Xabi Alonso Exclusively top-class - FIFA - FIFA.comXabi Alonso: A little, but I can’t understand the language particular-ly well so far. I’m having three hours of language lessons

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ISSUE 13/2015, 2 APRIL 2015 ENGLISH EDITION

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Exclusively top-classXabi Alonso

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6 Xabi Alonso

Having previously won Europe’s top club competition with both Liverpool and Real Madrid, the world and European champion is now trying to achieve something with Bayern Munich that only Clarence Seedorf has done before: win the Champions League with three different clubs. Roland Zorn sat down for an interview with Xabi Alonso.

14 Hong Kong Premier League champions Kitchee are once again poised to outpace their rivals under the watchful eye of Spanish coach Jose Francisco Molina.

17 Sepp Blatter With the CAF Congress set to start next week, the FIFA President says in his weekly column: “We must show African football all the great appreciation and respect it deserves.”

18 Canada 2015 The Cameroon women’s national team have qualified for their first Women’s World Cup finals, and one player has made a decisive contribution on both occasions – defender Christine Manie.

15 Jamaica Andre Clennon and Arnett Gardens are on course for the Premier League title.Exclusively top-class

Our cover picture shows Spanish World Cup winner and two-time European champion Xabi Alonso of Bayern Munich.

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22 Liechtenstein Coach Rene Pauritsch and his team would not be dissatisfied with eight points from their EURO 2016 qualifying campaign.

37 Birgit Wiese Husky dogs changed the former German international’s life.

28 History In 1895, North and South met at London’s Crouch End Athletic Ground to contest the first official women’s football match.

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3T H E F I FA W E E K LY

U N C O V E R E D

When Bayern Munich announced the arrival of Xabi Alonso from Real Madrid last late summer, a small number of critics in Germany wondered whether or not he was a good signing. The Basque native, who was almost 33 at the

time, was brought in to help the record German champions cover the injury-en-forced absences of Javi Martinez, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Thiago.

Most observers adopted a wait-and-see attitude before reaching any conclu-sions, only to be completely won over after Alonso’s very first game for the club. Fans throughout the country were left stunned as the World Cup winner and two-time European champion captured the imagination with his intelligent passing game and seamless integration into Bayern’s world-class line-up. At that stage, he had not even been to the club’s training complex on Sabener Strasse.

Alonso won the Champions League with Liverpool and Real Madrid, and should he do so again with Bayern he would become the second player, after Clarence Seedorf, to lift the trophy with three different clubs. Our staff writer Roland Zorn’s interview with Alonso in Munich starts on page six. Å

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THE DIRECTOR

X A B I A L O N S O

Rarely has a player settled so quickly and seamlessly into a world-class team as Xabi Alonso has at Bayern. But how is the Spaniard finding life in Munich, and what does he still want to achieve after European glory with Liverpool and Real Madrid? Roland Zorn sat down with him for an exclusive interview.


Now off to Bayern! Xabi Alonso was keen to take on a new

challenge after five years with Real Madrid.

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Xabi Alonso, having now spent seven months with Bayern Munich, do you speak German yet?

Xabi Alonso: A little, but I can’t understand the language particular-ly well so far. I’m having three hours of language lessons a week though, so it’s getting easier all the time. By next year I’d like to be able to give interviews in German too.

That says a lot about your constant readiness to learn and your curiosi-ty for other clubs and countries. Why did you decide to go to Germany for another adventure after five years with Liverpool and five years with Real Madrid?

After beating our city rivals Atletico in the Champions League final last year, it seemed like the time had come to do something different again. We had managed to win la décima, Madrid’s long-awaited tenth victory in Europe’s greatest club competition, a contest that has captivated the fans since the European Cup days. I thought the time was right to try something new with one of the world’s best teams and in one of the best three leagues in Europe. And I was grateful to Real for letting me go even though I had a contract that was due to run until 2016.

Was Bayern coach Pep Guardiola, who won the Champions League twice with Real’s great Spanish rivals Barcelona, one of the key reasons why you chose to begin a new chapter of your outstanding football career in Munich?

There were many good reasons to move to Bayern, and Pep Guardi-ola was definitely one of them.

How did it feel to arrive at Sabener Strasse and begin training with the squad?

I immediately realised how Guardiola’s unique intensity has enabled him to achieve so much in his relatively short career so far. To be able to learn even more about football under his guidance is incredibly motivating and offers a great challenge. He’s a rigorous thinker and worker, very analytical, a great tactician and a me-thodical innovator. Pep understands everything about the game. He doesn’t force his way of thinking on us players; instead he convinces us about his ideas. If you can manage that as a coach, you know your players will push themselves even further and fight even harder for the team’s shared goals.

If all goes well for Bayern, you could win the treble by the end of the season: the Bundesliga, German Cup and UEFA Champions League. Does the idea of becoming the second player after Clarence Seedorf to win European football’s biggest trophy with three different clubs give you added incentive?

That would be fantastic, but my first priority is to go about my job one week at a time and contribute to the collective success of the team in whatever way I can.

How have you settled in, both at Bayern and in Munich?Very well. Just like at Liverpool and with Real, I managed to

slot into the team quickly. I had the luck and pleasure of arriving in Munich on 29 August 2014 and being in the starting line-up for the club’s 1-1 draw away to Schalke the very next day. I immediately felt at home out on the pitch when I realised that I trusted my new team-mates. That feeling is very important for a player who sees as much of the ball as I do

And how is life in Munich for you, your wife and three children?It’s easy. The city is beautiful, the people are friendly, and although

the club is the biggest in Germany, there’s a great family feel about it. It’s wonderful to see how close the fans are able to get at training. I didn’t experience anything quite like that in either Liverpool or Madrid.

Bayern gives the impression of being a perfectly organised club where everything is thought through and organised down to the very last detail. Did that surprise you?

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“As a defensive midf ielder, I have to make a huge number of small yet correct decisions.”

BAYERN MUNICH Despite only joining the club in August 2014, Alonso is already on course to celebrate championship success with Bayern and may well seal a double or even a treble.

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Not really. Everything is set up so well, just like you imagine Germany to be as an outsider.

Your hometown club and the place where you began your professional career, Real Sociedad, is synonymous with tradition, while Liverpool, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are all representative of footballing heritage, greatness and success. Is the fact that you have only ever played for teams with such proud histories a matter of coincidence or a consequence of your quality as a player?

I’d describe it as a huge stroke of luck to have been able to play for such special clubs throughout my career. Liverpool, Real and Bayern are definitely part of the sport’s aristocracy. I feel extremely privileged, even though the kind of football I play is a little more ‘working-class’.

Do you think so? Although your style of play sometimes looks straight-forward and unfussy, it can’t be easy to deliver such precision and organisation as consistently as you have.

