Football 04 (Mar 11 - Dec 24)

[kennynah]

MU vs Arsenal

FA Cup

1715h GMT, 12/3/2011

standing by ...

[iam802]

Remember the goal of World Cup 2010?

It wasn't that long, isn't it? And SG did not achieve it.

And now, the brilliant idea is to pump more money ....

I am not a soccer fan, so naturally, I will prefer that the funding be used in helping the poor instead.

--

Almost S$1m each for nine S-League clubs

http://www.todayonline.com/Sports/EDC11 ... ague-clubs

SINGAPORE - The clubs in the Great Eastern-Yeo's S-League asked for more help last year and were duly promised a boost in funding ahead of this year's campaign.

Last month, Teo Ser Luck, the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, told Parliament the subsidy for S-League clubs would rise from S$6.2 million last year to S$8.7 million this year.

In a pleasant surprise yesterday, the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) told the club chairmen in a meeting that total funding could even exceed that amount.

The nine local clubs could receive up to S$864,000 in total funding for each of the next five seasons, starting this year.

While the FAS still need to sign off on the new figures with their stakeholders, each club could potentially receive at least S$434,000 in cash - or at least 40 per cent more from last year - up from S$310,000 last year. The clubs also stand to receive up to S$430,000 each in outcome-based funding - up to a 100 per cent increase from last year.

...

[kennynah]

to what end are we trying to achieve by giving these millions to these soccer clubs?

no doubt, these clubs offer the weekend entertainment to some viewers who like this game. these soccer matches also provide pundits with another gambling avenue.

in the years that i have watched soccer being played here in Singapore from days bygone until the more recent times, i can tell you matter of factly that we are simply not excelling in this sport at the international level. i doubt anyone will disagree with me on this view.

so, why are we still using tax payers' money to fund a sport that provides :

a) entertainment to a small group of die hard soccer fans?
b) singapore pools with an avenue to book make bets?

whatever the reasons are, they all escape my comprehension

[winston]

whatever the reasons are, they all escape my comprehension

Soccer is more important than taking care of the Poor, Old and Sick ...

[kennynah]

valencia 3 - 6 real madrid (23/4 game)

wah dao eh.... valencia (#3 spot) so lok kok man....

[winston]

World Football - Singapore 'hub for match fixers'

An "academy of match-fixers" operating out of Singapore could be responsible for rigging matches around the world, FIFA's head of security Chris Eaton said in a newspaper interview on Saturday.

..Eaton, who worked for Interpol for more than a decade before joining world soccer's governing body, told Singapore's The New Paper that a global investigation into match-fixing saw many of the lines of inquiry focused on the Southeast Asian city-state.

"Singapore seems to feature a great deal in these (match-fixing) allegations," Eaton said in the interview in Finland.

"I form the conclusion that Singapore seems to have an academy of match-fixers, and that many of the inquiries we're making on behalf of FIFA are coming back to Singapore."

Investigators had delivered their findings to FIFA President Sepp Blatter (pictured), who has already vowed to clamp down on match-fixing.

Eaton said that while gambling on soccer was not the problem, criminal networks were eager to cash in on the tens of millions of euros being made through match-fixing.

The newspaper said a report published in December 2009 estimated $450 billion (S$632.5 billion) a year was wagered in Asia, including illegal and legal betting.

"With that kind of financial interest, criminals, being the greedy beasts they are, try to find ways to milk the potential windfall," he added.

In Finland, Tampere United were expelled from all competitions by the Finnish FA earlier this month over irregularities related to a marketing deal.

The FA's disciplinary committee said Tampere had allowed Singaporean firm Exclusive Sport PTE Ltd to improperly influence the choice of players for certain matches as part of a marketing deal. Tampere have since been reinstated pending an appeal.

A Singaporean man working for Exclusive Sport PTE Ltd was in late February detained by Finnish police as he was using a fake ID. He is suspected of fixing matches in Finland and elsewhere.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/30042011/ ... ixers.html

[winston]

Fifa alarmed by global match-fixing threat

A convicted match-fixer who operated from a UK base yards from Wembley Stadium is at the centre of a major inquiry into a global corruption network that threatens the integrity of international football, an investigation by The Daily Telegraph has found.

Wilson Raj Perumal, a Singaporean, has been the subject of inquiries by Fifa, national law-enforcement agencies and Interpol, who have uncovered evidence of fixers manipulating more than 300 matches. The fixers have operated on three continents planning and staging friendly internationals with the express aim of manipulating the results, as well as targeting hundreds of club matches across Europe.

Investigators believe that match officials have been bought for as little as $10,000 (£6,000) per match to help deliver specific scores or events in games, enabling fixers to make hundreds of millions of dollars on Asian gambling markets.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... hreat.html

[winston]

FIFA a 'corrupt shambles': ex-minister Mellor

FIFA, football's world governing body, has been a "corrupt shambles" for years and everyone knows it, former sports minister David Mellor said.

Mellor, who was a Cabinet minister and chairman of Britain's Football Task Force in the 1990s, said FIFA needed to be suspended entirely and reformed.

He said the 25-strong executive committee needed to be replaced by a decision-making body of more than 100 people so that it was "possible to have fair elections".

"FIFA has been a corrupt shambles for years, it's obvious to everybody," Mellor said.

"FIFA itself should be suspended as an entity and reformed," he said.

Mellor called for the government to get involved because the Football Association, the game's governing body in England, "is hopeless".

He questioned why London had not got involved before, particularly after England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup was defeated last year amid accusations of bribery.

"The time for David Cameron and the sports minister taking action was when we were so humiliated," he said.

"What the government should be doing now is working with other governments, either through the European Union or through groupings of governments on economic issues and a demarche should be sent to FIFA, a set of principles that FIFA should reform itself or be reformed from outside."

Source: AFP European Edition

[kennynah]

the look on alex ferguson's face - priceless... after man u lost to barcelona in the champ league final match yesterday...

[kennynah]

do you find yourself staring at your sister-in-law at family gatherings?
this is sick !

*************************************************
Ryan Giggs accused of 8-yr-fling with brother's wife
By ANI | ANI – Mon, Jun 6, 2011

London, June 6 (ANI): Ryan Giggs, following his fall-out from his ill-fated gagging order, has been accused of an eight-year affair with his brother's wife, Natasha, even when he was seeing 'Big Brother' housemate Imogen Thomas.

The Manchester United 'squeaky clean' footballer, formerly regarded as the model professional and committed family man, found his reputation further tainted when it came into limelight that he slept with Natasha the day after his eight-year-old daughter was born and again the day after the arrival of his four-year-old son.

The affair was alleged to have continued until April 9.

According to a Sunday newspaper, Gigg had been cheating on his wife Stacey with Natasha before she began dating his younger brother Rhodri, reports the Daily Mail.

According to Natasha, it was Giggs's folly in taking out his notorious injunction over an alleged fling with Imogen, which spurred her to break her silence.

"When I found out he was cheating with Imogen too, I was really hurt," she told the News of the World through a 'friend'.

"I know that sounds really strange, but he wasn't just cheating on Stacey, he was cheating on me too. Our relationship was just about sex to him," she added. (ANI)