Gervinho's Signature Could Spark Big Change at AFC by Anders Marshall As readers of Just Arsenal know, I'm not a big fan of Gervinho, at least not until he ships in 30 goals for us with his left foot, while riding a unicycle, at the same time hitting Sam Allardyce in the face. With a [...]

Is it necessary to have 70,000 seat stadiums? Can 50-55,000 do the trick?
It's common knowledge that people aren't always in the mood to rush out to the stadium fighting traffic, paying parking and high ticket prices.

Tomorrow sees Singapore take on The Maldives in a friendly that both will use as vial preparation ahead of World Cup preparations.
One player missing from the squad, despite having been called up initially, is Medan Chiefs Shahril Ishak. The Medan Chiefs play in the breakaway Liga Primer Indonesia which, under the old PSSO regime, was not recognised and was effectively an illegal league not recognised by PSSI, AFC and them doyens of transparency and fairness, FIFA.

THE QUARTER-FINALS (September 13 and 27)
Persipura Jayapura (Indonesia) vs Arbil (Iraq)
Chonburi FC (Thailand) vs Nasaf (Uzbekistan)
Kuwait SC (Kuwait) vs Muong Thong United (Thailand)
Al Wehdat (Jordan) vs Duhok (Iraq)
SEMI-FINALS (October 4 and 18)
Winner of QF2 and Winner of QF4
Winner of QF1 and Winner of QF3
FINAL (October 29)
Winner of SF 1 vs Winner of SF 2
Gonna be tough for the local lads is my succinct comment!

After a depressing few days, let's try and lighten the mood a little as Mark Murphy brings us his memories of the former home of Kingstonian FC at Richmond Road.

I only saw the death throes of Isthmian League Kingstonian's Richmond Road ground. But it still had ‘something.' And (sorry if this is "too much information") most of my dreams involving Kingstonian games are still at Richmond Road, despite it hosting its last fixtures in January 1988.

Scarred by its worst match-fixing scandal in its 28-year history, South Korea's 16-team, professional K-League will split into two divisions and move to a relegation and promotion system from 2013. Under the new system, the K-League will punish any club that has players found guilty of match rigging by deducting points earned from league games, by depriving clubs the right to compete in the AFC

Cesc Fabregas has furiously denied bad-mouthing the Arsenal and insisting he didn't leave, as claimed in an interview, because the Gunners couldn't win silverware in the next few years.

Cesc-gate erupted yesterday with a supposed interview in which the Barcelona midfielder set out his reasons for quitting the Emirates, chief amongst them was the percieved inability for Arsene Wenger to steer the club to some trophies any time soon.

Stoke City vs Sunderland February 5, 2011- Britannia Stadium- Premiership Final score:- Stoke vs Sunderland 3-2 ( John Carew, Robert Huth*2/ Kieran Richardson, Asamoah Gyan) Robert Huth's late brace earns Stoke City a 3-2 comeback win ( including an injury time goal) over Sunderland AFC at the Stadium of Light.

Group C and D winners Costa Rica and Mexico both cruised to quarterfinal victories on Tuesday night to earn a place in the CONCACAF U-20 semifinals and a ticket to the 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Mexico.
Two more teams will join that pair tonight with the final two quarterfinal matches set - Honduras vs.

Another crucial few days in Indonesian football with the FA having a meeting later this week, with AFC and FIFA sending representatives, in Jakarta to elect a new leadership. The last meeting, in Palembang, ended up a disaster and saw Nurdin Halid removed from his position as chairman.
The normalisation committee, charged by FIFA to try and organise new elections, have appealed FIFA's decision to bar businessman Arifin Panigoro and military man George Toisutta and if successfull they could stand.

LONDON, England AFC Wimbledon won promotion to the Football League for the first time in their history with a dramatic penalty shoot-out win over Luton at Eastlands. After a goalless 120 minutes, top scorer Danny Kedwell netted the winning kick after Dons keeper Seb Brown saved from Alex Lawless and Jason Walker.

Hosting the AFC Presidents Cup Phnom Penh Crown have assured themselves of a place in the next round after wins in their opening two games.
After beating Den Bosco from Sri Lanka 3-0 in the opening game, yesterday PPC overcame Abahani 1-0 with an 80th minute goal from Chann Cahaya in front of 8,500 at the Olympic Stadium.

