Seven Sisters Love Football: June 2014

FIFA: Ghana requests World Cup prize money early

Ghana's Michael Essien, Kevin Prince Boateng and Andre Ayew, from left to centre, challenge for the ball during a training session in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, June 25, 2014. Ghana will play Portugal in group G of the 2014 soccer World Cup on June 26. (AP Photo/Paulo Duarte)
Ghana players exercise on the pitch during a training session in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, June 25, 2014. Ghana will play Portugal in group G of the 2014 soccer World Cup on June 26. (AP Photo/Paulo Duarte)
Ghana's head coach James Appiah walks on the pitch during a training session in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, June 25, 2014. Ghana will play Portugal in group G of the 2014 soccer World Cup on June 26. (AP Photo/Paulo Duarte)
Ghana players practice on the pitch during a training session in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, June 25, 2014. Ghana will play Portugal in group G of the 2014 soccer World Cup on June 26. (AP Photo/Paulo Duarte)
Ghana's Asamoah Gyan, center, celebrates with his teammates after scoring his side's second goal during the group G World Cup soccer match between Germany and Ghana at the Arena Castelao in Fortaleza, Brazil, Saturday, June 21, 2014. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Ghana's Asamoah Gyan, second right, dances with his teammates as they celebrate after scoring their second goal during the group G World Cup soccer match between Germany and Ghana at the Arena Castelao in Fortaleza, Brazil, Saturday, June 21, 2014. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
Ghana's head coach Akwasi Appiah arrives for an official training session the day before the group G World Cup soccer match between Germany and Ghana at the Arena Castelao in Fortaleza, Brazil, Friday, June 20, 2014. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Ghana players dance after Asamoah Gyan, right, scored his side's second goal during the group G World Cup soccer match between Germany and Ghana at the Arena Castelao in Fortaleza, Brazil, Saturday, June 21, 2014. (AP Photo/Francois Xavier Marit, pool)
Ghana's Asamoah Gyan, center, celebrates with teammates after scoring his side's second goal during the group G World Cup soccer match between Germany and Ghana at the Arena Castelao in Fortaleza, Brazil, Saturday, June 21, 2014. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Ghana's cash-strapped football association has asked for an advance on the $8 million prize money it is guaranteed from the World Cup to pay outstanding debts to players.
FIFA said Wednesday that Ghana's request was "under evaluation."

FIFA's statement appeared to contradict Ghana's deputy sports minister, who said that as much as $3 million in cash would be flown into Brazil from the West African nation to finally pay the bonuses to unhappy players and avert a possible player strike.

It wasn't clear how Ghana would bring such a large amount of cash into the country without declaring it and paying tax on it in line with Brazilian law.
World Cup prize money — which ranges in Brazil from $8 million for being knocked out in the group stage to $35 million for winning the title — is normally paid after the tournament.
The Ghana Football Association insisted that the problem had been resolved after intervention by Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama, who had spoken to players and guaranteed they would get their money by Wednesday afternoon, the GFA said.
Yet FIFA hasn't yet made a decision on handing over any prize money to Ghana in advance.
The bonus row seriously disrupted Ghana's preparations for its decisive Group G game against Portugal on Thursday, although Ghana midfielder Christian Atsu dismissed fears the team would boycott its final group game in Brasilia, which the Ghanaians need to win to stand any chance of reaching the second round.
"We are not going to say we are not going to play because of the money," Atsu said. "We love our nation and we are going to play for our nation."
Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah said he had been having "sleepless nights" over the issue which came to a head Tuesday when the players and team management had a meeting instead of conducting a training session. President Mahama "personally spoke to the players" to assure them they would receive the money, the Ghana Football Association said in a statement. Ghana's players trained as scheduled Wednesday in Brasilia.
"The management and the government are trying to sort it out and everything will be sorted out in two or three hours' time," Appiah said. "They should have received it before the start of the competition but it's being solved now and we are really focused on the game now."
Players were going to receive the money in cash because "the practice in Ghana has always been paying the money in cash," Appiah said.
Asked what the players will do with the appearance fees — reportedly between $75,000 and $100,000 each — if they received them in cash, midfielder Atsu said: "I think we will keep it in our bags and we'll just lock them. And we will transfer the money to our accounts."
Coach Appiah wouldn't give an exact figure for the appearance fees owed to the players, saying: "I would be a bad person ... the players would kill me if I said."
Brazilian officials said bringing in $3 million in cash and not declaring it to authorities would be illegal and the entire amount could be confiscated. Individuals cannot bring in more than $4,500 each without having it subject to taxes, said Brazil's Federal Police, who enforce custom and immigration laws.

