The Good, Bad and Ugly ft Reece James’s good fight, Suresh Raina arrested and FIFA’s complaint against Sepp Blatter

The Good, Bad and Ugly ft Reece James’s good fight, Suresh Raina arrested and FIFA’s complaint against Sepp Blatter

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Good, Bad and Ugly - December 27th edition

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Sportscafe

Another week goes by and the penultimate week of 2020 has left us a lot to talk about in this week’s edition of ‘Good, Bad and Ugly’. From Reece James delivering food to the homeless to more charges filed against Sepp Blatter to Suresh Raina flouting COVID rules but the world keeps spinning.

Good

Reece James helps Felix Project deliver meals on Christmas Eve

With Marcus Rashford paving the way this year for footballers to do charity work, Chelsea full-back Reece James has picked up the slack by helping the Felix Project deliver meals. The Englishman joined the organisation as they picked up food and ingredients to deliver to homeless shelters across London on Christmas Eve. This is not the first time the Chelsea man has done this with the 21-year-old working with the Felix Project this year to help put an end to the UK’s food poverty crisis. James has already donated a reported amount of £10,000 with him looking to up that amount to £100,000 before the end of December with him looking to help Marcus Rashford in their fight against food poverty.

Viv Anderson and Peter Reid demand review into football and dementia

Viv Anderson and Peter Reid have formed a group of former footballers with them looking to force the parliament’s hand to review the link between heading and dementia. The group consists of a catalogue of former England internationals with this coming in light of the links between the two. This also comes just days after World Cup winner Nobby Stiles’ family revealed that the former Manchester United star’s head was severely damaged by heading the ball. The group sent a letter urging the Parliament to look into the link between neurological diseases and heading in order to protect the future generations going forward.

Bad 

FIFA issues ‘criminal mismanagement’ complaint against Sepp Blatter

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been subject to a ‘criminal mismanagement’ complaint from world football’s governing body with them reporting Blatter to the Zurich prosecutor’s office. The document released by FIFA stated that they became aware of “strong suspicions of criminal misconduct on the part of various different officials” which includes Blatter and other former officials. The report further indicated that 500 million Swiss francs was wasted by the former president which was money that could have been “channelled into the development of global football.” Blatter is already under criminal investigation over another matter and is currently serving an eight-year ban from football.

Suresh Raina arrested for flouting COVID-19 rules

Former India batsman Suresh Raina was arrested earlier this week with the 34-year-old found guilty of violating the social-distancing norms set by the Indian government. Raina was released on bail almost immediately after he, and 34 other people, were found flouting the rules in a club set in light of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. The incident occurred hours after the Maharashtra government set a night-time curfew but a statement from the cricketer revealed that he was not aware of “the local timings and protocols.”

Ugly

Sunil Gavaskar hints at a divide within the Indian team

In light of Virat Kohli taking maternity leave to be with his wife Anushka Sharma for the delivery of their first child, Sunil Gavaskar has hinted that there is a divide within the team. The former Indian skipper revealed that the “different rules for different players” has caused problems within the Indian dressing room especially with Thangarasu Natarajan not allowed to do the same. Gavaskar also implied that there is a problem with Ravichandra Ashwin, as the bowler has suffered for being “forthrightness and speaking his mind’. Gavaskar went onto imply that there is a clear divide inside the team but “that's Indian cricket. Different rules for different people."

Bishan Singh Bedi quits DDCA membership amidst claims of nepotism and corruption

Spin legend Bishan Singh Bedi has quit the Delhi and District Cricket Association’s (DDCA) after alleging that DDCA promotes nepotism in a letter addressed to DDCA President Rohan Jaitley. In it, Bedi has lashed out at the organisation and called out the corruption within the DDCA with his alleged claims of nepotism, and the fact that they put “administrators ahead of cricketers”. Bedi’s letter further revealed that the planned statue of former DDCA president Arun Jaitley is unnecessary but instead “Sporting arenas need sporting role models”, who would propel the next-gen youngsters to take up the game more seriously unlike the current situation. Now that statement coming from a man well revered in Delhi Cricket came in as a shocker, given that Jaitley had just taken up the leadership role with the Delhi cricket association. 

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