DUBLIN (Reuters) - Up to 200 Irish fans protested at the French embassy in Dublin on Saturday to demand a replay of Wednesday's controversial World Cup playoff. The French Football Federation (FFF) has ruled out a replay, saying on Friday world governing body FIFA's decision that the result should stand was final. "We regret that despite our best efforts for a replay, which would have restored the integrity of the game in front of a world-wide audience, our calls appear to have fallen on deaf ears at the French Football Federation," John Delaney, chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland, said in a ...
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Giants middle linebacker Antonio Pierce will be sidelined indefinitely with a bulging disc in his neck, the team said on Friday. Pierce was originally hurt against Arizona on October 25 but experienced little discomfort until practice this week. An MRI exam on Friday revealed the injury. "I'm shocked with what I heard from the doctors this afternoon," Pierce said on the team's website (http://www.giants.com). "I had no idea that what happened a few weeks ago could keep me off the field. "I didn't think it was that serious. "I'm going to do everything the doctors tell me to ...
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BERNE (Reuters) - Asian champions Iraq have been suspended from international soccer because of political interference in the country's Football Association, world governing body FIFA said on Friday. It is Iraq's second ban in 18 months, the previous having lasted just three days, and comes only four months after they staged their first internationals at home since the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003. "The FIFA Emergency Committee has...decided to suspend the Iraqi Football Association (IFA) due to governmental interference," FIFA said in a statement. "FIFA learned on 16 November that the Iraqi Olympic Committee had disbanded the IFA and that governmental security ...
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DONETSK (Reuters) - Bahrain's Olympic 1,500 meters champion Rashid Ramzi has been stripped of his gold medal for doping at the Beijing 2008 Games, a source within the Olympic movement said on Wednesday. "Ramzi has been stripped of his gold medal," the source told Reuters. Moroccan-born Ramzi's positive test for the banned blood-booster CERA was announced in April after frozen samples from the Beijing Olympics were re-tested for that specific substance. The athletes who finished in second, third and fourth place now stand to be upgraded, with the decision resting on the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Italy's road race silver medalist Davide Rebellin was ...
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SEATTLE (Reuters) - L.A Galaxy's turnaround from worst to best in Major League Soccer, which could be completed with a win in Sunday's MLS Cup final, has been largely due to David Beckham's change in attitude, captain Landon Donovan said Friday. Donovan made stinging criticisms of Beckham in a book about the first two years of the England midfielder's time at the Galaxy, claiming he was not a good team-mate and questioning his commitment to the team. But since Beckham's belated return from a controversial loan spell with AC Milan, the pair have gone out of their way to speak well of each other ...
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