Morocco and South Africa have been awarded the hosting rights to the 2015 and 2017 African Cup of Nations football tournaments.
The Confederation of African Football’s executive committee met in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday to announce the hosting rights to the countries at either end of the continent.
Morocco and South Africa were the sole remaining bids to secure the rights for the respective tournaments after DR Congo withdrew their bid.
South African Football Association president Kirsten Nematandani said despite missing out on the rights to host in four years’ time, the Bafana Bafana can now use the extra two years to prepare themselves for a shot at the illustrious title.
“We are not disappointed at all (at missing out on 2015 hosting rights), it gives us more time to prepare our national team for the event. This time we also want to win it on home soil,” Nematandani said.
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The 2012 Cup finals will be hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, before the 2013 event will see the best footballers in Africa travel to Libya.
Former Holland international Ronald de Boer believes the soaring heat in Qatar during the 2022 World Cup will not affect players, only fans.
Qatar’s intense summer has been the subject of debate since the tiny Gulf nation was awarded the right to host football’s biggest tournament in December.
Concerns have been raised about player safety given temperatures can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius during the day, prompting FIFA boss Sepp Blatter and UEFA chief Michel Platini to consider shifting the tournament to January.
But Qatar World Cup bid ambassador De Boer – who finished his career in the country with Al-Shamal – believes players will not be affected by the heat due to air-conditioning technology installed in yet-to-be-built stadiums in Qatar, though he worries about the safety of supporters outside the arenas.
“Playing is not an issue because we have the technology already that will cool down the stadium inside, so for me the players there won’t be a problem,” De Boer said.
“The only worry for me is for the people. Football is for the fans, so I see a little issue there maybe, but football wise for the players they will have great conditions. I don’t see any problems with that.”
“If it was up to me I would say move it a month backwards because May is perfect, so you would have it from the beginning of May to the beginning of June.”
“That’s my opinion but who am I to say? Qatar has always bid to host it in the summer so we’re not deciding that it should be in the winter or some time else.”
De Boer also revealed he is to replace Dennis Bergkamp in leading Ajax’s youth team, fuelling speculation that the former Arsenal star is to become an assistant to Ronald’s twin brother, Frank.
Frank de Boer was appointed caretaker manager of Ajax following Martin Jol’s resignation in December.
“I will move back to Amsterdam in the summer, as I’m going to start coaching the youth team,” the younger De Boer said.
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“I’m also doing my coaching badge and trying to get that and see how I like it.”
“My kids are getting older now; they are turning 18 and 15 so they want to be in Amsterdam so it’s time for me to go back.”
“But I want to make sure the link with Qatar is very strong. I’m going to be involved in the World Cup and let’s see how it goes.”
This week on FootballFanCast.com we are celebrating the cult hero! Every club has one and football wouldn’t be the same without them. Cult heroes may not have the skill levels of some of the greatest players in the game, but they have managed to endear themselves to their fans either through their hard work on the pitch, feats that will be remembered forever or simply a silly hair cut!
There are central ingredients that go into making a cult hero, whether they are appearance or eccentricity, and every cult hero has a defining feature that the fans can replicate or at least a song that everyone in the ground knows. So join us as we take a look at football cult heroes from yesteryear and the modern day and pay homage to one area of football that will surely never die out.
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Blogs:
Top 10 Premier League Cult Heroes
Whatever happened to… Laurent Robert?
The Premier League’s ‘Cult Heroes’ XI
Whatever happened to Benito Carbone?
The Essential Ingredients of a ‘Cult Hero’ in football
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Whatever happened to Paolo Di Canio?
