Sports - Current Affairs for June, 2017

Ankush Dahiya (60kg) clinched a gold while L Devendro Singh (52kg) settled for a silver medal on the final day of the Ulaanbaatar Cup boxing tournament in Mongolia.

The 19-year-old Ankush, who is a former Asian youth silver-medalist, defeated Korean Man Choe Chol in a split verdict, while Devendro lost to Indonesia’s Aldoms Suguro, again a split decision.

India thus signed off with a gold, a silver and three bronze medals from the tournament.

K Shyam Kumar (49kg), Mohammed Hussamuddin (56kg) and Priyanka Chaudhary (60kg) – lost their respective semi-final bouts to settle for bronze medals on Saturday.

Devendro, a Commonwealth Games silver-medalist besides a former Asian Championships silver-winner, was the first to step inside the ring for India and was his usual aggressive self against Suguro.

This is Ankush’s maiden international medal at the senior level.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has constituted a special seven-member committee to analyse the few contentious Lodha panel reforms which are being opposed by the state units.

The seven-member Lodha committee has been formed under the head of Rajeev Shukla.

The other members of the committee include former India captain Sourav Ganguly, T.C. Mathew (Kerala Cricket), Naba Bhattacharjee (North East representative), Jay Shah (Gujarat Cricket Association), BCCI Treasurer Anirudh Chaudhary and BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary.

The decision to form the panel was arrived at the BCCI’s Special General Meeting in Mumbai.

One of the major reforms of the Lodha Committee which are being opposed by the state units speaks about disqualifying any individual who is more than 70-years-old, and who has already completed nine years in cricket administration.

The BCCI committee has been asked to submit its written report by July 10. BCCI’s move to constitute a committee is widely seen as its attempt to delay the implementations of the reforms suggested by the Lodha Committee.

Lodha Committee: Know More

• Justice Lodha committee was appointed by the Supreme Court in 2014 to make recommendations to the BCCI in order to prevent frauds and conflict of interest in cricket administration.
• The committee was appointed in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal in Indian Premier League (IPL). The recommendations of the committee are aimed at resolving issues of governance, transparency, and conflict of interest in BCCI.
• As per the Lodha Committee recommendations approved by the Supreme Court, no official should hold a position for more than three tenures of three years each, with no two consecutive terms.
• The office bearers are subjected to an age cap of 70.

Indian shooter Anish Bhanwala won a gold medal at the ISSF Junior World Championship in the 25m Standard Pistol category, creating a junior world record.

The previous record was held by Denis Koulakov, who shot a score of 574 in a competition held in Finland in 2002.

Anish broke the record with a score of 576 in three rounds. Anish had previously won a bronze medal at the Junior Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event at the 27th Meeting of the Shooting Hopes which concluded in May.

India finished with a highly commendable tally of 11 medals from the renowned international shooting competition in the Rifle and Pistol disciplines.

This is the fourth consecutive year for Suhl as the host of the Junior International Shooting Sport competition, having previously hosted the ISSF Junior Cup in 2014 and 2015, and the ISSF Junior World Cup in 2016.

In 2016, the city in Thuringia welcomed the ISSF World Championship Running Target competition.

The first junior competition of the year – ISSF Junior World Championship Rifle/Pistol in Germany has seen about 500 shooters participate from 65 different countries, collecting almost 1000 starts. India have sent out a 31-strong contingent for the event.

Among the big international stars is Istvan Peni of Hungary, who recently won a gold medal in the ISSF Senior World Cup in Gabala a couple of weeks back.

This Junior Championship event is set to be the talented Hungarian Rifle shooter’s last Junior event.

As India set West Indies a challenging target of 311 in the second one-dayer in Port of Spain, it also set the record for the most 300-plus totals in ODIs.

India’s 310 for 5 in the 43 overs a side match on Sunday was the 96th time that it had posted a score exceeding 300, surpassing Australia who had made over 300-plus runs 95 times.

