Football Media

Following unanimous support by the UEFA Club Competitions Committee and the approval by the European Club Association Board (ECA), the Professional Football Strategy Council (PFSC) has unanimously recommended that the Financial Fair Play concept be approved by the UEFA Executive Committee at its forthcoming meeting in Nyon on 14/15 September.

The PFSC is composed of representatives from the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL), the players (FIFPro Europe), the clubs (ECA) and the UEFA vice-presidents.

The main purpose of the Financial Fair Play concept is to improve the financial fairness in European competitions and the long-term stability of club football across Europe. In order to achieve this purpose a set of measures will be put in place including:

• the obligation for clubs whose turnover is over a certain threshold, over a period of time, to balance their books, or “break even”, (i.e. clubs cannot repeatedly spend more than the generated revenues)

• to provide guidance on salaries and transfer spending

• to provide an indicator on the sustainability of the levels of debt

• the obligation for clubs to honour their commitments at all times

These measures, which will reach beyond the current UEFA club licensing system, will stimulate long term investment (youth development and upgrading of sporting facilities) over short term speculative spending and adherence to the rules will be assessed by the recently formed independent Club Financial Control Panel.

Following the announcement, UEFA President, Michel Platini, said:

“Financial Fair Play is crucial in order to promote the long term sustainability of European football and is entirely consistent with the sporting values we have in Europe. I have been asked by many clubs right across Europe to take action in order to protect our game. Now, thanks to the forward looking approach to develop these measures taken by all the stakeholders involved, including the national associations, the leagues, the players, and particularly the clubs, we are all in agreement. The principle has now been established and this is a major breakthrough. Now we will all have to work hard together over the coming months in order to put in place the all-important detail.”

Chairman of the European Club Association, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, said:

“The European Club Association is leading the way in the battle for more rationality and discipline in club football finances. On behalf of the ECA, I would like to thank UEFA and especially Michel Platini for his initiative that goes, I believe, in the right direction. We have now agreed on the principles, the objectives and the timeframe to start curing our football. Of course, this is still work in progress and we will carry on meeting regularly with UEFA to work on the technical and practical implementation of these measures.”

The proposed measures on Financial Fair Play are to be introduced in UEFA competitions starting from the season 2012/13 and will also include a proposal to limit the size of squads which in turn will help clubs to limit their expenditure on salaries and transfers.

All 144 matches in the group phase of this season’s UEFA Europa League will be officiated by six match officials. In an experiment endorsed by the IFAB (International Football Association Board), the customary four-man  team of referee, two assistant referees and fourth official will be supplemented with two additional assistant referees who will take up  positions alongside each goal.

At its 123rd Annual General Meeting in Newcastle, Northern Ireland on 28 February this year, the IFAB, composed of representatives from the four British football associations and FIFA, gave its consent for the experiment initiated in selected UEFA European Under-19 youth qualifying tournaments in 2008 to continue  at professional level. The choice of the new UEFA Europa League as the competition for this next phase was confirmed in May.

In essence, the additional assistant referees will provide two extra pairs of eyes to monitor the game and ensure that the Laws of the Game are upheld, informing the referee of incidents of any kind that he may otherwise have missed, particularly in key areas of the field like the penalty area and its surroundings. The referee will remain in  sole charge of the match and the only match official with decision-making powers.

The additional assistant referees will be positioned on the opposite side of the goal from the assistant referee – to the left when viewed from the centre circle. Using a radio communication system to relay their recommendations to the  referee but without flags, additional assistant referees will generally remain behind the goal line but may enter the penalty area when play moves towards the other end of the pitch so as to keep up with the action.

Given the potentially crucial importance of their interventions on the course of a game, referees from FIFA’s current international list or the highest category at national level (who were aged under 45 on 1 January 2009) will fill the additional assistant referee role. In keeping with existing policy, they will share the same nationality as the four other members of the UEFA Europa League refereeing team to which they are appointed.

A briefing for referees and referee observers  was held at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland this week under the auspices of the guardians of the Laws of the Game, the IFAB. The 48 referees and 48 observers appointed for the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League group stage were given extensive instructions and guidelines by refereeing instructors in preparation for the launch of the experiment when group matches kick off on 17 September.

Technical experts appointed by the IFAB will monitor developments throughout in order to assess the impact the two additional assistant referees have on the game and to determine whether they enhance the officials’ control of the match. The conclusions will later be presented to the IFAB for consideration.

IFAB:
Founded in 1886, the IFAB is composed of The Football Association (England), The Scottish Football Association, The Football Association of Wales, The Irish Football Association (Northern Ireland) and FIFA, and has historically held the position as guardian of the Laws of the Game. Each British association has one vote apiece, while FIFA, which represents its 204 other member associations, has four. A three-quarter majority is required for any proposal to be passed.

