Memorial to Gary Speed planned for February

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Memorial to Gary Speed planned for February The Football Association of Wales has announced that when Wales play host to Costa Rica on the 29th February, it will not only be an international friendly, but also a memorial to Gary Speed.

Wales boss Speed, who was found hanged at home last November, made the first of his record 85 caps for Wales when they won a friendly against Costa Rica in 1990 with Dean Saunders scoring the only goal at Ninian Park. Speed, who was then 20 and a midfielder for Leeds United, was a 76th minute substitute, replacing Glyn Hodges in the match in May 1990 that set him on his way to his illustrious international career.

The Welsh FA confirmed that their first friendly since the death of Speed would be held at the Cardiff City Stadium. The return of Costa Rica will undoubtedly be a very emotional first international fixture for Speed’s team since he took his life on the 27th November. The FAW have also said that 10% of the profits from the friendly will go to charities chosen by Speed’s family.

The statement from the Welsh FA said that this was the perfect opportunity to celebrate both the life and the career achievements of someone who had been an excellent servant to Welsh football, as both a player and a manager. This is only the second time that Costa Rica have played Wales, and drew 2-2 against the European and World Champions Spain in November, and currently stand at number 65 in the FIFA world rankings.

Wales, who are currently in 48th place in the world rankings, are expected to name Speed’s successor as manager just before kick off at the Cardiff fixture. The Welsh FA have also confirmed the process they are using to select the 13th full time manager of Wales international team, and they have charged a managerial panel of 6 men, head by Phil Pritchard, the teams president, to appoint the replacement for Speed.

Speed’s assistant manager was Dutchman Raymond Verheijen, who has posted on Twitter that he thinks the FAW should give Speed’s hand picked back room team the opportunity to carry on his good work. Welsh star Gareth Bale has also backed both Verheijen and Osian Roberts to stay part of the Welsh management set up that was thrown into disarray due to Speed’s shocking and untimely death.

Bale, a winger at Tottenham Hotspur, has said that it would be absolutely ridiculous to make radical and significant changes to the management team. He told BBC sport that he knew personally that most of the players wanted to keep the same team in place.

 

 

 

 

Scottish Football set for big changes

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Scottish Football set for big changes A unanimous vote was taken in favor of a complete restructuring of the Scottish Football Association (SFA). The SFA president George Peat had commissioned the report and is stepping down from his position. Stewart Regan, SFA chief executive said that it was an historic day for the SFA and he is delighted that the members also share the vision for the future.

The entire 93 members of the SFA clubs at the meeting in Hampden voted to implement the entire package of recommendations in an attempt to modernize the way the game gets governed in Scotland.

The main changes are the SFA board get reduced from 11 to seven and will include an independent member. The SFA says the board will act more strategic than representative. Two additional boards will be created to work under the main board with one for the professional game and one for the non-professional.

The maligned disciplinary procedures will be entirely rewritten with a compliance officer deciding if cases will be heard by the new semi autonomous judicial panel. The different SFA committees will be disbanded immediately and an audit committee will be formed in order to ensure an efficient organization is operated.

Jeremy Hunt calls for team GB for Olympics

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Jeremy Hunt calls for team GB for Olympics Jeremy Hunt, Culture Secretary, has urged Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales not to boycott, at the London 2012 Olympics, the Great Britain football team. Jonathan Ford the chief executive of the Football Association of Wales says by refusing to let players compete he is protecting the FAW’s independence even though Sepp Blatter, Fifa president has assured their independence would not be threatened.

Hunt also indicated he hopes other players besides just English could play saying how fantastic it would be have players like Gareth Bale. Adding that this is a time to think about the athletes and put aside the football politics.

At the 125th International Football Association Board conference, Blatter gave his assurances about nations’ independence this at the conference where goal-line testing technology was voted in favourably.

BBC’s Sport Wales was told by Hunt in response to him being asked if he was happy about the nations guarantee this month that if they are happy with the 124th meeting where technology was not going to be introduced, that changed as well. He also said that he took on Blatter’s words but that Blatters was only one among many at Fifa.

We will ultimately want is insurance that both now and in the future and we have a Welsh team competing and representing our country at the highest possible level going forth into the European Cup and the World Cup saying he did not want that to change nor does he think the English fans want that to change. By combining we would be eliminating an English, Scottish and Northern Ireland team now who would want that.

EUFA gain more control of TV rights

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EUFA gain more control of TV rights President of the Union of European Football Associations Michel Platini has announced that all 53 EUFA members have signed an agreement to centralize the television rights for European Championship and World Cup qualifiers.  Platini said in a statement on Tuesday that the new system will benefit all parties, and make financial planning much easier.

Under the present system, each UEFA member negotiates its own television rights for home games, but with the new approach the sale of rights will supposedly guarantee revenue for all the individual Federations.  It is also expected to generate around £100 million for the FA over the next four years.

General Secretary for FA Alex Horne told the UEFA Congress in Paris that the FA had considered the move very carefully and he believes it to be a good deal for England.  He said that with the centralized sale England will get more for its international rights than under the current set-up.  The FA is still in debt from the construction of Wembley, and they are counting on television revenue to help balance the books.

As of 2014, the EUFA will begin marketing the collective rights to qualifiers in four-year cycles.   England currently has four-year contracts with ITV and ESPN, but they are not for the same four years.  Therefore the FA will try to synchronize them by selling a two-year deal to either ITV or BBC so they can market FA Cup rights concurrently with EUFA’s sale of international rights.

According to Michel Platini, the change in marketing approach will lessen the dependence of the smaller national associations on the luck of the draw.  Under the current system they have to hope they draw a big name that will boost revenues.  Hopefully the change will level the playing field.

Sir Alex Ferguson will not back down against FA

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Sir Alex Ferguson will not back down against FA A charge of improper conduct by the Football Association against Sir Alex Ferguson has led to indignation and preparation for an appeal that is against legal advice. The charge is for his comments about referee Martin Atkinson, following a defeat at Chelsea and by appealing the charge he risks a four-match ban.

Just his indignation means he is going to declare innocence of the charge and this is clear in his actions not to appear in public to even discuss his team’s next game at Liverpool tomorrow. At a meeting at United’s training base, he rejected legal advice given to him yesterday.

Last season’s two-match ban for calling out referee Alan Wiley’s fitness would take immediate effect if he admits to guilt of this current charge that he has until Tuesday night to respond to.

A one-game ban for challenging the incident and an additional one for the incident with Atkinson could be assessed if his appeal is declared frivolous and Sir Alex’s defense is still unknown but may be the appearance of immediately backtracking from his comments. All this is mute until we know if he is to appeal of not by Tuesday.