| Liverpool takeover: Christian Purslow convinced £300m buy-out will go ahead Liverpool chief executive Christian Purslow confident proposed £300m sale of club to New England Sports Ventures will happen. telegraph.co.uk |
France downs Romania in Euro qualifiers Substitutes Loic Remy and Yoann Gourcuff scored late as France beat visiting Romania 2-0 to move top of its group in European Championship qualifying Saturday. cbc.ca |
Free-for-all and corruption in African football shames Fifa | Brian Oliver According to those fighting to clean up football in Africa, Fifa are helping the rule-bendersOur society is full of devils, and you find these devils in football." So said Sepp Blatter, head of football's world governing body, after two of his fellow members of the Fifa executive board were provisionally suspended for allegedly offering their votes for sale in the bidding process for the World Cup finals.There are devils in sport everywhere. World Cup bids from Europe and Asia are under scrutiny by Fifa after claims of vote-swapping. The latest issue of Sports Illustrated shows that another kind of football, the American college game, is troubled by illegal payments to players. There is corruption in sport all over the globe. The evidence of the past two weeks, however, strengthens the widely held view that African football is home to more of these devils than any other sport in any other part of the world.There are many exasperated players, coaches and officials throughout the continent who feel Fifa, far from doing all in their power to exorcise them, actually encourage them.While the votes-for-sale scandal has attracted headlines globally, other tales of corruption are arguably just as mind-boggling. A sensational case of match-fixing was revealed to a judge in a hearing in Zimbabwe last week, and multiple tales of bribes, bungs and bottomless pockets in eight countries are featured in a special report just published by the Forum for African Investigative Reporters (Fair)."Nobody dares touch these looters [corrupt football executives] because of the Fifa policy of non-interference," one of Zimbabwe's top coaches tells Fair. "The football community will never get to the bottom of the rot."He is referring to the strictly regulated policy of suspending national federations who are subject to "government interference". In essence this may sound sensible, as corruption is rife in political life, too, but it gives the executives on national federations limitless power. No government wants to alienate its public by being held responsible for a country's banishment from world football. If they suspect corruption or mismanagement within football, they investigate under threat of expulsion from the world game. Thus the corruption festers.The match-fixing story emerged at a tribunal hearing in Harare. A club side, Monomatapa, made a brief tour of Asia in the guise of the Warriors, Zimbabwe's national XI, last December. Blatter's men are investigating, as two games are listed as full internationals. Criminal proceedings are likely to follow.A judge heard that two officials from Zifa – the chief executive, Henrietta Rushwaya, and the programmes officer, Jonathan Musavengana – acted without the sanction of the Zifa board and sent the club players out as Zimbabwe. On arrival in Bangkok the team were instructed to lose 1-0 to Thailand by "an Asian gentleman" according to evidence from a coach. This "gentleman", named as Raja Raj, a Malaysian gambler, sat on the team bench during the game, talking to a fellow member of his gambling syndicate. He became increasingly agitated as the tourists, having travelled at short notice and being short of match practice, lost 3-0.After that match the Asians are said to have confronted players, claiming they were in the books of another betting syndicate. "Raja Raj threatened our players for having cost him more than $1m [£640,000] by not losing according to instructions," the official Zifa report says.The coach, Joey Antipas, claims: "In order for him to recover his money he [Raj] arranged two games." They were both in Malaysia: the first against a club side, the second against Syria, who are ranked a few places higher than Zimbabwe."The condition was to lose 6-0 [to Syria]. We disagreed but we were afraid because the guy wanted to recover his money. Jonathan Musavengana was directing operations from the bench while receiving calls from the Asian syndicate. Whenever he received a call, he would stand up from the bench and dish out instructions to concede goals, and that game was duly lost 6-0."At the airport the players were paid $1,000 each after they had met one member of the syndicate. A bunch of US dollars was also given to Musavengana as Zifa's share. To conclude, I would say my hands received dirty money due to being forced into these games of illegal betting by Jonathan Musavengana."One player was so disgusted by the fixing that he asked to be substituted. Another feared for his life, he said. The paper trail recording what happened, who picked the team, who sanctioned the trip and so on has been lost or destroyed, and the