Zoran Avramovic, the president of the Belgrade-based Football Friends foundation and director of Red Star Belgrade’s sports marketing agency, received a great honour at the 8:” Annual North-South Europe Economic Forum in the Montenegrin city of Budva on 25-26 October 2007 when his work in reconciling Serbs and Muslims in Srebenica was rewarded with a diploma. Avramovic was commended for his work with Football Friends to show that religious and ethnic differences can be overcome through the medium of spor: if people are committed, patient, visionary and determined. The award ceremony was also attended by Thomas Bach, president of the German Olympic Sports Federation and member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jurgen Gramke, chairman of the Institute for European Affairs (INEA), and Jerome Champagne, of international relations at FIFA.

If they qualify for the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament (8-24 August 2008}, the USA will be without their most influential player as Kristine Lilly, who has the most international caps in the women’s game, is due to give birth in July and has therefore decided to hang up her boots, at least for the time being. “I’m not closing any doors as far as soccer is concerned. But for now, I’m focusing on becoming a mom for the first time,” explained Lilly in a recent interview with an American newspaper. Nobody has played more international games, in either men’s or women’s football, than Lilly, 36, who has scored 129 goals in 340 matches. She has also been a key figure in all eight USA teams to have played in a Women’s Olympic Football Tournament or a FIFA Women’s World Cup Back home, Lilly – a native of Wilton, Connecticut – enjoys heroine status having won the FIFA Women’s World Cup twice (1991 and 1999), two Olympic gold medals (1996 and 2004) as well as an Olympic silver medal (2000).

Despite not reaching EURO 2008 in Austria and Switzerland next June, the national team of Northern Ireland can
be proud of their qualifying campaign, which saw them soar forty places up the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. After heading the group at one stage, the Irish were in with a chance of making it until the very last moment of their final match against Spain, even though coach Lawrie Sanchez, who had revitalised a team that had been in the doldrums for years and struggled even to score goals, departed for English club Fulharn in May 2007. Goals ceased to be a problem, with number nine David Healy scoring more than anyone else in the whole competition, With a total of 13 strikes, Healy was not only top scorer of the entire qualifying campaign but also broke Croatia’s Davor Suker’s previous record of 12 goals, which had stood since 1996. Former national team captain Nigel Worthington took over as head coach for the remainder of the qualifiers.
As Switzerland prepare to kick-off EURO 2008 against the Czech Republic in Basle on 9 June, the Swiss association welcomed delegates from all the participating teams to Lucerne for the final draw. In other news, the country also recently had the satisfaction of registering its 20,000:” female player. As in other European associations, women’s football has undergone a tremendous surge in popularity in Switzerland: from 2,400 licensed players 20 years ago, the number had risen to 5,715 by 1997 before increasing to last year’s total of 20,000.
Players’ health is increasingly a central concern, with the UEFA executive committee deciding that all players taking part in EURO 2008 should have a thorough heart examination. In Wales, all first division players must undergo an echocardiogram, the cost of which will be borne by the Welsh association, which has put aside GBP 50,000 for this purpose.