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Scotland and Norway have a no-score in World Cup qualifiers
What a dissapointing game ... but what sort of presence is Scotland ever actually going to have on the international sports arena?
Scotland's Chris Iwelumo missed on open goal, but props should go to Scotland's goalie, Craig Gordon. Scotland is currently on top of Europe's Group Nine qualifiying group, but will have to start scoring some goals if they want to advance further. What a dissapointing game ... but what sort of presence is Scotland ever actually going to have on the international sports arena? ... more -
Setanta in World Cup highlights deal with ITV
England football fans unable or unwilling to face trips to Minsk, Astana or Kiev to follow their team’s World Cup fortunes will be glad to hear that a deal has been done to televise highlights of the matches on terrestrial television.
There was considerable upset, especially among tabloid newspaper sports editors, when Setanta, the sports channel operator, failed to reach an agreement with either the BBC or ITV that would allow them to show highlights of the team’s 4-1 defeat of Croatia on September 10.
Setanta has exclusive rights to televise England away games for the next four years.
The broadcasters could not come to terms after Setanta, which paid the FA £5m for the live and highlights rights, demanded a £1m payment for the game.
Both terrestrial broadcasters offered £250,000 in the first instance and although ITV later increased its offer to £500,000, no deal could be done on the day.
Instead, Setanta suspended its encryption for a short period so that viewers with access to its sports channel on satellite, cable or Freeview television were able to see the highlights on the same night.
ITV then paid an undisclosed sum to show the highlights the following evening, drawing an audience of 1.6m, 12 per cent more than had watched the match live.
Now it has agreed with Setanta, again for a cost that has not been made public, that it will show highlights of England’s remaining three away World Cup qualifying games.
England are scheduled to play Belarus on October 15, Kazakhstan on June 6 2009 and Ukraine on October 10 2009. That last game is likely to decide who will qualify in the group for the World Cup finals in South Africa in 2010.
ITV, which already has the rights to England’s home qualifiers, is expected to show the highlights of the three matches at 10.30pm, after its evening news broadcast. England football fans unable or unwilling to face trips to Minsk, Astana or Kiev to follow their team’s World Cup fortunes will be gla... more -
Is South Africa Ready For 2010 Soccer World Cup?
Despite recent FIFA reports that a plan B might be necessary should South Africa be unable to host the biggest sporting event in the world, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has stressed that South Africa is on track to host the games, and there will be no plan B unless South Africa is hit by a natural disaster.
"The president (Blatter) made it clear that only a catastrophe would prevent South Africa hosting the 2010 spectacle. We had a problem in 2003 in China when an earthquake forced Fifa to move the Women's World cup to the United States.
"Only that type of disaster will force Fifa's hand on South Africa. (The Star) Despite recent FIFA reports that a plan B might be necessary should South Africa be unable to host the biggest sporting event in the w... more -
Load Shedding in South Africa
South Africans are being left in the dark as that country’s electricity provider flicks the switch daily in an attempt to relieve its overstretched power generation plants. With commerce and industry experiencing losses, unemployment on the rise, the frail and elderly suffering and motorised mayhem around blacked-out traffic lights, Marcelle Delew-Kappen and Howard Donaldson report on a country in chaos. South Africans are being left in the dark as that country’s electricity provider flicks the switch daily in an attempt to relieve its ... more
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2010 World Cup
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2010 World Cup
