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Chicago Fire Drop 3-1Decision to Manchester

United in Front of Sold Out Crowd at Soldier Field

The Chicago Fire ran out to a 1-0 lead through veteran defender Cory Gibbs’ 13th minute header but Premiership champions Manchester United used three second half goals to best the hosts 3-1 in front of a club record crowd of 61,308 Saturday afternoon at Soldier Field. It wasn’t all roses early as United nearly took a 1-0 lead in the fifth minute when Danny Wel-

beck slipped Dimitar Berbatov into the Fire penalty area before firing a low blast which second-year ‘keeper Sean Johnson was equal to. Eight minutes later the Fire took a dream lead when Cory Gibbs, a veteran de-fender who spent the 2006-07 season with English side Charlton Athletic, put the Fire on top in the 13th minute. Following a foul 40 yards from goal, midfielder Marco Pappa sent in a well-struck free kick from the right touchline, finding Gibbs who out-jumped United center back Phil Jones and headed past David de Gea, giving the Fire a 1-0 lead. Playing at Soldier Field for the first time since October 2005, the Fire nearly doubled their lead over the reining Premier League champions twice before the half. First in the 32nd minute when a whipping cross from right back Jalil Anibaba was headed back into the box by his opposite number Fabio. Fire striker Dominic Oduro looked to settle it but his strike partner Cristian Nazarit took control and fired a quick effort just wide left of de Gea’s goal. Just before halftime it was defender Gonzalo Segares who beat Gabriel Obertan down the left before centering a low ball for Patrick Nyarko. The Ghanaian winger cradled the pass before fir-ing a belting rocket which de Gea did well to hang on to, sending the Fire into the halftime break with a 1-0 lead. Coming out of the interval, both teams made multiple changes, but it was United that showed their intent to change the result as they brought on Wayne Rooney, Ji-Sung Park and Ryan Giggs. Despite the additions to the United attack, the Fire nearly found the second goal twice again on the other side of the half. The first came in the 52nd minute as Nyarko chased a long ball down the left. The Ghanaian centered a ball for Orr Barouch but his incidental contact with Jonny Evans caused the pass to fall to the feet of an open Baggio Husidic. The Bosnian-born midfielder put his one-time effort just wide right of de Gea’s goal to keep the Fire’s lead to one. It was Nyarko on the left again in the 63rd minute. The crafty winger send an angled ball to second half substitute Orr Barouch inside the 18-yard box. The 19-year-old forward collected the pass at the top of the box before firing a low blast off the woodwork. The Fire would go on to rue the missed opportunities three minutes later when substitute defender Rio Ferdinand played a pinpoint ball over the top for Wayne Rooney who took one touch before chipping over onrushing Fire ‘keeper Jon Conway to level the score at 1-1 in the 66th minute. United would increase their lead when a great combination between Rafael and Nani on the right flank saw the Brazilian right back enter the Fire box before shooting from a very acute angle, beating Conway to the near post and giving the Red Devils a 2-1 lead in the 75th minute. Spurred by the go-ahead goal, United would grab one more in the 82nd minute. Italian striker Federico Macheda ran down a long ball on the right and cut back before finding Nani running into space. The Portuguese winger touched the ball off of Gibbs before going in alone and slotting a low ball past Conway to give United a 3-1 victory.

