July 2012 Archives

Coming to Old Trafford from 2014, a symbol of the successful US car bailout

Man Utd's US connections payoff again. The commercial behemoths of the Premier League have Chevrolet lined up to take over their jersey sponsorship from 2014 replacing AON for the next seven years. Financial details of the deal are sketchy and it appears to have cost Joel Ewanick, GM's global chief marketing officer his job. However, Manchester United's commercial director Richard Arnold is pleased as punch.

" We have been partners with Chevrolet for only six weeks, but already they have produced some fantastic ideas that will benefit both the partnership and our 659 million followers around the world."

GM's recovery continues driven by demand in China and South America with the Chevrolet brand proving strong.

szólj hozzá: GB

There are days when Daniel Sturridge could not hit a barn door even if it meant never having to suffer through a Adam Sandler or a Seth Rogen movie ever again. Yesterday, was not one of them. That was Messi-esque for team GB's final score.

Team GB moved the ball around with ease through Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy, Joe Allen, and Tom Cleverley. The unified team opened through Giggsy's header and followed up with Scott Sinclair's put back after Mohamed Khasef parried Bellamy's cross into his path.

By the way, the UAE goal was equally brilliant as Eisa did not break step latching onto a Xavi like pass by Omar Abdulrahman, accelerating between defenders, and then sidefooting the ball past Jack Butland. Seamless, swift, and lethal. UAE looked very, very good in large spells of the match and the scoreline is flattering.

If you watch the video it was a garden variety clip by Charlie Adam. Cynical yes, but not unusually so for this day and age. The history is a bit different. Adam while at Blackpool was the player who tackled Bale causing ankle ligament damage which led to a three month injury absence in 2011. So he has some context for his paranoid reaction calling Adam "a bit of a coward".

Trust me, this is a perfectly normal reaction if you're an Arsenal fan with the way some teams have left their mark literally and figuratively on their players over the years.

Bale has been in the news for refusing to play for team GB claiming a back injury but then made his side's pre-season tour to the USA. It incurred the wrath of the Blatter man who suggested the winger should be banned playing for Spurs during the Olympics. Not defending Bale here but this is a bit rich coming from someone who should have been banned years ago for turning FIFA into a Swiss bank account.

The upshot is Bale will most likely miss the Red Bulls match and his return date is unclear.

The mighty Rojas are done for. Well, at least their U23 team plus Adrian Lopez and Juan Mata.

Los Catrachos, the Olympics version sent Spain crashing out of the tournament with a 1-0 win as Roger Espinoza who plies his trade for Sporting Kansas City mailed in a cross that was met by Jerry Bengtson of the New England Revs for a perfectly placed header past David De Gea.

Spain who had a hard time getting it done on the pitch then turned ornery. Juan Soto Arevalo, the referee got jostled around, when they were denied a PK after Rodrigo Moreno was brought down in the box. Simple, brute soccer won over tiki taka, finally.

szólj hozzá: Ibrahimovic aprít a PSG-nél

Are you a zlatan for punishment? Blaise Matuidi, Jeremy Menez, and Nene find out against Ibrahimovic in training for their match against DC United. Body count high.

Good bit of skill and a nice finish from the most expensive player in Ligue history. Afterwards, Ibrahimovic talks about the goal, PSG's future, and his preparation. Here is Dwayne De Rosario's PK equalizer.

Gervinho was excellent. So was Theo Walcott and Abou Diaby. But in a familiar refrain, the defense was shambolic. Arsenal gave plenty of leg up to a very enterprising local team through Ignasi Miquel's giveaway and then flailed about in a losing attempt to clear the ball. Can't quite believe we only have only one more pre-season warm up left, against Koln.

Steve Bould has his work cut out to get this defensive unit ready for the match against Sunderland in just three weeks time. Hoo, boy!

Rezart Taci could be the new owner of CF Malaga

There are now emerging reports in the Spanish media that there are good reasons for the hold up in the desperately needed cash infusion to CF Malaga by their Qatari owners to pay down the club's debts and outstanding salaries of their players.

The Al-Thani family is negotiating the sale of CF Malaga to a consortium backed by Taci Oil Albania owned by Rezart Taci, through Moayad Shatat, the senior manager of the NAS group. Shatat arrived at Malaga two days ago to ostensibly takeover the everyday running of the club and to resolve the outstanding debt crisis at the club. However, it would appear now that he's the point person in the club's sale to the consortium.

Taci Oil, is the largest retail supplier and wholesale distributor of oil and petroleum products within Albania.

Their trading arm is Anika Enterprises, a Geneva, Switzerland-based company, which represents their oil interests globally and also their nascent sporting ventures. The company has stakes in football club Bologna and is one of AC Milan's main sponsors. They manage the Milan Junior Camp, in Albania and Kosovo, an annual camp that provide over 600 children per year from the ages of 8 to 16 an opportunity to meet and train with the sport's biggest names.

The company generated €81.6m in revenue last year and is a big name player in the emergence of the Balkan oil market. The owner, Rezart Taci has been quite vocal in his ambitions of a Milan takeover two years ago when Silvio Berlusconi expressed his frustration that none of his children appeared interested in running the club after his retirement.

The Malaga buyout is also being backed by Russian and Ukranian investors. Earlier we had conjectured the reasons why it would be in the best interests of the Al-Thani's to end their association with Malaga. It would seem that is exactly what is happening.

What this means is that the players future within the club became a bit more murky. The Liga begins in less than a month, and the focus will be on the takeover. It could add more pressure to the new investors to sell Santi Cazorla for the right price to bring the debt down and save on his wages. Arsenal may stand to gain with their present bid of €20m.

You're no lady, Lady Andrade. The Colombian forward threw a nasty right hook at Abby Wambach as the US striker fell onto the pitch clutching her face. Play continued on with the referee unaware of what had just happened and the Colombians continued their unsportswoman like conduct by keeping the ball in play. Failing the most basic tenets of the Olympic spirit.

The camera panned over to Wambach sporting an ugly shiner around the right eye. She eventually got up and showed what a tough cookie she is by scoring USA's second goal as she barreled over the Colombian defense to slide the ball past the goalie. It was an exclamation point. Hey, you tried taking out my right eye but I'll take you down.

Megan Rapinoe had one of her best matches. She was flawless in scoring the first goal as she took full advantage of Alex Morgan's skillful footwork and forward vision, controlling the pass with two touches, and absolutely laced the ball past Sandra Sepulveda. The USA sent Colombia down and out for the count with a third goal as Rapinoe sliced the defense to shreds with a through pass which Lloyd angled past Sepulveda.

The USA are through to the quarter-finals but before that they face North Korea.

Later Wambach gave her take on that ugly incident.

"It was a really terrible play," she said. "Dangerous and unsportsmanlike. I hope that FIFA will look at the play and decide if this is the kind of player they want in the Olympics."

Lady Andrade should have no further part to play in this Olympics and further. A three match ban would be a nice reminder.

Hope Solo was hardly under any pressure which was a good thing because her mind is clearly on extra-curricular activities. She and Brandi Chastain are intent on giving each other black eyes. Its an unseemly catfight and it can only be resolved one way. Jerseys off and then fan vote.

Here are the NBC highlights >>>

szólj hozzá: Benfica vs Real Madrid 5:2 GOALS HIGHLIGHTS

The Special One looked like he had swallowed a bitter pill. Check out Enzo Perez's third goal for Benfica.

If you're going to thrust Great Britain into the forefront of the Industrial Revolution, or elevate Tim Berners-Lee as father of the world wide web, then you should also celebrate Britain's unique place in crafting the world's most followed sport. The Olympics is competed by 204 countries, FIFA boasts 209 members.

Not many countries can lay claim to inventing particular sports, let alone as comprehensively as Britain did in laying down the fundamentals of the modern game of association football. A sense of disbelief descended down on us as the opening ceremony went by without one single mention of the sport, one of the oldest to be contested in the Olympics.

There was Beckham who is less a football star than a global icon streaming through the Thames on a speedboat looking vaguely like he had been sent to snuff out another Romney gaffe and the evil of austerity. Maybe one but not surely both at the same time. He saved MLS, didn't he? But in the stadium, there was no celebration of Ebenezer Cobb Morley, or the first FA rule book in 1863, or a timeline of the passage of the beautiful game to distant shores far and beyond, which set in stone a legacy withstanding the test of time. Britain's greatest export that no one can quibble with as a myriad of historians revisit and revamp its vexatious place in the history of colonialism. When you had an estimated 650 million viewers in over 190 countries following Man Utd vs Man City on May 3rd 2012, then you know you have done something right.

Lets forget football for a moment. Lets take boxing. Everyone who enters the ring, from Muhammed Ali to Amir Khan, has had to follow the Marquess of Queensberry rules. A British sporting institution gave us Don King and In Zaire. None of it chronicled in the opening ceremony. The mind boggles at the missed opportunities.

Since we pride ourselves as a blog that not only pontificates on the beautiful game, lets sally forth on the Danny Boyle mess of an opening ceremony. Tim Berners-Lee is a cog in the digital revolution that was set forth by that true genius, Alan Turing. Who would have celebrated his 100th birthday a month ago if he had lived that long. No mention of the father of computer science, artificial intelligence, and a conflicted gay symbol. How much more contemporary do you want to get? And where were the Beatles? A whole segment should have been devoted to the Fab Four, a tectonic shift in the cultural landscape of the world. Abbey Road the most famous piece of asphalt. And if you want funny and British, may we suggest Monty Python? How about the Parrot Sketch or the Ministry of Silly Walks done by 5,000 volunteers and John Cleese MC-ing the whole athletic endeavour.

Shallow and muddled. That's what the opening ceremony was. Even the special effects weren't anything to write home about. And here is a note to the NBC ignoramuses commenting on the ceremony, you absolutely missed Kenneth Branagh resplendent in top hat, playing cigar chomping Isembard Kingdom Brunel. The figure most associated with the Industrial Revolution, as he built every visible symbol of modern day infrastructure that we take for granted. The problem is that Branagh did not have a name tag, not that it would have made much of a difference. Branagh who? Brunel who? Lets cut straight to commercial.

Arsenal played quite well. Definitely more the attacking force than City, creating plenty of chances but falling short. Andre Santos, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, Carl Jenkinson and Gervinho came close with their opportunities.

City on the other hand scored on two displays of clinical efficiency with plenty of help from the Arsenal defense as Carl Jenkinson was remiss in covering Pablo Zabaleta and then Kieran Gibbs served the ball to Yaya Toure right in front of goal. Two goals in three minutes before half time was enough to seal the deal. The second half saw Arsenal striving to overcome that margin amidst mud wrestling in a torrential downpour.

There is talk as per Marca.com that the 23 year old Turkish midfielder who has found playing minutes hard to come under Jose Mourinho maybe on his way to the Premier League on loan, possibly Arsenal. Sahin was left out of Real's pre-season match against Benfica sparking transfer rumours.

As the recently concluded pre season match against City demonstrated, Arsenal had plenty of ball but again lacked that killer bit of midfield creativity to unlock the defense. One of Wenger's priorities on the tour is to find a promising youngster to promote to the first team. Thomas Eisfeld, Chuks Aneke, and Benik Afobe are all in consideration but they could still be a season or two away from breaking into that bracket.

Jack Wilshere's return is still up in the air and Tomas Rosicky is recuperating from tendo-achilles surgery with his return pushed back to end September. Meanwhile, the news out of Malaga is that they are holding fast to Santi Cazorla and demanding more than the £16m, the Gunners have to offer for him.

Sahin is amongst the Borussia Dortmund lineage of creative attacking midfielders that helped propel that club to the top of the German league. The 2011 Bundesliga player of the year was on the top of every serious club's transfer wish list before joining Real. He would be a welcome addition to Arsenal.

Arsenal has dug its heels in deep and the asking price of £25 million for RVP is proving too much for the Bianconeri. Out of the three clubs in the race, Juve had come closest to matching Arsenal's price reportedly in the region of £16m which is £4m more than what Utd and City had to offer. Their personal terms were also favourable with the Italian side ready to plonk down £190,000 good ones every week to match whatever City had in mind.

The Gunners have obviously seen what playing hardball can get you with what is happening at White Hart Lane over Luka Modric, who has even less reasons to leave, having signed a 6 year contract in 2010. Real Madrid is balking at Daniel Levy's demand of £40m and now there are signs that Modric is cooling off on a departure. He rejoined training and also apologized to Andre Villas-Boas for missing out on the US pre-season tour.

Utd have their hands full with the Lucas Moura deal now spiraling out of control and City still to off load their boatloads of bench warming strikers. There is some talk about a Edin Dzeko swap and some cash to boot but Milan is probably the Bosnian striker's preferred destination.

All this complicates a Van Persie departure and there is a growing feeling Arsenal maybe better off holding his feet to the fire and see him play out his final year on his contract. Its risky but then Van Persie will be approaching 30 and he will have to deliver if he wants to go to his choice of club or else re-sign at lower wages with Arsenal.

