BASEL, SWITZERLAND – Basel FC has moved to the top of the Champions League after defeating newcomer Otelul Galati of Romania 2-1 in Basel 14 September. Manchester United slipped after a 1-1 draw against Benfica in Lisbon, with an unimpressive opening. The favoured UK team never rose to the challenge.
Uefa announced 13 September that all 32 clubs taking part in this year’s Champions League can expect a minimum of euros 7.2 million, while the winner stands to take in at least euros 31.5 million.
Uefa also confirmed earlier this week that FC Sion, under disciplinary action, will not take part in the Europa League and will be replaced by Celtic FC.
NYON, SWITZERLAND – The 16 teams that make to the Euro 2012 football cup finals will take home at least €8 million and as much as €23 million, says European football federation Uefa, which announced Friday 16 June that it has set the prize money at €196m. The finals take place in Poland and Ukraine.
Uefa also issued a statement saying Fifa, the international football body, must implement reforms within three months of the corruption scandal that has plagued it for the past month.
International sports, football
BASEL, SWITZERLAND – FC Basel became Swiss football champions after the club smoothly ran over FC Luzern Wednesday 25 May. The Swiss title, its 14th, owed much to Alexander Frei’s early goal in front of the crowd of 38,500, which set the tone for the match.
Switzerland will be sending FC Basel into the qualifying rounds of the Uefa Champions League
Zurich defeated Thun 1-0 and will also go to the qualifying rounds, but its win wasn’t enough to give it the Swiss title.
Uefa in a statement Wednesday reminded fans not to travel to London for the finals without a ticket for the match in hand, noting that there will be no public viewing of the Champions League final. It will be played at the new Wembley Stadium for the first time, but the 90,000 seats were allocated in draws that took place between November 2010 and March 2011. Visit London offers a list of sports bars in the city where the match can be watched.
Links to other sites: Fifa, Reuters/Los Angeles Times, UEFA match results
Rangers FC was quick to get the bad news to fans
Update 22:00 Geneva / Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Scotland’s Rangers football club has been handed a 40,000 euros fine and its fans have been banned from the team’s next away match, by the European football union, Nyon-based Uefa, Thursday 28 April. The Uefa decision noted that the fine and sanctions come “as a result of the discriminatory behaviour of fans in a tie against PSV Eindhoven.”
The team expressed bitter disappointment at the decision, after putting forth the case that it has made clear it does not support and tries to weed out fans who sing “sectarian songs” at matches, such as the Glasgow anti-Catholic and anti-Irish version of “Billy Boy”. The club has argued that it is being singled out unfairly, since the practice of racist or otherwise discriminatory singing is widespread, but to little avail.
Martin Bain, chief executive, said in a statement, “To be clear, we condemn sectarianism and there is no doubt the mindless behaviour of an element of our support has exposed the Club to a very serious situation. The people who engage in this type of behaviour are damaging the Club they claim to support. It is abundantly clear from this decision that if there is any sectarian singing at future matches the suspended bans will take effect. Those fans who engage in such activity need to take that message on board.”
A second away-game ban was issued, but suspended, as was a home game fans ban with additional 40,000 euros fine, which now hang over the club.
Links to other sites: Guardian, The Scotsman, Sky Sports, Rangers site
Chelsea and Man United will face off during the UEFA quater-finals
Geneva and Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Friday morning Uefa draw for the Champions League quarter-finals will provide real tension for the 5-6 and 12-13 April matches. Chelsea and Manchester United face off, and as the Uefa report on the draw points out:
“Sir Alex Ferguson’s team denied Chelsea a first European Champion Clubs’ Cup in a dramatic penalty shoot-out in Moscow three years ago, and the London club will have a shot at revenge next month. While Chelsea are reigning English champions, United currently lead them by nine points in the Premier League and have history on their side in the competition having been crowned Europe’s finest three times.”
FC Internazionale Milano will meet FC Schalke 04. The two clubs last met in a major tournament in 1997.
Nine-time trophy winners Real Madrid CF is up against Tottenham Hotspur FC, so Madrid escapes playing Barcelona at this stage, but the Spanish teams could face each other in the semi-finals if FC Barcelona chases out FC Shakhtar Donetsk.
