August 30: The former head of the South American football confederation CONMEBOL, Juan Angel Napout, was sentenced to nine years in prison on Wednesday for his role in the sweeping FIFA corruption scandal — a tough punishment the judge said should deter others tempted by easy money.

The sentencing of the 60-year-old Napout came just a week after the former boss of Brazilian football, Jose Maria Marin, was jailed for four years in connection with the same case.

“There’s a need for general deterrence because there was, and perhaps there is still, corruption in international soccer,” federal Judge Pamela Chen told the courtroom as she delivered the sentence.

Wearing a beige prison jumpsuit, Napout implored the judge: “I want to ask for your compassion. I want to ask for your mercy.”

But Chen said it was important to send a message “that you cannot steal millions in bribes from soccer organizations and go unpunished… that there are real consequences, that you’ll go to jail and it won’t be a slap on the wrist.”

Napout, who was also once the head of Paraguayan football, was also ordered to pay a $1 million fine and return the $3.3 million in bribes that he pocketed.

He was found guilty on December 22 on three counts in connection with bestowing television and marketing rights for major events in exchange for lucrative kickbacks.

He was convicted of racketeering conspiracy and two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, but was acquitted on two counts of money laundering conspiracy.

“He had a hidden character, a hidden life… perpetuating the notion that he was a good guy but all the while taking bribes,” Chen said during a marathon five-hour hearing.

US prosecutors have lifted the lid on a quarter of a century of endemic corruption in the heart of FIFA, football’s governing body, and on the largest graft scandal in the world’s most popular sport.

In total, 42 officials and marketing executives, as well as the sports company Traffic, were indicted with corruption crimes totaling more than $200 million.

The 2017 trial of Napout and the 86-year-old Marin exposed not only the corruption, but the life of privilege, luxury and excess enjoyed by members of FIFA’s executive committee.

Prosecutors detailed a high-flying lifestyle for the sport’s bigwigs: personal chauffeurs, private jets, luxury hotels, meetings in idyllic resorts in the Bahamas or Mauritius, and cruises on the Danube for families.

– ‘Among the most culpable’ –

Prosecutors said Napout deserved less mercy than Marin as he was “among the most culpable” among all those indicted. They had sought a 20-year sentence.

He was “personally responsible for perpetuating and expanding the corruption of soccer at a time when it was most in need of reform,” prosecutors said in a pre-sentencing memorandum.

Napout received near-monthly payments from October 2010 until March 2015, totalling millions of dollars.

He also tried to destroy evidence by attempting to get his computer out of CONMEBOL headquarters upon his arrest in Switzerland in December 2015.

Napout did not testify in his own defense. His team argued that there was no concrete evidence that he had illegally accepted any money.

Napout’s defense attorneys had asked for a lighter sentenced for the father of three and grandfather, citing his “exemplary life” — save for his conviction.

“My husband is not perfect but then who among us is?” his wife Karin Forster told the judge.

Of the 42 individuals originally indicted, three have since died and 22 have pleaded guilty. Marin and Napout were convicted, and one other — Peruvian former football boss Manuel Burga — was acquitted.

Another 14 remain in their own countries, where they have been tried by local courts, are fighting extradition or are still free.

The US investigation also precipitated the downfall of longtime FIFA president Sepp Blatter and his former heir apparent, Michel Platini. AFP

KATHMANDU, Aug 10: The youth national football team which is undergoing training in Thailand in preparation for the Asian Games is playing a practice match with the Thai Under-23 team on Friday.

The match is being played at Thammasat University ground, All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) stated. Earlier, the Nepali youth team lost to the Police Terro Club team of Thailand, 1-0, in a match played on Tuesday. A suicide goal by defender Aditya Chaudhari in the 39th minute of play resulted in Nepal’s defeat. The match was played at Bonayachinda football ground.

The Nepali youth team is on a 10-day special training in Thailand in view of Asian Games and SAFF Championship. The team will leave for Indonesia after the training is over. The Asian Games is taking place in Indonesia from August 14.

