Poland is in danger of losing the Euro 2012 tournament because of a continuing row between Uefa and the Polish government.

The Polish authorities have recently appointed an administrator to run the FA’s affairs after failing to address corruption issues. But both Uefa and Fifa, who have also warned the Poles that they could well face forfeiting their upcoming World Cup qualifiers, have refused to recognise the administrator and have demanded that FA officials be back in charge of their own affairs by Monday.

Uefa spokesman William Gaillard said:

The rules are clear. We offered Euro 2012 to the FA, not the government.

So if the FA are not in place or suspended then they are not in a position to host the tournament.

We are standing firm with Fifa. Our patience has limits and we are very close to the limit.

If the FA is not reinstated by Monday’s deadline then we will have serious discussions about the future of Euro 2012 immediately. We will not wait any longer.

It is little wonder that Uefa’s patience may be running thin. Only last week both Poland and co-hosts Ukraine were criticized about their poor progress with regards to Euro 2012 preparations.

Meanwhile Fifa has stated that it will ignore any correspondence from the newly installed board as the world governing body’s statutes forbid government intervention in football affairs.

Image courtsesy of euro2012info.com

A group of South African businessman, who had been touted as making an official bid for Newcastle United, have denied having any interest in the club.

The three men, billionaire Johann Rupert, reportedly the richest man in South Africa, Brian Joffe and Vivian Imerman have all stated that they are not part of any consortium and haven’t in any way, made an offer for the North East club.

This is despite a statement from Jonathan Cleland, spokesman  for the ‘anonymous consortium’ saying that he was confident that a £300 million deal was about to be done and that Kevin Keegan was being lined up to take over as manager for a third time.

Speaking to the BBC, Rupert said:

I have never met Mr Cleland, never spoken to him on the phone and my secretary does not have a record of him calling.

I haven’t spoken to any of the other parties either. I don’t know Mr Cleland, I have a preference for cricket and rugby. I don’t know anything about football and I’m not a football man.

I think it is a bit naughty. They use your name, you deny it - it is a total joke.

Earlier this week Newcastle’s caretaker manager Joe Kinnear told the press that as many as eight consortia were currently in talks with the club. Many believed that the South African’s were the favourites to do a deal on the basis of Cleland’s comments.

Match day three at the Futsal World Cup was a real goal fest, Brazil brushed aside the Solomon Islands, Italy won their first game, whilst Russia and Portugal debuted in the competition.

In the first match of the day Brazil thrashed the Solomon Islands 21-0, the second biggest score in the history of the competition. The biggest score for the record was also achieved by the Brazilians in 2000 when they defeated Guatemala by 29 goals to 2.

Russia made its début in the competition with an impressive victory over Cuba, 10-5 was the final score. Now Russia will face Brazil tomorrow whilst the Cubans have the weekend off, they play against Japan on Monday.

In group B is was Portugal’s turn to debut in the competition, the Portuguese had a difficult match against Paraguay, but a late goal by Arnaldo secured Portugal’s first victory in the competition, final score was 3-2 to the Portuguese.

After a difficult victory in their first match Italy, or should we say Brazil B?,  won comfortably against the USA, 6-1.

The biggest issue of the day was a statement by FIFA with regards to number of players in a squad with double citizenship, FIFA wants to limit the number of players in this situation. This off course was not good news for the Italians that have 14 Brazilian born players in their squad.

See the Day 3 highlights, including Brazil’s 21 goals - click here

The action started off in Group C with a late goal from Guatemala being good enough to beat Egypt 1 - 0 while Argentina were too classy for China seeing out a 5 - o victory with Gimenez hitting a hat trick.

It wasn’t so straight forward in Group D where defending champions Spain were held to a draw by Iran.

The Iranian’s were inspired in the first half and with the crowd very much on their side, they went in to the break leading 3 - o.

Spain cut the defecit within a minute of the restart but despite now controlling the match, they failed to capitalise wasting several good chances. As it happened, their second goal was down to pure luck, Borja fired in from the left and the ball deflected off an Iranian defender and whistled in to the top left corner.

Having clawed back to within one goal, the Spaniards pressed for an equaliser which duly came through Torras with just 4 minutes left on the clock.

