As the world of sport unites to help the survivors of Sunday’s Indian Ocean earthquake disaster, the Premier League has received criticism from some quarters for what some consider to be a relatively modest donation.As the world of sport unites to help the survivors of Sunday’s Indian Ocean earthquake disaster, the Premier League has received criticism from some quarters for what some consider to be a relatively modest donation.

The cash-rich Premiership has promised the not inconsiderable amount of £1million. However, their critics have pointed out that this represents a contribution of only £50,000 from each of England’s 20 top-flight clubs.

Much of the unease is generated due to many Premiership matches being regularly televised in most of the countries affected. Therefore, they contribute to the clubs’ combined wealth via overseas TV fees.

Furthermore, the Premiership has enjoyed massive income since the tsunami struck on Sunday. Within hours of the disaster, an aggregate attendance of 355,221 saw the ten Boxing Day Premiership games. With a conservative estimate of an average spend of £20 per head, that would mean an approximate matchday income of around £7million.

With another full programme in midweek and each club playing twice over the New Year weekend, it is likely that the Premiership clubs will have generated over £30million in the eight days after the worst natural disaster in living memory.

Of course, with the transfer window about to re-open, much of that Christmas / New Year bounty will being invested in strengthening their squads. A number of transactions will result in deals worth millions of pounds while even so-called free transfers will include such as wages and agents fees that will dwarf the £50,000 donation.

In all fairness, it is clearly difficult to gauge an appropriate amount. In announcing their admittedly welcome contribution, Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said: “I think everyone has been taken aback by the sheer enormity of events following the Indian Ocean earthquake.

“The Premier League and our clubs have strong connections throughout the region and there was a real feeling amongst the clubs that we should do something as a collective to try and alleviate some of the pain and suffering that is so evident across those areas affected by the tsunami.

“Our thoughts go out to those who are suffering as a result of this catastrophe and hopefully this donation will help make a real difference as the disaster relief operation gets underway.”

Elsewhere, Reuters’ Julian Linden has looked at sports response to the disaster: “The cricketing world has also joined forces to raise funds after India and Sri Lanka, two of the sport’s major playing nations, were devastated by the tsunami.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club donated $250,000 to the relief effort while the International Olympic Committee (IOC) expressed their condolences. “The whole Olympic movement stands silent before and shares in this immense bereavement,” IOC President Jacques Rogge wrote on the committee’s website.”

A minute’s silence will be observed in matches across England during the weekend and clubs are being encouraged to organise fund raising events.

Should you wish to contribute, the AFS respectfully suggests that donations should be paid to Care International. Thank you.

One of the major events in England in the coming year is the sixth UEFA European Women’s Championship and details for the draw ceremony have now been confirmed.One of the major events in England in the coming year is the sixth UEFA European Women’s Championship and details for the draw ceremony have now been confirmed.

Along with the unveiling of the newly-designed trophy, the draw for the WOMEN’S EURO 2005, will take place at the City of Manchester Stadium on Thursday 19 January. The final tournament will be staged from 5-19 June.

UEFA Chief Executive Lars-Christer Olsson and UEFA women’s football committee chairman Karen Espelund will attend the draw, while the Football Association has announced that minister for sport and tourism Richard Caborn and FA chairman and UEFA vice-president Geoff Thompson will also be present.

The City of Manchester Stadium will host the opening England game on Sunday 5 June. The other Group A matches will be played at Ewood Park (Blackburn Rovers) and Bloomfield Road (Blackpool). Ewood Park is also the setting for the final on Sunday 19 June.

Preston North End’s Deepdale and Warrington Wolves RLFC new Halliwell Jones Stadium will host the Group B games, and will each stage one semi-final.

Eight nations are taking part. They are hosts England, Denmark, Finland, France, holders Germany, Italy, Norway and Sweden. They will be drawn into two groups of four with the top two in each group going through to the semi-finals.

Tickets will go on sale for the tournament shortly after the draw. The FA has confirmed that prices will be affordable for families, with special discounts for all football clubs and schools.

