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GUYANA CHRONICLE Friday, May 4, 2018
European leagues in ‘firm opposition’ to Infantino’s FIFA plans By Simon Evans COPENHAGEN, Denmark (Reuters) - Europe’s top football leagues are in “firm opposition” to FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s plans for two new international tournaments, the body representing them said yesterday. The European Leagues, which represents England’s Premier League and Spain’s La Liga among others, said they rejected proposals for an expanded Club World Cup and a new global Nations League in the first sign of a serious split in world football over the plans. The organisation called for a united front against the proposals in a statement issued yesterday. The statement urged European soccer’s governing body UEFA to ally with the World League Forum, the European Clubs Association and FIFPro (the International players union), to “firmly oppose and together stop this unilateral initiative from FIFA and the process which
lacks transparency and a proper consultation with the stakeholders.” FIFA’s plans for the Club World Cup would involve expanding it to 24 teams - including 12 from Europe - and staging it every four years instead of annually as happens at present.
European Leagues president Lars-Christer Olsson
The Nations League would be a global version of the new competitions which are being introduced by UEFA in Europe and CONCACAF in North and Central American and the Caribbean.
In both cases, the competitions involve all the national teams in the respective continents who are divided into divisions based on their rankings. There is promotion and relegation between the divisions, as in conventional domestic leagues. Each division is sub-divided into groups with the winners qualifying for a knockout contest. Infantino has said that he believes the deals together could be worth $25B (£18.4B) in a 12-year cycle and has put his plans to FIFA’s Council saying they are backed by an, as yet unnamed, international consortium of investors. Several national associations contacted by Reuters said they had not received any direct communication from FIFA on the plans. European Leagues president Lars-Christer Olsson said the approach was reminiscent of FIFA’s problematic past. “This process reminds me of the way the ‘old FIFA’ acted which I thought we had left
behind. What we have experienced is a clear lack of consultation and transparency, and an intentional manipulation of the decision-making structure by FIFA in presenting these proposals. “To present a long-term 12-year plan with lots of uncertainty and a lack of information sounds, to me, like a ‘can of worms’,” he added. Jesper Moller, a member of FIFA’s Organising Committee for FIFA Competitions, and president of the Danish Football Federation, told Reuters no vote could be held on the plans without Infantino revealing the identity of the backers, who wish to take 49 percent ownership in the management of the new events. “We want to see things and documentation. We have learned from the past. So now do it in a proper way,” he said. In a recent letter to FIFA Council members, Infantino said the investors came from Asia, Europe and North America but said he was unable to provide details as he had signed a non-disclosure agreement.
Kohli signs one-month deal to play for Surrey
India cricket captain Virat Kohli
(REUTERS) - India cricket captain Virat Kohli has signed a one-month deal to represent Surrey in June, the English county championship side announced yesterday. Kohli’s participation in county cricket means he will be unavailable for India as they take on Afghanistan in a Test match in June in Bengaluru. “It has long been an ambition of mine to play county cricket and I am thankful to Alec Stewart and Surrey for allowing me the opportunity to join them during their 2018 season. I can’t wait to get to the Kia Oval,” Kohli told the club’s website here Surrey’s director of cricket Alec Stewart said: “We are thrilled to have signed the biggest name in world cricket for the month of June. “Playing and training alongside Virat will be a massive benefit for our players who will have the opportunity to learn so much from him.” Kohli is the fourth Indian Test player in county cricket this year with batsman Cheteshwar Pujara currently at Yorkshire and fast bowlers Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron playing for Sussex and Leicestershire respectively. India begin their tour of England in July with three Twenty20 internationals and three one-day internationals. They then take on the hosts in a five-Test series starting in August.
Character over cover drives - Langer takes charge By Ian Ransom MELBOURNE, Australia (Reuters) - For much of a glittering playing career, Justin Langer was the foundation rock upon which Australia erected towering piles of runs during a golden
era of success. Eleven years on from the last of his 105 Tests, Langer returns to the national fold at one of its lowest ebbs in history, tasked with rebuilding a team from the ruins of disgrace. Yesterday he was named
head coach, filling a void after Darren Lehmann’s resignation in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal at Cape Town that stunned the cricket world and trashed the team’s reputation. Both Langer and Lehmann shared dressing rooms in Steve
Waugh’s Australia, a feared and brilliant team that made no apologies for crushing opponents with aggression and intimidation. Lehmann was recruited amid another crisis of culture five years ago, and weeks after David Warner punched England’s Joe Root during a boozy night out in Birmingham.
predecessor Mickey Arthur. Australia’s players might expect more physical demands when training under the intense Western Australian, who stepped in for Lehmann during two limited-overs series in the past two years. “JL’s a bit of a fitness freak and very intense with that, whereas Boof’s probably the opposite,”
Justin Langer speaks to the media in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday. (AAP/Luis Ascui/via REUTERS)
He was unable to select Warner for the first two Tests of the 2013 Ashes as the opener served a ban for the incident. Langer will be without Warner for a year, the disgraced opener suspended along with former captain Steve Smith and batsman Cameron Bancroft for their part in the tampering. Coincidences aside, Langer offers a different proposition to the larrikin figure of ‘Boof’, a beer-drinker and a smoker who helped repair the dressing room disharmony that festered under
Smith remarked in 2016. “(Boof) would probably prefer to be out drinking a beer somewhere.” While cleared of wrongdoing in the Cape Town scandal, Lehmann’s departure was greeted more with applause than mourning. His staunch refusal to criticise his players publicly, much less sanction them for on-field misconduct, won their loyalty but grew stale for an Australian public increasingly uncomfortable with the team’s image.
Langer, a gritty campaigner who retired as one of Australia’s greatest opening batsmen in 2007, will have little trouble commanding the respect of the dressing room. He also has a track record of fixing rotten cultures, having taken over a scandal-plagued Western Australia in 2012 and helped transform them into one of the country’s most successful states. “Character over cover drives” has been the mantra of the 47-year-old Catholic and father of four, who would mark a cross at the crease when he went out to bat. Redemption will also be offered for the fallen, and he was unequivocal about Smith, Warner and Bancroft’s right to regain their places in the side once they served their penance. Fans hoping for a gentler Australia, in manner, if not sport, are likely to be disappointed, however. Langer said he was no Adam Gilchrist, Australia’s revered wicketkeeper batsman who would walk even if not given out by the umpire. His team would still play aggressive cricket and sledging will still have its place. “We’ve always played hard, some of the best banter is amongst each other to try to get the opposition thinking of other things,” he said. “I think we’d modify our behaviours a bit so it’s not angry, or over-aggressive, but it’s aggressive in the mindset we play with the bat and ball.”