Quarter-final draw (5/6 and 12/13 April)
Real Madrid CF (ESP) v Tottenham Hotspur FC (ENG)
Chelsea FC (ENG) v Manchester United FC (ENG)
FC Barcelona (ESP) v FC Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR)
FC Internazionale Milano (ITA) v FC Schalke 04 (GER)
Semi-final draw (26/27 April and 3/4 May)
1: Inter/Schalke v Chelsea /Manchester United
2: Madrid/Tottenham v Barcelona/Shakhtar
Final (28 May, Wembley)
Winner semi-final 2 v Winner semi-final 1
Chateau de Bethusy, Lausanne, home of the international sports arbitration court
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Oleh Oriekhov, the Ukrainian football referee accused of game fixing, has lost his appeal. He was handed a life ban “on exercising any football-related activity” by Uefa, the European football federation based in Nyon, in July 2010. Oriekhov took his case to Cas (international sports arbitration court) in Lausanne, which announced Tuesday 18 January that it has upheld the ban, citing repeated contacts between Oriekhov and “and the members of a criminal group involved in match-fixing and betting fraud”.
The referee, under Uefa regulations, should have immediately alerted the football federation when he was first contacted, and it was his failure to do so that is behind the court’s decision.
A 15 December Cas hearing showed that “it has been convincingly established” that Oriekhov had contacts before and after the specific match in question between FC Basel and CSKA Sofia, Cas notes in a statement. “The existence or not of an effective manipulation concerning the Europa League match between FC Basel and CSKA Sofia could not be established during the Cas procedure.”
“On 5 November 2009, the referee Oleg Oriekhov officiated a match between FC Basel and CSKA Sofia in group E of the 2009-2010 UEFA Europa League.
Match abandoned Tuesday night after six minutes, but violence continued
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Uefa, the European football body, says it is opening an investigation into the violence Tuesday night 12 October in Genoa, Italy, that prompted officials to call off the Euro 2012 qualifying match between Italy and Serbia after six minutes.
The start of the match was delayed by 35 minutes due to flares thrown by Serbian fans and “disturbances”, says Uefa. Seventeen people were arrested, with nearly 140 identified as taking part in the disturbances, according to Italian media reports, with some reports that the instigator was among those arrested.
The hearing into the case will be held 28 October after referee and delegates reports are filed with Uefa. Disciplinary action, says the organization, could “range from a reprimand or fine, up to a stadium closure or ‘disqualification from competitions in progress and/or exclusion from future competitions’, based on Uefa regulations.
Serbia lost its home match to Etonia, 3-1, Friday 8 October. Italy is currently in first place in the Group C rankings for qualifying rounds, with Serbia in fifth place out of the six.
Riots inside the stadium
Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain (GenevaLunch) – Barcelona started the evening needing to reverse a 3-1 deficit from their first leg match against José Maurinho’s Inter Milan side in the semi-final of the Eurpean Champions League. This meant they needed to win 2-0 or better to have a chance to achieve the double dream of retaining the Champions League trophy and doing so at the home of the hated Real Madrid. Inter held their own defensively, despite being reduced to 10 men after Thiego Motta was sent off for making contact with his flat hand against Sergio Busquet’s face.
In the second half the Barcelona team started to lose patience as they struggled to find a way through the well-organized Inter defensive wall. The first goal was scored in the 83rd minute: beautifully taken by Gerard Piquet from a possibly off-side position.The last five minutes were tense as the massed crowds of the Camp Nou urged their team to score the vital goal, and they thought their prayers had been answered as Bojan Krkic fired the ball into the net – only to find the goal had been disallowed for handball. José Maurinho’s men held out to achieve a special victory at the ground where their trainer once worked as a translator for the English coach Bobby Robson.
Inter Milan will play Bayern Munich in the final in Madrid 22 May 2010.
Lyon, France (GenevaLunch) – Bayern Munich had an easy path to the finals of the European Champions League with a convincing 0-3 win at Lyon. The Bavarian team won the first leg 1-0, so win 4-0 overall. All three goals were scored by Croatian striker Ivica Olic.
Bayern will play in the final in Madrid against the winners of the semi-final between Barcelona and Inter Milan. These teams play their return match on Wednesday 28 April. Inter took the first game 3-1.
