Soccer: Fifa scandal
A new letter has emerged in South Africa regarding the mysterious payment of $10 million to Fifa ahead of the 2010 World Cup hosted by the African nation.
South Africa’s Mail and Guardian says the letter, dated December 2007, was written by Danny Jordaan, the leader of the country’s 2010 World Cup bid, to Fifa’s secretary general, Jérôme Valcke. It suggests that Jordaan discussed the $10m payment with at least two then government ministers.
The big news emerging yesterday evening though was that Fifa has confirmed it made a 5 million euros payment to the FAI in the wake of Ireland's controversial failure to qualify for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Yet, despite repeated criticisms by chief executive John Delaney of Sepp Blatter and the game’s world governing body’s lack of transparency, there is no specific reference to the Fifa payment in any of the FAI’s published accounts.
Delaney claimed that the money was in settlement of a legal dispute arising out of the Paris play-off incident, but he failed to elaborate on how a refereeing error could have given rise to any such claim.
Rugby: Tragic crash
Former All Blacks captain Jerry Collins and his wife have been killed in a car crash in France early this morning.
After a collision with a bus their daughter has also been taken to hospital in a serious condition.
Soccer: Internationals
Ireland and Burnley defender Stephen Ward says the upcoming matches against England and Scotland are a great opportunity for the squad to turn a corner;
“We owe them one (Scotland). It was a bit of a nothing game in terms of clear-cut chances. They got a break from a corner where we switched off a little bit. The manager was disappointed with that and has spoken about it numerous times. Hopefully that won’t happen again.
“But we should have taken a point, which would have been a fantastic result for us. We know we need to be more clinical up-front as well because we created chances. So we feel we owe them one and hopefully with the crowd behind us, we can do it.”
GAA: Championship 2015
Noel Connors says Waterford have no shortage of candidates to step up to the mark and replace Pauric Mahony, and possibly Maurice Shanahan as the team's free-taker against Cork this weekend.
Denied, though injury, of the assassin’s accuracy of Mahony, and with Shanahan, their next best placed-ball specialist, still only “50-50”, Connors says “Jamie Barron, to Jake Dillon, Stephen Bennett. Even the likes of Austin Gleeson, the whole way back to Tadhg Burke” are capable of filling in.
Golf: European Tour
World number four Henrik Stenson made a solid start to his bid for a first European Tour title on home soil, but found himself upstaged by compatriot Marcus Kinhult, an 18-year-old amateur ranked 1,273rd.
Stenson carded an opening 70 in the Nordea Masters at PGA Sweden National to lie three shots behind Kinhult and fellow Swede Jens Dantorp, as well as England’s Chris Paisley.
What to watch out for:
Stenson continues his pursuit of that maiden title at the Malmo Nordea Masters today.
Sky Sports 4, 10am-noon, 2pm-5pm
The Paris French Open Semi-finals from Roland Garros today also; Novak Djokovic versus Andy Murray is at 2.30pm.
ITV4, 11am-9pm