‘Cult Heroes of English Football’ – the man behind the football results
Ashley Cole will play for Chelsea against Manchester United despite being disciplined for shooting a work experience boy with an air rifle.Cole has apologised for Sunday’s incident, described as an ‘accident’ by Chelsea after players messed around with the rifle at the club’s training ground at Cobham, and is also expected to be fined by the club.The accident left student Tom Cowan requiring treatment, but not seriously injured. And it seems Cole has escaped calls for him to be sacked.Manager Carlo Ancelotti said: “He will play tomorrow, yes. Obviously we are not happy with what happened but I have spoken with him. He was really disappointed about this, he said sorry – he made a mistake, it was an accident. Now we are taking proper action but tomorrow he will play and I think he is in focus to play a good game.”When it was suggested Cole should be sacked, Ancelotti was adamant the English Premier League club would stand by the player and denied discipline was a problem in his squad.”No, there is no way for this. He’s our player. He always took very good behaviour here. He made a mistake, he knows this. Now we have to move on,” he said.”When one player said sorry it’s difficult to do different. We have to take our decision.” “Cobham is not out of control. Cobham has discipline, the players have to respect this. If some players step over the line, we take a decision. This is normal life.””But I think from outside nobody can say it’s out of control. They are not here. We have internal discipline. We don’t want to speak about it. It’s not true that there is no discipline here.” “You can judge the players on the pitch, and on it they are showing respect for referees and for the fans. This is what we have to judge, not other things.” “He said sorry to everyone. He said sorry to the guy that was involved in this and second to his teammates and third sorry to the club.””He’s a good player, a fantastic player, maybe he did a mistake in this situation but he remains a very good player and in my opinion and very good professional.”Cole will line up against United in a match that could have a huge impact on the Premier League title race, even if Chelsea – at 15 points in arrears – are now almost certainly too far behind the leaders to win the championship themselves.Ancelotti said: “It’s a very important game for them, for us – a very important game for the future of Man United and of Chelsea. We are excited to play this game. We are in a very good moment, we have confidence to win.””It will not be easy because Man United until now is the best team in the Premier League but we hope to play our game and to win.” “For us it’s important to win to improve our confidence. It will be a good step.”Ancelotti refused to say whether Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres would both line up against United but said both players would have ‘some minutes’ on the pitch and gave his backing to Torres, who is yet to score since a 50 million-pound move from Liverpool in January.”For a striker, it is obviously very important to score,” he said.”But over the last games he played really well. He had four opportunities to score with just the keeper and he moved really well for the team. I was really happy about his performance. He would prefer to score but he will score.”
Forgive me if I’ve missed something, but it would seem recently that the whole of the football hierarchy has gone completely mad. Let me tell you what I know, and please correct me if I’m wrong: Chelsea’s Ashley Cole shoots someone, but is ‘highly unlikely to face any further action’. Wayne Rooney lands a blatant elbow in the face of an opposing player but we should all just forget about it because it was a ‘simple coming together’. On the other hand, we are being told to sharpen our pitch-forks in the hunt for the real ‘bad-men’ of the game – Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger. What did they do wrong? Well, the worst offence in sport of all of course, they called somebody a bad name. Dear, oh dear…
Yes, I know, we should all be respecting the referee and other participants of this most civilised of games. But when did we all become so soft? I’m not condoning what either Ferguson or Wenger have recently been saying, and to be honest, I too am tiring of hearing their constant moaning. Let’s be honest, Arsenal were outclassed by Barcelona, that’s the be-all and end-all and Manchester United were nowhere near good enough to take anything away from the games at Chelsea or Liverpool. Anyway, that’s another debate. My point is, hasn’t anyone ever heard of the phrase, ‘sticks and stones’? It would appear not.
This argument is all relative, of course. Compare what is going to happen to the United and Arsenal managers, compared to what has happened to Rooney and Cole. It’s ridiculous. Samir Nasri has recently become another victim of these double standards, as he also called the official in Barcelona a naughty word. Nasty Nasri!
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Let me put it into context. Ashley Cole has been given a slap on the wrist and probably will have to do some fake PR stunt for shooting work placement student, Tom Cowan, with an air rifle. Nine years ago at Sunderland, John Oster ended the career of a young full-back, Mark Maley, by shooting him in the eye with the very same type of weapon. Both have claimed they didn’t know it was loaded. Well, that’s okay, then! The Chelsea star should be thanking his lucky stars his victim wasn’t more seriously hurt and isn’t now milking the incident for every penny he can get his hands on. The shooting has been taken out of the FA’s hands somewhat by the Police. But now they have decided they can’t be bothered with the scrutiny charging a famous footballer brings, surely now the game’s governing body should stand up and make a point of such idiotic behaviour? Or are they just waiting for Cole to call him a pudding before they take action?
It all stinks of double standards. We could even go further and look at the hype surrounding the mess of the Old Firm at the moment. Am I the only one thinking the Scottish government have more important things to discuss other than how to get Neil Lennon and Ally McCoist to make ‘friends, make friends never, ever, break friends‘? Apparently they’ve been meeting because the clash of the SPL’s two biggest sides brings about increased levels of domestic violence, but experts have proved this wrong and labelled the powers that be ‘lazy’ for laying the blame at football’s door.
