Search: 'UEFA'

International tournaments don't always attract local supporters and ticketing arrangements rarely help. Mark Brophy explains

A team of FIFA delegates recently visited England on a fact-finding tour to aid the choice of host nation for the 2018 World Cup. There was much for the English bid team to promote including the existing stadiums, the tourist infrastructure and the tradition of the game in this country, none of which could have failed to impress the delegation. Great play was also made of the passion of our fans. But how many home fans will actually turn up for games should the bid be successful?

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Changing venues, vandalism and an intimidating empty stadium – Ken Gall tells the tale of a bizarre trip to Athens

For the many students of ancient Hellenic civilisation among the Dundee Utd travelling support, the news that United’s Europa League away leg at AEK Athens might have to be switched to a venue 186 miles away caused consternation for those whose main worry until then was how to combine a visit to the Parthenon with an evening’s entertainment at Piraeus’s alarming sounding nightspot, the Kinky Opera.

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Sasha Goryunov looks at how attempts to improve youth development don't always have the desired effect

What attracted Zenit St Petersburg, runaway leaders of the Russian league, to Aleksandr Bukharov? It wasn’t his knee – which has a history of cruciate damage. It may have been his 16 goals in 23 games in 2009 for reigning champions Rubin. But those goals would have been insufficient without something else – Bukharov’s Russian passport.

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Paul Joyce reports on the growth of match-fixing at every level across Europe, and how the authorities are working to combat it

In November 2009, news broke of the biggest match-fixing scandal in European football history. With the support of UEFA, investigators working for the public prosecutors’ office in the German city of Bochum identified 200 matches in nine European countries where manipulation was believed to have taken place. The Bochum commission, codenamed Flankengott, had intercepted phone calls, SMS messages and emails from 200 suspects throughout Europe.

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Steve Menary explains how qualification for the Champions League is becoming a closed shop

Spurs’ appearance in this year’s Champions League qualifiers is the first in four seasons by a team outside of the Premier League’s big four. Since 1994-95 and the start of the group format, just nine English clubs have played in the Champions League. The Premier League is a cash cow but between 1992-93 and 2008-09, Man Utd earned €261 million (£217m) from the Champions League – and that’s just from UEFA. Research from tournament sponsor Mastercard shortly before this year’s final claimed that whoever won would earn €120m in total.

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