West Indies Cricket Team

• West Indies cricket team, officially known as the Windies, is a multi-national cricket team representing the Caribbean region, a chain of 15 mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries, British dependencies and non-British dependencies.
• Coach: Stuart Law
• Location: Caribbean
• Test: 8th
• Captains: Carlos Brathwaite, Jason Holder

Kidambi Srikanth will be the most marked man at August’s badminton world championships after reaching three Super Series finals, and winning two: the youngest Super Series in Australia and the most popular one in Indonesia.

On 25th June 2017, when Srikanth beat Olympic and World Champion Chen Long 22-20, 21-16 to lift the Sydney crown, he propelled himself into becoming a serious contender for the Glasgow Worlds, even as he pocketed close to INR 1 crore in prize money and awards in two weeks.

Srikanth already had the home Super Series title in 2015, and a crown in China - in fact, he debuted as champion in the superpower’s backyard beating the game’s greatest, Lin Dan.

Last week, with the Indonesia Premier Super Series, he had won over the game’s most demanding fans, as he overpowered current World No 1 Son Wan Ho in back-to-back weeks.

However, beating Chen Long in a tournament final propels Srikanth into badminton’s stratosphere.

Last month this day, he was just another fighter jostling at World No 24, and only India’s fourth best.

In just six weeks, he has been the biggest mover in world rankings, rising 11 places last week, and set to regain his top-5 status after this triumph.

Skipper Mithali Raj becomes the only Indian cricketer to score 7 consecutive ODI fifties shattering the world record.

The second highest run scorer in the world of women's cricket, Mithali Raj, added another feather to her illustrious cap on Saturday, by scoring an unbeaten 71 to take the Women in Blue over the line against England in the ongoing Women's Cricket World Cup.

Mithali became the first woman cricketer to clinch seven consecutive 50-plus scores in the format; a feat no Indian player, male or female, has ever achieved in the history of the game.

Rahul Dravid's five consecutive ODI fifties is the best among Indian cricketers; he stands at 16 in the all-time list of cricketers to have scored most consecutive fifties.

Pakistani legend Javed Miandad tops the list with most number of back-to-back ODI fifties at nine. Mithali is just two fifties away from equalling Miandad's all-time-record.

Kumble resigned because it was apparent the partnership [with Virat Kohli] was untenable, and "I therefore believe it is best for me to move on".

Kumble stepped down as coach four days before the limited-overs tour of the Caribbean begins, even as the team was mid-flight to the West Indies.

Kumble had remained in London after the Champions Trophy which ended on Sunday; as chairman of the ICC’s cricket committee, he will be attending the chief executives committee meeting there.

Two days before the Champions Trophy had kicked off in England, it emerged in the media that India captain Kohli had told BCCI officials that some players were uncomfortable with the "intimidating" style of Kumble’s man management.

As a result, despite India’s success in Kumble’s year in charge, during which the team climbed to No.1 in the Test rankings, the board advertised for fresh interviews for the head coach’s position instead of extending his contract.

Kumble, whose original contract ran till the end of the Champions Trophy, had already reapplied for the job and only last week accepted the BCCI’s offer to extend his contract to include the West Indies series. However, Anil Kumble, in light of the reservations he came to know about through the board, he could not continue.

The meetings were necessitated after the three-member CAC, comprising Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman, informed the BCCI that it had failed to resolve the impasse between Kohli and Kumble.

The BCCI had received six applications including that of Kumble for the fresh interview process.

But, considering it was the CAC that had recommended and shortlisted Kumble as the final choice last year, it still felt he remained the first choice for the head coach position going forward.

India won six medals - two golds, two silvers and two bronzes - in the Wushu competition of the BRICS Games, which concluded here on 19th June.

Indian Wushu players gave tough competition to Wushu’s powerhouses China and Russia with other two teams Brazil and South Africa.

On 18th June , M. Gyandas won gold medal in Taijiquan/Taijijian, M. Bidheswari Devi won silver and L. Sanatgombhi Chanu won bronze in Taijiquan/Taijijian event.

On 19th June the second and final day of Wushu events, the Indian team won three more medals - one gold, one silver and one bronze in the Five-Nation Wushu completion.

Anjul Namdev clinched the gold medal in Changquan overall event, Ng. Toshibala won silver in Women’s Changquan event, and Sajan Lama settled for bronze medal in Nanquan allround Event.

Wushu: Know More

• Wushu is a martial art and a full-contact sport derived from traditional Chinese martial arts.
• It was developed in China after 1949, in an effort to standardize the practice.
• Olympic sport: No - but recognized by the IOC
• Also known as: Kung fu, CMA, WS

Pakistan on 18 June 2017 defeated India in the final played at The Oval, London to lift the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy.

Pakistan won the trophy by 180 runs. The margin of victory was the largest by any team in the final of an ICC ODI tournament.

Pakistan’s Hasan Ali was declared the Player of the Series.

England vs Pakistan:

• The match was held on 14 June 2017 at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff. Pakistan won the match by 8 wickets.
• It was the first time that Pakistan had qualified for a Champions Trophy final.
• It was also their first final in an ICC ODI competition since 1999. Pakistan’s Hasan Ali was declared the Player of the match.

• The match was held on 15 June 2017 at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
• India won the match by 9 wickets.
• It was Bangladesh’s first appearance in a semi-final of any ICC competition.
• India’s Rohit Sharma was declared the Player of the match.

• The ICC Champions Trophy is a one day international cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council.
• It is second in importance only to the Cricket World Cup.
• It was inaugurated as the ICC KnockOut Tournament in 1998. Its name was changed to the Champions Trophy in 2002.
• Australia and India have won the tournament twice each.
• India is scheduled to host the 2021 ICC Champions Trophy.
• The ICC has proposed starting an ODI League in 2019.
• If the new league is introduced, the 2021 tournament may be cancelled.

Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth clinched his third Superseries title, lifting the Indonesia Open men’s singles trophy with a straight-game victory over Japanese qualifier Kazumasa Sakai in the finals here on 18th June.

World No.22 Srikanth, who had reached the finals at Singapore Open in April, outclassed Sakai, ranked 47th, 21-11, 21-19 in just 37 minutes to take home a cheque of $75,000.

Later, reacting to the win, the Badminton Association of India announced a cash award of ?5 lakh.

Kidambi Srikanth: Know More

• Born: 7 February 1993 Guntur
• Height: 1.76 m
• Weight: 66 kg
• Coach: Pullela Gopichand
• Siblings: Nanda Gopal
• Awards: Arjuna Award for Badminton

Indian Skipper Virat Kohli has reclaimed the top spot in the recently released ICC ODI batting rankings.

He overtook South Africa’s AB de Villiers and Australia’s David Warner to reach the number one position.

In January, Kohli managed to reach the top spot but was able to stay at the top only for just four days.

Among other players, Shikhar Dhawan has managed to return to top 10. Yuvraj Singh has also improved his rankings and currently stands at 88th position.

Rankings:

• First Place: Virat Kohli (India)
• Second Place: David Warner (Australia)
• Third Place: AB de Villiers (South Africa)
• Fourth Place: Joe Root (England)
• Fifth Place: Kane Williamson (New Zealand)

• First Place: Josh Hazlewood (Australia)
• Second Place: Imran Tahir (South Africa)
• Third Place: Mitchell Starc (Australia)
• Fourth Place: Kagiso Rabada (South Africa)
• Fifth Place: Sunil Narine (West Indies)

Shashikant Kutwal, a railway employee with Pune Division, has won the gold medal at the 17th World Individual Chess Championship for differently-abled, held in Slovakia from May 27 to June 6, 2017.

Kutwal (37), who works as office superintendent, has now attained the title of International Master. Kutwal’s achievement has attracted praise from railway administration.

Divisional Railway Manager B K Dadabhoy congratulated and felicitated him.

Kutwal, who hails from a village in Baramati tehsil, was appointed with the Central Railway through sports quota in 2000.

Since then, he has been representing Central Railway, Indian Railways and India at various chess competitions.