dates of emails have been doctored, according to investigators.Zifa are also investigating club matches under suspicion, as well as Zimbabwe's results in the Merdeka Cup, a tournament in Malaysia, in 2007. In their first 34 minutes in that competition, the Warriors conceded four goals.Rushwaya, who did not attend the tribunal, faces dismissal after being found guilty of a number of charges, among them securing a $103,000 loan without authorisation. The money cannot be traced. A further hearing is to be held into the match-fixing scam, and inquiries are ongoing into the missing $640,000 gate money from a pre-World Cup match between Zimbabwe and Brazil. A former Zifa president is also implicated.Zimbabwe is far from an isolated case. Missing money, flawed or nonexistent accounts, forged transfer and registration documents, and rigged elections feature throughout the Fair report.When the Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, suspended the national team after their flop at the World Cup and ordered an audit into allegations of fraud, Fifa moved against him. They called for advice on the state of football governance in Nigeria from none other than Amos Adamu, the man at the centre of the World Cup votes scandal who has been provisionally suspended. Adamu had already been sacked as director general of Nigeria's National Sports Commission. He denies any wrongdoing in the "votes for sale" investigation.After taking advice from their own man, Fifa gave the Nigerian government three days to withdraw their decision or face a ban covering the men's and women's national teams, club sides in African competitions and Nigerian referees. Fifa would also withhold $8m due to Nigeria for participating in the World Cup. The politicians backed down."Our first interlocutors are naturally our members, that is the national association," a Fifa spokesman explains. "However we receive information from different sources amongst football's stakeholders."In Zambia four FA executive members resigned in disgust at the reign of Kalusha Bwalya, a former African footballer of the year, then coach of the national team and now president of the FA. Bwalya is also an agent and is married to a marketing executive who worked for the 2010 World Cup organising committee.Allegations of corruption focus on the transfer of a young player to Israel, and nearly 100 clubs – including those backed by the police, army and air force – have signed a petition against what they now see as an unconstitutional ZFA. But Fifa are supporting Bwalya and say any objections will have to wait until the next ZFA elections in 2012.Fifa's "stick to your statutes" attitude has not been evident in the case of Kenya, where the last elections were in 2004. There should have been a new vote in 2008.It was action by disgruntled clubs that led to a breakaway league being formed in Kenya. It is now thriving, competitive and well-run, and brings in more than $1m a year in TV money, although there was a terrible incident yesterday in which seven fans were killed in a stampede before a match in Nairobi.Despite the success of the new league, however, the Kenyan Football Federation are still headed by people who have been accused of, and in two cases charged with, corruption. "In many cases, 'government interference' is because of gross mismanagement and/or corruption in the national football association," explains Bob Munro, vice-chairman of the Kenyan Professional League. "But who suffers most when Fifa impose a ban? Sadly, it is the innocent clubs, coaches, players and referees. What judicial or other regulatory process in the world punishes the innocent victims?"More than a dozen countries have been suspended in the past five years under Fifa's "no interference" rules, including Nigeria, Kenya, Chad, Madagascar and Ethiopia, with Togo (who were also involved in "fake" international matches) and Botswana under threat of suspension. Botswana could apparently be banned because the government has set up a youth football league which is not run by the national FA.In 2004, Fifa banned Kenya for "government interference". In a case that is fully documented, it was shown that: officials repeatedly ignored or broke 12 of the 21 articles in the KFF constitution; they repeatedly failed to produce annual audited accounts for four years; they refused to allow member clubs to inspect the accounts; officials allegedly stole more than $700,000 from their own body's and Fifa's funds; Kenyan clubs sent detailed evidence, and wrote 30 letters and appeals to Fifa between 2002 and 2004 asking them to intervene, which Fifa ignored; the high court of Kenya confirmed in April 2004 that the KFF officials were no longer legally in office because they failed to hold elections; Fifa still insisted that the government must ignore the high court ruling and reinstate the KFF officials."How can Fifa demand that a sovereign government break its own constitution by ignoring a ruling of its highest court or be banned?" asks an incredulous Munro. "Would the British or American governments consider that a reasonable demand by Fifa?"Munro explains