The Italian Football Federation "has adjusted the rules on racist and ‘territorial’ discrimination, taking into account how many fans are behind the abuse." While ''territorial discrimination'' will continue to be punished on a par with racist abuse, the sanctions imposed on clubs "will be eased in the presence of different factors." Above all, the Disciplinary Commission will take into account "how many fans were behind the insulting chants or banners, therefore only the area of the stadium where these occurred will be closed off" (FOOTBALL ITALIA, 10/16). ... One of South Africa’s national referees "has been arrested for possible match-fixing." The South African FA said that it "has been informed of the arrest by the Directorate of Priority Crimes Investigation" (AP, 10/17). ... Twelve football matches in Russia are among several hundred worldwide that have been identified by FIFA "as being possibly fixed" (MOSCOW NEWS, 10/17). ... FIFA and the Oceania Football Confederation have "appointed a normalisation committee to take control of the Solomon Islands Football Federation" after the federation's funding "was put on hold whilst an investigation looks into poor accounting by the federation's administrators" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 10/17). ... The FA of Malaysia has "rejected the idea of capping salaries to curb match-fixing." FAM General Secretary Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin said that salary cap "was not the answer to match-fixing" (THE STAR, 10/17). ... Argentina's Security Committee has "decided to close sections" of the stadiums of Argentine first division sides River Plate and Boca Juniors as punishment "for failing to meet required security measures at recent games." River's penalty "is more harsh." River will have to "close the upper Centenario section (which has a capacity of 1,710) of its El Monumental stadium." If River does "not meet the future security requirements being demanded by Wednesday, the punishment will become more severe." Boca Juniors will have to close the "tercera bandeja sur" ("south median strip") at its La Bombonera stadium. Boca "has until Wednesday to present its appeal to the sanction" (CLARIN, 10/16).
