France Look to Keep Building After Euro 2012 Qualification

France got the point they needed to ensure qualification for Euro 2012 against a hard-working Bosnia side Tuesday but Laurent Blanc's team know they will need further improvement to make an impression at next year's finals. The French have struggled since following up their World Cup victory on home soil in 1998 with the European crown two years later and although those dominant days are a thing of the past, the current crop are proving a tough side to beat. Trailing to a sublime Edin Dzeko strike, France can thank the Bosnian hitman's Manchester City team mate Samir Nasri for converting a second half penalty that booked the side's ticket to the finals and extended their unbeaten streak to 15 games. "We want to stay invincible as long as possible," Valencia centre back Adil Rami told reporters after Tuesday's win. "Our 15-game unbeaten run is great for confidence. This is a statistic that we need to use to help us grow." Blanc is hoping to line up a couple of friendlies next month before France's championship credentials are given a thorough test against a German side that won all 10 of their qualifying games in Bremen next February. "We will play games with nothing at stake against top teams so it will be the opportunity to develop our play," Blanc said. Last year, France were completely outplayed by Spain at the Stade de France, losing 2-0 in a friendly that sowed the seeds for a disastrous World Cup, where they were knocked out in the first round and were torn apart by off-field controversies. "That scar will never go away because there will always be someone, a blogger, reporters, who will talk about it and because the players involved will never forget," added Blanc, who will hope inject some new blood before the finals. "We will certainly give playing time to those we have not seen much yet," he said. Midfielder Nasri, meanwhile, is hoping France will use those games to "grow as a team." "When you look at the best teams -- Germany and Spain -- you see that they have been playing together for a long time and that's what we need if we are to compete at the highest level," he said. "That's what we must work on, grow as a team, because otherwise, we have the players we need, we all play at the biggest clubs." Defender Eric Abidal believes France can ill-afford a repeat of the first half against Bosnia at next year's finals or their stay in Poland and Ukraine could be a short one. "If we have a 45-minute lapse like that at Euro, we will pay dearly for it," the Barcelona player said.

Portugal Among Four Seeds for Euro 2012 Playoff Draw

Portugal, Croatia, Ireland and the Czech Republic have been seeded for Thursday's draw for next month's Euro 2012 playoffs, UEFA said in a statement Wednesday. The decision means Euro 2004 runners-up Portugal, who missed out on automatic qualification for next June's finals in Ukraine and Poland after Tuesday's 2-1 defeat in Denmark, will face either unseeded Turkey, Bosnia, Estonia or Montenegro. The draw for the November 11/12 and 15 two-legged ties will take place at 1100 GMT in Krakow Thursday. Croatia were second in Group F behind Greece and could now face fellow former Yugoslavs Bosnia or Montenegro, the latter of whom are making their playoff debut along with Estonia. Spain, Germany, Russia, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Greece, England, Denmark and best runners-up Sweden have already joined the two host nations in the finals with the tournament draw taking place on December 2 in Kiev.

FA Handed Deadline to Sort Out Governance

LONDON (Reuters) - The government told the Football Association on Wednesday to work with its partners and publish a plan to improve football governance by February 2012. The FA has been widely criticised following England's failed bid to host the 2018 World Cup and the perceived anachronistic make-up of its board, with just under half the members coming from outside the professional game. "I believe that there are improvements that can be made in the governance arrangements, which have failed to keep up with the changing pace of the modern game," Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said in a statement. "I do not want Government to run football, so this is an opportunity for the football family to work together to benefit the game in the long-term." Football's world governing body FIFA takes a dim view of governments interfering in football and has handed down heavy sanctions in the past. The government has set out a number of recommendations for the future of football including looking at the creation of a modern, accountable and representative FA board and changes to the FA's decision-making structures. The response follows a report from a committee of MPs who slammed football governance in the wake of Portsmouth becoming the first Premier League club to go into administration in 2010. FIFA has also come under pressure to reform following a string of corruption scandals but FA chairman David Bernstein, a surprise appointment to run English football last December, said he was "not holding his breath" about any global changes.

