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Players

Pharma-calcio

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By now you’ve heard the news: 2006 World Player of the Year and Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro failed a doping test in late August, testing positive for cortisone.  The Italian football establishment–players, coaches, officials, media–came out in his defense.  “The cortisone was lifesaving treatment for a bee sting!” it was claimed.  “I was once stung by a wasp,” joked his manager at Juve, “but it was not the same as Cannavaro’s, as there was no need for me to use cortisone.” (I thought adrenaline injections or inhalers were the best emergency treatment for stings.)  Skeptics wonder why it took two months for the positive test to be publicized. “It’s just a bureaucratic mistake,” proffered the Italian national team doctor. Given the well documented history of performance-enhancing drugs in Italian football, and in world sport more broadly, these explanations invite scrutiny.

It was in August 1998 that AS Roma manager Zdenek Zeman stunned us with revelations about widespread doping in Serie A.  A few weeks later, Italy’s only IOC-accredited anti-doping laboratory was shut down (for one year).  Cannavaro himself was implicated in PED use after being shown on national TV enjoying an IV drip of Neoton in a Moscow hotel room before the 1999 UEFA Cup final, a fact confirmed by his lawyer. And Juve’s current manager, Ciro Ferrara, played for Marcello Lippi’s pharmaceutically enhanced Juve side in the 1990s, a team whose physician received a 22-month suspended sentence for his involvement. Several years and one World Cup triumph later, the specter of pharma-calcio is still with us.

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Players

The Recidivist

How not to clear a football. Hamburg SV’s Ze Roberto and David Jarolim score 2 nearly identical goals within 86 seconds against Hertha Berlin. Berlin’s goalkeeper Burchert can certainly head the ball. But he was not hired for that purpose.

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Hosting

Football Elections in SA: We have a winner!?

safalogo
Kick Off magazine reports that Kirsten Nematandani emerged victorious in the contentious SAFA presidential race during a marathon annual general meeting in Joburg. Nematandani was elected unopposed after 2010 LOC Chief Executive Officer Danny Jordaan and Chairman Irvin Khoza withdrew from the race.

In South African football circles, the outcome of this hotly contested election (more than 100 police officers searched delegates at the Southern Sun hotel for weapons), was widely seen as a victory for Danny Jordaan’s Football Transformation Forum at the expense of PSL boss Irvin Khoza. According to the Mail and Guardian, the new SAFA chief may face a legal challenge, but aims to go ahead and meet soon with SA president Jacob Zuma, Minister of Sport Makhenkesi Stofile and FIFA president Sepp Blatter to outline the way forward for South African football.

Sept. 29 update: press conference erupts in chaos as PSL issues statement declaring Safa’s presidential election to be unconstitutional and illegitimate. No comment from FIFA.

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Players

15 minutes that shook the world

Excerpt from the new spoof film, “15 Minutes that Shook the World,” that uncovers what really happened in the Liverpool dressing room at half time during the Champions League Final, 2005 (when Liverpool came back to beat AC Milan in Istanbul, Turkey).

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Hosting

South Africa needs money to finish stadiums

From Reuters:

CAPE TOWN, Sept 17 (Reuters) – South Africa faces a funding shortfall of 2.3 billion rand ($315 million) for six new stadiums built for next year’s Soccer World Cup, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Thursday.
South Africa, in its first recession in 17 years, is the first African country to host the world’s most watched sports spectacle, starting next June.
“National Treasury has informed me of the projected shortfalls for the 2010 FIFA World Cup stadiums. The total shortfall on the six new stadiums is 2.33 billion rand as of July 2009,” Gordhan said in a written response to a question in parliament.
The funding shortfall comes on the back of accommodation, transport and security concerns raised by FIFA, soccer’s world governing body.
Gordhan said contractual responsibility rested with South Africa’s 10 host cities to deal with rising costs, and it would be “clearly unreasonable” for national government to take full responsibility for reimbursement of rising costs. “Only one of the new stadiums is likely to be completed within budget,” he said, without specifying which stadium. Soccer City, where the finals will be played in Johannesburg, accounted for almost half of the total shortfall at 1.26 billion rand, he said.

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Hosting

Qualify or Crucify

eduardo

Croatia have qualified for three successive World Cups since Independence, reaching the Semi Final in 1998. It’s a remarkable record for a nation of 4 Million. It could be about to end.

Croatia may have been resurgent under Slaven Bilić, qualifying emphatically for the EURO 2008 tournament, pimping McClaren’s England along the way, but 2007-8 was a long time ago. Croatia seem not to have recovered from Eduardo’s broken leg and losing on penalties to Turkey in the EURO 2008 quarter final in Vienna.

Qualification is no longer in Croatia’s hands. Although Croatians can be quietly confident of England issuing a beating to Ukraine, Croatia may be less sure of themselves in their “must win” in Kazakhstan or advancing beyond the 2nd place playoff where they could face France, Germany or Russia, or even Bosnia-Herzegovina. The latter would be an intriguing fixture to say the least.

Continue reading “Qualify or Crucify”
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Video

Safari for Shevchenko?

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(So to Group 6. Andorra and Kazakhstan will not feature here. Andorra belong in a preliminary stage, as discussed earlier. And Kazakhstan are better served keeping Australia company. Belarus will return as a more dangerous dark horse in qualification for Brazil 2014.)

Ukraine are two points behind Croatia, but have a game in hand and finish their campaign in Andorra. Pre-Capello conventional wisdom would have pointed to an already qualified England getting turned over in Dnepropetrovsk in October. An England win will not be the surprise it once would have been. Ukraine will probably have to rely on the Kazaks keeping the Croats quiet in Astana on October 14. Goal difference favours Ukraine.

Ukraine were the deeply disappointing dark horses of the last World Cup. Group results suggest Ukraine have regressed. Would you trust a Shevchenko retread for a South African safari?

Continue reading “Safari for Shevchenko?”