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Topics - grimm01

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1
General Discussion / Ever Send Money Overseas: Survey
« on: February 09, 2014, 09:45:43 PM »
Hello forumites, I am currently doing some market research on people's experiences sending money to friends and family in other countries. If you currently send money overseas or have done so in the past, could you take 5 minutes to complete the survey?

Also, feel free to share the link with others.

Thanks.

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/1527553/Sending-Money-Overseas

2
Came across this short film while checking one of meh usual sci-fi sites. It straight out of T&T and is about a young boy who dream of being a super hero in a violent T&T:

http://vimeo.com/67124108#



3
General Discussion / Latest beach fashion from China
« on: August 21, 2012, 08:44:22 AM »
Ah nearly dead when ah read this article... Ah feel ah could take this to Jamaica and make some money off de skin bleachers. Anybody want to invest?

http://behindthewall.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/21/13391303-facekini-craze-hits-china-beach-as-swimmers-try-to-avoid-a-tan?chromedomain=worldnews

4
Football / Insight Into Wolves Pre-Season Training
« on: July 08, 2011, 09:07:12 PM »
Here is a nice little article on the role of sports science in preparing a Premier League team for the upcoming season. Interesting how times have changed from the run til yuh puke methods of the past. Any idea if/how any of these techniques are employed with our national set-up or in the Pro League?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jul/08/wolves-science-pre-season-training

Mick McCarthy laughs as he recalls one of his early pre-season memories as a player with Barnsley. "It's a bit of a legendary story this one," the Wolverhampton Wanderers manager says, smiling. "We were doing a road run and we ran so far in Barnsley that a few of us got lost. As we had fallen such a long way behind the others, a small group of us decided to hitch a lift back to the ground. By the time everyone else got back, me and three others were already in the bath."

It is a stunt that a few have tried over the years, although there was no chance of anyone in the Wolves squad repeating the trick during their pre-season training camp in Ireland this week.

The days of gruelling long-distance road runs are a thing of the past because of the growing influence of sports science, while the introduction of state-of-the-art technology, including GPS tracking devices, means that there is no hiding place on the training ground, let alone in the back seat of a passing car.

This week the Guardian spent a day with Wolves in the grounds of the luxurious Carton House Hotel in Maynooth, near Dublin, where the Midlands club have started their preparations for the new season.

The behind-the-scenes access provided a fascinating insight into the way that a Premier League club approaches pre-season training, revealing just how much the landscape has changed, including the sort of attention to detail that would have been unimaginable only a few years ago.

One of the most significant factors driving the shift in emphasis is that it is often a fitness coach, rather than the manager or his assistant, that takes the first couple of weeks of pre-season training. "I almost feel like I'm pinching a living during the first fortnight," Terry Connor, McCarthy's assistant, says as we walk down to the training pitches, where Tony Daley, the former Aston Villa and England winger who is Wolves' fitness and conditioning coach, is setting up the equipment for his second session of the morning.

The Wolves players, who were in the gym between 8.30 and 9.30am lifting leg weights, step on to the scales, which they do before and after every training session to monitor fluid loss. They are then issued with their heart-rate monitors and GPS units, which are linked to a laptop on the side of the training pitch that provides real-time results. It is an incredible tool that is used by the top clubs in Europe and allows coaches to access a broad range of data on every player at the touch of a button.

"GPS is a big thing at the moment, in terms of finding out the intensity players are working at, what distances they are covering and comparing that with their Prozone stats in games," Daley says. "If, for instance, we know that Christophe Berra covers 9km in a game and he only does 250m of that as high-intensity runs, then why are we, as a club, asking him to cover distances much different to that in training? We want to replicate in training what players are doing in matches."

This also helps to explain why the longest run that the Wolves players will do during pre-season will last no longer than three minutes. "Players don't run for 25 minutes at a time, it's stop-start and it's all about recovery," Daley says.