XABI ALONSOAfter reacting with shock when their club let Toni Kroos go to Real Madrid, Bayern Munich fans had even more to talk about when Xabi Alonso arrived from the Bernabeu. Although the signing may have been a matter of urgen-cy, it turned out to be a shrewd move. Just a day after joining the German

champions, Alonso delivered a solid 68-minute performance against Schal-ke despite not having yet trained with his new team-mates. “The first 20 minutes were a revelation,” said Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” According to the DFL, the Spaniard was in possession of the ball 213 times during Bayern’s match against Cologne.Name: Xabier “Xabi” Alonso OlanoBorn: 25 November 1981 in Tolosa, Basque CountryHonours: World Cup, 2 European Championships, 2 Champions League titles, La Liga title, FA Cup, 2 Copa del Reys Awards: 2003 Best Spanish player in La LigaSpain national team: 114 caps, 16 goals tfw

LIVERPOOL While playing in England between 2004 and 2009, Alonso won the European Championship, Champions League and FA Cup.

REAL MADRID The Spaniard collected six titles between 2009 and 2014: a World Cup, European Championship, Champions League, Primera Division and two Copa del Reys.

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Spaniards unite Xabi Alonso fitted into Bayern Munich’s team straight away – thanks in no small part to coach Pep Guardiola.

“Guardiola doesn’t force his way of thinking on us players;

instead he convinces us about his ideas.”

The essence of my game has always stayed the same, even though I’ve become a more mature player as my career has developed. I like to act as a kind of relay between attack and defence right in the centre of action, keep the play flowing, play plenty of passes and maintain a sense of order on the pitch. I try to open up the space my team-mates need in attack to score a goal, while in defence my aim is to close down the areas where our opponents could pose a threat.

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You seem to exert a kind of magnetic pull on the ball while doing all this. Do you need to have this constant ball contact to be able to help your team best?

As a defensive midfielder, I have to make a huge number of small yet correct decisions. Sometimes my play includes a dream pass, and that’s one of the highlights in my job, along with the goals I don’t score all that often. But more important than those moments are the many small and, at first, seemingly insignificant passes or shifts in play that might give one of my team-mates a chance to dribble or plays them in effectively. I believe in being able to read a match well and control it, and that’s the basis of what I do. You need to have plenty of patience too. My role is to bring structure and balance into the game and enable my team-mates to capitalise on that.

Your seemingly dominant way of taking control of a game says a lot about your sense of responsibility and your skills as a provider. At first glance, it almost appears as though you are surreptitiously captaining a team packed with leaders. A

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European champion again Alonso strides across

the Kiev pitch in July 2012.

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Liverpool instead of Barcelona

Former Spain international Xabi Alonso had only been a Bayern Munich player for a few weeks when he set a new Bundesliga record for the number of possessions in a match, 213, against Cologne on 27 September last year

(see inset on page nine). Considering the high pace of the German game, it is quite an achievement, comfortably outstripping the previous record of 177 touches, set the season before by another Bay-ern man, Thiago Alcantara. Statistics such as these highlight the profound influence Pep Guardiola has had on Bayern since taking over as coach. Much like Woody Allen in his more recent work, Guardiola likes to project himself on to the pitch, as the

ball-playing midfielder controlling the pace of the game and imposing his belief in possession-based football. A Barcelona graduate, Thiago is a perfect fit as Guardiola’s leading man, though his ongoing

injury problems forced his coach to look for a re-placement last year. And there are few who can play the part like Xabi Alonso.

It seems fitting that the former Liverpool man has finally come under the Bayern coach’s wing. In the early part of his career, when he was plying his trade with Real Sociedad, he was seen by many

Barcelona fans as the natural successor to Guardi-ola on the pitch. The player even had a link with the

club, his father Periko Alonso having spent three seasons at the Camp Nou in the early eighties, pa-trolling a defensive midfield beat and providing valuable protection for the likes of Bernd Schuster and Diego Maradona.

Six years in Barcelona Following his Barça stint, Periko spent three sea-sons at Sabadell, meaning Xabi, who was born in 1981, spent the first six years of his life in Barcelona. The family then returned to San Sebastian, where Periko tried his hand at coaching and Xabi and brother Mikel began playing for youth clubs in the city. The two siblings joined Real Sociedad, with Xabi spending a short time on loan at Eibar before

John Toshack recalled him and put him straight in the first team. Aged 21, he enjoyed a superb debut season with the txuri-urdin. More technically gifted than his father, he was a commanding presence in the centre of midfield, equally adept at breaking up play and building it.

WanderlustThough rumours of a move to Barcelona began to

circulate and were gratefully received by azulgrana fans, Xabi’s next port of call would be Liverpool, where fellow Spaniard Rafael Benitez had taken

charge. Adapting almost seamlessly to English foot-ball, Xabi became a more physical and complete player during his five-year stay on Merseyside, forg-ing a formidable midfield association with Steven Gerrard, about which Reds fans still reminisce. The

highpoint of his Anfield sojourn came in his first season, when he scored in Liverpool’s dramatic comeback against AC Milan in the 2005 UEFA

Champions League final in Istanbul.The Xabi who then played such a key role for Spain

and Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid was rewarded for his shrewdness and maturity with a string of other winner’s medals. Now 33, his move to Bayern is a logical step, while also a nod to a past that might

have been at Barcelona. His distinguished career has taken him to some of Europe’s biggest clubs, and perhaps the biggest tribute that can be paid to him is that he has stayed for several seasons at each, bringing his considerable influence to bear every time, shaping a change in style on his arrival and triggering another on his departure.

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Father and son Perico Alonso soent three

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“Raul opened the door for Spanish players when he moved

to the Bundesliga.”

I’ve never been captain at any of my clubs, not for a single game – nor have I ever had to be. When I arrived at Liverpool, greats such as Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher or Sami Hyypia had already been there for a long time, much like Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos at Real Madrid or Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Manuel Neuer at Bayern. Of course it’s a matter of respect to acknowledge that and deliver impeccable performances on the pitch. Much like at the start of my years with the Reds and Real, the first priority upon arriving at Munich was for me to adapt to my new team – not the other way around.

Your football expertise has been nurtured by some of the sport’s best coaches: Rafael Benitez, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Pep Guardiola, Luis Aragones and Vicente del Bosque. Could you wish for anything better in this respect?

Of course it would be fantastic to come out on top in the Champi-ons League once again with Bayern and Guardiola, who also has the opportunity to win Europe’s biggest club trophy again. It’s particularly appealing given that I have the most amazing memories from the “Miracle of Istanbul”, where Benitez led our Liverpool side back from a 3-0 deficit at half-time to 3-3 after 90 minutes, then guided us through extra time all the way to penalties, which we ended up winning 3-2. I was also delighted with Ancelotti’s masterstroke a year ago, when we won the Madrid derby against Atletico in the Champions League final after extra time. Unfortunately I was suspended for that match after picking up my third yellow card of the campaign in Real’s 4-0 second- leg win over Munich. Nevertheless, I still played my part in what, for the time being, is the most recent major success I’ve been able to celebrate in my career.

So what made each of your four title-winning coaches unique?Benitez was very analytical and had a plan for every match.

Mourinho was tactically shrewd and a great motivator. Ancelotti, like Aragones and del Bosque, was someone who has a very approachable and human way of steering teams toward success. As I’ve already mentioned, Guardiola is unbelievable. We’ve mastered at least three different formations under his guidance.

Given that you know Europe’s three biggest leagues from the inside, can you tell us a little about the differences between your three clubs and between the Premier League, Primera Division and Bundesliga from your own experience?