Simply explosive news coming from FIFA headquarters this morning, as Reuters and London's Daily Telegraph report that CONCACAF president Jack Warner, AFC president (and FIFA presidential candidate) Mohammed Bin Hammam, and two Caribbean Football Union officials will be investigated by FIFA for bribery allegations.

Head coach at Phnom Penh Crown Bojan Hodak has quit the club and taken up a position with Chinese Super League team Shandong Luneng.
Bojan leaves the club in a healthy position as Phnom Penh Crown are favourites to lift the CLeague, are in the next round of the AFC President's Cup and next month take on SAFFC in the Singapore Cup.

The acting president of the Asian Football Confederation, Mr Zhang Jilong of China, has said his first priority is to stabilise his organisation. Mr Zhang was appointed temporary chief of the AFC after president Mohamed bin Hammam was suspended by the world football body, FIFA, over bribery allegations.

Following FIFA's decision to lift its suspension on Brunei, the newly renamed National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (NFABD) has appointed former FIFA referee Mohd Noor Abdullah, 62, as its new general secretary. He served as an employee of the Department of Youth and Sports for 30 years and has been a FIFA and AFC referee and a match commissioner.

The first match-up of the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign will begin in earnest on Wednesday. Belize and Montserrat, ranked in positions 172 and 202 of FIFA's World Rankings respectively, will begin the qualification process in the CONCACAF region with a two-legged fixture taking place on June 15th and 19th.

The Road to the World Cup begins somewhere, and the first of 832 matches which will be used to narrow FIFA's 207 member-nations down to the 31 which will join host, Brazil, in the 2014 World Cup finals was played last night. In the first leg of a CONCACAF first round match, Belize (ranked 172 in the world) took a 5-2 aggregate lead over Montserrat, a small island nation that was all but destroyed when the Soufriere Hills volcano became active in 1995
The rest of CONCACAF first round qualifying, involving the ten lowest-ranked nations, will be played by the end of July, and early AFC qualifying is also slated to begin this week as well.

FIRE SALE – EPL CLUB UP FOR SALE AND CHEAP AT HALF THE PRICE Don McMahon Well its finally happened. AFC have been put up for sale to the highest bidder. Messrs Kroenke and Usmanov have thrown in the towel and decided to get out while the going is good. Why may you ask is [...]

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Arsene Wenger eventually made some significant signings as the transfer window slammed shut with Mike Arteta arguably being the pick of the bunch of the new recruits for the Gunners.

But AW isn't the only one who has been busy tracking down top talent to represent the Arsenal.

Until there is a serious crackdown on diving in professional and international soccer, we'll probably being seeing dives even more horrific than this one by Ryuji Bando in a recent AFC match between Cerezo Osaka v Jeonbuk FC. While all sports have a certain level of gamesmanship, a certain level of crossing the lines, the fact that players in club football, like Bando, think there is something to be gained if they take such a blatant, horrible dive is evidence enough that football officials need to crackdown and issue stiffer penalties for diving.

It is overdue. It doesn't make sense, either. Sure, the argument is that 1 and 2 seeds don't often make appearances together in the AFC, NFC championship games, but this is not the point.
There's nothing wrong with having 1 and 2 seeds play a first round game.

By any objective metric, the Seattle Seahawks were a bad team. In a 32-team league, they finished 28th in offensive yards per game, 27th in yards allowed per game. They were 25th in points scored, and also 25th in points allowed. The Seahawks had the 29th rated scoring differential in the league at -97, which means they allowed 6 points a game more than they scored.

Epson has announced that it will be one of the main sponsors of the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011, the prestigious quadrennial football championship to be held in Qatar from January 7 to 29, 2011.

Fans watching the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011™ on television can enjoy a better overall experience thanks to enhanced data and graphics via the Samsung-sponsored SportVU player tracking technology developed by STATS.

The AFC ExCo features 10 new faces after the elections for several positions and not an Aussie made the list. So still no Australian on the AFC Executive Committee!
No expertise in sport or football - you're kidding right?
Check the full list below New AFC Executive Committee
Doha: The 24th Asian Football Confederation Congress closed on Thursday with AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam unapposed for a third four-year term at the helm of a new-look AFC Executive Committee.

