| Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho rules out move for Tottenham's Gareth Bale Real Madrid manager appears to have ruled out a swoop for Gareth Bale after insisting he does not want another left winger. telegraph.co.uk |
Strategic review underway: FFA The A-League's competition format, a new FFA Cup and club financial sustainability are among options to be explored in a strategic review foxsports.com.au |
Wayne Rooney's disrespect to fans and team-mates will not be forgotten | Paul Hayward There will need to be plenty of apologies at Carrington and Old Trafford after an astonishing week for Manchester UnitedWhen Manchester United sent in the heavy mob on Thursday to dissuade Wayne Rooney from leaving they noticed a crack in his determination to join Manchester City. Rooney had been shocked by the anger his dismissive comments about the club's lack of "ambition" had aroused among his United team-mates.Buckling under the strain, Rooney needed friends but the United players turned their backs. They would not forgive their colleague's insult in suggesting their side had slipped into mediocrity. More money from the Glazers and a failure of nerve at Rooney's end produced the sweetness-and-light statement confirming his signature on a new five-year deal at Old Trafford. But the resentments felt by workmates and supporters will not be easily erased by the most spectacular U-turn in the history of modern transfer sagas.As Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill, the chief executive, bore down on Paul Stretford, Rooney's agent, in a meeting at Old Trafford, an unconditional apology was a precondition of England's leading player remaining at the club. United were at once pleading with Rooney to stay and playing hardball with the terms on which he might do so. Later that day, 40 men in balaclavas gathered outside the player's Cheshire mansion to warn him of the dire consequences should he defect across town."Wayne has apologised to me and the players," Ferguson told a local radio station when the volte face was completed. "He will also do so with the supporters." This, after United fans had unfurled banners at the midweek Champions League game against Bursaspor calling Rooney a "whore" and promising: "Colleen forgave you, we won't". Short of planting a new forest in Cheshire to compensate for all the newsprint he wasted, Rooney must identify a strategy to regain the trust of team-mates at the Carrington training groundand fans who will now see his alarming slump, retrospectively, as proof of self-indulgence.His problem is that his recent feeble form has come to look like part of a strategy to get away from a club he accused in a statement two hours before the Bursaspor game of failing to match his own grand vision for talent acquisition. By implication, Rooney was saying some of the recent recruits to Ferguson's squad were not fit to share his air space. This, in professional team sports, remains a complete no-no. The outrage expressed by celebrated ex-United players must have drummed in his brain like heavy rain on his roof.Patrice Evra, the team's warrior left-back, was the most explicit in his denunciation. He said: "If one player in the team does not trust the others, he should not play in the team. I trust everyone, I know we can win." Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville, Ferguson's closest confidantes in the dressing room, are likely to have restated the principle they grew up with: that individual egos should not be allowed to destroy togetherness.Even if the senior players forgive him, Chris Smalling, Javier Hernández, BebĂ©, Gabriel Obertan, Anderson and even Antonio Valencia are unlikely to forget the affront. They will feel Rooney's condescension throughout their time together. They have seen him issue ludicrous statements first justifying his desire to flee and then expressing his fidelity to the cause, all of which is at odds with his reputation for straight-talking and dependability.They will see, in other words, a creature of manipulation and self-contradiction: one they will feel they can rely on less. There is also the problem of his rocketing salary, which will eclipse theirs. Some will think Rooney has extorted an unrealistic wage with his brinkmanship and damaged the club along the way. It seemed significant that Nani kissed his United badge after scoring against Bursaspor: a memo, perhaps, to the traitor, as he was seen then.Selfish and often myopic by nature, most Premier League players would welcome Rooney back on purely pragmatic grounds. More quality in the side equals more chance of winning trophies and bonuses. Simple. But even here Rooney has a complication. If he returns to last season's rampant form (pre-March, at any rate) colleagues and supporters will take it as incontrovertible proof that he has been half-hearted since August. Conversely, a continuation of the droop would say United have broken the bank for a 24-year-old who has already peaked and may even be in decline.Supporters are no less capricious. United's will be blowing a raspberry at Manchester City and will be relieved to escape the stress of not knowing whom the club might find to replace him. Equally, their opinion