Jul 30
Diego Maradona on Wednesday accused Argentina Football Association (AFA) president Julio Grondona of “lying” and team manager Carlos Bilardo of “treason”.
Follow this link: Football: Maradona lashes out at ‘treason’, ‘lies’
Jul 29
Australia’s World Cup bid has suffered an untimely setback with the president of the Asian Football Confederation, Mohammed Bin Hammam, effectively promising his vote to Qatar to host the 2022 tournament.
View post: Cup bid losing steam
Jul 27
SYDNEY: A six-man delegation of Fifa inspectors arrived here today to examine the credentials of Australias bid to host the 2022 World Cup. The team, led by Chilean Football Federation president Harold Mayne-Nicholls, was treated to a traditional Aboriginal smoking ceremony welcome on the Sydney Opera House forecourt on the opening day of their three-day visit, Football Federation Australia …
Originally posted here: Fifa team arrive to inspect Australia’s World Cup bid
Jul 22
A FIFA delegation arrived in South Korea on Thursday, the second leg of its tour to inspect bidders to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The five-member team, led by Chilean football federation president Harold Mayne-Nicholls, landed at Seoul’s Gimpo International Airport on Thursday to start a four-day trip.
Visit link: FIFA delegation in SKorea to inspect World Cup bid
Jul 22
A FIFA delegation praised Japan’s planning and advanced infrastructure after completing an inspection of the country’s bid to host the 2022 World Cup. The FIFA inspection team, headed by Chile Football Federation president Harold Mayne-Nicholls, toured stadium and broadcasting facilities in Osaka and Tokyo from Tuesday to Thursday.
Read more: FIFA praises Japan’s 2022 World Cup bid
Jul 07
According to ifeng.com, the opening match of “Special Olympics Unity Cup 2010″ raised its curtain at Green Point Stadium in Cape Town of South Africa on local time of July 3. Sixteen Special Olympics athletes from all over the world and some other celebrities such as Jacob Zuma, the President of South Africa, Zhang Ziyi, China’s famous actress, and so on attended the friendly match on the day.
Read more: Zhang Ziyi vs. S African President at Special Olympics match
Jun 28
CAPE TOWN – AMONG the tourist attractions in South Africa on World Cup football fans ‘must-do’ lists, one of the most notorious penal colonies of the last century is right up there. Robben Island, a barren outcrop off the Cape Town coast, is best known for being home to political prisoners jailed by the old apartheid government, most famously former leader Nelson Mandela and current president …
Jun 28
United States Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati will meet with coach Bob Bradley to discuss his future with the national team following their second round exit but all the signs point to a likely parting of the ways.
Read more: Soccer-World-U.S. chief to talk with coach Bradley over future
Jun 25
SANDAKAN — Football betting should be legalised because it can help minimise illegal gambling, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) president Datuk Liew Vui Keong said.
Excerpt from: Legalised football betting can minimise illegal gambling: LDP
Jun 21
A unique football created in Butte will make its national debut on home shopping network QVC this week. Passback Football is designed so it can be thrown and caught by the same individual. The football comes from First Base Sports Group LLC run by company president Mark Shutey of Butte.
See the rest here: Football created in Butte to debut on QVC
Jun 17
As the 2010 FIFA World Cup was officially declared open last week amid great colour and emotion, one man in particular beamed with pride. That man was Joseph Sepp Blatter , the long-standing President of FIFA , whose bold decision to award the most prestigious competition in world football to South Africa had paid off in every sense of the term. While Blatter somewhat unnecessarily reminded …
Read the original post: FIFA World Cup 2010: Money Makes the World Cup Go Round
Jun 14
Soccer fever is running high in the Tulsa metro area, from World Cup fans out watching the game to the Youth Soccer President’s Cup in our very own backyard.
Original post: Soccer fever boosts local economy
Oct 03
Tokyo’s hopes of hosting the 2016 Olympics were shattered Friday as the Japanese capital was eliminated in the second round of voting by the International Olympic Committee.
