Sport

More than two years after FIFA awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar the influential French magazine France Football is alleging the gulf kingdom bribed its way to hosting the event.

­The 15-page article published on Tuesday and titled ‘The Qatargate’ reveals evidence pointing towards Qatar buying the right to host the 2022 World Cup.

The magazine claims African Confederation President Issa Hayatou of Cameroon and Jacques Anouma of Ivory Coast who both took part in the voting were accused of taking bribes by a former Qatari bid employee Phaedra Al Majid.

It was also revealed that Qatar reportedly poured around $1.25mn into the 2010 African Confederation Congress to gain exclusive access to the four Africans on the FIFA executive committee. One of them, Nigerian Amos Adamu, was later suspended from the executive committee following allegations made by the Sunday Times.

The magazine describes a meeting between the then French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the incumbent UEFA President Michel Platini and the Qatari crown prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani in 2010. Platini later opted for Qatar during the vote, while the crown prince has since bought Paris St. Germain, making it one of the strongest football clubs in Europe, and launched beIN Sport in France.

The magazine says it will hand the evidence to FIFA so a supplementary investigation in the Qatar bid can be launched.
 

Kazakhstan’s Galina Vishnevskaya won silver in the 2013 Youth and Junior Biathlon World Championship that was held in Obertilliach, Austria, Vesti.kz reports.

An Israeli soccer club notorious for the anti-Arab chants of its fans plans to recruit two Muslim players, fueling protests in the stands.

At a Premier League game on Saturday (January 26), Beitar Jerusalem supporters held a banner reading “Beitar will always remain pure”. Other signs hoisted by fans also protested against its owner's intention to have two Muslim Chechen players join.

The Beitar club is a bastion of Israel's political right-wing and the only leading soccer team in the country never to have signed an Arab player because of fan pressure.

A Muslim player, Nigerian defender Ibrahim Nadalla, was on the team briefly in 2005 but left after experiencing consistent hostility from its supporters.

“Imagine, just imagine what would have happened if (soccer) clubs in England and Germany had announced that a Jew cannot join their teams. We, the Jewish people, who should lead the fight against racism and fascism; we, who will bear the scars of these phenomena on our bodies for generations to come, cannot and must not stay silent in the face of these calls,” Israeli Knesset speaker and a senior ruling Likud member, Reuven Rivlin said on Sunday during an event marking international Holocaust Day in Tel Aviv.

Police at the match arrested three supporters on suspicion of incitement, and at least one of them appeared in a Jerusalem court on Sunday, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

The Israel Football Association (IFA) said it would take disciplinary action against the club. In a ruling against the team a year ago, an IFA court said that Beitar Jerusalem “had not made an honest effort to combat fans' racist chants”.

Beitar Jerusalem is owned by Russian-born billionaire Arkady Gaydamak. He said he would not be deterred from bringing the two Chechens, Zaur Sadayev and Dzhabrail Kadiyev, from Russian premier league club Terek Grozny to Israel later in the week.

Arab citizens make up around 20 percent of Israel's population of 7.8 million and no other Israeli club, many of whom have Arab players, has ever effectively barred them. Arab players have long been included in Israel's national team.

Beitar Jerusalem is now in fourth place in the Premier League, a position that could earn it a place in European club play next season. 1976 to 1986, said Beitar Jerusalem's fans had shown “wanton racism”. He called on the IFA to take firm action against the club.
 

Euro 2020 will be held in 13 cities, with the semi-finals and final played at the same stadium, Uefa has announced.

European football's governing body has confirmed earlier plans to hold the tournament across the continent.

 There will be no more than one venue per country and host countries will not qualify automatically.

However host nations who do qualify for the tournament will play at least two of their three group matches at home.

Gianni Infantino, Uefa Secretary General, told a news conference in Nyon, Switzerland, on Friday: "The matches will be split into 13 packages - 12 cities who will have three group stage matches and one knock-out round match, and one city will host the two semi-finals and final.

"There will be only one venue per country and it means the semi-finals and the final will be played in the same venue."

 The Football Association has already put forward Wembley as a possible venue for the final. It expects to face rival bids from Berlin, Istanbul, Madrid and Rome.