Earlier this month Megan Rapinoe came out and discussed her sexuality in Out Magazine. She has been in a relationship with an Australian soccer player for three years.

"I feel like sports in general are still homophobic, in the sense that not a lot of people are out," she says. "I feel everyone is really craving [for] people to come out. People want -- they need -- to see that there are people like me playing soccer for the good ol' U.S. of A."

We are shattered. In a good way. What's not to love about Megan? 110% on the pitch and proud about her sexuality. That's the way its supposed to be, isn't it? The same can't be said about men in soccer where coming out is fraught with danger and all kinds of taboos.

Back to Megan. Anyone who is a fan of Tilda Swinton cannot do any wrong in our book.

Adriano Galliani went on the charm offensive talking about Kaka.

"Certain love affairs never end. They go a long way away and then come back"

A day after, the club reportedly put together a €13m offer for Kaka's return to the San Siro after a disappointing number of seasons at Real Madrid. Jose Mourinho has made no bones that the one time footballer of the year has a limited future in the side. Milan on the other hand have lost their marquee players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva and desperately need a name like Kaka to drive up ticket sales.

The other salient point is Milan is trying to hold onto Antonio Cassano and Kaka's arrival may signal to the rebellious striker that they are still a club that attracts big names.

Stop press. Spain finally beaten. In the pecking order of bragging rights, the Olympics may not be such a big deal compared to the World Cup or the Euro, but lets not forget it was not another European giant beating them, it was Japan. A perennial Asian powerhouse but not known for winning results against the big boys of world football.

Yuki Utso shot them into the lead in the 33rd minute as a corner arrived literally unmolested at his feet. Spain was in further trouble just before half time when Inigo Martinez received the red card for denying a clear goal scoring opportunity to David De Gea averted further damage with some fine saves.

Here is NBC's report which includes longer highlights >>

The Reds and Blues: The Ballad of Dixie and Kenny first captured on celluloid has been adapted for theatre and is being staged at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool until August 11. The original protagonists in the film, Paul Duckworth and Drew Schofield, return as Dixie and Kenny in the stage version. Historical gamesmanship in rap form. Nice. Recent form. Not so much.

In a showdown between two teams with Fenway Sporting Group connections; Liverpool, the John Henry owned team had to bow before the Thomas De Benedetto led faction which took over Roma last year.

Michael Bradley who joined Roma earlier this month scored from a tight angle after Erik Lamela put him through. It was Lamela doing all the spadework again as he set up Alessandro Florenzi for Roma's second goal. Liverpool narrowed the margin through Charlie Adam, the much maligned midfielder. New signing Fabio Borini reunited with his former Swansea boss did not come onto the pitch but Alberto Aquilani, the former Roma player managed a cameo.

A bit more on Lamela. He looks like the real deal. It won't be surprising if a bigger club comes knocking for the Argentinian if he keeps up this quality of performance. For Liverpool, Brendan Rodgers has been trusted with the long term rebuilding of the side and John Henry has categorically stated he is not expecting CL qualification in his first year.

After the match, Roma manager Zdenek Zeman said of Bradley, "I think he played a good game. He's a player who works hard, he did well and kept his tempo very high."

Allez, allez, Alex! Vous êtes parfait

Looks like the IOC have shut down any official highlights and we can only rely on shaky handcams and cell phones to follow the progress of the US women's team. The long and short of it. The USA faced an uphill climb after a very good French side took a 2-0 lead within the first 15 minutes. France's high octane attack delivered when Gaetane Thiney's 20 yard sizzler beat Hope Solo and minutes later, Marie Laure- Delie took advantage of some sloppy defending to send the ball crashing past Solo again. A double against an unhappy Solo.

This is the US women's team which means you can never count them out. And right on cue, they clawed their way back as Abby Wambach scored from what else, a header. She's an absolute beast in the air, isn't she? Then it was poster girl, Alex Morgan taking advantage of a slow reacting defense to chase down Solo's long ball and loft it over the head of Sarah Bouhaddi. In the second half, Carli Lloyd lined up and smacked the ball with plenty of pace and movement as the USA finally took the lead. Morgan added insurance with a simple tap into a wide open goal after Tobin Heath's cross found Bouhaddi flat on her back.

Next up, Colombia and then North Korea who were victims of a gross faux pas by the organizing committee when they mistakenly put up the South Korean flag. It led to a walkout and a reappraisal of the South's sunshine policy.

Here is NBC's report which includes highlights >>

The MLS All Stars seem to have Chelsea's number and just like he did six years ago, Dwayne De Rosario proved to be a pivotal player in this years win too. The DC United midfielder set up Chris Pontius for the equalizer.

Before that two Chelsea veterans had sent their side ahead as John Terry scored from a header and then Frank Lampard batted the ball with his leg past Dan Kennedy after the goalie completely missed collecting a cross. The goals negated the All Stars bright start when Chris Wondolowski took advantage of Terry's flubbed clearance to gather the ball and send it past Henrique Hilario. Nice build up by Donovan and Thierry Henry who sent a nicely curling cross that Terry was unable to clear and the lucky break came Wondolowski's way.

Things were status quo till the 92nd minute when Eddie Johnson suddenly had possession of the ball in front of goal and released a shot which deflected off a defender past Turnbull. Yes, that Eddie Johnson. When did we last take his name? But he's back to scoring goals this time for the Sounders.

Yossi Benayoun who was at Arsenal last season on loan started for the Blues. Marko Marin who had an impressive game against PSG last Sunday caught the eye again for the Champions League winners. The other big name Eden Hazard came on in the second half but did little of note.

As per Thierry Henry, all that keeps the Red Bulls from an official announcement is Tim Cahill's medical examination. By the way, that also puts the kybosh on Kaka's MLS arrival.

Today, the MLS All Stars take on Chelsea. And yes, the All Stars beat the Blues, 1-0 in 2006. The Blues were not too shabby then coached under the Special One and boasting the likes of Didier Drogba but Dwayne De Rosario had other plans in store for them. The Canadian midfielder is this year's All Stars captain and he heads a line up with David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Jay De Merit, and Landon Donovan who have had experience playing against some of Chelsea's squad.

I happened to go for the PSG vs Chelsea game on Sunday at Yankee Stadium and the Blues were quite unimpressive in the first half. It was only when they introduced Ramires, Terry, Cole, and Marko Marin that their play perked up. There was more excitement getting the Mexican wave started than the stuff happening on the pitch. The prawn sandwich brigade were out there in full force but it was the handful of PSG supporters who were more vocal and passionate about their team.

" Sold to you Mr Al-Thani for the princely sum of €36 million "

The Spanish media has little to add to the Guardian report that so categorically stated Santi Cazorla's arrival at the Emirates was a done deal. The basic thrust of the report was Cazorla's personal terms had been worked out and now it was left to Malaga to accept Arsenal's €20m offer. At this point, with RVP's potential departure and Theo Walcott's contract negotiations stalling, anyone with a pulse is bound to be linked to Arsenal.

The Guardian unlike the Daily Mail or Goal.com is taken seriously when it reports on player transfers. In Sid Lowe, they have one of the most trusted voices on the ground when it someone to anything Spanish football. There is obvious heft to a Cazorla link and it has not been pulled out of thin air.

However, Arsene Wenger was quick to dismiss a Cazorla arrival.

He said: "No [we are not close]. Maybe we will sign a Malaysian player!"

The background: A club like Malaga is being propped up by the Qatari royal family's largesse just like PSG, except the Liga team is in far more serious economic trouble having fallen back in its previous wage commitments and transfer fees owed to other clubs. According to Lowe, the Al Thani's could wipe the slate clean with a single huge tranche of cash but are footdragging for no good reasons. If that installment comes through, it would mean they will not have to sell players. Which is why Cazorla's transfer even comes up. But Spain's economy is teeter tottering on the precipice and there might be all sorts of questions raised with a potential conflict of interest between the ownerships of Malaga and PSG, with the possibility of meeting up in the Champions League.

To refresh one's memory, PSG is owned by the Qatar Investment Authority, and their CEO is the Qatari PM, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber bin Muhammad Al Thani. QIA is a sovereign wealth fund but the entity does not publish its holdings making it virtually impossible to gauge personal contributions from the Qatari royal family. CF Malaga's owner is Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Abdullah Al Ahmed Al Thani, part of the royal clan, and related to the PM through bloodlines.

Sheikh Abdullah acquired Malaga in June 2010 for €36m, and in similar fashion to PSG though on a much smaller scale, the club made multi million dollar purchases to augment their squad under Manuel Pellegrini. The club most commonly associated with Brit expats in the sunny climes of the Costa Del Sol transformed within two years to the upper echelons of the Liga with players like Salomon Rondon, Santi Cazorla, Joris Mathijsen, and Julio Baptista. Last season they came fourth thus qualifying for the CL elimination stages for the first time in their history.

PSG, now in the news for making a rival bid of €40m for Luka Modric has already spent over €100m to bring in Ezekiel Lavezzi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, and the new Andrea Pirlo, Marco Veratti, to their club. Carlo Ancelotti thus faces the same pressure on him as Roberto Mancini, to win PSG's first Ligue title since 1993-94 and more importantly thrust PSG into the CL spotlight by becoming serious challengers to the usual suspects. Malaga's introduction to the CL could become a future inevitability given the fluid nature of the Liga below Real and Barca. With the rest of the Liga in lockdown over transfers, the acquisition of a few quality players could make all the difference.

We could see additional scrutiny over the ownership firewall between these two clubs as they increase their chances of international meetings and competition for transfers. A huge factor in Qatar's investment in these two clubs is a unquenchable desire for national branding, to establish the tiny Emirate as a world sporting power and to develop a league that matches the world's best all in time for the 2022 World Cup and beyond. There are different ways to do this and Qatar has already made some leeway through a more controversial grassroots approach and bending rigid citizenship requirements to lure star athletes in time for the Olympics and other international competitions.

At the same time, an imploding Spanish economy does not bode well for such an exposure as players in rival clubs face shrinking wages, non-payments, or outright sales. It will throw up in sharp relief the economic disparities between traditional powerhouses like Valencia and Sevilla now struggling to keep up with the new kids on the block propped up by outside money. Qatar's successful 2022 World Cup bid has been tainted with accusations of kickbacks and vote rigging.

The Emirate is probably in the midst of a delicate dance between malignant associations with its wealth and where it engenders goodwill. Qatar's bottomline is not financial investment in these clubs, the amounts represents spare change to the wealthiest nation in the world. Thus, moving on Malaga at the cost of upsetting the rest of the Liga or opening up fresh scrutiny into how they do business is detrimental to their actual desired outcome. These considerations affect players like Cazorla. He may well be on his way to Arsenal if this theory holds up. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

Mohamed Azmi Muslim made the match interesting when his 30 yard flyer beat Vito Mannone as the defense went to sleep (eye roll, its Arsenal!) just before the end of the first half. By then the Gunners had missed at least three good chances including one from Andre Dos Santos.

Arsene Wenger made a number of substitutions in the second half and late in the half, Nico Yennaris charged down the right latching onto one of Alex Song's preternatural passes. The wing back cut in and centred the ball to an arriving Thomas Eisfeld whose cool, calm finish put Arsenal back on level terms. A few minutes later, Benik Afobe who had been having his share of problems finishing scored the winner as his shot was deflected into goal. A late flurry but a win is a win.

Afterwards, Wenger had this to say:

"Overall we still have some tactical work to do and some physical work," he said, "but don't forget that some players have had only two or three days' training. Some others have had a maximum of seven or eight, so physically we are far from what we can produce."

Now its onto Beijing where they will meet Man City at the Birds Nest stadium. City as we know is Arsenal north-west.

The song is a haunting elegy to child abuse, a very serious matter. But a different Luka is hogging the football world's headlines at present and he's none too happy either. So here is the re-worded song.

"Luka"

My name is Luka
I work at White Hart Lane
I am on the TV a lot
Yes I think you've seen me before

And they want to keep me till I die
After that, you don't ask why
You just don't argue anymore

Great advertising by Adidas.

A picture says a thousand words

Sir Alex proves to be a real company man defending the Glazers whose ownership of Man Utd has piled record amounts of debt onto the club.

The Guardian is reporting that Malaga winger, Santi Cazorla will be the next transfer arriving at the Emirates for a reported £16m. Malaga is in serious financial trouble unless the Qatari businessman, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al-Thani, bankrolling them does not come up with a last minute cash infusion. But he maybe monitoring Spain's feeble economy, teetering on the edge, as 10 year bonds soar to record interest levels.

Cazorla has had difficulties getting paid at the club and he's complained off broken promises in the past. In selling, Malaga have waived off the main sticking point, his £40m buy out clause.

The 27 year old winger became a Villareal legend for his bombing runs down both flanks, sort of Gareth Bale like, and was instrumental for taking Malaga to their first ever Champions League after their fourth placed La Liga finish last season. Cazorla doesn't score too many goals but there is no denying that he's an impact player. A workhorse who also provides plenty of spark. A Scott Parker with craft and brains.

This player might see a return to his former club?

