Archive for May, 2010

When you are preparing for a world cup you expect a team to play it safe, i mean, you don’t want to  injure  your team, that will probably happen on the coach getting to the games.

The Cheating Bastards (France) decided it would be a great idea to go buggy racing, i mean what’s the worst that could happen? Gallas could roll one, that what could happen!

Source: BBC

Rio Ferdinand has come out and said he would have funded Scholes trip to South Africa this summer to get him to come out of retirement and play for England once again.

It has emerged that Capello tried to persuade Scholes to come out of retirement and serve his country for this summers World Cup. As you can tell by the squad list released, he said no!!

Scholes quit his England role in 2004 and back then it was seen as a massive blow to the team, Scholes has always played at the top of his game and he quit the England team all them years ago to give 100% to United, something ive never seen before.

Scholes has had a great year for united, but in typical scholes fashion, he has refused to play for his country this summer. He would have brought a lot to the team though i wouldn’t have expected him to play full games. Capello knows what he is doing and he may think that experience is crucial to help the younger England players.

Source: Sky

Nike have a history of creating really good football adverts, this one is no exception, The only thing missing is Cantona!

Asda are selling this seasons England shirts half price online and in stores.

They have recently set up war against other retailers which they are labeling as ‘Rip Off’s’. As well as selling cheap England shirts, they have also lowered the price of petrol which wins my vote!!

Anyway, they only seem to have the away shirt in stock at the moment which you can see here.

Lets hope they get the home shirt in as well.

If you know anywhere else that’s selling the England shirt cheap, leave a comment and let us know.

Source: Asda

Fifa has brought a new ruling in before this years world cup that will stop penalty takers from stopping in their run up to the ball while they are taking a penalty.

Fifa have decided that stopping in your run up to fool the keeper is unsportsmanlike and i have to agree.

This new ruling wont really affect any of the England players as they generally take penalties properly. One player i can instantly think of is Ronaldo, he often gets whiplash when taking a penalty as he stops and starts in his run up.

I think this new ruling makes it fairer on goalkeepers as well. A lot of footballers take penalties with a lot of pace, when you are in charge of stopping that, you need to make your decision and move early.

I think its a good move by Fifa, what do you think?

***UPDATE***

It seems i have missed the point on this story, They haven’t banned people stopping in the run up, they have stopped people pausing when they are about to kick the ball.

After hailing this new rule as being great, i actually think its quite confusing, if a player tries to do it, its then down to the referee to decide weather he was in the middle of kicking the ball or not. If you ask me, its become another reason for players to surround the ref and moan about his decisions. Why cant they just implement cut and dry rules!

Source: BBC

If you need any more reason to think Lord Triesman was a knob, here it is.

Fifa are now investigating the comments Triesman made and have requested an official report from the FA. Fifa had this to say

A Fifa statement read: “Fifa can confirm that secretary general Jerome Valcke has requested its Ethics Committee to examine the alleged statements made by Lord Triesman in relation to the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

It is also Fifa rules that any bidding nations do not comment on each other. I personally cant see how the FA are going to get out of this, They have royally F***ed it up for all of us. I wouldn’t be surprised to see England expelled from the process, one, for commenting on other nations, and two, suggesting corruption in the process and the World Cup.

Source: BBC

Ok, i read this in the Sun and it has famous ‘un-named sources’ but it seems that England do not want to play their next friendly at Wembely.

The pitch at wembely has dominated column inches over the last 12 months, it has been laid more times than John Terry in the last 12 months (@UnitedsRedArmy’s joke!!)

At the weekend John Terry commented that the pitch was the worst he had played on all season. Players are now worried that playing on such a poor pitch may raise the chance of getting injured before the world cup as they have to play a friendly there against Mexico.

The ‘un-named’ players are calling on the FA to move the game to Either Old Trafford or the Emirates.

John Terry (according to the sun) has given the FA an ultimatum to decide weather Wembelt is the home of English football or an events stadium. At the moment, it doesnt seem to be working as both.

For a country that has so many good stadiums, the climate and weather we do have, there should be no reason to not have a great pitch. However, because Wembley is used so much for other events and the pitch covered, the ground doesn’t have the opportunity to become a world class playing surface our national team deserves.

I personally think the FA should do anything they can to ensure our players are put in a minimum amount of risk before the world cup. We have had to much bad luck in the past!

Source: The Sun

A spokesman for the Iraq security services say they have detained ‘Abdullah Azam Saleh al-Qahtani’ who entered Iraq in 2004 and was suspected of terrorist acts in the capital.

He is said to have direct contact with Al Qaeda, and he was making plans for an attack on the world cup this summer.

With something as big as the world cup, im sure there is a lot going on in the background to stop this type of thing. Its not something i really want to think about but if this story is true then it can only be good to hear it has been stopped.

It was only earlier this year when the Togo players bus was shot upon in Angola killing some people. This made some people question the safety of the world cup being in South Africa.

Source: Fox News

The referee that was in charge when Terry Henry handled the ball to give France the opportunity to score and progress to the world cup has been chosen to officiate in this summers World Cup Finals.

France were playing The Republic Of Ireland last November (i think) when the game went into extra time. In one French attack, the ball was heading out when Terry Henry kept it in with his hand and passed it to Gallas who went on and scored knocking out Republic of Ireland and meaning France went through to be in South Africa this summer.

That was the day respect for the French man dropped, before this game Henry was held in the highest regard by everyone who loves football, it was hard to pick fault with anything he did. However, blatantly cheating did no favours to his reputation, he will now always be remembered for cheating France to the World Cup finals.

The referee that game was Martin Hansson from Sweden who has now been picked as one of the World Cup refs. He has taken a lot of stick after that game for letting the goal stand. He certainly wont be welcome in Ireland for a long time! In his defence however, he can only punish what he See’s, his position for the incident meant his vision was blocked. If he had given the handball then he would have been refereeing of reaction from the opposing players which he cant do.

In this situation he needed to rely  more on his assistants which also failed to spot the hand ball. If however there were goal line assistants present like in the Europa Cup this year then  the goal would never have stood, Henry would have been red carded and France may not be playing this summer.

If your want a recap, check out this video

Video: HomerJenkins

Tweeted by @armchaiexp Source: Guardian

Ballack will miss the world cup this summer after getting injured in the FA cup final on Saturday.

Ballack will miss the world cup and its reported he will not be able to train for 8 weeks. Ballack picked up a knock during the FA cup final, the challenge was from Kevin-Prince Boateng who coincidently will be playing for Ghana who Germany will face in their first game of the World Cup. Ballack had a scan in Munich this morning which has revealed he has torn a ligament in his right ankle.

Loosing Ballack is a major blow for Germany, he has had a good season with Chelsea and any country would benefit from a player that is playing of the back of winning the double with their domestic team.

I have well and truly gone into smug mode over this. England have been really unlucky with key players getting injured before major tournaments in recent years and this time it has happened to the Germans. Im sure there was no sympathy for the English when it has happened in the past, so i have no sympathy for them!

Source: Sky Sports