CAF
During a meeting on 21 August, the organising committee of the Africa Cup of Nations (COCAN 2010) in Luanda, Angola, expressed satisfaction at the pace of construction of the four stadiums for the competition. The announcement was made by the executive director of COCAN 2010, Antonio Mangueira, at the end of a meeting headed by the Prime Minister, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos. Mangueria said that the stadiums and other infrastructures would be ready by October or November 2009, while admitting that construction might be delayed in the northern Cabinda province. A total of 100 houses will be built in Camassango, Cabinda, to accommodate the teams, while Luanda and the other provinces will construct new hotels and social housing to meet requirements. He explained that the Africa Cup of Nations would be held in four Angolan cities (Luanda, Benguela, Cabinda and Lubango) as planned, and that the government was doing everything in its power to avoid any hold-ups.
Amadou Diakite, a member of CAF’s Executive Committee and a former member of FIFA’s Executive Committee, was recently appointed technical advisor on sports issues to the President’s office by the government of Mali. Meanwhile, in Guinea, Almamy Camara Kabele, a member of CAF’s Executive Committee, was appointed Defence Minister in Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Soure’s new government.
CAF President Issa Hayatou has sent a message of condolence to the football association of Cameroon (FECAFOOT) following the death of Petcha Laurent, a longstanding member of CAF’s Referees Committee. Laurent passed away in Yaounde on 25 August. Hayatou described Laurent as “a hardworking CAF official who devoted almost his entire life to the development of refereeing in Cameroon and across the continent”. He continued: “His death is not only a loss to his family and to FECAFOOT but also to the entire African football family.”
AFC has invited bids from its member associations to house its headquarters, which are currently based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The proposal will now be tabled at the AFC Congress in May 2009. The AFC secretariat took up its function in Hong Kong after the formation of the governing body in Manila, Philippines, on 8 May 1954, and moved to Penang, Malaysia, in 1965 after Koe Ewe Tek had taken over as its General Secretary. The secretariat moved again ten years later, this time to Malaysia’s Ipoh when Dato’ Teoh Chye Hin was appointed General Secretary. When Dato’ Peter Velappan took over the reins in 1978, the secretariat was shifted to Kuala Lumpur. Two temporary offices and 22 years later, the AFC is presently housed in its own building in the capital’s Bukit Jalil area.
In its first-ever meeting at AFC House, the AFC Football for Disabled Persons and Social Responsibility Committee discussed ideas and expressed its commitment to increasing playing opportunities for the disabled and young people. Chairing the meeting, Kwak Chung Hwan from Korea Republic said the committee would be endeavouring to provide more opportunities to the young and disabled to play and enjoy the beautiful game. “Sport is a great means of harmonising society and football has the power to unite the world,” said Kwak. “This committee will come up with ideas so that programmes can be launched for disabled people. We want them to overcome the challenges they face and enjoy the sport.” Kwak also presented a comprehensive masterplan which aims to turn the AFC into a recognised pace-setter among sports organisations in the areas of social responsibility and disabled football by 2013.
The AFC Technical and Vision Asia Committee has approved the launch of new development projects in Philippines and Kyrgyzstan. Under the chairmanship of Malaysia’s Tengku Abdullah Ibni Sultan Ahmad Shah, the committee also gave a green light to the expansion of existing projects in China, India and Iran to two new cities each. The committee also approved the extension of the AFC ‘sAID27 programme to 2012.
The results of all matches at “A” international level are taken into account by the Worid Ranking. These matches include:
• FIFA World Cup™ final competition matches
• FIFA World Cup™ qualifying competition matches
• Continental championship final competition matches
• Continental championship qualifying competition matches
• Friendly matches
Ranking points are calculated on the basis of the following criteria.
• Points for a win, draw or defeat
• Type of competition (multiplication factor)
• Strength of opponents (multiplication factor)
• Strength of confederation in question (multiplication factor)
To ensure that the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking reflects the reality of world football, the results a team has recorded in the previous twelve months are the most important. Results from previous years are also taken into account, but their value decreases on an annual basis until four years after the match was played (100% of ranking points for matches in last twelve months, 50% for matches played 12-24 months previously, 30% for 24-36 months and 20% for 36-48 months) at which point the result no longer has any impact on the ranking.
Man’s Football Ranking
Spain reign supreme, Italy back in second
The latest edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking is once again dominated by Spain, who continue to hold on to top spot with a comfortable cushion of more than 200 points. Their nearest challengers are once again world champions Italy (2nd, up 1), who have swapped places with Germany (3rd, down 1), although the Netherlands (4*, no change) are also within touching distance of the Italians and the Germans. The line-up at the top could change dramatically over the next few weeks, however, with the European World Cup qualifiers due to take centre
stage now that more than 300 of the 850+ qualifiers have already been played in the other confederations. Europe’s total
of 268 matches will account for more than 30% of the games in the entire preliminary competition for 2010.
Positions four to nine remain unchanged, although Turkey (10′-\ up 3) have climbed back into the top ten. After an absence of just one month, Saudi Arabia (48″, up 4) are back in the top 50. The major movers in the upper reaches, however, are Mexico (24|h|), whose climb of eight places sees them
overtake the USA <28:n, up 3) as the highest CONCACAF team. Further down, a number of teams have made considerable progress since last month, including Gabon (62nd, up 12), Algeria (76th, up 14), Trinidad and To¬bago (80th, up 12) and New Caledonia (95th, up 21), the latter having benefit¬ed from a devaluation of past results to once again replace New Zealand (111!hl, no change) as the highest Oceanian rep¬resentatives, just as they did exactly one year ago.
Women’s Football Ranking
World champions losing ground
USA lead, with Brazil challenging for second
As the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking shows, the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament had two winners-the finalists. Three-time Olympic champions the USA stay top of the ranking despite their costly defeat to Norway in their opening match, while Brazil, who gained the most points, climb one place (3rd, up 1) at the expense of Sweden (4th,
down 1), who were previously ranked below Marta, Cristiane and co. a year ago. Brazil are now threatening to leapfrog world champions Germany, who are ranked almost 60 points behind the USA – the largest-ever gap between the two long-term leaders. Australia are among those to make a slide down the latest ranking, falling two places (14th, down 2) as their victories in friendly matches were not enough to compensate for defeats to Japan and Korea DPR in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup. By contrast, Turkey (64th, up 6) and Kazakhstan (59th, up 4) are among the biggest climbers.
