FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke is in India with a view to improving football in the country. ...
02:22 PM, Sep 06, 2012
Zurich: Brazil stayed outside the top ten of FIFA's highly questioned ranking system on Wednesday, with England, Denmark and Greece all ahead of the five-times world champions. The South Americans, who hit an all-time low of 13th last month, climbed one place to 12th thanks to a 3-0 friendly win in Sweden. But their placing, one below Greece, is still surprisingly low as they have won 10 of their 13...
04:07 PM, Sep 05, 2012
Sao Paulo: Brazilians have decided to name the 2014 World Cup ball "Brazuca," an informal word often used to describe national pride in the South American nation. FIFA said on Sunday more than one million people voted to select the ball's name, with 70 per cent picking the term. Football's governing body said the name "symbolizes emotion, pride and goodwill to all," mirroring Brazil's "approach to football." "Brazuca" is also...
04:42 PM, Sep 03, 2012
Wayne Rooney, who was on the cover of one of the best selling game FIFA 12 by EA Sports, has been replaced by Barcelona star striker Lionel Messi. Messis transfer from Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) to FIFA was announced earlier this year by EA Sports, and on Monday the gaming company also released the other two men who will be sharing the spot on the cover page along with Messi...
04:59 PM, Aug 22, 2012
New Delhi: Two weeks before the start of the Nehru Cup international football tournament, India slumped to their worst FIFA rankings in history as they lost five places to be placed at the 168th spot in the latest chart released on Wednesday. Defending champions India will start the five-team Nehru Cup tournament, starting August 22, as the lowest-ranked side as the country continued its downward slide in the rankings. As...
08:56 PM, Aug 08, 2012
London: FIFA has imposed a two-match ban on Colombia player Lady Andrade after U.S. forward Abby Wambach said she was "sucker-punched" by her opponent in an Olympic football match. FIFA says its disciplinary committee suspended Andrade for a group match against France on Tuesday, and for the quarterfinals if Colombia advances. Wambach said she was hit in the right eye by Andrade in the 39th minute of a 3-0 win...
11:27 PM, Jul 30, 2012
Warsaw: Uruguay have moved above Germany to become the second-highest ranked team behind world and European champions Spain in the latest FIFA rankings published on Wednesday. Germany, who together with fourth-ranked Netherlands, Denmark (9th) and Portugal (10th) are all in a tough Group B at Euro 2012 which starts on Friday, have slipped to third. Argentina climbed two places to seventh while Brazil (5th) and England (6th) also moved up...
05:02 PM, Jun 06, 2012
Budapest: World football governing body FIFA's medical experts said they wanted a defibrillator at every game at FIFA tournaments as well as players to undergo medical exams before games to prevent on-pitch cardiac arrests. Speaking at a press conference after FIFA's second medical conference in Budapest, executive committee member Dr Michel D' Hooghe said: "The main word on the agenda of every medical conference is always prevention." The high number...
07:40 PM, May 26, 2012
New Delhi: India equalled their worst ever FIFA rankings by slipping seven slots down in the latest chart to be placed at 165th. India had a disastrous AFC Challenge Cup campaign last month in Nepal where they lost all their league matches and that saw the country lose 10 points from previous month's 132 points. The earlier all-time low after India appeared in the FIFA charts in August 1993 was...
08:14 PM, Apr 11, 2012
New Delhi: FIFA president Sepp Blatter arrived here Friday afternoon to inspect the infrastructure in the country before awarding the Under-17 World Cup football to All India Football Federation (AIFF). Blatter will be meeting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the evening before addressing the press. Blatter arrived here from Kathmandu where he and Nepal Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai inaugurated AFC Challenge Cup on Thursday. ...
04:22 PM, Mar 09, 2012
London: Figures compiled by the world football governing body FIFA showed that clubs paid a total $3 billion in 2011 to sign players. The total was calculated by FIFA's new Transfer Matching System, which has been introduced in an attempt to strengthen policing of football's money flows. The new system requires clubs signing players internationally to record with FIFA their contracts and all payments they make, which must go to...
06:02 PM, Mar 03, 2012
New Delhi: Indian football administrators are eager to use an upcoming visit by FIFA president Sepp Blatter to give an impetus to the sport in the cricket-crazy country. "The FIFA chief will visit India on March 9, giving us an opportunity to showcase the potential of football in our country," All India Football Federation secretary-general Kushal Das told The Associated Press on Thursday. "The world body is already helping us...
02:38 PM, Feb 16, 2012
New Delhi: In a much needed boost to India's bid to host the 2017 Under-17 World Cup Football, FIFA President Sepp Blatter will visit the country early next month to have a first hand account of the developmental work here. Blatter, who is scheduled to visit Nepal during the AFC Challenge Cup (March 8-19), will be in India on March 9, All India Football Federation vice-president Subrata Dutta said here...
07:28 PM, Feb 13, 2012
Kolkata: The auction for the Indian players for the IFA-backed Premier League Soccer, scheduled to be held on Sunday, was postponed on Saturday. "The players' auction will not be held tomorrow. IFA wants to sort out the issues with the AIFF and then we will go on a full-fledged basis. Utpal Ganguli (IFA secretary) is going to New Delhi to sort this out (with AIFF)," Bhaswar Goswami of the Celebrity...
11:42 PM, Feb 11, 2012
New Delhi: The much-anticipated IPL-style Premier League Soccer (PLS) may reach a dead end, with the AIFF set to withdraw permission for conducting the tournament after its all-powerful Emergency Committee meeting on Monday. The tournament, proposed to be held from March 24-May 6 in Bengal under the aegis of the Indian Football Association, had run into rough weather after the AIFF asked world body FIFA to temporarily suspend the six...
08:47 PM, Feb 11, 2012
Zurich: Already judged one of football's all-time greats at just 24, Lionel Messi unsurprisingly extended his reign as the world's best player for a third year on Monday. The Barcelona and Argentina forward received the FIFA Ballon d'Or award for 2011, beating his club teammate Xavi Hernandez and Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid to the game's most prestigious individual honor. "It's a huge pleasure for me," Messi said, after accepting...
01:13 AM, Jan 10, 2012
Madrid: FIFA player of the year candidate Cristiano Ronaldo and coach Jose Mourinho will skip Monday's awards gala because of team commitments, Real Madrid said on Friday. The 2011 Fifa Ballon d'Or gala takes place in Switzerland, but Madrid have a Copa del Rey game away to Malaga the next day and the duo do not want to disrupt their preparations for the match. Madrid lead Malaga 3-2 from the...
02:52 PM, Jan 07, 2012
It all began with a kick of the ball. In 1877, when Calcutta was still capital of British India, 10-year-old Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari was mesmerised by a ball game being played by Europeans in the vast open grounds in the heart of the city. He descended from the carriage taking his mother to the riverfront and watched from the sidelines. At some point, when the ball rolled over to him,...
10:32 AM, Dec 13, 2011
Zurich: World and European champions Spain stayed atop FIFA's monthly world rankings on Wednesday, despite losing a friendly to England, who climbed two places to No. 5. The Netherlands remained second but third-placed Germany narrowed the gap after winning 3-0 in a friendly between the sides. South American champions Uruguay closed on the top three, beating Chile in 2014 World Cup qualifying and No. 9 Italy in a friendly to...
04:12 PM, Nov 24, 2011