There are some real issues that need sorting in football, and I for one am bored of the FA wasting their time making an example of the big names just because they have been found guilty of being ‘disrespectful’. If that is the buzz word of the season, let me ask another question: is diving not disrespectful to your opponent? Isn’t cheaply elbowing someone, or lunging in with an intentional two-footed challenge also not slightly disrespectful? By all means, if these issues are all sorted, then move on to finding out who called who a name first and then show us highlights of Wenger and Ferguson shouting “but he started it!” at each other. It might actually interest and amuse me then.
For the time being though, maybe it’s time the FA had a quick glance in the mirror before they charge Fergie and co with another bout of ‘improper conduct’. The only thing that is ‘improper’ is they insist on tackling an issue which isn’t really a priority. Managers like Wenger and Ferguson do need to grow up a little and accept that they are not going to win every game, but I’m getting bored of seeing them get in trouble for showing a little passion for the game. Mind you, if they want to escape further punishment, maybe they should just shoot the ref after a game if they aren’t happy. Sticks and stones, and all that…
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Want to help me putting the FA to rights? Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@joino
I read at the weekend that Luka Modric made the bold statement that Tottenham are a better team than Manchester City. Modric said “It is going to be hard but I think we are better than them and we still have one game against them. I think that game will again be decisive for who finishes fourth and fifth.” I am not here to argue if that statement is true or not. I am here to explain why that is a clever little tactic from a cunning little Croatian.
The game between Manchester City and Tottenham has been scheduled for 10th May. There will obviously be a lot riding on that game but comments like Modric’s, this far from the game, will make it into more of a grudge match than it already is. With Chelsea looking like they will definitely finish in the top 3, it is likely that one of Spurs and City will play in the Champions League next year and the other will play in the Europa League. But the more hype that game gets, the more it will serve Tottenham.
It might be true that Tottenham play well as underdogs. When teams expect to beat Tottenham, for example AC Milan at the San Siro, they attack and leave themselves more exposed at the back. Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon are at their most effective in this circumstance. But Manchester City are unlikely to be guilty of this. Where Milan might have been complacent, City will know what to expect from Spurs. I doubt they would treat Tottenham as underdogs, so Spurs will hardly suffer as a result of building themselves up before this game.
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Manchester City, after the amount of money they have spent, are already under pressure to finish in the top 4. The board of directors will be expecting some results from the ludicrous amount of money they have provided Roberto Mancini with. He will be unsure of his future should he not lead his team to Champions League qualification this year. And after a good start to the season, Manchester City still sit in 4th place. They have it all to lose and have no excuses. The pressure is very much on them.
On the other hand, there is little pressure on Harry Redknapp. He has already had a fantastic season. Tottenham have had a great cup run in the Champions League. It would be an awful shame not to see Tottenham play in the top European competition again next year, but unlike Mancini, the blame will not fall directly on Redknapp. He has had a great season on a limited budget. Given the wage cap he has, and the size of White Hart Lane when compared with The Emirates Stadium or Old Trafford, Redknapp has worked wonders to get his side where they currently are. His excuses are already made.
It is early days yet and there are still 5 Premier League weekends before Tottenham meet Manchester City at the City of Manchester Stadium. To say that mind games have started already is probably not true, I think Modric was just trying to be positive. But, come may 10, it is going to be a hugely important game and the more pressure Spurs put on City in the build-up, the better.
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The media, when it comes to Spurs, generally has its head in a tizzy, all a dither. The trouble is that Tottenham’s meteoric rise under Harry Redknapp has raised expectations – allowed the news to be subverted in a certain way and given credence to outlets who wish to tout extremist stories. I can’t be the only one tired of hearing that if Spurs don’t earn qualification for next season’s Champion’s League they’ll have to ship off their best players. Are we honestly supposed to believe that Spurs’ financial situation is such that if they finish fifth rather than fourth in the League it’s goodbye to the likes of Gareth Bale, Rafael van der Vaart and Luka Modric?
Daniel Levy and Harry Redknapp’s main aim this summer is sure to be to keep hold of Tottenham’s best players. Given the size of Tottenham’s squad and the fact that Harry will be looking to bring in a world-class striker this summer (something that’s likely to be costly) there will be players who find themselves transferred out of the club. These players won’t be Spurs’ top performers, however. They’ll be the fringe players and it’s unlikely that too many Tottenham fans will lose sleep over their absence.
