April 2007 Archives

The Premiership is now a Bollywood destination. Or Stamford Bridge is rather than the Reebok.

On June 15, 2007, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom will open in Indian cinemas. JBJ as all Indian movies that prove to be hits need a catchy acronym is the story of Rikki, a starstruck soccer fan living in London who follows the fortunes of his favourite team, Chelsea. He is a fan of John Terry and Frank Lampard. Reportedly, Terry and Lampard, along with Jose Mourinho have walk on roles in the movie. Rikki is played by Abhishek Bachhan, India's biggest star and in real life, a huge fan of Chelsea.

Bachchan says, "I'm a big Chelsea fan. I get all the games taped for me in India and watch them when I come home from the film sets.

"One of my favourite players is John Terry and it has been great to see Chelsea live. The club have given me a jersey with my character's name, Rikki, on it.

I might have been impressed if Abhishek had said El Hadji Diouf and Bolton but Bollywood obviously knows its market.

The film also stars Bollywood hotties Lara Dutta, a former Ms Universe and Preity Zinta. Amitabh Bachhan and Sharoukh Khan also appear in cameos.

Come to think of it we need some new blood to replace Tom Alter. Terry and Lampard might want to try and think Bollywood after they retire. That way they can scythe down villains by well placed free kicks and get paid huge bucks to do so.

Official movie site with preview >>

I was struck by the fact, watching the NFL draft which concluded recently, this is a league that has seen a decade of peaceful co-existence and unprecedented parity. The NFL is now the most popular sports league in the US. There are no teams griping about the Dallas Cowboys getting more than its fair shake because the equal sharing of TV revenues and the league’s salary cap, has restored parity to the NFL. Eight teams since 1992-1993 have won the Super Bowls with only the New England Patriots in recent years coming close to a dynasty with three titles in four years. Last year's champions, the Steelers did not even make the playoffs. The NFL has become wide open with teams finding it difficult to repeat as Super Bowl champions. It makes the Cincinnati Bengals, long the NFL doormat, a legitimate contender for the Super Bowl. The NFL's socialist structure is the main factor in its resurgence. Socialism in the US! Good heavens, what next? George Bush agreeing to a deadline for a troop pullout!

Compare this to the Premiership in its 14th year of existence. This year if all goes to form, Man Utd will collect its 9th title. Chelsea, Arsenal, and Blackburn are the only other teams to have won titles since its inception. 4 teams out of 20. In fact, Blackburn's title now looks like an anomaly. For the foreseeable future, it would appear that only Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool can legitimately contend. The most watched sports league in the world and it is a circle jerk of four clubs. Smaller clubs can only hope to win a title by being bought out by a businessman or a business consortium with deep pockets to afford those huge transfer fees. Portsmouth's recent success has everything to do with Alexander Gaydamak sinking in the money to bring good players to the team.

The liberating aspects of capitalism have been lost to the Premiership. An individual like Sam Allardyce with his years of dedication building a viable team on the cheap decided to quit because he realized that without the money, he was not going to take Bolton further. In recent years, critics of the present inequity in the Premiership would delight in pointing out Allardyce as an exception, a manager who inspired fear and awe in Stamford Bridge. Now that he is gone, they don’t have him to thumb their noses at the rich clubs. In its stead, the Premiership is a stultifying monolithic structure shaped by neo-liberal policies. The Premiership TV revenues that are shared by clubs, a nice chunk of change of 40-50 million pounds is swallowed quickly in salaries and debt financing, leaving some money for player acquisition, but not a whole lot. The absence of a salary cap allows teams with moneyed owners to pay as much as required to bring a player over. In Chelsea's instance, this can total over 300 million pounds in its last two championship seasons. Manchester United and Liverpool are not as profligate but compared to Charlton or Bolton they might as well be.

Lets face it. There are not too many ways that you can build a winning Premiership team without the cash. Arsenal has a youth system that develops talent through the personal initiative of Arsene Wenger but it is an exception. Without salary restrictions, there is very little incentive in developing such programs in other clubs. Chelsea is just about beginning this process but it is still about 10 years behind Arsenal’s program. The Premiership cannot build through a draft because there is no system like that in place. Time to dust off a socialist measure and introduce it to the Premiership: The salary restriction. The restriction would be indexed on the average worth of all twenty clubs, i.e., the worth of each club is added up, averaged, and the salary restriction is an index of that average. For e.g., the average worth of a Premiership club maybe 100 million pounds, salary restrictions would be 15% of that figure. If a club wants to go after an expensive player and exceeds the salary restriction then it can do so but it will have less to work with next year. So there is a cumulative feature built in that allows for flexibility. Since the average worth of a Premiership clubs is in all likelihood higher than their European counterparts, the Premiership will still be able to attract top tier talent, except that they will be distributed in more clubs.

When this happens (wishful thinking!) lets see how Jose Mourinho, Sir Alex, and Arsene Wenger stack up against Sam Allardyce and Steve Coppell. Long suffering clubs like Charlton and West Ham may contend regularly for the title, lessening this unhealthy obsession with takeovers. You might actually get to see a lot more Hammer jerseys in New York compared to the ubiquitous Man Utd or Chelsea merchandise. In all, a more salubrious Premiership might be possible.

Big Sam Allardyce whose pugnacious style of coaching revitalized Bolton announced his resignation in a shocker. The resignation is with immediate effect.

Why this unseemly haste in resigning? Allardyce could have waited till the end of the season. Bolton is still in the hunt for an UEFA cup qualification.

Does this statement make sense?

" However, after guiding the team to the verge of qualification for European football for the second time in three years, I feel it is the right moment."

It sounds like Big Sam decided to stiff Bolton when they needed him the most. The reason given is that the Wanderers CEO, Phil Gartside who has had his share of differences with Allardyce in the past especially with the bung taking controversy decided not to open up his purse strings to get Allardyce some of the big name transfers. In short, he wanted Allardyce to keep producing on the cheap like he has done for many years as Bolton manager. Allardyce had had enough.

Man City beckons as they are disenchanted with present manager Stuart Pearce. Even Newcastle has been mentioned as a possible destination. For Allardyce and the record he achieved at Bolton, there should be no shortage of clubs who would welcome him.

Fabien Barthez - seen here as he once looked.
Apart from the hair he has lost over the years he has also eventually managed to lose the support of the Nantes' fans.He has made several goalkeeping blunders(see one here) in the recent past which ultimately led to a violent run-in with a group of disgruntled supporters.He has left his Nantes home by car - taking his his children along with him to an unknown destination.

Goals from Julio Baptista,Emmanuel Adebayor and Gilberto Silva increased Fulham's relegation prospects.Simon Davies' goal had given Fulham a little glimmer of hope but the final score of 3 -1 sees them precariously perched at a point above the relegation zone.

' The circumstances are difficult for us with the new football rules that we have to face. It is not possible to have a penalty against Manchester United. It is not possible to have a penalty in favour of Chelsea. We should have had a penalty, involving Stephen Carr, it was a clear penalty. I have the right to speak. I think nobody can punish me because I speak the truth and I am not saying the referees are not honest. But yesterday was a penalty and today was a penalty - and if somebody wants to punish me for that it means the end of democracy and we go back to old times.' - Jose Mourinho, April 2007 after 0-0 draw at Newcastle

Sometimes managers become more entertaining than the game. Especially when you consider that the two clubs fighting it out are Manchester United and Chelsea with a chance of winning the treble. With Jose Mourinho, the master who works the referees over, again in the thick of things.

Mourinho's rants works on many different levels. The 'outsider' who has to fight a system rigged in his opponents favour. His opponent in this case is Manchester United. In his words there is a suggestion that the English game has become undemocratic and it picks favourites. The status quo needs to be maintained by adopting new rules by stealth if necessary. It is not just Man Utd that opposes Chelsea, it is the FA and the Premier League also that is now in cahoots.

