Europe Archives - Page 367 of 517 - Inside World Football

English FA wants Great Britain teams at Rio Olympics

Rio 2016

By David Owen
March 2 – The Football Association is keen for Great Britain teams once again to participate in the Olympic football tournament at next year’s Games in the football-besotted city of Rio de Janeiro. This follows the appearance of both men’s and women’s teams at London 2012, when it was felt desirable that the host nation should be represented if possible in every sport. Prior to that, no British team had played at any Olympics for more than half a century.

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Belgium’s oldest club, Royal Antwerp, begins financial rehab

Royal Antwerp FC

By Samindra Kunti
March 2 – Royal Antwerp F.C. has taken another step in the process of obtaining a license for the Belgian second division after entrepreneur Patrick Decuyper settled €600,000 of debts.

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Parma critical as game postponed and players refuse to play without wages

Parma fans

March 2 – The crisis at cash-strapped Parma has intensified after the Serie A club had a second match called off at the weekend, this time after the players threatened to go on strike over unpaid wages.

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Feyenoord’s banana skin on another night of crowd shame

Feyenoord-Roma-banana

By Paul Nicholson
February 27 – Dutch fans of Feyenoord are desperately taking to social media to insist that the inflatable plastic banana thrown on to the pitch during the Europa League match against Roma was not a racist act. Just an unfortunate choice of fruit? Equally unfortunate that it appeared to be aimed at Roma’s Gervinho?

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Poland is next frontier as Fox eyes up Ekstraklasa TV rights

Ekstraklasa

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 27 – Fox Sports is continuing its TV rights acquisition march across Europe into Poland where it is considered as one of the leading contenders to acquire the TV rights for Poland’s top tier Ekstraklasa. If Fox were win the domestic rights the broadcaster would replace Polish direct-to-home platform nc+ for the 2015/2016 season.

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Serie A giants delay kick offs in solidarity with Parma brothers

Parma fans

February 27 – This weekend’s Serie A games will kick off 15 minutes late as the players show solidarity with financially-stricken Parma. Twice former winners of the old UEFA Cup but currently bottom of the league, Parma took the dramatic step of calling off last Sunday’s league game against Udinese. Players and staff have not been paid all season and stewarding costs were unable to be met to stage the fixture.

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Bomb blast targets Cypriot referee outside home

Cypriot police

February 27 – A pipe bomb exploded outside the home of a Cypriot referee early today, the latest in a string of threats and attacks against officials and their families.

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Turkish Airlines break sponsorship records with Bosnia’s FK Sarajevo

Turkish Airlines and FK Sarajevo

By Mark Baber
February 26 – Vincent Tan’s FK Sarajevo has joined Barcelona, Manchester United, Feyenoord and Borussia Dortmund as a recipient of sponsorship from the fast-growing Turkish Airlines in a three and a half year deal reported to be the most lucrative ever in Bosnian sport.

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Greek Super League suspended after violence runs out of control

Greek Super League violence

By Andrew Warshaw
February 26 – Just as its new government struggles to come to terms with its enormous debt crisis, Greece now has a major sporting issue on its hands with domestic football plunged back into chaos after the authorities ordered the suspension of the top three league divisions.

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Top Eleven 2015 game release adds 2m downloads in first week

Top Eleven

By Paul Nicholson
February 26 – Nordeus, makers of the Top Eleven football management game, is reporting a successful relaunch with more than 2 million new downloads in the first week following the game’s release in the app stores.

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Italian World Cup hero Cannavaro gets 10 months in jail for breaking into own home

Fabio Cannavaro

February 25 – Former Real Madrid and Juventus defender Fabio Cannavaro has been sentenced to 10 months in prison for breaking the police seal at his home in Naples.

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CIES stats underline Ajax position as Harvard of football

Ajax mural

By Mark Baber
February 24 – The latest statistical analysis by the Swiss based CIES Football Observatory looks at which clubs have trained the most footballers currently playing in 31 European top leagues, with Ajax, which has long enjoyed a reputation as a training orientated club, topping the list.

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Levski shares go on sale with all cash going to run the club

levski is yours

By Alexander Krassimirov
February 24 – Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia today opened the sale of shares in the club to fans. All those who buy shares will receive them from those held by majority owner Todor Batkov. All money received will go into the running of the club and not to Batkov.

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GKS Katowice lines up €24m stadium investment from city

GKS Katowice

By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 23 – Polish city Katowice is preparing to dip into public funds to build a new stadium for its struggling football club GKS Katowice and support its bid to return to the top division of the Polish league. The investment is estimated to be worth about PLN 100 million (€24 million).

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The enemy within: match-fixers rampant in Cyprus, CL match probe in Romania

football and euros

February 24 – Footballers in Cyprus have a 34% chance of being asked by a stranger to fix matches and a 23% chance of being approached by an official from their own club, according to a damning survey commissioned by the Cyprus Footballers’ Association.