FIFA rankings - Egypt makes big leap in latest rankings

Egypt have climbed up more places than any other African country in Fifa's latest world rankings for March.

14 Mar 2014
2014 World Cup - warm up - Ghana

Ghana Sports Minister Elvis Ankrah is confident the team will prepare in the right way for a successful World Cup.

12 Mar 2014
2014 World Cup - warm up - African sides ready

All five of Africa's World Cup finalists are in action this week as they continue their preparations for this summer's tournament in Brazil.
(Algeria; Cameroon; Ghana; Côte d'Ivoire; Nigeria)

5 Mar 2014
stars in Europe - Yaya Toure's incredible journey

He won the Champions League and two La Liga titles while with Barca. Toure also won league titles in Greece and England, and domestic cups in each country too. According to the people who know him best, Yaya Toure always had the ability and ambition he needed to make his journey from a barefooted boy footballer to one of the best players in the world. 

22 Feb 2014
stars in Europe - AC Milan set to sign Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien

Chelsea have agreed a deal with AC Milan to sell midfielder Michael Essien to the Italian side. Essien has flown in for talks and a medical with Clarence Seedorf's underachieving Serie A club.

25 Jan 2014
NATIONAL LEAGUE - TUNISIA - COACH - Ruud Krol appointed as new Esperance coach

The 64-year-old former Dutch World Cup captain joined the Tunisian side only a day after leading CS Sfaxien to glory in the Confederation Cup with a 3:2 aggregate win over TP Mazembe. Krol's departure ends a successful year at the club in which he also led the Tunisians to a first league title in eight years in May. "It was my decision to leave. 

20 Jan 2014

STARS IN EUROPE - CONGO -TORPEDO MOSCOW GOT PARTIAL FAN BAN OVER RACISM AT SAMBA

‪FC DYNAMO MOSCOW

On Tuesday it was revealed that ex-Blackburn captain Christopher Samba, 30, asked not to play in the second half of Monday's Moscow derby because of the chants.

Russian Football Union (RFU) ruled on Thursday Torpedo must shut the 'fan's sector' for their next league match.

However, all other parts of the Saturn Stadium will remain open.

The 'fans' sector' is the part of the arena where the most active fans of the home team sit. 

There are no restrictions in place to prevent those supporters from buying tickets to sit elsewhere in the stadium.

Away fans will not be affected.

After the RFU's ruling, head of the disciplinary committee Artur Grigoryants said: 

"There was a note in the delegate's report that throughout the first half there were chants directed at FC Dynamo player Christopher Samba.

"The delegate has confirmed it once again at the meeting. 

The referee of the match has also informed the committee that Samba told him about chanting during the first corner kick.

"Samba has also sent a letter to the disciplinary committee where he confirmed the chanting and that he appealed to the referee during the game."

On Tuesday, Dynamo vice-president Gennady Soloviev revealed: "Samba felt offended with Torpedo fans and didn't want to go on the pitch for the second half... that's why he was replaced."

Dynamo won the game 3:1 and manager Stanislav Cherchesov said afterwards that Samba had been substituted because of a calf injury.

The defender spent six years at Blackburn, making 185 appearances between 2006 and 2012. 

The Congo international left for Anzhi Makhachkala but returned to England in January 2013 to play 10 games in a loan spell with QPR.

It is the second racist incident involving Samba after a fan in Moscow threw a banana at him in March 2012 while the defender was playing for Makhachkala. 

Samba picked up the banana and threw it back into the stands.

Russia, which will host the 2018 World Cup, has had several instances of racism in the sport in recent years.

Brazilian defender Roberto Carlos was racially abused twice in Russia while also playing for Anzhi. Both incidents happened in 2011 - in St Petersburg and Samara, which are World Cup host cities.

St Petersburg is also among the cities that have been selected to host Euro 2020 matches, including a quarter-final.

In October 2013 Russian champions CSKA Moscow were punished by European governing body Uefa with the partial closure of their stadium in a Champions League match, following racist chanting directed at Manchester City's Yaya Toure.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said at a handover ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, before the World Cup final in July, that he hoped the World Cup would help Russia in its fight against racism.

"Fifa President Sepp Blatter puts a lot of personal effort into addressing social issues, and we hope that the preparations for the World Cup in Russia will also contribute to tasks such as fighting drugs, racism and other challenges we face today," Putin said.

 

26 Sep 2014
(BBC Russian Service by Rafael Saakov)

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