Istanbul is the favourite for the final - but only if it loses its bid for the 2020 Olympics. Uefa president Michel Platini has already said he would back the Turkish city and he confirmed his position again on Friday.

"[Istanbul] would be my vote, but if they get the Olympic Games it's out of the question that they could stage the Euros [final] or a match."

Cardiff, Dublin and Glasgow are all expected to bid to host group matches. The FA will also bid for group matches and quarter-finals if its bid to host the final stages at Wembley is unsuccessful.

Uefa's executive committee will meet on 28 March to decide the bidding requirements. It is expected that bidding cities will have to provide an airport with two terminals or two different airports in order to keep rival fans apart - something that could pose a problem for Cardiff.

Infantino also confirmed that Uefa will take travel distances into account when allocating venues, with a maximum flight time of two hours between host cities, where possible.

A final decision on venues for Euro 2020, the tournament's 60th anniversary, will be made in September next year.


European Championship history

• First event in 1960 had four teams in the finals - 17 entered
• Format of a four-team finals continued until 1976
• Competition was expanded to eight teams in 1980
• In 1996, when the tournament was held in England, 16 teams took part
• The 2000 finals were the first to be hosted by two countries - Netherlands and Belgium
• The 2016 finals will be hosted by France with 24 teams to participate
• Winners are presented with the Henri Delaunay Trophy, named in honour of the first general secretary of Uefa, whose brainchild the European Championship was
   

Kevin Dallman, Canadian defenseman and former Barys captain, got on the list of candidates for participation in the Olympic qualification tournament as part of Kazakhstan national team, Vesti.kz reports.

Didier Drogba was dropped to the bench for the first time in his long international career on Saturday, but his Ivory Coast teammates took up the responsibility to win a place in the quarterfinals of the Africa Cup of Nations with a 3-0 win over Tunisia.

Togo's later 2-0 win over Algeria ensured the Ivorians went through, and meant the 1990 champions became the first nation to be eliminated.

Drogba handed over the captain's armband to Didier Zakora, having failed to impress in his team's opening Group D victory over Togo.

The 34-year-old former Chelsea star had complained of a lack of match fitness before the tournament started in South Africa, having not played since the end of the Chinese league season with his club Shanghai Shenhua in early November.

Part of the Ivorians' "golden generation," Drogba is still waiting for his first AFCON title in six attempts, having lost in the 2012 final after a penalty shootout against Zambia.

However, he did come on as a replacement in the second half for his 92nd international appearance as Yaya Toure and another substitute, Didier Ya Konan, scored late goals to add to Gervinho's first-half opener.

"Why didn't I play Didier Drogba? Because it seemed to me that the 11 players I picked were the best to overcome this good Tunisian side," Ivory Coast coach Sabri Lamouchi told reporters in Rustenburg.

"My first satisfaction comes from the victory and the second from the content. We really entered this competition today.

"We caused a lot of problems for this very good Tunisian team and were never really threatened at any point."

Arsenal striker Gervinho put his team ahead in the 21st minute with his second goal of the tournament, but the Elephants needed to wait until two minutes from the end before two-time African player of the year Toure curled in his second in two games.

Ya Konan, also dropped to the bench after starting against Togo, sidefooted home the third goal in the 90th minute.

Togo helped the Ivorians to go through to the knockout phase ahead of the final round of group games by beating Tunisia's north African rivals Algeria.

Captain Emmanuel Adebayor scored the opening goal in the 32nd minute to give his team hope of reaching the last eight for the first time, needing only a draw in Wednesday's match against Tunisia.

The match was held up late in the second half when a goal post was knocked over after Algeria's Adlene Guedioura collided with the netting, meaning 13 minutes of added time were played.

Two minutes into that, Dove Wome struck on the counterattack to end Algeria's hopes of going through.

Adebayor has returned to international action after settling a dispute with national team officials.

Togo did not reach the finals of the 2012 tournament, having been reinstated in the qualifiers after initially being banned.

The squad broke rules by withdrawing before the 2010 event in Angola following a gun attack on the team's bus that left three people dead.