World Soccer - UK (2019-11)

MARCELO

GALLARDO

The River Plate

boss became

the first coach

to win three

Superclasicos

in a row when

River beat Boca

Juniors 2-

in their Copa

Libertadores

semi-final

first leg.

CYPRUS

Their 2-1 win in

Kazakhstan in a

Euro qualifier was

the first time in 59

years they won a

competitive game

in which they had

trailed at half-time.

Bienvenue

Michel?

Michel Platini is back. Well, free at least.

Now 64, the former UEFA president has

completed his four-year suspension for

accepting a $2million “disloyal payment”

from FIFA, as approved by then-supremo

Sepp Blatter. The ban prevented Platini

standing in the election – for which he

would have been favourite – to become

FIFA president in the spring of 2016.

Platini remains bitter and angry

at the men and the system which, he

insists, betrayed him. His ban expired

on October 7 and he has expressed

a will to return to the game.

He also resents Gianni Infantino

wielding the crown which should have

been his, stating: “Gianni Infantino was a

very good lawyer, a very good general-

secretary, but he has no legitimacy, no

credibility as president of FIFA.”

Earlier this year Platini devised a plan

to bring together, under his leadership,

the top clubs’ body ECA and the players’

union FIFPro.

His idea was “that they could work

with each other and decide whether they

wanted to continue with the Champions

League or some other competition”.

Platini had high hopes after discussing

his idea with Philippe Piat, head of

FIFPro, and Andrea Agnelli, president of

Juventus. But he was to be disappointed,

claiming: “They all said they would get

back to me and never did.”

Don’t call us, we’ll call you.

MARCO

GIAMPAOLO

Sacked after

just 111 days

in charge, he

became the

shortest-serving

coach in Milan’s

history.

TOTTENHAM

HOTSPUR

Their 7-2 loss to

Bayern Munich was

the biggest home

defeat for an English

team in any European

competition.

CAMBODIA

Lost 14-0 away

to Iran and then

4-0 at home to

Iraq in the space

of five days

during the latest

round of World

Cup qualifiers in

Asia. After four

games they are

bottom of Group

D with a -19 goal

difference.

ban and fines ranging between nothing

and €80,000:

OClosed doors and fines: Hungary

(€67,125), Romania (€83,000), Slovakia

(€20,000), Dinamo Tbilisi (€50,000),

Partizan Belgrade, Slovan Bratislava

(€50,000), Universitatea Craiova

(€60,000), Serbia (€33,250)

OPartial closures: Bulgaria, Romania,

Lazio, Levski Sofia, Lokomotiv Plovdiv,

Rangers

ONo away tickets: Red Star Belgrade

(€50,000)

Racist incident charges were raised but

then dropped against Latvia, Olympiakos

and Porto.

This is not an insignificant number of

punishments, but virtually all of them

went unreported except in the countries

directly affected. To that extent, UEFA

has a message problem. This also stems

from the fact that, for administrative

convenience, disciplinary action for racist

incidents is lumped in with fireworks,

stewarding failures, kit-regulation

breaches, serious foul play, dissent, etc.

Hence whatever action UEFA does

take is buried among the day-to-day

disciplinary detritus and rarely makes

the mainstream media.

Ceferin admits “football associations

themselves cannot solve this [racism]

problem” and has appealed to “everyone

from administrators to players, coaches

and fans to work with governments and

NGOs to wage war on the racists and

marginalise their abhorrent views to

the fringes of society”.

Infantino echoed him, saying: “We will

need the support of public authorities to

help us identify and punish the culprits,

but we probably also need to think more

broadly on what we can do to fix this.

“When we proposed the three-step

procedure in 2009 when I was at UEFA,

and then made the regulations even

tougher a few years later, we could not

have imagined that so shortly thereafter

we would again be having to think of how

to combat this obnoxious disease that

seems to be getting even worse in some

parts of the world.”

Maybe a start might be withholding

those annual FIFA grants and/or the TV

cash share-out from central marketing

of the European Championship?

Competition expulsion must also be

added to the protocol.

ANDORRA

Ended a 21-year

wait for a first

Euro qualifying win

with a 1-0 victory

over Moldova.

Back...

Michel

Platini

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