In the World Championship, held by Physically Disabled Chess Association (PDCA), Kutwal won the gold medal after scoring 7.5 points from a possible 9.

Nadal, 31, came through 6-2 6-3 6-1 against the Swiss third seed to claim his 15^th major title.

He becomes the first man or woman in the Open era to have won a Grand Slam tournament 10 times.

Wawrinka, 32, was beaten in a major final for the first time after winning his first three.

Nadal moves above Pete Sampras on the list of all-time Grand Slam winners into second place behind Roger Federer, who beat the Spaniard to win his 18th at the Australian Open in January.

Only Australia’s Margaret Court has more victories at a single Grand Slam tournament, with 11 Australian Open wins between 1960 and 1973.

The Open era, when the Grand Slam tournaments allowed professional players to compete with amateurs, began in 1968.

Securing a 10th title in Paris – La Decima – further entrenches Nadal’s place as the greatest clay-courter in history.

The Spaniard won the title for the loss of just 35 games over the course of seven matches, second only to six-time champion Bjorn Borg’s 32 at the 1978 French Open.

He extended his record at Roland Garros to 79 wins and two losses since his first victory in 2005, the only defeats coming against Robin Soderling in 2009 and Novak Djokovic in 2015.

Martina Navratilova won Wimbledon nine times, while Roger Federer and Pete Sampras are the only post-war players among a group of six men to have won a Grand Slam seven times.

Jelena Ostapenko became the youngest grand slam champion since 2006.

She arrived here as the world No?47, hoping to get through a couple of rounds, or reach the second week at best.

Her pre-tournament odds were 100-1, so this 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Simona Halep made her the most unlikely major winner that modern tennis has produced.

Now Ostapenko goes away with the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen, and the small matter of £1.8?million in prize money.

This was the eighth major she has competed in, and she only turned 20 during 8th June’s semi-final against Timea Bacsinszky.

But by succeeding so spectacularly, she has already achieved a goal that eludes Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Jankovic and Dinara Safina – all former No?1s who have never won a grand slam.

Jelena Ostapenko: Know More

• Jelena Ostapenko, also known as Alona Ostapenko, is a Latvian professional tennis player.
• On 12 June 2017, she reached her best singles ranking of world number 12 in the Women’s Tennis Association
• Born: 8 June 1997 Riga, Latvia
• Nationality: Latvian
• Height: 1.77 m
• Country (sports): Latvia
• Coach(es): Anabel Medina Garrigues
• Parents: Jelena Jakovleva

Michael Venus became New Zealand’s first Grand Slam champion since 1974 on 10^th June 2017 when he partnered American Ryan Harrison to the French Open men’s doubles title.

Venus and Harrison defeated Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and American Donald Young 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (4/7), 6-3 in the final at Roland Garros.

The 29-year-old is just New Zealand’s second Grand Slam winner in the modern era, after Onny Parun teamed up with Australian Dick Crealy to win the men’s doubles crown in Paris 43 years ago.

Michael Venus: Know More

• Born: 16 October 1987, Auckland, New Zealand
• Height: 1.91 m
• Weight: 85 kg
• Turned pro: 2006
• Education: University of Texas at Austin
• Prize money: 616,925 USD

Top seeded Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova on 11 June 2017 won the Women’s Doubles title in the French Open tennis championships.

The US-Czech pair defeated unseeded Australians Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua 6-2, 6-1 in the final to grab the title.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands is a US professional tennis player.

Currently, she is ranked No. 1 in the women’s doubles rankings.

Mattek-Sands is an Olympic Gold Medalist in mixed doubles.

She has won five Grand Slam titles in women’s doubles and two in mixed doubles.

In women’s doubles, she has won fifteen WTA Tour titles, most notably the 2015 Australian Open, 2015 French Open, 2016 US Open and 2017 Australian Open, all with Czech partner Lucie Safarova.

Lucie Safarova is a professional Czech tennis player.

She has won seven WTA tour singles titles and thirteen doubles titles. She reached her first Grand Slam semifinal at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships and her first Grand Slam final at the 2015 French Open.

She also won the 2015 Australian Open, 2015 French Open, 2016 US Open and 2017 Australian Open women’s doubles titles partnering with Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

French Open: Know More

• The French Open is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks between late May and early June.
• It is held at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris, France.
• The tournament is also called as Roland-Garros.
• It is named after the French aviator Roland Garros.
• It is the premier clay court tennis championship event in the world and the second of four annual Grand Slam tournaments.
• The other three are the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.

England on 11 June 2017 lifted the FIFA U-20 World Cup for the first time ever.

England defeated Venezuela 1-0 in the summit clash held in Suwon, South Korea.

The only goal of the match, played at the Suwon World Cup Stadium carried the signature of Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin 34 minutes in the game.

Serbia, the 2015 champions, were not able to defend their title as they failed to reach the final round of the UEFA qualifying tournament.

In doing so, they became the fifth consecutive incumbent title holder to fail to qualify for the subsequent tournament. The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the world championship of football for male players under the age of 20.

FIFA U-20 World Cup: Know More

• FIFA U 20 is organized by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).
• Till 2005, the tournament was known as the FIFA World Youth Championship.
• The Championship has been awarded every two years since the first tournament in 1977 held in Tunisia.
• In the past twenty one tournaments held, only ten nations have won the title.
• Argentina is the most successful team with six titles, followed by Brazil with five titles.
• The 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup was hosted by South Korea between 20 May and 11 June 2017.
• Along with Japan and Mexico, South Korea became the third nation to have hosted all of FIFA Men’s international competitions.
• These include 2002 FIFA World Cup, the 2001 Confederations Cup and the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) yesterday approved new events for the 2020 Tokyo Games, including a number of mixed-gender competitions.

The IOC’s Executive Board made the decision at a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland on 8th June.

The additions include a mixed team event for judo.

Each team will consist of 3 men and 3 women, all representing different weight classes.

Team events have already taken place at the judo world championships, but never on a mixed-gender basis. Table Tennis will also get a mixed doubles competition.

The event was featured in the recent world championships in Germany.

A Japanese pair won gold.

Three-on-three basketball is an example of the IOC’s focus on youth and urban sports. The 10-minute match on a half-sized court is known for its speed.

The International Basketball Federation adopted it as an official discipline with common rules in 2007, to make it popular around the world.

The IOC has recommended awarding the hosting rights for both the 2024 and 2028 Games at the same time. In Tokyo, the number of mixed events will double from nine in Rio 2016 to 18.

All new events will make use of existing venues. Los Angeles and Paris are bidding to host the 2024 Summer Games. Bach expressed hope that the two cities will both be awarded the hosting rights in a dual allocation.

Rohan Bopanna has won his maiden Grand Slam title along with his Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski by winning the French Open mixed doubles trophy.

This is Bopanna’s maiden Grand Slam title at French Open.

With this title win he has become only the fourth Indian to clinch a major, The other three being Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza who all have won Grand Slam trophies for India.

Bopanna-Dabrowski pair defeated the pair of Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Colombia’s Robert Farah by 2-6, 6-2, 12-10.

This was only the second time that Bopanna managed to reach the summit clash of a Grand Slam in his career.

In 2010, he had reached the finals of US Open with his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-haq-Qureshi and lost to the Bryan brothers - Bob and Mike.

French Open: Know More

• The French Open also known as Roland Garros is a premier clay court tennis championship event held between late May and early June for a duration of two weeks at the Stade Roland-Garros in Paris.
• The event is the second of out of four annual Grand Slam tournaments.
• The other three events are Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
• The event has been named after the French aviator Roland Garros.

B Sai Praneeth continued to enjoy a magnificent 2017 as he clinched the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold badminton title by defeating Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie 17-21, 21-18, 21-19 in a closely-fought final in Bangkok.

The success in the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold extended Sai Praneeth’s remarkable run in 2017.

In April, the ward of national coach Pullela Gopichand had defeated Kidambi Srikanth in an all-Indian Singapore Open Grand Prix final to claim his maiden Grand Prix title.