Kaka's future in Real Madrid is pretty much over and Florentino Perez is ready to off load him for €10m. However Kaka has set his heart on remaining in Europe which is why a rumoured trade to Corinthians was rejected.

This has fueled speculation that he might be primed for an AC Milan return. At a bargain basement price which will prove attractive for a cash strapped club. The other player being linked is Arjen Robben, who might be available for €20m, with Milan looking for goals now that Zlatan Ibrahimovic had departed for PSG. Milan has been a rather welcoming club for older players having entertained the likes of Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, and Andriy Shevchenko in the past. Robben might have worn out his welcome at Bayern after the disappointments of last season.

Excerpts from a very informative and inspiring documentary on Tim Cahill. He is half Samoan from his mother's side and his brother Chris Cahill is the captain of the Samoan national team. Here is a longer look at Tim Cahill >>

Tim Cahill plays much, much larger than his 5' 8" frame

The Red Bulls get a shot in the arm with Tim Cahill's move to the MLS on a £1m transfer. At Everton and as a Socceroo, Cahill is best known for some outrageous goals emerging through a thicket of tall defenders to score via one of the hardest noggin in the business. He is not a half bad set piece taker having shared those duties with Mikel Arteta for the Toffees. And his goal celebration involving a punch up with the corner goal only cements his legendary status.

Cahill established himself first at Milwall as a big game player scoring the game winning goal against Sunderland in the FA Cup semi-finals in 2004 to take the S.London club to their first final since 1945. Man Utd however proved to be an insurmountable obstacle and they lost, 0-3. Moving to Everton thereafter he proved to be an instant hit becoming the club's top scorer and the club's player of the year and was nominated for the 2006 Ballon D'Or. He was David Moyes's poster boy for unearthing hardworking gems in a career which lasted 7 years and 56 goals for the Toffees. 31 of them have come from headers. One of his lasting accomplishments before leaving was to equal legend Dixie Dean's record of scoring in three Anfield derbies. No wonder he's a club favourite.

As an international, Cahill shone for Australia in the 2006 World Cup scoring a brace against Japan in a 3-1 victory. Four years later, he scored one of the more memorable goals of the 2010 World Cup against Serbia in trademark fashion.

He joins the Red Bulls at the top of the Eastern Conference, a team that leads in goal scoring in the division with 37 and his inclusion should add many more to that total. Their game will really open up with a proven goalscorer from corners and free kicks.

The USA strangely remains off limits to Arsenal despite the US flavoured management

As a US based Gooner, one eagerly scans each summer for a sign the Gunners will make a stateside tour. In the past, this time of the year brings a tide of overseas clubs. And voila, on cue, fans here will get to see Chelsea, Real Madrid, AC Milan, PSG, Liverpool, Spurs, Roma, Swansea, Stoke, and Aston Villa playing fixtures all over the USA, raising their profile and doing a good bit of business through merchandising, sales, possibly even tying up some lucrative sponsorship deals.

Every team with an iota of US representation in the boardroom has made it over here. Except Arsenal. They have a MLS franchise holder as their majority shareholder and a CEO who was responsible for developing the league as one of its deputy commissioners.

On the face, the sort of impressive credentials and past associations which could be used to introduce Arsenal to a new market successfully and improve its commercial revenue. That is Ivan Gazidis's current buzzword. You don't have to be Man Utd to realize the huge potential of the US market.

Lets look at Roma in the Serie, one of the most exclusive leagues when it comes to foreign ownership but recently breached by Thomas Di Benedetto, president of a Boston based consortium who took over in 2011. There were no bones made about how this was an opportunity to promote Roma as a global brand. He naturally turned to the USA, where he hopes to set up five satellite centres to coach the club's style of soccer.

The club also signed up Michael Bradley, bolstering the midfield with his skill, but one of the benefits of having his name associated with the club would be to generate interest in such ventures and commercially develop them. Bradley with Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey is amongst the most followed US internationals.

Here is John Henry on the importance of Liverpool's US tour:

"We need to be in the US and we know this area well. (Chairman) Tom Werner is a Harvard grad and we knew this would be a great place for the team to train. Liverpool is such a global club. Last year we were in Asia, this year we're in North America. We have to try to get out and see the fans."

This was the same John Henry who immediately got Warrior Sports, a low key US based sports apparel maker on board on a £25m per year sponsorship deal which could net them as much as an eye popping £300m after their previous arrangement with Adidas collapsed with the German company refusing to renew their contract. The deal was £10m a year better than the previous Adidas deal.

In 2010, just before the World Cup, Utd set their sights on Chicharito Hernandez, a 20 year old phenom from Chivas Guadalajara, signing him up for a pittance before he caught the eye in South Africa. One of the signing terms was to play a match against Chivas in which Hernandez turned up for his old team to a rapturous welcome. Three days earlier, at the MLS All Stars vs Man Utd match at Reliant Stadium, Hernandez's cross border popularity was palpable as he brought down the house with his goal en route to a 5-2 shellacking of the All Stars. It was one of the most heavily attended All Star games in all of professional sports, not just soccer. Its these examples, a confluence of skill and marketing genius, that keeps Utd aloft as one of the world's sporting brands.

Arsenal's commercial forays in comparison have been rather provincial. They never capitalized on the success of the 2004 Invincibles as a way of bolstering a valuable revenue stream, a strange oversight considering their drum beat of a self sustaining model. Their first international tour in twelve years was somewhat successful but with their most recognizable names missing in the second edition to the Far East, one doesn't know how far that will go. There is a danger that the Asian market despite its vast potential could also be unforgiving.

On the other hand, you have a ready made Arsenal brand in the USA in the form of Thierry Henry, whose legendary name could headline any potential Red Bulls showdown to draw in salivating crowds. Stan Kroenke's MLS team, the neglected Colorado Rapids could also enjoy some international exposure with a potential Gunners arrival. There are so many points of connection but Arsenal continues to fail to develop them.

As this article suggests, Arsenal's lopsided reliance on match day revenue can only bring so much but they lag far behind Utd, Liverpool. Spurs, and Chelsea in developing new markets. It appears that Arsene Wenger for all his fealty to the self sustaining model is one of the obstacles towards international tours. The Gunners sponsorship growth has been less stellar and overshadowed by the restraints imposed by the Emirates and Nike multi -year deals that are set to expire in 2014. Despite the presence of Gazidis and Tom Fox, a former sports executive at Gatorade as marketing head, the number of US based partners is limited. In contrast, Utd has exploited its US based strength in its list of 21 partners.

It's high time Gazidis, Fox, and Stan Kroenke made their connections work for Arsenal in a market they are most familiar with. And getting Clint Dempsey to the Emirates will not just be a goalscoring boon but it will also be a huge step forward in developing that market.

Evgen Eliseev of Ukrainian side Goverla tried to stop a Chernomorets attack but his attempt backfired spectacularly. Chernomorets won, 3-2. The reaction of Goverla's coach Alexander Sevidov was priceless.

After Bordeaux turned down a return for their prodigal son, Fiorentina rejected Chamakh because of his high wages, it is the turn of Besiktas. The Turkish club as per Milliyat is looking at a loan move en route to a permanent deal worth £4m.

Don't really see this happening because Beskitas is neck deep in debt with the former chairman having spent boat loads of money bringing Guti, Simao Sabroso, Hugo Almeida, Ricardo Quaresma, and Manuel Almeida for a measly return of one league title. The new chairman, Fikret Orman, has promised austerity by slashing the wage bill by offloading some of the star players and reducing the transfer budget. Chamakh's wages will add quite substantially (~ £2m) to a club committed to bringing their debt down. Unless Arsenal end up paying a substantial portion of it.

Chamakh initially made a very bright start to his Arsenal career coming in place of the injured RVP. But with RVP's return it led to fewer playing minutes. He struggled to make an impact with his limited appearances leading to a spiral of decreasing self confidence. If this theory is true then Chamakh could prosper in RVP's absence but all this maybe moot because Olivier Giroud will became the front line striker should the Dutchman depart.

About half of the Brazilian Olympic squad on display in today's warm up have been linked to Premiership sides.

Remember when Chelsea were gyrating their hips fast and furiously to attract Neymar earlier this year. But it is Olympic team mate, Oscar who has reportedly undergone a medical at Chelsea, in line to be their newest acquisition although the club officially has yet to announce him. Hulk brought down by Micah Richards for a penalty which Neymar was able to convert is also on Roman Abramovich's radar if they can solve his vexatious escape clause.

Lucas Moura could be on his way to Old Trafford but Santos just refused to part with him for an outlandish £29m. Ganso has been linked to Arsenal in recent times as injury plagued Jack Wilshere's return has been pushed back deeper and the Gunners struggle to find the cutting edge minus Cesc Fabregas.

Oscar's Internacional buddy, striker Leandro Damaio was on Spurs wish list but they have their hands full with Luka Modric almost sure to leave White Hart for Real Madrid while Emmanuel Adebayor plays hooky with personal terms as City looks to part company with the Togolese. However Spurs team mate, Sandro, who scored the first goal will be very much a part of their first team as will Rafael for Man Utd this season.

Which gets us back to the game and did we say team GB were outclassed. Yes, they were, by a zillion Higgs Bosons. An excellent Jack Butland who came on in the second half prevented further damage.

Can you hear me now?

Luis Suarez injected himself in the racism debate in the football world, polarized by the reaction to the acquittal of John Terry of racist abuse against Anton Ferdinand. In an interview with on Uruguayan TV, the Liverpool striker cast himself as a tragic victim in the Patrice Evra racism affair accusing Man Utd of using its special place in the sport to exert unprecedented political pressure to ensure an eight match ban. He was all prepared to shake hands with Evra but from the media reaction you wouldn't know because only in Spain did they show the French half back deliberately lowering his hand so that Suarez would not make contact.

Not badly timed at all. It was a reminder of how Suarez was cast aside as a villain from the get go while John Terry got a chance to tell his side of the story in a court as a defense team succeeded in essentially stopping defamation of character. The public reaction was divided intensely on racial lines. In Suarez's case, it was Liverpool driven into a cul de sac by Utd's inexorable PR machine.

In Suarez's interview, he actually does little to clear his name, projecting instead on the emotional toll, on how he and his wife openly wept those days, and feeling drained from his hours long testimony. But his purpose might be different. It feeds into the perception that Utd are indeed looked on differently from the authorities. There is heft to those theories, the matches prolonged by an extra 5 minutes or more to ensure a favourable result, the number of penalties that dog the opposition, the two faced reaction to a tackle. These are not systemic to the pitch, Utd's influence extends to the public sphere, into the reaches of the higher ups, making it a political machine.

Suarez knows he will always be a central figure in the racism debate but he's cloaking himself by casting the limelight onto a system being gamed by his powerful accusers. It might get him some measure of sympathy in England. Brendan Rodgers has taken note of these extra-ordinary charges and his reaction was not positive. The last thing he wants to do is to clean up after his predecessor. Right on cue, Sir Alex made matters worse, saying in effect that Kenny Dalglish was forced to resign in part because he continued to defend Suarez even after the non-handshake much to owner John Henry's displeasure. We have not heard the last of it and like the Terry case, this too has no closure.

Robin Van Persie has been left out of the Far East squad: Bye-Bye RVP

Robin Van Pursey? Arsenal reject offers for the Dutch striker from Utd, City, and Juve as per reports. The figures are unknown but they are nowhere near Arsenal's demand of £25m.

In another sign his departure is almost inevitable, RVP has been left out of the squad for the Malaysia and China tour. He will train at the London Colney grounds working on his fitness.

A few things. If the offers have so far been nowhere near meeting Arsenal's valuation, it could mean a natural recalcitrance to splash for a frequently injured striker who is entering his final phase of his career. In City's case too, they still need to resolve the futures of Carlos Tevez, Edin Dzekom and a stalling Emmanuel Adebayor. Meanwhile, Utd seem to be keen on opening up the purse strings for the signing of Lucas Moura, the 19 year old Sao Paulo midfielder, in their quest to find the next generation of goal providers.

Juve would like to sign someone to fill Alessandro Del Piero's shoes and at times really struggled with goalscoring last season. But the club and the Serie in general are really going through serious economic downsizing and one can't see them matching City or even Utd if they decide to up the ante. Here lies the rub.

At Arsenal's end, things are a bit tighter around the margins. It's RVP's last year and he could see out his contract but then be available on a free transfer. In effect, we have a striker who could go through the motions while we lose a huge sum of money. On the other hand, Arsenal has to forego their typical footdragging if there is no serious commitment to matching their valuation. This is the time to play a smart bit of defense off the pitch.

The best you can do is to direct Van Persie to a club where he can do little damage. So if Juve fall short of the figure by £10m, take it. They can sweeten if for RVP by offering better personal terms. In RVP's case, he's not an Adebayor, in that he can actually hurt you with his last minute left footed out of this world strikes. There is plenty of evidence to suggest he can't be reduced to an Adebayor like caricature. He has publicly said Juve would be his preferred choice. Lets do everything to make that wish come true.

