A speech delivered by investigative journalist Andrew Jennings at an international conference in Iceland. Is there a day of reckoning in Sepp Blatter’s future and will it involve a court date?
Read this article from Simon Kuper and you will have to shower.
Bobby,
You were right about McLaren not getting the Galaxy job, but do you think he was there to apply for the job? Do you think there was an interview?
How would you rate England and Scotland's chances of qualifying for the euros?
Do you think Real Mardid have a chance of making the Champions league Final this season?
Bobby - Did you hear the rumours a couple of weeks back that if/when England and Scotland fail to qualify ,they might play each other in a pair of games at Wembley and Hampden instead?
If true ,it almost makes me wish they DON'T qualify.
Was at the Bills/Dolphins game so I wasn't able to respond to some comments made about the Mighty Reds...
It was a foul and it was a penalty. Player was fouled, play was carried into the box thus making it a penalty. Liverpool thoroughly deserved the victory and were leading 1-0 at that point so it wasn't like they were given the points.
Also got to see the first half of the Getafe-Barca game on Saturday...Barca looked dreadful. Admittedly I've watched only 5 or 6 games of Barca this season but I've yet to be impressed by this team. I'd be more worried about playing Real Madrid than that team.
LGB - Please explain your version of the rules.
"Player was fouled, play was carried into the box thus making it a penalty". What do mean by "play was carried into the box"?
Last edited by BobbyMcMahon on November 12th at 8:52 AM.
Quick Arsenal question; who's their keeper after the January transfer window? I hear rumors of Green coming from WHU and I would love to believe it, as I think he has as much to do with WHU staying up last season as Tevez. Any other candidates. I know Wenger tends to grab players from Parts Unknown most of the time, but I do not think he will gamble as much on a keeper.
@ RINGO, Scotland/England matching would most likely be more interesting than the rest of Euro 2008!
Marcotti's article this week is a bit strange. He really must not having to write about and is picking on Martin O'Neil. Isn't a bit early to call O'Neil's time at Villa disappointing? There are no signs that his position is in jepardy. If the owner had more expectations, we would have seen highly rated players make their way to the club during the summer.
Hello Bobby
A few questions here.
1. I read the post on Gulit but what i want to know that really wasnt in the article is what type of football can we expect to see from his team? Does he have a attacking type of style or what? I am not familiar with his managerial style so i am curious to see what type of football he is going to instill on his new team.
2. what is the best duo, in your opinon, up front for liverpool? i think they should be playing Voronin and Torres up front. Voronin has some sweat passing skills and i think that with torres' speed and touch they would make the best partnership up front for liverpool. I dont remember seeing them play together yet but i know you'll correct me if I am wrong.
Thanks.
Bobby what I meant by that is that Peter Crouch was running into the box and his body was already over into the penalty area. He was in process of putting his foot down in the area as he was tripped up. True the "actual" foul, where the defender nipped his backheel, was just outside the area Crouch was in.
Last edited by LetsGoBuffalo on November 12th at 10:48 AM.
apad-Voronin and Torres have played many games together already. They have started only once though as the only two strikers on the field and that was the Sunderland game.
A good try but I think its better to stick to the existing rule rather than creating a new one. The foul happened outside the box and it should have been a free kick not a penalty. A difficult call for the referee and one that did not impact the outcome of the game but all the same it was not a penalty.
I'm with the others LGB, it should have been a free kick outside the box. Even though the ref got it wrong it was close to the box and at real speed I'd like to see any of us make the correct call.
Good point though with the Italian league. This was discussed here last year as well after a police officer was killed. Where's the line in the sand? The mere fact that this subject is brought up annually points out that something drastic MUST be done. I know the Bill Shankly quote and everything, but really life is much too precious to lose it following a game.
Re: Torres goal, I'd like to know how to take down a 70 yard pass on my chest. Sometimes you just have too shake your head at even the simplest things that these guys are capable of doing.
Verbal97 - i agree on the torres thing, not only was it a 70 yard pass put down with his chest but at full speed too and with touch!! its just amazing.
