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11 Countries in APL
4 Iranian Teams Qualify
Asian Professional Football League Committee on Wednesday decided that 11 teams will play in the 2009 professional league, which will be the first of its kind in Asia.
According to Mehr News Agency, AFC announced that Japan, South Korea, Iran, Australia, China, Indonesia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE and India have qualified for the league.
The committee evaluated all its 21 member confederations with a ranking system comprising grades A, B, C and D. Grade A means the country in question meets all requirements. Japan is the only country that got Grade A. Grade B means requirements will be met by October 2008.
Some 10 countries, including Iran, received Grade B. Grade C means that there are no assurances that all requirements will be met by October 2008. Some six countries were given Grade C. Grade D means that requirements are not satisfied and four countries were handed this grade. It must be noted that if the countries that got Grade B cannot meet the requirements by October 2008, they will be disqualified.
Meanwhile, AFC decided that four teams from Iran’s Premier League can vie in the 2009 professional league on a conditional basis.
Earlier, AFC had allocated three teams for Iran. Based on the new AFC decision, the Iranian Premier League organization must regulate the articles of association of all its clubs in compliance with Asian professional league standards.
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AFC Wants Iraq’s Football Body Reinstated
AFC has called for immediately revoking a governmental order dissolving the Iraq Football Association and urgent reinstatement of the democratically elected football body.
The Iraq Football Association was dissolved by the Iraqi government on Tuesday, AFC reported.
“The Iraq Football Association and its Executive Committee are democratically elected bodies and only its Congress has the right to dissolve them,“ said AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam.
“AFC will recognize and deal with only the democratically elected committee and office-bearers,“ added the AFC chief.
“The Iraq Football Association has done excellent work despite the difficult conditions they are operating in. It is a testimony to their hard work that Iraq are the Asian champions and their youth teams have done so well in AFC tournaments and also the Olympics.
“AFC’s appeal to the sports minister of Iraq is to restore the integrity of the association so that it can carry out its normal activities,“ said Bin Hammam.
“Such governmental interference and dissolution of the football federation which has been democratically elected based on FIFA’s statutes will have a negative impact on Iraqi football and Iraqi youth. We should avoid such confrontations,“ he concluded.
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Djokovic Grew Up on Clay
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Novak Djokovic
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Novak Djokovic has a warning for anyone who thinks his charge up the rankings is about to grind to a halt at Roland Garros. For the Serb, playing on clay feels just like coming home.
“I grew up on clay,“ Djokovic told Reuters in an interview at the Hamburg Masters.
“In Serbia, 90 percent of the courts we have in the country are clay courts so during the summer I played a lot of tournaments on that surface.
“Even though, of course, looking at my results the last year, year and a half or so my preferred surface is hardcourt, outdoors, but I’m happy that I’m managing to do really well on the surface I grew up on.“
While triple French Open champion Rafael Nadal is still the acknowledged master on the surface, Djokovic has proved this season that it would be foolish to underestimate him anywhere.
Djokovic may be ranked third in the world, behind Roger Federer and Nadal, but he is the number one in what the ATP calls the Race, which measures only performances since the start of the season.
The Belgrade-born player, who turns 21 on Thursday, won his first grand slam title in Australia at the start of the year and since then he has added two Masters titles to his list of honors.
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Platini, Blatter
To Resolve Disputes
FIFA President Sepp Blatter will meet his UEFA counterpart Michel Platini on Wednesday in an attempt to settle their differences over Blatter’s controversial plan for limits on overseas players.
Blatter has insisted for months that he would ask the FIFA Congress in Sydney at the end of this month to endorse the so-called ’6+5 ruling’ allowing club teams to start a match with no more than five foreign players.
However, the European Union has warned the rule proposed by world soccer’s governing body would conflict with its own laws on the free movement of labor, risking court action.
A UEFA source told Reuters on Tuesday that Blatter would still present the idea to FIFA’s 208 members in Sydney but will now ask them merely for a mandate to examine the idea further.
“This is not the same as asking Congress to impose the ruling,“ the source said.
“. . . it will be something of a climbdown because he will just ask them for a mandate and he will not ask Congress to agree to implement the quota system with a start date from 2010.“
FIFA declined to comment on its position, which has been unchanged since its Congress in Zurich a year ago approved examining the idea.
Last November, FIFA’s executive committee in Durban voted to put the proposal before the Congress in Sydney.
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Del Piero, Cassano
In Italy’s Euro 2008 Squad
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Roberto Donadoni
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Juventus striker Alessandro Del Piero and Sampdoria forward Antonio Cassano have been included in Italy’s provisional 24-man squad for Euro 2008, coach Roberto Donadoni said on Tuesday.