One of the more inexact references in football is the term ‘big club’. But how can you gauge the difference in size between one club and another, and is your club really bigger than your bitter rivals?One of the more inexact references in football is the term ‘big club’. But how can you gauge the difference in size between one club and another, and is your club really bigger than your bitter rivals?

These are question that have exercised the mind of AFS member Mike Aylott and his findings will be published in the first AFS Report of 2005.

Mike’s study, which covers all clubs who have been members of the Football League for at least three seasons since 1970, is definitely not a work of opinion. He describes it as ‘robust statistical analysis’.

Subscribers to the AFS Report will therefore discover in February if Arsenal is bigger than Spurs, Nottingham Forest is bigger than Derby County, Huddersfield Town is bigger than Barnsley, and Darlington bigger than Hartlepool United… and why.

Other articles in Report Number 116 include, in the Tigers’ centenary season, a look back over the 100-year history of Hull City, and the intriguingly titled ‘When to conceive a professional footballer’.

There’s also the return of old favourites such as In Off The Post, Milestones, Obituaries and Book Reviews.

All contributions are gratefully received. They must be forwarded to enquiries@11v11.co.uk before 31 January 2005.

If your AFS Report subscription has expired or you would like to take out an AFS Online subscription then please use the Join button on the left-hand side of this page.

Looking further ahead in 2005, Report 117 is due to be posted to AFS Online on 10 May, Report 118 on 10 August and Report 119 on 10 November. Members should receive their copy by the end of each of those months.

The final FIFA / Coca-Cola World Rankings for 2004 have been announced.The final FIFA / Coca-Cola World Rankings for 2004 have been announced.

Brazil started the year in first place and it’s the position they’ve held to the end of the year.

Of the home nations, England remain in 8th, the Republic of Ireland have moved up two places to 12th,Wales are down two to 68th, Scotland have dropped down 32 places to joint 86th while Northern Ireland are up 15 to 107th.

The 2004 Best Mover Award goes to China PR who have moved up 32 places to joint 54th.

The full list is, as follows:

The next FIFA / Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 19 January 2005.

FIFA have announced that players will now be allowed to make two moves in a single calendar year.FIFA have announced that players will now be allowed to make two moves in a single calendar year.

Following a two-day meeting in Zurich, the FIFA Executive Committee ratified the revised Regulations for the Status and Transfer of Players. President Sepp Blatter also confirmed a player could be loaned to two different clubs in succession during a season if he had only trained and not played in any matches for his original club between loans.

An official press release read, as follows:

There are a number of amendments in the revised regulations, with the restriction on the number of transfers per calendar year to be relaxed, thereby allowing a player to be transferred twice within the same calendar year if the contract between the club and player has been cancelled with mutual consent before the second transfer is completed. However, transfers must still take place in one of the transfer windows.

These new regulations, which will come into force on 1 July 2005 after the conclusion of the current season, will also have a new, more consistent structure and will contain the provisions and additions that FIFA has issued via circular letters since the adoption of the current transfer regulations on 1 September 2001. With regard to international registration transfer certificates and the provisional registration of players, it was also agreed that a more precise legal formulation was required.

It was also announced that FIFA had agreed to create a special insurance fund to compensate national associations and clubs for players injured during the 2006 World Cup finals.

The group stage of this season’s UEFA Cup was completed last night and here are the final standings.The group stage of this season’s UEFA Cup was completed last night and here are the final standings.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

The draw for the UEFA Cup Round of 32 takes place in Nyon, Switzerland at 12.45pm GMT today.

The group winners will be drawn against teams that finished in third place while the eight third-placed clubs from the UEFA Champions League (Ajax, Dynamo Kyiv, Shakhtar Donetsk, Fenerbahçe, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, CSKA Moskva and Valencia) join the competition and will face the second-placed teams from the UEFA Cup groups.

Group-winners and group runners-up shall play the second leg at home and clubs from the same association will not be drawn against each other. The first legs will be played on the 16/17 February and the second legs on the 24 February.

The draw will also be made for the Round of 16 at 1.15pm GMT today. At this stage of the competition, no teams are seeded. The match dates are set for 10 March and 16/17 March.

