In a bit of a shock result, the joint bid from Ukraine and Poland has beaten hot favourites Italy to the right to host the Euro 2012 football tournament.

There had been fears that the current political crisis in Ukraine, combined with a recent Polish match fixing scandal would hurt the two countries’ bid. But, instead, it seems that Italy’s problems with referee corruption, and the recent crowd trouble which resulted in the death of a policeman and forced the suspension of the Italian domestic season, was enough to see the Poland/Ukraine bid through.

As well as that, presentations by the Presidents of Poland and Ukraine undoubtedly helped to turn the tide against Italy:

“We thought the political situation could hamper our bid. There were such speculations circulating in UEFA’s corridors,” Volodymyr Lashkul, the vice president of the Ukrainian Football Federation, told Reuters. “But that didn’t happen. The two presidents who came to the presentation yesterday — Viktor Yushchenko and [Polish President] Lech Kaczynski — made a breakthrough in the situation.”

Just over half of the matches in the tournament will be played in Poland but, to compensate, Ukraine will host the final of Euro 2012 in the Kiev Olympic Stadium.

Neither country has hosted a European or World cup before (although Ukraine did host the 1980 Olympics’ football tournament), so there is a lot of work to be done. In Ukraine alone, six stadiums will need to be either renovated, or rebuilt from scratch in just four and a half years. A tall order, but one that I think Ukraine and Poland will meet.

Introducing the Krasnodar Country Club blog:

Welcome to the Krasnodar Country Club’s website. Over the next 2 years we will be chronicling the development and construction of Krasnodar’s 1st country club community.

Confirming once and for all that Russia is now a member of the decadent bourgeios set.

In one of those so odd it must be true stories, the BBC has pictures of the first ever ice-rink in Red Square.

In the biggest takeover deal in Russian history, Gazprom have announced the purchase of Roman Abramovich’s Sibneft oil company. The deal effectively hands direct control of around 30% of Russian oil production to the government.

Rather than being directly funded by the Russian taxpayer, Gazprom are believed to have arranged a $12 billion loan from a consortium of Western banks. But, when you consider that the Russian government initially sold their 51% stake in Sibneft way back in 1996 for the grand total of $100 million, the Russian taxpayer doesn’t seem to be the big winner in this deal.

Roman Abramovich now officially has more cash than he knows what to do with - or, as Sporting Life puts it, Abramovich increases pocket money.

Yes, it’s true, says Mosnews.  Iron Mike is going to pop down to Chechnya where he can sit back, chill out and watch some quality boxing:

The Gudermes tournament, dedicated to the late Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov, will last until Sept. 20. It will gather world, European and Russian champions from all over the country, RIA Novosti reports.

Tyson arrived in Moscow on Sept. 5 and was only supposed to stay in Russia until last week. However he is still in Moscow, taking part in numerous public events, Interfax reports.

Neeka’s Mom, by the way, had her own run in with the ear chewing maniac while out grocery shopping the other day…

Turned out Mike Tyson was on collision course with my mama - he was smiling to everyone around him as he walked right at her (and she right at him), and when their eyes met, mama did something that almost gave my papa a heart attack when she retold the scene to him: she smiled, then lifted her hand to her ear, pulled it very gently a few times, and winked at Tyson.

Believe it or not, but Tyson winked back at her!

English newspaper The Sun reports that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is offering two of his star players the chance of the holiday of a lifetime… in Siberia. 

A source said: “Roman treated them to an amazing holiday on his yacht during the summer. But next year the reward on offer is to go and see his family roots in Russia.

“He’s really keen to let the lads see the area where people regard him as a hero. Roman’s been a massive contributor to the economy.”

Running a website being entitled siberianlight.net, I could hardly recommend that they do anything but accept Abramovich’s offer to see one of the most beautiful regions on the planet.  It’s just a shame that, if they go during the summer break, they’ll miss all of the snow.

Nothing to do with Russia, of course, but congratulations to the Cidermen of Somerset, winners of the 2005 Twenty-Twenty Cup. 

Roman Abramovich, the oligarch most famous perhaps for owning Chelsea Football Club in London, is to stump up the cash for a brand new, state of the art 50,000 capacity football stadium in Moscow.

The plan for the Moscow project called for the city to provide the land and Mr Abramovich to fund construction, which would be overseen by the Football Union, MrVagin said. The union would pay back Mr Abramovich using proceeds from the site, which would take at least three years to build.

[…]"We are waiting for an answer from the city government; everyone wants it," a spokesman for the Football Union of Russia, Artem Vagin, said. "Of course we’re interested in this project: if someone offered to build a stadium for you, you’d take it."