Spanish World Cup Team’s Plane Struck by Bolt of Lightning

As if the defeated champions' World Cup wasn't bad enough already

The Spanish soccer team had an unfortunate end to an unfortunate World Cup.
On the flight home from an early — and embarrassing — elimination Tuesday, the team’s plane was struck by lightning when it was about to touch down in Madrid. According to Iberia airlines, no one was injured and the aircraft went unharmed.
No word on if the players’ hair was impacted.

Australia v Spain: Group B - 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil

Santi Cazorla of Spain looks on during the National Anthem prior to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Group B match between Australia and Spain Jeff Gross—Getty Images

American Invasion

The U.S. national team and its rowdy fans have taken over Brazil. The locals are not pleased.

By Jesse Hyde

U.S. fans cheer before the start of the World Cup match between the U.S. and Portugal in Manaus, Brazil, on June 22, 2014.

MANAUS, Brazil—We were down by the port, where the air smelt of cigarette smoke and stale beer, when I realized how much things had changed.

Three men sat at a tiny table playing cards that were stained with splashes of wine and curled at the corners because of the humidity. One had a tattoo of a strand of rosary beads running down his forearm, the other sat shirtless, a thin layer of sweat beading up on his shoulders. His attention drifted between the card game and a World Cup match on his cellphone. Off in the distance, you could hear the sound of a boat motoring into a river’s muddy waters.

It was Saturday afternoon in Manaus, a sweltering, squalid city of close to 2 million in the Amazon rainforest. The next day the U.S. would play Portugal, and it seemed everyone had an opinion on the game. I asked the men at the table who they thought would win. “I think the U.S.,” one of them said, diverting his attention briefly from his cards. “But I’m rooting for Portugal.”

The oddsmakers disagreed with him: Even a Portugal hobbled by injuries would beat the U.S., they said. But I found it surprising how many Brazilians believed a different result likely. Having lived in Brazil years ago, I am used to the word fraca (weak) to describe our national team. But things were different now.

What surprised me even more, considering Manaus had once been a Portuguese colony, were how few fans I saw from Portugal. The city, it seemed, had been taken over by Americans. And that, more than anything else, is why the Brazilians quietly hoped we’d lose.

Being an American fan hadn’t always been this way, of course. A few days before, I had been sitting in a bar in a little surf village on the northeast coast of Brazil, talking with U.S. fans who had spent a decade following the national team from Turkey to Panama. It wasn’t that long ago, they reminded me, that you couldn’t buy a U.S. national team jersey because nobody bothered to carry them. “I remember going to a Gold Cup final in New Jersey, the U.S. against Mexico, and I couldn’t even hear the national anthem because there were so many Mexican fans booing,” a fan named Jason Burak said. “We were this tiny contingent of American fans, just this little cluster. So to go to [the World Cup opener] and see that many Americans, I’m not going to lie, I got a little choked up.”

I had been at that game too, between the U.S. and Ghana, and I’m not going to lie either: I, too, got a little choked up. But I had noticed something else. Midway through the first half, when yet another deafening “U-S-A!” chant drowned out any other sound in the stadium, a bald-pated man wearing the canary-colored jersey of the Brazilian national team rose from his seat and began a chant for Ghana. He did it with a smile, and we all understood: There were so few Ghanaian fans in the stadium, they needed all the help they could get (even though their team was thoroughly outclassing ours at the moment). When he was shouted down by the U.S. fans, with yet another thundering “U-S-A!” chant, his smile turned to a sneer. Soon, Brazilians in our section were chanting for their team, even though they weren’t on the field, with something that was morphing into outright hostility, as if to say: This is our game. In that moment, we were no longer the plucky underdogs we’ve been for so long, the lovable losers giving the world’s game a try with our clumsy passing and horrid first touch. Suddenly, we were a threat on the field, and in the stands at least, we were a bully.

