The International Football Federations Thread

[TCO]

That is the technology. As soon as the ball crosses the line theirs a vibration on the refs watch instantly. It changes nothing other than the right decision being made every time and yes that would stop goal-line arguments. The only reason the arguments exist now is because the wrong decision is made on the pitch. I've yet to see anybody complain after a match when a goal was correctly given/not given.

So that's paragraph is a big heap of bollocks, it's apples and oranges. That guy is moaning about stoppages and the referee not having the final say, which isn't applicable in the remotest sense here.

[Khain]

[Colly]

Who wrote that nonsense Andy? Was it you? :/

[METALMAN]

no. my mum wrote it.

[Lineker]

What a daft moo she is!

[METALMAN]

nah. my mum's a legend.

[Lineker]

England have risen to their best ever position in the Fifa world rankings.

Roy Hodgson's side have moved to third above Uruguay, whose 2011 Copa America victory has lost value in Fifa's system used to determine rankings.

Wales moved up one place into 37th, Scotland arrested their slide from the last rankings to reach 46th, while Northern Ireland went up one to 101st.

The Republic of Ireland, who lost all three group matches at Euro 2012, stayed in 26th.

England progressed to the knockout stage of Euro 2012 after they topped their group, but were unable to end their 16-year wait to reach the last four of a major competition as they lost on penalties to Italy at the quarter-final stage.

The Fifa world rankings are compiled every month, with ranking points accumulated according to results, the importance of the matches played and the strength of opposing teams.

World and European champions Spain have retained a comfortable lead at the top ahead of Euro 2012 semi-finalists Germany.

Five-times world champions Brazil, who do not have to qualify for the 2014 World Cup as hosts, continued their fall and have reached a record low of 13th.

The decline is due to the fact that they have played less top-level matches in 2012 than some of the other leading nations, and despite reaching the final at London 2012, their ranking will not receive a major boost in September as the Olympics is not a points-scoring competition.

Fifa world rankings - top 20

1. Spain 2. Germany 3. England 4. Uruguay 5. Portugal 6. Italy 7. Argentina 8. Netherlands 9. Croatia 10. Denmark 11. Russia 12. Greece 13. Brazil 14. France 15. Chile 16. Ivory Coast 17. Sweden 18. Mexico 19. Czech Republic 20. Ecuador

Selected others

26. Republic of Ireland 37. Wales 46. Scotland 101. Northern Ireland

:lmao:

[Sam]

Greece and Denmark being better teams than Mexico and Brazil sums up those rankings.

[Adam]

Brazil are 13th because they've not needed to play competitive matches hardly due to them already being in the 2014 World Cup. Talk about a flawed system.

[If_You_Wanna_Be_The_Man]

Yeah I have no idea why friendliest affect the rankings

[Guest mr. potato head]

Anyone else think Didier Deschamps sounds like a comic book supervillain?

[stokeriño]

Anyone else think Didier Deschamps sounds like a comic book supervillain?

What? ...No?

Anyway, the real reason I was here.

http://www.uefa.com/uefa/footballfirst/protectingthegame/financialfairplay/news/newsid=1857626.html#prize+money+clubs+withheld

In what I think is the first real action taken relating to FFP, UEFA have temporarily withheld the Champions/Europa League prize money to 23 clubs who have payments outstanding to other clubs/employees/tax authorities/etc.

FK Borac Banja Luka (BIH)

FK Sarajevo (BIH)

FK Željezničar (BIH)

PFC CSKA Sofia (BUL)

HNK Hajduk Split (CRO)

NK Osijek (CRO)

Club Atlético de Madrid (ESP)

Málaga CF (ESP)

Maccabi Netanya FC (ISR)

FK Shkendija 79 (MKD)

Floriana FC (MLT)

FK Budućnost Podgorica (MNE)

FK Rudar Pjevlja (MNE)

Ruch Chorzów (POL)

Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR)

FC Dinamo Bucureşti (ROU)

FC Rapid Bucureşti (ROU)

FC Vaslui (ROU)

FC Rubin Kazan (RUS)

FK Partizan (SRB)

FK Vojvodina (SRB)

Eskişehirspor (TUR)

Fenerbahçe SK (TUR)

The prize money will remain withheld until said balances are settled in full.

[Colly]

Aka the clubs that couldn't work out a clever way around it.

[EddieG]

So what if these clubs were waiting on their UEFA money to be able to pay these debts?

[stokeriño]

Basically, going into debt by paying a tonne of bills is better than staying out of debt by not paying bills.

At least that way the impact of this bad finance is restricted to one club, being the ones screwing around in the first place.

So what if these clubs were waiting on their UEFA money to be able to pay these debts?

...Then they were stupid?

[Lineker]

Eleven Russian cities will host the Fifa 2018 World Cup.

"Fifa has made a decision to use 12 stadiums in 11 cities," Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko said.

Thirteen Russian cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Saransk, Volgograd, Krasnodar, Rostov, Sochi and Yekaterinburg - had been competing for the right to stage the matches.

Mutko did not name the two cities that missed out.

[stokeriño]

Phew, no Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

[Lineker]

Guatemala internationals Gustavo Cabrera, Yoni Flores and Guillermo Ramirez are banned for life by FIFA after being found guilty of match-fixing.

The trio were involved in fixing three matches, two involving the national side.

The matches were Guatemala's friendly defeats by Costa Rica and Venezuela, and a 6-1 win by Mexico's Santos Laguna over Guatemala's Municipal in the CONCACAF Champions League in October 2010.

[Lineker]

Managerless Scotland have dropped to their lowest position in the Fifa world rankings for more than seven years.

Scotland, who lost their World Cup qualifiers against Wales and Belgium in October, fell 14 spots to 70th, their worst ranking since being 74th in 2005.

England move down a place from fifth to sixth, the Republic of Ireland are 36th and Wales are 66th but Northern Ireland climb 17 positions to 100th place.

World champions Spain remain top, ahead of Germany, Argentina and Portugal.

Scotland's worst ever ranking came in March 2005 when they were in 88th position, but their latest drop puts them below Gabon (52nd), Cape Verde Islands (63rd) and Uzbekistan (69th).

England, ranked third in September, fall down to sixth following their 1-1 draw in Warsaw against Poland.

Wales are nine places lower than they were in October as their 2-1 win against Scotland was followed by a 2-0 defeat in Croatia.

FIFA WORLD RANKINGS

(as at 7 November, October's rankings in brackets)

1. Spain (1)

2. Germany (2)

3. Argentina (4)

4. Portugal (3)

5. Italy (8)

6. England (5)

7. Netherlands (6)

8. Colombia (9)

9. Russia (12)

10. Croatia (11)

11. Uruguay (7)

12. Greece (10)

13. Brazil (14)

14. Mexico (19)

15. Ivory Coast (16)

16. Switzerland (15)

17. Ecuador (20)

18. France (13)

19. Algeria (24)

20. Belgium (30)

36. Republic of Ireland (28)

66. Wales (57)

70. Scotland (56)

100. Northern Ireland (117)

[Lineker]

Brazil have been granted permission by Fifa to host the Confederations Cup with six venues as originally planned. Football's governing body said the northeastern cities of Salvador and Recife will be part of the World Cup warm-up tournament next year. Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Salvador and Fortaleza will also host matches.