Rio de Janeiro was named the winner of rights to stage the 2016 Games, beating Madrid in the final round of voting to become the first South American Olympic host. Rio had 66 votes to Madrid’s 32.
Chicago was eliminated in the first round of voting before Tokyo’s exit left the race down to the Rio and Madrid. Tokyo had 22 votes in the first round and 20 in the second.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama released a statement Saturday congratulating the Brazilian people on Rio de Janeiro’s win in a bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
‘‘I want to offer my heartfelt appreciation for the citizens of Tokyo and athletes,’’ said Tokyo Gov Shintaro Ishihara. ‘‘Let’s use this precious experience, while tackling environmental issues and contribute to the development of world cities. I pray for the success of the Games in Rio de Janeiro.’’
Under host city voting procedures, the city with the fewest number of votes in each successive round of balloting is eliminated until one city has reached a majority of the valid votes cast.
May 22
Beautiful, charitable and talented, Ana Ivanovic has battled the pretty tennis player stereotype and proved her critics wrong.
But as this 21-year-old is finding out, staying at the top can be harder than getting there.
It is in a karaoke booth that Ana Ivanovic proves she is flawed. Wearing tracksuit pants and a blue singlet top, coloured lights spinning, she twirls and waves one hand goofily in the air as she dances to a Diana Ross tune.
“Upside down you’re turning me,” Ivanovic sings out of key. “You’re giving love instinctively”.
She moves awkwardly, theatrically pulling the microphone back, as she points her finger at the camera.
She descends into giggles and resorts to miming parts of the song. Singing is something Ivanovic can’t do well. But what does it matter? This is the woman who calls up UNICEF to volunteer her services, studies economics and takes exams between grand slams. The woman who says the roguish Andrew Symonds is her favourite Australian sportsman and often decorates magazine pages like a supermodel.
She’s a sports beauty devoid of pretension, and one who has won a grand slam title. But when asked about her imperfections she insists there are many things she can’t do. “I mean I can’t sing,” Ivanovic admits through a torrent of giggles. That’s an understatement; she couldn’t hold a note in a bucket. The incriminating YouTube footage is proof.
Ana Ivanovic
“But obviously I appreciate what I have and I feel very fortunate to have what I have at a young age,” Ivanovic, 21, says. “I think it’s normal as human beings that we want more and more and more. You think: ‘Have I got everything? Can I have more?’ There’s always something. But you’ve got to appreciate, realise: ‘Hey, I’ve got so many things in my life so I should just appreciate it’. Obviously I have goals, and something more that I want to achieve, but I have to take life as it comes. I don’t need to have everything right here, right now.”
Ivanovic has graced the pages of US Vogue and models expensive watches. She has the most visited website of any sportswoman in the world, which is unsurprising as she is often voted “sexiest”, “most beautiful” and as having the “most beautiful body in sport” by various polls.
“She has everything,” her long-time manager, Dan Holzmann, says. “And she is natural. Some people are made. But with Ana we didn’t have to do anything. She is smart, has a good heart – a pretty girl who’s very competitive and fights for every ball.”
Oh yes, let’s not forget she can play. Ivanovic has won eight WTA singles titles but, of course, the highlight is her French Open win last year. During that perfect French spring Ivanovic also collected the No.1 world ranking.
She had everything. But since she cried tears of joy on clay nearly a year ago, Ivanovic has wobbled under the weight of having it all, with her ranking dropping to seven. She injured her thumb between the French Open and Wimbledon and was bundled out in the third round at the All England Club. Following that, Ivanovic failed to win back-to-back matches in her next five events including an early second round exit at the US Open. During this time she admitted being No.1 was a cross to bear. After her 12-week reign at the top she wondered how Roger Federer had survived as No.1 in the men’s game for so long.
When she bowed out of the Australian Open this year in the third round, the critics again questioned her heart and talent. Would she just be a one-slam wonder?
Ivanovic says she knew the magnitude of her French Open success last year. Her Roland Garros win relieved the burden that comes with being a beautiful and talented sportswoman. The parallels once drawn between her and Anna Kournikova were quickly dismissed.