I thought about this as I walked through the grimy streets of Manaus in the days leading up to Sunday night’s game, the heat heavy on my neck like a clammy hand. Everywhere I went, I saw Americans. I saw them in a stone cathedral, kneeling beneath soaring archways built in the 19^th century, in our rocket-pop-inspired home jerseys, perhaps praying for a victory. Down in the market, where the air smelt of roasting fish, I saw them buying the fake weapons of Amazonian warriors to take home to their children. And I listened as two fans from Pittsburgh, out on the river, fishing for piranha with sticks of bamboo, talked about Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey the way they might Ben Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu back home. But I rarely saw anyone wearing the jersey of Portugal.

Hardcore soccer fans in the U.S. (the sort that follow the Premier League) are constantly taking measure of where we stand compared with, say, Mexico, or especially England. Do we travel well? Are our fans sufficiently rowdy? How creative are our chants? (Answer: not very. “U-S-A! U-S-A!”) What’s unsaid is the hope that this is the year soccer finally arrives on our shores. And by arrive, I mean the U.S. at last becoming one of the best teams in the world.

But as I sat in the stadium, in what once again amounted to a home game, I realized what we’ve been waiting for is already here. No, we are not Argentina or Italy or Brazil, and we may never be. We are not one of the best teams in the world. But as the first two games of this World Cup showed, we have become a side that must be respected. No longer do we simply hunker down and hope for goals off counterattacks and set pieces. Now we can dictate the pace and render the world’s best player ineffective and invisible for most of the game.

We can also play beautifully, scoring rocketing goals to the back of the net like Jermaine Jones did, and we can score in slick, even sublime ways, like Clint Dempsey did in the 81^st minute.

Going into the tournament, after our first friendly, one of my friends told me we’d be lucky to score a goal in the World Cup. We had no chance of advancing and would surely be eliminated by the end of the Portugal match. We booked our tickets home accordingly.

But with less than a minute to go, the script had been flipped. We were about to win the group and everyone around us was thinking about extending the trip beyond the group stage.

Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t do jack all game until he did, proving that with one perfectly placed pass, he could change the course of a match, and perhaps our fate (and Portugal’s) in this tournament. It left the American fans gutted, sitting in stunned silence long after the match was over. For everyone in Brazil who isn’t traveling on an American passport, this had to have been a nice turn of events: The American fans had to shut up, at least for a moment.

The fact that the U.S. has never been all that good at soccer has allowed us to cheer for our team in a full-throated, hyper-patriotic, guilt-free way. But as we gain respect on the field, our overbearing presence in the stadium stops being charming. The U.S. has everything else. Can’t the rest of the world just have this? Judging by the past few weeks in Brazil, the U.S. national team and its loudest, proudest fans have this to say in response: U-S-A! U-S-A!

17 members of the Croatian World Cup team are older than the Republic of Croatia

Brazil ole ola

I am the Fifa brand ambassador for India and I’ll be in the panel of analysts on Sony Six from June 12. There will be a lot of well-versed people analysing and I am really excited about it. As a purist I must say no one plays football like the Brazilians. It’s like poetry in motion when they play. It’s beautiful. If I have to put a little money on a team...
Argentina is a very strong team. I hope Lionel Messi will come together when we need him this time. I think Spain has a pretty good chance and Belgium is the dark horse

The Northeast is humming ‘We are one’.

As the world braces for a soccer feast from Samba land, the region, several thousand miles away from Brazil, but with people as crazy for the ‘beautiful game’ as their South American counterparts, is making its own plans to stay glued to the television and be a ‘part of the action’ for most of the matches.

We say most because some matches kick-off from 3.30 in the wee hours of the morning. But it is the World Cup, arguably the biggest and most popular sporting extravaganza on terra firma and it comes once in four years. Then there are the skills of Lionel Messi or Neymar and company, who on their day can weave magic soccer fans can’t afford to miss.

So, the Northeast, which has produced teams such as Gauhati Town Club, Maharana AC, Shillong Lajong FC and may see more brilliance from the John Abraham co-owned North East Union FC later this year, is just getting started. Some are already attired in the familiar yellow (Brazil) jerseys or the blue and white stripes of rivals Argentina. Some might already be swinging to the beats of the official FIFA World Cup 2014 song ‘We are one’, you never know.

