Officials ban 81 Bayern fans for Mainz clash

January 19, 2010

The German Football Federation (DFB) on Tuesday announced they have banned 81 Bayern Munich fans, who are currently under police investigation, from attending Saturday’s Bundesliga clash against Mainz.

Police are investigating a disturbance last August in Wuerzburg, Bavaria, which involved 130 Bayern fans after their team lost 2-1 at Mainz and three officers were injured after clashes at the town’s railway station.

Saturday’s return game at Munich’s Allianz Arena has seen 81 fans banned, although there are court cases pending for charges of assault and breach of the peace against only 22 of those who have been excluded.

Bayern are currently third in the Bundesliga, two points behind leaders Leverkusen, while Mainz are 10th in the table.

PARIS (AFP)

Tags: afp officials, allianz, allianz arena, Arena, bavaria, Bayern, bayern munich, breach of the peace, Bundesliga, clash, clashes, court cases, football, German, german football federation, german football federation dfb, LEVERKUSEN, mainz, Munich, PARIS, police investigation, return game, wuerzburg

New deal for Diaby at Arsenal

December 31, 2009

France international midfielder Abou Diaby has signed a new long-term contract with Arsenal, the Premier League club confirmed on Thursday.

The 23-year-old joined the Gunners from Auxerre in January 2006, and after recovering from a broken ankle at the end of that season, has since gone on to make 119 appearances.

Diaby has developed a good understanding with Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas in their new midfield formation this season, scoring six goals.

“This shows my long-term commitment to Arsenal and I am very happy here, which is why I am so pleased to extend my contract,” said Diaby.

“It’s a great thing for me and hopefully there will be some good years ahead for me here.”

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger added: “Abou is a great player with huge presence on the football pitch and he has the potential to be an extremely influential part of Arsenal for many years to come.”

LONDON (AFP)

Tags: abou, abou diaby, AFP, arsenal, auxerre, boss, broken ankle, fabregas, football, football pitch, France, france international, good understanding, gunners, london, midfielder, new deal, premier league, presence, term commitment, term contract

Rangers boss Smith handed four-match touchline ban

September 24, 2009

Rangers boss Walter Smith was handed a four-match touchline ban on Thursday for his sending-off in last weekend’s Premier League game at Kilmarnock, the Scottish Football Association confirmed.

Smith was sent-off for reacting furiously to Killie players he mistakenly thought were trying to get Pedro Mendes shown a second yellow card.

The Ibrox boss has until September 30 to appeal.

GLASGOW (AFP)

Tags: boss, football, Glasgow, kilmarnock, league game, match, pedro mendes, premier league, rangers, Scottish, scottish football association, touchline, walter smith, yellow card

Since when did football’s baying mobs occupy the moral high ground?

September 14, 2009

Many Arsenal supporters spent half of last season, and most of Saturday’s match, screaming abuse at Emmanuel Adebayor. On Saturday, he scored and dared to run the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of them.

“Outrageous” and “shocking” screamed just about everyone. Obviously he should take the blame for the visiting fans’ subsequent eruption of hatred and vitriol. It was clearly his fault that some of them threw missiles on to the pitch and he is obviously culpable for the City steward being knocked unconscious in the melee.

He got booked for his troubles – for “incitement” – and now there is talk of him being banned.

What tosh.

Crowds abusing players, whether it is the polite booing of a former member of their club or the increasingly nasty attacks of recent seasons, has always been part of the game. When a player has the temerity to reply with a “shush”, or a finger on the lips, hand cupped to ear etc those same fans appear outraged.

Look at the photographs from Saturday’s game as Adebayor slid towards the visitors’ section. The furious hatred, the hand signals, the abuse shown by some fans – ground bylaw offences by the bucketload and enough to have the perpetrators thrown out of the ground should the stewards have chosen to act.

Mitch Phillips, London

Source

Tags: arsenal, baying mobs, booing, bucketload, crowds, emmanuel adebayor, football, incitement, london, london source, melee, missiles, mitch phillips, moral high ground, Outrageous, perpetrators, pitch, shush, steward, stewards, temerity, visitors section, vitriol

Arsenal weigh up appeal against Eduardo ban

September 2, 2009

Arsenal will study UEFA’s justification for handing Eduardo a two-match European ban for diving before deciding whether to appeal against the verdict.

European football’s governing body opened disciplinary proceedings against the Croatia international for “deceiving the referee” after he tumbled theatrically to win a penalty in last week’s Champions League play-off against Celtic.

Despite there appearing to be no contact with Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc, referee Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez awarded the spot-kick, which Eduardo converted himself to set Arsenal on their way to a comprehensive 3-1 win and into the lucrative group stages.

The dive caused a storm of controversy and UEFA took action against Eduardo on Tuesday. Arsenal are understood to have made a 19-page submission to UEFA ahead of the hearing, which clearly made little impact on the panel.

The Gunners have three days to lodge an appeal against the suspension which, if upheld, would rule Eduardo out of the Champions League group matches away at Standard Liege on September 16 and at home to Olympiacos on September 29.

“The club is disappointed with UEFA’s decision to suspend Eduardo for two Champions League matches starting with Standard Liege on September 16,” a statement from Arsenal read.

