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Chronicle
The fight for the world heavyweight title according to the IBF and WBO boxing organizations between title holder Vladimir Klitschko and David Haye (pictured) , scheduled for June 20, will not take place. Representatives of the Briton said that Haye injured his back during preparation and will not be able to enter the ring in two weeks. The Englishman’s team is asking to postpone the fight, which, due to Haye’s harsh and provocative statements towards the Klitschko brothers, was increasingly acquiring a scandalous connotation, for at least three weeks. However, the Ukrainian intends to fight on June 20 and in Gelsenkirchen, where tickets have already been sold, and is urgently looking for a replacement for the Englishman.
Several heavyweights were considered as candidates, including Nikolai Valuev and Ruslan Chagaev, whose fight was canceled last week, as well as Eddie Chambers, Chris Areola and Alexander Povetkin. For two days, Klitschko’s managers negotiated, and possible options fell away one after another.
Nikolai Valuev was the first to avoid the fight. The Russian himself, whose preparation for the fight with Chagaev was in vain, said that he was ready to meet with Vladimir Klitschko. However, Valuev’s managers, under the pretext that Nikolai was preparing for a fight with a left-handed boxer, proposed to postpone this fight to the fall. Chris Areola's refusal was also motivated by lack of preparation time. In turn, Chambers already has a fight scheduled for July.
There are only two candidates left from the entire list. Klitschko’s team has already made a preliminary offer to Alexander Povetkin, who, a year and a half ago, having won the four-candidate tournament, has already won the right to fight the youngest of the Ukrainian brothers. Povetkin is currently training in Chekhov near Moscow, but he has no approved opponents. The Russian boxer's manager Alexander Khryunov said yesterday that he was waiting for an official proposal from Vladimir Klitschko to begin discussing it. However, Khryunov said that he would like to hold this fight in Russia, and this condition is obviously impossible for Vladimir Klitschko: in Gelsenkirchen, at the football stadium of which the fight with Haye was supposed to take place, tickets have already been sold.
Also, Klitschko Jr. is ready to meet with Ruslan Chagaev, and the Ukrainian is not afraid of the fact that the Uzbek boxer is a carrier of the hepatitis virus. “I consulted with doctors, there is no risk of infection. And to be completely sure, I can get vaccinated,” said Vladimir Klitschko, once again indirectly confirming that the story of the cancellation of the fight between Chagaev and Valuev was a well-thought-out farce.
FIFA is still in the black
The FIFA Congress, taking place these days in the Bahamas, approved the results of the financial activities of the International Football Federation for 2008. Last year, FIFA earned $957 million, and the bulk of its revenue came from the sale of television rights to the 2010 World Cup matches. This is higher than in 2007. The organization's expenses, on the contrary, decreased and amounted to 773 million. Thus, FIFA earned 184 million dollars. All of them, as well as additional funds of up to half a billion dollars, will be invested in holding the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
In addition, the FIFA Congress made a number of important decisions. One of them concerns the removal of age restrictions for players who have played for youth teams and decided to start playing for another national team. Previously, a football player who played in youth teams could not change his football citizenship upon reaching the age of 21. Now this restriction has been lifted. But if a player has taken part in at least one match of the main team, he no longer has the right to play for another national team.
Also at the congress, FIFA President Sepp Blatter demanded that the bars separating fans from the field be removed from all stadiums. “Who is being kept behind bars? Criminals and wild animals! Do fans fall into these two categories?” - the head of the International Federation was emotional.
Milan part ways with Kaka
Brazilian midfielder Kaka will still be sold to Milan this off-season. Yesterday, the vice-president of the Italian club, Adriano Galliani, was forced to admit the fact of negotiations with Real, which had previously been carefully hidden. “Kaka’s departure is primarily due to the club’s financial problems. Milan cannot ignore offers of 70 million euros every year. I want to say that there is no crisis in the club. The rest of the players will remain in the team and we will buy a strong striker,” Galliani told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
The estimated cost of the transfer could be even more than the stated 70 million euros. Chelsea intervened in the negotiations. The English club, which was recently headed by ex-Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti, would also like to see Kaka in its ranks and is ready to enter into a kind of auction with the “royal” club.
Messina flies to Madrid
CSKA basketball coach Ettore Messina may leave Russia. The Italian coach, according to Marca, will soon arrive in Madrid, where he will hold negotiations with Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, who intends to develop not only a football club, but also a basketball club. It is possible that Messina will sign the contract offered to him there. As the CSKA management stated in turn, negotiations between the army team and the Italian are scheduled for next week.
Messina has been working at CSKA since 2005 and has consistently won Russian championships. Also, under the leadership of the Italian, the army team won the Euroleague for the first time in 2006, and two years later they repeated their success.
Sidelnikov received the Belarusian national team
The famous Russian volleyball specialist Viktor Sidelnikov, who led the Kazan club to victory in the 2007/08 Champions League, led the Belarusian national team. Sidelnikov will debut in his new capacity on June 5. The Belarusians are playing away in the first round of the Euroleague against Austria. The resignation of the former mentor Alexander Singaevsky occurred due to the fact that his players did not qualify for the decisive round of qualification for the 2010 World Cup.