United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday certain ”major powers” should play a bigger role in the world body, but declined to name favourites for any new permanent seats on the Security Council. ”I have always maintained that no reform to the UN will be complete without a reform of the Security Council.,” Annan said.
German champions Bayern Munich on Monday confirmed they want to sign Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy. Dutch star Van Nistelrooy (30) looks certain to leave Old Trafford this summer after falling out with United manager Sir Alex Ferguson at the end of last season.
A day after the World Cup ended, host nation Germany was not only counting the immediate economic benefits for businesses during the month-long mega-event, but also was hoping that the party mood will continue for the eurozone’s biggest economy in the much longer term.
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France captain Zinedine Zidane, sent off for headbutting Marco Materazzi late in Sunday’s World Cup final loss to Italy, won the Golden Ball award for the tournament’s best player. The results were released on Monday morning in Berlin by Fifa.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=soccer_world_cup_2006"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/272488/icon_focuson_wc3.gif" align=left border=0></a>France captain Zinedine Zidane, sent off for headbutting Marco Materazzi late in Sunday’s World Cup final loss to Italy, won the Golden Ball award for the tournament’s best player. The results were released on Monday morning in Berlin by Fifa.
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To the very end of his career, Zinedine Zidane could dictate the flow of play with rare skill and elegant control of the ball. In the World Cup final, Zidane lost control of his temper. The parting image for the France captain will forever be him rearing back in anger, lowering his head and launching his bald crown into the chest of Italy defender Marco Materazzi after the two exchanged words.
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One person was conspicuous by his absence from the podium when Italy’s players received their winners’ medals and German President Horst Koehler handed their captain Fabio Cannavaro the World Cup. The president of football’s world controlling body Fifa Joseph Blatter was not amongst the host of dignitaries present at the award ceremony after the 5-3 penalty shoot-out win over France.
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Italy won the World Cup in a penalty shoot-out, beating France 5-3 on Sunday after a 1-1 draw through 120 minutes. David Trezeguet hit the crossbar with France’s second spot kick to give Italy its fourth World Cup title, and Fabio Grosso made the deciding kick. ”It’s incredibly emotional, words cannot hardly describe it,” Grosso said after the final whistle.
Visiting South African President Thabo Mbeki has been supportive of European Union plans to send up to 2Â 000 soldiers to the Democratic Republic of Congo before and after free elections, according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday.
A Kenyan team on Saturday won the first street football world championship, beating South Africa 4-3 in a penalty shoot-out. Twenty-two teams of youngsters from poor backgrounds had taken part in the week-long tournament in Berlin, focusing attention on the game’s gritty origins and its power to fight social ills.
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Fireworks thundered and flashbulbs popped all around the darkened stadium, illuminating the German players’ brilliant white shirts and the thousands of flags that waved in their honour. Fans screamed and sang for an hour afterward, savouring the lingering moments as hosts of the World Cup. And that was after the consolation game.
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The first World Cup to be hosted in Africa will provide an unparalleled business opportunity in four years time, organisers of South Africa 2010 said in Berlin at a presentation of their wares. Up to five million tourists are expected to flood into South Africa for the month-long jamboree, and the government has committed a R375-billion development package to the project.
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Germany’s Lukas Podolski was named by Fifa on Friday as the World Cup’s best young player. The 21-year-old Polish-born striker scored three goals after coach Jurgen Klinsmann had selected him as part of a drive to reinvigorate a flagging team. He has now scored 15 goals in 31 appearances with the national team.
One of the many and varied tragedies about the turbulent Saturday night we all endured is that we will now never know what it would feel like to walk down Sven-Goran Eriksson Street. Had the outgoing England manager persuaded football to come home as he had promised he would, the relevant municipal authorities may well have granted him this honour.
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A hearty rendition of O Sole Mio was booming out in Italy’s dressing room when Prime Minister Romano Prodi came to congratulate the team on beating Germany. ”Even he joined in,” Fabio Cannavaro said. ”It was great.” For Cannavaro, hearing that Neapolitan ditty being sung joyously was particularly special.
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This World Cup, which was expected to provide a festival of youth, has turned into a celebration of experience. While Kaka faded, Lionel Messi was deprived of his rightful chance and Wayne Rooney simply self-destructed, the old men grabbed the stage for a final parade of their talents.