I’ve got a very balanced view, as you can’t talk about pros and cons when it comes to three such strong leagues. The football played in the Premier League is extremely quick and athletic, similar to that played in the Bundesliga. The long ball is also part of the arsenal of many teams in England. In contrast, there is a very strong emphasis in Germany on creating space as we do at Bayern with a style of play based on possession and control, or opening up that space with aggres-

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Embracing a Bayern tradition Alonso and family at the Oktoberfest photo shoot.

sive pressing like Borussia Dortmund did during their most dominant period. The different stylistic elements in Spain make technical play more important. At Real our attacking power was so strong, with incredible forwards like Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale, that everything was geared towards that. As a result I tried to contribute by maintaining a balance between the different parts of the team.

Should you choose to leave the Bundesliga when your current contract expires in 2016, do you think other top Spanish players will make the move to Germany?

I’m sure they will; after all, the sporting quality and predominantly sold-out stadiums have made the Bundesliga an increasingly attractive league over the past four or five years. Previously the only goal really worth pursuing for Spanish players outside the Primera Division was the Premier League. Now if they move to foreign clubs, they either go to England or, as has been proven many times in recent years, to Germany. Raul definitely opened the door in that respect when he moved from Real Madrid to Schalke in 2010. ÅFe

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O N T H E I N S I D ET A L K I N G P O I N T S

only be three points clear of their nearest rival, Eastern, but they are on a roll. They’ve won their last five premier league matches, scoring 16 goals and conceding twice in the process. That run of victories included the potentially decisive 4-0 destruction of Eastern back in February.

With four games to go Kitchee’s remaining fixtures are against teams in the lower half of the table. On Saturday the goalscorers reflected the club’s cosmopolitan identity. Hong Kong international Xu Deshuai netted twice and the other goals were shared be-tween Jorge Tarres, a striker who began his career with Espanyol in Spain, Canadian former Ajax youth player Matthew Lam and defender Daniel Cancela, once of Deportivo La Coruna. To complete a perfect game, goalkeeper Wang Zhenpeng saved a second half penalty by Rangers' Brazilian captain Roberto Fronza.

The Premier League, sponsored by the BOCG insurance company, replaced the old Hong Kong First Division last year and was created to raise interest and standards in local football. There’s long been plenty of passion for the game in the former British colony.

H o n g K o n g : P r e m i e r L e a g u e

UnstoppableDavid Winner is a London-based author and journalist. His books on football include ‘Brilliant Orange’ and ‘Dennis Bergkamp: Stillness and Speed’.

Kitchee appear to be feeling good about their chances of winning the inaugural Hong Kong Premier League title after their latest impres-sive performance – a 5-0 away victory over Rangers at Kowloon Bay Park last weekend.

After the match, Kitchee’s captain Lo Kwan Yee was quoted as saying: “The league title should not be a big problem.” Naturally, he made sure to add about every match being a challenge and stressed that his side would take nothing for granted. But his confidence was plain enough and reflects the widespread belief that the reigning domestic champions (they also won last year’s First Division title) are rapidly becoming unstoppable.

The team, coached by former Atletico Ma-drid and Spain goalkeeper Jose Molina, may

But fans tend to follow foreign teams, espe-cially English ones. Saturday’s match was watched by just 582 spectators while Kit-chee’s last home game – an exciting 2-1 win over title rivals Sun Pegasus with whom they share the Mong Kok Stadium attracted a crowd of 1,849.

By contrast, when in recent seasons Kitchee have played top English sides Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea in pre-season friendlies they’ve attracted crowds of be-tween 34,000 and 40,000 in the larger Hong Kong Stadium. Å

Clear winners Kitchee, in blue and salmon,

dispatched Rangers 5-0 away from home. H

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J a m a i c a : P r e m i e r L e a g u e

Back with a bangSven Goldmann is a leading football correspondent at Tagesspiegel newspaper in Berlin.

It looks set to be a pleasant spring in the concrete jungle

of Kingston, and nowhere more so than in the South Saint Andrew district of Jamaica’s capital city, where Arnett Gardens FC are based. The Junglists, as they are widely known, are currently enjoying their best season in several years. A 1-0 win over Rivoli United in their last outing took them to 60 points from 30 league matches and cemented their place at the division’s sum-mit. With just three games of the third and final stage of the campaign remaining, Arnett Gardens hold a comfortable six-point lead over second-placed city rivals Water-house FC. A place among the top four and a berth in the end-of-season play-offs was all but sealed several weeks ago, but the team that finishes top of the league after 33 games is usually guaranteed a favourable draw in the semi- finals. Arnett Gardens could even

be pitted against reigning champions Monte-go Bay United in a last-four clash worthy of the final itself.

Matchday 30 was overshadowed somewhat by the exploits of the Jamaican national team, who recorded wins over Venezuela and Cuba in Montego Bay during the recent interna-tional week. The Reggae Boyz, who won the Caribbean Cup last year and are coached by German Winfried Schäfer, go into their qualifying campaign for the 2018 World Cup in Russia brimming with confidence. Not that Arnett Gardens have been distracted by the hullabaloo surrounding Schäfer’s side, which is made up almost entirely of overseas players. Instead, they remained focused on beating Rivoli United at the Spaulding Sports Complex. Sure enough, Michaelos Martin scored the only goal of the contest right at the start of the second half to extend the league leaders’ winning run and keep alive their dream of securing the fourth league title in the club’s history, and their first in 13 years.

Arnett Gardens were a dominant force in Jamaican football at the turn of the millen-nium, winning successive national titles in

2001 and 2002 under the stewardship of head coach Jerome Waite. It is perhaps symbolic that Waite, who is affectionately known as ‘Jerry’ by the majority of football fans in Jamaica, is at the helm once more after rejoining the club for a third time in 2013.

Waite had been dismissed in 2008 after losing the first four games of the league season. However, since taking over the hot seat again in October 2013, he appears to have rediscov-ered the winning mentality that had been missing at the club. After losing narrowly to Waterhouse in last season’s play-off semi -final, Arnett Gardens have hit new heights and even set a new league record of ten successive victories earlier in the campaign. A few weeks ago, Waite was named Star Coach of Round Two of the Jamaican Premier League – an impressive achievement, but Waite is hoping that was just the beginning of this season’s success story. After all, his side are saving their best for the play-offs. Å

Arnett Gardens march on Michaelos Martin (centre) scores the winner in his side’s 1-0 win over Rivoli United.H

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Developing football everywhere and for all

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FIFA is committed to developing football for the benefi t of all. Our mission is to:

Develop the game FIFA’s primary objective is to develop the game of football in our 209 member associations. The FIFA World Cup™ gives us the resources we need to invest USD 550,000 per day in football development across the globe.

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Best wishes, Sepp Blatter

“I t is better to reach your destination in three leaps than to take one and break your leg.” The proverb of the Mandinka people accurately sums up the development of the game in Africa.

It took a relatively long time to establish a solid foundation for Afri-can football. With the exception of Egypt in 1934, no Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) nation contested the World Cup finals until 1970. Four years later Zaire became the first sub-Saharan country to qualify for the tournament.

