International Football
FIFA GIVES EXPLANATION ON MESSY MESSI ‘VOTE RIGGING’
Following the tainted outcome of the hitherto very glamorous FIFA The Best Award ceremony in Milan on Monday, FIFA has come up with some explanations.
Sports Village Square recalls that three countries came out to dispute their votes ‘allocated’ to Lionel Messi in the lead category.
The winners are determined by votes of national team coaches, captain and a journalist from each country. In Nigeria for instance, the votes will be from Super Eagles head coach, the skipper and traditionally, The Guardian newspaper gets the allocation for the media vote.
The emergence of Messi as the winner of the best player threw up controversies as both Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk were largely considered to have had better performances than the now six-time winner, Messi.
Others, like the Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, even posited that Mohamed Salah and Senegal’s Sadio Mane had better performances given the impression that the collation of the votes may have been manipulated.
The disputed claims, so far, are from Egypt, Sudan and Nicaragua. Egypt protested to FIFA that the votes from the country, which expectedly put Mohamed Salah as number one were discarded.
Salah placed overall fourth in the poll, having 26 points, which is 20 below that of eventual winner, Messi.
Had the votes from Egypt been counted, Sallah would have had additional 15 points, comprising of five each from the coach, the captain and the media – who all claimed they voted Salah as their number one. But those votes from Shawki Ghareeb and captain Ahmed Elmohamady were not taken into account.
Salah also lost another five point as Sudan’s coach, Zdravko Logarusic, claimed he voted for the Egyptian, but it was inexplicably allocated to Messi.
Had that not been the case, the winner, arithmetically, would have been Mohamed Salah and not Messi.
But FIFA came out with its own explanation, strangely saying that the three votes from Egypt were rejected because they were signed in capital letters.
Furthermore, FIFA said that the Egyptian’s voting forms were not signed by the federations’s general secretary, which is mandatory.
From there, the Egyptian FA was contacted by FIFA requesting confirmations from their captain and coach. FIFA insisted the Egyptian FA did not respond until August 21 and therefore, the votes from the Egyptian FA could not be counted.
But a counter claim is that the Egyptian FA said they officially sent their votes to FIFA on August 15, four days before the deadline.
According to the FIFA voting office, which is monitored by independent observer PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Egyptian FA received two reminders to submit the properly signed voting forms by August 19.
FIFA insisted that the Egyptian FA did not respond until August 21 and therefore, the votes from the Egyptian FA could not be counted.
Regarding the claims of vote switching made by the Sudanese coach, Zdravko Logarusic, who claimed he voted for Salah, Mane and Kylian Mbappe – all being players of African origin, FIFA insisted that the votes were not switched and that the document it has read that the coach voted Messi, Van Dijk and Mane.
What then must have gone wrong? ‘We have checked the voting documents submitted by the Nicaraguan and Sudanese FAs and all these documents are signed and confirmed with the official stamp of the Nicaraguan and Sudanese FAs,’ the spokesman said, according to Daily Mail of UK.
‘Having compared with the vote sheets submitted by the FAs and the ones we have published we confirm that we have the right votes signed by the player/coach.
‘We are asking the Nicaraguan and the Sudanese FAs to inquire on this matter.
Former Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has been named the new head coach of the England national team, the country’s Football Association said in a statement on Wednesday.
The German, who is England’s third foreign manager, after Sweden’s Sven-Goran Eriksson and Italian Fabio Capello, will be assisted by Englishman Anthony Barry, the statement added.
“We are thrilled to have hired Thomas Tuchel, one of the best coaches in the world and Anthony Barry who is one of the best English coaches to support him,” FA CEO Mark Bullingham said.
Tuchel replaces Lee Carsley, England’s under-21 manager, who has been in temporary charge since the resignation of Gareth Southgate after England’s defeat by Spain in the Euro 2024 final in July.
-Reuters
German Thomas Tuchel has been appointed head coach of the England national team on Wednesday.
Born: Aug. 29, 1973 in Krumbach, Germany.
PLAYING CAREER
* Tuchel played for his local club TSV Krumbach, before moving to FC Augsburg’s academy at the age of 15.
* He never played for Augsburg’s senior side and joined German second division team Stuttgarter Kickers in 1992.
* After eight league appearances for Kickers, Tuchel moved to fourth-tier SSV Ulm.
* Tuchel made 69 league appearances for Ulm as a central defender before he was forced to retire in 1998 at the age of 25 due to a knee injury.
COACHING CAREER
* Tuchel began his coaching career with a youth team role at VfB Stuttgart in 2000, working with future Germany internationals Mario Gomez and Holger Badstuber.
* He returned to Augsburg and took charge of their reserve team for the 2007-08 season.
* Tuchel was appointed Mainz 05 manager in 2009, replacing compatriot Juergen Klopp.
* He guided Mainz to Bundesliga stability during his five-year stint at the club, gaining plaudits for his team’s high energy, attacking style of play.
* Tuchel took over from Klopp as Borussia Dortmund coach in 2015.
* He led Dortmund to a 2-1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in the 2017 German Cup final. He was sacked by Dortmund three days later.
* Tuchel joined Paris St Germain in 2018 on a two-year contract, replacing Unai Emery.
* He won two Ligue 1 titles, including a domestic quadruple in his second season, and guided the club to their first Champions League final, where they lost 1-0 to Bayern Munich.
* Tuchel was sacked by PSG on Christmas Eve in 2020, despite the club finishing top of their Champions League group and sitting third in the Ligue 1 table.
* He was named Chelsea manager in January 2021 on an initial 18-month contract following the dismissal of Frank Lampard.
* Tuchel revived the team’s Premier League season and guided the London club to the Champions League final, where they beat Manchester City. Chelsea also won the Super Cup and Club World Cup.
* Chelsea sacked Tuchel in September 2022 following a shock 1-0 defeat at Dinamo Zagreb in their opening Champions League group game.
* Bayern Munich appointed Tuchel to succeed Julian Nagelsmann in March last year.
* Bayern decided to let Tuchel go at the end of the 2023-24 season despite a contract until 2025. Tuchel steered Bayern to the Bundesliga title in 2022-23, but they finished the last campaign without any silverware for the first time in more than a decade.
* Tuchel will become England’s third foreign manager after Sweden’s Sven-Goran Eriksson and Italian Fabio Capello.
* Tuchel will take over the team in January ahead of the qualification campaign for the 2026 World Cup.
-Reuters
Wolverhampton Wanderers forward Mateus Mane has become hot property after Portugal named the 17-year-old in their Under-18 squad on Friday, one day after England included him in their squad.
Mane was called up for a second successive England youth camp by coach Liam Bramley before the team travel to Marbella for a four-team tournament this month.
Mane is eligible for both teams having played for the Portugal Under-17 side last season. As the Under-18 team is a non-UEFA age group, both nations are entitled to call the player up.
He made his England international debut last month against the Portugal Under-18 side who have named Mane in their squad for a four-nation tournament this month.
With both tournaments running concurrently, Mane can only play for one team and Wolves and England confirmed he would feature in Bramley’s side.
Reuters has contacted Portugal’s football association for clarification.
While players with multiple nationalities have played for more than one country if they are eligible, they are not allowed to switch allegiances at senior level – unless they have played only in friendly matches for the first country.
-Reuters
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