Kolkata (Calcutta), India | Dating to 1893, the Indian Football Association Shield is one of the world’s oldest cup competitions. Administered by the sport’s governing body in West Bengal, the event that begins Thursday will feature what organizers claim is a first in world football: microphones on referees. IFA honorary secretary Subrata Dutta says that the [...]
Matupi, Burma | Two people—including a 7-year-old boy—were killed and six wounded when Burmese soldiers opened fire on football spectators on Nov 12, according to the Democratic Voice of Burma. The attack, which occurred during an awards ceremony at a stadium in Burma’s northwest, was attributed by state news sources to the Chin rebel army. But [...]
Eindhoven, the Netherlands | Australia manager Guus Hiddink has been justly lauded for his role in reviving the Socceroos’ hopes. He forms the lead group of a phalanx of successful Dutch managers, four of whom will be making the trip to Germany in 2006, the most of any nation. Leo Beenhakker journeys with first-timers Trinidad & Tobago, [...]
Copenhagen | Jens Sejer Andersen, director of Play the Game, pens an eloquent letter to FIFA after the governing body’s reply to queries about FIFA’s relationship with Burma. Andersen is pleased that Sepp Blatter had intervened in the case of arrested journalist Zaw Thet Htwe (see Nov 7), but argues for more transparency from FIFA and more [...]
Copenhagen | The fourth “Play the Game” conference started Sunday, Nov 6, with a focus on sports corruption. Declan Hill of Oxford University reports that match-fixing in football is common, with the most egregious example perhaps Malaysia in the 1990s. “Up to 90 percent of games were fixed and often both teams and every official were bought,” [...]
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