With this in mind, who needs to go and how much money can Tottenham expect to garner in return for their sales? Harry is an expert when it comes to the transfer market (I hope he wouldn’t mind me saying that) and will make sure that his club gets the best deals possible. Players’ worths here are estimates – feel free to remonstrate with me if you feel I’ve over or under-valued a player.
First up there’s right-back Alan Hutton. It’s pretty likely that he’ll leave this summer – if the tales of his dressing-room bust-ups with Harry Redknapp have any veracity. Despite starting the season well injuries and his attitude have seen him frozen out. He remains a decent enough player and one that should get Spurs £5-6m this summer should he move on.
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Despite Tottenham’s well documented struggles upfront, there’s no room at the club for Robbie Keane who’s currently on loan at West Ham. I expect he’ll be moved on permanently this summer. He’s a natural goal-scorer who has proven himself in the Premier League. Spurs should be able to get about £5-7m for his services – particularly if he starts playing regularly for West Ham before the end of the season. Another striker seeking more first team action is Roman Pavlyuchenko who could fetch Spurs anything between £9-12m should he leave.
As for the midfield, a particularly crowded area for Tottenham, I expect to see Jermaine Jenas, Giovani dos Santos, Jamie O’Hara and David Bentley move on. Jenas isn’t getting enough games at Tottenham and will likely seek out first team football elsewhere – I’d value him at around £4-6m. Giovani dos Santos is currently on loan at Racing Santander where he’s performing well. There’s every chance that Racing will look to keep him or another team will take him on. Given his youth (21-years-old) and his ability I’d say he’s worth at least £9-10m.
Jamie O’Hara’s currently on loan at Wolves with a view to making the deal permanent. He too has been performing well for Wolves and it’s highly likely that they’ll look to keep him on should they stay clear of the drop-zone. I imagine Spurs will demand something in the region of £3-4m for the 24-year-old. David Bentley arrived at Tottenham with a massive price-tag: £15m. At this stage, however, Spurs would be willing to take a massive loss to get rid of the winger, who’s currently on loan at Birmingham City. I expect that they’d be willing to sell Bentley for anything between £5-7m.
That may seem like a large list of players, but as many of them are already loaned to other clubs and most of them don’t play on a regular basis, their sales wouldn’t represent too much of a loss. The revenue they would bring in however would be useful in Harry’s pursuit of players to help him challenge at the top of the table. It’s win-win for both the players and the club.
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Read more of Harry’s articles at ThisIsFutbol.com
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Listen to the first episode of our brand new podcast – The Football FanCast. Featuring Razor Ruddock, Gary O’Reilly and Toploader’s Dan Hipgrave makes a special appearance!
This week’s London derby which ended 3-3 at White Hart Lane was described by many as the most entertaining demonstration of ruthless attacking and woeful defending, but as with anything in football, there are always winners and losers. Even though the majority of viewers were satisfied just observing the showpiece spectacle, the game’s result only served to benefit both halves of Manchester, leaving Arsenal six points behind United in the race for the Premier League and Tottenham Hotspur two adrift of City in the chase for the final Champions League place.
Spectators may feel they reaped the most out of their Sky subscriptions on Wednesday, but for United and City it’s the result that counts, and both clubs can now re-evaluate the importance of November’s 0-0 Manchester derby, which at the time was criticised for a conscious lack of risk, but the shared points could prove vital to each clubs’ pursuit of their respective targets this campaign. Many believed that Roberto Mancini’s reluctance to gamble on that night at Eastlands supported the view that whilst City may be noisy neighbours, they are far from being loud, an interpretation which was dispelled when the Blues triumphed over the Reds at last week’s FA Cup semi-final and will be further eroded should City break in to the top 4 next month.
But is it enough that both clubs are content with achieving results by neglecting the traditional intensity and entertainment that local derby matches usually stipulate? Even though Harry Redknapp and Arsene Wenger will be disappointed to have lost ground on their respective rivals in the League, shouldn’t they both be applauded for encouraging their sides to produce two of the most memorable games of the 2010/11 season, in addition to a 5-goal exhibition in the Carling Cup last September?
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It is worth noting that football’s greatest rivalry reached the second leg of a Spring/Summer quadruple not long after kick-off at the Lane. There aren’t many events better than Barcelona v Real Madrid, and luckily The Only Way is Essex was scheduled to start after full-time, but on Wednesday, all eyes were in London and rightly so.