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – English Premier League football club Arsenal and Spanish Barcelona will face each other in the quarter-finals of the European Champions League. The draw was held at UEFA, the European Football head office in Nyon. French striker Thierry Henry, who is Arsenal’s highest-ever goalscorer, played for Arsenal when the two last met but he now plays for Barcelona.
The other games will feature Bayern Munich against Manchester United, an all French affair as Lyon play Bordeaux, while Inter Milan face a trip to play CSKA Moscow. The two favourites, Barcelona and Man United, cannot meet before the final in Madrid 22 May.
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Half of the debt owed by European football clubs is owed by British clubs, the Nyon-based European football association Uefa is expected to say in an upcoming report, The European Club Footballing Landscape. A copy of the report has been seen by the Guardian, the newspaper writes in a lengthy article that looks at football club budgets. It says that “When it publishes the report in the coming weeks, Uefa will present it as authoritative evidence of the need for its Financial Fair Play rules, agreed in principle by the major clubs and leagues, which will require clubs to break even financially from 2012-13.”
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.
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - All eyes in the Champions League football world are on Nyon today, with the final-16 draw at noon for the first knockout round. Seven of Europe’s top teams figure on the list of 16, and eight nations are represented.
Nyon, home to European football's Uefa
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Uefa, the European football governing body, is extending its investigation into match-fixing to seven additional matches played in July 2009 involving five football clubs in Albania, Hungary, Latvia and Slovenia. The announcement came at the close of a three-hour meeting in Nyon 25 November that Uefa had called with nine national football associations.
(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.
European Champions League, (GenevaLunch) - Eduardo da Silva scored the winning goal for Arsenal as they came back from 2-0 down against Standard Liege to win 2-3. In the big game of the evening Inter Milan and Barcelona seemed more concerned with defending than attacking and the final result of 0-0 looked inevitable. Liverpool beat Hungarian champions Debrecan but were not convincing.
Details: UEFA
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Spanish stars shone brightly in Zurich as Real Madrid won their opening UEFA Champions League match 2-5 against Zurich FC, with two goals by Cristiano Ronaldo. Chelsea and Manchester United won their games by a single goal.
Details: UEFA
Nyon, Switzerland and Monaco (GenevaLunch) - The draw for the first round of the Champions League will mean that Real Madrid, AC Milan and Marseilles will play in the same group as FC Zurich, severely denting the chances of the Swiss team making the next round but guaranteeing another sporting feast for the city. The highlight of this group will be the Milan-Real match which will see the Madrid’s recent signing, Brazilian star Kaka, return to his old club.
The Premier League teams generally had a fortunate draw, avoiding the big teams, although Manchester United will not be keen on playing German champions Wolfsburg. Chelsea also face tough matches against Porto and Atlético Madrid.
Details: Uefa
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Colovray sports centre, Nyon (Lausanne in the distance)
Nyon, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The town of Nyon is offering Uefa, the European football federation, its sports centre for the symbolic price of CHF1. Nyon will save CHF850,000 a year in maintenance and upkeep and Uefa will receive a 49-year lease on the Colovray centre that will allow it to build additional football fields near its head office, to be used for training referees and team trainers.
Alcohol will be banned in all metro and train stations in Rome, Italy for football’s 2009 Champions League final 28 May. The ban extends to the port, Civitavecchio. Officials expect 67,000 fans in the city for the match and Roman authorities are taking precautions to ensure the match between Spanish team Barcelona and England’s Manchester United goes ahead smoothly. Alcohol in glass containers and for takeaway will also be banned in the vicinity of the stadium. BBC, Guardian, UK
Rolle, Vaud, Switzerland (24 Heures, Fre) – Schenk, based in Rolle, has won the exclusive rights from UEFA to provide wine for Euro 2008 invited guests and VIPs, throughout Switzerland. The company has selected 12 wines, one from Geneva, one from Valais and 10 from Vaud.
GenevaLunch, by Nick Bates – Chelsea beat Liverpool 1-0 in a rather subdued match. Joe Cole scored just before half-time but gradually the defense was in control. The return match in Liverpool is next Tuesday. Details: BBC