One of the other reasons that players have stopped plodding around for mile after mile, Daley says, is that runs of that nature were designed to shed a few pounds and get players back into shape. The Wolves players, however, are never out of shape.

Daley tells them to take a complete break for a fortnight at the end of the season but for the next four weeks they are expected to train every other day for about 45 minutes. It is easy to see whether or not they have been following the programme because they undergo four different physical tests four times a year, including at the start and end of the season, measuring their speed and agility, fatigue levels after sprinting, leg strength and aerobic capacity. Anyone whose results appear outside their normal range will stand out like a beacon.

Not that there is much chance of that happening. "I think the players are so much more professional now, and you can probably put that down to the foreigners that have come into the game," Karl Henry, the Wolves captain, says. "Before they came over, I think the drinking culture in the older players was something that was quite widespread, and people would come back out of shape, whereas now people come back and are weighing in at the same weight as they were when they left."

Henry has just finished several attempts at the speed and agility test, which requires players to sprint around four cones, laid out in a T-shape, in about nine seconds. Daley shouts out the times, which are all logged, as the players cross the line.

It is quite a contrast from the days when Henry remembers "running myself into the ground" as a youngster at Stoke. "It's still hard now but it's much more specific," he adds. "There's nothing specific about running up a hill or in a forest for a day and killing ourselves."

Having been split into two groups, the remainder of the Wolves players are taking part in games of head-tennis before they swap over to the physical work. The atmosphere is fairly relaxed, although the club's match analyst, James Lovell, who has been given the thankless task of refereeing, could do with some help from Hawk-Eye to prove to George Elokobi that he is not giving all the debatable points to the other team just because McCarthy is on their side. "You're not watching the game," barks Elokobi, much to the amusement of everyone else.

There was a time when McCarthy would have had a whistle around his neck and a stopwatch in his hand during pre-season but those days are long gone. "I've got guys who have gone to university and studied sports science and strength and conditioning," McCarthy says.

"Tony Daley is brilliant and so is Steve Kemp, the physio, and Matt Perry, the doctor. They head that team and I let them run it. And why would I not listen to them? It's like getting a builder in to do your house and then telling him how to do it. It's just not right."

McCarthy smiles when asked about some of the methods of yesteryear. "I remember being given salt tablets and told that would stop me getting cramp. Well, actually, stopping running seven miles in a morning would have stopped me getting cramp.

"It's more structured and scientific now. I've no doubt when I was doing pre-season my managers would have had it all planned what we were going to do: running, weight sessions, press-ups and sit-ups. But it just appeared that we always did it to exhaustion; players being sick. I've never seen players here being sick."

Training finishes at midday, giving the players an hour break before lunch and then a further two hours before they return for the tougher afternoon session.

When they come back they are once again divided into two groups, half of them starting off with Daley. A large square is set out for them to run around with a ball at their feet, dinking it over hurdles and dribbling around cones. By introducing the ball to a physical exercise the players have to maintain their technique while becoming fatigued. They work for four minutes before swapping over, completing the exercise three times in total.

The others are working with Connor, who stations half a dozen of them on the outside of a small grid and tasks them with keeping the ball from the two in the middle. The ball fizzes around, leaving Dave Edwards and Berra chasing shadows, before a few wayward passes prompt Connor to remind the players that, although pre-season has only just got under way, he still expects high standards. "I am not going to start chewing on my first day but I will get ratty," the Wolves assistant says.

All the while Neil Dallaway, who has recently joined the club as a GPS analyst intern, is standing over the laptop on the edge of the pitch, scanning his eyes across the figures that the small units on each player's back are registering with every step that they take. As the data is instant, it means that Daley can run across and take a quick look to check that the session is having the desired effect. "That's just what I was after," he says, after asking to take a look at a few of the players' heart rates.