The Telegraph caught up with John Abraham, a die-hard soccer fan himself, while he was here and with a host of other fans from across the Northeast who spoke about the event and their aspirations

North East United FC: John Abraham's ISL Guwahati franchise

GUWAHATI: Actor John Abraham, co-owner of Guwahati franchise for the upcoming Indian Super League, on Tuesday announced the name of his team as 'North East United FC', which is under discussion with four overseas clubs to have a "strategic alliance" for the much-anticipated tournament.

"I always had a fascination for football and North East. When ISL process started, we decided to have the team Guwahati or else we would have stayed away. By naming the team after the entire region, we want to project the eight states as a force to reckon with in Indian football," Abraham said.

Addressing a press conference here, the Bollywood star said he will try his best to keep the franchise as the "purest football team".

When asked about association with foreign clubs, Abraham said: "Many foreign clubs expressed interest in co-owning the team, but we do not want to dilute our stake. However, we are interested to have strategic alliance with some of them.

"At present, we are having discussions with four different foreign clubs to have an alliance. In the next couple of weeks, we will announce it. The first step of this will be to finalise the colour of the jersey."

He, however, declined to mention the name of the clubs. On player selection, Abraham said North East United Football Club will have four foreign players from another co-owner's club, Shillong Lajong FC, while the rest will be Indian footballers.

On keeping his team as well as the ISL a controversy free event unlike the IPL, Abraham said: "The first important issue is betting and we all are against it. We have spoken to the players and they have understood our point. We have to keep football absolutely clean."

The actor said ISL has laid down guidelines prohibiting anyone unrelated to the event coming closer to the teams during their practice sessions as well as to dressing rooms.

Talking about the upcoming FIFA World Cup, Abraham said his favourite team is Brazil, which plays the game in "motion" and termed it as "poetry as motion".

The next strong team, according to Abraham, is Argentina and hoped that Lionel Andres Messi will mesmerise the world.

"German team is one of the youngest and is very energetic. Nobody can count out Spain as well. Belgium is the underdog this time," he added.

Why Argentina doesn’t like its best player, Lionel Messi

http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/external?url=http://content4.video.news.com.au/foxsports/prod/archive/2014/06/06/DVU_310514_TOP_TEN_WC_PLAYERS_PKG_MIXED__HOLD_FOR_STORY.jpg&width=650&api_key=kq7wnrk4eun47vz9c5xuj3mc

With the 2014 FIFA World Cup almost upon us, here are the ten best players to grace the fields of Brazil, featuring Eden Hazard, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Yaya Toure.

HE’S one of the best players in the world but his own country doesn’t want him.

That’s the burden superstar Lionel Messi has to carry as he bids to take Argentina to World Cup glory in Brazil.
At 26, Messi has already been voted the world’s best player four times.
He has won six league titles with Barcelona, and three Champions Leagues.
But Argentinians don’t like him.
Why? Because he isn’t Argentinian enough.

Argentinians have taken issue with Lionel Messi not singing the national anthem before games. Source: AFP

The New York Times travelled to Buenos Aires and Messi’s hometown in Rosario to get to the bottom of why he had never earned the sort of devotion and admiration that Diego Maradona — the man he is constantly compared to — enjoyed.

According to everyone from local cab drivers, to coaches to professional commentators, the issues with Messi are as follows:

• He left Argentina too soon to play football overseas;
• He doesn’t sing along with the national anthem
• He has no passion
• He has no personality
• He doesn’t “feel” the shirt like the other players

Can a World Cup victory change the perception of Messi in his home country? Source: Getty Images

The only thing that has saved Messi from being despised entirely is that he kept his accent, according to Argentinian football journalist Martin Mazur.

“The greatest gift for Messi during these years is that he never lost the Argentine accent,” Mazur told The Times.

“You can’t imagine what it would have been (like) for him if he hadn’t had it. They probably would have killed him.”

Added cab driver Dario Torrisi: “We’ve always liked how Messi plays, but we don’t know who he is.”

Explaining the difference between Maradona and Messi in the eyes of an Argentinian, local Pablo Rodriguez explained: “Maradona developed his talent in the mud. I don’t identify with Messi, who was born surrounded by cotton.”

Messi grew up in a lower-middle-class neighbourhood, while Maradona was raised in poverty.