See also: http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/history/law/ifab.html

Playing in their seventh UEFA Super Cup, FC Barcelona are eyeing a third success in the competition while debutants FC Shakhtar Donetsk hope coach Mircea Lucescu’s experience will pay dividends at the Stade Louis II.

Previous UEFA Super Cup appearances
2006: FC Barcelona 0-3 Sevilla FC
(Renato 7, Kanouté 45, Maresca 90p)
25.08.2006, Stade Louis II, Monaco
1997: FC Barcelona 3-1 BV Borussia Dortmund (agg)
FC Barcelona 2-0 BV Borussia Dortmund
(Luis Enrique 8, Rivaldo 60)
08.01.1998, Camp Nou, Barcelona
BV Borussia Dortmund 1-1 FC Barcelona
(Heinrich 64; Giovanni 6)
11.03.1998, Westfalenstadion, Dortmund
1992: Werder Bremen 2-3 FC Barcelona (agg)
Werder Bremen 1-1 FC Barcelona
(Allofs 86; Salinas 37)
10.02.1993 Weserstadion, Bremen
FC Barcelona 2-1 Werder Bremen
(Stoitchkov 30, Goikoetxea 49; Rufer 39p)
10.03.1993, Camp Nou, Barcelona
1989: FC Barcelona 1-2 AC Milan (agg)
FC Barcelona 1-1 AC Milan
(Amor 67; Van Basten 44)
23.11.1989, Camp Nou, Barcelona
AC Milan 1-0 FC Barcelona
(Evani 55)
07.12.1989, Giuseppe Meazza, Milan
1982: FC Barcelona 1-3 Aston Villa FC (agg)
FC Barcelona 1-0 Aston Villa FC
(Marcos Alonso 52)
19.01.1983, Camp Nou, Barcelona
Aston Villa FC 3-0 FC Barcelona (aet)
(Shaw 80, Cowans 100, McNaught 104)
26.01.1983, Villa Park, Birmingham
1979: Nottingham Forest FC 2-1 FC Barcelona (agg)
Nottingham Forest FC 1-0 FC Barcelona
(George 9)
30.01,1980, City Ground, Nottingham
FC Barcelona 1-1 Nottingham Forest FC
(Roberto Carlos 25p; Burns 42)
05.02.1980, Camp Nou, Barcelona

• European champions Barça have appeared in six previous UEFA Super Cup contests, winning two (1992 and 1997) and losing four (1979, 1982, 1989 and 2006).
• Barcelona coach Josep Guardiola played in only one Super Cup fixture, the second leg of the 1992 final (played on 10 March 1993). His side concluded a 3-2 aggregate win against Werder Bremen with a 2-1 home victory, in which the visitors’ Oliver Reck was dismissed after 30 minutes.
• Shakhtar have never played in a UEFA Super Cup game, having won their first European tournament last season when they clinched the UEFA Cup.
• Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu has won the tournament before, with his Galatasaray SK side beating Vicente del Bosque’s Real Madrid CF 2-1 at the Stade Louis II in the 2000 edition. That was his first UEFA club competition trophy, and prior to last season’s UEFA Cup triumph, his only European honour.
• Lucescu is looking to become the sixth coach to win the UEFA Super Cup twice, joining Sir Alex Ferguson (Aberdeen FC, 1983 and Manchester United FC, 1991), Raymond Goethals (RSC Anderlecht, 1976 and 1978), Arrigo Sacchi (AC Milan, 1989 and 1990), Louis van Gaal (AFC Ajax, 1995 and FC Barcelona, 1997) and Carlo Ancelotti (Milan, 2003 and 2007).
• Lucescu returned to the Stade Louis II with Galatasaray for a 2000/01 UEFA Champions League first group stage game, but his side went down 4-2 to AS Monaco FC and he has not been back since.
• While Lucescu has won a Super Cup game in Monaco, Barcelona lost on their only previous attempt, succumbing 3-0 to Sevilla in 2006.
• Their team for that game was:
Barcelona: Valdés, Belletti, Motta (Iniesta 57), Márquez, Puyol, Xavi (Gudjohnsen 57), Eto’o, Ronaldinho, Sylvinho (Giuly 72), Messi, Deco.
• Should Barcelona prevail, they would become the third side to win three UEFA Super Cups, along with Ajax and Liverpool FC. Only one team has won the competition more than three times, with Milan emerging victorious on five occasions.
• Barcelona have played one other game at the Stade Louis II, recording a 1-0 success at Monaco in the 1993/94 UEFA Champions League group stage. Guardiola was in the starting lineup for that fixture, with Hristo Stoichkov scoring the only goal after 13 minutes for Johan Cruyff’s side.
• Shakhtar’s only previous game at the Stade Louis II ended in a 2-0 defeat by Monaco in the first round of the 1979/80 UEFA Cup, Délio Onnis and Christian Dalger scoring the goals against Victor Nosov’s men.

