A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Uefa struggling to devise format for 24 teams
UEFA ARE struggling to devise a format for the 24 teams in the finals of Euro 2016, it was conceded yesterday. The final tournament has been expanded from 16 teams and organisers are now wrestling with the best way of having a group stage going into a knock-out phase. Gianni Infantino, Uefa’s general secretary, admitted the final tournament was “not ideal” and that some teams who finish in third place in the four-team groups will go through to the round of 16 knock-out stage.
Organisers also want to avoid teams being able to collude in a match so that both qualify at the expense of another team. Infantino said: “The question is how you make it in a way that results cannot be organised and you don’t know in advance what you need to be the best.”
Pearce talks up soccer tournament
BRITISH COACH Stuart Pearce ridiculed the critics of the Olympic soccer tournament yesterday when he said the country would go “absolutely wild” if the home team had any success in this year’s London Games.
Pearce said Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, who do not want their players to represent Britain, were wrong and added the tournament could capture the public’s imagination in the same way as Euro96 when he played for England. Addressing the Soccerex business convention, Pearce told delegates: “It is a really exciting tournament for me and probably is one of the most exciting tournaments to take place for players in this age group ever. “It is on home soil and the only tournament I played on home soil was Euro 96 which was probably the best experience I had as a footballer and as a man . . . it just went off the Richter scale really. And if we have some form of success in the Olympics I am sure the country will go absolutely wild.”
Britain last took part in the Olympic finals in Rome in 1960, while the team played in the qualifiers until 1972.
Uefa fine Celtic €25,000 over fans
CELTIC HAVE been fined €25,000 for fans’ misbehaviour in the Europa League game against Udinese in Italy last December, Uefa have confirmed.
After the 1-1 draw at the Stadio Friuli, the Parkhead club were charged with, “the displaying of a banner of an offensive nature and the setting off of fireworks by supporters”.
The decision to fine Celtic was made by Uefa’s control and disciplinary body on February 23rd. A Uefa spokesperson said: “Celtic have been fined €25,000 by Uefa’s control and disciplinary body for breaching Article 11 of the UEFA disciplinary regulations. “The decision was taken on February 23rd. It is nothing out of the ordinary that it wasn’t announced then. We can have 100 cases at the monthly meetings. Celtic did not appeal.”
Some Celtic fans held aloft a two-part banner which insulted Uefa, days after the club were fined about €15,000 for “illicit chanting” involving pro-IRA songs at a Europa League game against Rennes at Celtic Park.
Spurs target third place after securing semis berth
TOTTENHAM HAVE targeted reclaiming third place in the Premier League from Arsenal after securing passage into the semi-finals of the FA Cup.
Victory over Bolton on Tuesday saw Spurs confirmed as Chelsea’s semi-final opponents at Wembley on April 15th, even if the success was only Tottenham’s second in eight games. A five-match streak without a win in the league has let Arsenal to leap above them into third place, though Spurs will consider the point gained at Stamford Bridge last Saturday and the dismissal of Wanderers as evidence form has returned.
“It is football, with lots of paradox and things can quickly change,” said Louis Saha, who scored Spurs’ third goal at White Hart Lane. “Arsenal have had a run so they are confident. They are in a good position but it doesn’t mean we cannot do the same. We have shown consistency during the season. We may have dropped a points in the past weeks but we have shown we have closed the gap in terms of our performances.”
SFA writes to Lennon
THE Scottish Football Association has written to Neil Lennon for the third time in just over a week, asking for an explanation of comments made by the Celtic manager about referees ahead of their Premier League clash with St Johnstone at Parkhead this coming Sunday.
Ahead of the visit of the Saints, which will be refereed by George Salmond, Lennon was quoted in Tuesday’s Evening Times as saying: “It will be nice just to be able to go out and think only about winning a game of football – and maybe have a decent refereeing performance into the bargain.”
The Parkhead boss has allegedly breached rule 69, which prevents managers commenting on referees before games, a rule which was implemented at the start of the season.
Pointing way to goal
HAVING WITNESSED just 16 goals in 25 games this season, a group of Magdeburg fans decided to try something a little different, literally showing the players where the goal is. But despite finally scoring, Magdeburg still went down to a 2-1 defeat to Berliner AK ’07 in the German fourth-tier game on Sunday.