Government Wants Overhaul of English Soccer

LONDON (AP) — Britain's government demanded Wednesday that the English Football Association implement wide-ranging governance changes, including curbs on debt and stricter checks on foreign owners. Responding to a report by a group of influential legislators, the government backed concerns that some clubs are living on the "edge of viability" and pledged to introduce legislation that will force the FA to make the required changes if not approved by the end of February. Sports minister Hugh Robertson said the world's oldest soccer association has "failed to keep up with the changing pace of the modern game." Robertson wants the FA to seize control of the national game from the wealthy Premier League as part of a new licensing system that all clubs must adhere to. The most stringent measures would seek to address concerns over the "financial sustainability" of clubs. "Debt per se is not always a bad thing, but it must be genuinely sustainable and should be assessed as a percentage of turnover," the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said. "There is a legitimate role for the national governing body, working hand in hand with competition organizers, to ensure that appropriate and consistent checks and balances are in place to protect the overall financial integrity of the national game and its long-term viability." The growth of the Premier League since its began in 1991 has led to half of the 20 clubs being under foreign ownership. But high debt levels at clubs remain troubling. Liverpool was rescued from the brink of bankruptcy by the Boston Red Sox ownership group of John Henry one year ago. "Because of the inherent attraction of English football clubs to foreign investors and markets, particularly robust criteria need to be applied to prospective owners and directors before they are allowed to own or run a club," the government said. As part of reforms for the 2012-13 season, the government wants an independent body to run the disciplinary process, stripping the FA of the power to ban players. The government also wants clubs to release players to appear for the under 17, 19 and 21 sides and not just the senior team in a bid to help England end a trophy drought stretching back to the 1966 World Cup. "Government is fully committed to ensuring that the changes put forward by the football authorities make a lasting and substantive difference," the response to Parliament said. "If that does not happen the Government will introduce a legal requirement on the Football Association to implement the appropriate governance clauses by the swiftest possible means."

Usual Suspects Lead Class Heading Into Euro 2012

LONDON — The long road to Poland and Ukraine is almost closed. Spain, Germany and the Netherlands are travelling superior class to Euro 2012, as they did to the previous tournaments. The Germans, still growing and still bringing fresh young talents through the ranks, closed out their qualification with a perfect 10th-straight victory Tuesday. Their 3-1 demolition of Belgium in Düsseldorf was proof, if proof was needed, that the new cosmopolitan Germany will not let up, even when the only thing at stake is pride in performance. Winning, they say, is too good a habit to break. Likewise, Spain. The reigning European and world champion fielded a few fringe players against Scotland at Alicante, but still won by the same score as Germany to keep up its own perfect run to the finals. A 5th goal in 10 national team games for Germany’s 20-year-old winger, André Schürrle, was typical of the fast, coordinated, athletic counterattack that epitomizes Germany. A 50th goal in his 80th international game by David Villa emphasized that Spanish hunger is far from sated. The two countries that contested the last European Championship and set the standards at the World Cup in South Africa a year ago, are playing with the confidence and the know-how of champions. Almost up to their level, but without the same depth of reserves, come the Dutch. The Netherlands also won every qualifying match that counted until this week when, in Sweden against a home side desperate for the points, a considerably weakened Dutch lineup succumbed, 3-2. The result didn’t mean a lot to the Netherlands, which had already qualified after nine consecutive victories. It meant everything to the Swedes, whose eighth victory in 10 games gave them the automatic right to play in the tournament finals as the best runner-up in any of the European groups. Maybe, just maybe, Scandinavian soccer is on the rise again. What Sweden could do in Stockholm, the Danes were more than prepared to match in Copenhagen, where they outran and largely outplayed Portugal. The 2-1 home victory scarcely did justice to Denmark’s greater collective determination. It flattered the Portuguese, who after five successive victories expected to top the group, but finished second. All that Portugal had to do was tie the final game. But Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani and company said they were not going to Copenhagen to draw; they were sure they had the skills to win. Those boasts proved a spur to the Danes. With 38,000 roaring on the national team, the midfield players worked like dervishes to deny Portugal’s arguably finer artists the room to create. Denmark scored an unanswered, predatory goal from Michael Krohn-Dehli in the first half. It increased that lead with a well-rehearsed second, made by Dennis Rommedahl’s cross and scored by the foot of Nicklas Bendtner. And long before Ronaldo curled in one of his magical free kicks to score Portugal’s consolation goal in injury time, there could have been a landslide in the Danes’ favor. “We were playing against two of the best wingers in the world,” said Denmark’s captain, goalie Thomas Sorensen. “But we didn’t see much of them for almost the entire match.” Portugal thus has to go into the playoff draw Thursday in Krakow, Poland, to determine the pairings between eight nations who finished second in their groups but could yet qualify through playoff games to be contested, home and away, in mid-November. Those places include teams like Croatia and Turkey and Portugal, which expected to qualify in the first place. They include Estonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which represent the changing map of the Baltic and Balkan region. The Estonians qualified in second place in their group without even playing Tuesday. Their joy was Serbia’s despair because the Serbs, needing just a point in Slovenia, went down, 1-0. Nemanja Vidic, the captain of Manchester United, missed a penalty kick and, possibly in the emotion of failure, he and Serbia’s accomplished midfielder, Dejan Stankovic, indicated that they would now retire from the national team. “It’s time,” said Vidic, 29, “for a change of generations.” “It’s time,” said Stankovic, 33, “for me to turn to my tasks with Inter Milan.”

