since Sherwood’s arrival, and Sportsmail understands £32.5million would trigger the clause. The FA Cup final against Arsenal at Wembley could well prove Benteke’s last in a Villa shirt with much interest generated by his return to form. ‘There’s a buy-out clause in his contract so it will be impossible for us to stop him if he wants to go,’ admitted Sherwood. ‘Someone’s got to meet it and if they don’t it won’t be considered because we don’t want to lose him.’ Daily Mail from Soccer Soccer Extended RSS http://ift.tt/1RtLS...

48 hours that swung 2010 vote

IOL covered the 48 hours that swung the 2010 vote - and the crucial role played by Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer. ||| * This article was orignially published on IOL on the 13 May, 2004 Zurich - Jack Warner, a “defector”, appears to hold South Africa's World Cup 2010 destiny in his hands. The Trinidadian head of Concacaf (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) once said “South Africa's 2010 World Cup bid's dead without (bid chief) Danny Jordaan”. Well, it will be, unless Jordaan - over the next 48 hours - does some of the smoothest negotiating of his life once he arrives in Zurich on Thursday to put the finishing touches to South Africa's 2010 World Cup bid. Ironically, Warner was one of South Africa's biggest and most vociferous supporters for the 2006 bid. But that has not been the case this time around, with Warner making a point of saying he has never publicly backed South Africa's 2010 bid. Rumours which first surfaced months ago - that...

Warner rushed off in ambulance

Former Fifa Vice President Jack Warner, implicated in a corruption case against senior Fifa officials, left jail in Trinidad and Tobago via ambulance after he was granted bail. ||| Port of Spain - Former Fifa Vice President Jack Warner, who has been accused of soliciting bribes as part of a vast corruption case against senior soccer officials, left jail in Trinidad and Tobago via ambulance on Thursday after he was granted bail, according to local media. Warner is among nine Fifa officials and five corporate executives charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with running a criminal enterprise that involved more than $150 million in bribes. Fifa is the global body governing soccer. Once one of the most powerful men in Fifa, Warner surrendered to authorities on Wednesday after U.S. officials sought his extradition. Prosecutors say Warner solicited bribes worth $10 million from the South African government to host the 2010 World Cup and diverted bribes for personal use. Warner...

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