how corruption works from the bottom level up. Elections for office in the national FA start at sub-branch level. In the last KFF elections, six years ago, the Thika sub-branch had nine registered clubs eligible to vote. An additional 70 ineligible clubs were allowed to vote.In Zimbabwe it appears to be simpler. Three Zifa councillors admitted to Fair that they were paid $2,000 for their votes in the last election for Zifa president. "It was no big deal, because we were voting for the better of the two candidates anyway," one of them said.The African media is tainted, too, with examples cited in the Zimbabwe hearing and the Fair report of journalists taking payments, or asking for them.Fifa have a very difficult job governing more than 200 member federations. They deserve credit, says Munro, for implementing important reforms such as setting up the ethics code, launching new youth programmes and grassroots development projects in Africa."But further reforms are needed," he says, "especially on ensuring good governance in Fifa's regional and national associations, on improving Fifa's relations and cooperation with governments, and on applying more effective sanctions and targeted bans which punish corrupt officials instead of innocent clubs, coaches, players and referees." The International Olympic Committee are way ahead in this respect, and this week officials from more than 200 nations will gather at a conference in Mexico to work out how to improve relations between sport and government.Fifa stand by their policy. A spokesman says: "Fifa shares the goal of ridding football of corruption, and is willing to act, as demonstrated earlier this week. However allegations of false corruption are also often used by governments as an excuse to try to remove football officials from an association. They cannot remove football officials and put their friends at the top."Blatter ended that statement about "devils in football" by saying: "We have to fight for fair play. Trust us and you will see confidence will be restored."Any questions, though, and you're suspended.FifaFootball politicsBrian Oliverguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Rooney saga proves painful truth Sunderland manager Steve Bruce believes the Wayne Rooney contract saga proves that Barclays Premier League players have too much power. foxsports.com.au |
Villarreal's 'perfect football eco-system' With a talented group of youth talent added to astute signings, there doesn't seem to be an end in sight for Villarreal's miracleIt was Benjamin Franklin who said nothing in life is certain except death and taxes but what does he know? Sure, he built a few libraries and did some experiments with electricity and catheters and fireplaces and stuff, but he didn't know the first thing about what really matters: football in Spain, that magical world where death and taxes aren't certain at all; where football clubs owe the taxman €627,266,721.38; where a player literally came back from the dead this weekend – Salamanca player Miguel GarcÃa's heart stopped beating, the doctor who saved him revealing: "He was dead for 25 seconds", and where it's not just that death and taxes aren't inevitable, it's that plenty of other things are.Things like Manolo Preciado sneaking a crafty fag on the bench, Deportivo de La Coruña leaving you wondering why you bothered being born, and referees dishing out cards like croupiers on crack; like David Villa hitting the post – that's nine for the season now with Spain and Barcelona – or Cristiano Ronaldo revealing his rippling torso. And Marca dribbling all over it. Like Enrique Cerezo looking insufferably smug, Miguel-Angel Lotina looking irredeemably sad and MÃchel looking impossibly smooth. Like a pointless replay of a player sighing in slow motion while, back in the actual game, someone's scoring a goal; an interview in AS consisting entirely of one, vital question: "just how great are you?"; and every online article ever, no matter what it's actually about, degenerating into bitter 'debate' about Franco, fascism and nationalism. Or your mum. Like El Mundo Deportivo putting a bunch of tools on its cover. Literally.Few things, though, are so inevitable as what happened a week ago today. Now, most Monday night games are irrelevant, an afterthought, normally reserved for rubbish teams – since the league decided to shift games there on a whim midway through last season, Madrid and Barcelona have never been involved. Not included in the weekend round-ups, the stats or the reviews, perilously close to the Champions League action whose previews drown them, and quickly erased from the collective conscience, they're La Liga's graveyard shift. Dave Clifton on Radio Norwich.Last Monday was supposed to be different. Villarreal were facing Hércules. Having won five on the trot, they knew that if they beat Hércules they'd go top for the first time in their entire history. Everyone else knew that if they won, there was half a chance that there might – just might – be a side that could push Madrid and Barcelona. Beaten by Sevilla and Barcelona, and struggling without Sergio