Ladislau Boloni wins Belgian title with Standard Liege
Standard Liege, a team coached by Ladislau Boloni, has won the Belgium championship after defeating Anderlecht Brussels on Sunday evening, score 1-0. The game was the return leg of the playoff for the Belgian title. The first leg ended in a draw, score 1-1. Witsel scored the game’s only goal in the 39th minute, from a penalty kick. Standard has won the Belgian title for the second consecutive time and will qualify directly to the Champions League groups, being set to win a minimum of EUR 15 M for that feat. Anderlecht will play in the second preliminary round of the Champions League.
This is Boloni’s second title won as a coach. He previously won the Portuguese title with Sporting Lisbon in the 2001/2002 season. As a player he won three championship titles with Steaua.
Ladislau Boloni, born on March 11, 1953 in Targu Mures, has previously coached the Romanian national team, but also clubs such as Nancy, Rennes, AS Monaco and Al Jazeera. He became Standard Liege’s head coach in June 2008, managing to win the Belgian Supercup at the start of the season and the Belgian title on Sunday evening.
Swiss Busacca to referee Champions League final
LONDON – Swiss Massimo Busacca will referee Wednesday’s Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona, UEFA said yesterday. The 40-year-old will be taking charge of his first Champions League final, having officiated at the 2007 UEFA Cup final and the Euro 2008 semi-final between Germany and Turkey.
He is no stranger to Manchester United, having been the referee for this season’s quarter-final, second leg against Porto. Busacca will be assisted by his fellow countrymen Matthias Arnet and Francesco Buragina. The fourth official will be Claudio Circhetta, also from Switzerland.
Williams F1 team submit entry for 2010
Former champions Williams have become the first current Formula One team to sign up for the 2010 championship despite an ongoing standoff over the regulations that has left Ferrari threatening to quit.
Responding to a tipoff to Reuters from another source, Williams chief executive Adam Parr confirmed the entry on Monday but stressed the team remained committed to the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA). “The unity of FOTA is of paramount importance to Williams,” he told Reuters. “Yesterday we joined the other members of FOTA in writing to the FIA (International Automobile Federation) to request a continuing effort to find a compromise concerning the regulations for 2010.”
Romanian Embassy: Linking the term ‘Romanian Gypsy’ with Mircea Lucescu reinforces the public’s confusion
The Romanian Embassy in Rome has issued at the end of last week a press release that points out that the term ‘Romanian Gypsy’ used in the article on Mircea Lucescu was unfavourable because that term could reinforce the public opinion’s confusion. ‘Regarding the article published by Milan’s ‘Il Giornale’ daily on May 21, 2009 and the position taken by the Romanian Embassy in Italy, we point out that the latter mainly targeted the daily’s frequently tendentious approach when it comes to Romanian citizens. The Embassy’s reaction came in support of Mircea Lucescu as a Romanian citizen, not as a football head coach. The article’s use of the term ‘Romanian Gypsy’ (‘zingaro romeno’) was not quite favourable, considering that this term can automatically reinforce the public opinion’s confusion’ reads a note released at the end of last week by the Romanian Embassy.
According to the quoted source, the previously used terms invoked in the reply published by ‘Il Giornale’ are irrelevant.