Michel Platini

Armenian President President Serzh Sarkisian was set to make a landmark visit to Turkey Wednesday to attend a World Cup football game as the two nations pressed ahead with normalization efforts. Sarkisian was to arrive in the northwestern city of Bursa, just four days after Turkey and Armenia, backed by world powers, signed milestone deals aimed at ending decades of hostility. The outcome of the World Cup qualifier is of no significance as both Armenia and Turkey are already out of the running for the 2010 finals, but the political stakes are high. Wary that nationalist fans may spoil what is intended to be ... Read Full Story

Armenia's president paid a landmark visit to Turkey Wednesday, and jeering at the football match he attended showed the difficulty the two nations face in trying to overcome their bloody history. Serzh Sarkisian and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul met "in an extremely positive atmosphere" ahead of the game, diplomats said, but there was loud booing of Armenia's national anthem at the stadium. Sarkisian flew to the northwestern city of Bursa just four days after Turkey and Armenia, backed by world powers, signed historic deals to end decades of hostility, establish formal ties and open their border. The protocols still need parliamentary ratifications to ... Read Full Story

UEFA president Michel Platini says he believes soccer can play a role in bringing about peace in the Middle East. Platini said during a visit to Jerusalem on Tuesday that soccer promotes "peace, tolerance and friendship." He spoke during a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres, an avid sports fan and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. Platini recalled a 2006 meeting with Peres in Seville, Spain, where the two men helped put together a team of Israeli and Palestinian players for an exhibition against a Spanish team. At Tuesday's meeting, the men discussed how soccer can bridge communities around the world. Read Full Story

UEFA president Michel Platini praised Ukraine on Tuesday for making progress in its preparations to co-host the 2012 European Championship with Poland. Platini said UEFA's alert level in Ukraine has been scaled down from code red to orange. "It's excellent news for us," Platini said after a meeting of UEFA's executive committee. "Our ultimate goal is to go from orange to green. We haven't reached that goal but we are going down the right path." Ukraine, which has suffered in the global economic crisis, was praised for developing projects to build hotels for teams, officials and visiting fans. "All of a sudden they have ... Read Full Story

UEFA president Michel Platini and Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson have implicitly questioned the wisdom of Real Madrid shelling out an unprecedented 250 million euros on new players this summer following the return of chairman Florentino Perez to the helm. Construction magnate Perez returned earlier this year for a second spell in charge having been the man under whose tutelage Real launched their "galactico" era part one with the arrival of the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Ronaldo and David Beckham. But having gone even further this time in landing 94 million-euro man Cristiano Ronaldo from Ferguson's United, as well as Kaka from ... Read Full Story