World Cup
WORLD CUP ALL-TIME TOP SCORER BRINGS WORLD CUP TROPHY TO DRAW VENUE
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
By close of next week, the complete field of 32 teams for the Russia 2018 World Cup will be completed. Attention naturally shifts to the match-ups in the group stage of the competition which opens next June.
Focus will be on the final draw ceremony holding at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow on December 1. Adding glamour to the ceremony which may likely last 90 minutes, the regulation time for a football match, will be the display of the FIFA World Cup trophy – the object of the often over flowing global emotions.
FIFA has announced that World Cup winner with Germany and the top goal scorer in World Cup history, Miroslav Klose has accepted to be part of the ceremony and will bring the trophy onto the stage.
As Sports Village Square has gathered from FIFA, the World Cup trophy will be making a star appearance at the Final Draw as the first leg of the FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour. The trophy will be in Nigeria in March 2018
“For very obvious reasons, the World Cup holds very special memories for me,” Klose, who played in four editions of the World Cup between 2002 and 2014, told FIFA.com. He scored 16 goals – more than any other player in the history of the game.
“I feel very honoured to somehow still be a part of the World Cup, even after my retirement, and particularly to present to Russia and to the world this trophy that we fought so hard to win in Brazil in 2014.”
After carrying the FIFA World Cup Trophy on to the stage, Klose will have very good reason to follow the results of the draw closely: the 39-year-old has been a member of the German national team’s coaching staff since announcing his retirement in November 2016.
“The draw is one of those moments when you know that, for a few minutes, the eyes of the whole football world are on the same place,” he said. “The expectation it creates is simply incredible. I was in Russia for the Confederations Cup earlier this year and I have no doubt that the country will deliver another beautiful event as it prepares to host the World Cup in 2018.”
The Final Draw will split the 32 qualified teams into eight groups according to procedures approved in September. The allocation of teams to the four pots will be based on the October 2017 edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. Among the eight draw assistants will be Russian football legend Nikita Simonyan, with the other seven names to be announced in the weeks to come.
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The Trump administration will not require World Cup ticket holders from countries flagged for high rates of visa overstays to pay expensive bonds to enter the United States, a U.S. State Department official said on Wednesday.
The administration last year began requiring visitors from some countries to pay bonds of up to $15,000 to obtain tourist visas to the U.S., saying the steep deposit was needed to prevent visa overstays. Fifty countries are currently subject to the bond requirement, which was expanded this year.
Five of the 50 countries subject to the visa bonds qualified to participate in the World Cup: Algeria, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Tunisia.
Mora Namdar, the top official in the State Department’s consular affairs division, said the U.S. would waive the bond requirement for ticket-holding fans who had already registered through a special system to expedite their visa processing. Qualifying team members and staff can also have the bonds waived, Namdar said.
“We remain committed to strengthening U.S. national security priorities while facilitating legitimate travel for the upcoming World Cup tournament,” she said in a statement.
The Associated Press first reported the news.
The World Cup, one of the globe’s biggest sporting events, will be held in June and July this year across three countries – the United States, Canada and Mexico.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown has already cast a pall over the event and raised concerns about the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
Last year, masked federal agents surged into U.S. cities to track down immigration offenders and detained some tourists at airports.
The advocacy group Human Rights Watch , in late April, called on FIFA to press the U.S. government to establish an “ICE Truce” for the World Cup, including a public guarantee to refrain from immigration enforcement operations at games and venues.
DHS said at the time that international visitors travelling for the games “have nothing to worry about” if they have legal immigration status.
The U.S. launched a system in January to make it easier for World Cup ticket holders to obtain expedited visas. In order to have the bond requirement waived, ticket holders from affected countries must have registered in that system, known as FIFA PASS, by April 15.
-Reuters
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New Jersey’s public rail system is further dropping its World Cup ticket price from an original $150 per round trip to $98, the rail system provider said on Wednesday.
This NJ TRANSIT cut followed a reduction to $105 earlier in May.
The prices for the trip, which outraged World Cup fans both in the New York City area and from overseas, sparked much political comment, from local officials to U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
Local officials had complained that FIFA was going to earn billions from the event, while New Jersey taxpayers would be footing a huge bill for security, disrupted services and other game-related impacts.
“We were able to reduce costs while protecting NJ Transit’s daily customers and commuters from bearing the financial burden,” NJ Transit Chair Priya Jain said.
The price drop was possible because of additional advertising revenue, the agency said.
The tournament, co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico, starts on June 11.
-Reuters
Visit the Sports Village Square Channel: https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
The White House refuted reports that the United States denied visas for five members of Iraq’s national team ahead of next month’s World Cup.
The State Department sent a statement on Wednesday to Front Office Sports in response to online reports involving five players, including Luton Town forward Ali Al-Hamadi.
“Currently, there are no known issues affecting the Iraq National Team players, and they remain on track to compete in the World Cup,” the statement reads. “We maintain daily communication with FIFA and will continue to prioritise these players in accordance with the President’s Executive Order, ensuring an incredible and safe tournament.”
The Iraqi Football Association also quashed the rumours that had circulated on social media on Tuesday.
“The news is false, and the truth is that all the national team players have obtained entry visas to America,” it said, per the Iraqi news site The New Region, adding that the players are also in the process of getting Canadian visas.
Iraq is in a tough Group I for this summer’s FIFA World Cup in North America, along with France, Senegal and Norway. Iraq is scheduled to play games in Foxborough, Mass. (June 16 vs. Norway), Philadelphia (June 22 vs. France) and in Toronto (June 26 vs. Senegal).
-Reuters
Visit the Sports Village Square Channel: https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vaz7mEIGk1FxU8YIXb0H
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