The FA has confirmed it is talking to the Scottish FA "about the pros and cons of taking retrospective action against players who dive." Introduced in '11, the SFA's rule 201 "gives a disciplinary panel the power to impose two-game bans for acts of simulation missed by the match officials or rescind yellow cards for players who were incorrectly adjudged to have dived." An FA spokesperson said, "The issue of simulation is under review and we have a continuing dialogue with other associations about rules and regulations. We are interested in going to see the SFA to talk about how their rule is working but it is part of that wider conversation" (ESPN.com, 1/17).
The campaign to recruit volunteers for the FIFA Confederations Cup 2017 and the 2018 World Cup Russia broke the World Cup record for the number of applications. From June 1 to the end of the application period on Dec. 30, around 177,000 people expressed interest in becoming volunteers for the Russia 2018 Local Organizing Committee. This exceeds the previous record by almost 25,000 applications, set four years ago when 152,101 applications were received for the 2014 World Cup (FIFA).
Serie A side Napoli President Aurelio de Laurentiis revealed that Diego Maradona "will be offered a job with the club once he has settled his tax affairs with the Italian authorities." Maradona, 56, spent seven years at Napoli after joining the club from Barcelona in '84, leading the club to its "only two Serie A titles" in '87 and '90, along with the 1987 Coppa Italia and the 1989 UEFA Cup. De Laurentiis said, "I'm thinking of a position as Napoli ambassador in the world" (ESPN.com, 1/17).
Premier League side Bournemouth accepted that meeting an August deadline to "become fully compliant with disability access requirements" at its current Vitality Stadium home "will prove extremely challenging." A report by the Culture, Media & Sport select committee listed Bournemouth as one of four Premier League clubs -- the others being Chelsea, Liverpool and Crystal Palace -- "likely to miss the deadline." The club accepted the "need to meet all access requirements," and said that it hopes to be "able to do so fully when eventually in a new stadium" (PA, 1/16).
Man City defender Bacary Sagna has been fined £40,000 ($49,607) by the FA after posting "10 against 12" on Instagram following a match. The France int'l, 33, "made the remark after his side's 2-1 Premier League win over Burnley" on Jan. 2. The FA said that the post, which was later deleted, "questioned the integrity of the match official" (BBC, 1/17).
Ghana's Africa Cup of Nations squad has "agreed to accept any win bonus proposal from the government in order to avoid a recurrence of past rows." The Ghana FA announced the decision and said that the players "wanted to show they are ready to play for their nation and not motivated only by money" (BBC, 1/17).