Fiorentina's match on Sunday was stopped in the 13th minute, honoring Davide Astori's shirt number.GETTY IMAGES
Serie A side Fiorentina "paid an emotional tribute to former captain Davide Astori" as it played its first game since the 31-year-old's "sudden death" on March 4. Astori wore the number 13 shirt and the match stopped after 13 minutes, with 60 seconds of "applause taking place." Sunday's match in Florence was "preceded by emotional scenes, with players from both sides crying" as Italian singer Jovanotti performed (BBC, 3/11).
Ahead of the Spanish Football Federation's (RFEF) presidential election, 10 La Liga clubs and nine from the second division "have backed Juan Luis Larrea." The only club with a vote that has not expressed its support is Barcelona, "which will only support Larrea" if the Copa del Rey and Supercopa move to a one-game format "to lighten the calendar and reduce the amount of games players have to play." The Copa del Rey format that Barcelona is proposing is a hybrid of the FA Cup and the Coppa Italia (AS, 3/11).
Arsenal Manager Arsène Wenger is "worried by an apparent dip in attendance at the Emirates stadium in recent weeks" but said that he is confident the team will do "absolutely everything" to win back its fans. British media reports said that there were "thousands of empty seats" in Arsenal's 3-0 Premier League win over Watford on Sunday despite the club selling 59,131 tickets, "just short" of its total capacity of 59,867 seats (REUTERS, 3/12).
A-League side Western Sydney Wanderers' Red & Black Bloc supporter group was "caught up in fresh controversy" after one of its leaders was banned for a year from games at Olympic Park for chanting "F... FFA." Just a fortnight after the RBB's active area at Spotless Stadium was shut for a game as punishment for fighting flares, one of the RBB's "capos" was served with a police ban from the Olympic Park precinct after Saturday's defeat of Wellington (Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH, 3/12).
