Briefs
A round-up of today's other stories in brief
K-League bans extended worldwide
Forty-one players from South Korea’s K-League have had their lifetime bans extended worldwide following a match-fixing scandal, although 21 of them have been offered a reprieve, Fifa said yesterday.
The 41 had already been banned for life by the Korean FA following the scandal which erupted in 2011 and involved matches played the previous year. The scandal led the South Korean government to threaten to wind up the K-League if action was not taken.
Ten other players involved in match-fixing were given worldwide bans by Fifa in June while in March, South Korea’s volleyball association banned 11 players for life in a bid to curb corruption in domestic sport.
Fifa said that a reprieve had been offered to 21 players who turned themselves in during the voluntary reporting period.
Adebayor hints Villas-Boas not happy with him playing for Togo
Emmanuel Adebayor, who retired from international football following the deadly gun attack on the Togo team bus at Africa Cup of Nations in Angola in 2010, has been included in Togo’s squad for this year’s tournament despite the striker hinting Andre Villas-Boas was not totally happy about him playing in the competition.
Spurs confirmed yesterday that, after weeks of indecision, Adebayor had finally agreed to answer his country’s pleas and will play in the tournament, which runs from January 19th to February 10th.
Spurs manager Villas-Boas has always insisted when asked about the situation that he would be happy to let Adebayor go to the tournament despite the fact that it would leave him with only one recognised striker in Jermain Defoe.
Yet Adebayor hinted in an interview with Africatopsports.com that despite Villas-Boas’s public declaration of support, the Portuguese may not be happy with his participation.
“That is what he said to the press, but not what he said to me,” Adebayor said. “There is a difference between what you say to the press and what you say in private.”
Two-thirds of Real members feel Mourinho has a negative impact
Almost two-thirds of Real Madrid’s members believe coach Jose Mourinho has a negative impact on the La Liga club’s image, according to a survey published in Marca sports daily yesterday.
Among 704 members asked at the stadium before Sunday’s game at home to Real Sociedad, or by telephone, whether the Portuguese’s actions and statements were damaging, 61.6 per cent answered yes, with 33.1 per cent saying no.
Members gave his performance as coach since he took over in 2010 an average mark of 6.68 out of 10, down from 8.82 in a similar poll conducted in March 2011, but 54.4 per cent still thought he should stay on after this season, with 41.8 per cent saying he should leave, they added.
The survey, by polling company Sigma Dos, is the latest evidence that all is not well at Real, who are 16 points behind Barcelona in La Liga and will make painful reading for president Florentino Perez, who is up for re-election this year.
