In a major boost to club football in the country, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has chosen India as one of the 11 participants in the revamped 2009 Champions League. 

The decision was taken on Tuesday at the AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur by the AFC Pro-League Ad-Hoc Committee under the chairmanship of Saburo Kawabuchi. 

With this decision, the champions of I-League, the professional league in the country, will take part in the Champions League. At present the I-League champions and Federation Cup winners are also eligible for the AFC Cup. 

Japan, South Korea, Australia, China, Indonesia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Iran were the other countries which were recommended by the committee for the 2009 AFC Champions League to be re-launched on completely professional lines. 

The AFC Pro-League Ad-Hoc Committee employed four grades ‘A’ (meet all criteria), ‘B’ (assured to meet criteria by October 1, ‘C’ (not assured to meet criteria by October 1) and ‘D’ (do not meet the criteria) to assess the suitability of 21 member associations for tournament. Currently only Japan meets all criteria, getting A across the board. 

Sania Mirza has pulled out of the French Open due to the wrist injury she suffered earlier in April. She will miss out on the season’s second Grand Slam, starting May 26 as she still feels considerable pain in the wrists. 

Sania, after playing 13 majors in a row, ranked 33 in singles and 19 in doubles, had undergone surgery to repair a capsule tear on her right wrist. She has been in rehab since May 5th when the cast was removed. Her coach and father says Sania hasn’t recovered completely from the surgery. Being not able to stretch her wrist beyond a point, hurting at certain angles when playing the forehand. She is comfortable with the backhand though.

She has not yet begun any court training instead just doing some shadow drills since her cast came off. She’s hhoping to start hitting in a week’s time, targetting the DFS Classic in Birmingham, the first grasscourt event of the season, starting June 9 for her return. 

The Indian pro’s wrist was badly damaged during the Indian Wells tournament in March after which she withdrew from the Miami event. The reason Sania decided to go in for surgery in April instead of taking a chance with rest and playing on till it hurt again was because she was hoping to be in top physical condition for the Beijing Olympic Games in August.

Being that she has a lot of free time now, without any practice schedules, Sania has been spotted watching IPL matches! Way to go Sania!

BBC: Rafael Nadal clinched his first Hamburg Masters title with an epic 7-5 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 win over the defending champion and top seed Roger Federer.

The world number two needed two hours and 52 minutes to beat the world number one in a gruelling and tense match. He came back from 5-1 down to clinch the first set, while Federer also let an advantage slip in the second only to clinch the set in the tie-break.

Nadal broke twice in the third as he claimed the 26th title of his career. The Spaniard has now beaten Federer on eight of the pair’s previous nine meetings on clay. The Swiss star’s solitary victory over the Spaniard came in last year’s Hamburg final when Federer ended Nadal’s 81-match winning streak on clay. Nadal is indeed the king of clay… Full report on BBC.

Watch the rerun of this match on 19th May, one at 8:00 a.m. and then at 2:30 p.m IST on ESPN India. There will of course be several reruns of this game at various times. 

Flamboyant Bollywood actor John Abraham has been roped in as brand ambassador for the UEFA European Football Championship 2008, to be held next month in Switzerland and Austria.

Making the announcement, Managing Director ESPN Software India R C Venkateish, unveiled a detailed promotional campaign Bach Ke Kahan Jaoge for the tournament, which kicks-off on June 7. John Abraham being a household name among Indian television viewers and should definitely be able to rope in those extra viewers. Although let us hope he is not a disaster like his last movie, Goal. 

“India today consumes more international soccers than ever before. We expect impressive ratings for UEFA Euro 2008 as it is one of the most prestigious and recognised sporting events in the world,” Venkateish said.

With an eye on a large soccer viewer-ship base in Hindi-speaking regions of the country, the broadcaster also announced Hindi coverage of the event, separately. ”The championship is rated the second biggest sporting event globally when it comes to TV viewership and we believe that this year television viewership will touch even greater heights,” he said. 

Looks like ESPN is taking the Euro 2008 games very seriously. There is after all lots of money to be made these days from sporting events in India. The IPL is a prime example of large amount of cash flow. Let us see if football popularity in India can catch up to cricket. 

