The Malaysian Insider :: Sports
The Malaysian Insider :: Sports |
| Brazilian domestic football heading into chaotic year Posted: 02 Jan 2014 07:33 AM PST International attention has been captured by Brazil's chaotic preparations for the 2014 World Cup where stadiums have missed repeatedly deadlines and promised infrastructure projects have been scaled back or shelved. Away from the World Cup limelight, the situation is worse and threatening a return to the early 1990s when teams frequently refused to play matches in seemingly interminable rows over competition rules and fixture lists. "It's not just the World Cup that's struggling," columnist Marcelo Damato wrote in the sports newspaper Lance. "Brazilian football is awful. The CBF (the Brazilian Football Confederation) is a disorganised disaster." One of the biggest fears is growing hooliganism. Violence worsened in Brazil last year, with at least 30 people killed in fan-related bloodshed, according to Mauricio Murad, a Rio de Janeiro sociologist who wrote the book 'How To Understand Football Violence.' Thought to have been largely eradicated in recent years, fan violence returned with a vengeance, even among Brazilian fans well-off enough to travel abroad, and in those new stadiums built for the World Cup. Twelve Corinthians supporters were arrested in Bolivia in February, accused of firing the flare that killed a rival fan during their Libertadores Cup match against San Jose. Although organisers claimed the expensive, new arenas would attract a higher class of customer, hooligans clashed during the Vasco-Corinthians game in Brasilia in August. More seriously, three people were taken to hospital when fans fought running battles on the terraces in the last game of the season between Atletico Paranaense and Vasco da Gama last month. Television pictures showed some fans savagely kicking a stricken rival even though he appeared to be unconscious at the time. Vasco lost the match 5-1 and were relegated. However, that result - and Vasco's second division status - is in doubt due to a legal challenge. Vasco have claimed the result should be annulled because the referee halted the game for 70 minutes while police tried to contain the trouble. The CBF's rules state that games should be abandoned if the stoppage exceeds an hour. Further trouble is looming over the case of Fluminense and Portuguesa. Fluminense finished fourth bottom of the table, two points behind Portuguesa, and were relegated to the Serie B. However, Portuguesa were later docked four points for fielding an ineligible player during 13 minutes of their final game of the season, a 0-0 draw with Gremio. Even though the appearance of midfielder Heverton did not affect the result, Portuguesa were condemned to the Serie B by Brazil's highest sporting tribunal, the Superior Court of Sporting Justice. Fluminense won a reprieve, the second time an off-the-field ruling has saved them from the second division. Both Vasco and Portuguesa lost appeals and now they and their fans are threatening to go through civil courts to save their elite status. That could delay the season, prompt the CBF into reorganising the football league, or even provoke FIFA, which prohibits the use of civil courts for football issues, into imposing sanctions on the CBF. Even if those issues are resolved, there is another threat in the form of player power. More than 1,000 players have come together and threatened to strike this month if the CBF do not address demands for fewer games and a longer pre-season. The players, including dozens of current and former Brazilian internationals, want a revised season, at least 30 days of close season break, an extended pre-season, stricter financial rules and more representation on decision making bodies. They want teams who do not pay their players on time, a regular occurrence in Brazil, to be docked points. Although the players, who have named their movement Bom Senso FC (Common Sense FC), acknowledge the World Cup makes it hard to implement changes in 2014, they want a new model for 2015 and are angry at the CBF's refusal to take their proposals seriously. "The CBF needs to start watering the roots of our football and not just look after the national side," the group said in a statement. "We hope that the (CBF) assumes its role in managing our sport and starts discussing what happens, instead of watching from the sidelines." With so few dates available because of the month-long World Cup break, any strike would throw domestic football into further chaos, just before FIFA and the rest of the football world walks into town. - Reuters, January 2, 2014. |
| Ole! Vincent Tan gets his man as Solskjaer named Cardiff City manager Posted: 02 Jan 2014 06:05 AM PST The 40-year-old joins from Norwegian club Molde and succeeds Malky Mackay, who was sacked on December 27 after his relationship with club owner Vincent Tan broke down. "Cardiff City Football Club are delighted to announce that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has joined the club as first team manager," read a statement on the Cardiff website. "Following discussions with Tan Sri Vincent Tan and club chairman Mehmet Dalman, Ole, joining Cardiff City from Molde FK, today (Thursday) met with his new squad at the Vale training ground and will soon be unveiled to the press at Cardiff City Stadium." Solskjaer, who attended Cardiff's 2-0 defeat at Arsenal on Wednesday in the company of Tan, has signed a "rolling contract". Cardiff were promoted to the Premier League after a 51-year absence last season, but Solskjaer arrives to find the south Wales club one point and one place above the relegation zone. "I feel lucky to be back in the Premier League," said the former Norway international, who was pictured holding a Cardiff shirt on the club website. "I had to have a talk about it with the family, obviously, but it is a great opportunity." Tan sparked angry protests from some Cardiff fans by sacking Mackay, having previously dismissed his head of recruitment, Iain Moody, in October. The Malaysian also created controversy in 2012 when he forced Cardiff to change their traditional blue colours to red, but Solskjaer described reports that former United manager Alex Ferguson had warned him not to take the job as "absolute nonsense". "He has wished me the best and given me some good advice, as he always does," Solskjaer added. "I had a good conversation with him." Solskjaer spent 11 years at United after signing from Molde in 1996, during which his boyish looks and razor-sharp instincts in front of goal earned him the nickname 'The Baby-faced Assassin'. He was renowned for coming off the bench to score vital goals, notably netting a famous injury-time winner against Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final in Barcelona. He joined United's coaching staff after retiring in 2007 and was appointed manager of Molde three years later, leading the club to glory in the Norwegian top flight in 2011 and 2012 and last year's Norwegian Cup. - AFP, January 2, 2014. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider : Sports To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
0 ulasan:
Catat Ulasan