Mourinho is canny enough to realize that his argument would lose power if he spoke only in abstractions, so he personalizes it by going after Cristiano Ronaldo. In Ronaldo, he finds a polarizing target, a player who is gifted but is also well known for embellishing fouls. What Mourinho is trying in effect is to turn Ronaldo into Man Utd's poster boy, there is some tacit encouragement by Sir Alex to keep diving and lying about it. This deleterious effect on his game will prevent Ronaldo from realizing his true genius. Mourinho is cleverly planting the seed that Ronaldo may not achieve greatness if he stays on in Man Utd.

Of course, the opposite tack is used by Sir Alex as he lashes back and says Mourinho is impugning the English game. Always a good way to get the knackers of the natives in a twist. After all it is Europe that is Machiavellian. Sir Alex also casts aspersions of his own by observing that the atmosphere in Stamford Bridge is probably poisoned "I bet the birds at Stamford Bridge wake up coughing." A pointed reference to Mourinho's recent difficulties with his boss Roman Abramovich. Mourinho might have had some fellow sympathizers in Rafa Benitez and Arsene Wenger, fellow outsiders and no strangers to controversy themselves but he committed the cardinal sin of going after them too. So there is the unusual spectacle of Benitez and Sir Alex teaming up and administering a joint whipping to the man who everybody loves to hate.

All in all, it makes for good theater. A point that needs to be noted is the way Man Utd is playing. It is destiny that guides them. A loss to Roma followed by a unreal thumping in the return. A goal down against AC Milan in the CL semifinal and then scoring two goals in quick succession. The winner in stoppage time. The come from behind win against Everton this weekend. Mourinho might be right that there is a conspiracy except that this conspiracy might have some other worldly explanation.

Man U took a 5 point lead over Chelsea when they beat Everton 4 -2 .Chelsea could only manage a 2-2 draw against Bolton.All the goals below.......

....and if you still think it is safe to dive after seeing that try and do a better job of it than the fellow below.....!

Jimmy Greaves, Peter "Cat" Bonetti

One of the remarkable features about England's win in the 1966 World Cup was how it was accomplished without the contributions of its best player, Jimmy Greaves, undoubtedly England's finest striker. Greaves was kept out by injuries and then jaundice. But Greaves absence threw up an unlikely hero in Geoff Hurst.

Another point to muse was the surfeit of fine goalkeeping talent that England had at its disposal. There was of course, Gordon Banks. Very little can be added to his legend that has not already been said. However, I do want to mention that his understudy was probably one of the finest replacements who never saw a sustained England career, Peter "Cat" Bonetti. I think Bonetti's goalkeeping abilities were just as great but he was unfortunate that the 60's and 70's threw up first Banks and then Peter Shilton. Bonetti was known for his litheness and his lightning quick reflexes. Old time Chelsea fans will remember him.

" For all his long, successful career as player and manager with Arsenal, Everton, Blackpool and Southampton, as manager of Portsmouth, Southampton and Manchester City, Alan Ball, who died today of a suspected heart attack, will surely be remembered above all for his superb display for England in the World Cup Final of 1966 at Wembley against West Germany."

Here is the rest of Glanville's fine tribute to Alan Ball >>

Osasuna upset the reigning UEFA Cup champions Sevilla with a 1 - 0 home victory.Roberto Soldado scored in the 55th minute.


Espanyol did their bit to try and make it an all spanish final by defeating Werder Bremen 3-0 in the other semifinal.

It's just too bad that the NY Red Bulls can't just drink Red Bull and finish on top of the MLS every year. You still need good players. Either that or like Alecko Eskandrian who swigged Red Bull on the sideline, decided he did not care for the taste, and spat it out. It was supposed to be a commercial for Red Bull but it ended up getting a product placement. Things are looking up this season though and Juan Pablo Angel is the big news.

The country's future in soccer lies in its burgeoning immigrant base, many from Central and Latin America, especially in metros with large populations from countries in these regions. It makes much more sense to bring soccer stars from countries of origin in these areas than to try and bring a player like David Beckham. Playing for the Premiership made Juan Pablo Angel attractive and he was still a vital part of Aston Villa, although his playing minutes diminished with John Carew's arrival on the Villa squad.

His attractive index is even higher because Angel is Colombian. There is a huge base of Colombian fans in the NY metro who will come to see Red Bulls games. The Red Bulls have long been MLS doormats and have had sparse viewership but things are looking up of late. They have Claudio Reyna and now Angel. Their 2007 start has been promising and they have looked good in the opening games.

I don't necessarily see Reyna as a good player but that maybe because he has always played in the exceedingly physical European leagues. He has never been accused of being quick or prolific, being further slowed down by frequent injuries. At this stage the slower pace of the MLS with its less intense schedule might bring out the best in Reyna, his vision and ability to create chances for others. That and being reunited with his mentor, Bruce Arena. Reyna might prove to be the ideal foil for Angel up front.

Stan Kroenke moves to take over Arsenal. This is huge. David Dein has resigned and there is speculation that he will join forces with Kroenke, thereby giving both a 30% share of the club. British law would require them to make a formal bid for the team.

Intriguingly, this takeover is perceived as hostile because many shareholders have not welcomed it. Together they control over 45% of the stake. Kroneke will have to start persuading them to sell out their shares.

Kroenke's MO seems to be to sow as much disruption into shareholder proceedings and vote off the reluctant ones and force the remaining ones into an agreement.

In the end, this may all work out and given the fact that the Premiership now has almost half its clubs under control from across the pond, the heartburn from all this might be minimal. What is more worrisome is the future of Arsenal's players. Wenger's emphasis on youth is rubbing older, more experienced players like William Gallas the wrong way. He has been unsettled since he came on board and is now looking to moving to either Real or Inter. The loss of Gallas would be immense. Arsenal is now looking to bring Florent Malouda from Lyons.

The re-signing of Jens Lehmann is a mistake. The man has been out of depth in many of the matches and his form has not inspired much confidence. He makes some fantastic reflexive saves but he can also muff up a simple ball exchange. Wenger needs to seriously think of a new first squad goalkeeper. With Kroenke's kitty, they should be courting Gianluigi Buffon or Gregory Coupet. Both are steadier than Lehmann and have as much experience.

1966 World Cup final. Alan Ball, Everton and Arsenal midfielder, was the scrappy, motoring midfielder with his socks down to his ankles, who set up Geoff Hurst's controversial third goal with a low cross. Alan Ball reminds me of Paul Scholes, red haired, pint sized, and under rated but blessed with great ball skills and tenacity.

Many who paid tribute believe that if it was not for Ball's unflagging performance, England would not have won the match against W.Germany.

Sir Bobby Charlton, his midfield partner in 1966, said: "He was probably the best player that day and if it had not been for his impact the result could have been totally different.

Sir Geoff Hurst, said "He was the youngest member of the team and man of the match in the 1966 World Cup final.

Alan Ball >>

Alan Ball's autobiography >>

Johan Cruyff celebrated his 60th birthday yesterday.He is revered in Holland not only as the greatest player of all time but also as a cultural phenomenon who even has his own language: Cruyffian.
Examples....
"it doesn't matter if the opposing side scores a goal as long as you score one more than them".
"coincidence is logical"
"you don't get it until you understand it"
"Italians cannot beat you but you can lose to them".
More information about his language and on the birthday here....
Ajax retired the No. 14 jersey of Johan Cruyff on his 60th birthday in homage to a unique footballer and a living legend.

I am. With memories of the most fascinating and enthralling final played in CL history between these two teams in 2005 still fresh, a rematch would be a glorious and fitting finale. Watching a Chelsea vs Man Utd final would be stale fare considering these two are already vying for the Premiership and the FA Cup this year. Deja vu has its limits.

This rematch would see some memorable reunions and some new relationships. Silky smooth Kaka and Seedorf on top of their game take on the never say die Gerrard and cagey Alonso. Milan's central defense with veterans Nesta and Maldini against Liverpool's new additions, the high flying tear-aways Kuyt and Bellamy.

