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■GREECE

Ex-AEK owner gets jail term

Former AEK Athens owner Makis Psomiadis was sentenced to four years in jail by an Athens court on Tuesday for fraud. Psomiadis, a current shareholder in rival Greek Super League club Nea Kavala, and two of his cousins were given four-year jail sentences for defrauding 11 million euros (US$16.03 million) from AEK’s accounts. The court ruled that Psomiadis, a former tabloid newspaper and nightclub owner, had recorded several invoices in AEK’s accounts for construction work at their training ground between July 2001 and January 2003 that was never carried out. Psomiadis is currently free while considering an appeal to another court. Psomiadis was handed a 12-year prison sentence in October 2002 for forgery but was freed one week later on health grounds after producing evidence he was suffering from tuberculosis.



■FIFA

Robben Island to play host

FIFA’s executive committee will hold its next meeting on South Africa’s once infamous Robben Island on Dec. 3, the governing body’s president Sepp Blatter said on Tuesday. “Holding it on Robben Island is a historic matter,” Blatter told a news conference after Tuesday’s executive committee meeting in Rio de Janeiro. Robben Island is where former president Nelson Mandela was held for 18 of the 27 years he was imprisoned by the apartheid regime that ruled South Africa. Among the issues to be decided at the meeting will be the seeding for the 2010 World Cup finals.



■COLOMBIA

Two fans die in clashes

Two fans died in separate clashes with hooligans, officials said on Tuesday. Fans of clubs Deportes Tolima and Deportivo Cali clashed on the way back from their teams’ away matches. Some Cali hooligans chased three Tolima fans, one of whom fell down a ravine, said Colonel Israel Robayo, police commander in the province of Tolima. Several Cali fans were arrested. Meanwhile, Bogota police said fans of local clubs Millonarios and Independiente Santa Fe clashed in a western neighborhood of the city, where one was stabbed to death.



■BRUNEI

FIFA suspends association

The Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (BAFA) has been suspended by FIFA for government interference in its affairs, soccer’s world governing body said yesterday. “It started with a decision by the Brunei authorities to dissolve BAFA and to replace it with a new federation in December 2008,” FIFA said in a statement. The suspension, which applies globally, means Brunei and its clubs are unable to take part in international competitions. One Brunei club, DPMM, plays in Singapore’s S-League, but will no longer be allowed to do so. The suspension will only be lifted when BAFA is reinstated by the government.



■SPAIN

Guardiola cleared of doping

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has been cleared in a long-running doping saga, the Italian Olympic Committee said in a statement on Tuesday. Guardiola served a four-month ban for failing tests for nandrolone while a Brescia player in 2001 but in May the Italian soccer federation finally upheld his appeal. Italy’s anti-doping prosecutor challenged the decision but a tribunal has now ruled in Guardiola’s favor. “The issue has been put to bed and that’s that. The good thing is that it’s over and we can look forward,” Guardiola told a news conference after Barca’s 2-0 Champions League win over Dynamo Kiev.
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