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Germany striker Miroslav Klose says he is desperate to win the Golden Boot title after missing out on Sunday’s World Cup final in Berlin. Klose leads the scoring charts with five goals and has the chance to put more distance between him and his rivals when hosts Germany take on Portugal in Saturday’s third-place play-off in Stuttgart.
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Luiz Felipe Scolari says Portugal can be proud of its football team despite their agonising loss to France, as he goes about the difficult task of picking them up for a third-placed play-off match. He warned Italy they will have their work cut out against France in the final in Berlin on Sunday, while paying tribute to his players who matched Portugal’s best World Cup campaign.
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Zinedine Zidane fired France into their second World Cup final appearance in eight years on Wednesday, scoring the only goal in a 1-0 semifinal victory over Portugal. The French captain shattered Portugal’s dreams of a first appearance in the final after coolly converting a hotly disputed penalty midway through the first half at the 62Â 000-seat Allianz Arena.
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Even as this World Cup reaches a climax with Italy having booked a final spot against France or Portugal on Sunday, eyes are already turning to a South African jamboree in four years’ time. Organisers are hoping the first World Cup to be played on African soil will produce ”Football for a Better World” and Fifa will flag up preparations on Friday at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.
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Police at Berlin’s fan festival have been testing a new device designed to detect chemical and biological threats — giving it a dress rehearsal for the World Cup final. The 70kg portable device, named Sigis 2, can detect 200 different chemical compounds from a distance of 5km.
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After he converted a last-minute penalty to beat Australia in the second round of the World Cup, Francesco Totti said winning the ”scudetto” with AS Roma in 2001 remained the highlight of his career. Maybe he’ll have a new most memorable moment if Italy wins the title on Sunday. ”It’s the realisation of a dream. We only need a little bit more to make history,” Totti said.
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Fabio Grosso and Alessandro del Piero each scored late in extra time on Tuesday to put Italy in the World Cup final after beating Germany 2-0. Grosso curled a left-footed shot past the diving Jens Lehmann in the 119th minute to put the three-time champions into Sunday’s final against either France or Portugal.
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Football’s world governing body will help South Africa organise the 2010 World Cup but believes the country is more than capable of staging the event, Fifa president Sepp Blatter said on Tuesday. ”South Africa is a multi-cultural country of different tribes … and you do need a certain kind of intelligence to bring this all together,” Blatter said.
One of the Brazil’s top stars, defender Roberto Carlos, has announced he is retiring from international football following his country’s World Cup quarterfinal defeat against France. ”My days playing with the national side are over,” the Real Madrid wing-back said on his personal website.
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Germany go up against Italy in Dortmund with a slot in the World Cup final at stake on Tuesday, while France and Portugal head for Munich and their clash on Wednesday in the second semifinal. German hopes of reaching a second successive final were dealt a body blow late on Monday with the news that midfield dynamo Torsten Frings would miss the game after being suspended.
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The World Cup is soccer’s greatest spectacle. It’s also a month-long grind, and the fatigue is starting to show. Games every few days, many played under a summer sun. Travel back and forth across Germany. Pressure that grows with every game. And that’s on top of the nine months that many players just spent with soccer’s best clubs.
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Germany midfielder Torsten Frings has been suspended for Tuesday’s World Cup semifinal against Italy, world soccer governing body Fifa said on Monday. Frings was barred after the Fifa disciplinary committee viewed TV pictures, which show him hitting an Argentinian player in the face.
David Beckham said before the World Cup that he would probably cry if England were to win the tournament. They didn’t, but it all ended in tears anyway for the football and celebrity superstar who led his country for nearly six years. Beckham resigned as captain on Sunday following England’s ouster by Portugal in a penalty shoot-out in their quarterfinal showdown.
Just as national economies move in cycles so does football — and the current World Cup downturn is proving a long slog for Argentina, who with their quarterfinal loss to Germany must now be classed among the latter day underachievers.
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Germany could be hit by a late blow ahead of Tuesday’s World Cup semifinal with Italy after Fifa announced they would take a decision whether to punish influential midfielder Torsten Frings. Fifa took the decision on Sunday after viewing television footage in which he apparently hits Argentinian striker Julio Cruz after the quarterfinal.
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Raymond Domenech is playing down France’s past superiority over their World Cup semifinal opponents Portugal, saying it will count for nothing when the whistle blows in Munich on Wednesday. Les Bleus have won all four of their clashes with Portugal, the most significant coming at Euro 2000 when they ran out 2-1 extra time winners in a fractious semifinal en route to taking the title.