Chicago, IL JULY 2011 Chicago, IL JULY 2011

Barcelona agrees to sell forward Bojan to Roma

Clinton vows to pay off Women’s World Cup bet

Koeman appointed Feyenoord coach

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Barcelona have agreed to sell Spain Under-21 forward Bojan Krkic to Serie A side AS Roma for 12 million euros ($17.3 million) but could buy him back in two years, the club said on Friday.Under the terms of the deal the Spanish and European champions can buy the 20-year-old back at the end of the 2012-13 season for 13 million euros, the La Liga club said on their website (www.fcbarcelona.cat).Bojan has won a host of trophies with Barca over the past three seasons but is not one of Pep Guardiola’s first-choice forwards and has spent most of the time on the bench.He will join up with former Barca and Spain midfielder Luis Enrique, who has moved to the Italian capital to take charge of Roma after a successful season coaching Barca’s B team.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is lamenting America’s loss to Japan in the Women’s World Cup final, but congratulating the Japanese team on its victory and vowing to pay off a bet she made on the match with Japan’s foreign minister.Meeting with her Japanese and South Korean counterparts on the sidelines of an Asian security conference in Bali, Indonesia, on Saturday, Clinton applauded Japan’s “hard fought victory’’ in last week’s finale, which she called a “great game.’’ “We were not happy with the result but we were very impressed by the Japanese team,’’ she said.Clinton then said she would make good on her bet, which she noted had cost her “some very good New York apples.’’ Japan’s foreign minister had staked Japanese pears.

Feyenoord has named Ronald Koeman as head coach, signing him to a one-year contract.The 48-year-old Koeman replaces Mario Been, who quit this month after players said they had lost faith in his leadership - plunging the cash-strapped club into turmoil shortly before the start of the new season.Feyenoord finished 10th in the Dutch league last season, as archrival Ajax won its 30th title.Koeman has been looking for work since his last appointment, a 5-month stint with AZ Alkmaar, ended abruptly in December 2009. He has previously coached Ajax and PSV to league champi-onships, and had brief spells at Valencia and Benefica.During an illustrious playing career, Koeman won 78 caps for Netherlands and won the Spanish league title four times as well as the 1992 European Cup with Barcelona.

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FIFA has banned Mohamed bin Hammam from football for life after finding him guilty of bribing presidential election voters.

A FIFA ethics panel has ruled that the Qatari candidate conspired to pay Caribbean officials $40,000 cash bribes to back his ultimately abandoned challenge to FIFA President Sepp Blat-ter.Bin Hammam is the most senior FIFA official convicted of corruption in its 107-year history.The Asian Football Confederation president didn’t cooperate with the FIFA investigation or

attend his hearing on Friday.Bin Hammam denied wrongdoing but wrote on his website Friday that he expected a guilty

verdict, and would appeal.

All top-flight Norwegian soccer matches this weekend have been cancelled after gun and bomb at-tacks that killed at least 91 people, the Norwegian FA (NFF) said in a statement on Saturday.Seven people were killed in a bomb explosion in the Norwegian capital, and at least 84 more died when a gunman opened fire during a political summer camp held by the Labour party on the island of Utoeya on Friday.“As a mark of respect for all who are affected by the disaster the NFF has decided to postpone the scheduled matches,” the statement said.The statement added that regional authorities and organisers could choose whether or not to go

ahead with amateur matches, and that the cancelled matches will be rescheduled next week.

The United States remains atop the FIFA women’s world rankings despite its World Cup final defeat to Japan in a penalty shootout last Sunday.

The U.S. has topped the standings since March 2008, and is followed by Germany, Brazil, Japan and Sweden.England climbs four places to No. 6, ahead of France.Canada, the 2015 World Cup host, fell two places to No. 8.North Korea drops four to No. 12 and faces a FIFA disciplinary investigation after

five of its players tested positive for anabolic steroids at the tournament in Ger-many.

FIFA bans Bin Hammam for life in bribery case

Norwegian FA cancels matches after shooting, bomb attack

World Cup finalist U.S. leads FIFA women’s rankings

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Hundreds of Fenerbahce fans, angry over match-fixing allegations against their club, invaded the field during a friendly against Ukrainian champion Shakhtar Donetsk, forcing the abandonment of the game.At a time when the country’s football federation is pondering whether to postpone the start of league play because of the corruption turmoil, Fenerbahce fans - some wearing masks and T-shirts bearing the picture of jailed club presi-

