Khamis, 2 Januari 2014

The Malaysian Insider :: Sports

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The Malaysian Insider :: Sports

Brazilian domestic football heading into chaotic year

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 07:33 AM PST

January 02, 2014

Domestic football in World Cup host nation Brazil faces a turbulent year with growing hooliganism, a possible players' strike and legal wrangling which could delay the national championship or force it to be reorganised.

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

January 02, 2014

Vincent Tan (left) and Solksjaer (centre) with the Cardiff City chairman Mehmet Dalman at the Emirates Stadium last night for Cardiff City's match with Arsenal. - AFP pic, January 2, 2014.Former Manchester United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been appointed as the new manager of Cardiff City, the Premier League strugglers announced today.

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.

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The Malaysian Insider :: Features

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Transparency the crux in China’s struggle to deal with rising debt

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 08:00 PM PST

January 02, 2014

China's quest to solve its $3 trillion-and-growing (RM10 trillion) public debt problem by starting a domestic municipal bond market hinges on the one thing its officials are most afraid of: transparency.

As markets absorb the results of China's latest audit of its state finances, Beijing's long-standing vow to develop a municipal bond market to curtail rapid growth in other types of hidden public debt will take centre stage once more.

By letting local governments sell bonds for cash, China wants to rely on nimble markets rather than inflexible regulations to keep spendthrift units in check.

The stakes are high. A bond market is the centrepiece in China's blueprint to mop up fiscal troubles and keep its economy growing at an even pace, giving it needed room to start other bold financial reforms.

But analysts say China's dreams of a municipal bond market are so far just that, as building one has been impeded by a lack of disclosure from local governments on how much money and assets they have, and how much they owe.

"If you want to lend to a specific government, you need to have a clue as to what the financial conditions are like," said Tan Kim Eng, a senior director of sovereign ratings at Standard & Poor's in Singapore.

"There's still a lot of work to be done on the fiscal transparency front."

In the meantime, some investors are increasingly alarmed by the speed at which local governments are piling on debt to pay for public works.

China's state auditor said in its report on Monday that local governments had total outstanding debt of $2.96 trillion, including contingent liabilities and debt guarantees, at the end of June.

Although the debt load shows China's government to be far less indebted than fiscally-troubled Japan and Greece, it raised eyebrows among analysts for its 67% jump since the last state audit was published in 2011.

The auditor did not say which provinces have the heaviest burdens or face the biggest risks, except to note "certain" dangers in some unnamed regions.

"Any improvement to fiscal transparency will be limited unless the central government regularly publishes similar audit reports," Standard & Poor's said separately in a note on Tuesday. "It's also unclear whether China will disclose the debts of individual local and regional governments."

Investors have long viewed China's mountain of local government debt as one of the biggest threats to its economy.

Market fears that China's banking system will be compromised if a portion of the government debt is not repaid were amplified by a dearth of information in the past year.

Amid growing public scepticism about China's fiscal health, Beijing in August ordered a comprehensive review of all government balance sheets. A delay in its release – publication had been expected by October – fed speculation the debt-total could top $4 trillion.

In China's defence, the audit is a massive task. The audit office said it deployed nearly 55,000 workers, who examined nearly 2.5 million loans and reviewed the books of 62,215 governments and organisations.

The need for transparency is not lost on Beijing.

In a plan published in November about China's most ambitious road map for financial reforms in 30 years, Beijing said it would create a "standardised and transparent budget system" for local governments and the funding of public works. This was on top of frequent government pledges to "cast sunlight" on debt.

To be sure, China is mulling other options for cleaning up its debt mess, including allowing private investors to pay for public works, and letting the central government absorb more spending responsibilities.

But no plan resonates better with reform-minded officials than that for a municipal bond market, partly because it fits perfectly with China's goal of reducing central planning to let financial markets work their magic.

Underscoring the importance placed on restructuring the economy, state news agency Xinhua said President Xi Jinping will head a group that will lead reforms which include relaxing state control over the yuan.