of him will be lowered. Their willingness to embrace a Merseysider stemmed from the obvious sense that Rooney would run through a wall to wear the United shirt. Will they feel that now? More likely is that they will remember his arrogance for daring to tell Gill and Ferguson they were failing to match his "ambitions".Part of United's strategy on Thursday was to persuade him he was about to make an appalling error. Fans and players will probably feel he already has, with his disrespect.Wayne RooneyManchester UnitedPaul Haywardguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Schalke hangs on for undeserved tie Schalke battled to a 0-0 tie at Eintracht Frankfurt despite failing to create a chance in the second half while Hannover moved up to third by beating Cologne 2-1 in the Bundesliga on Saturday. cbc.ca |
'Fake' match-fixing turns up heat on Fifa • Head of Zimbabwe's FA implicated in match-fixing scandal• Fifa accused of making corrupt officials untouchableFifa have defended their controversial approach to dealing with allegations of corruption after one of the worst weeks for football's governing body since Sepp Blatter became president in 1998. Fifa faced fresh problems after the chief executive of the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) was implicated in a bizarre match-fixing scandal in which a club side posed as the national team. She was found guilty of a series of financial irregularities.Henrietta Rushwaya, the chief executive of Zifa until her suspension in July, will learn her fate on Tuesday. She is expected to face dismissal and a ban from all football-related activities. A judge heard at a tribunal in Harare that:â– Rushwaya and another Zifa employee sent a club side on a tour of Asia posing as Zimbabwe's national team. The tour was under the direction of a Malaysian gambling syndicate whose leader was allowed to sit on the bench during games. The team were paid to lose 6-0 against Syria and did so. The match is listed by Fifa as a full international.â– Rushwaya secured a $103,000 loan without authorisation. The money cannot be traced.â– Gate receipts of $640,000 from a pre-World Cup match against Brazil have not yet reached Zifa.The findings against Rushwaya follow the release of an independent report accusing Fifa of failing to prevent systemic corruption in African football. The report, by the Forum for African Investigative Reporters, features allegations of bribes, match-fixing, and officials trading influence and votes, and focuses on Fifa's policy of threatening to expel nations whose governments try to investigate corruption in football. That policy, intended to prevent political interference, has made officials inside Fifa's "football family" largely untouchable, according to the report.Among the examples cited was an attempt by Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, to investigate corruption in Zifa in 2006. Mugabe cancelled the investigation when Fifa threatened to expel Zimbabwe from world football. Rushwaya was appointed a few months later.Bob Munro, vice-chairman of Kenya's Premier League, said the Fifa policy had allowed corruption to fester. "It is a patronage-riddled system from local to global levels with a series of unholy alliances to perpetuate each other in power. Unsurprisingly, the 'elected' officials largely act in the best interests of themselves and their patrons rather than clubs, coaches, players and referees."In Nigeria, where sport has for years been controlled by Amos Adamu – suspended from Fifa's executive committee last week over the vote-selling allegations – state governor Rotimi Amaechi said attempts to investigate corruption were routinely thwarted. "When we went to the World Cup in the summer we saw all sorts of problems," Amaechi said – among them the size of the "official" Nigeria non-playing entourage, of whom 173 were found to be friends and hangers-on. But when the government intervened, Fifa gave them three days to desist from "interference" under threat of a ban. The politicians backed down.Richard Nwabufor Obienu, a former vice-president of Nigeria's Football Federation, said: "We have been made a laughing stock in the eyes of the world through the actions and inactions of those representing us. If our president talks about football, Fifa threaten us with sanctions."Fifa have defended their policy, insisting that governments must be kept away from the sport. "Fifa shares the goal of ridding football of corruption, and is willing to act, as demonstrated earlier this week," a spokesman said. "However, allegations of false corruption are also often used by governments as an excuse to try to remove officials. If governments have proof of corruption with government money, then they can pursue the case according to national law. However they cannot decide to remove football officials and put their friends at the top."Joe Kadenge, who as player, manager and coach has been involved in Kenyan football for more than 50 years, said he believes countries should defy Fifa and "take control of the federations until clean people are elected to take over. Fifa can suspend us if they so wish."FifaFootball politicsDavid Hillsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |