Football Shorts – The Save Your Bacon edition

Brondby’s Bacon Saved

A few weeks ago, I mentioned the Danish giants cut wages by 25% in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy, but it looked like on Monday, their bacon would be fried. (Sorry.)

Trading in the club’s shares on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange was suspended on Monday after the players’ January salaries along with holiday money owed to former players weren’t paid on time and it looked like bankruptcy was unavoidable.

However, later in the week the club announced a new shares emission would take place in the spring, raising between 75 and 150 million Danish crowns. Brondby director Tommy Hakansson said in a statement:

“We are very pleased to have created the basis for the continuation of Brondby until recapitalisation. And we’re very, very pleased that we have secured the employees their full salary, not only in January but also in the future.”

Italy Drop Bonucci For Confronting Ref

Leonardo Bonucci was left out of the Italy squad for the friendly against the Netherlands after he was suspended for one match for angrily confronting officials over an unawarded penalty at the end of a Serie A match against Genoa.

Italy coach Cesare Prandelli has regularly warned his players that he will not tolerate bad behaviour even when they are playing for their clubs. He has twice barred AS Roma midfielder Daniele De Rossi for poor conduct and Mario Balotelli also fell foul of the rules when he was at Manchester City.

Leonardo Bonucci and Cesc Fàbregas in the Euro 2012 final. Courtesy of ???? ??????

Bulgarian Prime Minister To Play Against Aston Villa

Bulgaria Prime Minister Boiko Borisov will play in a charity match against English Premier League side Aston Villa to raise funds for children with leukaemia.

The BFU also announced they would be dedicating the game (to be played in May) to Aston Villa and Bulgaria international Stiliyan Petrov, who is undergoing treatment for the disease. The majority of the Bulgarian team is expected to be made up from the 1994 World Cup squad while the Aston Villa side will be hugely taken from the key figures of the 1982 European Cup winning side.

Boiko Borisov is no stranger to playing football. He still turns out for Bulgarian third division side Vitosha Bistritsa at the ripe old age of 53.

D-Becks Starts Political Row

When David Beckham and PSG confirmed his entire salary would be donated to a Parisian children’s charity, no one would have imagined it would potentially annoy the French government… and yet, it has done just that.

Under French law, Beckham must be paid the French football union’s minimum wage so the government can receive national insurance and other taxes, which works out at about £2k per week. However, this arrangement means he avoids the controversial 75 per cent tax which President Francois Hollande’s government is currently bringing in. The deal means Beckham avoids paying not only the top rate on income tax, but also a three per cent surtax on annual income above £450,000.

Several French MPs have objected to the wage agreement, suggesting it is basically a form of tax avoidance. Conservative MP Gerald Darmanin was the biggest critic:

“He will be paid less than my parliamentary. Be serious! It’s necessary to convince the Sports Minister to stop this deadly tax process. I’d rather receive 50 per cent of a lot than 75 per cent of nothing!”

Bulgaria And Hungary Lose Racism Appeals

Another issue which I mentioned a few weeks ago was Bulgaria and Hungary being sanctioned by FIFA for racism and anti-Semitic behaviour respectively. The nations appealed their punishments (one home game behind closed doors) but FIFA rejected the appeals:

“The appeals lodged by the Hungarian Football Federation and Bulgarian Football Union were both rejected and the decisions of the FIFA disciplinary committee are confirmed in their entirety. The MLZS and BFU have both been warned to their future conduct.

Should such incidents of a racist/discriminatory nature occur again, the FIFA disciplinary committee would be left with no other option than to impose harsher sanctions, which could go as far as forfeiting a match, a points deduction, or disqualification from a competition.”

Sander Westerveld denies claims of doping, but admits receiving injections

The former Liverpool goalkeeper refuted an allegation by the former Real Sociedad president Inaki Badiola that Real Sociedad’s players were subjected to doping practices. The Liga club apparently struck off two doctors, Eduardo Escobar and Antxon Gorrotxategi, in 2008 because they discovered payments in the prior six years for products which were classified as banned substances.

Westerveld was also at the club during this period and was quoted as saying:

“Of course at Real Sociedad there were players who received intravenous injections before and after games.

Considering all of the recent stories, I will not put my hand in the fire for anyone. But I never saw or noticed anything unusual that someone would have received. I never noticed anything that would improve my performance particularly.”

I remember some of his Premier League and La Liga performances…I can happily confirm it certainly didn’t look like he ever took performance-enhancing drugs.

Referee banned for poor performance

Tunisian referee Slim Jdidi was banned by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) after his god-awful display in the African Nations Cup semi-final between Burkina Faso and Ghana.

General secretary Hicham El Amrani told a media briefing the day after the game:

“CAF was not happy with the standard of refereeing in the match.We know they can make mistakes but we expected a better level of refereeing. They are graded on each performance and based on his marks the referee from Tunisia is now suspended for a period of time still to be determined.”

Beitar Jerusalem’s Club House Set On Fire

After discussing the club’s dodgy past and links to the Israeli right-wing last week, the fans seem to have went one better by setting the team’s main club house on fire, a day after four fans were charged in court in connection with racist incitement against the team’s recruitment of Muslim players.

Teddy Kollek Stadium. Courtesy of Little Savage

Police said the fire caused “extensive damage” to the premises next to the team’s main training grounds. Police are investigating a possible link to protests over the team’s signing up of two Chechen Muslim players last month.

Christos Arkoudas fails drug test

The AEK Athens defender tested positive for the banned stimulant oxilofrine. The 22-year-old had failed a routine test following the match against OFI Crete on Jan 26. The player is expected to exercise his right to appeal the decision and be retested, the procedure likely to take place next week.

If the second test is also positive, Arkoudas faces a ban of up to two years as punishment.