Agüero, Atlético weren't it. Nor it seemed, despite their new manager, were Sevilla. And Valencia were going into a nosedive. Maybe Villarreal could be that team instead.Trouble is, deep down they knew they wouldn't win. Sometimes it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the team that thrives in anonymity and comfort, growing strong in what one columnist described as "the perfect footballing eco-system", can't function properly under pressure. And so it was that Villarreal, despite playing well enough, drew 2-2 with Hércules. For the seventh time in their history, they had a chance to go top. And for the seventh time in history, they blew it. Maybe the "other team" wouldn't be Villarreal, after all.Or maybe it would. Open Sport this morning, just seven days later, and there's the headline: "The alternative wears yellow." AS agreed: "Villarreal," writes Artiz Gabilondo, "are the only alternative to Madrid and Barcelona." They might have succumbed to the inevitable last Monday but they did win last night: 2-0 against fellow "alternatives" Atlético Madrid. By doing so they confirmed their best ever start, climbed above Barcelona into second on goal difference and positioned themselves a solitary point behind Real Madrid. They became one of only three teams to have won every home match alongside Madrid and Espanyol – and the only one to do so without conceding a single goal.But if that sounds like they are boring, think again. They've scored more than anyone except Madrid – who've now hit a ludicrous 16 in their past three league matches – and two more than Barcelona. It's true that Villarreal got lucky last night, the referee RamÃrez DomÃnguez denying Atlético one penalty because he decided it was half-time and another because he didn't see a trip on Agüero, but still they were impressive. AS called it an "ode to football", cooing: "marvellous, magnificent, a footballing symphony" and El PaÃs said they were "delicious". "Yes, it's true," ran their match report, "there is a team coming up behind those footballing locomotives Madrid and Barcelona: Villarreal, a delight of a team that builds passing triangles, that links up wonderfully, that moves like angels …"That may be a bit of an exaggeration but they were pretty good. Santi Cazorla, sadly denied the chance to play at the World Cup because of injury, was superb – fast, tidy, tirelessly energetic and precise in possession. Giuseppe Rossi, who scored a really fantastic second, is getting better and better, his movement swift and clever, his touch assured. And Nilmar, finally imposing himself on defenders, did something that this column has never seen anyone do before: beat Luis Perea in a straight sprint. He also created a neat first, slipping a perfectly weighted ball through the gap for Cani to poke past David De Gea. It was all very impressive. It was also all very Villarreal. And that's what makes it so impressive. In fact, that's the point.When Manuel Pellegrini left for Real Madrid, the club replaced him with Ernesto Valverde. Valverde was popular but he changed Villarreal's style, pushing his team higher, increasing the tempo, exerting greater pressure, and opening the pitch out. The players weren't used to it. It didn't work. After a dreadful start, Villarreal slipped into the relegation zone and although they improved Valverde was sacked midway through the season with the side 10th. His replacement was Juan Carlos Garrido, the B team coach who had taken his side into the Second Division and whose football model was the same as Pellegrini's: a narrow, South American style 4-4-2 with technical, ball-playing interiores encouraged to come inside and flood the centre rather than wingers, the width instead provided by the full-backs. Villarreal improved but were hammered 6-2 by Madrid, could only win half of their last 12 and finished outside the European places (their Europa League slot came courtesy of Mallorca being kicked out by Uefa).Worse followed. Or seemed to. The feelgood miracle that was built on cold hard cash ran out of cash. At the start of last season, Villarreal promised to give free season tickets to members who suddenly found themselves on the dole; now, with president and owner Fernando Roig's ceramics business hit hard by the crisis, they too needed help. They sold €17m worth of players, Diego GodÃn joining Atlético, Joseba Llorente going to Real Sociedad, Damian Escudero to Boca and David Fuster to Olympiakos. With Ariel Ibagaza, Robert Pires, Javi Venta and Iván Marcano going, they cut salary costs by almost a third.They signed evil genius Carlos Marchena from Valencia and Borja Valero from Mallorca – arguably Spain's best outside player beyond the big two last season. The average age dropped by two years, from 27½ to 25½ . The departures of GodÃn, Ibagaza and Llorente after they hit the town the night before last season's final match reinforced a policy of discipline that paid off when, frustrated and annoyed, the club decided to shed Juan Román Riquelme in 2007. And the squad is a genuinely good group – Marcos Senna, Cazorla and Joan Capdevila, to name but