England U20 World Cup Team Accosted at Bogota Airport

It looked as if there may have been trouble at Bogota airport yesterday when security was massively increased for the arrival of the England under 20 World Cup Squad.

In fact the squad were given a very Columbian welcome by a host of female police officers who had gathered at the airport with the specific intention of making the team’s arrival as fun as possible.

As the girls ran towards the players it did look for a moment as if the entire team were just about to be arrested and detained but it was simply the keenness of the young ladies to engage the English lads in a swift salsa before they made their way to their hotel.

They certainly weren’t expecting to be accosted by the Columbian police in this manner!

The boys took to the floor but to be honest, we think they need to brush up a little on their Latin dance skills. Let’s just hope that the English Under 21s show even better movement on the pitch!

Who is Sepp Blatter anyway? 30 Facts about Joseph S Blatter

Image Credit Wikimedia

As Sepp Blatter rubs his hands and prepares to be re-elected as President of Fifa – unopposed – some people are asking who exactly is the head of this troubled organistion, this ducker and diver, this slipperiest of eels? Joseph S Blatter, otherwise known as Sepp is something of a mystery.  Many people know little about the man – so we thought we would put this right.  Here are 30 facts and quotes about and from Sepp Blatter for you to take in and digest. Just don’t do it on an empty stomach.

1. Sepp was born Joseph S Blatter on 10 March 1936 in Visp, Switzerlad.

2. He was never a professional footballer or involved in the management of a professional team.

3. He was elected as President of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) on 8 June 1998 – the eighth person to get the job.

4. Although not professionally involved with football until later in his working life he was the Head of Public Relations of the Valaisan Tourist Board in Switzerland.

5. He showed an interest in other sports, however, spending time as the General Secretary of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation.

6. He was also the elected President of WSoFoF (World Society of Friends of Suspenders).  This was a not so secret organisation dedicated to stopping women wearing pantyhose and demanding a restoration of the more traditional suspenders.

7. He once said: “Fifa cannot sit by and see greed rule the football world. Nor shall we.”

8. He helped to organise the Olympic Games of ’72 and ’76 as well as being the Director of Sports Timing and Relations of Longines, the Swiss luxury watchmaker currently owned by Swatch.

9. He once said: “A financial sanction is not an adequate measure. You can always find someone with enough money to pay (the fine).”

10. He became Technical Director of FIFA in 1975. He then became General Secretary in 1981, a post he held for 17 years.

Image Credit Wikimedia

11. In 1998 he became President.  This was among much controversy, concerning rumors of backroom dealings and financial irregularities. Surely not.

12. Farra Ado, then the vice-President of the Confederation of African Football claimed to have been offered to $100,000 to vote for him in the ’88 election.  This claim was made in the British press and is a matter of public record.

13. Sepp Blatter once said:” There is a movement in club football, which I don’t necessarily consider a prime example of solidarity, because it leads us to conclude the rich are getting richer and they are using everything in the market to create an exodus from Africa.”

14. He was re-elected in 2002.

15. In 2004 he surprise women footballers by suggesting that they really ought to “wear tighter shorts and low cut shirts… to create a more female aesthetic” in order to gain more male followers.

16. In 2007 he was re-elected for another four years.  Only 66 of FIFA’s 207 members nominated him. In 2009 he stood again and was elected again.

17. Michel Zen-Ruffinen collected a dossier claiming that FIFA had lost up to $100m under Blatter. This was handed to Swiss authorities but they cleared Blatter of any wrong doing.  FIFA paid all the costs.

18. Blatter removed Zen-Ruffinen (his Deputy) from office just before the 2002 World Cup.

19. Blatter once said: “The source of wealth is from individuals with little or no history of interest in the game, who have happened upon football as a means of serving some hidden agenda. “

Image credit Wikimedia

20. Blatter personally intervened during the 2006 World Cup when referee Valentin Ivanov issued 16 yellow and 4 red cards during the match between the Netherlands and Portugal. He said that Ivanov should have given himself a yellow card.

21. Blatter promised to apologise to Ivanov.  He never did. Ivanov was removed from further duties.
Blatter laughed at the Irish request to be the 33rd entrant at the 2010 World Cup because of the infamous Thierry Henry incident.  Publicly laughed. He is popular in Ireland.

22. Blatter has systematically refused goal-line technology or video replays to inform decisions made by referees.  Most other sports have this technology and use it.

23. Blatter said at the time: “It is obvious that after the experiences so far at this World Cup it would be a nonsense not to re-open the file on goal-line technology. […] We will come out with a new model in November on how to improve high level referees. […] I cannot disclose more of what we are doing but something has to be changed.

24. There are no plans to introduce goal-line technology for the 2014 tournament.

25. There has been widespread reporting that Blatter cut a deal with UEFA head Platini to make sure that Europe received the 2018 cup.  The tournament went to Russia.

26. He once said: “What I am most proud of is the legacy of hope that FIFA and football leaves around the world. It makes all of the efforts and energy I pour into this job worth it.”

27. Blatter is understood to have made direct reference to the evils of the media in a speech to the executive immediately before they voted for 2018 and 2022.

28.  He once said: “Whether associations, teams or players at each and every level, we all have a duty to ensure that our conduct does not lead to anybody being marginalized. Football has to set an example for others to follow.”

