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World Cup Football News |
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Mar 19 '10
The draw for the Champions League quarter-finals was made earlier today. Arsenal is paired with Barcelona, Bayern Munich with Manchester United, Bordeaux with Lyon and CSKA Moscow will play Inter Milan.
Mar 16 '10
David Beckham will be out of action for about six months after he underwent surgery in Finland on Monday to repair his left Achilles' tendon. The injury took place while playing for AC Milan in its 1-0 victory over Chievo Verona on Sunday.
Mar 6 '10
The International FA Board (IFAB) met in Zurich recently and voted against continuing any further experiments with goal-line technology and effectively ended any chance of video replays being introduced into the game of football. Hence, no goal-line technology for this year's World Cup in South Africa.
Mar 6 '10
USA international Landon Donovan will not be allowed to extend his loan contract with Everton and is scheduled to return to his club - LA Galaxy - later this month. However, the threat of industrial action in MLS may change the Galaxy's position.
Mar 5 '10
Chelsea full-back and Portugal's key defender Jose Bosingwa will miss the rest of the Premier League season and the World Cup as he requires further surgery on a knee injury.
Feb 19 '10
FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke said 2.1 million tickets out of an available 2.9 million had been sold.
He said the biggest problem has been with "hospitality" programs, where ticketing agencies make the bulk of their profits by selling spots in luxury booths at significantly higher prices. Read more
Feb 5 '10
In a statement made today, England's coach Fabio Capello said, "After much thought, I have made the decision that it will be best for me to take the captaincy away from John Terry....When I chose John Terry as captain, I also selected a vice-captain and also named a third choice. There is no reason to change this decision." Implication: Rio Ferdinand is now the captain and Steven Gerrard is the vice-captain.
Feb 4 '10 The chance of Manchester United’s Owen Hargreaves making it to the World Cup has diminissed after it was revealed that Uefa confirmed on Wednesday night that United had requested removal of Hargreaves from the Champions League squad for the remainder of the season.
Feb 2 '10 Glasgow Rangers and U.S. national team player DaMarcus Beasley heard a screech of tires as a car sped past his home in the city's plush Dowanhill neighborhood. When he looked out his window he was shocked to see his blue 6-series BMW in flames. According to a witness, a hooded figure placed what was believed to be a gasoline bomb under Beasley's car at about 11 PM Monday night. Police are treating the attack as a "willful fire-raising."
Jan 31 '10 Egypt won the African Cup of Nations title for a record seventh time, after beating Ghana 1-0 in Angola. Substitute Mohamed Gedo scored the only goal of the game, playing a neat one-two before curling a superb shot past Richard Kingson in the 85th minute. Unfortunately the Egyptians will not be participating in the World Cup this summer.
Jan 30 '10 After a super injunction obtained by Terry against a Sunday newspaper publishing allegations of an extramarital relationship with Vanessa Perroncel, the long-term girlfriend of then Chelsea and England team-mate Wayne Bridge, was revoked, Terry’s suitability to captain his country has been questioned.
An impressive leader on the pitch, Terry has been dogged by controversy off the field in the past, most recently with reports of money changing hands at Chelsea’s training ground for private tours of the complex, with Terry’s involvement. Telegraph Report
Jan 18 '10 Thierry Henry was given a letoff by FIFA who failed to punish him for his blatant handball against Ireland. According to a FIFA statement: "On 2 December 2009, the FIFA Executive Committee asked the FIFA Disciplinary Committee to analyse the handling offence committed by Thierry Henry during the France v. Republic of Ireland match on 18 November 2009, and to consider the possible disciplinary consequences.
"At its meeting on 18 January 2010, the Disciplinary Committee reached the conclusion that there was no legal foundation for the committee to consider the case because handling the ball cannot be regarded as a serious infringement as stipulated in article 77a) of the FIFA Disciplinary Code. There is no other legal text that would allow the committee to impose sanctions for any incidents missed by match officials."
Dec 21 '09: Lionel Messi has won the 2009 FIFA World Player of the Year award. Messi, who was runner-up the last two years, received 1,047 points in voting. Ronaldo was second with 352 points, followed by Xavi with 196 points. The Argentine had high praise for the rest of the candidates and thanked Crisitano Ronaldo for his warm compliments, saying that the arrivals of Ronaldo and Kaka to La Liga will strengthen the Spanish league.
Dec 8 '09: "The aftermath of the Final draw has seen a sudden global surge in ticket applications for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in the third ticketing phase. The third phase kicked off on Saturday 1pm, and since then 219,162 ticketing requests have been received via FIFA.com."
Dec 5 '09: The third phase of the ticket sales began on Saturday December 5th 2009. An estimated one million World Cup tickets were made available through a random ballot with international fans applying though the internet, while locals could make applications at bank branches. Applications close on January 22.
Dec 4 '09: The 2010 FIFA World Cup Final Draw has been completed. The "Group of Death" appears to be Group G which has Brazil, Portugal, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and North Korea. Italy has the "safest" passage to the second round having drawn Paraguay, Slovakia and New Zealand. View all the groups here.
Dec 2 '09: FIFA announcd the top eight seeds for the 2010 World Cup. They are South Africa (the host nation), Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England. The decision is based on the October 2009 FIFA ranking.
Dec 2 '09: At FIFA's executive committee meeting today, it was decided that the proposed five-referees system will not be used at next summer's World Cup. The 2010 World Cup will see the usual one referee on the field, 2 assistants and a 4th official on the sideline.
Dec 2 '09: Today Sepp Blatter announced "The disciplinary committee will open a case on the behaviour of the player Thierry Henry. This is a matter of the disciplinary committee and it's not a question of this player or another – it was blatant, unfair playing and was shown all around the world, but I don't know what the outcome will be."
Dec 1 '09: Lionel Messi is the winner of the 2009 Ballon d'Or. He was an integral part of Barcelona's season as his team won the Champions League, the La Liga title and the Copa del Rey.
Messi beat last year's winner, Cristiano Ronaldo, into second place by a record margin and becomes the sixth Barcelona player to take the award and the first since Brazil's Ronaldinho in 2005.
Messi scored 9 goals in last season's Champions League, 6 goals in the Copa del Rey and put away 23 goals in the Spanish league.
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Spain (1) |
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Brazil (2) |
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Netherlands (3) |
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Italy (4) |
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Portugal (5) |
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Germany (6) |
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France (7) |
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Argentina (8) |
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England (9) |
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Cameroon (11) |
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Greece (12) |
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USA (14) |
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Mexico (15) |
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Côte d'Ivoire (16) |
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Chile (17) |
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Switzerland (18) |
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Uruguay (19) |
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Serbia (20) |
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Australia (21) |
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Nigeria (22) |
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Denmark (26) |
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Algeria (28) |
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Paraguay (30) |
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Slovenia (33) |
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Slovakia (34) |
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Ghana (37) |
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Honduras (38) |
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Japan (43) |
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South Korea (52) |
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New Zealand (77) |
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North Korea (84) |
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South Africa (86) |
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