As for the Italian thing, its absurd that people would be losing their lives for a game. None of us where so i dont know what that car was doing but you know the blame has to go to the fans. maybe not for this particular incident but cmon why are you rioting over a game. its ludacris..your only hurting yourself.
its not just in football either. I have been to dolphins games and seen a mother with two children yelling all kinds of abuses at other people. ive seen fights, bloddy ones, at Miami-Jets games Miami-Bills games. Its stupid. I was at a friendly at the orange bowl to watch Argentina play colombia and there must have been 5 fights just in my vicinity. Passion about a game is great but i dont know what gets into people to get into a fight.
so far the Italian Federation has made attempts at an internal solution. When ever there has been violence, they always impose close door games. Then when they felt things were secure they reopenned the stadium doors to the fans. Regardless, the problem is not necesarily stadium security when the violance is also taking place outside. Clearly the Italian Carabinieri are not capable of handling this, let alone changing a light bulb. So they will either need to bring in support and/or retrain the police. For the short term it would help to bring in support while as Atleti suggested have the games play out behind closed doors until everything is figured out.
Platini has dropped his plan for cup winners to go into the CL.
But six smaller leagues ,inc Scotland ,will get an automatic place.
And the third place teams from the bigger leagues will now go straight in ,but the fourth place teams will now have to go through two qualifying rounds.
Didn't see the Arsenal Reading game but 3-0 for the majority of the game with a consolation goal in the 87th sounds pretty convincing to me. Still waiting for that other shoe to drop and the schedule to get "hard" and Arsenal to spiral out of control into the abyss. Nice to see Ade was on the score sheet also was starting to get worried about him.
in other news:
"The Football Association have revealed no formal action will be taken against Newcastle midfielder Joey Barton for his controversial challenge on Dickson Etuhu during Saturday's 1-1 draw at Sunderland." what a joke.
If Dickson Etuhu was Ronaldo, Cesc or Torres I bet the FA would have to do something. Cant they just admit Barton is no better then a street thug and treat him accordingly.
Football’s rich list –
However much money is in the game it still needs the 11 on the pitch to beat the other eleven.
Rob Hughes article –
Nice tribute article on Liedholm
Andrew Jennings speech – Well doesn’t the stink of all that shiite carry all the way from Switzerland to the US.
Lord Coe is a toady. Good runner but awful human being. My dog knows more about Ethics than Lord Coe will ever know.
He was a supercillious concha when he won his Olympic Golds and a
whingey,whiney #### when he won his Silver. Thought he was better than
everybody else then and probably thinks the same now. I wouldn’t waste a bullet on this toe rag.
Simon Kuper article –
Well I don’t need a shower. It’s quite disgusting but that is global capitalism for you.
A new football statement seems to be emerging.
“FU. CK the Fans – follow the money!”
The Urs Linsi article –
The pile of shiite just gets deeper and deeper and deeper.
Marcotti’s article –
You just have to look at the comments – but some people will read this and think Marcotti actually has a clue.
Oh, the bloke wears his headphones on a funny way and has a radio show – he must know something. He wouldn’t last five minutes with Danny! or even David!
Posted by: jo, glasgow on 12:33am Sun 11 Nov 07
is it oneils celtic connection that has made him a victim to this pretty pointless article...the points stat isnt even remotely interesting...even more meaningless than celtics run of away games without conceeding a goal..by the way did you know that celtic have won as many cl group games in
Last edited by craigy_f on November 12th at 4:53 PM.
is it oneils celtic connection that has made him a victim to this pretty pointless article...the points stat isnt even remotely interesting...even more meaningless than celtics run of away games without conceeding a goal..by the way did you know that celtic have won as many cl group games in 15 home games than rangers have won in their total 46 cl group games...
Quote | Report this post
Posted by: Peter, manchester on 3:06am Sun 11 Nov 07
Poor Gab you just cant get over the fact that Martin made you look like the complete #### that you are,when he guided Celtic to the championship.Remembe
r that one Gab?the one where you said Advocaat and your beloved Rangers would walk it,oh how we laughed.
How sad that you feel you have to belittle Martin in order to gain some warped sense of revenge because you got it so wrong in 2,000.
As for Martin,he probably doesnt even know or care who you are.
Quote | Report this post
Posted by: Peter, Manchester on 3:17am Sun 11 Nov 07
Gab look what I found lol.
What a tipster you are,and Celtic fans are still laughing about this utterly embarrassing claptrap to this day lol.
Rangers look unstoppable in new Scottish season gabriel marcotti
You can pencil in Glasgow Rangers to win its twelfth title in thirteen years.
