Shelbourne plans must changeA fixtures row involving Shelbourne was looming last night after the FAI refused to allow the club postpone tomorrow night's FAI Cup game against Finn Harps for a week in order to allow the club travel early to Croatia for next Wednesday night's Champions League qualifier against Hadjuk Split, writes Emmet Malone.
Despite the potential impact on the league fixtures of both clubs it had been expected the game would be put off to facilitate Shelbourne whose preliminary travel arrangements involved them flying out tomorrow evening at around kick-off time.
Last night, however, the FAI official in charge of administering the cup said: "A request to defer the match was received but, after taking into consideration all of the factors involved, the FAI decided that it was not in a position to facilitate Shelbourne on this occasion."
Brazil take final spot
Brazil have set up a Copa America final against Argentina on Sunday by beating Uruguay on penalties following a 1-1 draw in their semi-final encounter.
Uruguay stunned Brazil by taking a 22nd minute lead with a Marcelo Sosa header. Brazil's Adriano equalised two minutes into the second half and the world champions then converted all five of their penalties while goalkeeper Julio Cesar saved Vicente Sanchez's fourth attempt for Uruguay.
Technology may settle scores
The English Football League is to press for the introduction of goal-line technology after a number of club chairmen expressed their support for the use of electronic aids in the goal frame at the league's a.g.m recently.
Every season goals are either falsely awarded or wrongly disallowed because officials cannot be certain whether the ball has crossed the line. However, many club chairmen believe that the technology is available to prevent such controversy. This is understood to involve the use of lasers in the goal frame to detect the placement of the ball.
Blatter critic gets 10-year ban
One of the leading figures of African football Farah Addo, a former president of the Somalian Football Federation and critic of FIFA president Sepp Blatter, has been banned from soccer for 10 years after being found guilty of corruption by the world governing body. Addo took money provided to the Somalian federation as part of FIFA's financial assistance programme and used it "partially for his own interests", FIFA said in a statement released yesterday following a disciplinary committee meeting.
In brief . . .
Veteran Danish defender Thomas Helveg has joined Norwich City on a free transfer from Inter Milan on a two-year deal . . . Southampton will sign 26-year-old Swedish midfielder Mikael Nilsson from Halmstad next week . . . The ball blasted over the bar by David Beckham in England's Euro 2004 penalty shoot-out defeat to Portugal was sold for 28,050 yesterday. The ball had been the subject of several fake bids, including at least one for 10 million . . . Jason McAteer has been named club captain of his new club Tranmere Rovers . . . Diego Maradona jnr, the son of the 1986 World Cup winning captain, will not be joining Dunfermline after rejecting a contract offer from the Scottish Premier League club . . . Brazilian international Rivaldo, who had been linked with Bolton Wanderers, yesterday completed his move to Greek side Olympiakos . . . Former Celtic and Northern Ireland player Bertie Peacock has died following a heart attack in the early hours of yesterday morning. He was 75.