“We have been informed that we will receive a ‘reasoned decision’ from UEFA by Thursday of this week.

“Once we receive UEFA’s rationale, we will make a decision on the next steps.

“We have been deeply frustrated by the perfunctory and apparently arbitrary process that UEFA has followed in this instance.

“We believe it is imperative that UEFA’s explanation for its decision provides clear and comprehensive standards that will be consistently enforced.

“It is also critical that UEFA provides specific details of the processes it plans to adopt in reviewing all games under its jurisdiction.”

LONDON (AFP)

Tags: AFP, arsenal, Artur Boruc, champions league group, controversy, croatia, disciplinary proceedings, Eduardo, football, Goalkeeper, Gonzalez, governing body, group stages, gunners, jurisdiction, Liege, london, Manuel Mejuto, page submission, september 16, september 29, standard liege, suspension

Adriano happy with Braga switch

August 26, 2009

Sporting Braga’s latest acquisition Adriano is thrilled to have made the switch to the Estadio AXA and is looking to re-pay the club for the faith that they have shown in him.

The Brazilian took to the training grounds with his new team-mates and he could not hold back his gratitude for Braga who went out of their way, taking a chance on him.

“The expecations are very big. I would like to take this opportunity to show my style of football and my characteristics, which is scoring goals” said the 30-year-old. “I want to help Braga and my new companions achieve the club’s objectives.”

“I have been very well received from everyone. It was impressive and I am very happy to be here.”

Abhimanyu Rajput

Tags: acquisition, adriano, axa, Braga, Club, companions, Estadio, faith, football, gratitude, opportunity, scoring goals, span, Sporting, sporting braga, Style, taking a chance, team mates

English league clubs slash agent payments

August 20, 2009

English Football League clubs cut payments to agents by 2.3 million pounds (2.7 million euros) over the last year.

A total of 8.8 million pounds (10.1 million euros) was paid to agents by the 72 clubs in the three divisions outside the Premier League between July 2008 and June 2009, compared with 11.1 million pounds (12.8 million euros) for the 12 months previously.

Over the course of the season, Football League clubs made 3,727 player transactions, which includes new registrations, transfers, contract updates, contract cancellations and loans, but just 229 involved a payment to an agent.

Payments from the Championship clubs totalled 7.5 million pounds (8.6 million euros) between them, 86 percent of the total paid out, with 1.1 million pounds (1.2 million euros) paid by League One clubs and just 200,000 pounds (231,000 euros) from League Two clubs.

Announcing the results on Thursday, Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney said: “Given the current financial outlook, it is encouraging that clubs are being more circumspect in terms of their payments to agents.”

LONDON (AFP)

Tags: 1 million, 12 months, 5 million, 6 million, Announcing, cancellations, chairman lord, Championship, contract updates, course, english football league, english league clubs, financial outlook, football, football league clubs, loans, london, Lord Mawhinney, mawhinney, payment, player transactions, premier league, registrations, season football, target

Dutch FA prepared for widespread swine flu outbreak

July 25, 2009

The Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) is well prepared for a possible widespread swine flu outbreak, an official said on Friday.

“A competition stop is possible, but that would be in the most extreme case,” she said.

The Dutch ministry of health is in charge of taking such decisions if needed, according to the KNVB.

“We are closely monitoring the health of the players and fans, but are the following party when it’s about swine flu. The ministry takes measures based on the situation, and we execute them,” the spokeswoman added.

So far, the swine flu only affected football matches in Mexico where several rounds were played behind closed doors. This measure is no longer active.

By: Jonathan Roorda

Tags: charge, closed doors, competition, decisions, dutch football association, dutch ministry, extreme case, flu, flu outbreak, football, football matches, jonathan, knvb, measures, Mexico, ministry of health, roorda, royal dutch, span, spokeswoman, swine flu, target

Nigeria grabs age cheats by the wrists

July 16, 2009

The decision by Nigeria to test their under-17 players to eliminate age cheats is the first step in ridding African soccer of a long-standing blight.

Nigeria Football Federation president Sani Lulu Abdallah has said this week his organisation will take the unprecedented step of measuring the bone density of players by use of an MRI scan, usually done around the wrist area, to approximate whether they are roughly the right age or not.

They will start before Nigeria put an under-17 side together for their hosting of the world championships later this year.

It has long been suspected that past sides (and Nigeria have won three World under-17 Championships) have had age cheats but Nigeria is among the first associations to have shown any willingness to try to tackle the issue.

There have been past admissions of cheating, almost all of them long after the fact, while some teams have been caught trying to change the date of birth of players, who had been previously registered for other competitions.

Similar scans to those proposed by Nigeria have not been implemented because they are not 100 percent accurate. But FIFA’s own findings have attached a 90 percent credibility to the tests…certainly much more credibility than the World Junior Championship will enjoy if age cheats go unchecked.

PHOTO: FIFA president Sepp Blatter, keen to root out age cheats, in Seoul Sept. 9, 2007. Blatter visited Seoul to watch the final between Spain and Nigeria at the FIFA U-17 World Cup. REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak

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