Denmark and France Make Euro 2012

LONDON (AP) — Denmark gained an automatic spot at the 2012 European Championship at the expense of Portugal on Tuesday while France needed a late penalty kick in a 1-1 draw with Bosnia-Herzegovina to qualify. Former champion Greece and Russia also clinched places at next summer's tournament in Ukraine and Poland with victories in the final round of qualifying games. Sweden beat the Netherlands 3-2 to advance as the runner-up with the best record from the nine groups. A 2-0 defeat in Copenhagen dropped Portugal into next month's qualification playoffs, along with Turkey, Ireland, Estonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Czech Republic. Defending champion Spain and Germany won to finish group play with perfect records.

Is Mohamed Bin Hammam the new face of Fifa?

Sepp Blatter's reign over world football could be about to enter its final phase.

Today, in Kuala Lumpur, Mohamed Bin Hammam is expected to announce that he will run against Blatter for the presidency of Fifa

The Qatari, the president since 2002 of the Asian Football Confederation, could then end the 75-year-old Fifa functionary's 13 years in control when delegates from the game's 208 national federations of the governing body vote on June 1.

Barring a last-minute change of heart, Bin Hammam will offer himself as the champion of transparency and probity, the man who will throw open the windows of Fifa and let everyone look inside.

He will call for "change" in a moment in history when the word resonates so deeply with so many.

He will promise to enact term limits for the presidency, keenly aware of how uncomfortable many in the football world have become with the idea that only two men - Joao Havelange and Blatter - have led Fifa for the past 37 years.

At the Asian Cup in Doha two months ago, Bin Hammam outlined his campaign without actually launching it.

He spoke of how he believed Blatter's 35 years inside Fifa leave him defenceless against charges of cronyism.

He said a term limit of eight years would "allow new people to come into power without hesitation, and new people mean new ideas and new thoughts and pushing the organisation well ahead".

Bin Hammam also said he would make Fifa's financial dealings open to scrutiny. Such as, it would be hoped, the startling 56 per cent rise in 2010 of the salaries and expenses paid to top Fifa executives and executive committee members.

Where did that new £20.3 million (Dh120m) come from, exactly?

Blatter's Fifa is not saying.

Bin Hammam will make an attractive candidate. He has led the Asian federation well. He is articulate in both Arabic and English. He has gravitas. His personality is strong enough that he can make any audience sympathetic to him and his ideas. He is 61 but seems younger; it is easy to mentally categorise him as the hip uncle to Blatter's semi-doddering grandfather, the "tomorrow" to Blatter's "yesterday".

Blatter, however, will not be easy to bring down. One of Bin Hammam's complaints is that long-term presidents eventually find themselves perpetually campaigning for re-election, and the truth is that Blatter has done that all too well.

Most of the major decisions Fifa has made for the past decade seem designed to extend Blatter's presidency.

Consider how he has guided Fifa's grand prize, the World Cup, to South Africa and Brazil, to Russia and Qatar, shoring up his support in sub-Saharan Africa, in South America, in eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Qatar 2022 will be particularly difficult for candidate Bin Hammam to minimise.

While he remained mostly in the background, it was Blatter who celebrated the surprise decision and was harshly criticised for it, from Australia to Japan to the United States. Indeed, it seems unlikely Bin Hammam will be able to count on a united Asian bloc as the foundation of his campaign.

Blatter was Fifa's point man in defending a World Cup in the Gulf. And it was his candidate, Prince Ali bin Al Hussein of Jordan, who won an election for a Fifa vice-presidency in January, defeating Bin Hammam's preferred candidate, the incumbent Chung Mong-joon, by a vote of 25-20. Afterward, some observers predicted that the 25 federations who supported the Jordanian would support Blatter in June, as well.

Bin Hammam will need 105 notes to unseat Blatter, and if he doesn't begin with all of Asia's, it is difficult to see him reaching the magic number, perhaps leaving him doomed to reprising the 2002 Fifa bid by the African confederation president Issa Hayatou, whom Blatter crushed by a 139-56 vote.

Several European federations, England most prominent among them, seem ready to support "anyone but Blatter". But where are the rest of Bin Hammam's votes?

Blatter has been a master of patronage. He also has overseen, by means fair or foul, the first US$1 billion (Dh3.67bn) revenue year in Fifa history and earlier this month claimed cash reserves of $1.3bn.