Previous meetings
• The two clubs traded away wins in last season’s UEFA Champions League group stage, Lionel Messi’s two late goals handing Barcelona a 2-1 triumph in Donetsk before Shakhtar beat an experimental Barça side 3-2 at the Camp Nou – their first ever success in Spain.
• The sides for the first meeting, on 1 October 2008, were:
Shakhtar: Pyatov, Hübschman, Duljaj (Lewandowski 90), Fernandinho, Ilsinho (Willian 86), Shevchuk, Luiz Adriano (Seleznov 72), Brandão, Chygrynskiy, Ischenko, Srna.
Barcelona: Valdés, Piqué, Márquez, Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, Eto’o (Bojan 74), Henry (Messi 60), Keita (Gudjohnsen 81), Daniel Alves, Touré.
• The sides for the return fixture, on 9 December 2008, were:
Barcelona: Jorquera, Martín Cáceres, Piqué, Bojan, Keita, Sylvinho, Hleb, Pedro Rodríguez (Gudjohnsen 76), Busquets, Víctor Sánchez, Víctor Vázquez.
Shakhtar: Pyatov, Hübschman, Kucher, Fernandinho (Luiz Adriano 78), Jadson (Brandão 67), Gai, Gladkiy, Willian, Ra?, Chygrynskiy, Srna.
• Barça’s 14 games against Ukrainian clubs include eight group-stage matches and three two-legged knockout ties, all of which they won on aggregate.
• Shakhtar’s 12 games against Spanish sides comprise six group-stage fixtures and three two-legged knockout ties, all of which they lost on aggregate.
• Barcelona coach Guardiola was no stranger to Ukrainian opposition as a player, facing Shakhtar’s arch-rivals FC Dynamo Kyiv four times, winning three games and losing one.
• Lucescu’s Galatasaray met Barcelona in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League second group stage, suffering a 1-0 defeat in Istanbul and drawing 2-2 at the Camp Nou despite taking a two-goal lead. Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernández featured in both legs for the Blaugrana.
• In total, Lucescu has been involved in 25 games against Spanish sides as a player and coach, with his record reading W6 D9 L10.
• As a striker for FC Dinamo 1948 Bucure?ti, Lucescu registered against both of Madrid’s leading clubs, playing in a win, a draw and two defeats in European club competition. He also represented Romania in three draws against Spain.
• Lucescu oversaw a 1-1 draw against Spain at the 1984 UEFA European Championship while working as Romania coach. With Galatasaray, Be?ikta? JK and Shakhtar, he has coached in 17 UEFA club competition games against Spanish outfits, his record reading W5 D4 L8.

Team ties
• Barcelona midfielder Yaya Touré will be up against a number of former team-mates in Monaco.The Ivorian played in Ukraine with FC Metallurh Donetsk in the 2003/04 and 2004/05 seasons, when future Shakhtar players Yuriy Virt, Olexandr Kucher and Olexiy Polyanskiy were among his team-mates.

NTT Electronics Corporation, headquartered in Yokohama City in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture (hereafter, NTT Electronics) is pleased to announce that its “HV9100 Series” AVC/H.264 HDTV/SDTV encoder/decoder have been selected by Sentech, a state-owned communication service company in the Republic of South Africa, as the codec equipment to be used for HD coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa(TM).

The operation of a broadcast transmission system using the HV9100 Series was started in the FIFA Confederations Cup 2009, which opened on June 14, 2009, as a precursor to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa(TM).

In the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa(TM), the satellite communications of Sentech will be used for coverage of video from each stadium to the International Broadcast Center (IBC), which is the base for broadcasters from around the world. The NTT Electronics HV9100 Series will be installed (system integrated by Comscience) in all 10 stadiums in various regions of the Republic of South Africa where games will be held, and will be used by Sentech for contribution feeds to the IBC.

“The MPEG-2 format will be used in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but we will also make use of the AVC/H.264 format in the future. The NTT Electronics HV9100 Series meets our needs in that it is compatible with both MPEG-2 and AVC/H.264,” said Mr. Allan Bester, Executive Network Services of Sentech. “The HV9100 Series is also compatible with the 4:2:2 Profile, allowing us to distribute high-definition video of Africa’s first FIFA World Cup in 2010. In addition, the HV9100 Series has already demonstrated outstanding performance in sporting events around the globe such as the Beijing Olympics and thus, we are confident that it will also contribute to high quality video transmission of the FIFA World Cup. Viewers will be able to enjoy full HD coverage from the stadiums.”

The HV9100 Series supports both HD (1080i / 720p) and SD (480i / 576i). It additionally supports, optionally, up to 16 channels of audio input capability and an IP interface. The HV9100 Series gained a great deal of attention right after its release in January 2008, and has already been selected by many broadcasting stations with a broad use ranging from domestic station content transmissions to contributions or distributions in Japan, North America, Europe and Brazil.

Source: NTT Electronics Corporation