Austria and Switzerland are ready to host the European Football Championship on June 7, having completed their preparations on schedule, one month before the kick-off. The last major construction projects have now been completed in Vienna.

The Ernst Happel stadium which will host the final, have been entirely modernized and refitted to seat 51,000 people, and builders finished putting up the 460 seat media centre last month. The stadium in the seven other host cities have been ready for months, including those in Zurich, Switzerland and Klagenfurt in southern Austria, which suffered some construction and renovation delays.

As renowned tourist destination, the co-hosts are well prepared to welcome hordes of visitors in June and can rely on their existing hotel infrastructure. Austria expects an additional 1.1 million overnight stays during the championship, while Switzer5land is counting 700000. Austria And Swill Rail are also planning to sun respectively 2000 and 2500 special trains during the championship to ensure that fans reach their chosen destination in time.

The co-host are each expecting some two million visitors and estimate the championship could bring in several hundreds of millions of Euros in profit. Beyond the stadia, the eight host cities – Basel, Bern, Geneva and Zurich in Switzerland, and the Austria towns of Innsbruck, Klagenfurt Salzburg and Vienna - are planning larger public viewing zones, with live games shown on giant screens, music performers and food stalls.

The two host countries were slow to show their enthusiasm for the upcoming tournament but Euro fever has now caught up with them and preparations are in full swing for a series of side events, including concerts, exhibits and parties to keep fans entertained during the championship.

Ranger’s quest for a first European trophy in 36 years ended in heartbreak as Zenit St. Petersburg claimed Russia’s second UEFA Cup in the space of four years with 2-0 victory at the Manchester City Stadium on Wednesday.

It was the second UEFA Cup success by Russian side in four seasons following CSKA Moscow’s triumph in 2005. Rangers supports travelled south from Glasgow in their thousands, easily outnumbering the Zenit fans inside the stadium and crowding the city centre tow watch on big screens.

On the pitch, the defeat suffered by Rangers ended their quest for an unlikely quadruple with the Scottish League Cup winners still contesting the league title and also lining up in the Scottish FA Cup final later this month. Zenit failed to reproduce their impressive demolition of competition favourites Bayern Munich in the semi-finals but their attacking qualities, honed by Dutch Coach Dick Advocaat, were too much for a spirited Rangers side. Zenit gave an early demonstration of their counter-attacking prowess when Captain Anatoly Tymoschuk robbed a hesitant Brahim Hemdani in midfield.

Rangers were content to soak up the pressure, showing little attacking intent of their own Zenit probed away with Arshavin a menacing presence on the left flank

Associated Press: Justine Henin retired from tennis Wednesday, an abrupt ending to a career in which she won seven Grand Slam singles titles and leaves while ranked No. 1.

The 25-year-old Belgian made the surprising announcement at a news conference Wednesday, less than two weeks before the start of the French Open. She has won that clay-court major championship four times, including each of the past three years.

“This is the end of a child’s dream,” Henin said. “It is a new beginning for me. I feel like I already lived three lives. I gave the sport all I could and took everything it could give me. I take this decision without the least bit of regrets. It is my life as a woman that starts now.”

Henin is the first woman to quit the sport while ranked No. 1, according to the WTA Tour. Justine Henin steps away leaving a stellar legacy behind:

• 7 Grand-Slam singles titles
• In 1 year (2007), she won 10 tournaments (including 2 mayors)
• 4 French Open titles (including an active streak of 3-in-a-row; a WTA record)
• Won the 2004 Australian Open title
• Captured US Open titles in 2003, 2007
• Won over $20 Million in career prize money
• And, she spent more than 100 weeks ranked No.1 in the world (since November 13th 2006).

It was harder for Second-ranked Rafael Nadal to get into the third round of the Hamburg Masters, while Top-ranked Roger Federer and No. 3 Novak Djokovic did so with ease. While Nadal is known to have hold his No.2 player spot on the ATP tour for 147 consecutive weeks, Djokovic is trying very hard top surpass Nadal.