Celtic (or anybody else in Scotland) has about as much chance of breaking Rangers' hegemony as Pamela Anderson does of winning an Academy Award.
Perhaps more than any other season in recent history, this one looks like a no-brainer.
Luca Toni made the step up to the bigger clubs and still did well.
Hope he has a screamer o####ame and scores a hat trick.
Aidan O’Hara article on Sparky –
The bloke is doing a good job but I dunno about him succeeding Ferguson. That appointment will probably surprise evcerybody.
Bobby – what’s your take on the upcoming Scotland Italy game?
Do you see Hughes as a successor to Ferguson?
How would you rate Martin O’Neill’s tenure at Villa?
LGB – Go watch some games and see that the same contact near the half way line wouldn’t have even slowed down Crouch. He’s learning from Torres though!
LGB – the English ban was largely the result of the Heysel Stadium disaster – Liverpool ‘supporters’ and Juventus fans. Only English teams were banned from European Competition. But violent thugs from some other team would have got the English banned sooner or later.
Absolutely NO CHANCE the Italians will be banned from Europe. Unless somehting big kicks off at a European game.
JayAlves the Arsenal game was same old. Reading played 9men in defense plus goalie. Luckily Arsenal hit them on a quick counter and Flamstar scored. 2nd 1/2 Reading tried to attack paid big for it as Ade got a second. Very well taken goal reminisint of the King. Then he scored another but the linesman decided to get himslef into the headline buy saying he was offside. But Arsenal got a 3rd from Helb. Arsenal got sloppy and they scored, not before Cesc got what looked like an intentional Yellow card so he would be out for the Wigan game. A mature performance from Arsenal though. The defense seems to be getting better but still alot improvement needed.
ManUre look like a team that can't be defeated while Arsenal look like a team that just won't accept to be defeated.
Xmas & new year will be vital to both sides - that bunch of games in often cacky conditions is a real seasonal season decider.
Arsenal get - Spurs, away to Pompey, a loss to Everton, the the Hammers
Mancs get - a suprise loss at Old Trafford to a stunning Blues side, Sunderland away, a visit to Upton Park, an easy three points from Bruce's Brum
And the weekend before that is the BIG FOUR SUNDAY SPECTACULAR!
Hi Bobby,
Recent news is the Seattle Sounders will be an MLS team in 2009, and it will follow a "club member/owner" style scheme which Barcelona uses where the fans get to vote managers out. Though it appears to work for Barca, I don't feel that this is the best idea for a brand new MLS side. What are your thoughts on this ownership style coming to the US?
apad03 - listen carefully to some of the Premier League games on FSC and you can hear young children questioning the veracity of the referee or adroitly questioning the elequonce of the theatrical flop to the floor from some highly paid centre forward.
Comment from one game at Goodison park this season from a high pitched young lady screaming, "Fu. Ck. Off you french bast**D!"
It still is much better than getting golf balls with nails driven through them thrown at you though, or sharpened pennies.
LGB - It was called a foul by the referee. I looked at it from all the angles in slow mo (thanks Sky Sports) and couldn't be 100% sure one way or the other.
Crouch trips himself walking down the street hes so ackward and lanky is anyone really shocked? I wouldn't ever even call him a cheat as I don't think he always has full control of his limbs as they are so far from his brain there must be a delayed reaction. England should keep him on the roster and bench for as long as they can. When all else fails they can sub him on and hope for a horrible broken play where he and the defender get tangled up in a mess of legs and the ref is forced to call something.
LGB - it's not just Everton fans who lambast Crouch!
See above :)
This is interesting considering the red faced scot's latest mind games.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A29020 538
or
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foo tball/eng_prem/7089910.stm
If his current side win the double or treble then yes they are as good as two of the more dominant manc sides (93/94 or 98/99) but if they don't win then you'd have to say NO! Who on this side is better than Cantona or Keane? Is van der Sar better than the Great Dane (who also kept out the Germans in Euro 92)
Seems like English Footballers are taking their cues from the NFL's 'bad boys'
check out this article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/ england/london/7091054.stm
If after sharing a chat with Venables in the nice seats at Stamford Bridge on Sunday McClaren picks Lescott as a left back he really needs to be fired.
