Paul Nicholson, Author at Inside World Football - Page 1849 of 1893

Osasu Obayiuwana: Football, racism and me…

I had initially planned to do a piece on the parlous state of Cameroonian football, after the humiliating failure of the not-so-Indomitable Lions, four-time champions of the continent, to qualify for the last two Africa Cup of Nations tournaments.

But, when a nosey-parker journalist – me, in this case – ends up in the news, rather than being in the preferred position of reporting it, one is left with no choice than to make the proverbial lemonade out of lemons.

Jean Francois Tanda

Jean Francois Tanda: Could FIFA Museum already be a thing of the past?

FIFA’s media office sent the invitation to media representatives twice. Obviously, the international football federation wanted to make sure that numerous journalists attend the event. On Twitter, FIFA President Joseph “Sepp” Blatter announced a “hugely exciting major project”. Only a few minutes later, he revealed he was talking about the FIFA Museum in Zurich.

The campaign worked well, and in front of numerous cameras and microphones Blatter could tell many journalists about his dream and his gift to the “sports city Zurich”.

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FIFA anti-racism taskforce takes shape

jeffrey webb1

By Paul Nicholson
April 30 – The composition of FIFA’s anti-racism taskforce is taking shape and although not yet officially announced, it includes a number of high profile and perhaps unexpected appointments from across a range of football activity.

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Court awards Berg £2.5m payout after Blackburn sacking

henning berg

By Tom Parsons
April 30 – Henning Berg, the former Blackburn manager, has been awarded £2.25m in compensation from the Championship side after winning his claim against the club in court yesterday.

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Havelange resigns over ISL bribes, Blatter cleared but labeled ‘clumsy’

joao havelange

By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
April 30 – Joao Havelange, who controlled FIFA for 24 years as he stalked the corridors of power, has resigned as honorary president after being officially denounced for having taken bribes while running the organisation. In a move that will reverberate through football’s world governing body and focus even more public interest and attention on FIFA’s reform process, the veteran Brazilian, now 97, quit what was very much a ceremonial role –

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TV records broken as 1.5 million German hit the bars to watch CL triumphs

dortmund fans

April 30 – One and a half million happy German football fans watched the first round of the Champions League semi-finals in Sky Sports Bars. The figure includes 1.02 million viewers who watched the victory of FC Bayern over Barcelona.

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Thai regulator insists all World Cup finals games must broadcast free-to-air

TV broadcasts

By Mark Baber
April 30 – Thailand’s broadcast regulator has ruled that all 64 matches of the 2014 World Cup finals must be televised over free-TV channels. The ruling comes as a blow to Thai pay channel RS Inc which holds the rights.

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Al Serkal and Sheikh Salman count votes as spectre of OCA haunts KL hallways

mandarin oriental

By John Duerden in Kuala Lumpur
April 30 – Yousuf Al-Serkal has not only labelled Bahraini rival Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa over-confident for predicting that he could win Thursday’s Asian Football Confederation presidential election in the first-round of voting but the head of the United Arab Emirates FA hinted to Inside World Football that he could receive help from other candidates in subsequent rounds.

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Blatter confident that reforms are on track and will impact FIFA positively

blatter3

By Andrew Warshaw
April 30 – Despite claims that his beloved reform process has been watered down and will achieve little, Sepp Blatter remains confident that the package of measures will “bring FIFA up to the highest standards of good governance” at next month’s eagerly awaited Congress in Mauritius.

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FIFPro lobby EU for passing of a ‘New Bosman’ transfer law

FIFPro

By Monica Villar
April 29 – International players union FIFPro are to file a complaint with the European Court against FIFA to show their discontent about the current system of transfers.

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Rich get richer as David Beckham tops the wealth league

david beckham

April 29 – David Beckham tops the Sunday Times sport rich list in the UK, which is based on identifiable wealth, including land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, significant shares in publicly quoted companies but excluding bank accounts.

Archive

Ronaldo and Bebeto open Maracanã, marking fourth stadium ready, almost

marcana stadium rio

By Mark Baber
April 29 – Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Maracanã stadium, which will be the venue for next year’s World Cup final, has reopened with an exhibition match between teams led by former Brazil strikers Ronaldo and Bebeto.

Archive

Swiss ref falls foul of language barrier and faces federation censure

April 29 – A Swiss referee is in hot water after using an expletive towards a player during a top-flight league match at the weekend.

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Birmingham City owner Yeung says a fair trial is impossible

carson yeung

By Andrew Warshaw
April 29 – Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung pleaded not guilty to charges of money laundering today as his legal team called for the case to be thrown out.

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Row over OCA involvement in AFC elections hots up

Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah

By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
April 29 – The acrimonious war of words in the build-up to this week’s eagerly awaited Presidential election for the most powerful man in Asian football has intensified with the Kuwaiti Football Association denouncing Yousuf al-Serkal of the United Arab Emirates for comments he made regarding interference by the Olympic Council of Asia, run by Kuwait’s Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah.