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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ BLOGS - David Bond

Archives for June 2011

Warner's departure poses more questions than answers

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David Bond | 17:23 UK time, Monday, 20 June 2011

So what does tell us about Sepp Blatter's promise to make Fifa more transparent?

On the one hand few who have observed Fifa's lack of accountability will be sorry to see Warner go after 30 years at the top of Fifa.

The former vice-president has been at the centre of many corruption storms and it is no surprise that, facing an ethics investigation into claims he arranged to bribe members of the on behalf of the former presidential candidate , he chose to quit before he was pushed.

But in doing so he has denied football and Fifa the opportunity of a proper airing of the claims against him. In announcing his resignation on Monday, Fifa said all matters relating to the ethics committee investigation were closed with Warner presumed innocent (neat phrase, that).

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Ticket controversy creates London 2012's first hurdle

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David Bond | 22:12 UK time, Friday, 17 June 2011

The disappointment so many people feel about the Olympic ticket sell off presents the first real hurdle London 2012 chairman Lord Coe and his team have faced on the road to the Games.

In many ways this was unavoidable. With only 6.6m tickets available, there were never going to be enough to go around - especially for the big events and ceremonies.

But what has angered so many is the lack of transparency. Only eight weeks after tickets went on sale, for example, we were told that 6.6m tickets were not in fact up for grabs but actually 1.3m less than that.

For the most sought after event - the men's 100m final - London 2012 did admit some time ago that only half of the available capacity in the 80,000-seater stadium would be on sale.

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Libya situation adds to 2012 Olympic dilemmas

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David Bond | 10:01 UK time, Wednesday, 15 June 2011

One of the issues raised by about Colonel Gadaffi's son and Libya's right to Olympic tickets is the level of control a host country and organising committee have over the way a Games is run.

It will shock and surprise many people - particularly those already feeling sore about the way 2012 tickets have been distributed - that it is the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which takes the lead on who gets tickets and who gets accredited.

That has always been a privilege fiercely guarded by the IOC and over whether two IOC accredited officials - Carl Ching Men-Ky and Gafur Rakhimov - would be allowed to enter Australia.

The Australian government banned both men on security grounds but the IOC's former president Juan Antonio Samaranch wrote to the country's PM John Howard demanding an explanation. The IOC was angry at this affront to the Olympic family's freedom from political interference.

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Third time unlucky for England

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David Bond | 11:35 UK time, Wednesday, 1 June 2011

Bloemfontein, and now . After last year's World Cup and World Cup 2018 vote English football has been given a harsh lesson on Fifa's world stage.

As he made the agonisingly long walk to the congress lectern this morning FA chairman David Bernstein might not have expected the angry backlash he would face.

After making his lone appeal to postpone the re-election of Sepp Blatter, he could only watch as, one by one, delegates from the rest of the world took it in turn to attack the FA's last minute move.

Haiti, Benin, Congo and Cyprus all publicly criticised the FA for making what they - bizarrely - viewed as an undemocratic request. It was against the agenda, they said, and England weren't playing by the rules. They rounded on the British media for creating a crisis without any real evidence.

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