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Over 500 football clubs to Soccerex 2005

Soccerex 2005 (13-15 November 2005, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai) is delighted to announce an exciting initiative that is aimed at attracting over 500 Clubs from all over the world. With Soccerex taking place over a 3 day period reserved for international friendly fixtures and WC play offs, this year every Commercial Director/Club President will receive a free, honorary guest pass to the event allowing them to meet over 2,000 investors, sponsors, media agencies and suppliers from all over the world.

Football Clubs have always been an integral part of Soccerex with the biggest names always present at the biggest convention in world football. This year we want every client of Soccerex who is targeting Clubs to develop new networks, build on existing relationships and negotiate business deals.

With cutting edge products and services showcased at Soccerex this year, it is our way of ensuring Clubs are kept up to date with the latest developments and continue to professionalize their businesses.

For quick information on exhibiting or attending Soccerex 2005, contact Geoffrey Gold, Gold Group Asia/Pacific Ltd, accredited represetative for Asia and Australia: Email: soccerex@goldglobal.com. Singapore Fax: +65 6491-5020; Jakarta Fax: +62 (0)21 719-4025; Melbourne Fax: +61 (0)3 9923-6003.

China FA cancels 2006 League Cup

The Chinese Football Association has cancelled next year's Super League Cup due to a lack of sponsors and complaints by overworked players, local media reported. Teams have generally excused their best players from the League Cup games, causing sponsors to stay away and fans to tune out, the reports via Reuters said. The Super League's second season has been mired in scandals over match fixing and player insubordination. Teams have been scrambling to find sponsors as audiences have dwindled.

Asian training program to improve goalkeepers

Eight coaches are attending the first Asian Football Confederation (AFC) goalkeeper coaching course which began in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Malaysia’s Lim Chuan Chin was joined by Xu Tao (China), Yoshio Kato (Japan), Haroon Amur Hamed (Oman), Jose Marcelio Carpio (Philippines), Hamad Amer Al Yami, Jassim Al Harbi (Ksa) and Maher Berakdar (Syria).

Goalkeeping educators Martin Thomas and Tony Parks from England are conducting the nine-day course following the AFC technical committee’s decision to accelerate the development of coaches and players in the region.

Park transfer to Bayern excites Koreans

Commenting on negotiations between Bayern Munich and FC Seoul for Park Ju-young, Korea Football Association president Chung Mong-joon told Jae-Yun Jung: “If Park Ju-young (Park Chu-young) plays for the best soccer team in the German League and has a chance to adopt himself to the soccer style and atmosphere there, his experience will be of a great help to the Korean team in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. We hope chances to play in the Bundesliga will be given to as many talented Korean players as possible.”

FIFA brokers record TV deal for 2010 World Cup

FIFA has agreed to direct TV rights deals with broadcasters in Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Spain as part of a Europe-wide package for the 2010 World Cup worth around one billion euros ($1.21 billion). For the rest of Europe, world soccer's governing body said it would work in partnership with the European Broadcasting Union to sell the rights to broadcasters in individual countries.

FIFA said the deal would help ensure that Europe's public would be able to view the vast majority of matches at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa live on public broadcast TV.

In Britain, the deal is with ITV and the BBC; in Germany, with ARD/ZDF and Premiere; In France, with TF1; in Spain with TVE and in Italy with RAI and Sky. Pay-TV channels will show some matches as well.

Although FIFA has agreed to a deal with Japanese TV as part of the Asian market, it has yet to conclude deals for North or South America and the rest of Asia and Africa, which will raise more revenue from TV rights for the tournament.

Australia gets rapid transfer to Asian Confed

FIFA's executive committee today authorised Australia's move from the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) to become the 46th member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Australia had not been expected to be given approval until a FIFA Congress meeting in Morocco in September.

"The FIFA executive committee decided to allow Australia to move now and I am very glad it has happened. It makes sense from both the Oceania point of view and for Asia it is good that we have another strong country," Mohamed bin Hammam, AFC president, told Reuters.

The move is expected to end a series of OFC mismatches which have included Australia crushing Pacific island nations American Samoa 31-0 and Tonga 22-0 in the last few years and to give Australia a more realistic chance of reaching future World Cup finals – for the first time since 1974.

Vision Asia may be JIT for Indian football

Just as the Asian Football Confederation makes strides in introducing its Vision Asia program to India, Indian football supporters, administrators and players appear dejected about the state of the game in their country.

According to former Olympian Mewalal, the standard of Indian soccer has gone way down from its earlier days and if proper guidance is not given, things are bleak for the game in the future.

“Now the Indian Football Association is headed by a politician. Therefore, 50 per cent of his work is as a politician and the other 50 is as a president. So he is not able to dedicate his entire work on the development of the game,” he said in an interview in the Telegraph (Calcutta).

He further complained that there has been a decline in the number of foreign teams coming into the country to play matches with the Indian team. “When we played, four to five foreign teams used to regularly visit our country to play exhibition matches. This helped us with the techniques. We used to learn the nitty-gritty of their style. But now everything has stopped,” he said.