Paolo Maldini has appeared in 5 CL finals. A rematch will give him his 6th. At almost 40 years old he has defined his position.

But first Liverpool needs to get over Chelsea and Milan has its work cut out against Man Utd.

Here in all its glory, the 2005 CL final between Liverpool and Milan. Crespo, Maldini, Gerrard, Smicer, Alonso. A despondent Dida, an ecstatic Dudek. The highs and the lows. Once again for good measure.

Some great saves from each end and finally a goal from Cole....

Match report...

African champions Al-Ahly's centennial birthday celebrations were dampened a bit when Barcelona handed them a 4 - 0 drubbing yesterday.Goals below

Well, it looks like we could have an all English Champions League final.

Christiano Ronaldo got the first goal, but it was Rooney who scored twice to beat AC Milan, despite Kaka's heroic performance (2 goals) and brilliant play...

Kaka's better than Ronaldo, folks. No question about that. But Rooney's got that instinct, that luck, that whatever you want to call it.

A week from now we'll know the truth at San Siro. Unfortunately, Patrice Evra won't be on the pitch for the Reds. Let's see if Ronaldo and Rooney can get past Milan on their home turf.

Bring it!

Details>>

- Kaka dazzles stars at Old Trafford

- Manchester United 3 Milan 2: Rooney saves best until last to give United a fighting chance in Milan

- Rooney's genius gives United the edge

Ronaldo becomes the first soccer player since Andy Gray in 1977 to win both awards.
Cristiano Ronaldo: PFA Young Player of the Year 2007

Cristiano Ronaldo :PFA Player of the Year 2007

Inter Milan retained the Serie A because their victory at Siena gave them a 16 point lead over their nearest rivals Roma with 5 games left to play.While Materazzi did the scoring for Inter the more interesting goals came from the Roma - Atlanta match.Check out the second goal of the game by Riccardo Zampagna .A contender for goal of the season. He picked up the ball from Doni with his back to goal, flicked it up with his right boot and then hooked it over the head of the keeper.

Shunsuke Nakamura's fantastic injury time free kick that gave Celtic the Scottish Championship.

He also won the Player of the Year award from the Scottish Professional Footballers' Association beating off the competition from team-mates Lee Naylor and Artur Boruc, as well as Aberdeen skipper Russell Anderson.He also won Goal of the Season for this lob against Dundee United on Boxing Day.

Inter Milan were crowned Serie A champions on Sunday because they won 2-1 at Siena and nearest rivals Roma lost 2-1 at Atalanta.
Celtic won the Scottish Premier League title on Sunday when they defeated Kilmarnock.That game too had a score of 2 -1
Chelsea however did not score 2 -1 against Newcastle.They had a chance to close the gap all they managed was a goalless draw. The three point difference between them and Man U therefore remains unchanged.
Mourinho's philosophical reaction "It was a chance missed to close the gap - but at the same time we had an away game and Man United had a home game and at the end of it the gap between us is the same."

Beckham bent his injured knee for Real Madrid again after a 6 week break.A free kick from him was headed in by Sergio Ramos. It turned out to be the winning goal in Real Madrid's 2 -1 victory over Valencia and it keeps them in the Spanish Title race.

Mark Viduka's diving header saw Middlesbrough levelling the scores and sharing the points with Man U.If Chelsea beat Newcastle United then Man U's lead over them will decrease to a slender 1 point.It could have been worse for Man U had this penalty claim been given.

Elsewhere Liverpool cruised to a 2 -0 victory over Wigan (goals) and Rafa Benitez is sure that his team is peaking at the right time as they head towards their Champion's League semi against Chelsea.
And other semifinalists AC Milan showed their form by beating Cagliari 3 -1.Now who's calling me fat Ronaldo scored 2 out of the three . Goals here..

The moral of this story is - never run up to the other end of the field during a game if you are the goalkeeper.

The goal was scored by Brazilian midfielder Diego in Werder Bremen's 3-1 win over Alemannia Aachen.Goalkeeper Nicht went forward for a free-kick late on and, as the ball was cleared, Diego launched that shot that went home like a guided missile.

Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor scored a goal each to make up for Robbie Keane's early strike against Arsenal.Then Jermaine Jenas conjured up a bit of magic 4 minutes into stoppage time and the score was 2 goals each.

Blatter's great new interest in Indian football may be as big an illusion as the great Indian Rope trick.In the original version of the trick a magician throws a rope into the air -climbs up the rope and then disappears.In Blatter's version of the trick he will throw a football into the air - and when everyone is watching it a great deal of money will disappear ..!
'Blatter has no interest in India' writes Siddarth Saxena in the Times News Network.Worth a read.

Sevilla's defeated Deportivo La Coruna in the first leg of the Copa del Rey semifinals by 3 goals to nothing.It was their first win at Deportivo's Riazor Stadium in 53 years.Talk about perseverance.The story of King Bruce and the spider pales in comparision...! Goals below.

Refereeing can be a high risk job sometimes.A Gambian referee John Mendy was attacked by angry players from Cameroon's Union Douala on Wednesday because a last minute penalty he gave against them resulted in their being eliminated from the African Confederation Cup.Elsewhere seven referees were temporarily suspended by the Italian referees association Thursday in Italy's ongoing soccer scandal.
But in the middle of all the hard times that Refs are having to go through these days here's one fellow who seems to be enjoying every bit of it...!

Messi brings back memories of Maradona as he dribbled four Getafe players before going around goalkeeper Luis Garcia and scoring from a narrow angle at Camp Nou.It was Barcelona's second goal in their 5-2 win over Getafe in the Copa del Rey semifinals.

Enzo Zidane is 12 years old and is following in his illustrious father's footsteps.
More on that story here and a video of some similar moves by father and son below..

Francesco Totti inspired Roma to a 3-1 victory over Inter Milan to give them their first defeat in 32 matches this season and put their Serie A title celebrations on hold.

In the end the opera singing wasn't enough to lift West Ham.Action from the first half....2 goals for Chelsea from Shawn Wright Phillips with one from Carlos Tevez for West Ham in between

The other two Chelsea goals from Kalou and Drogba can be seen here and here.....
and their relentless pursuit of Man U is still on schedule.
Elsewhere Liverpool defeated Middlesbrough 2 - 0 .Goals here...

Goals from Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney early in each half saw Man U beat Sheffield 2 - 0 .Sheffield were denied what looked like a clear penalty.Luton Shelton was brought down by Gabriel Heinze but referee Rob Styles managed not to see anything amiss.( No death threats have been reported so far !)

Elsewhere Arsenal had to endure jeers from sections of the Emirates Stadium as they laboured to defeat Manchester City.Thomas Rosicky,Fabregas and Baptista gave them a 3-1 victory eventually.Video highlights here..

West Ham United are turning to Icelandic opera singer Gardar Thor Cortes for some musical inspiration before they do battle with Chelsea on Wednesday.A must win game for both teams - The Hammers have five games to move out from the relegation zone while the Blues cannot afford to drop points in their bid to keep the pressure on leaders Manchester United.Chelsea have been on song for quite a while now and so West Ham have gone looking for one too...!Cortes is a compatriot of West Ham's Icelandic chairman Eggert Magnusson.He will sing Hammers anthem "I'm forever blowing bubbles" and "Nessun Dorma" -- an aria from Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot -- before kickoff at Upton Park. Pavarotti and friends can be seen and heard singing "Nessun Dorma" below.The aria was used by the BBC as the theme tune for their coverage of the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

Gardar Cortes can be seen singing "Nella Fantasia" here...

Javier Turienzo is getting death threats. He was the ref in charge of the game between Real Madrid and Racing Santander.He did not make himself very popular with Real fans because he awarded Santander two penalties in the last 20 minutes of the match and also sent off Real players Ivan Helguera and Alvaro Mejia, in the 87th and 90th minutes respectively.Highlights below

Meanwhile Barcelona have stretched their lead over their nearest rivals thanks to this lucky much rebounded last minute goal against Real Mallorca.