Del Piero, 33, has not played for the world champions in eight months but was expected to be included after finishing as Serie A’s top scorer for the first time with 21 goals this term.
“Del Piero has done well, he has had a great season,“ Donadoni, who has agreed a new two-year contract through to the 2010 World Cup, told a news conference.
“He had a first phase with some difficulties then there was a continual improvement and he did what he did and that has permitted him to wear the national team shirt again.“
Cassano, on loan from Real Madrid, has produced some inspired displays this season but Donadoni had resisted calling him up because of worries over his bouts of indiscipline.
The colorful 25-year-old, who picked up the last of his 10 caps in 2006, was banned for five games in March for verbally abusing a referee and throwing his shirt towards him.
Cassano said, “It was one of my objectives. I am happy to have reached it after an exciting season. This call-up gives me great satisfaction.“
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Decisive Bout
The upcoming bout between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito will clarify the welterweight division as well as showcase the rivalry between Mexico and Puerto Rico fighters.
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Friendly With Zambia
The Iranian national football team will play a friendly match with Zambia on May 25, Iran’s Football Federation (IFF) has announced.
The national team, which is currently in the northwestern city of Ardebil, will play against the African country at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium, a week before a decisive match in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers against the UAE.
Iran and Bosnia were scheduled to play a friendly in Tehran on May 26, but the match was canceled when Bosnia’s coach Meho Kodro was dismissed due to his differences with the country’s football federation.
Zambia finished runner-up twice in African Nations Cup in 1974 and 1994. Frenchman Herve Renard was appointed as the team’s coach in May 2008.
Zambia has no World Cup appearances.
Water Polo Team Due in Japan
Iran’s water polo team is slated to travel to Japan to participate in the 7th edition of the 2008 FINA Men’s Water Polo World League.
The 10-man Iranian squad is scheduled to fly to the Japanese capital, Tokyo on Wednesday evening, Press TV reported.
Iran will compete with Australia, New Zealand, China and Japan in the Asia-Pacific group.
Some 21 national teams will attend the event which will begin on May 26 and end June 1.
The Super Final between the 10 qualifying teams will take place from June 16 to June 22 in Genova, Italy.
This is the first time that Iranian water polo team has attended World League competition.
Celtics Beat Pistons In East Finals Game 1
Kevin Garnett had 26 points and nine rebounds and Paul Pierce scored 22 points Tuesday night to give Boston an 88-79 victory over the Pistons in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, the Celtics’ 15th straight home win.
Despite having just one day off after an epic Game 7 that eliminated LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers from the conference semifinals, Boston scored the first eight points against a Detroit team that waited six days for the series to start.
“Rest is not an option,“ Garnett told AP. “So we don’t even think about that.“
Kendrick Perkins had 10 rebounds for Boston and Rajon Rondo scored seven of his 11 points in the fourth quarter, hitting a 3-pointer with 1:47 left in the game after the Pistons cut the deficit to 83-75. Rondo also had seven assists and five steals while outplaying Chauncey Billups, the MVP of the 2004 NBA finals, in his return from a right hamstring injury.
“I believe in him. I play him. I’m going to keep playing him,“ Celtics coach Doc Rivers said of his point guard. “I told him before the game, ’Stop worrying about them. Make them worry about you, too. You’re a hell of a basketball player’.“
The Celtics earned home court through the playoffs with a league-best 66-16 regular season record and rode that advantage to seven-game victories in series against Atlanta and Cleveland. On Tuesday they improved to 9-0 at home in the playoffs, but they’re 0-6 on the road.
Bruseghin Takes Time Trial Stage
Italy’s Marzio Bruseghin of the Lampre team won the Giro d’Italia 10th stage individual time trial from Pesaro to Urbino on Tuesday.
Bruseghin clocked 56 minutes 41 seconds, to finish ahead of Spain’s Alberto Contador, with another Astana rider, Germany’s Andreas Kloden third, BBC reporeted.
Italy’s Giovanni Visconti of the Quick Step team retained the overall race lead after finishing in 12th.
Barloworld’s Geraint Thomas was the best-placed Brit, finishing in 71st.
Of the other British riders, Thomas’s team-mate Steven Cummings finished in 79th, Mark Cavendish in 149th, David Millar in 155th and Bradley Wiggins in 157th.
Tour de France champion Contador finished eight seconds slower than Bruseghin, while his team-mate Kloden finished 20 seconds adrift.
The specialist climbers managed to avoid losing too much time, with Italian Gilberto Simoni losing less than a minute and his compatriot and two-time stage winner Riccardo Ricco less than two minutes, even though he fell during the stage.
Defending Giro champion Danilo Di Luca is more than two minutes behind Contador, who will not defend his Tour de France title this year after organisers chose not to select Astana because of their implication in doping scandals.
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