Nepal is placed in Group D in the Asian Games. It will play against Japan, Vietnam and Pakistan in the group stage. Nepal will take on Japan on August 14 in its first game. It will play against Vietnam on August 16 in the second match and against Pakistan on August 19 in the last match. RSS

KATHMANDU, July 31: Two departmental teams of the Armed Police Force and the Nepal Army are playing final match on Monday for the Vice-President National Women Football League title.

The final tournament is taking place in ANFA football ground in Satdobato, Lalitpur this afternoon. Both the teams have remained unbeaten up to the final match.

The title winner will receive cash prize of Rs 200,000 while the first runner-up will get Rs 100,000 and second runner-up Rs 50,000.

LONDON: David Moyes will wait until the last minute before deciding if Wayne Rooney can return from his head injury in Manchester United’s Premier League clash against Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Rooney was forced to miss United’s defeat at Liverpool at the end of last month and England’s World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Ukraine after suffering a nasty head gash in an accidental training ground collision with Phil Jones.

The 27-year-old posted pictures of the cut online to prove his absence was fully justified and United boss Moyes is uncertain if the wound has healed enough to put the forward back in his team.

“He is in great physical shape,” Moyes said. “Obviously he has a cut right in the middle of his forehead which could split because the skin is very thin.

“But he has had his stitches out and it has knitted. We just have to see where the level of risk is with his injury.”

Meanwhile, Mesut Ozil and Willian could be among the players making their first Premier League appearances this weekend, while Tottenham Hotspur will begin life without Gareth Bale.

No sooner did the transfer window close on September 2 than the international break began, meaning that fans have had to wait close to two weeks for a first glimpse of their clubs’ new signings in action.

Arsenal’s capture of Ozil from Real Madrid in a club-record £42.4 million ($66 million, 50 million euros) deal stole the deadline-day headlines, and he is expected to make his debut at Sunderland on Saturday.

The deal made Ozil the most expensive German footballer of all time, but the 24-year-old has played down the significance of his price tag.

“I would have come here without a fee. That would not be a problem,” he told reporters after being officially presented as an Arsenal player on Thursday.

“Of course I am proud of this, but the most important thing is that the manager trusts me. That was crucial for me and that is why I came to Arsenal.”

The manager, Arsene Wenger, says there is a “possibility” that Ozil will start at the Stadium of Light, where Arsenal will be bidding to record a fifth consecutive win in all competitions.

Their last league outing saw them prevail 1-0 against north London rivals Tottenham, who host Norwich City on Saturday in the first game since Welsh forward Bale completed his move to Madrid for a reported world-record fee of around £86 million.

Spurs offset Bale’s departure by spending around £110 million on new players and could hand a debut to Danish playmaker Christian Eriksen against Norwich.

With the Bale saga finally at an end, coach Andre Villas-Boas has urged his players to refocus quickly.

“What we have to do is move on,” he said during Thursday’s pre-game press conference.

On Eriksen, he added: “I think what happened with Christian is a bit like that happened with Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart when they were at Ajax.

“We expect great things of Christian Eriksen and we want to develop him into becoming that sort of important player for us as well.”

United’s 1-0 loss to Liverpool before the international break left them five points behind their bitter rivals, who top the standings ahead of Monday’s visit to manager Brendan Rodgers’ former club Swansea City.

With Liverpool not in action over the weekend, second-place Chelsea can claim top spot in the nascent standings if they prevail at Everton on Saturday.

Manager Jose Mourinho will have Willian and Samuel Eto’o at his disposal for the first time since their moves from Anzhi Makhachkala.

Manchester City, who have won two and lost one of their opening three matches, face a reunion with former manager Mark Hughes when they travel to Stoke City.

Fixtures

Saturday (1400GMT unless otherwise stated)

Manchester United v Crystal Palace (1145GMT), Aston Villa v Newcastle United, Fulham v West Bromwich Albion, Hull City v Cardiff City, Stoke City v Manchester City, Sunderland v Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur v Norwich City, Everton v Chelsea (1630GMT)

Sunday (1500GMT)

Southampton v West Ham United

Monday (1900GMT)

Swansea City v Liverpool

LONDON: Jose Mourinho is planning to hand Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o his Premier League debut when Chelsea visit Everton on Saturday.

