Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The world football federation’s (Fifa) disciplinary committee is holding a hearing Monday 18 January to consider Thierry Henry ’s famous handball that gave France rather than Ireland a place in the World Cup. The executive committee of Fifa in December asked the disciplinary body to review the incident that caused an uproar and prompted the Football Association of Ireland to demand a replay or even to consider adding Ireland as a 33rd team.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Brazil’s Marta have been named best male and female football player of the year. The weather was glacial in Zurich, but the atmosphere warm at the city’s Kongresshaus Monday night 21 December, where the world football federation, Fifa, handed out its top annual honours. The Fifa Fair Play Award went to English player and coach Sir Bobby Robson, who died in July 2009; his wife accepted the award. Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo won the inaugural FIFA Puskás Award for the most outstanding goal of the 2008-09 season.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A referee who suspended in a football betting investigation has been cleared, reports the Canadian Press. Referee Anton Genov of Bulgaria was suspended by the Nyon-based Uefa (European football federation) after it spotted irregular betting patterns in a 14 November match between Macedonia and Canada, But Fifa, the Zurich-based international football body which has been working for the past six months with an early warning system, says it has found no evidence of suspicious bets.
FIFA and communications director part company over strategy
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Zurich-based world body governing football, FIFA, announced 7 December the names of five male and five female football players who are candidates for the prestigious Footballer of the year 2009 award.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Football fans the world over are waiting for the 17:00 (local time, South Africa) Final Draw to see which teams play each other in the 2010 World Cup matches in South Africa. Once the draws are made, the mad rush to get tickets will begin. Meanwhile, Zurich-based Fifa (world football federation) announced 3 December that it has signed a media rights agreement with Sony for the latter to provide 3D versions of as many as 25 matches.
Links to other sites: Fifa, TelevisionBroadcast
Update 21:15 Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The world football federation Wednesday 2 December approved the Final Draw procedure, publishing the “pots” of teams. The draw takes place in South Africa Friday 4 and will determine who plays whom, when.
The Irish will not play in South Africa in the 2010 World Cup: that is the final answer to their request to Fifa, the world football federation, to reconsider. Ireland lost to France in a headline-making qualifying game after French player Thierry Henry’s illegal handball move that was not spotted by game officials. The Irish had asked to be an extra team for the World Cup but Monday Fifa said no.
CNN points out that France, unseeded, would have been seeded had November rankings been used instead of October’s.
The pots for Friday’s draw:
Safe from betting, at this stage
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Several Swiss football clubs Monday 23 November announced internal investigations into match-fixing involving their players following revelations in Germany 19 November that 32 games with suspicious outcomes were being investigated there. Seventeen people reportedly were arrested in Germany and, according to German media Bild, over €1 million seized in cash and property.
Swiss team FC Thun suspended its Senegalese star striker, Omar Fayé, after it was announced that the police had spoken to him “as a witness.” FC Gossau announced Tuesday 24 November it had suspended a player, as well. Two people were taken into custody last week in connection with the scandal.
Twenty-two Swiss Challenge League games and six Test matches involving Swiss teams, including FC Thun, Gossau, Yverdon and Sion, are under investigation. As an example, both Bern’s Young Boys and Aarau played Bulgaria’s first division team Lokomotiv Mezdra which lost 0:5 in both cases, 13 and 17 November, reports Swiss-German paper Tagesanzeiger 24 November.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has benefited from an outpouring of nationalist fervour following the Egyptian soccer team’s loss to Algeria after two qualifying matches 14 and 18 November. The fallout from the football matches has included Egyptians being attacked in Algiers, Algeria, and a rupture in diplomatic ties between the two countries. Mubarak addressed the country’s parliament Saturday 21 November and vowed to protect the dignity of Egyptian citizens living abroad, to loud applause.
The incidents surrounding the arrival of the Algerian football team in Cairo, Egypt 14 November for a World Cup qualifying match with arch-rivals Egypt are to be investigated by the disciplinary committee of the world football regulatory body, Fifa announced 19 November. The bus carrying the Algerian team was beset by rioters and stoned as it moved from the airport to the hotel.
(parody video) Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Uefa confirmed in a press conference that there have been a number of arrests by German police in an investigation into a massive match fixing scandal involving about 200 matches. Media reports say there have also been two arrests in Switzerland, unconfirmed by Uefa. There have been more than 50 police raids in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Britain. The investigations were triggered by suspicions of rigged betting, especially in the German, Turkish, Belgian, Croatian, Austrian, Slovenian, Hungarian and Bosnian leagues, in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League and Europa League.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – International football federation Fifa has dashed Irish hopes for a 2010 World Cup qualifying re-match, saying in a brief statement that it had replied to a request for a re-match from the Football Association of Ireland: “In the reply, Fifa states that the result of the match cannot be changed and the match cannot be replayed. As is clearly mentioned in the Laws of the Game, during matches, decisions are taken by the referee and these decisions are final.”
