World Football Archives - Page 696 of 912 - Inside World Football

Shaikh Salman flexes his political muscle to brush aside Prince Ali

Shaikh Salman and Prince Ali

By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 10 – The youngest and most reformist member of FIFA’s inner sanctum, Prince Ali bin Hussein of Jordan (pictured right), was dramatically shunted out of office as Asia’s FIFA vice-president today when the region took what could prove a totally misguided decision to merge his position with that of AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa (pictured left) in 2015, thereby giving the Bahraini total control of an organisation he only inherited a year ago.

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Blatter in last ditch talks over Palestine, SA drop out of U20 hosting

Sepp Blatter 20

By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 9- FIFA President Sepp Blatter is to hold last-ditch talks with Palestinian and Israeli officials in the next 48 hours in an attempt to bring the two sides together to sign a symbolic memorandum of understanding at this week’s FIFA Congress.

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UEFA bans two Turkish clubs from Europa League for match-fixing

uefa flag

By Alexander Krassimirov
June 9 – Turkey’s Sivasspor and Eskisehirspor have been added to UEFA’s banned list for next season, both being denied entry to the Europa League for involvement in a domestic match-fixing scandal.

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Russia delays integration of Crimean clubs who will start season ‘league-less’

crimea

By Mark Baber
June 9 – The Russian Football Union (RFU) has bowed to FIFA and UEFA requests, voting to put off a decision on allowing the Crimean clubs to play in the Russian football leagues. The decision means the Crimean clubs will be unable to start the beginning of next season.

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English Championship bleeds ‘alarming’ red ink with only Tangerines in black

championship

By David Owen
June 6 – One solitary Championship club managed to make an operating profit in the 2012-13 season, as the second tier of English football faces crunch-time in its efforts to improve the state of club finances. Lancashire seaside team Blackpool were the odd ones out, as its 23 rivals contributed to aggregate operating losses of £241 million.

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UEFA axe Red Star Belgrade from Champions League for unpaid debts

Red Star Belgrade fans

June 7 – UEFA’s pledge to crack down on clubs who fail to meet financial fair play regulations has snared its latest victim with Serbia’s Red Star Belgrade banned from next season’s Champions League for failing to pay their debts.

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AIFF accused of double-standards after refusing I-League licenses

AIFF

By Mark Baber
June 6 – The AIFF, which turned down the appeals of four clubs against being barred from next season’s I-League, has come under attack for failing to meet its own criteria.

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Alibaba deal catapults Guangzhou Evergrande into elite of world’s most valuable clubs

Jiayan and ma

By Mark Baber
June 6 – Hangzhou-based e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd announced Thursday that it is taking a 50% stake in Guangzhou Evergrande for 1.2 billion yuan ($192 million). The valuation of $284 million would put Evergrande into 20th place in the latest (2013) Forbes List of the World’s Most Valuable Clubs.

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Crimean clubs change names and prepare for life in Russian leagues

crimea

By Andrew Warshaw
June 6 – In a move that seems bound to be viewed as highly provocative by FIFA and UEFA, Ukraine’s Crimean-based clubs have changed their names in a bid to join the Russian league following the annexation of the peninsula by Russian authorities.

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Nike builds in Poland as it swoops on Lech Poznan, leaving Puma behind

Lech Poznan and Nike

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
June 6 – Polish football club Lech Poznan has announced the signing of a new technical sponsorship deal with Nike. The US brand will replace Puma as the appareil partner in the 2014/2015 season.

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OCA chief Sheikh Ahmed vows to stand by Qatar, slamming the West’s racism

Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah

By Andrew Warshaw
June 8 – Asia’s top Olympic official has waded into the latest corruption claims over Qatar’s 2022 World Cup bid by blasting the allegations as being “racist” towards Arabs in general.

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Bayern in pole position to claim biggest share of FIFA’s $70m World Cup pot

Bayern players

By David Owen
June 5 – Bayern Munich have retained their status as the club supplying most players for the 2014 FIFA World Cup now that the provisional squads have been trimmed to final squads of 23 players per country.

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Serbs abandon promotion play off after fan releases tear gas

Rad Belgrade

June 5 – Serbia’s first division promotion playoff between Rad Belgrade and Metalac Gornji Milanovac was abandoned on Wednesday after a fan set off a tear gas canister and forced the players to leave the pitch.

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CIES report charts Euro club season by value; big is beautiful

By Paul Nicholson
June 5 – Lionel Messi would be worth almost twice as much in the transfer market than Cristiano Ronaldo, while the total asset value of Barcelona’s playing squad is still worth more than €100 million than Real Madrid, and almost twice that of Manchester United, according to the CIES Football Observatory Annual Review which looks at market value of players in Europe’s Big 5 leagues.

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OFC keeps silent over Temarii and 2010 voting

By Andrew Warshaw
June 5 – The Oceania Footbball Confederation will make no comment over its alleged role into how Qatar won the right to stage the 2022 World Cup until FIFA’s ethics committee investigator has completed his inquiries.