Daley points out that "sport science doesn't rule the training field" but he also appreciates the value of using the technology to support his work. "It's a great tool," he says, "and the players have bought into it. We produce a rough report after every training session and it says distance covered, what their heart rate was, sprint distances. And, although it's not intended to be a competition, it becomes like that, because you hear players saying: 'I did X amount'. It's really about educating them. Some aren't bothered about it, but others will want to know why their stats are different to someone else's."

Kevin Doyle is one of those. The Irishman wanders over to Dallaway to inquire about his heart rate and how that compares with the other players after the first of three 800m runs that have to be completed in under three minutes, with a three-minute rest in between. It is the last exercise and the hardest part of the day by far. By the time the second run is over, there are a few people bent over, no doubt wishing there was not another 800m to come. "Come on lads, one more," Sylvan Ebanks-Blake says, trying to lift the mood.

Andy Keogh, Elokobi and Henry seem to be the pick of the runners, although there is little to choose between them, which is credit to someone like Jody Craddock, who turns 36 this month and is taking part in his 19th pre-season. "That was quite hard this afternoon," Craddock says after the players have finished their warm-down. "The running with the ball is designed to keep your concentration when you're a bit tired. It wasn't too hard – it's only the second day. We did the 800m and we'd knocked 30 seconds off each run from the day before. But it will get harder."

Not as tough, though, as when he started out with Cambridge United, in 1993. "One of the first few pre-seasons with Cambridge we would go to an army camp for a week. It was like you see in films – a lot of shouting, graft, running with logs on your shoulders, until they break you basically. And here we are now with everyone wearing heart monitors. It's beneficial to the player; they can take you to your limit and then hold you there as long as they want without pushing you over. I think the tendency when you were younger was to do too much too soon, because it wasn't monitored, and then you couldn't walk for a week with sore legs and blisters."

Any of the Wolves players who have aches and pains after the end of their second day of pre-season have the medical staff on hand to offer them a massage. Most, however, are just keen to get back to their rooms and cross off another training session. "Pre-season is the one horrible part of being a footballer, and some of the runs are terrible but look at the facilities here," Henry says, surveying the surroundings. "We are here on a lovely day with nice pitches to train on. There's not much to moan about really."
Training day

Wolves' first week of pre-season training made summer holidays seem a distant memory

7-8am Light breakfast (optional)

8.30-9.30am Players report to gym and are divided into two groups, alternating between doing the jump test (measures leg strength) and a leg-weight session. Players given a protein recovery shake immediately afterwards

9.30-10.30am Breakfast (cereal/fruit/eggs)

11am – noon Stretching. Players divided into two groups, alternating between the T-test (speed/agility) and head-tennis

1pm Lunch (carbohydrate and protein-based)

3.15pm-3.35pm Dynamic stretching session (on the move rather than static)

3.35pm Players divided into two groups, alternating between an endurance session with the ball (dribbling around cones, lifting it over hurdles and running with it at their feet for four minutes) and a keep-ball session, when they are, in effect, recovering from the other exercise. Three times through on each exercise

4.10pm-4.25pm Players have to complete three 800m runs each inside three minutes, with three minutes of rest in between the runs

4.25pm A 10-minute cool down followed by ice baths, massage and rest

6pm Dinner (carbohydrate and protein based) followed by rest for the players
Tests and checks

Heart-rate monitors and GPS

Heart-rate monitors have been used for some time but hi-tech GPS (Global Positioning System) units and the real-time software that come with them are not so common. The instant data that the GPS devices provide allows the coaches at Wolverhampton Wanderers to monitor the physical performance of their players on the training ground while the session is taking place and tailor training to replicate each player's work on a match day

Close-season training

The Wolves players are told to take a complete break from exercise for two weeks at the end of the season, but they are given a programme to follow over the next four weeks that requires them to train for 45 minutes every other day, ensuring that they report back for pre-season in reasonable shape and close to their normal level of fitness

