Posts Tagged ‘Football Association’

Ferguson concerned over Fratton din

• Ferguson begins his touchline ban at Portsmouth
• United manager praises ‘fantastic’ Wes Brown

Sir Alex Ferguson begins his two-match ban from the touchline tomorrow admitting he has misgivings about whether it will affect his ability to pass on instructions to his Manchester United players.

Ferguson will be wired up to his assistant, Mike Phelan, for the game against Portsmouth but he is concerned the noise generated by a sell-out crowd at Fratton Park may reduce him to the role of a helpless spectator as he watches from the stand.

“I have got the communication lines in place but the only problem is that it’s such a noisy place,” Ferguson said. “It’s one of these old stadiums – it’s a bit rickety, the stand nowadays. The directors’ box is towards the end where all the noise comes from – the drums and whatever the hell they have got going on at that place. But it’s a good racket. It’s a terrific football stadium, really.”

Ferguson, starting the Football Association’s punishment for his outspoken criticisms of the referee Alan Wiley, has a shortage of defenders going into Avram Grant’s first game in charge of Portsmouth, but the form of Wes Brown has encouraged him when Rio Ferdinand is still weeks away from returning from his back injury, while John O’Shea and Jonny Evans are “very doubtful” to be involved at Fratton Park.

“I must say that Nemanja Vidic and Wes Brown have been absolutely fantastic in recent games and it just reminds me that when, Wes Brown is fit, he’s the best natural defender in the country,” Ferguson said. “He’s as good as anybody else out there and I think that most people recognise it.

“You have to pay tribute to the lad, that he keeps coming back from the serious injuries he’s had over his career. He’s had two cruciates, a broken ankle, other injuries – calf injuries and things like that. Last season he had a staggered season in terms of interruptions but the previous season he was our most consistent defender in the year we won the European Cup in Moscow.

“Now he’s fit again and looking fantastic, he gets better all the time. Players always need that run of games to get that consistency and the timing and tempo of their game. We’re seeing that at the moment with Wes and long may it continue.

“We were doing a summary of players, ages and contracts the other day and I saw that Wes is 30 and I still think he’s 22 or 23. He’s got a young approach to life and he’s done well to deal with all the things he’s had to deal with and still come out fighting.”

Portsmouth opt for experience by appointing Grant as manager

• Grant’s first game will be against Manchester United
• Chief executive says he was the ‘logical choice’

Portsmouth have confirmed that Avram Grant will be the club’s new manager, as predicted in the Guardian today. The former Chelsea manager has been granted a work permit and his first match in charge will be the club’s home game against Manchester United on Saturday.

“Avram is a very experienced and respected manager who has managed at the highest level. The board believes he is the man to help steer the club out of the relegation zone,” said Portsmouth’s chief executive, Peter Storrie.

“He knows the club, the players and the set-up at Fratton Park, so it was the logical move to make him the next manager, once the board had decided to relieve Paul Hart of the role. He will take charge of training on Friday alongside first-team coaches Paul Groves and Ian Woan.”

Grant will still, technically, be the Portsmouth director of football for Saturday’s game. However, the club will then apply to the Football Association to change his permit status to manager. Grant spent the 2006-07 season as Portsmouth’s technical director before he joined Chelsea as director of football.

Following José Mourinho’s departure from Stamford Bridge, he guided Chelsea to the 2008 Champions League final but was sacked after the defeat by Manchester United. He rejoined Portsmouth in October.

Hiddink tight-lipped about future plans

• Dutchman has contract with Russia until summer 2010
• ‘We’ll talk about the future at a later stage,’ says head coach

The Russia head coach, Guus Hiddink, was giving nothing away regarding his future as his side were denied a place at the World Cup finals by Slovenia.

Hiddink, whose existing contract expires in summer 2010 following the finals, had announced towards the end of Russia’s qualifying campaign that any questions about his future would be dealt with at a later stage.

However, with Russia’s World Cup campaign now at an end following their 1-0 defeat in Maribor yesterday, those questions have been hastily brought forward, although the Dutchman, for now, is giving little away.

“I have an existing contract until the end of the World Cup finals in July 2010,” Hiddink said. “The question [of whether I will continue to Euro 2012] will require some time for thought.

“Before the matches with Germany and Slovenia the Russian Football Association expressed their desire to continue working together. But we’ll talk about the future at a later stage.”

Hiddink took over as coach in 2006 and guided Russia through a difficult qualifying group involving England and Croatia to a historic semi-final place at the 2008 European Championship. Having enjoyed varying degrees of success at World Cup finals with Holland, Australia and South Korea, failure to qualify on this occasion will be an unwelcome addition to his illustrious record.

Liverpool sign 14-year-old Luton forward

• Sought-after striker arrives for an undisclosed fee
• Rafael Benítez pleased with club’s restructured academy

Liverpool have paid an undisclosed fee for the Luton youngster Dave Moli. The 14-year-old forward had been part of the Hatters’ under-15 side but will now move with his family to Merseyside, where he will continue his schooling and train at the Reds’ academy.

Luton reported another Premier League club to the Football Association for making an illegal approach for the player, but Liverpool’s approach through the Blue Square Premier club has been accepted.

Luton’s youth development officer, Gregg Broughton, said: “We never like to lose talented players, but it is important that we do not stand in the way of young players’ development.”

Liverpool have intensified their search for young players following a restructuring of the reserve and academy set-up, and the manager, Rafael Benítez, is impressed by the changes that have been made.

The Spaniard said: “It is much better now. The players can see the difference and I am sure it will be easier for them to progress. It is always important to develop your own players. Local players have passion and desire and I think that is the key if you want to be consistent and stay at the top – you have to produce your own players.

