News Archives - Page 1404 of 1745 - Inside World Football

Suspended and threatened, Bulgarian ref turns to police for help

stanislav todorov

By Alexander Krassimirov
November 11 – Police in the Bulgarian town of Shumen have launched an investigation after a series of threats were made against the Bulgarian international football referee Stanislav Todorov (pictured). The referee lodged a complaint at the police station following the threats. Todorov was interviewed for an hour, and also informed the newspaper ’24 hours’ Daily. The police in Shumen have confirmed Todorov’s report of the incident but declined to give further details.

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Request for gender test sparks fury in South Korean women’s league

Park Eun-Seon

By Andrew Warshaw
November 8 – South Korea’s women’s football league has been rocked by an unusual gender row that has led to the resignation of a team coach and prompted a major human rights dispute. Six of the seven K-League teams recently requested that star striker Park Eun-Seon, who plays for Seoul City Hall Amazones, undergo a gender test. They also asked Korea Women’s Football Federation (KWFF) to bar Park from playing until her gender is verified.

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Poland’s Legia Warsaw ups the stakes with Fortuna as new sponsor

Legia Warsaw fans

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
November 8 – Poland’s Legia Warsaw has unveiled Central Europe’s leading betting operator Fortuna Entertainment Group as its new main sponsor. The deal will come into effect next year and last until end 2016.

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Blatter heads to Qatar with workers’ rights on his agenda

Sepp Blatter and Qatar

By Andrew Warshaw
November 8 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been urged not to return “empty-handed” from this weekend’s courtesy trip to Qatar which will take in the contentious issue of workers’ rights. Blatter is due to make a personal visit to the new emir of Qatar on Saturday to discuss the treatment of migrant workers following highly publicised reports of severe labour rights abuses that have caused widespread embarrassment to organisers of the 2022 World Cup.

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Blatter pushes Iranians to end stadium ban on women watching men’s matches

Iranian women fans

By Andrew Warshaw
November 8 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter has urged the Iranian authorities to end the ban on women attending men’s matches, a policy that has been in force since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Blatter, wrapping up a two-day visit to Tehran, said he had raised the issue with that Iran’s top female government official, Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar.

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FIFPro Expert Group focuses on unpaid players and demands rule changes

Philippe Piat

By Paul Nicholson
November 8 – FIFPro’s Expert Group on Transfer Matters has completed its latest round of meetings and has instructed its legal department to draft a series of ammendments to be proposed to FIFA to change Article 17 of its regulations. Article 17 of the FIFA Rules and Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) deals partly with the aim of guaranteeing the Respect of Contract. FIFPro’s recommendations are designed to harden this clause for players’

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Exclusive: Cyprus’s landmark pact opens pathway towards a unified league

Hasan Sertoglu

By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
November 7 – A joint football league could be resurrected in Cyprus within two years as a result of this week’s historic deal between Greek and Turkish Cypriot officials and FIFA. That’s the view of Hasan Sertoglu (pictured), head of the unofficial Cyprus Turkish Football Association (CTFA) following the provisional arrangement signed by both sides to organise the sport on the divided Mediterreanan island.

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Adidas reports 2013 slow down but watch out for $2.7bn World Cup bonanza

adidas - brazuca

By Paul Nicholson
November 7 – FIFA sponsor Adidas reported a third quarter drop in net profit by 8.1% to €316 million, with sales down 7% to €3.88 billion and operating profit down 6% to €463 million. But the sporting goods and appareil giant said that this was pretty much in line with expectations and analysts are expecting a bumper World Cup year in 2014.

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Ronaldo supports peaceful protests but insistent 2014 will be positive for Brazil

Ronaldo

By Andrew Warshaw
November 7 – Brazilian World Cup winner Ronaldo has never been afraid to speak his mind whether as a player or in his new role as a prominent member of the organising committee for next year’s World Cup. The former striker, who scored both goals in the 2002 final and starred in European club football with PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Internazionale, Real Madrid and Milan, was in London this week to promote Brazil 2014.

Africa

Ghana concern grows over player safety for final World Cup play off in Cairo

ghana-vs-egypt

By Andrew Warshaw
November 7 – The Ghanaian government has urged FIFA to re-examine allowing the country’s forthcoming World Cup playoff second leg against Egypt to be played in Cairo. Earlier this week FIFA president Sepp Blatter admitted in a video interview that the organisation was looking carefully at its decision in the wake of the continuing violence in Egypt.

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Levski escape with minimum sanction after ‘death banner’ hearing

Bulgarian Football Union

By Alexander Krassimirov
November 7 – Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia was punished with a minimum fine for misconduct of its supporters during the championship game against Pirin Gotse Delchev last weekend. The club’s Ultras (extreme fans) raised banners calling for the “death of the refugees” in Bulgaria.

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WADA view on recreational drugs ‘stuck in 20th century’, claims UK players body

recreational drugs

By David Owen
November 7 – With just a week to go before anti-doping chiefs gather in Johannesburg to adopt a revised version of the World Anti-Doping Code, a UK body has slammed the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)’s approach to athletes’ use of recreational drugs.

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Soccerex Rio cancelled in war of words over money and safety

rio2

By Andrew Warshaw
November 6 – The last minute cancellation of the Soccerex convention scheduled to be held in Rio later this month has sparked a war of words between the convention organiser Duncan Revie and Rio de Janeiro’s state government. Revie blames the government for pulling out due to civil unrest, the government says that the situation results from a commercial revenue shortfall.

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CONCACAF draw sets scene for 2 years of Women’s championships

U20-Draw-Enrique-FEature

By Paul Nicholson
November 6 – CONCACAF held the draw for the confederation’s Women’s Under-20 Championship 2014 Cayman Islands, yesterday. The eight team finals will be played in Grand Cayman in January 2014, the top three teams qualifying for the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup finals to be held in Canada in August.

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ICSS and UNICEF partner to ‘Save the Dream’ in Brazil

November 6 – The International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS), the Qatar-based organisation that is increasingly becoming an important player when it comes to tackling the integrity of sport – in particular match-fixing and discrimination – has signed a partnership with UNICEF in Brazil.