Irish FA CEO John Delaney said that FIFA paid the Irish FA "not to
pursue a legal case into Thierry Henry's infamous handball against the
Republic of Ireland" in '09. Speaking on RTE, Delaney admitted that he
"came to an agreement" with FIFA President Sepp Blatter in the "wake of
the incident, which cost the Republic of Ireland a place at the 2010
World Cup in South Africa." A fee of around €5M has been reported, but
Delaney "refused to give a number, instead saying" that the agreement
had been "very legitimate" for the FAI (London DAILY MIRROR, 6/4). FIFA later released a statement claiming that the money was a loan to help construct a stadium "that was later written off" and actually amounted to $5M (London GUARDIAN, 6/5). ... The EPL's deadline for the summer transfer window was "brought forward" to 6pm on Sept. 1. The league has moved the deadline to allow clubs, "in this case Chelsea, the Manchester clubs and Arsenal," to comply with FIFA's own cut-off point for submitting Champions League squads, which is 11pm. The "good news" for the 20 Premier League clubs is that they have an "extra day to do their business," the window having been extended to Sept. 1 because of the last day of August being a bank holiday (London GUARDIAN, 6/4).
ROONEY RULE: The Football League "paved the way" for introduction of a version of American football's Rooney Rule. The Football League is proposing that "it will be compulsory for clubs to interview an ethnic minority coach" for all youth development positions, and voluntary "for them to do so on the first-team level" (LONDON TIMES, 6/5).