The country's celebrated football international, Harjinder Singh, feels that there is no need for a foreign coach to be appointed to the national side. Arguing against the All India Football Federation’s policy, he said it was next to impossible for good quality foreign coaches to deliver with the "sort of shabby" soccer infrastructure that existed in the country now.

"I don't think we need a coach from abroad. The foreigners are used to advanced facilities. If you want to bring foreign coaches, then you have to give him infrastructure as good as in leading soccer nations," he said as quoted by PTI.

Earlier this month, Olympian Sailen Manna directed the blame to club administrators. "All over the world, even in China, which made remarkable progress in a short while, standards have improved and are maintained mainly through club soccer," he said, as quoted by the Hindu.

UK and German national pavillions at Soccerex

Within a week of unveiling the UK Government plans to support UK companies attending Soccerex 2005 (13-15 November, Madinat Jumeirah. Dubai) we had an incredible response from new companies looking to export their services overseas. Under the scheme, a number of UK companies will be positioned within the UK pavilion and be promoted as experts servicing the worldwide football industry.

The German Pavilion is already sold out, with Qatar and Saudi Arabia almost complete. This demonstrates a new and exciting era for Soccerex where high profile clients and international political bodies become part of the success story.

For quick information on exhibiting or attending Soccerex 2005, contact Geoffrey Gold, Gold Group Asia/Pacific Ltd, an accredited represetative for Asia and Australia: Email: soccerex@goldglobal.com. Singapore Fax: +65 6491-5020; Jakarta Fax: +62 (0)21 719-4025; Melbourne Fax: +61 (0)3 9923-6003.

Pakistan looks for "proper jobs" for footballers

The Pakistan Tribune, quotes the president of the Pakistan Football Federation, Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayatm, saying anyone could not expect somebody to give his best when the poor chap doesn't even have the means to earn his bread and butter.

"You will have to ensure proper jobs for the footballers to lift the standard of Pakistan football. Otherwise, things will get worse in the future not for football, but also for other games", the newspaper reported.

He said lack of jobs along with the absence of playing grounds and sponsorship have contributed to the dismal figure of Pakistan football more than anything else and “today even a contractual assignment for a top footballer is considered a stroke of luck”.

He said he had met with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to solve this dilemma and asked him for “increment of stipend” for players employed in various organizations.

Mr Hayatm is considered an innovator for transforming the ailing National Championship into a “tough, absorbing” National League and he is now modifying the National Football Challenge Cup on the lines of English FA Cup.

South Asian Fed to inspect Pakistan stadiums

A three-man delegation will inspect the Karachi’s Peoples Sports Complex and Lahore’s Punjab Stadium from June 27 to 30 to decide which venue is equipped with better facilities to stage the sixth South Asian Football Federation Championship in December 2005. The delegation includes Bangladesh’s Siraj-ul-Islam Bachchu, General Secretary of Dhaka-based SAFF, and World Sports Group’s Thomas Wheeler and Ian Mathie.

WSG owns the broadcast and sponsorship rights to the Asian Football Confederation’s events Asian Cup, AFC Champions League, 2006 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers and 2008 Olympic Asian Qualifiers.

The SAFF Championship is held biannually and brings together India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and under-dogs Bhutan and Afghanistan.

Corruption threatens football growth in China

Corruption in the Peoples Republic of China's football league could destroy the game there, Asian Football Confederation chief Peter Velappan has warned. He said all the money and effort ploughed in by the AFC to develop football in China would also go to waste if corruption was not eliminated.

"The government must investigate the allegations of corruption and eliminate the scourge in Chinese soccer," said, as quoted by People’s Daily. "I have warned them, the government must actively investigate this and eliminate the corruption scourge in Chinese football. If they don't then it will kill football in China and all the efforts we are making for Vision China will go to naught."

Mr Vellapan told China Football Association (CFA) officials last month the league needed to be run more professionally, especially in fields like club management, marketing and media coverage.

"We must bring the fans back to the stadium," he said, adding many supporters had turned away from the super league due to dissatisfaction with "referee corruption and match-fixing".

Mr Velappan was in China to launch the AFC's Vision Asia programme, a semi-professional city football league that will officially start in two Chinese cities - Wuhan in central China and Qingdao in the east.

As there are another 284 cities in China to cover under the programme, involving huge sums of money and effort from the AFC and China, there was a urgent need to address the problem, Mr Vellapan said.

"So they have to be very serious to fight corruption. When some South East Asian countries had this problem, we advised them to get the help of the police. This is what we have advised China to do," he said.

In April, China's cabinet stepped in to clean up the country's scandal-ridden football league, ordering a crackdown on match-fixing and hooliganism. The State Council order, unprecedented in the professional league's 12-year history, came after the inaugural season of the top-tier Super League was blighted by match-fixing accusations, prompting a near walk-out by some clubs.

"Fixed matches and gambling must be resolutely stopped, any appearance of this must be strictly handled," the order said.

