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.

NEW iPHONE APP ENGAGES FOOTBALLING LEGENDS

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A unique penalty shoot out was held on 22nd March in London to promote the new boot shoot app for the iPhone from Hyundai. Taking part in the shoot out where the football legends John Barnes and Ian Rush.

Carly Cole, the fitness instructor and WAG acted as referee for the event, which had the ex Wales and England players going head to head before the two nations competed against each other in a European qualifier game on the 26th March. The two players hadn’t been on the same pitch since the FA Cup Final in 1996.

Barnes and Rush competed in a  live recreation of the new app, trying to score as many goals as they could. There were no goal nets however, the target was the boot of a Hyundai i20. They were fiercely competitive, and took shots from distance of 20 and 10 yards.

The new Hyundai Boot Shoot app, which features the very latest technology to give a realistic 3D in-stadium feel, allows players to score points by flicking footballs into the open boot of a Hyundai ix35. As the game advances, additional points can be scored by targeting shots at the body work and windows of ix35’s speeding around on the on-screen pitch.

Available to download for free from Apple iTunes from Saturday 26th March, the app will provide users with details of the Hyundai range as well as allowing them to arrange a test drive through their nearest dealership.

Watch the video from the event

Millennium stadium pulling out all the stops for Wales v England

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Millennium stadium pulling out all the stops for Wales v England After a heavy schedule of rugby matches having hosted Six Nations rugby, the ground staff at Millennium stadium is feverishly working to get the pitch ready for the Euro 2012 Wales sellout against rival England. Stadium manager Gerry Toms says the pitch will be ready for the first football match to be played in 18 months at the stadium.

In the past, when qualifying games for major tournaments had been staged at the Millennium some high profile stars such as Craig Bellamy and James Collins had been very outspoken and critical of the status of the pitch. Saying things like the pitch is not good to play football on or than it was horrendous.

There have been complaints that rugby players and their games get preference over those of football saying that it is not a great pitch because it is a rugby pitch and that they are not looked after here at this stadium.

The stadium manager Toms is confident the pitch will be ready and in excellent shape for the Football Association of Wales mentioning that because the stadium is multi-event stadium the criticism in the past has been quite fair but that they work hard to get the best surface possible for every event that is staged.

The last match was Wales against Ireland at the Six Nations on March 12, so the pitch will have had a very important two weeks without any competitions. The improved weather conditions in the past couple of weeks are a relief after one of the worst winters in years and a busy schedule and this will give additional help to getting the pitch in shape for European qualifying.

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.

No one seems to know who owns Leeds United

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No one seems to know who owns Leeds United Sleeping football giant, Leeds United Football Club, may be at the centre of a storm, after it was revealed that no-one seems to know the identities of the people who actually own the club. A similar affliction recently affected Notts County Football Club. Leeds are currently in the Championship, although they sank as low as League 1, having previously been a UEFA Champions League semi-finalist in 2001. They imploded after running into financial difficulties.

During the recent Government inquiry regarding the governance of football, the Chief Executive of the club, Shaun Harvey told the club that neither he nor chairman Ken Bates knew who the beneficiaries of FSF, the trust that owns the club, were. FSF is a holding company, registered in the West Indies, obviously for tax reasons, and FSF is, in itself, owned by three separate trusts.

Shaun Harvey did not believe that the ownership of the club was an issue, adding that this type of set-up was common in a lot of industries and not just football. There was no indication that the trust was prepared to walk away from the club, however, the recent events at Notts County should provide a warning note. During the inquiry, Member of Parliament Damien Collins expressed a different view, that lack of transparency with the ownership was a legitimate concern.

The ownership of English football clubs, in particular, has come under the spotlight, after the increasing number of high-profile takeovers of top and even not-so-top clubs by foreign owners. UEFA is also currently trying to clamp down on clubs that spend beyond their means, as the footballing body feels that this gives clubs an unfair advantage.