Paul Nicholson, Author at Inside World Football - Page 1782 of 1891

John Yan: The Age of Tuhao 恒大是现象，还难称模式

All eyes were focused on the match, tagged as ‘The Fly to the Top of Asia’. Quite like the Party’s propoganda protocol, a bit like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest…

On November 9 in Guangzhou, Evergrande were crowned the champions of Asia, grandly. Even though the official TV ratings figures didn’t prove this match attracted a dominant viewership nationally, go through any media outlet, the impression was on that night, nothing could compare to the club’s climb to the top of Asia.

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Italian derby abandoned after fan threats turn fixture into farce

Fans suround bus

By Andrew Warshaw
November 11 – Even by Italian standards, it was surely one of the most bizarre episodes ever to occur in a professional football match. A third division derby was called off on Sunday after visiting side Nocerina, having allegedly received death threats from their own fans, deliberately reduced themselves to six players forcing the game to be abandoned.

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BT Sport swoops for the UEFA club competitions in £897m deal

BT Sport

By Andrew Warshaw
November 11 – In UK football’s most far-reaching broadcasting game-changer of recent years, BT Sport has won the UK rights to screen the Champions League and Europa League from 2015 in a staggering £897 million three-year deal with UEFA’s marketing agency TEAM.

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Poland’s Ekstraklasa seeks to modify mass events safety bill and increase attendances

Polish league

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
November 11 – Poland’s Ekstraklasa is aiming to introduce a number of modifications into the country’s mass events safety bill. The operator of the top tier of Poland’s professional football league outlined the proposed changes in a document entitled Safe Ekstraklasa: shutting down the stadiums, shutting down the opportunities.

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Nigeria win fourth U17 FIFA World Cup title in Abu Dhabi

Nigeria win

November 11 – So often fraught with controversy, Nigerian football is back in the spotlight for the right reasons after winning the world under-17 championship for a record fourth time, overpowering holders Mexico 3-0 in Abu Dhabi.

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Blatter rules out January World Cup and says progress is being made on labour laws

Blatter 6

By Andrew Warshaw
November 11 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has ruled out the Qatar 2022 World Cup being moved to January and February because of a potential clash with the Winter Olympics, severely narrowing down the options to switch the tournament from summer. FIFA recently set up a working group to look into alternative dates for 2022 with all the stakeholders involved – medical experts, broadcasters, sponsors, leagues and clubs.

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Second ticket window opens for Brazil 2014

ronaldo and mascot

November 11 – The second ticketing sales window for the 2014 World Cup Brazil opened today at 12:00 CET / 9:00 Brasilia time. More than 220,000 tickets are available in this sales window for 57 matches and FIFA is warning that demand is expected to be high. Unlike the first sales window, the second window will allocate tickets on a first come first served basis.

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Suspended and threatened, Bulgarian ref turns to police for help

stanislav todorov

By Alexander Krassimirov
November 11 – Police in the Bulgarian town of Shumen have launched an investigation after a series of threats were made against the Bulgarian international football referee Stanislav Todorov (pictured). The referee lodged a complaint at the police station following the threats. Todorov was interviewed for an hour, and also informed the newspaper ’24 hours’ Daily. The police in Shumen have confirmed Todorov’s report of the incident but declined to give further details.

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David Owen: A message for football from a jump-jockey’s big day

On Thursday I went to one of the most uplifting sports events I have attended in a long time.

It took place in a small English town of perhaps 12,000 people with Roman origins. Its apogee came when the sport’s supreme champion of modern times, aged 39, set a benchmark for sustained excellence and endurance on a par with Australian cricketer Don Bradman’s 99.94 Test match batting average, or US swimmer Michael Phelps’s 22 Olympic medals,

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Request for gender test sparks fury in South Korean women’s league

Park Eun-Seon

By Andrew Warshaw
November 8 – South Korea’s women’s football league has been rocked by an unusual gender row that has led to the resignation of a team coach and prompted a major human rights dispute. Six of the seven K-League teams recently requested that star striker Park Eun-Seon, who plays for Seoul City Hall Amazones, undergo a gender test. They also asked Korea Women’s Football Federation (KWFF) to bar Park from playing until her gender is verified.

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Poland’s Legia Warsaw ups the stakes with Fortuna as new sponsor

Legia Warsaw fans

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
November 8 – Poland’s Legia Warsaw has unveiled Central Europe’s leading betting operator Fortuna Entertainment Group as its new main sponsor. The deal will come into effect next year and last until end 2016.

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Blatter heads to Qatar with workers’ rights on his agenda

Sepp Blatter and Qatar

By Andrew Warshaw
November 8 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been urged not to return “empty-handed” from this weekend’s courtesy trip to Qatar which will take in the contentious issue of workers’ rights. Blatter is due to make a personal visit to the new emir of Qatar on Saturday to discuss the treatment of migrant workers following highly publicised reports of severe labour rights abuses that have caused widespread embarrassment to organisers of the 2022 World Cup.

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Blatter pushes Iranians to end stadium ban on women watching men’s matches

Iranian women fans

By Andrew Warshaw
November 8 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has urged the Iranian authorities to end the ban on women attending men’s matches, a policy that has been in force since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Blatter, wrapping up a two-day visit to Tehran, said he had raised the issue with that Iran’s top female government official, Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar.

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FIFPro Expert Group focuses on unpaid players and demands rule changes

Philippe Piat

By Paul Nicholson
November 8 – FIFPro’s Expert Group on Transfer Matters has completed its latest round of meetings and has instructed its legal department to draft a series of ammendments to be proposed to FIFA to change Article 17 of its regulations. Article 17 of the FIFA Rules and Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) deals partly with the aim of guaranteeing the Respect of Contract. FIFPro’s recommendations are designed to harden this clause for players’

John Yan

John Yan: The Most Valuable ACL Final Ever 广州恒大：疯狂的足球节日

On November 9, the second round of the Asian’s Champions League Final will take place in Guangzhou. It is widely reckoned to be the most valuable final ever held for a football competition in Asia. It may become a record that takes a long long time to break.

It is still hard to calculate what the TV ratings will be, because normally TV ratings research in mainland China is not trustworthy, with only a couple of research companies operating in the company currently.