With eight games left to play, Barca lead the table on 59 points, Sevilla have 55 and Real Madrid are on 54, one ahead of Valencia.

Two goals and some first half action from the game between Indian NFL teams Mohun Bagan and East Bengal.What made things a bit more interesting was the fact that Sepp Blatter himself was lurking in the VIP stands and watching the proceedings from there.Bagan won the game 2 -1 eventually.Blatter is on a 3 day state visit to India these days.

AC Milan won 3-1 at Messina on Sunday to climb into fourth spot in the Italian league.Kaka and Giuseppe Favalli scored in the first half and (now who's calling me fat) - Ronaldo added a third goal in the second half.

The first leg of the Champion's league semifinal against Man U will be played in Manchester on April 24 and the second leg is in Italy on May 5.Milan won its sixth European Cup at Old Trafford in 2003, and the team has advanced all three times it's faced Man United in the competition.But Ferguson is sure that Man U are more than up to the challenge.....

A last gasp winner again.Ballack did the honours this time - scoring four minutes into the second period of extra-time -thus ensuring the FA cup final would be between Man U and Chelsea after all.

After the FA cup is over there is the Champion's League Final.If all goes according to plan -four days after the May 19 FA Cup final at rebuilt Wembley Stadium, United and Chelsea could well meet again in the Champions League final in Athens, Greece.- that is if Liverpool and AC Milan don't have any objections !

Cesc Fabregas scored this long awaited winning goal against Bolton to put Arsenal back on course for the Champions League.
Of the recent bleak run, Wenger said, "Sometimes you have to flirt with hell to see how you can come up stronger."

Manchester United moved into the FA Cup final with a 4-1 victory over Watford in the semi-finals on Saturday.Rooney's double strike in the game was labelled "out of this world" by Ferguson.Ronaldo and Richardson were the other goalscorers for Man U.

Rooney in his Aston Martin took a corner on two wheels and one of the wheels came off when he hit a kerb in the process.More on the story of Rooney and the car crash here.
This is apparently the fourth time that he has tried to see if one of his many cars could break the light barrier - the other attempts being as follow below.
In January 2006 he smashed up a Range Rover.
Six months earlier he was ordered to take driver awareness lessons after he crashed a BMW worth £65,000.
And the first and earliest attempt was in November 2004 when he hit a builder's truck in a Cadillac Escalade.
Perhaps someone should tell him what Woody Allen discovered some time back- mainly that "it is impossible to travel faster than light,and certainly not desirable,as one's hat keeps blowing off"... .!

Miroslav Klose was able to do his somersault goal celebrations after an age and a bit.Some kind soul has taken the trouble to calculate that it had been 1158 minutes since he scored his last goal on the 31st of January.You can take a look at him below scoring two out of five goals scored in the game between Werder Bremen and AZ Alkmaar

Sevilla remain on course to become only the second side to retain the UEFA Cup by setting up an all-Spanish UEFA Cup semi-final against Osasuna.They drew their quarter final against Spurs 2-2 to win 4-3 on aggregate.Steed Malbranque (own goal) and Fredi Kanoute put Sevilla in the lead early on.Jermain Defoe and Aaron Lennon hit back after the break but that was as far as they could go.9 minutes of highlights below.

Elsewhere Miroslav Klose scored a brace in Werder Bremen's 4-1 win over AZ Alkmaar to take his team into the other semi final.

AC Milan will play their Champions League semi-final against Manchester United after their 2 - 0 win over Bayern Munich yesterday. Clarence Seedorf and Filippo Inzaghi scored the goals midway through the first-half .

In the other semifinal Liverpool will take on Chelsea after Crouch gave them a 1-0 win over PSV

......and the commentary is in English..!

Manchester United does it in style.. a 7 - 1 victory over Roma.Goals by Carrick (2),Alan Smith, Rooney,Ronaldo (2) and Evra. De Rossi scored for Roma.Ferguson called it his " greatest night at Old Trafford."

Action from the Spanish League.Real Madrid beats Osasuna by two goals to nothing.Goals by Raul and Robinho.The commentary - alas - is largely unintelligible ...unless you happen to know the language that they are speaking in.It's crowded at the top with Barcelona leading the league with 56 points and Sevilla and Madrid breathing down their necks with 55 and 54 points respectively.

Check here for all the latest stats from La Liga and other leagues.

Is the MLS ready for the Cuauhtémoc?

MLS is underway and the biggest news is Beckham's debut for the LA Galaxy. But the Chicago Fire are awaiting their own legend, Cuauhtémoc Blanco. The Beckham hype has overshadowed why this maybe the most significant signing because this makes the Chicago Fire real contenders for the MLS title despite the loss of their best striker Nate Jacqua to the LA Galaxy.

Blanco is considered one of the best strikers in Mexican soccer history right up there with Jared Borgetti, Luis Hernandez, and the present coach of the Tricolores, Hugo Sanchez. Blanco fans missed him this World Cup because of his bitter feud with coach Ricardo La Volpe who left him off the roster. The bad blood with La Volpe began when he was the coach for Club America. Blanco has always been controversial and has instigated many an incident on and off the pitch.

But there is no doubt about Blanco's talent, technically sound and very innovative. He has his own move called the Cuahtemina (Bunny Hop) where he scoops the ball between his feet and hops over tackling defenders. This was unveiled in the 1998 World Cup against S.Korea. Blanco has scored 138 goals in 355 appearances in the Mexican league. He has also won the MVP twice in a row in 2004 and 2005. He has been in fine form for Club America in the Clausura after making a full recovery from foot surgery.

The Fire will be boosted by the presence of the Mexican community coming out to cheer one of their heroes. This well maybe the X factor that will give Chicago an added edge towards the title.

The MLS also needs players like Blanco to give the league much needed oomph. Clint Mathis should not have to shoulder that responsibility alone. Blanco comes off as a simple man unfazed by money and with no pretensions. In his words he is a 'mesero', a street cleaner who is in the services of his club.

Cuauhtémoc Blanco stats >>

Arsenal is still the best team to watch in the Premiership. They outclassed West Ham and were unlucky not winning by at least half dozen goals. Abysmal finishing and Robert Green's extra-ordinary courage kept them away from the back of the net. West Ham deserves kudos for their pluck. Of course, there are many who put everything by results who will disagree. And who can blame them after watching the Chelsea and Man Utd dogfight going on. At the end we count only the winners.

Arsenal has to do everything now to keep course in finishing fourth to preserve its CL challenge for next season. Bolton has closed the gap with its win against Wigan. With Henry and Van Persie flitting in and out of the team due to injuries, Arsenal is missing some top quality strikers who score consistently. The duo have scored 21 goals. How dominant are they in scoring? The next best tally is 8 by Gilberto, the holding midfielder. In fact, Rosicky, the attacking medio has scored just one goal. The Arsenal midfield total contribution is 16 goals. Their Man Utd counterparts have scored 36. Take out Ronaldo's 16 and Man U would have still scored more. In comparison Rooney, Saha, and Solsjaer have scored just as many as the Arsenal forwards, i.e., 27.

The Arsenal midfield has been their strength creating chance after chance with their fluid ball movement and anticipation but they have been unable to close out. Cesc, the little maestro, has scored no goals in 30 matches, Rosicky just the one, and Hleb two. Ljungberg and Baptista sidelined by injuries for much of the season have share one goal.

Van Persie is expected back in May, Henry and Walcott in June. The season will be over by then. Arsenal has some tough fixtures coming up with Bolton breathing down their necks, Tottenham, and Chelsea. Looks out for that Chelsea fixture as that might determine the Premiership. Meanwhile, the Arsenal midfield has to get cracking with its scoring.

The Spanish title race is wide open too after Real Zaragoza scored a 1-0 home win over reigning champions Barcelona - the only goal of the game coming from Diego Milito.
Barcelona still lead La Liga by two points but will lose the top position if Sevilla beat Racing Santander on Sunday - with nine games still remaining to be played.

