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International Football

Football Notes: Fans Claim CL Draw Was Rigged

Football fans are claiming the Champions League semifinal draw was "rigged" after Roma allegedly advertised tickets for a match with Liverpool "before the teams were paired together." A screenshot of an email sent to Roma season ticket holders on Thursday "appears to show a link to buy tickets for a match on May 2 between Roma and Liverpool." The email was said to have been sent out because of a "technical problem of Roma's ticketing portal partner" when the club was making "ticketing tests" on Thursday. The website link was "swiftly taken down," but "not before conspiracy theorists took to social media and online forums" to claim UEFA fixed the draw (London DAILY MAIL, 4/13).

The joint North American bid for the 2026 World Cup secured the endorsements of CONMEBOL and UNCAF (Central America), providing the bid with 16 key votes in its battle against Morocco to land the event. Previously, only Saudi Arabia's federation said publicly that it was backing the combined bid, compared to 13 federations which have said that they will back Morocco. To win, a bid will need to receive votes from at least 104 of the 207 eligible national federations. The vote takes place June 13 at the FIFA Congress in Moscow (Ian Thomas, SportsBusiness Journal).

Chelsea made a complaint to UEFA about the "brutality" that its supporters were "on the receiving end of" during the Champions League match in Barcelona last month after receiving an "unprecedented response" to a request for information. A number of fans posted on social media "about their experience both before and after the match" (London INDEPENDENT, 4/13).

Police are "investigating threatening text messages" sent to the wife of football referee Michael Oliver, who awarded a last-minute penalty to Real Madrid which knocked Juventus out of the Champions League on Wednesday. It is believed that Lucy Oliver, who is a referee in the Women's Super League, had her mobile phone number posted on social media after the game, "which led to the abusive texts" (SUNDAY TIMES, 4/15).

The betting firm that offered odds on former National League side Sutton United reserve goalkeeper Wayne Shaw eating a pie on camera during an FA Cup match was fined £84,000 ($119,700). The U.K. Gambling Commission said that Tabcorp UK Limited, trading as Sun Bets, failed to properly manage the risks associated with offering "novelty" bets (BBC, 4/13).

The South Asian Football Federation approved Pakistan as the host of the 2020 SAFF Championship following a meeting on Thursday in Dhaka. The award of the hosting is a "big boost" for Pakistani football, which has "only just returned" to int'l competition following a FIFA suspension (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 4/13).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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