1. Spreading out internationals makes sense


    UEFA’s plan to spread out fixtures during international weeks makes perfect sense and should bring an end to those strange weekends during the season with no top class soccer, when I find myself watching rubbish old B-movies and darts. The idea would see a national team play on Thursday for example and then Sunday, or Friday and Tuesday like now or Saturday and Tuesday. The “week of football” as UEFA dubs it will also mean the big soccer fans can watch lots of live international football day after day rather than trying to catch the highlights of 20 games all played one one evening. Clubs can’t moan either as they will still be getting their players back on a Wednesday before a club match as currently happens after the reasonably recent change to play second matches of international double headers on Tuesday. The only downside to the plan I can see is that national coaches will get less preparation time following weekend club matches if their first game is on a Thursday. UEFA also wants to harmonise kick off times for qualifiers which makes a lot of sense too. Everyone knows that Champions League games in the club sphere start at 1845 GMT but looking at Friday’s Euro 2012 games, they start at 1600, 1700, 1715, 1800, 1900, 1915, 1930, 1945, 2000, 2030 and yes the obligatory Portugal at 2100 (when do they ever get to sleep?) That programme is impossible to follow (as the UEFA Cup was a while back) but if they all kicked off at once, with a reduced fixture list anyway because the matches will spread across the week, no one can get confused. I might be able to sneak in another B-movie though. PHOTO: UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino

  2. TEXT-Fitch revises ZAO Unicredit Bank’s & ATF Bank’s otlks to stbl


    The rating actions follow the placement of UniCredit’s Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of ‘A’ on Rating Watch Negative (RWN) in ‘Fitch Takes Rating Action on Major Italian Banks Following Sovereign Downgrade’ dated 11 October 2011 on www.fitchratings.com.The agency has revised of Russia-based ZAO Unicredit Bank’s (‘BBB+’) and Kazakhstan-based ATF Bank’s (‘BBB’) Long-term IDR Outlooks to Stable from Positive. The Outlook revisions reflect the greater uncertainty about the future ability of UniCredit to support its subsidiairies, as reflected in the RWN on the parent’s ratings. As a result, the subsidiaries are unlikely to be upgraded, even if the Russian and Kazakhstan sovereigns (both currently on Positive Outlook) are upgraded. ATF’s rating would be capped at a level one notch lower than the Russian subsiadiry in light of Fitch’s view of the former’s lower long-term strategic importance to the UniCredit group.The RWN on Bank Pekao SA’s Support Rating of ‘1’ reflects the potential weakening of the parent’s ability to provide support to its Polish subsidiary. However, Pekao’s other ratings, including its Long-term IDR of ‘A-‘/Stable, are driven by its intrinsic strength and are hence unaffected by the rating actions taken on the parent.Other subsidiaries’ support-driven ratings were affirmed, as these are already capped by Country Ceilings in the jurisdictions where they operate.The rating actions are as follows:Bank Pekao SA:Long-term foreign currency IDR: ‘A-‘; UnaffectedShort-term foreign currency IDR: ‘F2’; UnaffectedViability Rating: ‘a-‘; UnaffectedSupport Rating: affirmed at ‘1’ placed on RWNUniCredit Bulbank AD:Support Rating: affirmed at ‘2’ZAO UniCredit Bank:Long-term foreign currency IDR: affirmed at ‘BBB+’; Outlook changed to Stable from PositiveShort-term foreign currency IDR: affirmed at ‘F2’Long-term local currency IDR: affirmed at ‘BBB+’; Outlook changed to Stable from PositiveShort-term local currency IDR: affirmed at ‘F2’National Long-term Rating: affirmed at ‘AAA(rus)’; Outlook StableViability Rating: ‘bb+’; UnaffectedIndividual Rating: ‘C/D’; UnaffectedSupport Rating: affirmed at ‘2’

  3. Thousands protest online after China’s Taobao Mall fee hike


    The fee hike caused thousands of Taobao Mall shop owners to protest online Tuesday night by buying up goods from bigger stores and then asking for refunds, Xinhua said. Asking for refunds would lower the rankings of the shops and prompted some big outlets to temporarily stop selling products, it said.On Wednesday, 40,000 people claiming to be Taobao Mall businessmen gathered in an online chat room to discuss more ways of disrupting the website, the report said.Alibaba Group, which is 40 percent owned by Yahoo Inc , could not be reached for comment.The business owners claimed that the fee increase would cripple their businesses but will have little effect on the bigger brands that have stores on the platform, Xinhua reported.A portion of the new fees will be returned to the shop owners if they satisfy certain standards and criteria.Taobao Mall had 32.8 percent of China’s 54.2 billion yuan B2C online marketplace in the second-quarter, according to data from Analysys International. 360buy, Taobao Mall’s nearest rival, had 12.4 percent of the market.