Regular testing

Wolves carry out four tests four times a year – the start and end of pre-season, the end of December (depending on the match schedule) and the end of the season – to measure players' speed/agility, endurance, leg strength and aerobic capacity. The results are logged and the players are expected to stay within a specified range whenever tested

Weighing and body-fat testing

The players are regularly weighed, including before and after each training session during pre-season, when the club monitor fluid loss. Measuring the players' body composition in millimetres gives the club an idea of lean-muscle mass and what percentage of their body is fat. The players are measured in eight areas and, as with the physical testing, need to maintain their target levels

5
General Discussion / Lottery Confusion
« on: December 16, 2009, 09:10:10 AM »
Is this woman Guyanese?

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/12/16/medina.dnt.fl.lotto.dispute.wsvn

Did a Google search and she's a form Ms. Trinidad and Tobago runner-up.  ::)

6
General Discussion / Venezuela to get Nuclear Reactor
« on: November 19, 2008, 10:28:19 AM »
What allyuh think of this one? To me it disturbing as I wonder what Chavez could be planning to use this for in the future a la Iran, the US reaction depending on his intentions, I am concerned about T&T getting caught in the middle and our proximity to the reactor in case of any kind of emergency.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/18/medvedev-chavez-nuclear-russia-venezuela


Russia to build nuclear reactor for Chávez
Russian president Dmitry Medvedev expected to sign a nuclear agreement next week

Russia's deepening strategic partnership with Venezuela took a dramatic step forward today when it emerged that Moscow has agreed to build Venezuela's first ever nuclear reactor.

President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to sign a nuclear cooperation agreement with his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez, during a visit to Latin America next week, part of a determined Russian push into the region.

The reactor is to be named after Humberto Fernandez Moran, a late Venezuelan research scientist and former science minister, Chávez has announced. It is one of many accords he hopes to sign while hosting Medvedev in Caracas next week.

The prospect of a nuclear deal between Moscow and Caracas, following a surge in Russian economic, military, political and intelligence activity in Latin America, is likely to alarm the US and present an early challenge to the Obama administration.

"Hugo Chávez joins the nuclear club," Russian's Vedomosti newspaper trumpeted today.

Venezuela's socialist leader said the reactor may be based in the eastern state of Zulia. He stressed that the project would be for peaceful purposes. As if to underline that point, four Japanese survivors from the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs visited Venezuela this week at the government's invitation.

The energy ministry, which is scouting locations, said the project was at a very early stage. A report which mooted a nuclear reactor long before Chávez came to power has been dusted off.

Despite abundant oil reserves, Venezuela's energy infrastructure is creaking and prone to blackouts. A nuclear reactor would enable the country to utilise its rich uranium deposits and allay criticism that the government has neglected energy investment.

More importantly for Moscow and Caracas, a nuclear deal will showcase a partnership which advocates creating new "poles" of power to check American hegemony.

Nick Day, a Latin American specialist, said the nuclear deal was deliberately timed to pile pressure on the US administration during a moment of transition and weakness.

"Russia is manoeuvring hard in the time between Obama's election and his inauguration. What the Russians are trying to do is to set up a chessboard that gives them greater mobility in negotiations when he [Obama] comes to power," Day said.

He added: "Russia's message is: 'We can exert influence in your backyard if you continue to exert influence in our backyard. If you don't take your missiles out of Poland and end Nato expansion we're going to increase our influence in Latin America and do things to provoke you.'"

According to Sergei Novikov, spokesman for Russia's federal nuclear agency, no reactor can be built until both countries have signed a preliminary agreement on nuclear cooperation. This will be signed next week, Novikov told Vedomosti.

Both presidents are also expected to firm up details of a Russian-Venezuelan energy consortium to jointly produce and sell oil and gas.

Russian companies which are already exploring oilfields in Venezuela could then extend their reach to fields in Ecuador and Bolivia.