Nowadays the pulse of African football is so strong that the major European and Asian leagues would be far worse off without it. Thanks to their huge reservoir of talent, the African clubs and associations make a crucial contribution to the attractiveness of global football.

When we travel to Cairo for the CAF Congress next week, we must show African football all the great appreciation and respect it deserves. The refreshing skills and technical finesse of the African teams are among the greatest attractions at the World Cup. In Brazil last year the continent was represented in the last sixteen by two teams for the very first time, reflecting the upward trend.

Credit for this development must also go to CAF president Issa Hayatou. Using strategic wisdom and sure instinct in the world of sports politics, he has succeeded in keeping this vast continent together in all its linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversity.

The power of football is arguably even more significant in Africa than the rest of the world, because it symbolises a common denom-inator for all peoples, nations and tribes. Or as they say in Africa: “If you are in one boat, you have to row together.”

The football continent

The FIFA Referees Committee, under the chairmanship of Jim Boyce (Northern Ireland), has appointed 22 referees, 7 support referees (one of them local), and 44 assistant referees represent-

ing 49 different countries for this summer's Women’s World Cup. FIFA has implemented a comprehensive programme to ensure

that the referees for this very important competition will be in peak condition come 6 June.

Just as it did for the 24 participating teams, the road to the Women’s World Cup began for an initial group of referees and assis-tant referees from all over the world in September 2012, when FIFA took the important decision to create a women’s refereeing project. One of the key objectives was match control and consequently to prepare this group of prospective referees for the 2015 Women’s World Cup. The referees selected for the tournament in Canada have been chosen based especially on their personality and their quality in terms of football understanding by being able to read the game and the teams’ tactical approaches towards each match.

Between now and 6 June, the selected group of match officials will participate in two seminars: one in Zurich from 18 to 24 April and the other in Vancouver ten days before the kick-off of the Wom-en’s World Cup 2015, at which the identities of the referees and the support referees will be decided.

The selected referees and assistant referees will be observed and monitored regularly during this period, and FIFA is ready to give them all the support they need so that they can prepare for this important tournament in the best possible manner. Å

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Match officials from 49 countries

Visit http://tinyurl.com/ojt7wrc for the full referees’ list

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Preparing for action in Canada French referee Stephanie Frappart.

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With excitement growing ahead of the Women’s World Cup, the Hyundai Young Player trophy has now been unveiled. The accolade was first awarded by FIFA’s Technical Study Group at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The exceptional performances of players born on or after 1 January 1995 will be recognised at this summer’s competition in Canada. In both men’s and women’s football, the award has served as an im-portant motivational link between the senior World Cups and FIFA’S age-category tournaments.Many outstanding candidates are set to compete for the prize, with a shortlist of three players being put forward after the semi-finals before the winner is announced after the final on 5 July.

Australia’s Caitlin Foord was the first female recipient of the Hyun-dai Young Player Award back in 2011.Besides the age criteria, the FIFA Technical Study Group will also con-sider the following factors in determining the Hyundai Young Player Award winner:– Exceptional level of skill– Invigorating and youthful style of play– Creativity and inspiration– Tactical maturity and effectiveness– Fan recognition through impressive performances– Potential to be role model for young footballers– Positive attitude and advocate for Fair Play

C O U N T D O W N T O C A N A D A 2 015 : 6 5 D AY S T O G O

Skills, creativity and fair play - recognising the world’s best young player

Tough challenge Christine Manie holds off

England’s Kelly Smith.

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6 5 D A Y S T O G O

Cameroon qualified for Canada 2015 cour-tesy of Christine Manie’s dramatic winner in the 118th minute of her side’s semi-final against Côte d’Ivoire at the 2014 African Women’s Championship. Three years ear-lier, the defender scored an equally impor-

tant goal in the final round of qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games against Nigeria. Despite their historic importance to women’s football in Cameroon, for Manie her two goals are of little importance. “Football is a team game, and as captain of the team, you have to take your responsibilities,” she said. “Against Nigeria, I took the penalty kick as I am in charge of the penalty kicks. Everyone trusts me, play-ers as well as coaches. Against Côte d’Ivoire it was a corner kick, and I headed the ball home. Scoring is not only a striker’s responsibility.”If everything goes according to plan, Manie will wear the armband in Canada. “Being the captain of this team is a matter of pride, all the more as it’s the first time Cameroon has qualified for the World Cup. It is a feeling that is difficult to convey. It is a great achievement for us, one that became possible because we believed in ourselves. There are players who have a very big career but never play in the World Cup. So it is a privilege for us.”

Taking on world champions JapanThe Cameroonians may not have it easy as they step onto the world stage to face some of the best women’s sides in the world, and they face stiff competition from Japan, Ecuador and Switzerland in Group C. “The World Cup

is a very tough and demanding tournament. We’re not talking about the African champi-onships here. All the teams in our group are very good, especially defending champions Japan. All we can do is work, as work pays off in the end.” Manie’s side will also be facing a German-speaking team for the first time when they take on Switzerland.Cameroon’s involvement at the Olympics was disappointing. They lost all three matches, conceding 11 goals and scoring just one. But Manie thinks that experience will point the way forward in Canada. “It was the first time Cameroon took part in the Olympic Games. In spite of our failure, it was great for us. We learned so many lessons.”It is not surprising that Manie is not fearful of facing Japan as she is not averse to taking on challenges. “I started playing football in boys’ teams when I was seven or eight. It was not very competitive then. I played after school, but when I was older, my parents struggled to pay for my education and I decid-ed to focus on football.”

Life in RomaniaManie joined a club playing in the top league in Cameroon, but kept on dreaming of playing overseas. That dream materialised when she signed a contract with Romanians CFF Olimpia Cluj a few years ago. She has since gone on to win the Romanian league and cup and compet-ed in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.“I am the only black player in Romania, and

one of the only foreign ones. It is true Roma-nia is far from my country and my family, but I chose to do this job, one that can bring you to every corner of the world. For the moment, I play in Romania, I don’t know where I will play next. Only God decides.” Å

African Football Media

Cameroon’s goalscoring defender aiming for more historyThe Cameroon women’s national team have only qualified for the finals of a major global tournament twice, and one player made a crucial contribution on both occasions - Christine Manie.

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First Love


P l a c e : P o r t o b e l o , P a n a m a

Da t e : 1 2 D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 3

T im e : 9 . 0 2 a . m .

Ph o t o g r a ph e r : L u d o v i c M a i s a n t

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Gearing up The Liechtenstein squad prior to a training session.

L I E C H T E N S T E I N

We do the best we can


Liechtenstein boasts only a handful of professional players but plans are afoot to change that, reports Perikles Monioudis from Vaduz.

Martin Mischkulnig, photos

Liechtenstein Football AssociationT h e L F V w a s f o u n d e d i n 19 3 4 b y

F C S c h a a n , F C B a l z e r s , F C T r i e s e n a n d

F C V a d u z . U S V E s c h e n - M a u r e n j o i n e d i n

19 5 4 , F C R u g g e l l i n 19 5 8 , a n d F C T r i e s e n -

b e r g i n 19 7 2 . T h e c l u b s c o m p e t e i n t h e

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p l a y i n g i n t h e t o p - f l i g h t S u p e r L e a g u e .