The draw for the UEFA Champions League first knockout round will also take place at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon at 11.00am GMT. It will involve the 16 teams that have advanced from the group stage. The eight section winners are seeded.

Madrid and Sociedad arrange seven minute match

After the bomb threat that forced the evacuation of the Bernabeu stadium on Sunday, Real Madrid and Real Sociedad will play the remaining seven minutes of their Primera Liga match.

With the match level at 1-1, the 70,000 fans calmly left the stadium after Basque newspaper Gara received a warning from a caller claiming to represent ETA who said there was a bomb in the ground.

The clubs have agreed to play the remainder of the match at 6pm CET on 5 January.

It’s not that first occasion in recent times that a Real Madrid game has failed to finish. Their league game at Real Betis in September 2002 was abandoned after floodlight failure at Betis’ Estadio Manuel Ruiz de Lopera.

The kick-off was delayed for 16 minutes after the floodlights were flickering on and off. Referee Juan Antonio Fernandez Marin briefly halted the game ten minutes into the first half before the floodlights failed completely as he was about to blow his whistle for half time with Betis leading 1-0. The game was replayed a month later and it ended in a 1-1 draw.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid have appealed against sanctions imposed last week by Uefa for alleged racism by their supporters. They received a 9,780 euros (£6,767) fine.

UEFA have accused Madrid’s fans of making racist noises and gestures at Bayer Leverkusen’s black defenders Juan Silveira Dos Santos and Roque Junior during the Champions League game on 23 November. It was also at the Bernabeu that England’s players were abused last month.

It is thought the relatively lenient fine took into account this being the first time that such offences had occurred involving Real supporters.

However, it’s not the first time Madrid supporters have come under UEFA’s disciplinary spotlight. They previously caused trouble in 1998, and the club was subsequently fined, after fans pulled down a perimeter fence during a Champions League semi-final against Borussia Dortmund.

Youngster voted best in Europe

Wayne Rooney has ended a fabulous year by being voted Europe’s best young player.

The Manchester United striker, who was the England star of Euro 2004, finished top of a poll organised by Italian newspaper, Tuttosport. They asked thirty leading journalists to select the best Under-21 talent currently playing across the continent.

The top five were:

1st - Wayne Rooney (Manchester United & England)
2nd- Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United & Portugal)
3rd - Fernando Torres (Atletico Madrid & Spain)
4th - Arjen Robben (Chelsea & Holland)
5th - Obafemi Martins (Inter Milano & Nigeria)

On receiving the award, Rooney said:

“As far as I am aware, this is the first international trophy I have won. I have been fortunate to receive a number of individual honours over the past twelve months, including the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year Award. Obviously it is nice to hear my name being mentioned in the same breath as both Pelé and Bobby Charlton but, to have the sort of career they had, I have to concentrate on improving all the time. It is no point having a couple of good years and then not fulfilling my potential.”

Tuttosport hope their award will come to be regarded as the young star’s equivalent of the European Footballer of the Year. Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart of Ajax was last year’s inaugural winner.

Okocha in final five

Bolton Wanderers’ Jay Jay Okocha has been named as one of five finalists for the 2004 African Footballer of the Year.

On Sunday, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced a shortlist of five players including the 2003 winner Samuel Eto’o of Barcelona.

The South African Star reports that other nominees for the prestigious individual honour are Chelsea’s Ivorian striker Didier Drogba, Emmanuel Adebayor of Togo and Monaco and South Africa striker Benni McCarthy, who stars for European champions FC Porto.

CAF’s technical and media committees voted for the five players.

At a press briefing in Abuja, Nigeria, CAF director of communications, Sulaiman Habuba, announced that the national team coaches of the continent’s 53 member-nations will vote for the final three nominees. The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony in Durban, South Africa, on 15 February.

The five nominees in the other awards categories will be announced in January. The categories include best goalkeeper, best coach, most impressive achiever as well as best team.

The group stage of the UEFA Champions League was completed this week and here are the final league standings.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

The top two teams from each group now qualify for the first knock-out round. The draw will be made in Nyon, Switzerland next Friday (17 December).

The third placed teams now enter the UEFA Cup. The draw for the round of 32 also takes place in Nyon next Friday.