Venezuela has bought $4bn of Russian arms, including Sukhoi fighter jets, making it one of Moscow's best clients. Chávez has spoken of also buying Project 636 diesel submarines, Mi-28 combat helicopters, T72 tanks and air-defence systems.

Despite the spending spree, Venezuela's military has not tipped the regional balance of power.

Chávez's armed forces lag behind that of Brazil, Chile and Colombia and analysts question Venezuelan effectiveness.

For Russia's president, however, Caracas is a valuable springboard into Latin America. In addition to Venezuela, Medvedev will visit Peru, Brazil and Cuba — the first trip by a Russian leader to Havana in eight years.

Moscow has spoken of reviving Soviet-era intelligence cooperation with the communist island and in a sign of dramatically improved ties, President Raul Castro last month attended the opening of a Russian Orthodox cathedral in Havana.

7
General Discussion / Jamaican students find sucess in S. Fla. schools
« on: January 25, 2006, 12:44:17 PM »
Interesting article from the Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/13704303.htm

Jamaican students find sucess in S. Fla. schools
There's a quiet trend in Broward and Dade classrooms; first- and second-generation Jamaicans and other West Indians are finding remarkable success
By STEVE HARRISON
sharrison@MiamiHerald.com

During a conversation with his Advanced Placement economics students several years ago, Nova High teacher Davis Kiger made a striking discovery.

Almost all of his black students' families were from the Caribbean -- mostly Jamaica -- and few had any long-standing ties to the United States. He estimates today that 15 of his 17 black students are West Indian.

''It seems they are really stepping up to the challenge,'' Kiger said. ``I'll tell it like it is: Their families are coming for economic reasons, and there is a real drive for them to succeed.''

Kiger's observation is indicative of a quiet trend in local classrooms: First and second-generation Jamaicans have had success in schools, especially when compared to other black and Hispanic students.

An analysis by The Miami Herald of 2005 FCAT data shows that Broward and Miami-Dade students born in Jamaica scored noticeably higher than American-born black students. Jamaican students in Broward did slightly better than the state's Hispanics.

Two other studies and interviews with local educators show that second-generation Jamaican students also have achieved, though they lag far behind white non-Hispanics and Asians. The picture isn't all cheerful, however, as many Jamaicans -- especially low-income students -- are struggling, attending poorly rated schools.

As Caribbean immigration has surged in Florida, there are now more people claiming Jamaican ancestry in Broward than in any other U.S. county, including New York City's boroughs. While one in four blacks in Broward are Jamaican and one in two are West Indian, their impact in classrooms far outweighs their already large numbers.

When Sakeena Gohagen was in the fourth grade, her schoolteacher mother heard about the National Achievers Society, a service and support group for top black students that's sponsored by the Urban League of Broward County.

APPREHENSIVE

Sakeena -- born in Florida to parents from St. Mary Parish, Jamaica -- was excelling in school, but the Gohagens were apprehensive about joining. They weren't sure if they belonged because the Broward group's members were rooted in the American South, having been in the United States for generations.

That was eight years ago.

Today, most of the new members have ties to the Caribbean. The majority of the parents board is from Jamaica, including the president and two vice presidents. And Sakeena, a high school senior, is the state student president.

''When I first joined, I sat in the back row, unsure if I fit in,'' said Sakeena, who is weighing scholarship offers from the University of Florida and Florida State.

``Now, when I look at the new inductees, they are almost all from the West Indies. I just think it's our culture and values, that so much is placed on education.''

In the mid-1990s, a study led by three sociologists called the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study found that Broward and Miami-Dade students of Jamaican descent in middle and high school had higher GPAs than Haitians, Nicaraguans, Cubans, Dominicans and other Central Americans.

COLLEGE NUMBERS

Nationally, a 2005 Princeton University draft study found that immigrant black students -- many from the Caribbean -- are attending colleges at higher numbers than their representation in the overall population.