29. Blatter has been awarded over thirty awards, including a knighthood from from the Sultanate of Pahang and the Global Award for Peace, awarded by the International Amateur Athletic Association

30.  He once said: “I am sure there will be fair play this year.”  This is not a 2011 quote.

100 Greatest Sports Stars – Number 95 – Heather McKay

Australia, it cannot be doubted, has produced many world class sports stars, per capita possibly more than any other country in the world. That and the little green god aside we have to take our hats off to number 95 on our lists of the 100 greatest sports stars ever – possibly the greatest sportswoman that Australia has ever produced. Yet why, we wonder, have so few people ever heard of the incomparable Heather McKay?

It could be the fact that her sport was squash (she is not retired): for whatever reasons the sport has not joined the likes of golf and tennis in the megabucks or for that matter mega interest stakes. It could be, also (and we say this shamefully) that in an oft overlooked sport the female players are generally ignored even more than the male. Whatever the case, it remains that Heather McKay has one of the most outstanding sports records that you will ever hear about.

Domination isn’t quite the word for what she represented in the squash world. She was the ultimate squash player of the 60s and 70s and won 16 British Open titles in a row between 62 and 77. She also won the World Open title when it began in 1979. During this period she was never defeated. Not once. Never. Hats off to Heather! How many other sports stars have that sort of record? Yes, we couldn’t either.

What was more she also played racquetball and field hockey at top levels. Born in 1941 McKay was defeated only twice in her career (once in 60 and again in 62). When she retired in 1981 she had not been beaten since that day in 1962. Her first British Open came at the age of 21 and then there was almost a generation of comfortable wins. In 1968 she won the final against Bev Johnson (also an Australian) without conceding a single point.

Retiring at the age of 40 from top-level squash she has remained active in the Masters Level events, winning two over-45 and two over-50 World Championships. To cap it all she was a member of the Australian Women’s Hockey Team and won the American (Amateur) Racquetball Championship in 1979. Moreover she won the professional version of that title three times (80, 81 and 84) as well as winning the Canadian Racquetball Championship five times.

Some amazing facts about an amazing sportswoman. Although little known outside of her arena, are you surprised any longer to find here on this top 100 sports stars list?

100 Greatest Sports Stars – Number 97 – Chris Evert

The lady whose graceful postered form plastered the bedroom walls of many a teenage boy back in the 1970s, Chris Evert is a former World Number 1 tennis player.  From the US, she won an incredible eighteen Grand Slam singles championships.  She holds a number of records, too – six wins at the US Open and a Magnificent Seven at the French Open.  She was the world number one in at least five years (75 — 77, 80-81) and according to some people she should have that title for 74 and 78 in to the bargain.  As such, she makes number 97 on our list of the 100 Greatest Sports Stars – Ever!

Young Christine Marie (later to be called Chris) was born on December 21 1954 and comes from notable tennis lineage. Her father was Jimmy Evert who by the time Chris was born was a professional tennis coach but who had won the Men’s Singles at the Canadian Championships in 1947.

It was inevitable that Chris would chose tennis, then – drag racing was hardly going to be an option in the Evert family home!

In 1971 she made her Grand Slam tournament debut at the ripe old age of 16 – after she had won the national sixteen-and-under tournament.

It was a walk in the park at first – straight sets over Edda Buding.  However, she then had a much harder task against the more experienced Mary Ann Eisel and Leslie Hunt.  However, she lost out to the then indestructible Billie Jean King.  This meant an end to a fantastic 46 match winning streak but she was playing with the big girls now.

1974 was a good year when she won her first Grand Slam singles title (beating her previous winning streak with a remarkable 56 matches unbeaten.  As much focus was placed at the time on her relationship with fellow tennis professional Jimmy Connor as her victory – although this particular love match would prove to be a short live one.

She played with him in the mixed doubles finals that year but as her career progresssed Evert spent more time concentrating on her singles career.

Chris Evert wins the 1980 US Claycourt Championships.

Evert dominated the women’s game for the next five years, defeating the likes of Evonne Goolagong enough times to secure her place in the annals of tennis as the best female player of that era.  She was a very cool player – receiving an ice maiden reputation, but then someone came along who would challenge her composure.

Although good friends off the court it was Martina Navratilova who would prove to be Evert’s on court nemesis.  Their rivalry on the tennis court would become the stuff of sporting legend and while Evert bested Navratilova (seen together left) during their early encounters, Navratilova would ultimately prove the superior player in the 1980s.

Evert was a great player on all surfaces but it was on clay where she was most at home.  From August 1973 she won an unbeaten 125 consecutive matches on clay – and only lost seven sets.  This remains to this day a record.  Incidentally, this streak was broken by Tracey Austin at the Italian Open in 79.  She then went on to win a further 72 matches on clay before Hana Mandlikova beat her in the 81 French Open.

In one of their all-time greatest barn-burners, Chris & Martina went to 7-6 in the 3rd set in the ’87 Houston final.

Chris Evert retired from professional tennis in 1989.  After all, 157 singles titles was not a bad amount on which to leave – neither were her eight doubles titles.

Even her semi-finals history is staggering – out of the 303 tournaments she entered she got through to the semis in no less than 273 of them.

All in all, Evert won at a minimum of one Grand Slam singles title each year for thirteen consecutive years.

What is Chris Evert doing now?  She is currently operating a tennis academy (which bears her name) in the town of Boca Raton in Florida.  She also contributes to Tennis magazine.

A tennis legend, she will continue to be one of the role models that young players look up to for many decades to come.