The last match of the day, also in group D, also produced another 3 - 3 draw betweem Uruguay and Libya.

Bad injuries seem to be following English clubs around Europe.

On Tuesday, Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney were crocked playing for Manchester United against Aalborg, and last night, Chelsea’s Didier Drogba was the big name casualty as the London club drew 0 – 0 away to Cluj of Romania.

Chasing a through ball, the Ivory Coast striker seemed to get his knee caught under his body and has suffered suspected knee ligament damage. Drogba will have a scan later today.

It was a further blow to Chelsea who were playing the game without the services of Deco, Joe Cole, Essien and Carvalho. The one bright spot on the horizon is the imminent return of Ashley Cole who is expected to feature in the Premier League game against Aston Villa on Sunday.

Speaking on Drogba’s injury and the game itself, the Chelsea coach Luis Felipe Scolari said:

I didn’t see the challenge on Drogba. Injuries come in training and on the pitch. This is normal for players.

We didn’t play well, but one point is better than zero points.

They beat Roma, they are confident, they’re playing at home and they wanted to show to the people they are very good.

Cluj were confident, they wanted to prove something. Maybe they will have a problem in their next game because they ran for 95 minutes.

We knew this and we prepared but we missed one or two times in front of goal.

But in the end I am happy with one point because Didier is out, Terry for 15 minutes played with problems, Alex played 15 minutes with problems.

The first day of competitions in the FIFA Futsal World Cup introduced the teams from groups A and B and goals were not hard to come by.

Group A

In group A, following discussion that Brazil should change their game style, leaving the “show” aside and playing an “ugly game”, Brazil with the support of the home crowd trounced Japan with a 12-1 victory.

Also in group A, Cuba defeated the Solomon Islands. But the Cubans had an early scare in the first minute when the Solomon Islands opened the scoring thanks to Ragomo. The Cubans didn’t let the early setback affect them though, as they ended up winning 10-2.
Group B

In group B, the current runners up Italy struggled against Thailand with a tight one nil victory, despite the fact that Italy’s side features 14 Brazilian born players! It was a hard game for the “Italians” and all merits goes to the Thai team who were unfortunate and had many chances to equalise.

The other match in group B was Paraguay against USA and the South Americans combined efficiency with good passing to easily defeat the North Americans by 5 goals to nil.

Today’s Fixtures

Today teams from group C and D will début in the competition. In group C Guatemala plays against Egypt and Argentina face China. Group D will have defending Champions Spain playing against Iran and Uruguay against Libya.

See Brazil hit 12 past Japan and all the other day one highlights here: Video Link

Manchester United’s 3 – 0 win away to Aalborg in the Champions League has come at a high price.

Midfielder Paul Scholes could be out for some considerable time with a knee injury while striker Wayne Rooney is a doubt for the Premier League clash with Blackburn on Saturday.

Scholes limped out of the tie just after the quarter hour mark and manager Sir Alex Ferguson is expecting the worst saying “It’s difficult to say how serious it is but it looks like the medial ligament, in which case it will be six to eight weeks.

Meanwhile Wayne Rooney lasted until just before the hour mark but was forced out with an ankle injury. “We are hoping it isn’t ligament trouble,” said Ferguson, who replaced Rooney in the game with Carlos Tevez.

On the brighter side for United, Dimitar Berbatov scored his first two goals for the club as United went top of Group E, level on points with Villarreal who were 1- 0 winners on the night over Celtic.

The Futsal World Cup starts today in Brazilian capital Brasilia and in Rio de Janeiro.

The sixth Futsal World Cup will see hosts Brazil hoping to reclaim the trophy they have won on three occasions from current holders Spain.

In this 20 team tournament, there are five groups of four teams. The top two in the group will go into a second group stage, leading to the semi-finals and the final scheduled for 19th October.

The Teams

Africa: Egypt and Libya

Asia: China, Iran, Japan, Thailand

Europe: Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Ukraine

North and Central America: Cuba, Guatemala, USA

Oceania: Solomon Islands

South America: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay

Favourites

Brazil are currently ranked number 1 in the world and were the winners of the competition the first three times it ran. But the world’s 2nd ranked team, Spain have knocked the Brazilians out of the last two tournaments, whilst going on to win the Futsal Wolrd Cup in 2000 and 2004.