?DOHA, Jordan — Jordan's Prince Ali bin Al Hussein stunned powerful South Korean Chung Mong-Joon by unseating him as a FIFA vice-president on Thursday while Mohamad bin Hammam won another term as AFC chief. Chung, the controlling shareholder in industrial giant Hyundai Heavy Industries, a major FIFA sponsor, had been in the job since 1994 [.

?DOHA, Jordan — Jordan's Prince Ali bin Al Hussein stunned powerful South Korean Chung Mong-Joon by unseating him as a FIFA vice-president on Thursday while Mohamad bin Hammam won another term as AFC chief. Chung, the controlling shareholder in industrial giant Hyundai Heavy Industries, a major FIFA sponsor, had been in the job since 1994 [.

DOHA, Qatar The 15th Asian Cup kicked off Friday with a brief, colourful opening ceremony in the Khalifa Stadium in Doha Friday. Flag bearers representing the 16 participating nations performed a dance routine that was accompanied by a spectacular light show that had the capacity crowd in the 40,000 seater-stadium cheering.

Indonesian FA head Nurdin Halid has failed in his bid to join one of AFC's many committees. His defeat, he performed marginally better than the Timor Leste representative, was put down to the fact that his English language skills were poor.

DOHA, Qatar — Australia and South Korea shared the spoils 1-1 in the battle of the big guns at the Asian Cup on Friday as both sides inched closer to the quarter-finals. The two Asian heavyweights are both seen as potential champions but neither could find the winner at the three-quarters full Al-Gharafa Stadium.

BORO FACE ONE HOME AND ONE AWAY GAME IN THEIR RESPECTIVE CUP COMPETITION'S.The NCEL cup draws for the next stages of the League and President's Cups have given Boro one home tie and one away tie - although their opponents are yet to be determined.In the league cup third round Boro will be at home against either Selby Town or first division Bottesford Town on Tuesday March 15th, 7.

DOHA, Qatar FIFA has announced that there are no plans to move the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to winter to alleviate concerns over the country's climate. As temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius in the summer in Qatar, there had been strong indications that FIFA was ready to move the tournament. President Sepp [.

On Sunday, there will be two great NFL games. The games will decide who will advance to the Super Bowl. In the NFC, the Chicago Bears host the Green Bay Packers. In the AFC, the Pittsburgh Steelers host the New York Jets. Who is going to win? Here are the official EveryJoe predictions for the latest games of the NFL postseason:

Chicago Bears vs.

Thanks to the folks at the AFC's official site, we have a look at the stats for the Aussies and Uzbeks going into Tuesday's Asian Cup semifinal. Here's how the teams have looked on paper:

Defense and Goalkeeping
Statistically, Australia are by far the best defensive team of this tournament.

I must admit that due to time difference and media coverage in this part of the world, I have not seen any matches of the 2011 Asian Cup in the future World Cup hosts of Qatar. However, I will have to try to watch the final this next Saturday against two giants that I have found excellent to watch in the last two World Cups: Australia was great in 2006, barely losing to Italy, and fought well in

Regarding a few foreign players who take part in clubs outside Super League competition Djarum Indonesia (LSI) and the Main Division, PSSI has submitted a notification letter to the Minister of Justice and Human Rights and related agencies. 43/UDN/19/1-2011 numbered letter dated January 12, 2011 and signed human rights PSSI chairman Nurdin Halid was a continuation of the letter submitted by PSSI on 25 November 2010 on the Premier League Indonesia.

The Pro Bowl is usually difficult to watch. This year, that was more true than ever. In a laugher of an affair, the NFL yawned their way past the AFC in the Pro Bowl. After going up 42-0 in the second quarter, the NFC held on to a 55-41 victory that was never as close as the final score indicates.

[I'm sorta just throwing darts at a dart board here, so feel free to slate my hypothesis in the comments]

An old axiom in football is that a settled lineup often brings good results. So below is an image I assumbled using data from Football-Lineups.com that show the changes in the starting lineup since the prior game.