Eto’o, 32, moved to Stamford Bridge from Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala in the final week of the transfer window and will join Fernando Torres and Demba Ba in a three-way battle for the central striker role in Mourinho’s team.

The Chelsea boss confirmed Eto’o will be in the match-day squad and can expect to feature at Goodison Park, although he stopped short of revealing if the former Barcelona star, who played under Mourinho at Inter Milan, would be in his starting line-up this weekend.

“He will be selected and when you are selected and you are a striker, normally you play. You start the game or finish the game,” Mourinho said on Friday.

“My attacking players, normally when I select them they play because it’s the area I make most changes in the match.

“So normally he will play his first minutes for Chelsea in the Premier League.”

Despite being in the twilight of his illustrious career, Mourinho believes Eto’o will make an immediate impact in his new surroundings.

“I think he is a player that can fit into the style of play we want in our game, which is a bit contradictory to the style and philosophy in the Premier League,” Mourinho added.

“We are not any more a physical team, we are a team that wants to use the abilities of our attacking players in a different way.

“Technically he is very good, his movement is good, he is intelligent, he knows the kind of movement he has to make (to) give continuity to the attacking game.”

Eto’o’s arrival has put more pressure on under-performing Spanish striker Torres, who Mourinho has previously claimed has so far repaid only half of the £50 million ($79.35 million, 59.75 million euros) fee Chelsea paid out to Liverpool.

But Mourinho insists he has not yet decided who will be his principal forward for the key matches this season.

“Normally I start with one striker but many, many times I finish with two because I chase results,” Mourinho said.

“I think the happiness of the strikers depends on the goals they score, that’s their nature. A striker was born to score goals.

“So they can play more or less minutes but that natural happiness depends on the goals they score and the importance of the goals they score.

“So the happy one will be the one that has more times to feel that special feeling a striker gets when he scores goals.”

Mourinho believes that amongst Chelsea’s main rivals for the title, Tottenham enjoyed the most successful transfer window, despite selling Gareth Bale to Real Madrid.

But he was surprised his former club Real sold Mesut Ozil to Arsenal.

“I think Tottenham are the champions by a distance in the transfer window,” he said.

“They bought several players, international players, all of them players for big countries, so I think Tottenham were the winner. They have a fantastic squad.

“I was surprised Ozil moved but that’s the market. Madrid has a lot of great players so they don’t become a weaker team because they lost Ozil and Mesut comes to the biggest league in the world.”

Mourinho refused to be drawn into a public debate sparked by English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke about the failure of the Premier League to produce homegrown players.

But he is ready to sit down with Dyke to find a solution to help encourage young English talent.

“It is the kind of discussion I am ready to have privately,” Mourinho said.

“If the right people think my experience of being abroad and being in important leagues in different countries and knowing English football as well as I do…if these people think I can make a little contribution to an internal debate to end with solutions we all want, then I am ready for that.”

KATHMANDU: Football fans have packed Dasrath Stadium as the Nepal is to take on Afghanistan in the first round of Semi Finals of the Eight SAFF Champions on Sunday.

Thousands of fans have stood up in the queue in front of the stadium as the match starts from 6.30 in the evening. All tickets for the ground has been sold. The All Nepal Football Association said that all the 18000 tickets were sold within a few hours in the morning.
Responding the surge in football craze after Nepal made into the semi finals, ANFA had increased ticket prices to Rs 1000 and Rs 500.

KATHMANDU: The CPN Maoist led 33-party alliance has called off Nepal-band strike considering the final match of SAFF Championship 2013 due on that day at the Dasharath Stadium.

Though they have decided to deffer the protest program, new date for it has not been released yet.

A meeting of the 33 parties held at the CPN-Maoist’s central office in Kathmandu on Wednesday decided to reschedule their protest programme.

In a statement issued on behalf of the parties, CPN-Maoist Secretary Dev Gurung said that the decision was made at the request of Nepal Football Association.

