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| PHÎÒÎ: AP |
Formula One “can do without Monaco”
Formula 1 commercial kingpin Bernie Ecclestone thinks of bringing this world famous race to new countries. Unfortunately, there are no empty slots in the calendar and increasing the number of races is next to impossible, meaning the traditional European races will have to be squeezed out.
The commercial boss of F1 is prepared to take the hit from losing the legendary Monaco Grand Prix, particularly since the profits from this race are not high and the management of European tracks is not ready to pay more. “We purchased the rights for the championship in 2006 for EUR 1.5 bn. Now, the cost has been hiked to EUR 4.5 bn, but the only thing that is unchanging in this business is the Formula 1 brand and the Ferrari team. I think we can even do without Monaco. The Europeans must pay more, otherwise we will be forced to seek other markets, for example Russia, where in 2012 we can hold the race in Sochi,” stated Ecclestone. F1News.Ru said there are currently several projects being developed for the Grand Prix of Russia in 2012 although a final decision has not been made.
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| PHÎÒÎ: AP |
Slip, slide and away into mud football
More than 300 teams are competing in the World Mud Football Championships in Ukkohala County in Finland. The championships are being held in five categories. Besides that, professional teams will compete in the amateur, women’s, mixed and business league categories. The matches will be held on half a dozen mud fields 60 x 35 meters in size with nets that are 2 x 5 m. Given that the mud is natural, its quantity and depth will be regulated: in some places, it may be at the ankles, in others up to the hips. The match will be played in 2 halves of 13 minutes and the teams will consist of 5 players and 1 goalkeeper. Corners and penalties are done by hand. During the match, players cannot change their boots.
The spirit of this tournament is concentrated in the tagline: “One should not be too serious about anything in this game”. Mud football was invented in Finland. In 1999, the first mud football championship was held in Europe and a year later the first world championship was held.
After that the sport became popularized in Finland, Russia, Sweden, The Netherlands and Brazil. Invented many years ago as an exclusively Finnish national form of entertainment, in recent years mud football grew from being a European sport to a worldwide event.
To this day, only the Finns and the Russians have won world championships in this dirty sport.
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| PHÎÒÎ: AP |
World Cup ball sold for US $74,000
One of the balls used in the finals of the World Football Championship in South Africa in the match between Spain and The Netherlands was sold for US $74,000 on the Internet e-Bay auction site. The name of the buyer of this souvenir of world sports remains undisclosed.
Some of footballers of countries that competed in the 2010 World Cup complained about the unpredictability of these balls in flight, despite the fact that their manufacturer Adidas assured that the technology used in making the balls was designed to improve its aerodynamics.
Representatives of e-Bay say the contradictory evaluations of this series of the official balls used in the championship piqued interest in the tender.
At the same time, similar offers in the sports world are always in great demand on tenders, moreover that a special “golden version” of the ball’s design was created especially for this year’s World Cup.
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