Arsenal v Tottenham may be the most fun derby in the Premier League schedule, but isn’t the only local fixture to present fans with compelling, goal-laden football this season. Newcastle’s promotion to the top flight added two Tyne-Wear derbies to the League timetable, the Magpies announcing their return to the Premiership with a 5-1 victory over the Black Cats in October. The second fixture wasn’t quite as one sided, but was perhaps just as exciting, when Asamoah Gyan struck a 94th minute equaliser to propel Sunderland within reach of European qualification after 23 games.
Derby matches should always be played a noticeable distance from the League, which is why when local pride is at stake, observers tend to comment that the form of each team going in to such games bears no relation to the action which takes place. The pressure on managers and players to achieve results in any fixture gets more intense year on year, but it is refreshing to see at least some of these fixtures retain their sense of occasion.
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Fulham manager Mark Hughes will not be underestimating Sunderland when he takes his side to the Stadium of Light on Saturday.Sunderland boss Steve Bruce is facing an injury crisis up front with Asamoah Gyan, Danny Welbeck and Frazier Campbell all out of the match this weekend, but Hughes knows his opposite number and old Manchester United team-mate will have something up his sleeve.
“Sunderland are down on numbers in terms of who they can play outfield and that will help us but I’m sure Steve has a game plan what he will implement to try and beat us,” Hughes said.
“I’m sure he would prefer to have those quality players available and if we play as well as we have in the last couple of games then it will take a good team to beat us.”
Fulham go into the match on the back of a solid 3-0 home win over Bolton which makes it six wins from their last seven matches in front of their own fans.
The victory took Hughes’ side to 42 points for the season – beyond the traditional benchmark of 40 normally required for Premier league survival – however the Welshman has urged his team not get complacent against Sunderland despite seemingly having avoided relegation.
“We need to go on the road and replicate our form at Craven Cottage. The key is placing demands on our team and not taking your foot off the pedal,” he said.
“There’s no difference to what my team are doing now than what they were doing at the start of the season.”
“It’s important to have continuity and a good quality of work – we’ve got two big games coming up (against Sunderland then home to Liverpool) and we’re going to see the season though to its conclusion and see where it takes us.”
Bobby Zamora is expected to lead the line for Fulham on Saturday after making a cameo appearance from the bench against Bolton due to a slight back problem, and could be partnered by Eidur Gudjohnsen who has started the last two games.
Clint Dempsey will be looking to add to his twelve goals already this season, as well as cement his place as Fulham’s record Premier League goalscorer after bagging his 33rd strike for the West London club against Bolton midweek.
Rangers moved one step closer to a third consecutive Scottish Premier League title after defeating Dundee United 2-0 at Ibrox on Tuesday.Goals from Nikica Jelavic and Kyle Lafferty in the opening 25 minutes of the clash set up the victory, helping Rangers open up a four-point lead over Celtic in the race for the title.
Celtic travel to third placed Hearts on Wednesday, where a victory for the Edinburgh side will hand the title to Rangers.
Rangers started strongly in front of a parochial home crowd and it did not take long for Walter Smith’s side to capitalise on their advantage.
On 21 minutes, right-back Steven Whittaker whipped in a cross from the right wing and Jelavic nodded home for his 17th goal of the season.
Just four minutes later, Rangers doubled their advantage as Steven Naismith found Lafferty in the penalty area and the striker slotted past United goalkeeper Dusan Pernis with ease.
Dundee United had their chances to get back into the contest in the second half as Craig Conway and substitute Jon Daly squandered good opportunities, but Rangers proved too strong as the pressure fell back to Celtic to keep the title race going into the final day.
Rangers travel to Kilmarnock on Sunday, while Celtic hosts Motherwell on the same day.
At the other end of the table, Hamilton’s relegation to the second tier was confirmed as they lost 1-0 at St Johnstone.
Liam Craig was the match-winner for St Johnstone with a penalty after 29 minutes as the Accies three-year stay in the top flight ended.
In the only other game on Tuesday, St Mirren ensured they stayed in the Premier League for another season as they defeated Aberdeen 1-0 at Pittodrie Stadium.
Gareth Wardlaw’s strike after 65 minutes clinched the three points for the Buddies as Aberdeen’s final home game of the season ended in defeat.