The Guardian links us to Fernando Llorente the in form Athletic Bilbao center forward, but this is pretty far fetched. We are already getting Olivier Giroud whose characteristics would match that of Llorente creating an unnecessary redundancy and an unwanted bench controversy. What we need is someone with Premiership experience and undoubted match winning capabilities. Which means we should compete with Liverpool for Clint Dempsey's signature should RVP leave. The American second striker will be a great investment from that transfer money.

Terrence Boyd's got the talent and the attitude. It was all on display for his new club Rapid Vienna which took on AS Roma, and yes, Michael Bradley also made news with his debut. But it was Boyd providing all the talking points, including a Mario Balotelli like celebration after his spectacular bicycle kick leveled the score, 1-1. Vienna went onto win, 2-1, in this pre-season friendly.

Thierry Henry's 10th goal of the season and his first since April 28th after which a hamstring injury kept him out for six weeks couldn't have been a sweeter reminder that the legend still has it. All hail the king!

With this win, the Red Bulls are in second place in the Eastern conference.

The Reds are so desperate to get rid of Andy Carroll that Fenway Sporting Group's cable TV network, NESN jumped the gun by announcing Clint Dempsey's signing on their website. Liverpool it read had, "added Clint Dempsey to a team that game (sic) within a game of winning the FA Cup."

Fulham completely denied the story saying Liverpool made no such offer and Clint Dempsey was not for sale. The post was later taken down.

Dempsey as per reports is desperate for Champions League experience. Welcome to Arsenal, a club he's been linked to before and which could check of that box. What do the Gunners get in return? Well, there is a reason why Brendan Rodgers would love to have him at Anfield.

One of the most improvisational players in the Premier League, a player whose impact last season for his club was nothing short of sensational. According to Opta Sports, he won Fulham 17 points with his goals and assists trailing only RVP's league leading 27 points. He is a game changer.

If the Dutchman were to leave Arsenal as its increasingly possible, then we should seriously consider bidding for Dempsey. As Gilles Grimandi put it, we pre-empted a potential RVP departure with the signings of Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud, but it takes a serious leap of faith expecting them to replicate their Koln and Montpellier performances in their Premiership debut. After RVP, we have a patchwork of goals coming from the defense and midfield but that will nowhere be near enough.

Dempsey is vital because he can play almost anywhere up front; false 9, out on the wings, even in central midfield. It's his movement off the ball that is so good, the way he squirts through for the last pass, and his perfectly timed lurking at the far post for that cross or botched clearance. He's not bad with his head either. And behind those heavy lidded eyes, is a player who fiercely wants to win. Which without belabouring the X's and Y's is an equally desirable quality in a team that sometimes comes up short in that department.

Arsenal could work out a deal that could send Ryo Miyaichi, who impressed Owen Coyle no end, on loan to Fulham plus some nice bit of cash. There are ways to do this. And raising Arsenal's profile in the US would not hurt one bit. Hey, remember all that commercial development stuff you're talking about, Mr Gazidis? Well, they buy jerseys here and watch TV too.

Francois Hollande's 75% tax rate on millionaires was a central election platform

Zlatan Ibrahimovic's transfer is complete. He is now a PSG player, a team he probably had no intention of joining when he launched his footballing career ten years ago. But the fact is he is now France's richest paid athlete with an annual salary of €14m with only Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi earning more. All paid through the deep pockets of the Qatar Investment Authority that has now dumped about €200m in transfer fees since its takeover in 2010 and shows no signs of slowing down.

Francois Hollande, the new French Prime Minister got elected partly on the promise that he would impose a 75% tax on all those earning more than €1m. This is a staggering 34% jump on the previous highest marginal rate of 41%. For comparison sake, the top rate in the USA is 35% which is already considered astronomical by almost all Republicans. In Europe, no country comes remotely comes close to the proposed French rate. In the UK, it is 45%, Belgium imposes 55%, and in Sweden, the wealthy pay 57%. But Hollande's justification for this increase has little to do with generating revenue. In fact, it will not.

The larger idea is that it is a way of curbing the outrageous salaries that one has come to associate with hedge fund managers, bankers, and corporate lawyers. An allegory to the financial doping that is poisoning football. When Hollande first mooted his plan, it resonated with the French public weary of Nicholas Sarkozy's bling bling culture. A reign which saw France go through the mayhem of a €544 billion stock market devaluation following Société Générale's reported loss of €5b through a rogue trader.

Ibrahimovic's salary has sparked a similar outrage in France. In fact, because of his high profile he maybe become a cause celebre in Hollande's morality play. The Sports Minister, Valérie Fourneyron, has already called for a salary cap implementation as part of the financial fair play rules to stop what she called "abuses."

"The sums are astronomical, irrational, the economic situation we are facing reminds us that this measure is more necessary than ever," she said.

The Hollande government in a subsequent statement made it clear that the 75% tax rate applied to athletes too. In fact, Ibrahimovic's wages would be a test case going forward. A spokeswoman, Najat Belkacem-Vallaud, opined, "Between ourselves, I think the income received by the player that you mention has shocked many people, so it seems natural that he can contribute to the collective effort."

The concern is that these athletes as could high wage earners in other fields, drop France as their next destination. An anxiety mirrored in England a few years ago that the top tax bracket hitting 50% could drive talent away to low rate tax havens like the Liga. In part, clubs jacked up their wages to offset those tax increases.

Does this mean Ibrahimovic could be forced to part with €10m of his salary in taxes if Hollande does single him out?

No, not really. There are ways around as this article in Le Monde points out. He could be paid his wages fully or partly abroad and escape being a French tax resident. Of course, these could be litigated as part of bilateral tax treaties that go after such offenders. There are other less aggressive ways. Ibrahimovic having lived outside France for five years or more qualifies as an expatriate and comes under rules which could allow him a 30% exemption. Or he could avail of a quotient system loophole which averages the taxable income over a period of time and save on the yearly rate. Or the club could go to the least desirable route and the salary could skyrocket to €89m which would give Ibrahimovic exact change. This of course would raise all sorts of red flags that Michel Platini is raising with UEFA's financial fair play rules.

Rangeramerica no more: Carlos Bocanegra and Maurice Edu seek new homes

As anticipated Carlos Bocanegra and Maurice Edu will not be part of newco Rangers, the entity formerly known as Rangers FC, who will begin their lives in the third division of the SFL.

According to owner Charles Green, the pair would have considered staying on if they had dropped one league below but playing in the basement was always going to be a tough sell for the US internationals. Only Alejandro Bedoya, amongst the US trio seems to have committed himself to the newly reconstituted club.

So whither Bocanegra and Edu now?

The US captain has had experience playing in the Premiership (Fulham) and the Ligue (St Etienne/ Rennes), so he should have quite a few offers within Europe. Watford could come calling after Adrian Mariappa's departure for Reading. Edu attracted interest from the Ligue last year, which could see him testing those waters again or the Eredivisie.

What about the other Rangers players? The firesale has seen Kyle Lafferty depart for Swiss side Sion, Steven Davis joined Southampton, goalie Allan McGregor is pursuing a Besiktas deal, Steve Naismith signed for Everton, and Jamie Ness is with Stoke City.

So RVP apparently slunk back to training camp on the first day, two weeks after dropping that bombshell where he refused to sign a new contract citing differences with the club's future ambitions. Now, he wants to resolve his future at the club as soon as possible over a future meeting. No date has been set. However, he does not figure in Arsenal's online pre order of their new kit.

The past fortnight has probably been a reality check for Van Persie. He could not have fathomed the depth of reaction of the fans. The initial dismay at the prospect of a record breaking striker departing was replaced by an upsurge in anger as fans were quick to remind him that they and the club had given him their unstinting support through all those injury plagued years. Many were quick to point out that RVP's announcement appeared to be a marketing ploy to embellish his first true great season. From the club's perspective, there was no repeat of the Sir Alex Ferguson rush to throw more money at Rooney's feet after the Utd striker dramatically said he was weighing signing for City. In fact, the response from other clubs have been down right disappointing.

RVP's name does not even crop up when Juventus, the club he's most frequently linked to, discuss their new season. Antonio Conte has been quite adamant that there was no need to spend €40m on transfers and appears to be more interested in unearthing more Arturo Vidal's, one of the principal architects of last season's winning squad. He praised Lucio and Sebastian Giovinco's contribution, two of Juve's prescient buys. Conte talked of nursing Maurcio Isla back to health as one of his priorities and hoping the talented Chilean could finally contribute to the midfield. Of course, this is not to say that Van Persie is not being considered given a post Alessandro Del Piero era and Conte did bring up the legend's name but it was a moment of nostalgia. In fact, Juve look suspiciously like they are embracing Arsenal's prudent model of austerity and development of cut rate talent.

Then there is City who despite plenty of noises in the past have not exactly dropped their pants in courting Van Persie since his hubris. They seemingly are more vested in trying to off load their mineshaft of strikers which could include Carlos Tevez and Edin Dzeko but who might find new homes difficult to find given their abortive cost and inflated wages. Mancini might have also detected a prima donna streak in the Dutch striker which could serve as a painful reminder that City's season was almost lost in a series of such moments on and off the pitch. This unwanted aspect of RVP has been kept in check at Arsenal where he's virtually top dog but at City such attention seeking behaviour is quite the norm.

United, the other Manchester club, which could be a potential destination just got served a prickly reminder in Dimitar Berbatov wanting yet another exit, the last exception to a policy not to sign anyone above the age of 26 years. It did not work out well. In fact, it proved to be a £31m mistake. One really wonders whether Van Persie, an injury plagued striker turning 29 years in August would really be a Utd target given such great risk.

Again, to reiterate this is not to say some of these clubs will not make a play for RVP. At this point it is a wait and watch attitude monitoring events within their clubs as well as what goes in his negotiations with Arsenal. But RVP after such a clear cut dismissal of a future in the club is clearly operating from a weakened position. He's not exactly the hot property he envisioned and it could be used by Arsenal to effectively remind him he already does have a home. In a strange twist it is Andy Carroll, a misfiring £35m boondoggle, on Liverpool's transfer block who if they recoup half will consider themselves lucky, hogging the headlines of a summer saga away from Anfield.

The Red Devils hold onto their spot as most valuable sports team

Forbes is out with their 2012 top 50 most valuable sports teams and Arsenal is in the top 10 in tenth place. This is three places lower than in the 2011 list. Man Utd retains first followed by Real Madrid. Barcelona climbed 18 spots to rank eighth. The list is dominated by the NFL with all thirty two teams making it to the top 50.

1. Manchester United ($2.23 billion)
2. Real Madrid ($1.88 billion)
3. New York Yankees ($1.85 billion)
4. Dallas Cowboys ($1.85 billion)
5. Washington Redskins ($1.56 billion)
6. Los Angeles Dodgers ($1.4 billion)
6. New England Patriots ($1.4 billion)
8. Barcelona ($1.31 billion)
9. New York Giants ($1.3 billion)
10.Arsenal ($1.29 billion)

In Arsenal's case match day receipts count for a bulk of their sales with the most expensive tickets in the league, the top end which got a lot costlier. Their commercial revenue stream remains a work in progress compared to Utd, Real Madrid, Bayern, Barcelona, and Liverpool. With their talismans departing or on the verge of departure, it can't be made easier. Utd is the commercial juggernaut chalking up multi-million dollar deals with AON, Nike, and DHL Express over the past year. Other soccer teams making the list at Bayern (#11, 1.23 billion), AC Milan (#27, 989 million), and Chelsea (#45, 761 million).

For Soccerblog's two female readers. Here is captain USA. Looks like what is happening to Rangers was furthest from his mind.

Abby Wambach. Intelligent. Articulate. Toned. Magnificent.

" Liberté, égalité, fraternité" or in this case more greenbacks for Zlatan

Gazzetta Dello Sport is reporting that the deal is in the bag and the Swede is expected to arrive in Paris for a medical tomorrow after days of wrangling over personal terms. Ibrahimovic is expected to earn €12m euros annually over a three year contract. The blockbuster trade also sees Thiago Motta depart for the Parc Des Princes with AC Milan expected to receive €65m for both players.

Ibra's departure will pave the way for Milan's pursuit of Carlos Tevez and possibly Edin Dzeko. However, City's manager Roberto Mancini has said he's going to hang onto them probably in an effort to extricate as much out of Milan when negotiations begin or more specifically in Tevez's case, unfinished business concludes.

For those who want to ride out their Monday morning blues. A perfect antidote. What soccer team or player would you to set this song as a theme to?

Florent Malouda is looking to Santos but they cannot afford his wages

Here we have Oscar slated for a Chelsea transfer but £25m is not good enough for Internacional because they want more. The Brazilian club's president, Giovanni Luigi explains:

" I want the transfer of Oscar to be the biggest transfer deal ever in Brazilian football," Luigi said. "And the Chelsea offer isn't that far from that."