three, are among the nicest people you could meet in football. But still their chances appeared limited. Was the group really good enough? Were the 10 youth teamers called into the first-team squad really going to cut it?Yes. Villarreal's miracle might have been based on money but it was money well spent. As Roig put it: "When the crisis comes, we'll be ready for it." Not only did they sign good players – and signings still make up the bulk of their first team – but they invested €42m and a lot of time and care in an exceptional youth structure built on an old orange grove, where the approach is identical throughout the club. Santi Cazorla was signed from the Mighty Oviedo at 16. Bruno Soriano, called up for the last Spain squad, is a regular now – and others are coming up behind him; others that have played under Garrido and know his style. Villarreal's style. As Racing coach Miguel-Angel Portugal put it: "Villarreal play the league's best football after Barcelona."At the same time, Marchena's introduction and Garrido's tough attitude – he admits he has mala leche (bad milk) – has added aggression and edge to a side with a soft underbelly. A side that, given the chance to go top will inevitably blow it and a side that realistically can't challenge for the title because Madrid or Barcelona winning the league is the kind of certainty that death and taxes can only dream of. But a side that really is an alternative for top spot in Spain's other league.Talking points• Miguel-Angel Portugal may just want to revise that opinion after Saturday night when his Racing side were pummelled by Real Madrid, losing 6-1. Yes, six. Again. That's 16 – sixbloodyteen! – goals in three games now for Real Madrid. Mind you, Racing did give them a bit of a helping hand with three centre-backs and two wing-backs who don't know if they are defenders or midfielders, allied to a high defensive line and no pressure whatsoever in the middle. Nor did they do much to stop their opponents: Madrid scored with their first three shots on target (their first five of any description) and were 6-0 up after their first seven. Oddly, Racing actually had more of the ball in the first half but just could not deal with the pace, intensity and interchange of Madrid's forwards. Gonzalo HiguaÃn opened the scoring but Cristiano Ronaldo scored four to take him to nine for the season (10 if you believe Marca, which you really shouldn't) and leave Marca's cover splashed with the infuriating headline: "CR7, CR7, CR7 … and again CR7". He's not a bloody car. And anyway, the game's best performance actually came from Angel Di MarÃa, who was sensational.• Chain-smoking, moustachioed wordsmith Manolo Preciado was not happy at his side's 3-0 capitulation against Getafe. "I can't understand the difference between last week [when they beat Sevilla] and this week. It's best I don't say anything," he moaned, turning surreal. "I'm more burnt out than a hippy's motorbike."• Speaking of surreal, the game of the weekend was at the Sanchez Pizjuán where Sevilla beat Athletic Bilbao 4-3. And although Sevilla were 3-0 and 4-2 up, despite the fact that Athletic's third only came in the 93rd minute, the Basques are furious. At 3-2, with Athletic having just scored twice in four minutes, Sevilla were awarded the most bizarre, unexplained penalty ever. Alvaro Negredo crashed into the Athletic keeper Gorka Iraizoz, the ball squirmed free, was cleared off the line, and suddenly the linesman's flag was up. "I'll have to ask the linesman what he saw," said JoaquÃn Caparrós. Hopefully, he'll tell the rest of us when he does.• Zaragoza's fans were almost as unhappy with Dani Alves, whom they accused of a spot of play-acting to get Ponzio sent off after the Argentinian clipped him round the ear (or was it the face?) and he responded as if he'd cut it off. "People are saying I'm an actor, well maybe I'll give up on football and go into the theatre," huffed Alves. "He assaulted me and it's a clear red card. If Jesus Christ wasn't liked by everyone, I've got no chance."• And in a week dominated by Spain's version of the Nobel prizes (only without any real international significance), the Premios PrÃncipe de Asturias, this week's biggest bigmouth was the president of the Asturian Football Federation who somehow overtook the president of Cantabria, shameless rent-a-gob Miguel-Angel Revilla, by attacking José Mourinho and Pep Guardiola on Friday for not allowing their players to go to the ceremony. "Well," he insisted, "it's not surprising, they're both foreigners." And, while everyone else was trying to foster division, without doubt the biggest star was – yet again – Vicente del Bosque who did the opposite with his gesture of solidarity with Luis Aragonés.Results Zaragoza 0-2 Barcelona, Valencia 1-2 Mallorca, Espanyol 2-1 Levante, Osasuna 3-0 Málaga, Villarreal 2-0 Atlético, Real Madrid 6-1 Racing, Getafe 3-0 Sporting, AlmerÃa 1-1 Hércules, Sevilla 4-3 Athletic. And this week's graveyard shift: Deportivo v Real Sociedad.Latest La Liga tableLa LigaVillarrealEuropean footballSid Loweguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |