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Uefa dashes England hopes of back door to Euro 2008
Marcus Christenson
Uefa has extinguished any hope of a back-door route to the Euro 2008 finals
for England by reiterating that none of Croatia's games are in its dossier
of matches which may have been fixed.
European football's governing body announced on Saturday that they are
working with Europol to investigate games which may have been fixed as
part of illegal betting activity. The German magazine Der Spiegel reported
that 26 matches were under scrutiny, some of them from the Euro 2008 qualifying
campaign, and claimed the matches involved teams from eastern and southern
Europe, including England's group opponents Croatia.
The article led to speculation that Slaven Bilic's side
could have been implicated and therefore face expulsion from the tournament,
but Uefa's director of communications, William Gaillard, made it clear
yesterday that no Euro 2008 matches were under suspicion.
"There is nothing at all from the European Championship. It is pure
fantasy that it involved Croatia," he said. "There is no chance
of England or Scotland [who played Georgia in their qualifying group]
having a back way into the finals."
Gaillard confirmed that the only game being "officially
investigated" is an Intertoto Cup second-round match played last
summer. There are also 14 other games played this season about which Uefa
has suspicions. "We have set up an early warning system in recent
years with betting companies and the help of the police. There are always
investigations going on," Gaillard told Radio 5 Live.
"Whenever there is suspicion we try to gather information to try
to see if this is a normal pattern or not. At any given time there may
be 10 to 15 games that we are looking at. In this case the only game being
officially investigated is the one in the Intertoto Cup, because our inspectors
have decided there is enough information to open a procedure.
" The game in question was not a decisive match in the tournament.
There are then another 14 matches that our disciplinary body have suspicions
about and they are only in the preliminary rounds of club competitions."
Milan's playmaker Kaka yesterday won France Football's prestigious Ballon
d'Or award for 2007 with Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo second
and Chelsea's Didier Drogba fourth. Barcelona's Lionel Messi was placed
third.
Until last year, when the Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro won the award
after leading his side to the World Cup in Germany, 52 European journalists
voted for a player from a European club. For this year's award, however,
96 journalists from around the world voted and the shortlist of 50 included
players based in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico the United States and Qatar.
Kaka earned 444 points to Ronaldo's 277 and Messi's 255. Drogba was fourth
on 108 points with the Milan midfielder Andrea Pirlo fifth with 41 points.
For the first time since 2003, Brazil's Ronaldinho finished outside the
top five in 12th place. "To be honest I was expecting it a little
bit," Kaka told France Football. "I won the Champions League
and was the competition's top scorer. That's what made the difference
with the others.
"Cristiano Ronaldo lost to Milan in the Champions League. Had he
won maybe he would have won the award. And Milan would not have played
Liverpool in the final, let alone have won the trophy," he added.
"That is the key. You have to play in a winning team."
Sven-Goran Eriksson was back to winning ways at the City of Manchester
Stadium yesterday after City's draw at Wigan on Saturday as he guided
a Rest of the World Legends XI side to a 3-2 win against an England Legends
XI, coached by Terry Venables.
The aim of the game, organised by the Professional Footballers' Association
in their centenary year, was to raise ?1m for a new unit at a children's
hospital in Manchester. Lorenzo Amoruso, Ian Rush and Ally McCoist scored
for the winners with Leeds United's manager, Dennis Wise, and Jamie Redknapp
finding the net for England.
The
Guardian, December 3, 2007
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