At the same time Florent Malouda, who is planning to end his career in Brazil has scared off Santos because off his wage demands. Here is coach Muricy Ramalho's explanation:

"Malouda was offered to us. He's a very interesting player, but you get scared when they tell you their demands," Ramalho said. "They say they are in crisis in Europe, but they spend so much money on transfers there."

Austerity is devastating the most vulnerable sections of UK society while Chelsea. PSG, and City spend money like drunk overlords. From outside Europe, this is what it looks like.

More Sepp Blatter or blather. He is now insinuating that the 2006 World Cup was rigged to favour Germany.

When asked by the Swiss publication Blick about rumors of corruption surrounding the decisions to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to Russia and Qatar respectively, Blatter responded: "World Cups being purchased.... I am reminded of the World Cup allotment for 2006, when someone left the room at the last moment. And instead of 10:10, the vote was suddenly 10:9 in favor of Germany.... Perhaps in that situation also I was too well-meaning and naïve."

The reaction in Germany was altogether predictable. Franz Beckenbauer and Theo Zwanziger were "unable to comprehend the statements" and there was "no indications to suggest anything was askew". These allegations are not new with Guido Tognoni, a former FIFA executive shedding light on how Germany was awarded the 2006 World Cup, but the timing is interesting.

The German FA had come down hard on Blatter to resign in the wake of the report that fingered him as the FIFA official called P1 with full knowledge of bribes being paid to Joao Havelange, the former FIFA president and a mentor to Blatter. Initially, after denying his complicity using as his defense Swiss law sanctioning such type of payments, he then under pressure said the 96 year old Havelange should be stripped of his title of honorary president. His reaction to the German pressure to step down was to also throw them under the bus. It's a pattern that Blatter has followed in his career as FIFA president. Under threat, he blusters and bluffs his way through, pointing fingers at everyone else except him for the corrupt state of affairs. He could give the late Ken Lay a run for his money.

Think about it. A person leaves the room and it changes the voting and the outcome. The FIFA president is aware of the situation but does nothing to stop it claiming he was too naive. This is the sort of parody that goes into awarding the world's biggest and most lucrative sporting spectacle.

According to Opta Sports, the player with the most assists in the Premier League in the last five seasons is Cesc Fabregas. He had 49.

There is no stopping Spain is there? The U19 team repeat as champions as Spain wins their sixth U19 Euro title in 11 years. The only goal had a Barca - Real Madrid connection as Jese Rodriguez collected Gerard Deulofeu's pass and angled the ball past Sokratis Dioudis.

The Chievo Verona midfielder joins AS Roma on a three year transfer said to cost $4.6 million. He will keep company with club talisman Daniele De Rossi, Miraljem Panic, and Simone Perotta in the midfield.

Roma is owned by Thomas DiBenedetto, an American businessman and one of the partners at Fenway Sporting Group, who own the Boston Red Sox as well as Liverpool. Bradley's move to AS Roma is a shrewd move, not just because the American midfielder is a good fit in the Roma midfield, but it also represents the owners larger vision of marketing Roma to the USA.

DiBenedetto already has a proposal in place which will see Roma tie up with a Boston based soccer academy that will train over 8,000 kids in five states.

Leo Messi, is all set to launch his own wine collection. It is said when you take a sip, the taste cuts in left after running down the right and then dances around your tongue leaving the taste buds in a frenzy and then finally when they've done saying uncle, it bends into the epiglottis and shoots down the larynx leaving you screaming for more. Other wines beware.

Take that Stuart Pearce, he seems to say. Becks at his best. An open field goal and a set piece with his trademark wicked Magnus effect. He had to be that good because Kris Boyd was in form playing in front of MLS's most avid fans.

Hurrah! A trophy for Arsenal finally. Gervinho's equalizer against the Saints was enough for the Gunners to get their hands on the Markus Leibherr trophy even as they lost the penalty shootout because they had already won against Anderlecht, 1-0 on Henri Lansbury's goal. It was a very young Gunners squad with only Kieran Gibbs, the captain keeping company with Marouane Chamakh and Carl Jenkinson from the first team. We got our first glimpse of Thomas Eisfeld, the German wunderkid who looked very good.

For those wondering about Markus Liebherr, he was the Swiss businessman who bought Southampton in 2009, thus saving them from administration. He passed away before the side climbed up from League 1 to the Championship and thereon to the Premiership. The club commemorated his memory by hosting the inaugural Markus Liebherr competition.

He doesn't want to leave but Brendan Rodgers has no place for him

A £35m striker on the trading block. Never thought this would happen because in Andy Carroll's defense, he was probably the best thing that happened to Liverpool at the end of last season. Something woke up the target man and he showed he was capable of being ambitious as well as effective for the Reds.

But if what is going on at Liverpool is true then Carroll has no place in Brendan Rodgers's preferred 4-3-3 formation, built on possession, speed and movement up and down the flanks. The problem is whether the club can recoup the huge amount they threw at Newcastle, which is reportedly in the mix for a Carroll return. Fulham seems interested in a Dempsey plus cash deal, while newly promoted West Ham is also keen on availing the services of the pony tailed striker.

The court's have spoken. John Terry was not guilty of deliberate racial misconduct. Instead of it being the last word on the matter, it has ignited a firestorm as many anti-racism campaigners and black footballers, current and former, have spoken out about their dismay and distrust of the verdict. Our position has been that the evidence was largely circumstantial and the prosecution could not clearly establish a racial context.

However, it is clear in the wake of the court's decision, Terry's presence will continue to inflame race relations not just in football but in England. From Lord Herman Ouseley, chairman of Kick It Out urging the FA to re-examine the racism charge, Rio Ferdinand's re-tweeting the derogatory "Choc Ice" to describe Ashley Cole as a sell out, and to Duwayne Brooks, a close friend of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, calling the result BS, it is clear that this has reopened many wounds across a swathe of English society. Even on a less polarized level, the court case exposed the virulent language used by footballers today, and more so, in the case of Terry, who the Daily Mail, in a typical dim witted piece berating political correctness, called a "foul mouthed philanderer."

Rio Ferdinand's reaction is probably the most relevant one. Those are the peers, Terry is going to come in contact with. In this world, Cole was the backstabbing Brutus, who testified in favour of his white Captain and thereby became an Uncle Tom. His over the top characterization, undoubtedly, driven by a personal stake in his brother being denied justice. But it brings to the fore the politics of guilt by association. It is not just Terry, the central figure, but those who choose to defend him despite their colour, become guilty of racism. Fitz Hall, Cameron Jerome, and Garth Crooks have also been vocal in their dismay at how the court ruled. Jerome's dismissing robbing a bank as banter after the court seemingly sided on "black f**king c**t as a form of slagging suggests all manner of perverted behaviour could be tolerated on the pitch. It also suggests there is no closure to the sort of mental gyrations Roy Hodgson resorted to keep Rio Ferdinand out of the 2012 Euro squad as every other available partner to Terry fell victim to injuries.

We crossed the Rubicon on Friday. The more comfortable and charitable description of Terry as a "foul mouthed philanderer" just transformed into a more sinister one. Chelsea, a lightning rod for those who bemoan financial doping as having poisoned the sport could become a lightning rod for those intolerant of racial abuse for harbouring Terry. Kenny Dalglish and Liverpool had to endure a damaging PR debacle for weeks with their head in the sand defense of Luis Suarez before better sense prevailed. On a more practical level, what else does Terry play for? He's received every accolade possible from Premiership to Champions League level medals en route to being considered rightly so as one of England's best defenders and a club legend. If he hangs up his boots, he returns the conversation to that legacy, and not the one that is presently muddying it up badly for him.

In the space of a few minutes we saw the world of football hand down verdicts on a former England captain clearing him of racism charges and then to one its most storied clubs, devastating them with demotion to the lowest division for financial manipulation.

A brave, new world for the sport as it demanded accountability from its practitioners. But wait, here we have Sepp Blatter fingered in a cover up that saw millions of dollars funneled in bribes to his predecessor Joao Havelange and his son in law, Ricardo Teixeira, a FIFA executive, in exchange for awarding marketing and TV rights to ISL for the 2002 and 2006 World Cup and he admonishes those who say he needs to step down. No, he won't step down.

Blatter willingly participated in these transactions through guilt by association. He has been identified as P1, the hitherto unnamed FIFA official who knew Havelange had received a 1m Swiss franc payment from ISL, which went bankrupt in 2001.

The FIFA president did nothing because as he says under Swiss law at that time, these payments were perfectly legal. In 2002, the government finally clamped down on these "commissions" calling them what they are, bribes, but in eight years from 1992 and 2001, the two men received almost 41m in Swiss francs. As prosecutors moved quickly thereafter, FIFA went on the offensive, urging the case be dropped and forced settlements by having Havelange and Teixeira repay a pittance from those millions. All of this came to light in the special prosecutors report which sheds light on FIFA's baldfaced cover up.

The man governing the sport, who ran on reforming FIFA; is outed as the principal figure in aiding and abetting one of sports most shameful scandals, then basically thumbs his nose at the world. Blatter barely wears a codpiece now but he still shouts rules are for fools. In the real world, there are consequences as we have seen in the past few hours, but he has made a science of mocking them.

Ibrox: The new home of the newco Rangers

The Scottish Football League voted today, all 30 clubs that is, and the verdict is Rangers FC will begin their lives as the newly reconstituted newco Rangers, in the third division of the SFL. What a stunning fall. The most titled club in the world having won 54 league championships begins life in the lowest echelon of their league.

David Longmuir, CEO of the SFL had this to say:

"Furthermore, the Scottish Football League's only acceptable position will be to place Rangers FC into the Third Division of the Irn-Bru Scottish Football League from the start of this season."

Their football league's decision was at odds with the desires of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) and the Scottish Premier League (SPL), who were looking for a softer landing in the Championship which could potentially avoid "financial catastrophe" and a "slow, lingering death" of the game.

This as cautionary a tale as any of the risks involved in living beyond your means for years and then indulge in a cover up and outright fraudulence to create a shadowy world of pretend solvency. It came crashing down and to unimaginable consequences. Even in the case of Leeds Utd, the more celebrated case in financial mismanagement, it took six years to sap their core. A gradual decline in fortune, as they slipped out of the Premiership in 2004, thereon to the Championship, and finally hitting a new low entering the third division in 2007 as bankruptcy became inevitable.

This radical demotion has the potential for upending the very existence of the SPL as the Old Firm rivalry was the financial boon that kept the rest of the league afloat and an important driver of the Scottish economy. On the other hand, this could be an opportunity for the SPL to prove they are bigger than the Old Firm, and capture the imagination with other rivalries.

For fans following Rangeramerica or the US players who have made that club home, it appears only Alejandro Bedoya has committed to the new club. There is no word as yet of Carlos Bocanegra and Maurice Edu transferring their contracts to newco Rangers. But one of their primary concerns will be the potential damage to their national aspirations playing at the lowest tier of league performance.

As we predicted yesterday, John Terry was cleared of racism charges against Anton Ferdinand. The evidence was largely circumstantial and for such a damaging accusation, it needed to be water tight. Instead, the case revealed more of the macho, cheap shot, trash talk that infests the pitch and the not so bright bulbs that indulge in it.

It's the nose

" Ibrahimovic is like the Mona Lisa" added Raiola, "think of the most valuable paintings in the world, like the Mona Lisa and The Scream. People standing there, watching from a distance and it looks stupid. PSG and Manchester City can afford to dream about these paintings. With the purchase of Zlatan by PSG, it is a dream come true. "

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva are moving to Manchester City East, aka PSG

A week ago, Thiago Silva extended his five year contract by a year to 2017, increasing his salary from €4m to €6m for the extra year. His agent had actually wanted a salary increase to €7.5m which AC Milan negotiated down to €6m.

Silvio Berlusconi also revealed that they had turned down a €46m transfer offer from PSG for the defender. He also said Zlatan Ibrahimovic would stay on in Milan and there was no question of selling the striker.

What a difference a week makes. As per the Gazetta Dello Sport, the two AC Milan standouts are now reportedly on their way to PSG. Ibrahimovic will receive €12m per year while Thiago Silva's salary increases to €7.5m, as both players sign onto three year contracts. Milan will receive €62m in transfer fees with Zlatan's price tag said to be €35m. In addition, Milan saves on the wages which pushes up the benefit of doing this particular business to €170m. Very tidy sum for a cash strapped club.

Last evening, Berlusconi said the deal was done. However, Mina Raiola, Zlatan's agent clarified the negotiations were ongoing and a final agreement was still far away.

Leonardo, the former Milan manager, now in PSG as the technical director had a huge part to play in the deal prioritizing these two signings. With present PSG coach, Carlo Ancelotti, also an old Milan alum, the connections have paid off handsomely for both clubs. PSG have by now established themselves in the firmament of clubs who seem to care little for financial fair play rules. They are eying Luka Modric who will probably cost them between €20-€25m. PSG were beaten to the Championnat last season by minions Montpellier, much to the displeasure of the Qatar Investment Authority, their multi-billion dollar paymasters. Now, its time to plow in millions more to ensure that never happens.

Milan turn their focus to unfinished business, the transfer of Carlos Tevez that was interrupted at the last minute by Pato's refusal to join PSG. They are also scoping Edin Dzeko, another one of City's interminable strikers who is finding minutes hard to come by at the Etihad.

There seems to be the makings of this preseason producing an unprecedented scale of business. A generation of players close to retirement, clubs retrenching in an effort to step up another level, the eve of the financial fair play rules. The summer could be one whirlwind of transfers and more importantly for all of us, transfer rumours.

Update: Mina Raiola, Zlatan's agent calls his player "a Mona Lisa." The more one looks at Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece, the more one is impressed by the similarities. Maybe the smile. How about the nose? That's it, the nose. It really couldn't be about it being priceless because Zlatan is about fifth hand by now.

A purple patch? Or going purple as they, uh ... choke?

Wojciech Szczesny looks like he was coloured in by an EA animator. The new away kits are unveiled under Purple Reign, a clever little pun. The kits are not just eye catching but there is a definite historicity to them. Hopefully, Arsenal can re-invent themselves as successfully as Prince.

The impression one gets on the last day of the trial is the prosecution failed to prove without a reasonable doubt that John Terry engaged in racist abuse of his own volition. The evidence is largely circumstantial, through the divination of a lip reader, and through the reconstruction and revisionism of Anton Ferdinand, who did himself no favours meeting John Terry post match and dismissing it as "handbags". The suspicion of actual malevolence could not be upheld definitively as the less egregious error of judgment which the defense claimed led Terry to sarcastically replay what Ferdinand thought he heard him say.

Terry's record is not that of a racist although he's done plenty of other bad stuff which makes him an unmitigated so and so. This should be clearly differentiated from Luis Suarez who understood the power of that racist term and used it to goad Patrice Evra who promptly brought it to the attention of the authorities.

The verdict should be in tomorrow. But Terry should be acquitted. FIFA can then turn its attention to the real racists whom we had the misfortune of seeing at the 2012 Euro.

Walcott's rumoured departure will be a loss but then again, will it?

So this summer is all about where RVP is finally going to land. City is probably the destination. It probably checks off all the boxes in RVP's to do list. But the next big thing on the radar is Theo Walcott's contract renewal and from the looks of things there appears to be no hurry on the part of the winger to re-sign. Which does not bode well the longer this goes on. Lets look at the things that might play a part in making a choice and if we can put a spin on it.

Arrested development: At 23 years, Walcott should clearly be approaching the finished product stage but he's not. He spends lots of time without the ball which might not count for much if he was very good when he actually had it. When he does get the ball he is more likely to get dispossessed or over run.

As a winger he is particularly unproductive making fewer crosses and less effective ones despite being one of the quickest players on the flanks. Amongst his peers he has the lowest crossing accuracy and pass completion percentages. Valencia, Nani, Bale, and Lennon, are all streets ahead of him. Things get a bit better in front of goal where he scored eight and created more chances than a number of others. His direct running style which has little guile is more suited for a second striker role.

All of this may change but one of the reasons Walcott had a better second half last season was his connection with Van Persie. With Arsenal's captain gone, he may struggle to recreate that success.

Second fiddle to Alex Oxlade Chamberlain: Given poorer stats compared to his peers, Walcott's main threat is not from them but from within. The Ox full of raw talent has the potential to step into Walcott's shoes and has played some invigorating minutes. He has the power to provoke as his scintillating set up led to Van Persie's equalizer against Utd and then left the pitch much to his captain and fans chagrin. Walcott will be acutely aware that his Southampton understudy could make life much harder for him with those sort of displays. There are already signs. The Ox is a better dribbler and has a better pass completion percentage in just under 6 hours played in the Premiership.

Walcott could well be thinking of an exit strategy where he won't have to keep looking back over his shoulder.

Lack of titles, more money: The age old problem of playing for Arsenal. The same tired seven years going on without a title and a ceiling when it comes to getting paid wages. These could well be abstractions but Walcott has seen enough examples of players moving from Arsenal to other leagues or clubs within the Premiership and finding instant success at more lucrative salaries.

The thought of a winners medal gleaming around his neck while enjoying a fatter bank account might tempt Walcott into exiting and joining Ashley Cole, Kolo Toure, Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas, and Gael Clichy who have found success away from Arsenal.

If Walcott should leave then it will be just add more grist to the mill of a club that cannot hold onto its players. In reality, it might actually be a good thing because with the sale money we might be able to buy a winger who can actually deliver. Van Persie's departure is a different thing altogether. There is no way a 30 goal scorer can be replaced with a forward line of Gervinho, Podolski, Giroud, and Ox, who have scored 6 Premiership goals all put together.

The first family of crime: FIFA

The Guardian has a report on the International Sports Media and Marketing aka ISL, the now infamously bankrupt sports marketing company founded by Horst Dassler in the 1970s paying former FIFA president, Joao Havelange and his son-in-law, Ricardo Teixeira, a FIFA executive and former CBF president, millions of dollars in kickbacks for awarding them the 2002 and 2006 World Cup marketing and TV rights worth billions of dollars.

Swiss prosecutors based in the canton of Zug, launched an investigation linking these two men with the ISL kickbacks worth $42million as well as an additional $38 million as "commissions" to other FIFA and sports bigwigs which took place over a period of eight years from 1992 to 2000.

Under Sepp Blatter, who was Havelange's hand picked successor, these investigations were halted in 2004 after a small amount of money from those amounts were repaid as settlements. Very little was known until an amount of 1m Swiss francs in the name of Joao Havelange was mistakenly directed to a FIFA account.

Now, after eight years under a court order and under pressure by various public interest organizations, the results of these investigations have been finally made public and they make for one fascinating reading of FIFA's criminal activities. FIFA claims its all part of its reformation. But out of the ashes of ISL going belly up rose its successor, Infront Sports and Media. Guess who its CEO is? Philippe Blatter, the nephew of Sepp Blatter. The company was awarded the TV rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup in many Asian countries.

Ashley Cole says that we really shouldn't be having this trial referring to a post match meeting where John Terry met with Anton Ferdinand and both shook hands after agreeing there was nothing more than "handbags".

Ferdinand re-considered his position after his girlfriend replayed You Tube footage of the Terry incident on her cell phone where the Chelsea captain was seen mouthing off using racial epithets which he does not deny using.

Terry's contention is that he was just sarcastically replaying the words that Anton Ferdinand thought he had mistakenly used. He claims there was no racist intent or malicious singling out of Ferdinand's race. That is the heart of the matter and the judge will have to decide for or against Terry on those grounds. The defense, on the other hand, contends that Terry snapped after being slagged off by Ferdinand for bonking his former team mate Wayne Bridge's missus. The whole altercation began when Terry tried milking a penalty after both players bumped into each other on the pitch.

It's not just Cole but a whole bunch of Chelsea players from Salomon Kalou to Fernando Torres coming out in support of their captain. Even Jose Mourinho in a written statement said, "I'm certain John Terry is not a racist."

Calling someone a racist is based on a body of work, on incontrovertible evidence of racist words and actions, that lead to a trail. Now, Terry may not be a racist but there is well established proof that he's an arseh**e who thrives on getting a rise. Using racist language is one way of doing it.

He has already bought Eden Hazard and Marco Marin for £40m and there is serious money being plonked down to bringing Hulk from Porto, in the region of another £40m. Which could push his spending to £100m and counting.

No wonder 2012 Euro Golden Ball winner, Fernando Torres, all of £50m worth is being told he might have to warm the bench. Meanwhile, Abramovich continues to kick sand into UEFA's face over financial fair play rules. At this point spending is like a runaway train with no signs of a slowdown in time for those rules to come into effect by 2014.

5 highlights of Don Diego's Al Wasl tenure.

1. Kicking an annoying as heck fan in the hand. To be kicked by the man who made the Hand of God a part of footballing lore could be considered a tribute.
2. His heartfelt condolences to the father of Theyab Awana, the UAE hero who died in a car accident.
3. Continuing his running feud with Pele, calling himself the Ronnie Wood, Keith Richards, and Bono of football after the Brazilian great said he was the Beethoven of the sport. Pele should just "crawl back into his sarcophagus."
4. Defending his goalkeeper Majed Nasser after he struck Al Ahly's coach Quique Sanchez Flores in the back of the head claiming the Spanish coach incited his player. Nasser was suspended for 17 games.
5. Climbing into the stands to confront Al Shabab fans for verbally abusing his wife. That was absolutely the right thing to do.

Al Wasl did not reap the benefits as expected under Diego Maradona's tutelage. The Saudi Arabian club finished eighth in a 12 team league and the final straw was when Al Muharaq, a Bahraini club beat Al Wasl on penalties after both clubs tied on aggregate over both legs of a local tournament. Al Wasl led 3-1 in the first leg away and it was expected that they would easily win at home in the second leg.

In anticipation, the club's owner Sheik Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum even attended the match but the Bahraini club forced a penalty shootout which they won after winning the second leg by an identical, 3-1. It was enough humiliation for the Dubai ruling family and Maradona was shown the door. He did put Al Wasl on the map though with his profile and with his antics.

One more stopover in Maradona's rambling circumlocutions post football god.

John Terry became the first Englishman since Fred Perry to win Wimbledon

Actually the real story is John Terry's racism trial that began today for allegedly abusing Anton Ferdinand in Chelsea's match against QPR in October of last year. The defense presented the case that Terry was merely "sarcastically repeating the words that Ferdinand wrongly thought he had used."

Three Lung Park. For more on the man who invented incessant running, a three part documentary done by a South Korean broadcasting company. Here, here, and here. Turn CC on for the English translation.

An unsung gem and a trailblazer for Asian footballers

The hardest working player in the business has a new home at Loftus Road. He will be missed at Old Trafford where for seven years he could be depended on to give a 110% every time he came on the pitch.

Park Ji Sung joined Utd in 2005 for £4m from PSV Eindhoven and in doing so became the most decorated Asian player, helping Utd win four Premiership titles. He also became the first Asian to play in a Champions League final in 2009, a year after being controversially omitted by Sir Alex when Utd won against Chelsea on penalties. A player who likes keeping a low profile and enjoys the relative anonymity of the Manchester streets is a legend at home in S.Korea where he's regularly mobbed by fans. A long journey for someone considered too weak to play anything when growing up in Suwon, on the outskirts of Seoul.

This news is a bit shocking because even at 31 years of age, Park had a lot of running left in his legs. It became de riguer to see him tracking back down the flanks, through the centre, tirelessly tackling the ball away, becoming one of the finest in that business.

The Utd midfield was always a bit of a minefield with Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes, never their best going backwards with Scholes especially a hair breadth's away from being booked. For Sir Alex, Park was invaluable providing that defensive mettle when they needed to close down shop. And he could score, as many an Arsenal fan can tell you, reducing the Gunners to a hapless byline, through his counterattacks. Initially, he had to work against countless skeptics who believed Sir Alex had signed him to boost Utd's popularity in the East but those skeptics are an endangered lot because he's proved to be one of the most invaluable players to wear Utd's colours in recent memory.

QPR get a player who has not slowed down an iota and for only £2m (that is unbelievable). Park was supposedly swayed by Tony Fernandes and Mark Hughes's ambitions to thrust QPR into the top bracket of the Premiership. In accordance, QPR have already signed Fabio De Silva on a year loan. And now in Park Ji Sung, they find the perfect player to realize those ambitions. It's almost as if Utd want QPR to be in a repeat position and this time beat City to steal the Premiership on the final day.

Arsenal: Self sustaining model or vulture capitalism?

The response in the wake of RVP refusing to renew a new contract from those who run Arsenal or have a stake in the club reveals an unholy mess. Alisher Usmanov threw a bombshell in his letter and as odious a piece of PR opportunism as it was, it did contain some allegations that will be hard to disprove. Particularly, the club increasing ticket prices and spending less transfer money to drive up the stock price so that former shareholders could make more money when selling their shares. In short, the self financing model has been very, very good to these shareholders to cash out their millions in personal profits.

First of the bat to respond to those charges was Peter Hill Wood, having made a tidy £5.5m selling his shares to Stan Kroenke, who by the way, is still absent from the latest brouhaha to hit the ceiling. Hill Wood covered himself suitably by saying he loved Arsenal and Usmanov's charge that transfer money was made unavailable to drive up the share price was simply not true.

One of Usmanov's contentions was that the owners should invest in paying off the stadium debt which was countered by Ivan Gazidis and supported by Hill Wood that early repayment could result in heavy fines. How much can that be? Arsenal are already paying £15m in interest per year on the remaining £98m left on the loan. Surely, the penalties associated with an accelerated repayment scheme would be far less than compounded interest in the millions.

The explanation is unsatisfactory but what Hill Wood says thereafter shows what he thinks constitutes an actual emergency.

"We have run the club sensibly, and we haven't done badly; it's not as if we have been relegated."

The last time Hill Wood was in the oracle business was two years ago when he traveled to Barcelona during the CL quarter-finals to cajole Joan Laporta to keep his hands off Cesc Fabregas and then claimed after the meeting he had been given verbal assurances that they were giving up the chase. It was all games as it turned out. The R word has now officially entered the parlance as a sort of self fulfilling prophecy.

