UEFA gala in Monaco Fifty years of the champions' competition ...

A. SABATTINI
ICELAND
A record crowd
for Iceland
and, what is
more, a win
against Italy!
FSM
FYR MACEDONIA
Hope for the
national team.
all sectors of society, and football is
no exception. The Icelandic FA, with the
help of Landsbankinn, sponsor of the
men’s and women’s top division, has
taken a huge step in this direction by
announcing that the prize money for
the women’s top division will be the
same as in the men’s top division. This
will be a huge boost for the women’s
game and make the importance of
achieving success even greater. Until
now, no one could have ever believed
that one day the prize money would
be equal for both sexes in Iceland’s top
division.
In July, the FA and its sponsors
launched a campaign to attract as many
people as possible to attend an international
friendly against Italy at the Laugardalsvöllur
stadium in Reykjavík on
18 August. The aim was to beat the previous
attendance record for a football
match in Iceland, set in 1968 when
18,194 people came to see Benfica and
Eusebio play Icelandic champions Valur
in the European Cup at the same
Laugardalsvöllur stadium. Few actually
believed this would be possible, but one
hour before kick-off, a total of 20,204
tickets had been sold, crushing the
record set 36 years ago, and making the
match a complete sell-out. Seating
NETHERLANDS
Johan Cruyff,
elected by
an overwhelming
majority of fans
as best player of
the last 50 years.
KNVB
capacity in the Laugardalsvöllur stadium
is only 7,000, which meant that over
13,000 spectators had to pack onto the
terraces. The record will probably not
be beaten again, as plans are afoot to
renovate the stadium and make it an allseater
venue with room for around
15,000 spectators.
To make it a perfect night for
all those in attendance, as well as the
viewers at home and football in Iceland
in general, the Italians were beaten convincingly
2-0, something that no one
had dared to dream of. It is therefore a
date that will be well documented in
Icelandic football history.
Ómar Smárason
KAZAKHSTAN
First World Cup qualifiers
as UEFA member
On 8 September, the national team of
Kazakhstan embarked on the qualifiying
round for the 2006 FIFA World Cup
when they played Ukraine at home in
Almaty. Kazakhstan’s other rivals in
Group 2 are Denmark, Greece, Turkey,
Georgia and Albania.
Previously, Kazakhstan, as
a member of the AFC, took part in the
qualifying competitions for the 1998
and 2002 World Cups. In 1997, at the
first stage, Kazakhstan outstripped
Iraq and Pakistan, but faltered at the
second stage, finishing last in their
group, behind the Republic of Korea,
Japan, the United Arab Emirates and
Uzbekistan. Four years later, Kazakhstan
again had to meet Iraq at the first stage,
as well as Nepal and Macao. In the end,
the contest for top place in the group
was between Kazakhstan and Iraq. Both
of their games ended in a 1-1 draw,
but Iraq came out on top thanks to their
superior goal difference.
Kazakhstan are now making
their third attempt to reach the World
Cup finals, this time as a member
of UEFA.
Alexander Keplin
LITHUANIA
Family tournament
The Lithuanian Football Federation’s
district of Kaunas Football Federation has
organised a football tournament for the
family, schools, streets and other football
teams. It was the first grassroots
project of its kind to be held in Lithuania.
In all, 31 teams took part in the
tournament. The organisers were very
surprised, but equally delighted, that so
many people were interested in this
tournament.
Among the participants were
LFF General Secretary Julius Kvedaras
with his daughter and son. Mr Kvedaras
finished as the leading scorer. After the
event, the national federation decided
without hesitation to organise another
such tournament, this time in the
capital, Vilnius.
The main goal of the tournament
is to get more families and children
involved in football and to reduce
delinquency on the streets.
Vaiva Zizaite
FYR MACEDONIA
Championship kicks off
Even though it was holiday time, the
FA of The former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia has been busy.
The twelfth championship got
under way in the first week of the hottest
month, with new regulations in force,
according to which the bottom two teams
will be relegated directly into the next
division down, while the two teams
which finish third and fourth from the
bottom of the table will contest play-offs
against the third and fourth teams from
the second division. If the second division
teams win the play-offs, they will be
promoted. After five rounds, representatives
of all the clubs, meeting with the
president of the association, Haralampie
Hadzi-Risteski, expressed their satisfaction
that the standard of play is higher
and referee performances better.
In the middle of August, the
under-21 and senior national teams
played their first qualifying matches for
the 2006 European Under-21 Championship
final round and World Cup finals
respectively. The two excellent results
achieved – 4-0 win for the under-21s
and 3-0 for the seniors – raises hopes
that our national teams will do better in
these qualifying competitions than in
the past.
At the end of September, the
association will host a mini-tournament
in the first qualifying round of the European
Under-19 Championship. The
other teams involved are France, Armenia
and Azerbaijan. The tournament is
being organised on the shores of Lake
Ohrid.
Zoran Nikolovski
18 uefadirect 10.04