dent Aziz Yildirim - invaded the pitch in the 67th minute of the game Thursday at Fenerbahce’s Sukru Saracoglu stadium.Media representatives were evacuated from the stadium after being abused by fans who are angry at media coverage of a match-fixing probe that implicated Yildirim and Fenerbahce along with some other club officials and players, newspapers said Friday.The game came hours after Yildirim said in a letter that he would step down.On Tuesday, the Turkish Football Federation postponed the Turkish Super Cup final between Fenerbahce and Besiktas because both teams are implicated in the match-fixing probe of 19 first-and second-division games from last season.Federation president Mehmet Aydinlar said the scheduled league start Aug. 5 would be evaluated. He later said he was personally against an early August start due to hot weather.The prosecutor’s office in Istanbul has provided the federation with the testimony and related documents of about 30 suspects in the match-fixing probe. Potential sanctions include stripping Fenerbahce of last season’s title and relegating the team to the second division.Fenerbahce won 16 of 17 league matches in the latter part of the season to come from a distant third place and claim a record 18th title, beating Trabzonspor on goal difference. Now, the club risks losing its league title in the same manner as Italian club Juventus, which was stripped of its 2005 and 2006 Serie A championships because of a similar scandal.Turkey is the latest country to be affected by a slew of match-fixing and betting scandals around the globe, from South Korea to Zimbabwe.

Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho was appointed the club’s head of football operations as part of a restructuring following the firing of Jorge Valdano as director general.Mourinho was instrumental in Valdano’s departure in May after a season of run-ins with the Spaniard, favoring an English-style club structure.The former Chelsea manager is working closely with sporting director and France great Zinedine Zidane, who has also taken on a more active role since Valdano’s exit.


Fenerbahce fans invade pitch, game abandoned

Real names Mourinho head of football operations

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday commiserated with his country’s football fans saying the national team was “robbed’’ of a goal in the Copa America semifinal loss to Paraguay.Chavez, who is undergoing cancer treatment in Cuba, posted a string of messages on his Twitter account Thursday morning, saying Venezuela should complain to CONMEBOL, the governing body of South American football.“Paraguay didn’t beat us in that game,’’ one message said. The president added that he had been watching the match along with former Cuban President Fidel Castro and they both “clearly saw the goal they took away from us.’’“In my modest opinion,’’ Chavez continued, “... THEY ROBBED US OF THE VICTORY GOAL! And I hope that with this I’m not offending anybody!’’Oswaldo Vizcarrondo had a goal disallowed in the first half of the match Wednes-day night after a close offside decision. TV replays backed the referee’s call that the Venezuelan player was offside.Venezuela also hit the woodwork three times before the game finished 0-0 and Paraguay won a penalty shootout.“Why the devil was that referee going to nullify such a spectacular goal?’’ Chavez asked in another message. He said he had spoken with Venezuela coach Cesar Farias.Thousands of Venezuelans cheered their team in a Caracas plaza while watching on a giant screen, and then their cheers turned to silence during the penalty shootout when Paraguay’s goalkeeper stopped a shot.Many fans said afterward that they were proud of Venezuela’s historic feat in making the Copa America semifinals for the first time, and believed their squad had shown better play than Paraguay throughout the match in Argentina.Venezuela, long known largely for its standout baseball players, has seen its national football team improve markedly in recent years.“We’ve shown that Venezuelan football should be respected,’’ said Alexander Rivas, a 23-year-old university student. Even with the loss, he added, “For us, they’re heroes.’’

Sergio Batista could be on the way out as Argentina’s soccer coach following the coun-try’s quarterfinal loss in Copa America.

Prominent Argentine soccer official German Lerche said in an interview Friday that the country’s soccer federation will meet Monday. He said the meeting would center on the “coach continuing, or not.’’Lerche called the Copa America a “sporting failure’’ for Argentina, which is the host for the South American championship that ends Sunday.

Argentina was eliminated by Uruguay on penalty kicks.

Carolina Morace has resigned as coach of the Canadian women’s soccer team, which failed to win a game at the World Cup.The Canadian Soccer Association says the Italian handed in her resignation Wednes-day after an internal review of the team’s performance at the World Cup. The sixth-ranked Canadians lost to two-

time defending champion Germany, France and Nigeria and exited

after the first round.Captain Christine Sinclair broke

her nose in the opening 2-1 loss to Germany. The striker kept playing and scored Canada’s only goal in three games.In just over two years, Morace had a 25-11-5 record with the national team.The association says it expects to have a new coach in place this fall, before the start of Olympic quali-fying in January.


