Category Archives: General Interest

Statement by UEFA, the English Football Association, the Premier League, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), LaLiga, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and Lega Serie A

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Sunday 18 April 2021: (uefa.com)UEFA, the English Football Association and the Premier League, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and LaLiga, and the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) and Lega Serie A have learned that a few English, Spanish and Italian clubs may be planning to announce their creation of a closed, so-called Super League.

If this were to happen, we wish to reiterate that we – UEFA, the English FA, RFEF, FIGC, the Premier League, LaLiga, Lega Serie A, but also FIFA and all our member associations – will remain united in our efforts to stop this cynical project, a project that is founded on the self-interest of a few clubs at a time when society needs solidarity more than ever.

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We will consider all measures available to us, at all levels, both judicial and sporting in order to prevent this happening. Football is based on open competitions and sporting merit; it cannot be any other way.

As previously announced by FIFA and the six Confederations, the clubs concerned will be banned from playing in any other competition at domestic, European or world level, and their players could be denied the opportunity to represent their national teams.

We thank those clubs in other countries, especially the French and German clubs, who have refused to sign up to this. We call on all lovers of football, supporters and politicians, to join us in fighting against such a project if it were to be announced. This persistent self-interest of a few has been going on for too long. Enough is enough.

2021 Olympics: Should Japan Pass the Torch?

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Source: Statista

The Olympic flame has started its final leg to Tokyo as the traditional Olympic Torch Relay got underway in Fukushima today. Members of Japan’s women’s soccer team jogged off with the torch to begin the flame’s 121-day journey to Tokyo.

The postponed 2020 Tokyo Games, now scheduled to begin on July 23, are still a contentious topic in Japan, as many of the country’s citizens would prefer to see the megaevent cancelled in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still far from resolved. Just last week, the local organizing committees announced that the Olympic and Paralympic Games would be held without overseas spectators, dealing a tough blow to the event that normally attracts millions of visitors from all over the world.

“Currently, the COVID-19 situation in Japan and many other countries around the world is still very challenging and a number of variant strains have emerged, whilst international travel remains severely restricted globally. Based on the present situation of the pandemic, it is highly unlikely that entry into Japan will be guaranteed this summer for people from overseas,” the organizers explained.

As the following chart shows, almost half the respondents in a recent poll conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun and the Social Survey Research Center called for the games to be canceled altogether or postponed once again. 21 percent spoke out for holding them without international spectators (as currently planned), while just 9 percent would have liked to see them held without any limitations.

Olympics Infographic