Spanish second division side Mallorca drew its biggest crowd of the season, 12, 479 fans, to Iberostar Stadium for Saturday's game against Elche. Former NBA MVP Steve Nash, a stakeholder in the club, praised the team's effort in a tweet.
Mallorca is "fighting to avoid relegation to Spain's third tier, and has won its last two games" (
MARCA, 5/8).
The board of League of Ireland First Division side Athlone Town issued an open letter insisting it is "disgusted and angry that games in which the club played might have been unduly influenced" and called on the Gardaí, Interpol and UEFA to "open investigations into the match-fixing claims involving the club." The FA of Ireland has "begun an investigation into match-fixing allegations" surrounding Athlone's 3-1 loss to Longford Town on April 29 after UEFA informed the association of "clear and overwhelming evidence" of suspicious betting patterns (RTÉ, 5/8).
New Confederation of African Football President Ahmad said that he has "refused to accept a salary" from African football's governing body. He said, "I've refused a CAF salary for the simple reason it doesn't respect good administration. The salaries of all CAF employees, from administrators to the executive committee and president, all have to be transparent" (BBC, 5/8).
Around 100 Feyenoord fans were arrested on Sunday "after riots broke out" when the Dutch club failed to win the league title, Dutch police said. According to the police, around 100,000 people "had come to Rotterdam to experience the expected first league title" for Feyenoord since '99 (XINHUA, 5/8).
The Chinese FA denied submitting an official bid for a "specific" World Cup after a report "swept social media in the country on Monday" -- but its statement "suggested a bid for either the 2030 or 2034 edition of the tournament could still be in the pipeline" at FIFA's annual congress this week. China football reporter Ma Dexing wrote that an official bid for the 2034 World Cup would be submitted this week. The CFA said on Weibo that Ma had been "hasty" -- without denying that a bid for either World Cup was "in the offing" (SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, 5/8).