It's sad when Arsenal's off seasons have become tabloid stuff to feed a frenzy rather than its performance on the pitch during the season. But that is what the club's summers have increasingly become. For fans, a period filled with trepidation as to who will be the latest to flee the club. What we have is a snapshot on one side of an aging, out of touch boardroom and on the other, a squabbling bunch of investors incensed at being declared persona non grata. Not good. Not good at all.

Marcelo "El Loco" Bielsa has had a rocky couple of weeks

After meeting with Athletic Bilbao president Jose Urrutia, the volatile Argentinian who had shockingly resigned over the club allegedly dragging their feet in opening a new training center has re-considered that decision and decided to stay on for the present. This is being reported by AS and Marca.

Bielsa had just renewed his contract last month till Jun 2013 after leading Athletic to the Europa Cup final which they lost to Valencia.

In a 20 minute press conference Bielsa made some strong allegations of how the training grounds were a complete mess after scuffling with a building contractor in charge of construction. He said he could not in any good conscience allow a squad worth €300m to train in such conditions as he was personally responsible for their well being. It was a fraud, a scam, a theft perpetrated by the construction company who were doing a shoddy job.

Athletic in a statement stoutly defended themselves saying the work was going as planned and that Bielsa had crossed the line.

Bielsa might be volatile but he's always been a players coach and a man of absolute integrity. There was obviously something shady going on with the training ground construction and he said it like he saw it. Maybe some of those Athletic bigwigs were pocketing some kickbacks. The good part is that for now, he remains. But for how long?

The Three Lions sit pretty in 4th position despite disappointing performances

England rises to number 4 and raises eyebrows. They are two spots above Italy, the 2012 Euro runners up. Brazil falls to 11th because they don't have to play any qualifying matches having already qualified for the 2014 World Cup as hosts. Keeping in shape playing friendlies counts for far less points.

The present ELO ratings rank Brazil a more realistic 3rd position but they also have Italy pegged in 10th position. England also climb to an impressive 5th spot.

The upshot is that Jerome Valcke, the FIFA vice president had to come out with a statement defending the rankings.

"There are teams who are playing more friendly games than other teams and you can see a difference which is not very logical, but the ranking I would say is clearly still a good picture of the level of international football."

The USA are in 36th position having slipped 8 places since the last month. They had a tough draw against Guatemala on the road after winning their first CONCACAF World Cup qualifying encounter against Antigua and Barbuda. Next up is Jamaica on 7th September.

Sam Cronin of the San Jose Earthquakes lying prostrate on the pitch makes a miraculous recovery after getting struck by a ball kicked right at him by David Beckham. Those Herbalife jerseys worn by the LA Galaxy do have magical healing powers.

Becks was angry at Cronin's time wasting tactics as the Galaxy trailed 3-4 with about a minute to go. He was booked and then got into a shoving match with the Earthquakes. The MLS however took a dimmer view and banned him for a match. You do have to admire Becks accuracy. Maybe Stuart Pearce should take a closer look at this video.

The last two days ripped to shreds that carefully put together feel good pre-season feeling. Fans could be forgiven for gleefully rubbing their hands together at the prospect of RVP, Lukas Poldolski, and Olivier Giroud united in marauding their way through the opposition. Finally a summer that brought good cheer after so many dark, dismal ones scarred with the battles of players departing for "greener" pastures with the club powerless to stop them.

Then the ball dropped. RVP refusing to even entertain negotiations renewing his contract and questioning in a harsh and condescending way, the club's future vision, on the basis of one season. His arrogance forced his manager's hand and betrayed the patience and trust reposed in him by fans through years of injury and underwhelming performances. He is set to leave, yet another player failing to end his career as a Gunner.

The last time an Arsenal player had his testimonial match was 2006 when Dennis Bergkamp retired from his beloved club. That was also the year, Arsenal moved to the Emirates. In these six years past, the core of the famous 1999 Man Utd team have ended or are to end their careers in that club. Gary Neville, Edwin Van Der Saar, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, and Rio Ferdinand, have reaped the benefits of years of dedication to one single club. So will the 2007 class of Chelsea players who finally won this years Champions League and in the next few years could witness their Stamford Bridge farewells. This is the rawest form of player loyalty. There is no finessing it.

Footballers are mostly simple minded creatures. They understand goals scored, goals conceded, matches won, matches lost. In Sir Alex Ferguson, they have no better manager in making that language clear. At Chelsea, despite the revolving door of managers that have come and gone, Roman Abramovich's directives have never been in doubt. There is a firewall between the football club and the business end at these clubs. There is no conflict because Sir Alex Ferguson leaves the financial aspect of Utd's existence entirely in the hands of the Glazers. His remit is simple and the players who join Utd are told a simple truth: You're expected to win in a winning club. That is Econ 101 for them.

Right now there is a simmering war going on in Arsenal between shareholders who have no representation and those who have. Alisher Usmanov's letter to the board might be a perfectly calculated bit of PR opportunism following the Van Persie fiasco but there is a lot of truth in it. The Arsenal board is a collection of individuals who cashed out from the club making millions while giving up a majority of shares to an individual who operates, and that characterization is hyperbolic, largely in absentia. The club is run by a CEO who is a marketing person, interested in selling Arsenal as a business model to the Davos summit, debt laden governments, and new investors.

We always wonder about Arsene Wenger's role? Has he been taken hostage or is he an active perpetrator in this self sustaining model? You've to understand he has a degree in economics and is equally adept at reading a spreadsheet and understanding company financials. Wenger's been an activist for financial fair play rules and has talked about Arsenal in the past as a selling club without mincing words. This business model has a face and a perfect spokesperson. Without Wenger, the model would never have succeeded.

A new player arriving at the Emirates quickly internalizes that success at Arsenal is measured in entirely different terms. It's not exactly goals scored but quite possibly debt reduction that quarterly. He looks to the manager but there is the manager at a public forum talking up how the club have been successful at funding the Emirates, have boosted income selling players, or touting another CL spot for the 14th year in a row as achievement. He realizes his association with the club might be entirely transactional. The goalposts for Arsenal's successes have become entirely financial and explains Wenger's mind bending revisionism (4th is the new 1st) as a way of placation to the fans.

In this shifting narrative and a ripped up firewall between the business model and performance on the pitch, it is easy for a player to never develop the sort of allegiances which were part of the Arsenal fabric when they were serious about their place in football history. That was when the shareholders actually had a stake in the club, when Wenger new to the Premiership had a point to prove, and Chelsea and City had not financially poisoned the well irrevocably for all right minded clubs. Arsenal's reaction was to create a socialistic oasis in the most capitalistic sports league. An admirable blueprint for keeping clubs solvent became the priority. Probably not the best place for a hungry player who valued more visceral measures of success over being an emissary for financial prudence.

To play for Arsenal should be a privilege but it appears there are only two sorts of players who increasingly stay on. Those who enjoy Wenger's loyalty and others who enjoy the club's wages, amongst the most generous for mid tier players. It's created a very narrow bandwidth. Tragic when you think of Wenger's protective cocoon nurturing so many players but who seem to leave it in a fit of Shakespearean back stabbing. Arsenal would be better served if their players were armed with Corinthian democracy or inhabited a world of Bundesliga type of financial tight fistedness. But that sort of player ideologue is long gone.

What does Arsenal do to correct course? The language needs to change. Wenger has to stop selling Arsenal as some sort of 401K plan. Not in P/E ratios or lecturing fans on how they should be grateful they have the Emirates. He has to redefine success in unequivocal footballing terms. To make sure that players realize that every time they step on the pitch they are playing for one of the storied teams in English history. He has to stop protecting them and make them accountable for their mistakes. The club is more important than any of their egos. Stan Kroenke who could not be bothered previously should be hauled across trans Atlantic to watch matches and take some pride in his multi-million dollar investment. It's not just some of the players who go missing on the pitch when Arsenal plays, its the boardroom too. A 19 point difference between Utd and Arsenal, the biggest gap between 2nd and 3rd placed sides cannot merely be explained by economics because Old Trafford has also been hit by spartan times.

Yes, all this may still not stop the Samir Nasri's leaving for City but it will be more about greedy, self serving players lured in by a bigger paycheck and less about how Arsenal decided to get out of the business of winning titles. At the very least, it will spare us from Van Persie's contemptuous dismissal of Arsenal's ambitions.

It is official. FIFA finally ended the goal line technology debate that began seven years ago after Pedro Mendes's ghost goal against Man Utd was missed by the referee and the linesman. IFAB, the body that governs the game's rules and laws, approved goal line technology in Zurich yesterday. In addition, two goal line officials will be included as part of the refereeing crew.

The journey was long and littered with misconceptions and technology missteps. Amongst the misconceptions was this technology would take away the "human element" of the game. But human nature also reacts to injustices and there were far too many "one person's mistake is another person's gain" as the sport became too quick for the human eye.

Technology or the lack of, took center stage at the 2010 World Cup and if Germany had not outplayed England so comprehensively, Frank Lampard's denied ghost goal would have been responsible for a nation's collective amnesia or delusions or both. A missing Wayne Rooney would have had a perfect accomplice.

Still it wasn't easy. The Luddites led by Michel Platini were vocal in their opposition till last week but Sepp Blatter keen on changing a legacy pockmarked by corruption and nepotism gave the green signal. Blatter personally thanked Lampard for helping change his mind.

" I have to say 'thank you, Lampard'. I was completely down in South Africa when I saw that it really shocked me, it took me a day to react. It happened again in Ukraine, and Ukraine can still not believe it now."

Blatter was referring to the Marko Devic goal for Ukraine that the fifth official missed completely in the recently concluded Euro. Ukraine, the co-hosts were eliminated.

Goal line technology could be in place by mid season of the Premiership as well as in the FA Cup semi-finals and finals. Hawk Eye and Goal Ref, the two types of technology will also be installed in this year's Club World Cup in Japan and the 2013 Confederations Cup, before moving to the world's biggest stage, the 2014 World Cup.

Emerson's brace sparked a famous Corinthians victory over six times Copa Libertadores champions Boca Juniors. The first leg ended in a 1-1 draw. It was the first Libertadores title for Corinthians in the 52 year history of the competition which has favoured Argentinian clubs (22 titles) over the Brazilians (16 titles) by quite some distance.

Corinthians were helped by a Boca Juniors team that committed more errors and looked dispirited coming into the final after ending their 2012 season with only one win in their last eight matches. Emerson also invited controversy with this Tyson like moment.

It was also the last match for legend Juan Roman Riquelme who announced he would be leaving Boca Juniors in an emotional speech.

"This afternoon, I spoke with the president and informed him that I would not continue," Riquelme told reporters. "I am very grateful to the club and the team, I know I am, but I have nothing left to give the club, I'm empty."

Two odious characters: The pugilistic Usmanov and the insipid, colourless Kroenke

Normally anything that Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbeki oligarch would have to say about Arsenal could be dispatched with a flick of the head. But what he said about Van Persie sums up the state of affairs in the Arsenal boardroom which is there is no state of affairs under the majority ownership of Stan Kroenke, who remains a cipher, a zombie wheeled out at various points of the year to parrot out a boilerplate script.

Kroenke, the Walmart heir and a billionaire, has not put in a single dime of his money while owning 67% of Arsenal's stock valued at £11,750 per share. There is no desire as an American owner to market Arsenal in the USA with just the YES channel carrying a weekly programme called Arsenal 360. Arsenal also has Ivan Gazidis, a former MLS deputy commissioner and a marketing wiz as its CEO but that connection too has failed. So Kroenke's gradual takeover has not benefited the club in any material way. Arsenal's boardroom is a cozy, cushy world of a glad handing moneyed class that has nothing to lose as long as they keep making money.

This sums up the Gunners mood today

In a nightmare for Arsenal and its fans, Robin Van Persie declined to renew his contract leaving the club with no alternative other than to sell him to the highest bidder although he still has that final year of his contract to see out. This paves his path to the Etihad in a by now familiar pattern of exits.

Van Persie's meeting with Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis did not even go into his financial terms or a contract. It is now crystal clear, RVP doesn't think the club is doing enough to gain back its silverware winning glory days.

"In this meeting," he said, "it has again become clear to me that we in many aspects disagree on the way Arsenal should move forward."

RVP's addition to the exodus of marquees is further evidence that the players, the one's most critical to the club's success, remain unconvinced of Arsenal's model. They want their hands around a trophy, to be considered amongst the elite, and as vindication of their talent and hard work. At 28 years, RVP is not getting younger and is entering his final years as a striker. With each passing year, in the coldest, most practical terms, the 2005 FA Cup was all he had to show for his eight year Arsenal career.

This is as disappointing a day as any that one can remember. One knew how special Van Persie was when in his first injury free season he lit up the Premiership and single handedly drove the Gunners to third and the final CL spot. However, one always felt deep down this day would come, Arsenal getting found out again. A familiar recrimination of clubs with more money, more hunger, more intent, proving more attractive.