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s t e i n C u p s i n c e 19 4 6 a n d i s a p a r t n e r

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r e g i o n a l F A ( O F V ) . T h e L F V h a s b e e n a

m e m b e r o f F I F A a n d U E F A s i n c e 19 74 .

T h e c o u n t r y ’ s f i r s t f u l l i n t e r n a t i o n a l w a s

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b a c k i n 19 8 2 .

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c o n s t r u c t i o n o f t h e L F V h e a d q u a r t e r s i n

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The compact Rheinpark Stadium in the nation-al capital was full to capacity. A crowd of 6,127 braved a soaking wet night in Vaduz to watch the meeting with neighbours Austria. Chants, songs, a sea of red and white, it was the visit-ing fans who supplied the audio track for this

particular EURO 2016 Group G qualifier. They came expecting the team coached by Swiss supremo Mar-cel Koller to win big, and some travelled a fair way too, from Vienna, Graz and other Austrian cities.

However, a few of them had only made a very short journey of a dozen kilometres or so. These are the Austrians who live in an established and recog-nised region comprising themselves, Liechten-stein’s 40,000 or so inhabitants and the adjacent

Swiss communities. The multi-national territory is bound together by cross-border public transporta-tion and a single market, geographically encased by towering limestone mountains. A water feature is provided by the Rhine which rises in Switzerland and whose tributaries and delta extend all the way to the Netherlands and the North Sea. This truly continental river runs alongside the Rheinpark Stadium in Vaduz before winding its way onwards through nine countries.

Upping the paceThe neighbours have much in common, but not on the football pitch. The match between the patently unequal teams ended 5-0 to the Austrians, the


Safe pair of hands Keeper Peter Jehle honed his skills in Portugal.Record holder Captain Mario Frick has 119 caps.

group leaders with a squad comprising top-class overseas-based players and who lie 23rd in the FIFA Ranking, exactly 100 places above the home team. Liechtenstein resisted sternly for quarter of an hour before inevitably starting to struggle. The na-tional team composed mainly of amateurs simply ran out of strength as the minutes ticked by, a typ-ical pattern when part-timers take on well-trained, physically honed pros.

Liechtenstein coach René Pauritsch spent a cou-ple of years in charge of the U-21s before stepping up to the seniors in 2013. Interviewed behind the stadi-um long after the final whistle, the 51-year-old Aus-trian was asked whether he felt “doing the best you can” was an appropriate description of his team's efforts. Or could that be seen as patronising? “No, it’s appropriate. We want to hang on in there as best we can, we want to keep the ball as best we can, and play our football as best we can. Some days it goes well, other days less so.” The biggest difference compared to the professional teams is pace. “We’re not accus-tomed to the high-speed rhythm so we lose posses-sion. We’re half a yard short and a lot less nimble in the tackle.” The target set by the coach and endorsed by the Lichtenstein FA (LFV) is to bring as many pro-fessional players as possible into the national squad.


The current group incudes Mario Frick, the team captain who is still turning out for the prin-cipality at the age of 40. The country’s most-capped player with 119 appearances, he was not always a centre-back with great vision and range: he actual-ly spent most of his career at the other end of the field going for goal. He played 110 times in Serie A in four campaigns with Hellas Verona and most productively with AC Siena, scoring against some of the biggest names in Italian club football. Now-adays he is back home with his very first club FC Balzers where he is a player-coach in the Swiss fourth division. Since 1933 the principality’s clubs have competed in the Swiss leagues, with FC Vaduz currently playing in the top-flight Super League.

“I come from a large family and we kids always had a ball at our feet, kicking around in the gar-den,” Frick recalled. “I trained on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the Balzers youth section. I was only 16 when they put me in the first team and I scored lots of goals, which got the Swiss profession-al clubs interested.”

Nowadays, the principality’s footballing infra-structure is very good. The association is highly proactive and its teams compete internationally, “but it’s still become more difficult for the youths

29 March 2015

Team MP W D L Pts

1 Austria 5 4 1 0 13

2 Sweden 5 2 3 0 9

3 Russia 4 1 2 1 5

4 Montenegro 4 1 2 1 5

5 Liechtenstein 5 1 1 3 4

6 Moldova 5 0 1 4 1

Qualifying round UEFA Euro 2016 Group G


Dynamic development Women’s football is a priority for the LFV.

Solid rearguard Franz Burgmeier is indispensable in Liechtenstein’s defence.


to turn pro,” according to Frick. “There are far more exceptional talents in the region than there were before, and they’ve been brought on outstandingly. The competition is fierce.” However, the veteran feels there is too much pressure to perform, too early: “I actually think it’s a problem that players are supposed to be top-class as early as possible.” Frick is in his 23rd season with the national team. His goal is to coach professionally and one day step up to the Liechtenstein hot seat. He recently ac-quired his A-licence and supervises seven interna-tionals at Balzers, where he also looks after the youth section.

What a feelingThe Liechtenstein defence includes another pillar of the national set-up, FC Vaduz’s Franz Burgmeier, who is approaching his 33rd birthday and once won the Swiss Cup with FC Basel. Last November he netted a direct free-kick to secure a 1-0 win away in Moldova in EURO 2016 qualifying. “It was a unique feeling,” Burgmeier said, “especially because it proved enough to win. It meant we finally won a qualifier again, something we’d not done for many years.”

Burgmeier took up the game when he was four and played for FC Triesen as a boy. “I was one of the smallest but a better footballer than the others,” the 1.77 metre man recalled. At 18 he moved to Va-duz, then plying their trade in the Swiss second division. “My footballing education was good, but I was never a big star for our representative teams. As a young man I had the desire to travel far and wide with the team and sacrifice a day off, even if I ended up not getting a game.”

“Our target is to increase the number of professionals”René Pauritsch


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Burgmeier’s dedication saw him feature for three Super League clubs and has earned him 91 caps. “Our matches are often David against Goliath, although looking at it the other way round we have nothing to lose,” he reflected. “The target we set for ourselves is to maintain a higher tempo than in the league. Representing your country is a privilege.”

Could Liechtenstein ever break into the world top 100? “Now that’s a very ambitious target,” laughed Burgmeier. His career includes one remark-able chapter: he is the first Liechtensteiner ever to play in England, as he spent 2008/9 with fourth-tier Darlington. “I really felt the passion for football in the stadiums there,” he said. The adventure began in an unusual way: “I was discovered by the chair-man’s 12-year-old grandson when he watched our EURO qualifier against England at Old Trafford. I’m still in touch with him and the family today.”

Elite ambitionsKeeper Peter Jehle is the third seasoned pro in the current squad. The 33-year-old’s CV includes six seasons with Grasshoppers Zurich and two with Boavista Porto, where his acrobatic reactions earned him first-choice status. After the club was compulsorily relegated in the wake of a corruption scandal, and following a season with French second division outfit Tours, Jehle came home and joined FC Vaduz.

“As kids my brother and I played non-stop on the patch of grass in front of our house. I started with FC Schaan and decided I wanted to play pro-fessionally very early on. Fortunately, the LVF was working very hard at the time on an elite youth development programme. I was one of the first to benefit from it and enjoyed professional support.” The concept involved gathering the best of the tal-ented youngsters from the region, including the Swiss and Austrian border zones, and placing them under a pro coach. ‘Team Liechtenstein’ competed in the Swiss U-16 championship. The LFV current-ly fields teams at the U-18, U-16 and U-15 levels with development squads for 14 and 13-year-olds.