“Yes, before definitely people were [distracted by my looks],” Ivanovic says. “I’d played disappointingly before that French Open win. People were saying: ‘Can she do it?’ It was great to make that happen. It’s one thing getting into the final, it’s another altogether winning it. That gave me a lot of confidence.” However, since winning her first grand slam title she admits she has struggled to maintain that confidence. But if anything, Ivanovic has proved that adversity is a fuel for her.
She grew up scheduling her training sessions according to when the bombs would be most likely to drop on Belgrade. She remembers as a 12-year-old she had to practise between seven and nine in the morning because from midday the bombing would start. Those dark days during NATO’s 78-day bombardment of the city amid the Kosovo crisis of 1999 were harrowing times for Ivanovic. The grief of that period aside, the tennis facilities were unconventional. In the winter Ivanovic crafted her game in an abandoned Olympic-sized swimming pool that had been drained of water, carpeted and converted into an indoor court. In trying financial circumstances her parents, Dragana, a lawyer, and Miroslav, a businessman, still managed to support her tennis dream. “My family was in a very tough situation, my country was in a very bad place,” Ivanovic says. “They were some very hard years [but] my parents always supported me.
I was just this kid who wanted to play and people were finding it hard to survive.”
During the spring of 1999, Ivanovic spent four months sheltering from the air raids. She remembers her crippling fear as she heard the bombs and felt the building shake. Despite the bombardment her family refused to tuck themselves away in the cellar. They filled the house with “positive” people and made an effort to remain emotionally resilient. Ivanovic now wears her positivity like an armour.
While many sports stars may sour with success, Ivanovic has not changed. She’s a walking Disneyland. Ivanovic bubbles through press conferences and even the most inane questions don’t trouble her cheery demeanour. “Yeah, I always have been like this,” Ivanovic says. “Ever since I was a kid I’ve always thought it very important to be happy inside. There’s a lot of bad things happening in the world, but it’s important to try to stay happy and appreciate what you’ve got and don’t look externally for the happiness.”
Her parents have been the key to her attitude and success, says Holzmann. “If you met her parents you’d know she’s their daughter,” he says. “I have met many tennis parents on the tour and some of them are so crazy and manipulative.”
Everything changed for Ivanovic when, as a 14-year-old, she met Holzmann, a Swiss businessman with a passion for tennis. His tennis coach told him about Ivanovic, whose sponsor was facing bankruptcy, so the teenager and her mother flew to Switzerland for a visit.
In their first meeting, Holzmann remembers Ivanovic having “warm eyes” but a steely determination. “She knew what she wanted,” Holzmann says. “She said to me: ‘I want to be No.1.’ And I believed her.
I believed this 14-year-old girl.”
Holzmann, who had made his riches from the vitamin drink Juice Plus, decided to finance and manage Ivanovic’s career. However, her first match with Holzmann on her side was a disaster. She lost. This led to tears and a locker room lock in. He had travelled to Milan to watch Ivanovic and she was devastated that she had failed. She sobbed for hours. “She wanted to prove she was great,” Holzmann says. “She thought I was going to cancel her contract.”
During the next few years Holzmann spent $500,000 on Ivanovic’s career. Within two years of becoming a pro, she had repaid his investment. Today, the pair have a sturdy friendship. He is kept busy helping manage her multi-million-dollar empire, seeking the right endorsement opportunities. Selling Ivanovic requires little effort. Her image is faultless and she has remained an unchanged “modest girl” since he met her seven years ago. “She’s not Little Miss Perfect but the nice thing about Ana is she is very natural. She is very different to, say, Jelena Jankovic, the Williams sisters. You look at Maria Sharapova, these people, they are thinking: ‘What can I do to be loved, to be more respected by my fans today?’
“Ana has a life outside tennis. If she didn’t play tennis she would be a doctor.”
