West Asian Football Federation championship has been a popular and demanding soccer tourney in West Asian part of the world, coz many still believe soccer can harmonize the tense relations between States in the region. This international event is in its fourth installment, and this time, organizers planned this in Israel with a hope that Palestine, Jordan, UAE, and Iraq will participate in it sidelining their democratic relations, but on the contrary, conflict starts right on the first day of the event. Reportedly, Israeli armed forces refused to allow Palestinians players along with some top officials to enter in their States citing their long running border dispute. The event has already started in Jordan today but without Palestine. Now, Palestine has asked FIFA to take a strict action on Israel coz they have breached an international agreement whereby Palestinian players were authorized to visit for a soccer event. In fact, matter has also been taken to the UEFA where Israel … [Read more...]
Manchester City extends its fans base by a sponsorship deal with a Thai soft drink maker
Manchester City and Manchester United are two known arch rivals in the EPL, but they actually have more rivalry than we think of, i.e., they are now competing each other in a race of the widest regional reach. Accordingly, EPL runner up has now signed a two years sponsorship deal with a Thai based soft drink maker Sermsuk Public Company Limited which sells EST brand. Though, the amount and detail terms of the memorandum are still unknown but with this deal City will have an official soft drink partner in South East Asia. Everyone knows how United is spreading its arms by signing several partner deals in this region, and the reason for growing worldwide interest in Asian fans is obvious as this continental has one of the biggest populations and these clubs can flood their global fans base to three fold if they continue their association with local companies. EST is a fast growing brand in Thailand with as much as thousands of retails outlets located in every part of the region and … [Read more...]
Sheikh Salman Joins FIFA executive committee
In one of the dramatic turnarounds in Asian football, Bahrain’s Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa is elected as the president of Asian Football confederation beating his two rivals UAE’s Yousef Al Serkal and Thailand`s Worawi Makudi in the first round of voting. He required two third of the votes to be elected in the prestigious FIFA executive committee and he got as many as 33 votes out of 46 leaving Youssef Al-Serkal of the United Arab Emirates in the third place with six votes - just one behind to Worawi Makudi of Thailand. The margin of win is too much which is coz of the downfall in the popularity of current president Mohamed Bin Hammam who is facing a life ban after naming in the bribe scandal off late. Other two contestants were considered closed to Hammam and that is why they faced the heat of rejection from everywhere. Actually, Sheikh Salman also stood against Hammam in the same presidential election back in 2009 and then lost by a narrowed margin, but this time he was at … [Read more...]
FIFA ban another executive member for ninety days
In an attempt to clean FIFA’s executive committee, President Sepp Blatter banned another member Vernon Manilal Fernando of Sri Lanka for participating in any football activity for ninety days on the recommendations of Michael Garcia, the chairman of the investigatory chamber of the ethics committee, who found Vernon indulged in misuse of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) funds. Another executive member who was banned recently was AFC president Mohamed Bin Hammam, who also stood against Blatter for president for FIFA post, for his involvement in 2011 bribery scandal. Actually, he could not stand against Blatter coz bribery allegations have been leveled upon him by then. Apart from his ban, which was later nulled by Court of Arbitration for Sport, AFC president also continued misuse of his post at AFC; hence he had to resign from international duties for life. Vernon Manilal Fernando, who was the member of FIFA’s executive committee since 2011, is asked to leave by FIFA “in order to … [Read more...]
Manchester United to play a friendlier with HK club Kitchee
Manchester United is undoubtedly one of the biggest fans based soccer clubs in the world, and to further extend their hold over global fans, United has decided to pay a friendlier in Honk Kong. This is the first time they are playing a match in this region in last eight years; they will meet a local club Kitchee FC on July 29 as their pre session practice friendlier in HK. The match will take place in Hong Kong Stadium which is expected to be full house on the DDay. Notably, United enjoys more than 650 million fans across the world and 100 million fans of them belong to China; hence this match is expected to be jam packed with cheering spectators. ManU stated about this match on their website where its chief executive David Gill said, “The club has tremendous support throughout China and especially in Hong Kong. We have visited on a number of occasions and after an eight-year gap it's a pleasure for the team to be able to return to Hong Kong again this year. We are looking forward to … [Read more...]