After six games and 22 players involved, Spurs have two points and find themselves at the foot of the Premier League table. And boss Juande Ramos, after less than a year in charge at White Hart Lane, is under heavy pressure.

Things seem to be going from bad to worse at the Lane, although it could be worse just look a few hundred miles north at Newcastle. But Tottenham are moving in the wrong direction and Ramos needs to halt that decline and fast.

Make no mistake, mug punters who have got carried away and backed Spurs to be relegated at current soccer odds of 13.5 will be disappointed come May. Spurs won’t go down, you just have to look at the well-deserved 1-1 draw away at title favourites Chelsea to see that and with the players at Ramos’ disposal they will have enough quality to escape the mire.

However the 54-year-old Spaniard needs to find his best XI and start playing them. The club have not fielded the same line-up in the Premier League this season and constant reshuffling does not have a positive effect on a struggling side.

Terry Venables has blamed Tottenham’s poor start on the exit of ‘poisonous’ Dimitar Berbatov and while that certainly didn’t help, it’s wide of the mark to lay the blame soley at the Bulgarian’s door.

Frontmen Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe have all left recently and left a huge void for Ramos to fill.

Assistant boss Gus Poyet has admitted he feels new striker Roman Pavlyuchenko and Darren Bent are unable to play together and it seems that neither Ramos or Poyet know the best XI to put out on the field.

It’s a massive problem for the Tottenham management and one they need to resolve quickly with Thursday’s vital clash in the UEFA Cup with Wisla Krakow looming.

By Phil Tomlinson

There are a few things in football that you wouldn’t want to be right now. Juande Ramos at Tottenham’s next board meeting, Rob Styles judging a penalty decision at the weekend, William Gallas defending Arsenal’s next corner, but top of the list must be having your name on the front of a football club’s shirt.

Football shirt sponsors are feeling the dramatic effects of the credit crunch right now. Traditionally, having a company brand on the front of a football shirt has been associated with prestige and success, but the recent trend seems to be saying the opposite.

Here’s a round-up of some of the major sponsorship concerns affecting football clubs in the UK.

Newcastle United

Newcastle were he first club to see their sponsor struggle. Northern Rock had to be taken over by the UK government in February. Northern Rock (UK tax payers) will continue to sponsor Newcastle until 2010 to the tune of £5 million per year.

West Ham United

The XL Leisure Group went into administration in September 2008. They were one year into a three year deal as West Ham’s shirt sponsor, paying £2.5 million per year.

Manchester United

Man Utd’s sponsor AIG (American International Group) were ranked the 18th largest company in the world, but that didn’t stop AIG going the same way as Northern Rock and needing the US Government to bail them out with a loan of $85 billion. Man Utd have two years left on the sponsorship deal worth £56.5 million pounds.

Bradford City

Bradford City’s sponsor the Bradford and Bingley have also been nationalised with some assets sold to Spanish giant Santander. The sponsor has paid for this years sponsorship, but the football club will need to wait and see what happens for their final year of the deal which runs until the 2009/10 season.

Wigan Athletic

Wigan Athletic sponsors JJB Sports have been warned over its ability to survive. The sporting goods retailer has seen the share price plummet by 60%.JJB’s sponsorship of the Wigan stadium and shirts ends at the close of this season.

How Martin Jol must be looking at the situation at Tottenham and laughing his little Dutch head off.

Jol, who was ‘A Dead Man Walking’ at White Hart Lane last season before being badly treated and dumped didn’t engineer a great start to the last campaign but by comparison to what’s going on now, he could return as a King Kev style Messiah.

As of right now, Spurs are bottom of the Premier League, beaten 2 – 0 by Portsmouth at the weekend and enduring their worst start to a top flight season in 53 years.

Having gleaned just 2 points from six games (and to put that in perspective, that’s worse than Newcastle!!) Ramos has started to feel the fury of the Tottenham fans as was seen when he replaced expensive new signing Roman Pavlyuchenko with Darren Bent with 17 minutes left at Fratton Park chasing a 2 goal defecit.