Chavez complains about call in Venezuela’s loss

Batista could be on the way out in Argentina

Canada women’s coachresigns after World Cup

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Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini considers Carlos Tevez an important member of his squad despite the Argentina striker’s uncertain future with the club.Tevez has expressed a desire to leave the English Premier League club after two seasons in order to be near his fam-ily in South America. He remains with Manchester City after an agreement on a move to Corinthians was unable to be worked out.“At the moment, Carlos is still a City player,’’ Mancini said. “In the future, we will see what can happen. For us, Carlos is an important player.’’Mancini said he has yet to speak with Tevez but re-spects the captain’s wish to play closer to his family. The Manchester City manager said the uncertainty isn’t affecting the way he is preparing for the season.“Carlos wants to leave for his family,’’ Mancini said. “Only because of this the, club accepts it. I think it’s because we respect his reason.’’Tevez appeared to be on his way to Corinthians until the proposed move fell through this week. The transfer would have reunited Tevez with his former club, but Corinthians said they needed more time to arrange a deal.Tevez has been a stabilizing force up front in his time with City, scoring 43 goals in Pre-miership play over the past two campaigns. He had 20 goals last season in helping Manchester City qualify for the Champions League.While his departure would be a blow to Manchester City, the club is exploring avenues of improving its squad through the acquisition of multiple players, according to Mancini, who wouldn’t mention specific names.The club has been linked to highly sought-after striker Sergio Aguero of Atletico Madrid. But Mancini cautioned that the competitive market doesn’t make it easy to sign players of Aguero’s caliber.“It’s difficult to buy good players because all the good teams want these players,’’ Mancini said. “I hope before the game against United, we can add players.’’Manchester City has been training in the United States in prep-aration of its season opener against rival Manchester United in the FA Community Shield on Aug. 7.Manchester City will play the third game of its preseason tour against the host Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soc-cer on Sunday. Already Manchester City has defeated Club America and the Vancouver Whitecaps on its trip.“The games have been good for what we need at this stage of preseason,’’ midfielder Gareth Barry said. “The one on Sunday will probably be the toughest test. But we’re where we want to be.’’

Barcelona signed Chile forward Alexis Sanchez from Udinese for ?26 million ($37 million) on Thursday, becoming the European champion’s first major signing during the offseason transfer market.The three-time defending Spanish champion said on its website that the 22-

year-old Sanchez has agreed to a five-year contract. He becomes the first Chilean player to join Barcelona. Terms of the move were not released.Barcelona said bonuses could add an extra ?11.5 million

($16.5 million) to the deal. Sanchez will undergo a medi-cal and sign his contract before being presented in the Catalan capital on Monday.Sanchez scored 12 goals in 31 Serie A games for Udinese last season after joining from Argentine team River Plate in 2008. He also previously played for Colo Colo and helped Chile reached the quar-terfinals of the Copa America in Argentina this month.Barcelona coach Pep Guar-diola is likely to utilize the winger’s pace and skill on the flanks to bolster Barcelona’s attack. Last season, David Villa and Pedro Rodriguez played there without much of a rest.“He’s very young,’’ Guardiola said. “He can play in all three attacking positions, he shows intense defensive skills, he’s direct and from what I’ve been told, he’s a very nice kid.’’The football transfer is also the most expensive involving a Chilean. It could be end up

being worth more than double what Juventus paid Lazio for Marcelo Salas in 2001, when striker Darko Kovacevic was included in a $25 million deal.Should the deal reach a maximum ?37.5 million ($54 mil-lion), it would be Barcelona’s second most expensive sign-ing after having paid Inter Milan $65 million (?45 million) for striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic in a move that included Samuel Eto’o going the other way.Barcelona can now concentrate on trying to sign Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas. Guardiola said Sanchez was the club’s No. 1 transfer priority, but Barcelona still wants to bring Fabregas back to his boyhood club.