The attention lately has also been on Ivanovic’s love life. In the past she has dated Spanish player Fernando Verdasco and she was recently linked to Australian golfer Adam Scott. The pair are both brand ambassadors for Rolex and are said to have “hooked up” in the last Australian summer. Her management states the pair are “friends”. For now there is no significant other. The only man Ivanovic has recently brought into her life is American coach Craig Kardon. It’s the first time in two years she has employed a full-time coach. In her first tournament in February under Kardon’s tuition she defeated Alisa Kleybanova, the Russian who had rubbed her out of the 2009 Australian Open. “We have a firm view of how my game should develop,” she says.
Holzmann says Kardon could be just the man she needs, reflecting on her slump after the French Open. “It was tough,” Holzmann says. “A lot happened to her; she became No.1, won a grand slam tournament. Once you get there it is even more difficult to stay at the top.” And she has 10 million people in Serbia watching her. Ivanovic is feted in her home country. The President of Serbia, Boris Tadic, attended her 20th birthday party.
She admits it can be hard constantly having people approach her in the street, but, Ivanovic finds good in this, saying it’s nice to be a role model. “Wherever I go many people come up to talk to me and give me advice on my shots, on my game – on everything,” Ivanovic says and then descends into another heap of giggles.
“I understand it’s how it is,” she says. “If I make a change to a young kid to play any sport, not only tennis, instead of spending time in front of the TV or computer, that is good. I want to give them a good example: ‘Hey, go out and play and see the world’.”
Although the tennis road may have been bumpy, Ivanovic says, in her optimistic way, that things will get better. “I want to win more grand slams. I think I’ve got the ability to achieve that, I know that I’ve got to work very hard for it. Yes, I think I’ve the game and talent to do that.”
source: www.watoday.com.au
Apr 21
Uefa president Michel Platini reacts to the racist abuse of Inter Milan striker Mario Balotelli by revealing plans to stop play or abandon matches if fans make racist chants.
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Apr 04
DETROIT (Reuters) – It is the moment of truth this weekend for U.S. President Barack Obama and millions of other American basketball fans when they find out if their pick to win the NCAA Tournament was the right one.
Mar 28
The United States Olympic Committee reached a temporary compromise Friday with the International Olympic Committee in their heated dispute over revenue sharing.
Officials from both organizations met in Denver and agreed to wait until 2013 to discuss the issue. At that time, they will restart talks about redistributing the revenue from global sponsorship partners and television contracts. Any changes to the agreement would be instituted after 2020.
The U.S.O.C. now receives 20 percent of that sponsorship money and 12.75 percent of the TV money, but a group of angry I.O.C. and international sports federation officials had complained that the United States was receiving too much.
The groups were at loggerheads over the issue just as Chicago is trying to win votes to host the 2016 Olympics.
Bob Ctvrtlik, one of the main negotiators for the U.S.O.C., said he never thought the revenue-sharing dispute would affect Chicago’s chances. An I.O.C. evaluation committee is set to visit Chicago next week. The vote over which city — Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro or Tokyo — will win the Games is scheduled for Oct. 2.
“We never felt there was strong linkage,” Ctvrtlik said Friday, according to The Associated Press. “But in a room where one or two votes can make a difference, we’d rather have this issue behind us.”
But for the U.S.O.C., putting the revenue-sharing negotiations on hold comes at a cost: the I.O.C. said Friday that the U.S.O.C. has agreed to pay more of the fees related to the running of the Games, including fees related to doping programs and the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Right now, the cost of the Olympics is sliced into thirds, with the I.O.C., the 35 Olympic federations and the 205 national Olympic committees paying the bill.
Jacques Rogge, the I.O.C.’s president, said he was not sure how much more the U.S.O.C. would have to pay, but said that it would be more than what he termed “rank and file” Olympic committees. He said the dollar amount would be discussed in the future.
Earlier this week, Hein Verbruggen, an honorary I.O.C. member and former president of the International Cycling Union, said the U.S.O.C. was greedy. The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations passed a non-binding resolution Tuesday urging the end of the U.S.O.C.’s current open-ended contract with the I.O.C. The association wanted to negotiate a new contract.
On Friday, Verbruggen was pleased.
“We’ve always said we just wanted to get them to the table, talking seriously,” he said, according to the A.P. “We’ve said ‘We need you guys at the table. It takes some heat off Chicago.’ ”
from: nytimes.com
Mar 26
Female ski jumpers continue to fight an uphill battle in their quest to compete in the Winter Olympic Games.