I want to make a suggestion to include once a week "top 10 assists" or "top 10 passes" in addition to "top goals" and "top saves", this way we would encourage youth players to be more creative and show the world the importance of playmaking.
I read an interesting article on El Pais just now:
The 4 top Liga clubs (in this case, Real, Villarreal, Barcelona & Valencia) have conceded 59 goals in 12 rounds-- that's 13 more goals than last season.
When compared to other leagues at round 12, that's 30 more than EPL's top 4 clubs, 14 more than Italy's top 4, 20 more than Ligue's top 4, & 18 more than Bundesliga's top 4.
It's due largely to Spain's obsession with & love for attacking football (at the expense of the defence), according to the article. A very valid point.
Meanwhile, the article points out that mid-table clubs (eg Recre, Racing, Depor) have been a bit defensive in comparison to the 'top teams', so far.
Last edited by atleti on November 12th at 9:31 PM.
I can't see a ban on Serie A clubs in Europe without a similar incident to the Heysel disaster, where 39 supporters were killed before the 1985 European Cup final. Violence in Italy, while terrible, has not reaced the level of those dark days and has largely been confined to domestic competition. UEFA would only act if it spreads to Champions League or the UEFA Cup as they did in ordering both Roma and Inter to play behind closed doors when Anders Frisk was hit by a coin after sending off Phillipe Mexes and Dida was hit by a flare a few years back.
If I recall correctly, Maggie Thatcher, who was the prime minister at the time, also asked the FA to withdraw all English clubs from European competititon.
craigy (i.e., the boy who cried wolf), Crouch did NOT dive and if you say that everytime a foul doesn't fit in your eternal plan people will stop taking you seriously (if they ever did). BTW, anyone can easily say that Cahill's goal should have been disallowed for dangerous play, but at least I'm not a killjoy.
alberta is unfortunately right. Not unfortunate because he's right, but rather because it will take something catastrophic for the problems in Italy to be addressed seriously. I think a ban and closed doors would make Italy take a good, hard look in the mirror. It took Heysel and Hillsborough for such problems to be addressed in England, and though hooliganism is still around, it's not as rampant and overall the fan experience is much safer. It would be awful if it took another tragedy of such gravity before something gets done about a detiorating situation.
Observations from the weekend....Crouch fouled outside the box, should have been a free kick not a
PK. Good PK by Gerrard.
Torres goal was terrific.
Per family and friends in the UK Gerrard has a new nickname.....Clubfoot aka Dudley Moore.
Manu looks very tough and very deep even w/o Rooney.
Barca soundly beaten by a revived side in Getafe, give them credit. I have said all year that I am not impressed with my side counter to other fans who can't objectively criticize their club.
Barca's defense is woeful at times. Milito is not playing to standard, Thuram too old and Puyol is not a fullback.
Cahill's goal was terrific and as much a dangerous play as Twellman's was last week which wasn't.
Before everyone gets their knickers in a knot re: banning Italian football please get your facts straight. The incident happened about equidistant from Rome and Milan hours from the respective clubs stadia. An innocent bystander was shot in his car parked at a reststop by an overzealous policeman.
To suggest a ban on Italian clubs from European competition because this was analogous to Heysel? Are you kidding me?
For what? Read your history and get the facts straight.
Cheers
Last edited by gongatore on November 13th at 7:48 AM.
I've seen bicycle kicks that were more dangerous than that and no foul was called. But a beautiful goal in the dying moments of the game. Chelsea fans must feel gutted.
Funny how LGB knew Crouch's PK shouldn't have been given but will swear up and down it was the correct call. It's one thing to be a fan, it's another to be a fanboy.
Bobby can you explain big sam's lack of tatictal nouse, why he plays smith as a defensive midfield,martins is their to goal scorer but he is on the bench , here is a guy who scored 17 goals last season, more than viduka and owen
q2 how does barton escape punishment for a horror tackle when dunn misses games for two not malicious tackles.
q3 will mac stay as england boss given a wide call for him to be not sacked
q4 are reds genuine tittle conteders
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
Thank you to all who take time to visit this blog and especially to those of you who post your comments and thoughts.
PS - If you have questions please post them on the regular Monday blog. I am unable to answer e mails posted to the inbox on this site.
And one more thing. If you have questions or complaints or compliments about programming please contact Fox Soccer Channel or Fox Sports World Canada directly. I have no control over what the stations televise.