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Man City’s Mancini still sanguine about Tevez Barca sign Chile forward

Sanchez for ? 26 million

Chelsea have agreed terms with Barcelona to sign Spanish defensive midfielder Oriol Romeu but the Premier League club is unlikely to formalise the deal for some time, manager Andre Villas-Boas said on Saturday.Romeu is currently on national team duty with Spain at the Under 20 World Cup in Colombia, which runs from July 29-Aug. 20, and would need to pass a medical and agree personal terms with the London club.Villas-Boas said the 19-year-old would be ideal in bolstering the midfield with Ghanian Michael Essien ruled out for as long as six months to recover from knee surgery after he sustained a cruciate ligament injury.“It’s a sector in which we’re struggling with numbers, not only after Michael’s injury,” Villas-Boas told a news conference in Bangkok during Chelsea’s pre-season Asian tour.“Oriol is a player with a bright future, he still has to evolve and prove himself as a player. He’s one of the most interesting bright young players ... hopefully we can agree terms and he can pass a medical.“Again, we are far from reaching personal terms with the player,” he added.Romeu started his career as a youth player with Espanyol before joining Barcelona’s academy in 2004 and played 49 games for the club’s reserve side before making his first team debut in La Liga in May.Villas-Boas also said 19-year-old Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who is expected complete a deal to join the Blues from Racing Genk, could be sent straight out on loan.Cortois is reportedly set to start the season with Atletico Madrid but Villas-Boas said a decision had not yet been taken.“It is also a question of time and of deciding where we think it is better for him to evolve as a player, in Spain or in an-other country,” he said.“The Spanish League is extremely competitive and Atletico is a great club to be at, but it is not decided yet.”

Argentine defender Gabriel Heinze has become AS Roma’s latest recruit, the Serie A team said on Saturday. The 33-year-old former Manchester United and Real Madrid player was officially presented on Saturday after his move from Olympique Marseille where he spent the previous two seasons.“It’s a great honour to wear this shirt,” Heinze told reporters. “It’s easy to say yes to a club like Roma.”Heinze played for Argentina at the last two World Cups, although his omission from the squad for this year’s Copa America suggested his international career may have ended.AS Roma, who finished sixth last season to qualify for the Europa League, last month appointed former Barcelona and Spain player Luis Enrique as coach.On Friday, Barcelona announced they had agreed to sell 20-year-old Bojan Krkic to Roma for 12 million euros in an unusual deal that includes a commitment to buy the Spain under-21 forward back in two years.Roma have also signed 19-year-old attacking midfielder Erik Lamela, considered one of Argentina’s brightest prospects,


American Bedoya agrees terms with Glasgow Rangers

Chelsea reaches agreement to sign Spain’s Romeu

Argentine defender Gabriel Heinze joins Roma

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Rangers says United States midfielder Alejandro Bedoya has agreed terms with the Scot-tish champions.The 24-year-old Orebro SK player will join Rangers in January after the Swedish season ends if he is granted a British work permit.Bedoya has been in Sweden since 2009 and made his U.S. debut in 2010.From Glasgow, Bedoya wrote on Twitter: “Crossing fingers Work Permit goes through! Thanks for the support!’’

Brazilian Felipe Melo loaned to Galatasaray

Rueda gets vote of confidence in Ecuador

Cosmos announce roster for game with Man U

Brazil says stadium workwill be done by late 2013

Brazil’s sports minister says the construction and renovation work on the 12 stadiums scheduled to host matches at the World Cup will be concluded by late 2013.Orlando Silva said Thursday in a conference call that 10 of the stadiums will host matches for the 2013 Confederations Cup, a test event for soccer’s showcase tournament.Silva says Brazil will invest $14 billion in airports, urban trans-portation, ports and stadiums for the World Cup.