Jehle is currently enrolled with the FIFPro On-line Academy and is studying sports management. He believes a bright future lies ahead for football in Liechtenstein. Getting from school to the train-ing ground takes a matter of minutes, and the pres-ence of vocational training colleges and a Univer-sity could add to the attraction of the location, he feels. Jehle has never forgotten the words of his mother: “You have to let the kids dream.”

The principality has already produced one golden generation. Jehle, Burgmeier and Frick were already involved back in 2004 when the na-tional team boasted 14 professionals and took a point off EURO 2004 runners-up Portugal in a 2-2 World Cup qualifying draw. The current campaign has yielded four points so far from the victory in Moldova and a draw in Montenegro. The principal-ity’s footballing family would be anything but dissatisfied should Frick and his men end up with a total of eight. One point at a time, doing the best they can. Å

Rooting for the home team Liechtenstein fans have realistic expectations.

In it together Pros and amateurs fight for points side-by-side.

The stage is set The Rheinpark Stadium in Vaduz glistening in the rain.


Caps and knickerbockers

unbanked ground,” it reported. “As for the press writers, the small box provided would not hold a tenth of them.”

The result ended a whopping 7-1 to the North, who were captained by Nettie Honeyball, founder of the British Ladies Football Club and the organiser of the game. The quality of the match came in for mixed reviews at best, but with the sides only a couple of months old and all largely new to the sport, that was hardly surprising.

Two things were almost universally reported following the game. The first was the outstanding performance in goal by Mrs Graham for the North. The Standard described her display as “capital” and the Middlesbrough Daily Gazette said that “had she been on the other side matters might have been reversed”.

The second was the infatuation with the idiosyncrasies of the kit they wore. Featuring blouses, caps and knicker-bockers – a form of loose shorts often tied at the bottom – they were seen as something of a revolution as women had tended to wear long dresses even when competing in sport.

“I can only say that the impression left on my mind by the afternoon’s play was that it was an extremely pretty

Women’s football has grown exponentially over the past few decades, but its roots are far from shallow, with the first official match dating back to 23 March 1895.Games had in fact been played as far back as the early 1880s, but for various reasons were not able

to be classified as official fixtures. The meeting between North and South at Crouch End Athletic Ground in North London therefore goes down as the first.

Despite the women’s game’s fledgling status, the match attracted a crowd that would delight many clubs today, with some reports calculating it in excess of 10,000. The Guard-ian’s match report told of many of the curious fans, intrigued by the opportunity to see women apply themselves to a game largely seen as a male pastime at this point, struggling to get an glimpse of the action

A kit revolution“Very few of those present can have seen much of the game, for, except in the case of the favoured occupants of the small grand stand, the spectators had to stand on the flat

The first officially-sanctioned women’s match took place in 1895. The game in London was an important milestone.

The British Ladies’ Football Club organised the first women’s match at Crouch End Athletic Ground.

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sight,” The Guardian reflected – named only as ’a lady cor-respondent’ in what was a sign of the times over a century ago. “There is nothing ungraceful in a girl kicking a foot-ball when she has got rid of the skirts which make the action hideous.”

The Manchester-based newspaper was optimistic about the future of women in sport, writing that “there is no rea-son why the game should not be annexed by women for their own use as a new and healthiful form of recreation.” How-ever, in an example of the entrenched predjudice women had to face (and still often face even today), others were less than positive about the dawn of the female game. “They cannot and never will play football as it should be played,” was the Bristol Mercury and Daily Post’s verdict. “For our part we are glad that women cannot play football. Even were they capable of it, the game would be essentially unsuitable to their sex.”

A milestoneThis match stands as a significant milestone in a long jour-ney in the timeline of the women’s game, which has fought

H I S T O R Y

against bans and prejudice to climb to where it is today. When the Women’s World Cup is lifted in Canada on 5 July, the action there will be a direct result of this organised meeting in North London. Å

Daniel Masters

The South On the end of a 7-1 defeat.Nettie Honeyball

The North team’s captain.

Mrs Graham The North’s highly- praised keeper.

The North Winners of the milestone encounter in March 1895.

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Inspire her passion. Use your Visa Card to purchase tickets to the FIFA Women’s World Cup™.

Every dream needs a kick-off.

The weekly column by our staff writers

F R E E K I C K S P O T L I G H T O N

GENERAL INFORMATION

Country:

Denmark

FIFA Trigramme:

DEN

Continent:

Europe

Capital:

Copenhagen

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

Surface area:

43,094 km²

Highest point:

Yding Skovhoj 173m

Neighbouring seas and oceans:

North Sea, Baltic Sea

MEN’S FOOTBALLFIFA Ranking:

28th

World Cup:

4 appearances

1986, 1998, 2002, 2010

WOMEN’S FOOTBALLFIFA Ranking:

15th

World Cup:

4 appearances

1991, 1995, 1999, 2007

LATEST RESULTSMen’s:

Denmark - France 0:2

29 March 2015

Women’s:

Norway - Denmark 5:2

11 March 2015

FIFA INVESTMENTSince 2005:

$ 7,082,430

Cafu was recently in Germany for a few days, visiting the International Tourism Trade Show in Berlin as well as giving interviews

and keeping other appointments. The two-time world champion is happy to be an ambassador for Brazil, promoting its global image in gener-al and its football in particular. A Seleção’s rep-utation suffered somewhat in that regard at last year’s World Cup, and nine months have now passed since the humiliating 7-1 semi-final defeat against Germany in Belo Horizonte. “July 8 will always be a very special, very pain-ful day for us Brazilians,” Cafu said. “But I re-fuse to reduce Brazilian football down to that one game. Brazil are much more than that.”

Cafu is Marcos Evangelista de Moraes. He appeared in three consecutive World Cup finals between 1994 and 2002, a feat not even Pele achieved and he is eternally revered as a king by his compatriots, despite the country abol-ishing its monarchy 117 years ago. The nation is now trying to look to the future, although Cafu believes the past still has a bearing on things to come: “We’re still five-time world champions and not former-five-time world champions.”

Indeed, Brazil’s enthusiasm for the game has continued unabated. At the end of March almost 70,000 fans poured into the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro to watch the ’Clasi-co’ between Vasco da Gama and Flamengo. Despite it only being a regular match in the regional championship, they defied torrential rain to get there and made light of that fact that the country’s biggest stars have long since moved to Europe.

Brazilians still love football then, in spite of the humbling experience in Belo Horizonte which Cafu described as surreal, “a game which

will only be repeated a hundred years from now, if at all”. As the writer and Cafu’s country-man Nelson Rodrigues said, football, more than any other game, shows that the impossi-ble is possible.

Cafu laughed when asked if the task of re-building Brazilian football was something that appealed to him. “No, I wouldn’t want to be a coach right now,” he said, pausing briefly. “Just look at how the Brazilian public treated Carlos Dunga. He was captain of the team that won the 1994 World Cup in the USA. He was a great player with character. Then when he was un-successful as coach at the 2010 World Cup, everyone forgot all that he’d achieved with Bra-zil. He was simply the man under whom Brazil were eliminated. I don’t want people to talk about me like that.”