Matt Taylor scores off a rebound...

...and Rio Ferdinand's own goal.

Bobby Zamora scored the winning goal and Robert Green produced one of the season's best individual performances -pulling off a string of stunning saves to keep Arsenal at bay.

This goal from Ricardo Carvalho in the 52nd minute took Chelsea to a 1 - 0 victory over Spurs and also decreased Man U's lead over them to 3 points.

Manchester United failed to increase that lead when they lost 2 -1 to Portsmouth.

A fantastic offering for soccer lovers. The Tribeca Film Festival, one of the premiere showcases of new films and new movie directors opening in NY on April 25th will have a special section on sports. And there are a number of movies with soccer as a theme.

Heading them (pun intended) is Michael Apted's documentary The Power of the Game.

The Power of the Game, a documentary directed by Michael Apted (U.S.A.) - World Premiere. Six stories intertwine in this dramatic and moving examination of the social impact of soccer across the world. Juxtaposing thrilling footage from games leading to and throughout the 2006 World Cup, Apted highlights stories of triumph over adversity from around the globe and skillfully conveys the remarkable transformative power of this sport. In English, French and Spanish.

Christopher Browne's Sons of Sakhnin United. A look at how Arabs and Jews can resolve their differences on the soccer field.

Sons of Sakhnin United, a documentary directed by Christopher Browne (U.S.A.) - World Premiere. Jews and Arabs striving for a common goal can seem unlikely in today's world, and yet-as depicted in this insightful documentary-the small Arab town of Sakhnin has been united by sport. Beating the odds in a quixotic quest for Israel's State Cup, the multi-ethnic soccer team B'nei Sakhnin battles to maintain their premier league status. In English, Hebrew and Arabic.

Carlos Sorin's The Road to St.Diego

Diego Maradona is a legend in soccer, epitomizing the complete player. Maradona has never held back in life and soccer, and is most beloved by his countrymen. A regular fixture at the Bombanera following the fortunes of his club, Boca Juniors, his bouts of ill health become national obsessions. A young Argentine backwoodsman learns that soccer star Diego Maradona is ailing in a Buenos Aires hospital, and resolves to bring him a tree root he's uncovered -- which he's certain looks just like his idol. Tracing a pilgrimage filled with humor, Sorin spins a delightfully offbeat tale about the roles that fate, religion and idolatry can play in life.

For more details and ticketing info >>

Jafar Panahi's new movie, Offside captures the passion of the global game and the hold it has on the Iranian public, both men and women. The backdrop is the Iran vs Bahrain qualifying match for the 2006 World Cup. A group of women try to sneak into the stadium defying a law that bans women from watching live soccer matches.

Panahi's decision to make this film was inspired by his own personal experience with the law.

" Also, four years ago I was living near the stadium where our football team trains. I wanted to go and watch and my daughter wanted to come with me. I tried to explain to her that she couldn't, but she nevertheless wanted to try. So we set out with the entire family, that way if my daughter was refused entry, my wife could take her back home. We went to the stadium entrance and, as I had expected, my daughter was refused entry. I told her to go home with her mother, but she found another way of getting into the stalls and to my surprise, she joined me. This event also inspired my thoughts about the film, which I tucked away in a corner of my mind. When I realized Iran once again had a chance at being selected for the World Cup, I decided the time was right to do this film. "

Panahi's Offside opened in the US this March. New Yorkers can get a chance to see this wonderful film at the Quad Cinemas.

Offside synopsis and Jafar Panahi's thoughts on the movie >>

How eerie is this. Matt Taylor's goal for Pompey against Man Utd was reminiscent of Vucinic's winner for Roma in the CL match this week. Van Der Saar has a problem parrying the ball effectively away from the field of play and it has happened now twice this week. Mancini's blast had VDS pushing the ball back into play onto the path of a rushing Mirko Vucinic who made no mistake. In the Pompey match Van Der Saar had problems stopping Benjani's shot on goal and Matt Taylor muscled the rebound into the back of the net.

Ben Foster is going to get the starting position once he returns from Watford.

And add Matt Taylor to the list of defenders who love to attack. 7 goals now. He leads the Premiership in defenders scoring goals. Naldo is doing the same in the Bundesliga. He has 6 for Werder Bremen.

Seeing Pompey play Man Utd, one is struck by the number of really ordinary players in the Red Devils squad. John O'Shea, Darren Fletcher, and Kieran Richardson. Add to them players approaching their shelf lives, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Solsjaer, and Ryan Giggs and you do have a bit of a midlife crisis in the squad. Man Utd also does not have a great pool of homegrown talent. Sometimes success in the Premiership and the CL can obscure the fact that this squad might be running on fumes in the future. You have to wonder how far Sir Alex can push them.

A report by UN experts warned yesterday that climate change is set to inflict damage in every continent, hitting poor countries hardest and threatening nearly a third of the world's species with extinction.While we ponder that grim warning and wonder what we must do the Romanian soccer federation has something else to worry about on top of all that.The changes in their weather pattern could lead to their soccer season having to be rescheduled.

Michael Chopra becomes the leading scorer in the Championship. 21 goals! And renews his contract with Cardiff City.

Now what do we do to get him to play for the Indian national team. The only problem is that he will have to fetch his own ball because he could get awfully lonely waiting for it to come to him.

On April 2nd, Ferenc Puskas would have turned 80. A tribute to the galloping major. His days in Honved, the Magyar team, and finally in Real with fellow greats Di Stefano, Kopa, Gento, and Rial.

Here is Lineker's interview with Puskas at his simple home in Budapest. Puskas died almost penniless.

And for soccer junkies a bit of history. The 1953 Wembley miracle when England were crushed by Hungary, 3-6.

Indications are that Arsenal may have a new owner. Unlike the other big three, Man Utd, Chelsea, and Liverpool, where the owners were largely unknown before their takeover, this potential takeover by Stan Kroenke, builds on an pre-existing arrangement with Arsenal. He owns Arsenal's US marketing rights, having agreed to raise Arsenal's profile in the US. Kroenke just bought out ITV's 9.9% share in the London club, a £65m commitment.

Kroenke has a soccer lineage, he owns the Colorado Rapids. His company Kroenke Sports Enterprises also owns the NBA's Denver Nuggets, and NHL's Colorado Avalanche.

The interesting part is that Arsenal traditionally have been the most cautious club in terms of a foreign takeover. Wenger has always applied the brakes. His system, developing talent on the cheap with the occasional expensive splurge has served the club well. But now that the other three have gone to big money, Arsenal is in danger of being left behind. Their present squad is about 2-3 years from realizing its full potential but some of the front line players might be a bit too old by then. Lehmann, Henry, and Gilberto are showing signs of wear and tear, with Henry having recurring injury problems. In addition, Barca has not given up on him.

Arsenal is courting Samuel Eto'o and Gianluigi Buffon. For just these two, it will need at least £40m. With a Kroenke takeover, Wenger will not cringe at the thought of spending this much money, balancing it out with lower priced talent like Ryan Babel and Samir Nasri.

Arsenal has also relied on relationships with associate clubs like Beveren and Celta Vigo for tapping talent. The Colorado Rapids could become another source of exposure for talented soccer players from the US looking to get some Premiership action and benefiting under Wenger's tutelage.

E. Stanley Kroenke's profile >>

What any impartial observer seeing the Roma vs Man Utd match would have seen was that the team playing better soccer, won the game. However Sir Alex, as great coach as he is, attributes his loss to biased refereeing. And he specially targets referee Herbert Fandel. Ferguson had claimed his Manchester United side were "playing against 12 men".

Not to be outdone Rio Ferdinand, gives his reasons why all these referees are obviously French.

"Some of the referee's decisions were a joke and, for some reason, in Europe, it's apparent to me that the referees have an ignorance problem," said Ferdinand. "You can't speak to them. You try to talk to them in the best manner possible, but they turn their nose up at you. It's like they think they are from the upper crust and are not allowed to speak to the players.