In an attempt to advance their cause, two elite jumpers — Katie Willis of Calgary and 2009 world champion Lindsey Van of Park City, Utah — appeared at a Wednesday media conference in Denver to urge International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge to meet with them.
“It was definitely frustrating,” Van said. “We didn’t get to meet with Rogge, but we got our idea across to the media that we want to meet and don’t really want to go ahead with a lawsuit, but that’s where we’re headed.”
Van and Willis are among 15 plaintiffs in a lawsuit that is to be heard April 20 in B.C. Supreme Court. The lawsuit was filed in May by female ski jumpers who maintain that they should be able to compete at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Male ski jumpers have been in the Olympics since the inaugural winter Games in 1924.
Rogge is in Denver for IOC executive board meetings, which began Wednesday and are to continue until Friday. The plaintiffs sent Rogge a registered letter last week, but he did not respond to their request for a meeting.
“That’s just how they work,” Van said. “The top guy in IOC is not going to make an appearance for some athletes that he doesn’t want to be in his Games, anyway.”
The International Ski Federation gave a resounding endorsement of female ski jumpers in 2006, voting 114-1 in favor of their inclusion in the 2010 Olympics. The IOC was not swayed, however, maintaining that ski jumping at the women’s level had not developed to the point where it was of Olympic caliber.
The lawsuit has been filed against the Vancouver Olympic Games Organizing Committee. The suit contends that the exclusion of women is discriminatory and in opposition to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“The reason it’s not (filed against) the IOC is very simple: Nobody has any authority over the IOC,” Women’s Ski Jumping USA president Deedee Corradini said Wednesday. “They can do whatever they want, so we had to look for another way to get this done.
“As our lawyers took a look at what our options were, VANOC, we feel, is the right place.
Our belief is VANOC can control whether the women jump or not. If this goes our way, VANOC is just going to have to tell the IOC, ‘The women have to jump. You can’t break the laws of Canada and we are subject to those laws.’ ”
Vancouver organizing officials contend they should not be the defendant because the IOC dictates the composition of the Winter Olympics. The IOC has not budged.
“If you have three medals, with 80 athletes competing on a regular basis internationally, the percentage of medal winners is extremely high,” Rogge told reporters on Feb. 28, 2008. “In any other sport, you are speaking about hundreds of thousands, if not tens of millions, of athletes at a very high level, competing for one single medal.
“We do not want the medals to be diluted and watered down. That is the bottom line.”
Corradini said there are close to 100 women from 18 countries competing at the elite level. A total of 166 women are registered as active jumpers with the International Ski Federation.
Since 1991 the IOC has demanded gender equity from any sport it adds.
However, ski jumping has been grandfathered, or “grandmothered” in this case. Ski jumping and Nordic combined (which includes ski jumping and cross-country skiing) are the only male-exclusive sports in the Winter Olympics.
“It doesn’t make sense,” said Willis, 17. “We’re doing whatever we can. We’ve gone through all the steps. This is the last step so hopefully this will be the thing we want.”
The first women’s ski jumping world championship was held Feb. 20 in Liberec, Czech Republic, with Van winning the gold medal.
The IOC has said it is amenable to adding women’s ski jumping for the 2014 Winter Olympics, earmarked for Sochi, Russia, providing its criteria can be met. Van is not prepared to wait that long.
“I need to get out and move on with my life if this isn’t going to happen,” the 24-year-old Van said. “I’m not going to wait for a bunch of old guys to decide my future when I can take it into my own hands and move on from ski jumping if it doesn’t happen now.”
For 2010, the women are asking for one event to be held on the normal hill in Whistler, B.C. The men’s event includes competition on the normal hill and large hill, as well as a team event.
Corradini — a former mayor of Salt Lake City — cannot understand why the IOC members are not open to that request.
“They would be heroes,” she said. “Everybody would shine. The lawsuit goes away. Why don’t they do something so simple?”
source: vancouversun.com
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