National teams of the eight South Asian countries are taking part in the eight edition of SAFF Championship, which kicked off in Kathmandu on August 31.

LONDON (Reuters) – Banned Liverpool striker Luis Suarez could make his return to action against Manchester United after the two teams were drawn against each other in the League Cup third round on Wednesday.

Suarez, serving a 10-game suspension for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic last season, will be eligible for the match at Old Trafford scheduled for September 24 or 25.

The Uruguay striker is an unpopular figure at United after he was banned for eight games for racially abusing the club’s defender Patrice Evra in 2011 and he inflamed the situation by refusing to shake the Frenchman’s hand after making his return.

The third round also features a repeat of last season’s FA Cup final as Manchester City take on Wigan Athletic, who were relegated from the Premier League after upsetting City to win at Wembley in May.

There are four other all-Premier League clashes as Fulham play Everton, Aston Villa host Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United take on Cardiff City and West Bromwich Albion play Arsenal.

Holders Swansea City visit second-tier Birmingham City.

Premier League Southampton host third-tier Bristol City, Leeds, winners in 1968, visit Newcastle United and Norwich City play Watford.

Leicester face local rivals Derby, Premier League Hull City host Huddersfield and four-times winners Nottingham Forest will face Burnley.

(Reporting by Toby Davis; editing by Ed Osmond)

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini was unhappy with his side’s defending after it slumped to a 3-2 loss at Cardiff City on Sunday.

Pellegrini’s men – who started the season in style with a 4-0 thrashing of Newcastle United on Monday – were brought back down to earth in Wales by a fired-up Cardiff side.

Edin Dzeko put City in front in the 52nd minute, but Aron Gunnarsson leveled eight minutes later for Cardiff before Fraizer Campbell headed in two corners to seal a 3-2 victory, despite Alvaro Negredo’s late consolation.

When quizzed if his defense could have done better, Pellegrini told Sky Sports: “Of course. Nobody believes they can score two goals against us in a set piece. You must be concentrating on those sort of plays. We scored two goals but the game was decided by two corners.”

Pellegrini did acknowledge Cardiff made life tough for his side, but felt the visitors were too subdued in the first half before their defensive mishaps after the break.

“I think we played against a very difficult team,” he said. “Cardiff had 10 players near their own box  and it was very difficult for us to score. I think we didn’t play well. We played a little slowly in the first half. When we scored our first goal, I think we could do better after that.”

Pellegrini also rejected suggestions he would rush into the transfer window to bolster his defensive options.

Manchester City is currently without captain Vincent Kompany, who is set to miss the next four weeks with a groin injury but Pellegrini refused to Javi Garcia, who replaced the Belgian, for the surprise loss.

“No, no, no. I don’t think that [Garcia] was the problem,” he added. “Cardiff is a very difficult team, playing [on the] counter attack.  It was just two corners that decided the game.”

Aug 25 (Reuters) – Two goals from Fraizer Campbell handed Cardiff City a shock 3-2 victory over Manchester City on Sunday as the Premier League newcomers celebrated a memorable win in their first top flight match at home in 51 years.

Edin Dzeko had given the visitors the lead on 52 minutes, but Aron Gunnarsson levelled for the Premier League newcomers eight minutes later when following up a Joe Hart block.

Despite struggling to get the ball, Cardiff went ahead in the 79th minute when Hart failed to clear a corner, allowing Campbell to nod the ball home and he repeated the feat from another corner seven minutes later.

Alvaro Negredo pulled one back for Manchester City in injury time, but despite a couple of half-chances were unable to snatch a point at the death.

At White Hart Lane, a second Roberto Soldado penalty in as many weeks was enough to give Spurs a 1-0 win over Swansea City.

Spurs grabbed all three points after Andros Townsend went down under the challenge of Jonjo Shelvey on 58 minutes to give away the spot kick.

The result puts Spurs on maximum points after two matches, despite the absence of Gareth Bale, who was believed to have arrived in Spain on Saturday to finalise his world record transfer fee move to Real Madrid. (Reporting by Josh Reich, editing by Pritha Sarkar)