Liverpool FC internet expands into "Greater China"

One of the leading Chinese internet portals, China.com Inc, has signed an exclusive partnership with LiverpoolFC.TV, the digital media arm of Liverpool Football Club, to develop the club's official Chinese-language website and wireless services for the People's Republic of China and as the exclusive partner and provider of internet applications and services for Liverpool in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan (Republic of China).

The website, to be launched sometime in August, will be operated, hosted and promoted by China.com and be part of Liverpool's worldwide online network. It will provide the latest team news, match scores, statistics and player profiles, as well as exclusive player interviews and photo galleries. Interactive sections will include chatrooms, a video clip library, online games, downloads, an online forum and an e-shopping platform.

In addition, China.com will also offer the Chinese public access to live scores, event related news, pictures, audio and video content, downloads, ringtones and mobile games via its wireless platform through SMS (short messaging services), WAP (wireless application protocol), MMS (multimedia messaging services) and IVR (interactive voice response).

LiverpoolFC.TV, a joint venture between Liverpool Football Club and ITV plc, operates the official club websites and mobile services, as well as producing television programming and other value-added services. Its official English language website is claimed to be the most visited football club site in the world, recording 2.8M unique users and 48M page views in May 2005 (source: Webtrends).

China.com Inc is an 81%-owned subsidiary of CDC Corporation which was listed on the GEM of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited on March 9, 2000. In December 2000, China.com Inc. was admitted as a constituent stock of the Hang Seng IT and IT Portfolio Indices.

Pakistan beats India to level football series

Pakistan defeated India 3-0 in the third and final football match yesterday to end the series one-all. The victory gave Pakistan their third ever win over the traditional rivals in nearly 57 years. It also helped them share the trophy and cash award of Rs 2,000,000 besides pocketing the cash incentive of Rs 5,000,000 that was announced by the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) President Faisal Saleh Hayat.

The first match at Quetta had ended in a 1-1 draw while India had gone in front with a 1-0 victory in Peshawar. Pakistan, ranked 175 and 30 places below the Indians, played more purposeful and combined football (PTI).

Asian Confed signs $200 million sponsorship deal

The Asian Football Association (AFC) has signed an agreement worth over 200 million US dollars, securing the financial future of Asian football until 2012. The deal between the game's governing body in Asia and World Sport Group, reportedly the largest rights fee paid to a sports governing body in Asia, cements WSG's partnership with the AFC which dates back to 1992.

"This agreement follows months of negotiations by both parties and I am delighted that we have now gained the commercial security to continue our rapid development and progress at all levels of the games. Our partnership with WSG is of immense importance to AFC. Their belief in Asian football, and their loyalty to AFC, creates a winning partnership, and I look forward to many more productive years," said AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam as quoted by Xinhuanet.

"Our commitment gives the AFC the strongest base possible from which to invest in football at all levels across the continent. They now have a firm footing to oversee the future development of the sport to improve facilities and to nurture the talent of tomorrow, from the elite national and club team competitions to grassroots projects," said Seamus O' Brien, President of World Sport Group.

The current roster of blue-chip companies which sponsor AFC include Asahi Shimbun, Coca-Cola, Emirates, Epson, FamilyMart, Hyundai, Makita, JCB, Kirin, Konica Minolta, Maxell, Nike, Nikon, Samsung, Toshiba, Toyota and Yamaha.

Indonesian fans appreciate Ronaldo’s visit to tsunami disaster area

Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo drew attention to football passions in Indonesia’s tsunami-wrecked and civil war-wracked province of Aceh yesterday when crowd control problems forced the cancellation of a coaching clinic. The 20 year-old had been scheduled to lead a widely publicised clinic for elementary school and junior high school students in the capital city of Banda Aceh.

Ronaldo made one attempt to walk out to the soccer field from his bus but eventually retreated to the vehicle when a path could not be cleared. Although officials tried to restore order, Ronaldo left after about 30 minutes for his flight to Jakarta. A spokesman for the event organizer said there was a "misunderstanding" with the security officials.

Earlier, Ronaldo had visited the coastal area of Ulee Lheu to see the destruction from the Dec. 26 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. He was accompanied by eight-year-old survivor Martunis, who the Portuguese national team hosted last Saturday week ago in Lisbon.

Revenue boost for Indian broadcast rights

Five companies have responded to the All India Football Federation’s tender for 10 year broadcasting rights to domestic football which closed on 8 June. According to AIFF sources quoted by Indiantelevision, Zee Nimbus has put in a bid of Rs 5.04 million (inclusive of production cost) and Zee Sports has put in a price of Rs 3.74 billion for the telecast and marketing rights.

The same sources state ESS and NDTV have submitted proposal that are slightly more complex and envisage revenue sharing and development of the game along with the Football Federation.

A final decision is expected to be announced after the bids have been evaluated by a committee comprising AIFF president Priyaranjan DAs Munshi, senior vice-president Praful Patel and treasurer Sivanand V Salgaocar.

Telecast rights to the new season starting in October are held by ‘pubcaster’ Doordarshan which is paying graded rights fees of RS 1 million, Rs 600,000 and Rs 400,000 for `A', `B' and 'C' category matches, respectively.