Under China's laws, local governments are not allowed to borrow from banks even though they are responsible for as much as 80% of all public spending, but take only around half of fiscal income.

To get funds, local governments set up firms that borrow for them. When Beijing clamped down on this in 2011, governments changed tack and turned to shadow banks. Monday's audit showed shadow banks accounted for at least 13% of all local government borrowings.

Facing savvy local officials quick to change financing strategies to evade rules, Chinese experts have championed creation of a municipal bond market. Such vehicles, they say, will decide which governments deserve funding, and spendthrift ones will be punished with higher borrowing costs.

Beijing appears to like the idea, and is testing the ground for such a bond market in six prosperous cities including Shanghai and Guangdong.

But short of full disclosure of just how much governments take in and borrow, analysts doubt China's experiments with its local bond market will go far.

"Banks and rating agencies do not have easy access to local governments' overall fiscal position, which includes not only budgeted revenue and expenditure but also extra-budgetary revenue and expenditure," the International Monetary Fund said in October.

"This lack of transparency prevents banks and rating agencies from pricing credit risk properly and prevents local governments from managing related risks prudently," it said. – Reuters, January 2, 2014.

Schumacher – Formula One’s greatest or tainted champion?

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 04:41 PM PST

January 02, 2014

Mercedes Formula One driver Michael Schumacher of Germany walks in parc ferme after the qualifying session of the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix at Sepang International Circuit outside Kuala Lumpur in this March 24, 2012 file photo. - Reuters pic, January 2, 2014.From a young driver with a delinquent temperament to the all-conquering "Red Baron" of Formula One, Michael Schumacher has long been the undisputed king of the circuit.

A ruthless competitor, Schumacher won an unprecedented 91 races, seven world titles including five in a row with Ferrari from 2000 to 2004. But despite his unrivalled record on the track the German, who turns 45 years tomorrow, remains a figure of controversy because of his win-at-all-costs attitude.

Yesterday, Schumacher remained in an induced coma in Grenoble after brain surgery following an accident while skiing off piste with his 14-year-old son Mick in France.

Long-time rival David Coulthard believes that only now can Schumacher receive the long overdue recognition he deserves for his stunning achievements.

"For years Michael was the perfect pantomime villain... German, of course, ruthlessly efficient, ultra-aggressive," wrote Coulthard in the Daily Telegraph.

"He was marked down by some, including me, as a tainted champion. But you cannot argue with his achievements.

"At the end of the day he had the same rules and the same race marshals as the rest of us. And he destroyed us."

Schumacher retired in November 2012 holding every major statistical benchmark - the most world titles (7), wins (91), poles (68), fastest laps (77) and races won in a single season (13).

After his seventh place in Sao Paulo for his 308th and final Grand Prix, "Schumi" had for a time considered a switch to another type of horse power... rodeo.

"My wife Corinna has already chosen the horse, I'm ready," said the German after his second retirement, the first being between 2007 and 2009.

Not rodeo, however, but an ambassadorial role for Mercedes on road safety projects. A surprising choice for a man who was never able to do things slowly.

After years of racing in the high-risk world of Formula One, his skiing accident suggests that retirement had not dulled his relish of dangerous pursuits.

Holder of a pilot's licence, an accomplished motorbike rider, parachutist, skier and mountain climber, the young retiree had not lost his love of risk-taking, turning his back on the career of television pundit embraced by many of his former rivals.

He already survived a motorbike accident in Spain in 2009 suffering head and neck injuries but that time he was released from hospital after just five hours.

As an F1 racer, Schumacher was known for his daring overtaking manoeuvres, his at-times almost reckless abandon in the pursuit of victory.

When he won his first world title in 1994 with Benetton, he did so in controversial fashion, crashing into his title rival Damon Hill in the final race in Adelaide, Australia after he had already scuppered his own hopes by going off the track when pushing hard despite leading comfortably.

