|
|
| The chaotic world of Iranian soccer is not often held aloft as an example for others to follow, but as far as FIFA is concerned, the English Premier League should be taking a page out of Tehran's book. Soccer's world governing body has long wanted the world's richest league to reduce the number of teams from 20 to 18 to free more time for international matches. |
|
| The European Parliament voted on
Thursday against FIFA president Sepp Blatter's controversial
plans to curb the number of foreigners at soccer clubs.
|
|
| The European Parliament called on FIFA to scrap its plan to reintroduce limits on foreign players in team competitions. The world soccer federation wants a rule to ensure six of the 11 players are from the club's home nation. That defies the 1995 Bosman ruling that said discrimination on the grounds of nationality within European soccer is illegal. |
|
Argentina remain top of FIFA's world soccer rankings in an unchanged top 10 following the publication of the latest standings on Wednesday. |
|
| FIFA president Sepp Blatter said
on Wednesday he would propose stricter rules on the switching of
nationalities and would press ahead with controversial plans for
national quotas in club football.
|
|
| FIFA president Sepp Blatter will
propose stricter rules on switching nationalities later this
month to prevent World Cup finals becoming dominated by
Brazilians.
The head of world soccer's governing body said many
countries, notably in Africa and Europe, had abused the current
rules whereby a player can play for a country other than the one
of their birth if he has lived in a country for at least two
years, or has a parent or grandparent who was born there.
|
|
| FIFA president Sepp Blatter renewed his campaign Wednesday to stop European soccer clubs from hoarding most of the world's best players. Blatter said European clubs were "drying out" soccer in Africa by signing the best young players and preventing professional leagues from developing. "It cannot be that only one continent will be the focus of all football," Blatter said in a conference call with... |
|
| Argentina remains atop the largely unchanged FIFA world rankings. With just 20 international games affecting the monthly list released Wednesday, Argentina stayed ahead of rival Brazil, with Italy, Spain and Germany rounding out the top five. Argentina's lead over Brazil was trimmed from 10 to two points as rankings points from older matches were either devalued or lost. |
|
| Nine nations from the South America's soccer confederation will urge FIFA's executive body to exempt the Bolivian mountain city of La Paz from its ban on international matches played at high altitude. FIFA's executive leadership is to meet May 27 in Sydney, Australia, for a regular session at which Conmebol president Nicolas Leoz is expected to lead appeal efforts. |
|
| FIFA is lifting the suspension of Albania after the sports minister stopped what it regarded as government interference in the national soccer federation. World soccer's governing body said Tuesday its emergency committee decided to end the suspension imposed March 14. FIFA said in a statement that Albanian sports minister Ylli Pango signed off on the Football Association of Albania's new statutes,... |