Rio, maybe you should have saved your communication for Scholes. He was a disaster waiting to happen.

Seriously, it has come to this. Man Utd did not play its best soccer, lost a player to cheap fouls, and lost the game. Suck it up. Stop blaming the fans, the police, and the referees. Stop playing the victim.

..or maybe the title should read "sails on" because ships are supposed to sail on and not roll on but in any case it was a good night for Spain.Three spanish teams scored victories in UEFA cup games.Fredi Kanoute scored a controversial penalty as holders Sevilla beat Spurs 2-1 in the quarter-final first leg clash.Goals below.

Elsewhere Barcelona-based Espanyol took a 3 - 0 lead over Benfica and then went and conceded 2 goals.They however held on to win eventually.Goals here....
And Osasuna perhaps came up with the result of the night beating 1988 UEFA Cup winners Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 away.Goals below..

Great game. Man Utd was kept off its stride by an assertive Roma team. I think Van Der Saar has gotten a bit soft and Roma calculatingly tested him with a barrage of long shots. Totti has less fancy footwork than Ronaldo but his intelligence and guile makes him a more influential player. Plus, he is induspitably, the emotional leader of Roma. 20 mins of video.

Moral of the story: If you are to play Man U, play them in a neutral venue, preferably with valet parking. And get Sir Alex Ferguson to personally inspect the stadium and screen the fans. Because outside of Old Trafford, it is a cruel and inhospitable world. A bit snarky but you do get spoiled playing in that shiny new venue, slumming with investment banker blokes, who think nothing of coughing up £100 for tickets. The rest of the world pays £10, plays in municipal stadiums, and has rough neighbourhoods. Surprise! Surprise!

Man Utd issues a travel advisory to its fans. Travel advisories like the ones that the US State Deptt issues to tourists who want to travel to Kandahar or Aceh. Of course, this does not go down well with the Romans. They too were a civilization once.

So is it any surprise that these self fulfilling prophecies get carried out? The Man U fans come over, having pissed on Roma and Rome, watch ticket less, get drunk and incensed as their team loses the game, pick up fights with the Roma fans, hurl chairs and beer bottles, and then get set on by the Italian police. Some get beaten and some are chased by the Ultras. In the US, the Man U fans would have been tasered. You don't get bloodied but you do lose bowel control.

Meanwhile, the travel advisories Man U issues to their fans will keep growing. It should cover most of Europe in the near future and some in England as well. Be sure to keep checking the website regularly and keep a watch out for the new soccer theme park. Take advantage of the new Man U Mastercard, available at a discounted APR of 3.99%. And oh, by the way, ticket prices go up December 1st to £200. Season holders will get a chance to win an exciting all expenses paid vacation on a luxury cruise line to Rome and the Dalmatian coast.

One of the truly good guys. A lifelong Preston North End'er who spurned money and fame to play for the one club. Finney was the standout in a team with very few stars. His career spanned 473 matches for PNE and as a striker he scored 210 goals. With his speed and skill, he attracted offers from many clubs including Palermo whose offer of a £10,000 personal signing-on fee was a staggering sum in 1952. His wages would have shot up from £14 to £100. PNE and Finney turned them down. He never won a trophy with PNE. His best chance was when PNE lost the FA Cup to the Addicks in 1954.

But he was an exceptional player and the inimitable Bill Shankly, his PNE team mate had this to say "I would have played Tom Finney in his overcoat - there would have been four men marking him when we were kickin' in." Finney went onto play for England 76 times and scored 30 goals, arguably England's finest player. Bill Shankly become Liverpool's greatest manager.

This accolade is from the National Football Hall of Fame where Sir Tom Finney is an inductee. He brings back memories of the days when wingers were in fashion and teams sported a 2-3-5 formation.

"He epitomised his era with dashing forward play and his 76 England caps were won in FOUR different positions. Forty appearances were made at outside-right, and, because he was truly two-footed, though naturally left footed, another 33 internationals were played on the opposite flank. Tom played three times at centre forward and once at inside- forward. "

Finney's brilliant play was eclipsed by the declining English fortunes on the international stage. He played in the 1950, 1954, and 1958 World Cup squads along side greats like Sir Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortensen, Billy Wright, Bobby Charlton, Gordon Banks, and Sir Alf Ramsey. Finney was in the 1950 squad that saw the US winning 1-0, in one of soccer's most stunning upsets. For soccer junkies, this match was made into a movie, The Game of Their Lives. Finney scored two goals for these England squads that saw them crashing out in the first rounds with the exception of the 1954 team that went onto the quarterfinals. In 1966, Sir Alf Ramsey finally did away with the traditional W system of attack and with England's success, the winger system was buried.

Sir Tom Finney is now Preston North End's president and they are having a banner year with a fantastic shot at getting back to the top tier after 46 years. David Nugent just became the second Preston player in 49 years to score a goal for England in a win against Andorra. The last one to do so, Sir Tom Finney in 1958 against N.Ireland.

An interview dug up with Sir Tom Finney in which he talks about his days in PNE, World War II and his team mate, Bill Shankly. Fascinating stuff.

Chelsea and Valencia share the points .(Video of goals here )
David Silva and Drogba ( 30th goal) did the scoring.
Manchester United lost 2-1 to Roma but Rooney scored a goal for a change.(Video of goals here )
Man U had to play with 10 men for most of the game after Paul Scholes was sent off early on.
Fan violence occurred as predicted with one serious stabbing incident at least.

Van Buyten, Riise, Oddo, and Phillip Lahm, the new hunting pack

Mocha is the new black. The 40's are the new 30's. And defenders are the new attackers. Nah! You got to be joking. Aren't they the plodders who never cross the half line. They never make the You Tube clips. And isn't attacking the best form of defense? So these guys are basically redundant.

The most amazing thing about Van Buyten was not his goals but that he was there at all about 40 yards out from where he should have been playing. The first goal had him and Pizarro in the box all by themselves with no white shirts within a mile. No Makaay, Poldi, Schweinsteiger or the usual suspects. The second Van Buyten goal was poached perfectly like Lineker or Crespo.

John Arne Riise scores along with Gerrard to leave PSV on the ropes. Riise also scores against Barca. Alex sticks the dagger in Arsenal's heart. Massimo Oddo looks like he loves spending time up field. This year's CL is continuing a trend seen in the last World Cup. Phillip Lahm scored the first goal as Materazzi and Grosso made multiple visits deep into enemy territory. Grosso breaking open the Italy- Germany game and Materazzi rising high to score the equalizer for Italy against France in the final.

And good things happened when they come up front. Italy walked away with the World Cup. Liverpool is almost into the CL semi-finals and Bayern is in great position to seal the deal in the return leg.

Maybe goal keepers have become so much better that they can actually be left with less support. Or having a lone striker up front makes the attack stale and predictable as England found out in their World Cup. Whatever the reason, having defenders set up and score goals is a welcome phenomenon. They seem a bit shy celebrating their goals right now but it will happen.

Milan was distinctly lucky to get away with a penalty called on a perfectly good tackle by Lucio on Kaka. Daniel Van Buyten comes up big!

AS Roma vs Manchester United

Totti's day in the sun.

Without doubt the bigger and better game today compared to the Chelsea- Valencia encounter. Look for Francesco Totti fresh from Valettopoli to have a huge influence on this game. Fans from both clubs will be testy and the Roma ultras should be in full vocal press.

I think Roma's run is part of destiny. As a club it has always played in the shadows of the big northern clubs. It will not win this year's Scudetto, that belongs to Inter by far but it still has the Champions League to make a statement. Coach Luciano Spalletti overcame a shrewd operator in Ged Houllier beating a lacklustre Lyon. Doni had one of his biggest games. Roma is a club that has a lot of self confidence.

Man U will own the ball a lot but look for Mancini and Taddei to create a wide game as Roma test the corners. Roma probably has an aerial edge. Going through the middle to the heart of the Man U defense may not be too productive. Both Totti and Ronaldo are fantastic free kick specialists so we will see a lot of these. Doni will have to continue to be extra sharp. Key injury: Man U's best defender Nemanja Vidic is out.