Messi on the ball for Argentina. Source: AFP

Argentina’s national team left for Brazil on Monday trying to temper the sky-high expectations that have taken hold among some media, fans and even national football officials.

The hundreds of Argentine fans who cheered the team on as it left Buenos Aires in a chartered jet have good reason to be confident.

Argentina has a more close-knit team than when it got crushed by Germany in the quarter-finals four years ago, and 10 goals in qualifying helped Messi go some way towards shaking off his reputation of underachieving for the national team.

But its full potential is hard to assess because it hasn’t played a major football power since losing to Uruguay in its final World Cup qualifier in October.

“It’s great that people are excited, but we’re taking it step by step. We know the World Cup is difficult and anything can happen,” Messi said after Argentina beat Slovenia 2-0 in its last warm-up game.

Ahead of the team’s arrival, an Argentine federation official had a greeting put up on the gate of the team base in Belo Horizonte saying, “Welcome future champions.”

He acknowledged that some players, including Messi, weren’t thrilled by the triumphalism, and the sign was quickly removed.

After the Slovenia match Messi brushed off a TV reporter who asked whether he should bring a flag saying, “Argentina campeon” to Brazil.

“You bring what you want, we’re taking it easy,” Messi said.

— with AP

Barretto, Beto to turn out for WIFA XI in exhibition match against Mizoram

MUMBAI: The Western Indian Football Association will be hosting an exhibition match between the the Santosh Trophy Championship Winners Mizoram and WIFA XI.under floodlights, at the Cooperage Ground on 5th June 2014 at 6 p.m.

The WIFA XI is a mix of the Maharashtra Santosh Trophy squad that made it to the semi-finals this year and internationals Steven Dias and Raju Gaikwad. Steven Dias will lead the charge for WIFA XI. The coach for the team is Irenio Vaz. Augusto D’Silva and Salim Pathan will be his assistants.

Meanwhile, the WIFA XI will be boosted by the presence of professional footballers, Jose Ramirez Barretto and Roberto ‘Beto’ Mendes da Silva. Freight Express International Cargo (FEI), along with WIFA, will also be felicitating the Mizoram team on June 6 at the ICE awards ceremony at Bandra.

FEI has borne all the expenses for flying down the Mizoram team and hosting them at The Leela.

WIFA XI: Jose Ramirez Barretto and Roberto ‘Beto’ Mendes da Silva, Rohel Shaikh, Floyd Dharmai, Abhishek Ambekar, Mohd. Shabaz Pathan, Linekar Machado, Mohammed Shafique, Paresh Shivalkar, Raju Gaikwad, Dane Pereira, Steven Dias (C), Loukik Jadhav, Praneel Mendon, Kunal Sawant (GK), Somi PT, Ruben D’Souza, Rahul Bheke, Harshad Meher (GK), Deepak Iramalu, Nihal Chandran and Sujit Pandey.

WIFA to play exhibition match against Mizoram

The Western Indian Football Association would be hosting an exhibition match between the Santosh Trophy National Championship winners Mizoram and WIFA XI under floodlights at the refurbished Cooperage ground here on on June 5.

WIFA XI is a mix of the Maharashtra Santosh Trophy squad that made it to the semi-finals this year, and includes Indian internationals Steven Dias and Raju Gaikwad, among others, and is to be led by Steven Dias, a release said today.

Freight Express International Cargo (FEI), along with WIFA, will also be felicitating the Mizoram team on June 6 at the ICE Awards Ceremony at Bandra.

2 teenagers to be picked for Bayern Munich football camp

The East Zone leg to pick two talented teenage footballers for the Bayern Munich football camp in August was launched here today.

Over 15,000 youngsters from across 250 schools and football clubs in nearly 100 places of the eastern part of the country will be screened during the selection process in West Bengal and North East.

India forward Dipendu Biswas, who is part of the jury member for the Eastern leg, said, "It gives a lifetime opportunity for the kids to interact and learn from the best football talent in the world. I hope to see an enthusiastic response."

Overall, six talented footballers from a pool of 40,000 across the country will be screened during the selection process to be held till July for the Zonal leg finale carrying a prize purse of Rs 1.20 lakh.

The selection process is being conducted by the Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance for the fifth year in succession.