Dunga has since taken charge of the Sele-cao for a second time, leading the side to a re-markable series of eight successive victories since the World Cup and bringing in fresh faces such as Liverpool’s Coutinho and Hoffenheim’s Roberto Firmino. “Our problem at the 2014 World Cup was that we only had one star, namely Neymar,” said Cafu. “There used to be five or six players with that kind of quality in the national team. We need to get back to that and I’m optimistic we will do. Believe me, Brazil have a very bright future.” Å

Nine months laterSven Goldmann


M I R R O R I M A G E

T H E NDerby, England

1963

A kickabout in the park.

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M I R R O R I M A G E

N O WPhilippsburg, Germany

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MSC Philippsburg play host to MSC Ubstadt-Weiher.

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N E T Z E R K N O W S ! Q U O T E S O F T H E W E E K

“I ’d do anything for them. I ’d make their teas and cof fees,

even silly things like sit on the toilet to make the seat warm for them

in the cold winter days at the training ground. I used to clean Dennis Wise’s boots and he wanted them per fect, so I took really good care of them.”

John Terry on his early days at Chelsea

“It ’s ruthless. You come in and as a foreigner, it ’s not the same banter.

They ’ ll say, ‘you big head’, and you deal with it . Then I ’ ll go

to Joe Har t and say, ‘ You giraf fe neck’ (laughs). It breaks the ice.”Vincent Kompany (Manchester City)

on the banter in English football

“Raheem Ster ling, one-thousand per cent . He has got zero rhythm. Studge put a video up of him and

Jordon Ibe dancing, and Raheem was at the star t of the video having a go.

That pret ty much sums up his rhy thm – it ’s non-existent!”

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal) on the worst dancer in the England squad

“What can I do about it? Should I just dig myself into the ground and

give up playing football?”Lukas Podolski (Inter Milan) reacts to his critics

“If I continue to develop well and stay healthy, I would like, in the next few years, to hold the Ballon d’Or in my hands. I am convinced that it can

happen. I’m a world champion and I play at a top club in the Premier League.

Mesut Ozil (Arsenal)

What have you always wanted to know about football? Ask Gunter Netzer: [email protected]

I ’m afraid I have to disappoint you when it comes to the first question, as I never had an idol. Of course I marvelled at talented

footballers such as Fritz Walter, but I never had an idol in the role model sense. What’s more, I was only ten years old when children across Germany were celebrating the 1954 World Cup triumph, so I never fully appreci-ated the scale of that achievement.

Despite all this, I think it’s important for people to have heroes, as they are inspiring and motivating and give fans a feeling of stability. Sporting figures in particular rep-resent their clubs and are ultimately the reason people go to watch games – along with the attraction of watching a football match of course.

Now on to the second question. If you talk about a Plan B, it implies that you had a Plan A that failed. Although I never had a serious Plan A, everything worked out the way I had hoped in the end. Having said that, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world for me if my footballing career hadn’t worked out. I should

Who was your idol? And did you have a career Plan B?

Question from Timo Jurgens / Shayne Hogan (via Twitter)

Hard landing Gunter Netzer in the 1972 European Championship final. West Germany beat the USSR 3-0.

add that my parents insisted that I finished my training to become an industrial clerk, and of course I did. So if I hadn’t been able to enjoy a career in football, I probably would have gone down that route instead. Å

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FIFA PARTNER

In Turning Point, personalities reflect on a decisive moment in their lives.

T U R N I N G P O I N T

NameBirgit WieseDate and place of birth10 November 1965, BerlinPositionDefenderClubs played for1988–1991 TSV Siegen 1992 Tennis Borussia Berlin 1993 SSG Bergisch Gladbach 1994 Froso IF 1995–1997 Umea IKGermany national team5 caps

I made the decision to be the first female German footballer to move to Sweden – up in the far north, with its long winters and endless snow – a long time ago for one simple reason: my love of husky dogs. The climate in Germany is simply too mild

for them, so I had to find a way to combine dogs with football as there was no way I was going to give up the sport. I think that is entirely understandable for someone who has won multiple German championships and DFB Cups and has been able to represent their country on five occasions.

I had already faced all kinds of uncertain-ty, unusual paths and risks during my career for the sake of playing football. After playing for the girls’ team at SV Schashagen, a small village club in Schleswig Holstein, the first senior side I joined was the women’s team at ATSV Stockelsdorf. From there I moved on to what was then Germany’s biggest club, TSV Siegen, where as the sweeper I organised both the defence and our build-up play. I was called up to the national team in my first year there, and made my international debut in a 10-0 win against Switzerland.

But when it came to the issue of huskies, I wavered back and forth about whether I would be strong enough to relocate to Sweden. I had received an offer via friends to go to Ostersund after interest from Froso, the Division 1 North club based there. I accepted, and lived from then on with my then boyfriend and several huskies in a house in the forest, surrounded by magnificent nature that gave new meaning to words such as ‘vastness’ and ‘freedom’. Sled-ding with the dogs in winter and walking them in summer provided me with a very special kind of fitness training.

After a year my career took me even further north to Umea. At that point UIK were on the

brink of becoming a major force in women’s football, having won promotion to the country’s top flight for the first time in 1995, and have since lifted the UEFA Women’s Champions League trophy twice. After arriving at the club I became the midfield engine, free from the tactical constraints that had increasingly limited my development and creativity during my time at Siegen. It was in Umea that I also met the man who is now my husband, and we moved to southern Sweden for a while after a knee injury forced me to retire from compe-titive football.

We have since headed north again and now live in a small village near Umea on the Baltic coast. I coached my daughter Iza’s youth team along the way, and she is now trying to break through with recently promoted third-tier side IFK Akullsjon. My son and our two dogs complete our family unit. Å

As told to Rainer Hennies

Former German international Birgit Wiese’s decision to emigrate helped her to fulfil a lifelong dream of owning husky dogs inside the Arctic Circle.

“The husky dogs changed my life”

