Scottish Premiership side Celtic opened its "new 2,900-capacity safe standing section" in its first home game under Manager Brendan Rodgers. Rail seating has been installed in the north-east corner of Celtic Park and fans "populated the area for Saturday's 2-1 friendly win over Wolfsburg." The Scottish champion was "granted a safe-standing licence" in June last year by Glasgow City Council. Scotland is "not bound by the law that banned standing areas in the top two divisions in England" in '94, following the Hillsborough disaster in '89 (BBC, 7/16).
ASKING FOR BAN: The investigatory chamber of FIFA's independent ethics committee has "asked for former executive committee member Worawi Makudi to be banned from football for at least four years for allegedly breaching the football governing body's code of conduct." The committee said in a statement that former Thailand FA President Makudi should "also pay a fine" of at least 25,000 Swiss francs ($25,460) for "alleged violation of general rules of conduct." The exec is accused of "violating general rules of conduct relating to loyalty, forgery and falsification and the obligation of the parties to collaborate" (REUTERS, 7/15).
FOOTBALL BRIEFS ...
Tottenham faces a £1M ($1.3M) bill "after a man spent 12 hours on top of a crane on the site of the club's new stadium, a court has heard." Wali Azagh climbed the 170-foot crane -- one of several club-branded cranes at White Hart Lane -- at around 6:30pm on Monday, "carrying a noose and threatening to commit suicide." The 37-year-old was "involved in a lengthy standoff with police, eventually climbing down before being taken to Wood Green Police Station and then on to court, where he admitted aggravated trespass." Highbury Corner magistrates' court heard Tottenham now faces a bill of around £1M "because of the disruption to building work" on the £400M ($529M) project (ESPN.com, 7/15).
FIFA has threatened Benin with another suspension from int'l football "after a judge in the West African nation issued arrest warrants for a senior FIFA official and the head of Ivory Coast's federation." The warrants demand that FIFA council member Constant Omari and Ivory Coast Football Federation President Augustin Sidy Diallo be "arrested immediately and taken to a jail in the capital Potro-Novo." FIFA told the Benin federation that if the warrants are not withdrawn by Monday, "the country could be banned" (AP, 7/16).
Cincinnati's Nippert Stadium hosted 35,061 fans for Saturday's friendly between FC Cincinnati and EPL club Crystal Palace, and the USL club claims that this marks the "largest crowd to witness a soccer match in the history of Ohio." The entire stadium "rose to its feet and applauded as the final whistle sounded." Crystal Palace Manager Alan Pardew said, "It's not often you have an atmosphere like that in preseason and not actually in a league game" (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 7/16).