“When you make changes it can take time, but we all have the same plan, everybody is following it and we try to do the same things here at Melwood [the first-team training complex] and at the academy.”

Rodolfo Borrell, the under-18s coach, and José Segura, the academy technical manager, who joined from Barcelona in July and May respectively, are two of several new arrivals at the club’s youth complex at Kirkby this year, and the manager feels the changes are helping to drive the academy forward.

Benítez said: “They are doing well, but we didn’t bring in just these two coaches. We brought in more people and changed staff. When you talk with agents, or people who are involved with coaching or watching the academy, everyone says it has changed a lot.”

Fifa to give up regulating player agents

• Fifa to withdraw from global transfer market supervisory role
• FA and French federation oppose move

Fifa is preparing to abandon all rules relating to player agents, in a move that could turn the global transfer market into a free for all.

A circular that football’s world governing body has distributed to all of its 208 national associations is canvassing opinion on a proposal that will see it withdraw from its role as regulator of the international transfer market. The development was the talk of an agents’ conference at Wembley yesterday, with one delegate claiming the move signals that football is heading “back to the wild west”.

At a time when criminal inquiries are under way on both sides of the Channel over allegedly illegal activities in football transfers, the proposal has already met with a cold reception in France. In that country the statutory authorities also regulate sports agents under national laws. The French football federation’s legal director, Jean Lapeyre, said: “We are going to make clear to Fifa that our stance towards this sort of idea is hostile.”

Fifa’s stance is a pragmatic one. It has made clear that only one in five transfers worldwide employs a licensed agent and under its one-member, one-vote policy the removal of costly red tape is likely to gain considerable support.

Currently the administrative burden on regulating agents lies with the national associations and even the tiny island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe, off the west coast of cental Africa, has three licensed agents working from its shores.

For major football nations such as England, that is not a problem. Indeed, the Football Association has been a world leader in its enforcement of agents’ regulations, bringing in additional rules and licensing arrangements following the Quest inquiry into allegations of “bungs” in football.

The FA refused to comment yesterday on how it will respond to Fifa’s survey. However it is believed privately to be dismayed that the progress it has made in recent years could be undermined.

There is some speculation that Fifa will even forbid national associations from having any involvement in governing the activities of agents, which the FA would certainly resist. However, there is a strong feeling among agents that Fifa’s withdrawal from the regulatory space will be of benefit to world football.

“It would be a blessing if Fifa backed out,” said Mel Stein of the Association of Football Agents. “They do nothing, they respond to nothing: the whole regulatory structure is a mess. This is them throwing their hands up, they can’t cope.”

There is a severe backlog of cases at Fifa. Among them is the FA’s complaint about Pini Zahavi’s presence at the meeting at which Chelsea “tapped up” Arsenal’s then left-back, Ashley Cole. As an agent registered in Israel, the FA has no authority over Zahavi and must rely on Fifa’s role as the international regulator. Yet more than three years since it was given an extensive dossier relating to the incident, Fifa says only that the case is “ongoing”.

By contrast, the FA has won praise. “The FA has tried very hard to come to terms with the commercial reality and has done some very good work. It would be a terrible shame to throw the baby out with the bath water,” Stein said. He believes that the AFA and its European counterparts would be willing to self-regulate if Fifa does strip back federations’ rights to govern transfers.

A Fifa spokesperson said: “Fifa has engaged itself very actively in trying to find a solution to the regulation of international transfers, working together with its member associations and also with the clubs. It is also fair to recall that players’ agents are not licensed by Fifa, but by the national associations already since 2001.”

West Ham sweetener

West Ham United’s fans might want rid of their club’s current owner but they owe Straumur more than they think. Such has been the disastrous financial landscape – with millions owed to clubs, players, former managers and wronged parties – at Upton Park that Straumur has covered projected cashflow deficits with a £5m injection in recent weeks. A spokesman for Straumur refused to comment but it is likely the cash infusion was a gift, since any shareholder loans would presumably be vetoed by other banks whom the club already owe about £50m. The recovery in global financial markets has improved Straumur’s fortunes no end, but it comes to something when a collapsed Icelandic bank is relied upon to support a Premier League side.

Jewel in 2018 crown

After sorting out its politicalminefield of a board yesterday, England’s 2018 World Cup bid faces a big big challenge, as one of the jewels in the crown of English football has yet to join in the bid. Although it is trotted out as a potential semi-final venue, the Emirates Stadiumhas not yet been put forward as a host ground. London’s candidates are Tottenham Hotspur’s (yet-to-be-built) stadium, the Stratford Olympic (athletics) stadium, Twickenham’s (rugby) stadium and Wembley. Spot the odd one out.

Penny-pinching County

Notts County fans are relying on the presence of high-profile additions such as Kasper Schmeichel as evidence of the owner Qadbak’s investment in the club. Never has Meadow Lane disabused people from the belief that he was their “first big-money signing”, smashing the £685,000 club record, with some estimates approaching £1.5m. But on this one the veil slips: Digger can reveal the fee is related to him making a number of appearances not yet reached and not a penny has changed hands.

Free-to-air free-for-all

There is wide disgruntlement at the timing of the release of the Free-To-Air Listed Events Review today, since its witnesses will receive the report no earlier than the public. With some justification, Interested parties feel they are owed the opportunity chance to digest the findings in advance, and are used to receiving embargoed copies of similar government reports. A Department for Culture, Media and Sport spokesman said: “Everyone is getting the report at the same time.” But, while stressing that it is not the same body, the DCMS select committee told Digger that in cases of “particularly popular or controversial inquiries, or where witnesses mentioned in the report are likely to be contacted by the press and will need to prepare a response, we provide an early sight of the report”. Are listed events a popular, controversial subject with lots of press interest? Er, I think so.