Prediction: This is the game Roma comes big. In front of the thousands of fans in the Stadio Olympico. Roma 2 Man Utd 1

Chelsea vs Valencia

Asier Del Horno comes up against his former club. Valencia provides more players to the Spain squad than any other La Liga club. Match stat: Chelsea 19 shots on goal. Valencia 6. Sebastian Canizares gets to prove why he is the future Spain goalie.

David meeting Goliath? The thing with Chelsea is that much of the times it tends to sleep walk through these games only to have Drogba bury one in the back of the net in the 92nd minute through a set piece. You can never let your guard down. Valencia is decimated through injuries. Fernando Morientes is out with injury and so is Edu and Baraja. Defender Marchena, a Spain stalwart is missing through suspension. Valencia's team has promising midfielder David Silva and David Villa up front. Villa is a proven goal scorer in big games and will be most definitely heavily marked. Roberto Ayala has the onerous task of stopping slippery Joe Cole and the very active left flank of Chelsea. But then there is Ballack, Shevchenko, and Lampard to take care of. Throw in Ricardo Carvalho who loves having a heave ho and you're backed up against a wall.

Prediction: Chelsea 2 Valencia 0

As always go to www.livefooty.com for the matches. Invite your boss and make him a soccer fan and then see your career take off.

The UN has 192 member states and since its inception in 1945 has had 8 Secretary Generals, the effective head of the UN. They serve 5 year terms which are renewable and most have served two terms. There is a practice of regional rotation that has ensured nomination of Secretary Generals from smaller countries. So far of the eight, 2 have been from Africa, 2 from Asia, 3 from Western Europe, and 1 from South America. The UN started with 50 member nations and has grown almost four times. To reflect this change, the all powerful UN Security Council is contemplating increasing its permanent members from the present five to fifteen and bring in more regional powers like Egypt, Brazil, and India.

FIFA came into existence in 1904 with seven members. It presently has 205 members. It too has seen 8 presidents. All have been Europeans except for Joao Havelange, from Brazil who in actuality is a displaced Belgian. Havelange was in charge of FIFA from 1974 to 1998. His protege and right hand man, Sepp Blatter took over from him after his retirement and has been assured of his third term. In 2010, between Havelange and Blatter, two men would have ruled FIFA and soccer for 36 years. Meanwhile, we call soccer the global game.

The game's future has moved to Asia and Africa. In Japan, soccer has displaced baseball as the number one sport. It will take a few years but cricket will fade to the background as the Socceroos and the A-League continue to make inroads Down Under. The Premiership and most of the top notch European leagues enjoy an unprecedented global audience largely on the strength of their African stars. The Africa Cup of Nations is now considered one of the most competitive cups, beating out monolithic encounters between Argentina and Brazil to decide the Copa America, and every bit as contested as the Euro Cup.

Is this change reflected at the top? Two men in charge of a sport close on four decades. And not just any sport. A sport viewed by billions in the most unparalleled sporting event of the world. A sport that has the power to change the GDP of a country. Or for two countries to wage war against each other. Two men in charge of an organization that define the game, its rules, its conduct, and its vision. Such an exacting hold would be called a dictatorship by any other name. And the best part is, there is nary a coup. If only Nikolai Ceaucescu had known of this job!

The combination of Havelange and Blatter has proved destructive. Both are plutocrats, grown arrogant with perpetual incumbency, beholden to business interests, with not a whit of love for the game. Eduardo Galeano, one of the keenest observers of the game, tells this story of Havelange during the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. The matches were all scheduled in the blazing heat of the afternoon as it ensured the best possible viewing time for European TV. The German goalkeeper, Harald Schumacher, told the story: "I sweat. My throat is dry. The grass is like dried shit: hard, strange, hostile. The sun shines straight down on the stadium and strikes us right in the head. We cast no shadows on the ground. They say this is good for television." Was the sale of the spectacle more important than the quality of the play? The players are there to kick not to cry, and Havelange put an end to that maddening business: "They should play and shut their traps," he decreed.

Havelange was only doing a favour for his good friend Guillermo Canedo, Televisa's VP and president of its international network. Televisa and FIFA owned the TV rights to the lucrative European market. Televisa also owns Mexican soccer. The Mexican Football Federation had no part to play in the World Cup other than to send a roster. This sweet deal was arranged to ensure a Canedo vote, as he was unsurprisingly, FIFA's vice president of the Central American nations. This cynical life lesson was internalized well by Havelange minion Sepp Blatter, and in the last election, he bought the votes of Jack Warner, the powerful FIFA vice president of the Caribbean nations by ensuring that Warner's company got the exclusive rights to TV revenues for the 2002 World Cup, reversing a previous arrangement with that of a rival group. Vote rigging ensured Sepp Blatter's survival after the ISL scandal broke loose.

But what would you expect from a mentor like Havelange who warned:"Soccer is a commercial product and should be sold wisely." No wonder a player like Maradona was hated by both Havelange and Blatter. Because he dared bring up the issue of labour rights for soccer players. A cold hearted Blatter dismissed this by replying, "The last star to come from Argentina was Di Stefano." You realize how little Blatter loves this sport. In one statement he condemned not just one great player but two and a whole nation.

Sepp Blatter's re-election is reason enough for term limits. Soccer deserves better. And there are capable men who have done yeoman work. Mohammad Bin Hammam, the AFC president whose work has pioneered Asian resurgence in soccer. Saburo Kawabuchi, the man behind Japan's wildly successful J-League. Ohene Djan, the impresario behind Ghana's impressive strides in African and world soccer. Soccer's future steward should be chosen on the basis of services to soccer, not fealty to the CEO of a boot manufacturing company.

Plenty of anger in Rome over Manchester United's decision to write to their fans, warning them of the "real danger" of being attacked by Roma's "Ultras", and advising them of several areas in the city centre they should keep away from. Alex Ferguson said the warning was normal. "We always do it before every (European) match," he said. "I don't anticipate any problems."
Rome prefect Achille Serra had a different opinion. "There's no doubt that there has always been difficulty maintaining public order and security between English and Italian teams, but it's expected of all of us to calm the tensions.A letter like that works to the contrary, excites tensions and risks provoking incidents."
More on that story here...
And elsewhere Liverpool made short work of PSV Eindhoven .Steven Gerrard, John Arne Riise and Peter Crouch did the scoring.Goals here

Blatter was the only candidate to register for the FIFA presidential election by the March 31 deadline.No rival emerged.This means that Blatter has therefore won the election and so will remain supreme commander of FIFA until 2011 - by which time Romario will hopefully have also managed to score his 1000th goal and then they both can retire and live happily ever after ...and maybe things will get better after that.

Liverpool meets PSV Eindhoven

Dirk Kuyt gets back to familiar territory with a great chance of scoring his first European goal.

Kuyt played for Feyenoord where meeting PSV was as automatic as taking a breath of Rotterdam air. Kuyt has not scored a goal for Liverpool in international matches but it would be sweet to begin against PSV. With Crouch coming to life, Kuyt may have to share duties with Bellamy. Boudewijn Zenden, Liverpool medio also played for PSV when they won the Eredivisie in 1997 but will not see any action this match because of knee surgery.

Liverpool has hit its stride in the latter part of the season and it has done so in breath taking fashion. On paper it should win easily. But PSV is no pushover and are not an easy team to scored against. They have Jefferson Farfan as their major strike threat but Arouna Kone is missing and so is stalwart defender Alex due to injuries. PSV does have surprise package Edison Mendes whose strike shocked Arsenal in the first leg of their encounter. Veteran Philip Cocu will anchor the midfield.

Sissoko is out so Mascherano should get his first Champions trophy start. Liverpool's attack flows through Gerrard and Alonso, obviously the key for PSV would be to clog up the middle and cut off the lanes. Farfan should pose a threat with his speed and ability to play wide on the occasional counter attacks but there are very few in PSV to finish those chances.