Ireland put in the request after France won Wednesday 2-1 in extra-time when France captain Thierry Henry used his hand to stop the ball from going out of play.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – International football federation Fifa says it will continue to offer second sales phase tickets online for the World Cup 2010 matches until midnight South Africa time (01:00 Swiss time) Friday 20 November, on a first come first served basis. The extension has been made in part to accommodate excited fans after Wednesday’s qualifying matches, with European teams Ireland versus France in Saint Denis, France.
The third and main phase for ticket sales online opens 6 December, the day after the final draw.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The international football federation, Fifa, has handed Argintina’s football coach and former superstar Diego Maradona a CHF25,000 fine and a two month ban on participating in any football-related activities. Maradona’s outburst at the qualifying match between Uruguay and Argentina 14 October 2009 in Montevideo. Maradona, who was interviewed for 40 minutes by Fifa’s disciplinary committee, apologized to Fifa and the football world. The ban runs from 15 November-15 January 2010.
Update 05:20 Abuja, Nigeria (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland won the World Cup for under-17-year-olds with a disciplined performance that managed to subdue the physically stronger Nigerian team. The home team, cheered on by 64,000 fans, started strongly and could have scored in the early minutes but the Swiss gradually settled down, helped by their goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist who won the Gold Gloves award for the best keeper in the tournament. The only goal of the match came in the 63rd minute when Haris Seferovic headed in from a corner. The Swiss were fortunate to survive a goalmouth scramble but then played with considerable composure to keep out the increasingly desperate Nigerian attacks. This is the first major football tournament for a Swiss team but it was thoroughly deserved as the team had already beaten Brazil, Germany, Italy, Mexico and Colombia on the way to the final.
Links to other sites: Swissinfo, Fifa, ModernGhana
Lagos, Nigeria (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss under 17 team reached the final of the World Cup in Nigeria, and will play the hosts on Sunday afternoon 15 November in front of 60,000 supporters in Lagos. The young Swiss stars beat Colombia 4-0 in the semi-finals after beating Brazil, Germany and Italy in earlier rounds. A controversy has been developing in Nigeria over the age of some of their players, with rumours the captain is about 25 years old.
(GenevaLunch) - Manchester United beat Bolton 2-1 to move back to the top of the Premier League. Chelsea lost 2-1 at Aston Villa. Liverpool also lost going down 1-0 at Sunderland to a freak goal which rebounded off a beachball and went into the net. Tottenham are in third place after beating Portsmouth 1-2, a result which leaves Pompey at the bottom of the Premier League. Arsenal moved into fourth place with a 3-1 victory over Birmingham.
Fifa announces eight teams’ playoffs
The eight countries facing a playoff to determine whether they go to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010 found out Monday 19 October their opponents:
Republic of Ireland-France
Portugal-Bosnia-Herzegovina
Greece-Ukraine
Russia-Slovenia
Links to other sites: Fifa, Premier League
Basel, Switzerland(GenevaLunch) – Switzerland qualified for the finals of the 2010 World Cup by finishing top of their group after achieving a 0-0 draw against Israel. Their task was made easier when Yadin was sent off for two yellow cards, leaving the Swiss with an extra man for the final half hour. Overall the game was mediocre but the result was sufficient for automatic qualification. The other European teams to qualify are Denmark, Slovakia, Germany, Spain, England, Serbia, Italy and the Netherlands. And Turkey beat Armenia 2-0 in a match that followed the signing of agreements designed to normalize diplomatic and business relations between the two countries.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Nineteen countries have now secured their places in the Fifa World Cup finals to be held in South Africa in 2010 after the penultimate games in the qualification series. In the African group Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are through and six places are up for grabs. Australia, Japan and the two Koreas take the Asian places with one more team entering a playoff with New Zealand. Seven of the 13 European places are decided:
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland moved to the top of its qualifying group for the 2010 Fifa World Cup with a 2-0 win over Greece in their match. The Swiss scored two goals in the final 10 minutes after playing much of the game with an extra man as Vyntra was sent off for receiving two yellow cards.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Fifa, the Swiss-based international football federation, is fining Côte d’Ivoire CHF50,000 and enforcing several preventive measures before the next home match, at the end of a disciplinary investigation into a March 2009 accident that killed 22 people. Fifa has also donated CHF100,000 to the families of those who died.
The deaths occurred during a stampede outside the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire before the Fifa World Cup/CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualifier between Côte d’Ivoire and Malawi 29 March 2009. The game went ahead, with the home team beating Malawi 5-0.
The United States, ranked number 14 in world football (soccer), defeated top-ranked Spain 2-0 to make it to the finals of the Confederation Cup in Bloemfontain, South Africa. As Sports Illustrated aptly puts it: “The world will surely take notice of this.” Spain, the European champion with 15 straight wins, lost to a team who now moves into its first Fifa (international football association) final since 1916. El Pais calls it the end of the Spanish dream. Guardian, UK
A collapsing wall at Felix Houphouet-Boigny stadium in Abidjan injured more than 130 fans and killed 19 before a World Cup qualifier match Sunday 29 March. Officials decided to continue with the match between Ivory Coast and Malawi where Ivory Coast won 5-0. Ivory Coast’s President Laurent Gbagbo declared three days of national mourning and are investigating the cause of the accident. BBC