The gap is widest in the Ivy League universities, where more than 40 percent of the black students are classified as non-native. That's compares to about 9 percent in the overall population.

Sakeena's close friends at Nova High are West Indian, mostly Jamaican. Though the second-generation students occasionally slip into speaking lyrical Jamaican patois, they are, in their dress and style, American. They live throughout Broward -- in Miramar, Weston and Plantation -- far from the West Indian enclave of Lauderhill, or ''Jamaica Hill'' as it's known.

Much of the distinctive accent of their parents has been chipped away, though it's resurrected when they gently make fun of their parents.

''It's funny,'' said Nova student Jovone Brown of Miramar. ``Our parents can't really speak proper English, but they will enforce it on us.''

Sakeena's friends and parents offer the same explanation for their success: Jamaica's British-style schools give students a good foundation. And for students who were born here and never attended Jamaican schools, they say their parents are obsessed that their children don't squander the opportunities in America.

'You have parents who will kick their kids' behinds if they don't do well,'' said Jamaican William Billy Hyton, owner of an air shipping company in Broward whose children attended school in North Miami-Dade. 'Here, students have `rights.' Over there? You have the right to learn.''

GOOD SELF-IMAGE

Some experts who have studied Jamaican immigration question whether the schools are as good as Jamaicans boast. But scholars say most Jamaicans benefit from a positive self-image, the legacy of growing up in a black-majority country where slavery ended in 1833 and blacks are in positions of power.

Perhaps the biggest factor: Those allowed to immigrate to America are better educated and more skilled than the average Jamaican.

As with the Cuban experience more than 40 years ago, the first significant wave of Jamaican immigration to South Florida came after Prime Minister Michael Manley nationalized much of the nation's leading industries in 1974. He once famously said: ``Jamaica has no room for millionaires. For anyone who wants to become a millionaire, we have five flights a day to Miami.''

''What happens in Jamaica today is that the elites stay because they have the power,'' said Douglas Massey, a Princeton sociology professor who has studied the makeup of the black population at American universities. ``It's the upwardly mobile and aspiring professional classes that leave.''

It can feel ''like a slap in the face'' when Jamaicans' achievements are praised in comparison to native-born black Americans, said Don Bowen, president of Broward's Urban League. But, he believes their success is strengthening the black community, just as waves of immigrants have done for the white community.

''It shows the powerful effects of growing up in this country,'' Bowen said. ``They have come from a place with a different orientation toward education.''

Silverer Grant moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1981 when she was 18 with her mother and sisters. Her husband came several years later and started a business hauling construction material.

TOP STUDENT

Grant's daughter, Taneisha, a high school sophomore, was a top student at Country Isles Elementary in Weston, but her grades slipped when she reached Indian Ridge Middle in Davie. Her mother reacted swiftly, taking away her daughter's privileges. Taneisha rebounded, became a fixture on the honor roll and joined National Achievers, where her mother is the treasurer.

Taneisha's first year at Fort Lauderdale High -- which she chose because of its prelaw magnet program -- strained her relationship with her mother.

For the first time, she socialized with African Americans who embrace a hip-hop culture. She was thrust into a world where Haitians, Jamaicans and American blacks sometimes squabbled, asserting their nationalities.

''We would get into fights,'' said Silverer Grant, a nurse. ``She had one foot in [the African American] community and one foot at home.''

The Grant family's position -- straddling black American culture and West Indian culture -- is not unique in South Florida.

Some American blacks say some Jamaicans have been too slow to become active in the PTA or other school issues, such as a recent legal battle to ensure equal resources at black schools and white schools in Broward.

Jamaicans bristle at that label, though they admit they have a different perspective, seeing America as a land of opportunity instead of seeing its past and present racism. Some Jamaicans sum up their beliefs with an island expression: ``We came to America to drink the milk, not to count the cows.''

''They don't understand the complexity of the racial issue here,'' said activist Janice Boursiquot, a key player in the past decade's school equity struggle in Broward County.

