When Michel Platini revamped the European Championship, turning the finals from a tough, lean 16-team tournament in 2012 into a flabby, 'roll up, anybody's welcome' 24-side affair in 2016, it was not surprising he ran into a blizzard of rebukes.
Rediff.com lists 10 new countries that were formed over the last two decades
Lionel Messi, looking to score his first World Cup goal since 2006 in Brazil this month, went scoreless as Argentina cruised to a 3-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago in a World Cup warmup on Friday.
Supported by his sons and receiving a standing ovation from a 12,000-strong crowd, Serbia midfielder Dejan Stankovic entered retirement as his country's most capped player with a 2-0 victory over Japan in a friendly on Friday.
England have been reported to world governing body FIFA after racist abuse was heard from visiting fans at last week's World Cup qualifier in San Marino.
Holders Spain stretched their winning run in qualifiers to 23 as they began the journey to the 2014 World Cup with a 1-0 victory in Georgia on Tuesday but along with Germany and Italy they struggled to take the points.
International Master Tania Sachdev registered her sixth victory in seven games as the Indian women's team cruised to a 3-1 victory over lower-ranked Estonia to take the joint-fourth spot after the seventh round in the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul.
Goalkeeper Petr Cech has tried out a specially-designed mask to protect his broken nose and allow him to try to play for the Czech Republic in their Euro 2012 playoff against Montenegro on Friday.
Manchester's two-pronged assault on the Champions League finally sprang to life on Tuesday when United won their first match of the campaign by beating Romanians Otelul Galati 2-0 away and City left it until stoppage time to beat Villarreal 2-1.
England booked a place at the Euro 2012 finals on Friday, while former champions France are among several teams who face nail-biting matches next week to determine their fate.
World champions Spain and Italy completed the formalities of qualification for Euro 2012 on Tuesday, Netherlands are as good as through and England are in a commanding position to secure a place in next year's finals.
GetAhead reader Soma Biswas shares her visit to Montenegro, a beautiful Balkan country in south eastern Europe.
Crowd violence returned to haunt European football on Tuesday when Italy's home Euro 2012 qualifier against Serbia in Genoa was abandoned amid a barrage of flares inside the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.
The cream began to rise to the top of the Euro 2012 qualifying groups with world and European champions Spain, Germany, Netherlands and Portugal all winning their matches in style on Friday.
Serbia defender Nemanja Vidic is desperate to make an impact in what could be his last World Cup after the 2006 fiasco in which his country lost all three group matches.
Spain, who won Euro 2008 with a series of superb performances culminating in their victory over Germany in the final, are ranked number one in the world and were grouped with Czech Republic, Scotland, Lithuania and Liechtenstein.
Whatever surprises the draw for South Africa 2010 provides in Cape Town on December 4, the path to glory at the first African World Cup will be a familiar one.
World champions Italy and Euro 2008 winners Spain took determined steps towards World Cup qualification with victories on Saturday but France and Portugal are struggling after being held to disappointing draws. Nobody was in a position to join already-qualified Netherlands in securing a place at the finals in South Africa next year but Spain can make a provisional booking after seven wins out of seven following a 5-0 home thrashing of Belgium.
Winger Albert Riera struck a stoppage-time winner for European champions Spain who came from behind to win 2-1 in Turkey and maintain their 100 percent record in 2010 World Cup qualifiers on Wednesday.
The recent bailout of Romania by the International Monetary Fund puts the spotlight back on the East European block of countries and what it means for the Western European banking sector. If evidence is anything to go by, things are turning for the worse. In fact, if a block of countries could be termed 'sub-prime', Eastern Europe seems to qualify as the countries seem to have been battered and bruised big time by the ongoing global financial turmoil.
Enigmatic playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme has solved Argentina coach Diego Maradona's biggest dilemma for him by turning his back on the national team.
Former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis crashed out of the Brisbane International on Monday with a first round loss to Finland's Jarkko Nieminen. Baghdatis, who developed a cult following in Australia during his fairytale run to the 2006 Australian Open final, squandered an early lead to lose 5-7, 6-1, 6-4.
Peace has broken out in Jelena Dokic's war of words with the Australian Open after she apologised for lashing the Grand Slam tournament when she was overlooked for a wildcard entry this year. Former world number four Dokic, who together with her firebrand father Damir has endured a rocky relationship with Australian tennis officials for years, most recently hit out over a perceived lack of support.
Forced to sell off their best players to keep afloat, many eastern European soccer clubs found themselves easy prey for wealthier rivals from the continent's top leagues in the early rounds of the Champions League and UEFA Cup.
John Terry of Chelsea was named as England's permanent captain by coach Fabio Capello at a news conference on Tuesday.
Thanks to celebrity activism and widespread media attention, the magazine notes, HIV, malaria and starvation are well-known diseases of the third world. But there's another resource-draining plague afflicting these countries - smoking.
World champions Italy were drawn against Bulgaria and England were up against Croatia, who knocked them out of the Euro 2008 tournament, following the draw for 2010 World Cup qualifying made in Durban on Sunday
The midfielder froze on the big occasion once again as Argentina were muscled out by the ruthless, physical Brazilians.
Brazil's disappointingly one-sided win over Argentina in the Copa America final was a victory for muscle over finesse and could prompt the losers to revert to a more physical, less entertaining, style.
Argentina routed Peru 4-0 while Mexico thrashed 10-man Paraguay 6-0 at the Copa America football tournament.
The Indian Davis Cupper lost 2-6, 4-6 to Janko Tipsarevic in the final of the Bukhara Challenger.
Martina Hingis reached the final of the Montreal Cup after Anna Chakvetadze retired.
The Swiss beat Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the 7-6, 6-3 in their quarter-final match the Rogers Cup.
Jelena Jankovic beat the Indian teenager 6-2, 7-6 (3) in the first round of the LA Open.
The duo lost to wild card entrants Ana Ivanovic and Maria Kirilenko 7-6(2), 6-2 in the first round of the Los Angeles Open.
The Indian ace was beaten by the top seeded Swiss girl 6-7(7), 5-7 in the quarter-finals.
The Indo-Czech pair lost to France's Fabrice Santoro and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia and Montenegro in the men's doubles semi-finals at Wimbledon.
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