He almost provoked a similar crash in the final race of the 1997 season when battling Jacques Villeneuve for the title, an incident for which he was retrospectively disqualified from the whole season.

His career was also punctuated by accusations of dangerous driving following incidents such as a near collision with former teammate Rubens Barrichello in 2010, which the Brazilian later described as "the most dangerous thing" he had been through.

He retired at the end of the 2006 season before making a damp squib of a comeback in 2010 with Mercedes.

Schumacher's duels in his hey-day with Hill, Villeneuve and Mika Hakkinen, fired by an unquenchable competitive spirit, have gone down in Formula One folklore.

Schumacher was born in January 1969 near Cologne, Germany, the son of a bricklayer who also ran the local go-kart track, where his mother worked in the canteen. His younger brother, Ralf also became a successful Formula One driver.

By 1987, Schumacher was the German and European go-kart champion and had left school to work as an apprentice mechanic, although he was soon racing professionally.

In 1990 he won the German F3 championship and was hired by Mercedes to drive sports cars. Just a year later he burst onto the Formula One scene, qualifying seventh for Jordan in his debut race at Belgium.

The young German was immediately snapped up by Benetton, where he won his first Formula One race in 1992, again at Belgium's tough Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Schumacher won 18 races over the next four seasons with Benetton, claiming back-to-back world titles in 1994 and 1995.

In 2002 Schumacher won 11 times and finished on the podium in all 17 races.

In 2003, he broke Argentine Fangio's record by claiming his sixth world title and in 2004 he won 13 races, his greatest season.

He was also given the title of "Rain King" because he was at his best in the most challenging conditions - winning 17 of 30 career races in the wet.

Married to his wife Corinna since 1995 with two children Gina-Maria, 16, and 14-year-old Mick, Schumacher may have retired in 2012 after a glittering career but his love for speed and danger never left him.

The irony is that after a life spent negotiating potentially fatal turns his only serious injury was breaking his leg in 1999.

Schumacher told German television in 2009 about his accident at Silverstone on July 11, 1999, when he drove into a wall of tyres and broke his leg.

"I lie there and think about how I can start to feel my heartbeat again. And I feel how it gets less and less and then completely stops. Lights go out. And then I think this is how it must feel when you are on your way up." - AFP, January 2, 2014.

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The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

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Jack Gleeson is leaving ‘Game of Thrones’ because he feels repugnance to his character

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 11:57 PM PST

January 02, 2014

Jack Gleeson plays Joffrey Baratheon in the series Game of Thrones.Jack Gleeson, the ruthless King of Westeros, Joffrey Baratheon, has announced his intention to leave the series Game of Thrones.

It seems that the Irish actor, 21, is overwhelmed by fame, and wants to return to being a normal young man.

In an interview with The Irish Independent, the artist asserted: "the lifestyle that comes with being an actor in a successful TV show isn't something I gravitate towards".

Gleeson said he never watches himself playing the creepy young ruler: "I don't tend to. It's bizarre when you see clips," he said.

"You tend to abstract yourself from the creepiness of it when you're playing it, but when I see it on television it sends shivers down my spine."

It's what he feels about the conspiracies, murder, cheat, torture, wickedness, deceit, homosexuality.

When not immersed in filming or professional commitments, Jack studies philosophy and theology at Trinity College Dublin.

He also dedicates his free time to work with the humanitarian organisation Goal.

The followers of the series Game of Thrones can rest easy, as its creator, George RR Martin, said that he already knows what the future of the story will be.

Game of Thrones won the Radio Times, the only award in which the audience chooses the winner, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

This is just the latest recognition for this fiction, which has won a Golden Globe and eight Emmys.

The series continues to attract viewers: the fifth episode of the third season got an audience of 5.5 million viewers. - January 2, 2013.

Jack Gleeson is leaving Game of Thrones because he feels repugnance to his character

Posted: 01 Jan 2014 11:56 PM PST