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1 Germany 0 1770

2 Argentina 0 1577

3 Colombia 0 1499

4 Belgium 0 1471

5 Netherlands 0 1415

6 Brazil 0 1348

7 Portugal 0 1191

8 France 0 1180

9 Uruguay 0 1164

10 Italy 2 1146

11 Spain -1 1130

12 Switzerland -1 1126

13 Costa Rica 0 1095

14 Romania 2 1081

15 Chile -1 1057

16 Czech Republic 1 1045

17 England -2 1031

18 Algeria 0 986

19 Croatia 0 963

20 Côte d’Ivoire 0 944

21 Mexico 0 935

22 Slovakia 0 932

23 Austria 0 916

24 Ghana 1 887

25 Tunisia 1 881

26 Israel 6 880

27 Greece -3 872

28 Denmark 0 863

29 Ecuador 0 852

30 Bosnia and Herzegovina 0 841

31 Ukraine -4 838

32 USA -1 828

33 Russia 0 788

34 Poland 6 778

35 Iceland 2 776

36 Senegal 0 772

37 Wales -3 763

38 Cape Verde Islands -3 761

39 Scotland -1 727

40 Serbia -1 709

41 Nigeria 1 701

42 Iran -1 692

43 Northern Ireland 8 679

44 Guinea -1 669

45 Sweden -1 663

46 Hungary 2 659

47 Congo DR -1 651

48 Slovenia -1 649

49 Cameroon -4 646

50 Equatorial Guinea -1 630

51 Mali 2 626

52 Congo -3 625

53 Japan 2 617

54 Gabon 4 610

55 South Africa 1 608

56 Korea Republic -2 594

56 Turkey -4 594

58 Egypt -1 582

59 Peru 0 565

60 Zambia 0 560

61 Panama 0 557

61 Albania 2 557

63 Trinidad and Tobago -1 553

64 Rwanda 8 550

65 Australia -2 549

66 Republic of Ireland 1 537

67 Montenegro -2 531

68 Burkina Faso 0 529

69 United Arab Emirates -3 523

70 Norway -1 522

71 Bulgaria -1 501

72 Uzbekistan -1 483

72 Venezuela 7 483

74 Uganda 2 478

75 Togo 0 466

76 Jamaica 3 463

77 Haiti 1 454

78 Finland -5 450

79 Armenia -5 437

80 Paraguay -1 434

81 Honduras -4 433

82 Guatemala 0 425

83 China PR -1 423

84 Angola 0 403

85 Cyprus 4 398

86 Mozambique 4 385

87 Estonia -2 379

87 Sierra Leone -1 379

89 El Salvador -2 378

89 Morocco -1 378

91 Malawi 2 376

92 Bolivia 0 372

92 Benin 3 372

94 Lithuania 2 364

95 Latvia 5 361

96 Oman -5 356

97 Iraq -3 353

98 Belarus 3 346

99 Saudi Arabia -1 339

100 Tanzania 7 331

101 Jordan -4 326

102 Antigua and Barbuda -3 325

102 Ethiopia 0 325

104 Bahrain -1 319

105 Faroe Islands 0 317

106 Botswana -1 316

107 Dominican Republic 1 310

108 FYR Macedonia -4 308

109 Qatar 0 300

110 Sudan 2 288

110 Cuba 4 288

112 Libya 1 281

113 Namibia -2 277

114 Niger 4 271

115 Mauritania 8 268

116 Canada 1 266

117 Liberia -2 264

118 Kenya -2 263

119 St Vincent and the Grenadines -9 260

120 Lesotho 5 257

121 St Kitts and Nevis -2 244

122 Moldova -1 243

123 Liechtenstein 7 238

124 Zimbabwe -5 237

125 Kuwait 3 231

126 Georgia 0 225

126 Burundi -2 225

128 Aruba 4 221

128 Philippines 4 221

130 Vietnam 2 220

131 Barbados 11 218

132 St Lucia 8 216

133 Maldives 2 214

134 New Zealand 2 211

134 Guinea-Bissau 4 211

136 Luxembourg -7 209

137 Afghanistan 7 203

138 Kazakhstan 1 199

139 Azerbaijan -8 198

140 Palestine -14 194

141 Tajikistan -4 192

142 Thailand 1 189

143 Central African Republic 2 178

144 Turkmenistan 3 175

145 Malta 4 168

146 Lebanon -25 164

147 Madagascar 1 163

148 Chad -2 155

149 Korea DPR 3 149

150 Kyrgyzstan 1 146

151 New Caledonia 2 143

152 Syria -2 141

153 Myanmar -12 137

153 Singapore 3 137

153 Malaysia 1 137

156 Indonesia 2 129

157 Hong Kong 2 127

158 Grenada -3 126

159 Curaçao 1 125

160 Puerto Rico 2 119

161 Suriname 3 115

162 Bangladesh -5 112

M E N ’ S W O R L D R A N K I N G

Rank Team +/- Points

163 Swaziland 2 106

164 Belize 3 100

164 Tahiti 3 100

166 Guyana 0 94

167 Guam -5 93

168 Gambia 1 90

169 Bermuda 11 89

170 Pakistan 1 88

170 Laos -9 88

172 Montserrat -2 86

173 India -2 74

174 Sri Lanka -1 73

175 Yemen 4 72

176 Turks and Caicos Islands 0 66

177 Comoros -3 64

178 Seychelles -1 60

179 São Tomé e Príncipe -5 58

180 Nepal 0 57

181 San Marino -1 55

181 Cambodia 3 55

181 Dominica -1 55

184 Solomon Islands 0 53

185 Nicaragua -8 51

185 Timor-Leste 2 51

187 Macau 1 45

188 Chinese Taipei -4 43

188 South Sudan 1 43

190 Mauritius 0 36

191 Vanuatu 0 34

192 Fiji 0 30

192 Samoa 0 30

194 Bahamas 1 26

195 Mongolia -1 25

196 Tonga 0 17

197 US Virgin Islands 0 16

198 Brunei Darussalam 0 15

199 Papua New Guinea 0 13

200 American Samoa 0 12

201 Andorra 0 8

201 British Virgin Islands 1 8

201 Eritrea 1 8

204 Somalia 0 6

205 Cayman Islands 0 5

206 Djibouti 0 4

206 Cook Islands 0 4

208 Anguilla 0 2

209 Bhutan 0 0

http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/index.html

Rank Team +/- Points Rank Team +/- Points Rank Team +/- Points

LeaderMoves into top tenMoves out of top tenMatches played in totalMost matches playedBiggest move by pointsBiggest move by ranksBiggest drop by pointsBiggest drop by ranks

Germany (unchanged)Italy (10th, up 2 ranks)Spain (11th, down 1 rank)7Barbados, Bermuda, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines (2 matches each)Israel (up 75 points)Barbados, Bermuda (up 11 ranks each)Lebanon (down 90 points)Lebanon (down 25 ranks)

Last updated:12 March 2015


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The objective of Sudoku is to fill a 9x9 grid with digits so that each of the numbers from 1 to 9 appears exactly once in each column, row and 3x3 sub-grid.

Published weekly by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)

PublisherFIFA, FIFA-Strasse 20, PO box, CH-8044 Zurich

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Staff WritersAlan Schweingruber (Deputy Editor), Sarah Steiner

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· Argentina· Brazil· Portugal· Ghana· Germany

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Which UEFA Champions League quarter-final will be the most exciting? Which of these former champions will go

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4% 3%

≠ Paris Saint-Germain - Barcelona

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goals was the landmark reached by Australia in their 2-2 friendly draw with Germany. Captain Mile Jedinak was the man responsi-ble for the landmark strike, curling home a superb free-kick in Kaiserslautern to edge the Socceroos 2-1 ahead.

years without an international goal was the run that came to a long-awaited end for Scotland’s Steven Fletcher against Gibraltar. Then, having ended his drought, the Sunder-land striker went on to make history, becom-ing the first Scottish player to score a hat-trick in 46 years.

6 1000 79seconds was all the time Harry Kane needed to mark his international debut with a goal. The Tottenham Hotspur striker scored with his second touch as a senior England player, this after coming off the bench to replace Wayne Rooney in a 4-0 UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying win over Lithuania. A

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