Inside World Football - Page 1561 of 2020 - For the Business of Football

European clubs cheat the player market by failing to pay ‘solidarity’ dues

football development

By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent, in Barcelona
March 5 – Hundreds of clubs responsible for developing players before they hit the big time in Europe are being unwittingly cheated out of their rightful compensation. New international transfer figures show that Europe’s clubs are all but ignoring their responsibilities to Continents like Africa and South America by paying out little more than one-fifth of required “solidarity” payments to clubs who train players during their formative years –

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ECA says transfer system is fit for purpose but slams FIFPro and agents

Money in football

By Andrew Warshaw in Barcelona
March 4 – European clubs paid agents a staggering $254 million in international transfer fees over the past two years, representing 14.6% of all deals involving contracted players. That was by far the most eye-catching finding of a wide-ranging independent analysis commissioned by the European Club Association and presented at their annual assembly today.

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Reds still in the red, but better times are in prospect

Anfield

By David Owen
March 4 – Liverpool’s exciting brand of attacking football, which has carried them to second place in the Premier League, is inspiring dreams of a return to the club’s glory days between the 1960s and 1980s. But the on-field revival has yet to be reflected in the bottom-line – at least judging by the latest published accounts.

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Villa post £51m loss but ‘close a chapter’ on excesses of past

Villa

March 4 – The painful financial turnround of Aston Villa is still on-going though the club maintain that they are on the right track and have “closed a chapter” on a period of heavy losses and are now self sufficient and within UEFA’s financial fair play regulations.

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Ukraine vs US friendly back on, Gulati back in for third term

Ukraine vs USA

March 4 – The international friendly between Ukraine and the US looked like it had become a victim of the crisis in the country when Anatoliy Konkov, president of the Ukrainian Football Federation, said that the team would not be travelling to Cyprus for the rescheduled fixture.

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Caribbean pro league task force formed to find way forward

March 4 – The next steps towards the creation of a long-talked about Caribbean Professional League were taken yesterday with the announcement by CONCACAF of a Task Force to look at the feasibility of a regional league.

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CSKA gets green light to launch first club IPO in Eastern Europe

cska fans

By Alexander Krassimirov
March 4 – Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia has officially been authorised to sell shares in the club to the public, the first club in the former communist East European Bloc to do so. The decision to allow the Initial Public Offering (IPO) was taken at a meeting of the Bulgarian Financial Supervision Commission (FSC).

Matt Scott

Matt Scott: Let the high-flying stars be Pied Pipers for football everywhere

“We bring you the circus, pied piper whose magic tunes greet children of all ages, from six to 60, into a tinsel and spun-candy world of reckless beauty… and high-flying stars. But behind all this, the circus is a massive machine whose very life depends on discipline and motion and speed. A mechanised army on wheels, that rolls over any obstacle in its path.” Narrator, The Greatest Show On Earth

Football today is as the circus of the 19th and early 20th Centuries,

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UEFA to consider Nations League concept at Kazakhstan congress

UEFA badge

By Andrew Warshaw
March 4 – UEFA are reportedly set to discuss the idea of a new so-called ‘Nations League’ competition, dividing its 54 members into a number of divisions offering club-style promotion and relegation.

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Police and SPFL open investigations into racial abuse at league match

Peterhead vs East Stirlingshire

March 4 – The Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) has acted swiftly to open an investigation into the racist abuse that 17-year-old East Stirlingshire suffered in a Division 2 match away to Peterhead last weekend. Tapping was visibly distressed and substituted to prevent having to endure any further taunts.

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Fan violence leads to Ekstraklasa match abandoned in Warsaw

Legia and Jagiellonia fans

March 4 – Poland’s Ekstraklasa has said that its disciplinary committee will meet this week following fan violence last Sunday at the match between Legia Warsaw and Jagiellonia Bialystok. The match was abandoned after 45 minutes.

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Poles drop TV to broadcast Scotland friendly free on newspaper web platforms

Scottish fans

March 3 – The Poland vs Scotland international friendly this Wednesday is being streamed live on the internet rather than broadcasting via more conventional TV channels outside of host country Poland. The webcast will be free of charge on the Daily Record and Daily Mirror websites (www.dailyrecord.co.uk and www.mirror.co.uk).

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Budapest Honved eyes new stadium as Hungary bankrolls stadia upgrades

Budapest Honved fans

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
March 3 – Budapest Honved has announced plans to build a new stadium in the Little Pest district of Hungary’s capital. The football club will receive funds for the investment under a 40 billion forint (€128.6 million) government programme to modernise and expand 27 football stadiums by 2016.

2014 News

Sao Paulo nerves as Brazil stadia build is going down to the wire

Novo mineirao aerea2

By Andrew Warshaw
March 3 – The stadium set to host the showpiece opening match of the World Cup may not be ready until less than four weeks before the start of the tournament, the latest of a series of setbacks for FIFA and Brazilian organisers. FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke said that work on the stadium in Sao Paulo may now not be completed until mid-May.

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No plans to halt Cypriot matches after car bomb not linked to international games

Leontis Trattou

March 3 – Northern Irish officials have confirmed that this week’s friendly in Cyprus will go ahead despite the bombing of local referee Leontios Trattou’s (pictured) car on the island last Friday. Trattou is scheduled to referee the Ukraine vs US friendly on the island. All first division matches were suspended at the weekend.