Because Abramovich will not retain ownership of the stadium, the Football Union can now afford to stage international matches of all kinds from youth level upwards in a top of the range stadium.  This is currently not possible because of the high rental fees the Union has to pay to CSKA for the rental of their stadium.  Most likely the Union will also be able to rent out the stadium, either to a Moscow club, or for concerts, bringing it an extra revenue stream.

Congratulations to Somerset County Cricket Club, who spent yesterday afternoon teaching the Australian touring side how to bat, en route to a stunning four wicket victory at Taunton.

Congratulations to CSKA Moscow, who become the first Russian football club to win a European trophy.  They were deserved 3-1 winners over Sporting Lisbon, coming from behind to beat the home team. 

As I’ve mentioned before, large sums of money are being pumped into Russian football clubs, and it looks as if Russia is on the verge of becoming one of the major powers of European football.

Dynamo Moscow football club have announced what is, I’m pretty sure, the most expensive transfer deal in the history of Russian football.  Dynamo have agreed to pay Porto 20 million euros ($25.69 million) for international midfielders Costinha and Maniche.

“We have paid 16 million euros for Maniche and four million euros for Costinha,” Dynamo boss Alexei Fedorychev told daily Sport-Express. “We are having a news conference in Moscow on May 25 to present the two players.”

Maniche and Costinha, who have signed five-year deals, played key roles in Porto’s Champions League success last year and also represented Portugal at Euro 2004.

It’s good to see that all the billions of roubles washing around in oligarchs bank accounts isn’t all heading in the direction of Chelsea FC.  Let’s hope this translates into on the field success in European competition.

For the first time in 33 years, a Russian team has reached a major European club football final.  CSKA Moscow earned the right to play Sporting Lisbon for the UEFA Cup with a 3-0 home win over Parma on Thursday.

What should have been a great day for Russian football, however, was marred by an incident in which CSKA fans threw a firecracker onto the pitch.  The firecracker hit Parma goalkeeper Luca Bucci on the head, and he had to be helped from the field suffering with concussion.

Parma have lodged an appeal and, although CSKA are unlikely to be thrown out of the competition, they could face a similar penalty to Inter Milan who, after their fans threw a firecracker at an opponent’s goalkeeper last month, are to play their next six home games in an empty stadium.

Now, sadly, what should have been one of the greatest matches in the history of Russian football will be played under a cloud.

Oh, this Mosnews report is just priceless:

FIFA and UEFA, world and European governing bodies, have been alarmed
by what they describe as government interference in Russian football in
recent months. UEFA are sending an independent observer, executive
board member Joseph Mifsud of Malta, to monitor the [Russian football federation’s Presidential] elections.

Remember the Trans-Siberian rally I mentioned a while back?  Rally cars racing from  one end of Russia to the other.  Well, they had a train to accompany them, just in case one of the cars broke down…

Kravtsov set up a special train to follow the rally. Like a huge house on wheels, it was home to the race organizers, support crew and the media for two weeks.

"The idea was to promote our company, thus we initially painted the whole train in orange — the colors of the expedition," he said.

It turned out to be a bad idea. With the Orange Revolution sweeping Viktor Yushchenko into power in Ukraine a couple of months earlier, Russia’s power brokers did not like the political overtones of an orange train riding through their countryside.

"We don’t want to be involved in politics," said Kravtsov, explaining his decision to repaint the train white.

Perhaps he thought that white would afford him some camouflage in Siberia.

Garry Kasparov, probably the greatest chess player in the history of the game, has announced his retirement from professional competition.  He now plans to focus his considerable energies on Russian politics through his involvement in Committee 2008.

Kasparov has dominated global chess for 20 years, first winning the world championship in an epic match with Anatoly Karpov in 1985.  It took 15 years until Vladimir Kramnik knocked him off the top, and many still consider that result a major shock.  The measure of his influence on the game over the last 20 years is probably best summed up by Nigel Short, who challenged him for the world title in 1993 - and was annihilated. 

"He is one of the very few opponents I’ve been afraid to play. I can play a guy like [world number two Viswanathan] Anand and I respect him greatly, I’ve huge admiration, but I’m not afraid of him.

"I think [Kasparov’s] greatest strength was the moves on the board but there was this physical presence when you played him, you felt this aggression."

The chess world doesn’t seem to have any real stars left these days and will be very much the poorer for his retirement. 

Kasparov is the chairman of Committe 2008, which he says was founded to:

make everyone, in Russia and abroad, aware of the extreme danger to democracy represented by the Putin regime. Our specific goals center around making sure the 2008 elections are open and fair. Removing Putin himself is secondary, but is essential for the future of Russian democracy.

He is a libera though and, given the lack of respect with which liberals are held by many in Russia today, he will have his work cut out to make a real impact.  But for a man with the determination, energy and intelligence of Kasparov, who would really bet against him ending up on the winning side.