So you may now recognise him as the head of U.E.F.A. and the man that moved the Champions League from a Wednesday night to a Saturday night. What you may not know is that Platini, for 3 or 4 years, was the best player in the world. A fabulous midfield play-maker of the highest level, […]

On Tuesday, the goalkeepers and defenders were discussed, and Wednesday, the midfielders were discussed. With all of the creative talent in the midfield, that will bring the pressure on the forwards to convert the multitudes of chances that Xavi, Xabi Alonso, etc. will create for them. Obviously, the two starting men up front would be […]

Yesterday, the goalkeeping and the defense were discussed, and while the three goalkeepers contending for the final goalkeeping spot will state their cases to Vicente del Bosque on and off the pitch, they will have little to no chance of participating in the World Cup. The players who will compete for the final midfield spots, […]

On Monday evening, Spanish national team manager Vicente del Bosque detailed the initial squad he will invite to Spain's World Cup training camp. The thirty-man team will be whittled down to twenty-three by May 19, and for the most part, the squad has picked itself. The competition for those final few spots will concentrate on […]

Last year, I was lucky enough to do a fabulous series on English football legends, which saw me delve back through history to cover 11 players that perhaps never get the credit they deserve. Football is such a fickle sport that these days, people forget just how many great players passed through the annals before […]

The 2010 world cup in South Africa looks promising to be the best yet. There's huge quantities of talent spread out across the Groups. In addition to the football being played on the pitch, here are five reasons this summer's world cup will be the best yet for the fans. 1. HD – The beautiful game […]

Well, you can't blame them for trying, two weeks after that hand ball incident and FIFA and UEFA being as patronising as possible, the Football Association of Ireland have asked to be included in the World Cup draw on Friday as a 33rd team.I've just had the misfortune of sitting through a Sepp Blatter press […]

It seems like this is all coming out of nowhere. Any fan of the game knows that the "tapping-up" allegations have always been prominent but rarely has it been so harshly punished. From United's perspective, they were accused of tapping up Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney in the recent past and accused Real Madrid of […]

It’s funny how karma works. Chelsea took an inhumanely stern line with Adrian Mutu, and now FIFA has taken a stern line with them. The Blues have been found guilty of “inducing” French midfielder Gael Kakuta to break his contract with Lens in 2007. FIFA has forbid them to participate in the next two transfer […]

FIFA President Blatter's statement a couple weeks back regarding MLS and its schedule was way out of touch with the reality of the American sporting landscape. Blatter said it was imperative for MLS to get on an August to May schedule in order to compete with other leagues for the best players. Not only is […]

Yesterday, I considered the question of the name of our sport, football vs soccer. Today I jump on another question regarding the purity of the beautiful game: should we implement live video review? Please use the comment section to weigh in on this issue. If I ever got dragged to a birthday party for FIFA […]

The FIFA World Player of the Year is the greatest individual honor a footballer can win in the sport. As it is well known, the '08 award was won by Manchester United's Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo. After the award presentation, attention shifted to who could win the 2009 FIFA POY Award. Almost immediately, the 1st […]

If you consider yourself a political junkie on top of being an EPL newshound, then we certainly have quite the interview for you today. With FIFA’s proposed ‘6+5’ rule to place limits on the number of foreign-born players in domestic club teams rearing its ugly head in the press once again in recent weeks, we […]

So Arsenal's half-year finances are out and in all fairness, for being in a recession, they did pretty damn good. When you generate more match day revenue (an increase of 3.3 million to 44.4 million pounds), more television revenue (an increase of 4.5 million to 28.9 million pounds), and end up with a bigger pre-tax […]

When the transfer window was brought in to the Premier League (being the last of the major European leagues to take up this format) it was met with a very mixed reception. Although it makes for some interesting television in the final few days, particularly in the January version, I believe that the transfer window […]