Throw in some bitterness to that disappointment because fans supported Van Persie through those injury plagued years and underwhelming performances to his first real season of breakout success, and his reaction to that was to entertain no further negotiations on his contract.

Lets play his remarks back.

"In this meeting," he said, "it has again become clear to me that we in many aspects disagree on the way Arsenal should move forward."

Van Persie clearly took over the meeting in a hostage situation. "It has again become clear" is an indication Arsenal had its chances to measure up but failed that smell test.

The club in response, was measured:

" We have to respect Robin's decision not to renew his contract. Robin has one year to run on his current contract and we are confident that he will fulfill his commitments to the Club."

So here we have it. Arsenal a club that sells its business model to stockholders and UEFA but fails in its most fundamental level to convince those who measure success in different milestones. On the other hand, the club has a surfeit of players who seem to take advantage of this abstraction to grind out their personal agendas. It appears with each passing year, financial fair play rules that in reality were put in place to discourage this sort of behaviour have proved ineffective.

What Arsenal have done better before this season's start is to prepare better for such an eventuality. At least on paper. We have Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud, potentially taking over the goalscoring responsibilities but only the most foolhardy will believe that they can match RVP's output on their Premiership debut. Theo Walcott has improved his goalscoring record and this season will probably add more. But to really over turn RVP's point that Arsenal is a losing club (in actuality that is what his argument amounts to), the club needs an insurance of another 15-20 goals to really challenge Utd, City, Chelsea, and Spurs. Cash out on RVP in a quid pro quo as he's made this an exercise in bluntness and dip into the market for a striker with preferably Premiership experience.

Science made one of its most important breakthroughs today as we came to know what constitutes matter. It was also the day, Utd made an announcement that it would be listed on the NYSE to raise $100million in shares in an effort to erase a monumental $661m in debt. It took 50 years from the time Sir Peter Higgs posited the existence of a sub atomic particle (thereafter called the Higgs boson) as the binding glue that holds matter together, to its announcement today of its official existence. Years upon years of labour and endless data crunching by scientists at CERN finally brought to fruition.

We will see how long it takes Man Utd to officially get rid off its debt obligations. One thinks it will take much, much longer. Once that happens we can hope for a quieter announcement but an equally monumental one in the thankless task of bringing football clubs to live within their means. However no Nobel Prizes will be disbursed. David Conn explains why this solution might not work for Cay-Man Utd.

Andre Villas Boas wasted no time bringing Gylfi Sigurdsson to White Hart

Gylfi Sigurdsson was supposed to be Liverpool bound in a re-union with former Swans boss Brendan Rodgers except Andre Villas Boas managed to spirit him away to White Hart Lane. Sigurdsson was hot property after his performance lit up Swansea's season on loan from Hoffenheim.

Villas Boas is also contemplating a move for Joao Moutinho as Luka Modric's future at Spurs is generally regarded as over. Spurs are also working out some last wrinkles in Jan Vertonghen's contract but the Ajax defender is strongly tipped to arrive shortly.

Spurs offered Hoffenheim £8m while Liverpool went no better than £6.8m as per reports. The question is whether he can fit in the 4-3-3 system that Villas Boas favours. As for Brendan Rodgers it's not just transfer money that is of concern, it is his ability to sell Liverpool to his transfer targets.

Stuart Pearce states its all "footballing reasons" why David Beckham was not chosen. He did his due diligence watching Becks play in the flesh and also watching DVDs of his LA Galaxy performances. It's the Olympics in London, and the least he can do is give a good account of team GB on home soil. There is Senegal and Uruguay to beat which might be easier said than done. Then depending on their position in the group they could meet a very good Mexican or Swiss side, both tough competitors, in the quarterfinals.

If Pearce does well, it could be a nice resume builder for the really big international competitions.

We feel for Beckham. This could have been a nice swansong to bow out to but Pearce's concerns and priorities are also understandable.

UEFA announced its top 23 man squad and there are some eyebrow raisers with Steve Gerrard and Daniele De Rossi included.

If we had to select an Englishman, then John Terry should have been a top choice and he finds a place in Soccerblog's XI. As centre back, Terry was brilliant against Italy and Ukraine. He probably single handedly forced Italy to the penalty shootout with at least 6 blocks of his own.

Why is Joao Moutinho so underrated? He can be Portugal's Deco or drop back deeper and hold midfield. The versatile midfielder did not have one poor game impressing in the opener against Germany and then organizing the attack against Spain in the semi-finals.

Euro 2012 didn't exactly shine a light on any particular right back. Philipp Lahm should have been a top choice but he was shown up by Mario Balotelli in the semi-finals as he was four years ago against Fernando Torres. Great going forward, questionable in his tracking back and taking care of business. Theodor Gebre Selassie made news as a target of racial abuse and that unsavoury bit aside, he shut down Ronaldo in the quarterfinals, as Portugal laboured to score. He provided the assist for Vaclav Pilar's goal that won the Czechs their match against Greece breathing new life into them and his energetic presence against Poland caught the eye as the co-hosts crashed out of the competition on Petr Jiracek's goal.

The rest of the selections are pretty self explanatory.

Soccerblog's Euro 2012 squad:

Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas (Spain), Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Stipe Pletikosa (Croatia)
Defenders: Theodor Gebre Selassie (Czech Republic), Sergio Ramos (Spain), Mats Hummels (Germany), John Terry (England), Jordi Alba (Spain), Fabio Coentrao (Portugal)
Midfielders: Andres Iniesta (Spain), Xavi (Spain), Joao Moutinho (Portugal), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Mesut Oezil (Germany), Sami Khedira (Germany), Vaclav Pilar (Czech Republic), Xabi Alonso (Spain), Luka Modric (Croatia), Cesc Fabregas (Spain)
Strikers: Mario Balotelli (Italy), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Marco Reus (Germany), Alan Dzagoev( Russia)

AVB will be unveiled as Harry Redknapp's replacement later this week. Meanwhile, Luka Modric who caught the eye in the Euro is strongly rumoured to be headed to Real Madrid. Jan Vertonghen's Spurs move has stalled for now because Ajax is unwilling to pay the centre back a percentage of his transfer fee. Brazilian midfielder Leandro Damaio was also linked with Spurs but it appears that has come to nought.

The two players who Spurs might go after are Porto midfielder Joao Moutinho who also had an impressive Euro campaign and might like to join his former boss once he is installed at White Hart. Alan Dzagoev, one of the highlights of the ultimately disappointing Russian team has also been linked to Spurs and could become AVB's first signing. Gareth Bales just signed a new four year contract. There is interest in Gylfi Sigurdsson, a possible offer to his club Hoffenheim for a permanent move to the Premiership. His strong displays while on loan to Swansea has invited lots of interests from other clubs including Liverpool.

szólj hozzá: 2-0

One of the highlights of the 2012 Euro. Jordi Alba actually begins this move and starts surging ahead even before passing to Xavi. It doesn't get more perfect than this as Alba without breaking his stride collects Xavi's thread through a eye of a needle and completes his 40 yard dash with that a strike that RVP would be proud of.

Longer highlights here of the first half and second half. Have at it before a heavy handed UEFA takes them down.

It took 15 passes to create David Silva's goal which as it turned out would have been enough to win the final. The illustration shows how Spain got the ball forward with laterals and back passes kept to a minimum. Spain barely edged Italy in total ball possession with 52% to 48%, after actually falling behind in the first half. In comparison, they averaged 65% in the rest of the matches. Here is the key stat: Spain completed 22 of 41 passes (53.7%) made into the box and scored three goals.

Thiago Motta's injury stopped any chance of a comeback as Italy forced to play a man down for 30 minutes as Spain enjoyed a 237-99 passes completed advantage. After the Motta injury, Spain also had a 17-0 touches in the box advantage.

The emergence of Jordi Alba cannot be overstated. Against France defying conventional wisdom, Alba bombed down the left channel turning in a cross for Xabi Alonso's first goal. Against Italy, Spain were a threat down the flanks through Alba and Arbeloa and this stretching force deformed the Azzurri's midfield diamond forcing Claudio Marchisio and Daniele De Rossi even wider into defending and opening up space behind them. Here is Alba's heatmap. He overlapped Iniesta every time an attack opened up down that channel.

Italy did possess a lot of the ball around and just beyond midfield but in a complaint usually aimed at Spain it was scattered and diffuse with few quality link ups into the box as Andrea Pirlo, easily had his worst game in a while completing just one of eight passes.

Marca says Gracias, Gracias, Gracias. AS ran the headline. Spain: Three-time champions and legends of modern football. In a nod to their overwhelming display Gazetta Dello Sport had Grandi di Spagna.

szólj hozzá: Spain 4 0 Italy hoofoot.com highlights

Great teams defy characterization, easy stereotypes, and rise to a challenge. Spain did all of this today erasing their often derided and poorly understood tiki taka with a display, fans of any stripe, race, religion, or nationality would recognize and acknowledge as magisterial.

Spain did this without playing any recognizable formation as Vincent Del Bosque made a mockery of conventional number 9's. Italy would have liked nothing better than the result they forced out of Spain in their opening group match and gone to penalties but Spain almost from the first minute showed that they were willing to risk playing open ended football. In fact, Italy had the lion's share of the football but it was Spain who showed what they could do when they had possession at every opportunity looking to go forward especially with Iniesta down the left channel. There were few reminders of the soporific tippy tappy laterals and backpasses. Just when it looked Spain could miss an actual no 9, Iniesta split open the Italian defense with a surgical stroke which ended with David Silva scoring a cracking header off Cesc Fabregas's lovely dink.

That goal led to an uncharacteristic sloppy spell of passing for about 15 minutes as the Italians came back and controlled the match. Spain were fortunate as they faded that Andrea Pirlo, the peerless one was not at his sharpest, with a couple of uncharacteristically mistimed passes and free kicks. They were also fortunate that Giorgio Chiellini had to leave with a knee injury, replaced by Federico Balzaretti. Spain again got back in rhythm and in the 41st minute, came a goal that should be investigated by Mulder and Scully. How on earth did Jordi Alba sprint unchecked 40 yards out of thin air and then receive a pass from Xavi that threaded the needle between three defenders right at his feet? A touch, a look forward, and then an exquisite curling finish with his left foot past Buffon. What a find this fellow has been and he's going to Barca after this. The cup runneth over.

The Italians looked like they had been hit with a collective haymaker while film makers will scramble to make a Minority Report sequel for this spectacular bit of pre-cognition.

The game was already over or was it? Teams that have scored first have gone onto win 10 out of the thirteen finals. Italy did come back into the second half with renewed verve as Antonio Di Natale with his first touch, a header that just sailed over, and then minutes later smashed in a shot from about 10 yards out which Casillas just about fended off and was fortunate to pluck out Di Natale's follow up chip as it ballooned over. At the other end, Spain were also having plenty of ball at the other end with Andres Iniesta, the MVP of this Euro and Fabregas causing all kinds of problems to the makeshift Italian defense. They were doomed once again as Thiago Motta introduced in the 57th minute lasted about four minutes and had to be stretchered off.

Italy played down a man for the next half hour and increasingly looked stretched and worn down. It was a matter of time Spain would pick their pocket this time Fernando Torres showing glimpses of the old version checking in with a goal as Xavi provided pin point service yet again. It was all over and Del Bosque brought out the supporting cast with Juan Mata making his first appearance in this Euro and getting rewarded with Spain's last goal after Torres drew out Buffon and in a sign of his rehabilitation smartly laid a pass for Mata to score Spain's final goal.

The 4-0 margin broke Germany's victory over USSR by a goal in the 1972 final. Spain marched on to become the first team in history to win three major competitions in a row. And Fernando Torres became the first striker to score in two finals and in a delicious bit of irony also became the Golden Boot winner for his three goals and an assist edging out Mario Gomez because of fewer minutes played.

Italy, the second best team, did not deserve to lose this way. They had the more compelling story. Beaten and battered two years ago at the World Cup, escaping a morale sapping match fixing scandal at home, restituting Pirlo a la Severus Snape as magician, and in Cassano and Balotelli; two bad boy strikers, one with heart problems, the other defying skin colour and racial baggage to become Italy's new hope. No one had given them any chance to make it this far but they did. They deserve plenty of praise.

Are Spain the greatest team in the history of the sport? The 1970s Brazil squad will have something to say about that but there is very little doubt as a team, Spain have few parallels. This is as good a football performance from a collective we can hope to seen in a lifetime. The mind boggling part to contemplate depending on whether you love or hate them? They look good for another three titles given that country's extra-ordinary level of talent.

As this ad tells us, he’s not Ronaldinho, Chris Waddle, Ronaldo, or Carlos Alberto Valderrama.

Nope, he’s Mario Balotelli.

To me, Balotelli’s life is a wonderful, inspirational story of courage and the ability to stand strong in the face of adversity. And, he’s just 21 years old.

Not only is he saving Italy from itself (the ignorance and stupidity of racism), he’s also saving the beautiful game.  Go Super Mario!