Prediction: Liverpool 1 PSV 0. Dirk Kuyt gets his first European goal and its a big one.

Bayern Munich vs AC Milan

Owen Hargreaves moment to shine as Bommel is suspended.

Bayern is finally clicking and it was their up tempo attack against Real that got them this showdown with Milan. Roy Makaay is breaking records with his speedy strikes and Podolski, no slouch himself is catching up after a long layoff from injury. Missing through suspension will be Ollie Kahn and Mark Van Bommel. This is key, as Bommel's crisp passing was instrumental in Bayern's win against Real. But Ottmar Hitzfeld has been pleased with Hargreaves return and the play of Andreas Ottl in midfield. Michael Rensing fills in for Kahn, signaling the post Kahn phase in Bayern's life.

Carlo Ancelotti's superb trio of midfielders led by Kaka, Seedorf, and Pirlo would win every match against any team in the world on any given day but he has no strike threat to put the cherry on the icing. Alberto Gilardiino is no Roy Makaay.

Bayern finally reverses its poor record at the San Siro.

Prediction: Bayern 2 Milan 0

For those who want to bunk work while at work: www.livefooty.com has the coverage. Enjoy!

Diego Maradona will spend another fortnight in hospital with suspected alcoholic hepatitis. He has had numerous problems with his health related to cocaine addiction in 2000 and 2004 which almost resulted in his death. Maradona also underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2005 for his obesity.

Maradona plans to recuperate in Switzerland as part of his medical treatment where he intends to get rid of fluid retention brought on by excessive eating and drinking. But the question is, rid himself of fluid retention or the tax authorities dogging him in Argentina?

Francesco Totti will play against Manchester United on wednesday's Champions League quarter-final in such a way that Alex Ferguson will never ever forget his name again.Here he demonstrates that you need not face the goalkeeper when you are taking a penalty.

Ferguson really needs to watch out because here's Totti again - looking the other way again and scoring a goal with a portion of his anatomy which is normally not used for scoring goals..!

Lets face it. The relationship between Jose Mourinho and Roman Abramovich is not working out. And it is not hard to see why. They have fundamentally different ideologies. Abramovich's way of doing business was to get wealthy purchasing his erstwhile partner's Boris Berezovsky's stake in Sibneft, Rusal, and ORT for throwaway prices. He did get carried away with Chelsea and Jose Mourinho, indulging the club with unlimited amounts of transfer money to get the most expensive players. And it has worked fantastically well. Mourinho's forte is to take these big ego-ed players and subjugate them to his will. He is a martinet and a stickler for players executing their roles in his tactics. But Mourinho's track record nurturing young talent is pretty thin. Chelsea is probably about 10 years away from the talent pool that Wenger has managed to develop in Arsenal.

Abramovich's recent decision to put his long term hat on and invest in this route reflects a return to his natural state of doing business after all the hype but he realizes Mourinho's strength is not in player development. Mourinho is far too impatient and too cautious to suddenly entrust the fortunes of Chelsea to a future generation of players brought up from their youth ranks.

In a way, both Chelsea and Arsenal are in a bit of a quandary where each one is a bit covetous of the other. I am sure Wenger does look back at some high priced acquisitions that he would have loved to have had with the amount of transfer money at his disposal if Abramovich was his boss. It would have leavened some of Arsenal's performance, jagged and inconsistent this season because of the youth and relative inexperience of their squad. On the other hand Abramovich when he looks at Arsenal, sees an enviable system, not built by money but by the care and effort personally orchestrated by Wenger in building a first rate talent pool. Its the way he would do business.

The Independent has a story of Guus Hiddink teaming up with two coaches at Chelsea in a unique arrangement and overseeing their fortunes and that of Russia. That is the sort of arrangement that can be worked out when you bankroll the national coach.

Another look at Salomon Kalou saving the day for Chelsea 3 minutes into extra time.It was the 24th goal that Chelsea have scored in the last 10 minutes of a match this season

The goal came off a superb pass from Shevchenko and Abramovich managed a smile but stayed out of the dressing room.

A pretty hilarious account of a fight between Blatter and Platini - involving headbutting and eye gouging and Zidane in the role of peacemaker.
An extract.."The two quickly wrestled each other to the ground. Platini reportedly tried to gouge Blatter’s eyes out, while Blatter attempted to accelerate Platini’s receding hairline with some strong yanks at the Frenchman’s curly locks and, in an ironic twist, smashed a piece of French toast in Platini's face. The fight broke up a few seconds later when Zidane stepped between the two combatants, hurling insults at their mothers to distract them from each other." Rest of it here...

Peter Crouch scores the perfect hat trick as Liverpool runs rampant over Arsenal. England celebrates the best league in the world. A group of English players from these top clubs then assemble and play the Euro Cup, turning into a miserable bunch of plodders and buffoons. Not even Jekyll and Hyde could have scripted this better.

Right now effigies of Indian cricketers are being burned and their families threatened with dire consequences. And for those who want more immediate retribution, lookalikes are being accosted on the streets and subjected to verbal and physical abuse. Grief stricken fans have died of heart attacks. All this because India made a quick and unseemly exit from the Cricket World Cup presently going on in the West Indies, losing to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Done in by their South Asian brethren. A similar fate befell Pakistan as they crashed out losing to Ireland and West Indies.

There have been disgraceful exits and heart breaking losses from international sports that have shaken other countries leading to national tragedies like the death of Andres Escobar after Colombia, a favourite of many to get to the higher rounds of the 1994 World Cup, crashed out. Or the 1980 Miracle on Ice, a team of US underdogs took on the mighty Soviet Union in an ice hockey game in the Lake Placid Winter Olympics, beating them, and going onto win the gold medal. For the Soviets it led to a collective state of shock and despair. The defeat led to more Russian players joining the the lucrative NHL, and some say hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union by 1991.

But nothing compares cricket's hold on the Indian sub-continent. The Cricket World Cup, is a world cup in name only. It should rightly be called the South Asian Cup. There are just 16 teams playing the cup but of these countries, India and Pakistan provide about 70% of the fans and viewership. With these two countries gone, the stadiums in the Caribbean are empty, an indication that even in the host country, cricket does not attract the same fervour as it did a few decades ago, losing ground to the popularity of soccer. There have been thousands of airlines and hotels cancellations, tickets are now selling dirt cheap on Ebay, and companies have pulled their advertisements and sponsorships.

There is every indication that the school going population in India is not as addicted to cricket as their parents generation, brought up on the euphoria of India's version of the Miracle on Ice, the 1983 World Cup win over the mighty West Indies. That euphoria sustained many mediocre Indian teams in their quest to repeat but they only succeeded in failing. The new generation has seen enough to realize that the present group of feckless and overpaid cricketers and certainly cricket as a colonial past-time is out of touch with today's interconnected and globalized world, the essence of which is captured in soccer. Cricket's appeal as a gentleman's game has long ebbed, with the nail in the coffin (an unfortunate expression) the murder of Bob Woolmer, the Pakistani coach, probably done in by a cabal of bookies who actually control cricket nowadays. It is time for India to turn to soccer and the authorities to advocate the sport. For the thousands of Indian youngsters who think watching Arsenal is way cool could all be potential fans of a successful Indian soccer team. And success not defined as a pie in the sky promise as qualifying for the World Cup but more realistically for the next Asian Cup.

Barcelona have a 3 point lead in the La Liga after this victory over Deportivo La Coruna.Messi and Eto'o did the scoring for them.

It's being called a perfect hat trick because he scored the goals with right foot,head and left foot in that order..

Matt Derbyshire gave Blackburn an early lead but the second half was all Man U.All the goals..

Elsewhere Peter Crouch came back from a broken nose to score his first hat trick for Liverpool in their 4 - 1 hammering of Arsenal.Video of the goals here....
And Salomon Kalou kept Chelsea in the chase by scoring the lone goal against Watford.
Video here..