But the Spaniard says he feels secure in the job and that he has the backing of the Spurs hierarchy.

“Whether I survive is something for the chairman and the board to decide but I’m not hurt (by the fans’ abuse). What hurts is not winning matches.

“It is true that when you come here and feel up for winning that it is very disappointing when you lose, but the players know we have another game in another competition on Thursday and we must recover from this very quickly.”

The other competition referred to by Ramos is the Uefa Cup. Spurs go in to their first round match, 2nd leg against Wisla Krakow leading 2 – 1 from the first encounter at White Hart Lane.

Joe Kinnear has been confirmed as the interim manager of Newcastle United.

Former Wimbledon, Luton Town and Nottingham Forest manager Joe Kinnear has accepted the role of temporary manager of Newcastle United. His short term contract will run until the end of October.

Joe Kinnear: 

  I am very excited about the challenge. Results have not been great of late, but there is a lot of quality in the squad and I am very confident the players are capable of climbing the table.

Newcastle United is a great club. When I was in charge of Wimbledon, I always remember the passion of the fans up there and how great a stadium St James’ Park is.

I believe the club will be sold soon and at the moment Chris Hughton needs all the help he can get. I hope now that I can help to get a few results together.

It is a big challenge, but one I am really looking forward to.

Terry Venables rejected Newcastle’s offer due to the offer being too short to turn around the club, David O’Leary and Geln Hoddle were also thought to be in the frame, but Mike Ashley surprised everyone with the Kinnear anouncement.

Kinnear had been out of work since December 2004 when he resigned as manager of Nottingham Forest.

Glenn Hoddle and David O’Leary are in the frame for the manager’s job at Newcastle United after Terry Venables turned down a game-by-game deal.

The former England boss had been looking for a fixed term contract and said there was “too much uncertainty” in the offer from the North East club.

Speaking to the Sun newspaper, Venables said:

There is one reason and one reason alone why I’ve turned down the chance to take temporary charge at Newcastle – time.

Newcastle United means too much to too many people to take the job on a short-term basis. It demands total commitment and dedication from a manager who is prepared to throw himself heart and soul into the club.

I didn’t want to move up to Tyneside and find myself surplus to requirements before I’d even had the chance to get my teeth into the challenge.

The way the job was offered to me meant that I might be working at St James’ Park for two months, two years - or two weeks. There was far too much uncertainty involved.

The Newcastle supporters have suffered more than enough in recent years. I didn’t want them to think I’d gone up there just to pocket a few quid from Mike Ashley and then wave ‘cheerio’ a couple of weeks later.

Newcastle, who had been hoping to make a managerial announcement before the weekend, have lost their last 3 games, most recently to Spurs in the Carling Cup.

Here’s some advice for you if you ever get your collar felt by the long arm of the law. However serious the crime, just tell them you’re George Michael or the Croatian Football Federation. Either way you’ll only end up with a slap on the wrist.

Because that is exactly what today’s Fifa fine of £15,000 amounts to.

Yet again, the Croatian FA has been found bang to rights regarding the racist behaviour of their fans and yet again, Fifa have effectively done absolutely zip to put an end to the problem.

In this case, Fifa found that Croatia fans were guilty of racially abusing England’s Emile Heskey when the two countries met in a World Cup qualifier earlier this month. England won 4 – 1.

In a statement, Fifa said: “Racism has no place in football.”

“Fifa is determined to continue broadcasting this message around the globe and deploying all of the means at its disposal to eliminate this form of discrimination.”

Deploying all of the means at its disposal? Many around the world and in the game will find that statement laughable when placed in context with Fifa’s actions.

A fine of £15,000 will achieve nothing as it amounts to nothing. Ordering Croatia to play their next two qualifying games behind closed doors would have been a more suitable punishment, particularly as the Croats have form when it comes to this sort of thing.

In June, they were also fined after being found guilty of showing racist conduct towards Turkey supporters at Euro 2008.

Indeed, being second time offenders, not only should they be forced to play a certain number of games in an empty stadium but they should be on a warning that one more offence will lead to automatic ejection from their World Cup qualifying group.

That’s the only action that will have a bearing deep seated racism. Fifa know it but clearly aren’t willing enough or brave enough to take it.