The shuttler from Andhra Pradesh had reached the final of the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in Lucknow before his Singapore triumph.

In 2016, Sai Praneeth had won the Canada Open Grand Prix.

Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer has become the first Indian to be nominated as a member of the Umpires and Referees Committee (URC) by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

He will serve for a term of two years which is further extendable. In another first Ganeshan Neelakanta Iyer has also been recommended as the Technical Commissioner from Asia to the ITTF.

His will serve in this capacity for a period of four years. Ganesan already serves as the chairman of the South Asian Federation technical committee and also as a member of the Technical Committee of the Commonwealth Table Tennis Federation.

He also recently supervised the Asian Championships at Wuxi (China) as the competition manager. He had served as a deputy referee in the Kuala Lumpur World Championships 2016 and has officiated in various International competitions as Competition Manager and Referee like that of the Commonwealth Games at Glasgow.

URC is the technical arm of the ITTF. It looks after all technical issues involving the sport. The mandate of the committee is to oversee the training, certification, appointment and performance of umpires and referees.

The cricket board for West Indies, on its 91st anniversary, has re-branded themselves as Cricket West Indies from the former West Indies Cricket board.

The board also announced in a media release on their official website that the cricket team from now on will be officially known as ‘WINDIES.’

The release also quoted the board’s CEO Johnny Graves as saying that the name Cricket West Indies “better reflects how the organisation operates.”

“There are many different stakeholders who we work in partnership with, under the unifying aim of improving cricket at all levels within the region over the next few years and consultation will begin immediately as a new strategic plan for 2018-2023 is being developed.

The name ‘Windies’ has been associated with the cricket teams that have representing the Carribean islands in a more colloquial way. The team, once regarded one of the most feared units in the game, have been on the decline since the past few years.

Key players such as Dwayne Bravo, Chris Gayle, Darren Sammy etc have had a long standing differences with the board over remunerations that has forced the team to deal with the absence of these players.

This year, the team also failed to make it to the ICC Champions Trophy and a series of defeats in ODI cricket have led to their automatic qualification for the 2019 ICC World Cup in jeopardy.

Barcelona striker Lionel Messi won the European Golden Shoe for a record equalling fourth time on Sunday having scored 37 goals this season in the Spanish league.

He drew level with Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo with the fourth honour. The award goes every season to the leading goal scorer from every top division national league in Europe.

The Argentinian striker, standing on 74 points, pipped Bas Dost of Sporting Lisbon by six points.

Dost, who ended the season with 34 goals, had scored a hattrick in his last game against Chaves. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Borussia Dortmund was third on the table with 31 goals in the Bundesliga.

• Messi helped Barcelona win their third Copa del Rey final on Saturday against Alaves with his opening goal.
• However, rivals Real Madrid left Barcelona behind in the league title race by three points to clinch their first title in five years.
• He scored twice against Eibar to seal the league season with a win, ensuring that manager Luis Enrique gets a happy farewell. In other achievements,
• Messi has been honoured with five Ballon d’Or awards so far, five La Liga Best Player awards, and both a FIFA World Cup Golden Ball and Player of the Year title.

Paris Saint-Germain on 27 May 2017 defeated Angers 1-0 in the final of the centennial edition to lift the 2017 French Cup trophy for a record 11th time.

The final was played at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Paris.

French Cup and Paris-Saint Germain: Know More

• Paris Saint-Germain Football Club is a French sports club.
• It was founded in 1970. It is based in Paris, France.
• The club is most notable for its professional football team, which plays in the highest tier of French football, the Ligue 1.
• The team has won six Ligue 1 titles, a record eleven French Cups, a record seven French League Cups, six French Super Cups and one Ligue 2 title.
• It has also won one UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and one UEFA Intertoto Cup.
• The Coupe Charles Simon, also known as French Cup (Coupe de France), is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation.
• The cup competition is named after Charles Simon, a French sportsman who died while serving in World War I. The tournament is open to all amateur and professional football clubs