Boursiquot remembers a Jamaican mother who was upset that her son had been suspended from Seminole Middle in Plantation.

''She was in tears,'' Boursiquot said. 'She said to me, `We are not black Americans. We came here and we worked hard. Why are they treating my son this way?' ''

SOME STRUGGLE

And not all Jamaican students perform well in class. Many parents work two or three jobs, making it difficult for them to monitor their children's progress.

''I won't sugarcoat it,'' said Shirley Lyndsey, a Jamaican-born guidance counselor at McArthur High in Hollywood. ''Not every kid from the Caribbean does well. Some just get caught up in the television, the cellphones,'' she said.

Sakeena, the Nova senior, has discussed with her friends establishing an AfricanAmerican club at Nova, where students could discuss their divergent roots.

Though she calls herself African-American, she will go to great lengths to celebrate her Jamaican heritage. She and her friends have often decided, on a whim, to designate a random school day as ''Jamaican Flag Day,'' where they wear the country's colors.

''We'll wear our beaded necklaces, or we'd work with our unified dress code: green tops and yellow skirts,'' Sakeena said. ``We'll just say, `Hey, we're celebrating on this day.'

''Our generation -- the second generation -- we can go in and out of it,'' Sakeena said.
 


8
Football / Uzbek & Bahrain Game Null & Void
« on: September 06, 2005, 08:43:26 AM »
FIFA real jokey yes. Imagine Uzbekistan win the game, get rob a penalty opportunity to win by more, and then FIFA turn around and nullify the game because the ref mess up the penalty.  :rotfl:

This of course has implications for the 4th place CONCACAF team.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=341697&cc=5901

Uzbekistan and Bahrain to play it again

TOKYO, Sept 6 (Reuters) - FIFA have declared the result of Saturday's Asian World Cup qualifying play-off between Uzbekistan and Bahrain void and ordered a replay following a refereeing blunder.


Soccer's governing body ruled on Tuesday that Japanese referee Toshimitsu Yoshida made a 'technical error' in disallowing an Uzbekistan penalty and then awarding Bahrain a free kick instead of ordering it to be retaken.


Uzbekistan's 1-0 home victory has been wiped out and Wednesday's second leg in Bahrain has been postponed. The tie will instead be played on October 8 and 12.


'Taking into consideration that the referee...had indeed committed a technical error, as a consequence, the match needed to be replayed,' FIFA said in a statement.


Yoshida waved off Server Djeparov's 39th-minute penalty in Tashkent and gave Bahrain an indirect free kick after spotting an infringement.


'In such a situation, the laws of the game require the referee to order the penalty kick to be retaken,' said FIFA.


The decision was approved by Lennart Johansson, chairman of the 2006 World Cup organising committee.


Uzbekistan, however, are still unhappy with the verdict after FIFA rejected their request to be awarded a 3-0 win.


'NOT FAIR'


'Obviously it is not fair for us to replay the whole game after winning 1-0 and then being robbed of a successful penalty,' Uzbekistan Football Federation (UFF) spokesman Sanjar Rizayev said.


Rizayev added that UFF officials would attend the FIFA congress in Morocco on September 10 and lobby for the game to be restarted from the penalty incident with Uzbekistan 1-0 up.


'Since FIFA did not award us a 3-0 win as we demanded, we ask for the first leg to be replayed starting in the 38th minute with that penalty being retaken,' he said.


Yoshida refused to elaborate on his decision after the match and remained tightlipped about the row on Tuesday.


'At the moment, I'm not in a position to make a direct comment on it,' Yoshida told Reuters. 'I have not been contacted by the Japan Football Association so it would be wrong to say anything.'


The winners of the tie will play the fourth-placed team from the CONCACAF region over two legs for a place at next year's World Cup in Germany.


Japan, South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia have already secured the four automatic Asian spots.

 

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