Felipe Melo, the man cast as the villain when Brazil were knocked out of the World Cup in the quarter-finals last year, has been loaned from Juventus to Galatasaray, the Serie A club said on Friday. Juventus said the Turkish club would pay them 1.5 million euros (2.15 million dollars) for a one-year loan with an option to buy the 28-year-old for 13 million euros.His departure came one day after Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal, who like Felipe Melo is a tough tackler but is considered more refined than the Brazilian on the ball, confirmed he was joining Juventus. Prone to yellow and red cards, Felipe Melo became a regular for Brazil under former coach Dunga but many were wor-ried about his tendency to get sent off.Felipe Melo said before last year’s World Cup that he was aware of the danger, yet was still dismissed for stamping on an opponent during the second half of the quarter-final defeat by the Nether-lands when he also put through his own goal.He has not played for Brazil under Dunga’s successor Mano Me-nezes

Ecuador’s football federation says Reinaldo Rueda will continue as coach despite the national team’s group stage elimination from the Copa America.Federation president Luis Chiriboga said Wednesday the leader-ship voted to stick with Rueda “with the object of being present ... in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.’’Ecuador lost to Venezuela and Brazil and drew with Paraguay in the Copa America.Rueda, who took Honduras to the 2010 World Cup, is aiming to guide Ecuador to Brazil 2014. Ecuador qualified for the 2002 and 2006 World Cups.

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Former U.S. goalkeeper Brad Friedel also was se-lected for the roster, along with former Manchester United stalwart Gary Neville and French World Cup champion Patrick Vieira.Man U is not expected to put many regulars on the field because they’ll play Manchester City on Aug. 7.The Cosmos, who claim the lineage of the famous North Ameri-can Soccer League team, are trying to join Major League Soccer.The exhibition will be Paul Scholes’ final ap-pearance with the club he joined in 1994.

Fabio Cannavaro and Brian McBride highlight the roster for the New York Cosmos in their game against Manchester United.The recently reformed club, coached by former Manchester United star Eric Cantona, will be the first American team to play at Old Trafford against Man U on Aug. 5.


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FIFA also requires that the match referee must know within one second if a goal has been scored.

The message is relayed “with both a vibration and visual signal required to be sent to the referee’s watch. This indication must be

received wherever the referee is positioned on the field of play, or within the technical areas,’’ FIFA said.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter reversed his opposition to tests after England was denied a clear goal in its second-round loss

against Germany at the 2010 World Cup.Blatter has said the technology could be in place at the

2014 World Cup in Brazil, though that plan will be op-posed by influential UEFA President Michel Platini. He favors employing additional assistant referees beside

each goal.Nine systems were previously tested at FIFA head-

quarters before the annual IFAB meeting in March but their accuracy was unacceptable.

Hawk-Eye, the Sony-owned company whose ball-tracking technology is used in tennis and

cricket, declined to participate because its system uses cameras that need to be set up

in a stadium.FIFA said the nine candidates can pro-

pose testing venues which have still to be agreed for the next round of trials.

FIFA to test 9 goal-line technology systems Nine goal-line technology systems are to undergo tests to try to win ap-proval for match-day use next year, FIFA said Thursday.FIFA did not identify the nine candidates, all from Europe, which will be examined between September and December by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Sci-ence and Technology.“Each company’s respective technology will be scrutinized across a broad range of criteria, in both daylight and floodlit conditions,’’ FIFA said in a statement.FIFA’s rule-making body, the International Football Association Board, will study the results in London next March and invite the best systems to a second round of trials.The IFAB panel, composed of FIFA officials and the four British associations, can approve successful systems at a meeting scheduled next July.First, the nine candidates must show their technology’s “recogni-tion of free shots on goal, with 100 percent accuracy required, as well as static and dynamic accuracy tests, to 90 percent accuracy in the first phase.’’