Nadal needed a tiebreaker to overcome Potito Starace 6-4, 7-6 (6). Federer won against Jarkko Nieminen 6-1, 6-3, and Djokovic downed Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3, 6-1. Federer was at ease from the start for his match, probably because Nieminen had never won a set in eight previous matches.

Nadal had to spend more than two hours against the 47th-ranked player to seize his win. Nadal recently lost to Juan Carlos Ferrero in the third round in Rome, when he had a blister on his right foot. It was Nadal’s second loss only over the past one year, the other being to Federer in the Hamburg final last year.

Third Round Matches

Quick Info.

Location: Rothenbaum Tennis Center
                Hallerstr. 89
               20149, Hamburg
Surface: Claycourt
Draw size Singles: 56
Draw size Doubles: 24
Format: Best of Three
Winner 2007: Roger Federer (SUI)
Centre Court capacity: 9.000

Brazilian Felipe Massa swept to a hat-trick of Turkish Grand Prix victories from pole position on Sunday with another domineering display for Ferrari at Istanbul Park. The Latin American triumphed by 3.7 seconds ahead of McLaren’s British driver Lewis Hamilton with reigning champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen less than half-a-second behind in third in the other Ferrari.

Hamilton pulled off the overtaking move of the race on Massa and denied Ferrari likely one-two despite adopting a three-stop fuel strategy compared to his rival’s two stopper. But there was no stopping Massa who controlled the 58-lap race on the 5.338km track which he clearly loves. Riakkonnen’s lead in the championship was cut to seven points with Massa now second, on counter back, from last year’s runner-up Hamilton.

Further down the field, Force India’s Italian veteran Giancarlo Fisichella drove right over the Williams of Kazuki Nakajima, missing the Japanese driver by inches but sending them both spinning into retirement in the gravel after collision at the start.

Manchester United retained the Premier League title today when they won 2-0 at Wigan Athletic with a first-half Cristiano Ronaldo penalty and a goal by substitute Ryan Giggs. United ended the season on 87 points, two clear of Chelsea, who draw 1-1 at home with Bolton Wanderers after an injury time Kevin Davies goal for the visitors cancelled out a scrappy effort by halftime substitute Andriy Shevchenko.

It was United’s 10th Premier League title and 17th championship in all and they will now go for a double when they face Chelsea in Championship League final on May 21. Everton qualified for the UEFA Cup after their 3-1 home victory over Newcastle United secured fifth place. Birmingham City and reading joined Derby County in being relegated after Fulham won 1-0 at Portsmouth to complete an unlikely escape.

Patrick Frater has written an interesting article on how Cricket has displaced all other entertainment channels with the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) matches. 

He mentions, “In a country where the sport is held as highly as religion, the advent of the Indian Premier League, a knockout tournament using a sexy new form of the game, is topping the ratings and denting the power of the country’s normally dominant general entertainment channels (GECs). 

According to Television Audience Measurement ratings, 20 million people watched the first three matches on SET Max where the IPL matches are being shown Live. Its primetime market share in the three biggest cities was 29.3%, compared with the 25.5% achieved by the top nine GECs combined.” read all »

PTI - New Delhi: The April 25 slap-gate involving Harbhajan Singh and S Sreesanth threatened to turn uglier before teammates and security guards separated the volatile cricketers from a fisticuff.

After Harbhajan slapped Sreesanth, said a news channel, the standoff prolonged for a few minutes which saw the off-spinner, banned for the rest of the Indian Premier League, having another go at the pacer, nudging and abusing him.

According to the channel, which claimed to have had a look at the video footage, Harbhajan had another go at Sreesanth after he had slapped him while shaking hands with rival players after the match.

Sreesanth, on his part, was not ready to take it lying down and he too lunged at Harbhajan before teammates held him back.

The slapping cost Harbhajan nearly Rs three crore in fine and saw him being banned from the remainder of the ongoing IPL while Sreesanth was let off with a warning by Match Referee Farokh Engineer.

Harbhajan faces further punishement from BCCI which has appointed Advocate Sudhir Nanavati as Commissioner to probe the incident and submit his report to Cricket Board chief Sharad Pawar.