Paul Doyle says that the African Cup of Nations is more than just another tournament for the players.
Jonathan Wilson looks at Benin’s preparation for the tournament.
Here is another place where you can access the African Cup of Nations. You can buy per game, the group phase or the highlights. Muntari’s winner against Guinea was an absolute cracker.
A BBC article marking the 25th anniversary of Garrincha’s death. For anyone who has not read Ruy Castro’s book, get it and you will enjoy. It is an incredible story. Someone once said that before there was George Best there was Garrincha – that applied to the on-field and off-field exploits.
Harry Pearson's original review of the book contained the following: "It's hard to imagine the biography of any English footballer featuring cannibalism, masturbation contests and the subject losing his virginity with a goat inside the first twenty pages..."
A very sober and fair assessment of Kevin Keegan from Nick Townsend.
And Rob Hughes’ take on the Liverpool Boot Room, Hicks, Gillett, Rafa and possibly new owners.
The latest on cuddly Jack Warner from Andrew Jennings. It’s a pity that the larger CONCACAF nations can’t gather up the courage to take a run at this on-going embarrassment.
Here is some additional background to the Antigua story.
Celtic executive Peter Lawwell looks at what the dismantling of the G-14 means for his club as well as to club football in Europe.
Finally a massive thank you to all the people I met at the NSCAA convention in Baltimore. And in particular thank you to Charlie Cooke for his patience in listening to my boyhood memeories of his time in the dark blue of Dundee and Scotland.
Jim White tells you how you can own a team or at least part of one. I heard Will Brooks being interviewed on the Australian Broadcasting Service two weeks ago and meant to post a link…… but didn’t get around to it.
An article on Jack Warner's best buddy -not - investigative sport journalist Andrew Jennings.
An audio story from Stefan Fatsis, sportswriter for The Wall Street Journal, that was on National Public Radio.
And finally one of the blog's regular readers is looking for some help and is hoping that some of you might take a couple of minutes to complete a fan survey that will be used for classwork.
The British Sports Book awards are due to be announced tomorrow (Tuesday) at a luncheon in London. Some of the football books that have been nominated are:
Best autobiography Tommy Docherty: The Doc, My Story — Hallowed Be Thy Game. Gordon Strachan: My Life in Football Paul McGrath: Back from the Brink (Century)
Best biography Sir Alf by Leo McKinstry
In the best football book category are the following: The Perfect 10 by Richard Williams Foul! by Andrew Jennings Sir Alf by Leo McKinstry Behind The Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football by Jonathan Wilson The England Managers: The Impossible Job by Brian Scovell Floodlit Dreams: How to Save a Football Club by Ian Ridley
Having read and enjoyed Sir Alf, Foul!, and Behind The Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football it would be hard for me to pick a winner. If I was pushed I would go for Sir Alf by Leo McKinstry.
Given that I have never read a book by Ashley Cole, David Beckham or Frank Lampard, I can safely say that I have never read a soccer book that I didn't like. With the holidays approaching and the possibility of some free time being available here is a list of the books that I've acquired over last twelve months.
Any of you have other books that you might want to recommend?
“Foul”, By Andrew Jennings, published by HarperCollins.
“The Italian Job”, by Gianluca Vialli and Gabriele Marcotti, published by Random House.
“Behind the Curtain:Football in Eastern Europe”, by Jonathan Wilson, published by McArthur & Co.
“The Bonnie Prince-My Football Life”, by Charlie Cooke and Mark Knight, published by Mainstream Publishing Company.
"Best and Edwards,” by Gordon Burns, published by Faber and Faber Ltd.
"The Best of Charlie Buchan's Football Monthly,” edited by Simon Inglis, published by English Heritage.
"Forza Italia", by Paddy Agnew, published by Random House.
"’78 How a nation lost the World Cup," by Graham McColl, published by Headline Book Publishing.
"Morbo-the story of Spanish football," by Phil Ball, published by W.S.C. Books Ltd.
"The Leaguers -the making of professional football in England, 1900 – 1939," by Matthew Taylor, published by Liverpool University Press.
"Once in a Lifetime-the extraordinary story of the New York Cosmos," by Gavin Newsham, published by Atlantic books.
"tor!-the story of German football," by Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger, published by W. S.C. Books Ltd.
"The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup," edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey, published by HarperCollins books.
"The Lost Babes-Manchester United and the forgotten victims of Munich," by Jeff Connor, published by HarperSport.
"Sir Alf," by Leo McKinstry, published by HarperSport.
"Football and Fascism-the national game under Mussolini," by Simon Martin, published by Berg Publishers.
"Jackie Milburn-a man of two halves," by Jack Milburn, published by Mainstream Sport.
"Colin Bell-reluctant hero," by Colin Bell with Ian Cheeseman, published by Mainstream Publishing.
"My Father and other Working-Class Football Heroes," by Gary Imlach, published by Yellow Jersey Press.
"Garrincha,” by Ruy Castro, published by Yellow Jersey Press.
"Highbury - The Story of Arsenal in N. 5", by Jon Spurling, published by Orion Books.
Jack “get your tickets here” Warner is in front of the FIFA Executive committee this week as he attempts to slither his way out of another in a long line of “misconduct” allegations. The November edition of “World Soccer” has an article by Lasana Liburd that details at length the ethically challenged Warner’s exploits over the years. Liburd points out that despite Warner’s initial threat to sue FIFA General Secretary Urs Linsi and Ernst & Young – whose leaked report set off the investigation – no action has ever been taken.
It seems that threatening to sue is all part of the Warner act. He threatened to do the same to Andrew Jennings but nothing came of that either. No doubt Warner prefers to take his chances in front of stacked FIFA committees rather than a court of law.
Rob Hughes looks at the imminent arrival at Old Trafford of Henrik Larsson and the current problems of Thierry Henry.
With SAF’s loan capture of Henrik Larsson and the transfer window just around the corner I’m interested in finding out how you would go about strengthening your favourite team. What kind of player (just one) does your team need and who would it be?
This story authored by Andrew Jennings in today's Daily Mail makes interesting reading. It relates to the illegal sale of World Cup tickets and an alleged role played by the CONCACAF President Jack Warner an ally of Sepp Blatter.
An interesting story written by Doreen Carvajal that ran in the International Herald Tribune. The story relates to the hiring of Sepp Blatter’s nephew as chief executive of Infront Sports & Media, a company that has in the past had dealings with FIFA.
I have Andrew Jennings book “Foul!” on order and I understand it makes very interesting reading.
Now here is an interesting piece from the BBC. The story is authored by Andrew Jennings who famously wrote Lords of the Rings an investigation into IOC corruption. Jennings has just a published "Foul " that suggests that similar hanky-panky is also found within FIFA.
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.