topics of conversation, Aayushman Chaturvedi made a decision that was almost unthinkable for his parents.He chose football. And if the mushrooming number of local academies emerging are any indication, Chaturvedi is not the only the Indian schoolboy who dreams of playing football in Europe rather than trying to break into the Twenty20 cricket Indian Premier League. Even former India footballer Anadi Barua, who runs a bustling academy on the outskirts of New Delhi, is surprised by the recent trend. “It is amazing to see the craze, focus and ambition of youngsters,’’ Barua said. “I am surprised to see that parents are so happy to see their kids play football and not cricket.’’ Football in India lacks glamor and money compared with cricket. Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are celebrities across this country of almost 1.2 billion people and have become multimil-lionaires through cricket. Leading cricket players can earn $1 million for a six-week season in the IPL - on top of their national or provincial contracts, match fees and endorsements - while only the very top players in football’s long-winding I-League can make anywhere near $100,000 per season. Little wonder there’s millions of cricket players around the country and the number of footballers can be measured in the thousands. As the IPL cricket competition continues to expand and splurge money to enhance its appeal, two major football clubs that were part of the I-League - Mahindras and JCT - have folded in the last year.Such was the disparity in 2009 that the Board of Control for Cricket in India felt obliged to give the All India Football Federation a $5 million grant to help keep it afloat. Yet despite the yawning wealth divide, football remains popular - a Nielsen global online survey last year indicated 47 percent of Indians claimed to be football fans. “To translate love for the game into prospects, it is important to give exposure to young players. To watch European league matches on the television is one thing and playing the game altogether different,’’ Barua said. India won gold medals in football at the 1951 and 1962 Asian Games and also finished fourth at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. But the standard of the game slipped due to lack of infrastructure and bad administra-tion.Things started changing in the new Millennium. India qualified for the 2011 Asian Cup by winning a competition for second-tier nations, and is involved in home-and-away matches against United Arab Emirates over the next week in the second round of Asian qualifying for the 2014 World Cup. Along with the increasing broadcasts of European football, money is also starting to flow into Indian football. IMG-Reliance - a partnership between IMG Worldwide and Indian company Reliance Industries Ltd. - signed a 15-year, $140-million deal last year for all commercial rights to the game in the country, aiming to promote and market football from the grassroots level to the top. Among Barua’s 150 trainees at the academy in New Delhi’s satellite town of Noida is 16-year-old Aviraj Singh, who was selected for a national schools team to play against a youth team from Premier League giant Arsenal later this year. Other boys at the academy are going further to get experience against the next generation of Premier League play-ers.Chaturvedi is one of them. He registered for a shot at a junior trial match at Chelsea and said going to London was like winning the lottery, even if he had to persuade his parents to cover his travel expenses and stay with his grandmother while he was there. “My parents wanted to push me into cricket since there is more scope for that in India,’’ the 16-year-old Chaturvedi said. “But I al-ways loved football and that is what I always watch on television and on Youtube. “I perused the opportunity through the internet and was thrilled when I got to appear in the under-18 trials.’’ Chaturvedi said he hasn’t received a call back or any official feed-back from the club, “but I am determined to play professional football some day, be it in Europe or in India.’’He learned a lot about his football shortcomings on his trip to England, so it was a valuable exercise. “I need to improve my physical fitness and physique,’’ said Chaturvedi, who is expected to debut in the Delhi league next season. “My game also needs to be faster.’’There’s also a generation of parents who’re bullish about giving their kids the right kind of opportunities.Roshan Tamang, a 39-year-old media professional, sends his nine-year-old son Rushank to an academy run by Indian star Bhaic-hung Bhutia. He said he wouldn’t hesitate to pay for tours abroad in a bid to improve his son’s game.“I played inter-varsity football but did not get the basics right in time,’’ Tamang said. “Things are different now and I am sure there will be bustling football leagues in the country some years from now.’’ Opinions vary as to why India is suddenly interested again in the so-called world game, but Barua has a few theories. “Parents want to ensure children are off video games, television and the internet. They see great potential for a child’s physical development in football,’’ he said. “In fact, I feel technology has contributed in two ways: While their parents got them here to ensure they were not addicted to technology, when kids go back to it in their spare time, they use it to further their knowledge of football.’’ But while the game is growing here now, Barua knows that only a solid professional domestic league will help India climb the world football rankings.

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