I am going to start working on a Euro 2008 preview and so their will be no formal Speakers' Corner. In the meantime here are some outstanding questions from the weekend preview blog.

Zuco2 - Could you please say a big "Thanks" to Machado and Peacock for mentioning the protests against the Bosnian football federation in Sarajevo, yesterday on the FSR. Being Bosnian, this news really affects me and I hope UEFA takes action against the people who sacked Bosnian coach : Meho Kodro.

Do you have any opinion on this story?

Bobby – The FSR crew read the blog from time to time so they will pick up your thanks. However, I would not hold my breath waiting for UEFA to intervene at take action against the Bosnian FA. That will not happen. The best that might happen is UEFA offering to help mediate but that would be as deep as they would get into it.

LosAngelesChelseaFan -  I really enjoyed all the league playoffs. What a contrast between the teams and how great for the minnows to be at Wembley. Doncaster was a revelation and played some classy football in their win against Leeds. 5 years ago Leeds were 114 places ahead of them. Amazing. The Stockport County semi final on other hand was the most antiquated long ball garbage that would be beaten by any 10 or 9 kids from a Sao Paolo back street. 'ull really won against the run of play for me.

Bobby, others, did you watch? What did you make of it and the promoted teams?

Speaking of other channels... I was changing channels and hit the usually unwatchable Galaxy on HDNet (DirecTV) just as Xavier's usual garbage defending allowed the first goal. If you haven't seen it yet, Beckham scored the final goal from 60 yards into an empty net and generally played pretty well. The 16x9 format more than the quality HD makes such a difference to watching the play unfold. If only we had it for the European leagues.

Bobby – I watched both Saturday and Sunday play-off games. I thought it was great that after 30 minutes on Sunday the teams realized that they were also permitted to kick the spherical object that had found a way on to the field….not just the players who were wearing a different coloured shirt. Hull will struggle to survive unless a miracle happens. Doncaster has a better chance but will still need a few breaks. They might be the sort of team that get off to a flyer and then fall back.

As for the LAG –Wizards game I did watch it on Saturday night and thought the first half rarely rose above the level of putrid.  The second half however was very entertaining. The LAG lifted the pace of their game (Donovan and Beckham worked very hard) and overall it was worthwhile sticking it out. The result was in doubt until the last minute. Watching the HD Net games on a Saturday night is something I look forward to.

Craigy_f – DC Utd and Moreno taking penalties.


Bobby - DC United. A very different style from last season and even ta difference from the start of this season. It looks to me that allowing Gomez to go has meant the close passing-constantly playing in little triangles all over the park style has gone and they are playing a more pressing game. If I had my life dependant on a penalty taker in MLS I would choose Jaime Moreno without a doubt.

 gregZ - Just something that’s been bothering me a little Bobby. How do you rate the commentating styles of John Helm and Martin Tyler? I could have sworn Helm was the number 1 guy or something. He got to oversee the opening and closing games at WC 2006. Apparently Tyler is rated best though.

Bobby – I enjoy listening to both Tyler and Helm. I believe that Tyler has a deal with Sky but also freelances while I believe that John Helm (internationally anyway) is entirely freelance.

John Helm does a lot of host broadcaster work at the major tournaments. By that I mean he is the English play by play voice that the host broadcaster will provide to international rights holders who do not have their own play by play voice or want to have a voice from the stadium rather than someone sitting in the studio back home.

Tyler’s pacing of comments and knowledge is fantastic while I appreciate John Helm’s style that is often understated. Another voice I enjoy is Steve Barnyard who pops up covering various leagues and World Cups.

Wiscoleeds – Gutted about Leeds...the Donny end was very empty. But we will be back next season...no admin, no -15 points, a decent manager, a true pre-season to prepare, 28,000 supporters a week, look for Leeds to have the best record in the football league next year.
Good luck to Doncaster and Hull...what a great strike from Windass.

Bobby - Another year may not be a bad thing. It will give Gary McAllister a full season to work with the team and I would not bet against successive promotions.

I will be back later this week with the first part of the Euro 2008 preview.

Ringo - An easy one for you this week. Dundee can win the FA Cup  or Tayport can win the Junior cup. Which one do you take?

Bobby – Dundee has a slightly better chance of winning the Scottish Cup this season than Scotland does of winning the European Championship this summer. A trip to Motherwell in the next round might have the making of a wee surprise but the focus of the team must be on promotion back to the SPL.

Tayport drew at home to perennial contender Pollok (viewer discretion is advised) last Saturday and they travel to the west of Scotland for the replay this weekend. The Scottish Junior Cup is a tough nut to crack

Carljamaica - Greetings from Jamaica. Do you think this Manchester United team is as good as people are saying?  Do you think they are serious contenders for the Champions League meaning do you think they have what it takes? If not where do you think they are short. Is Ronaldo just going through a purple patch or is he really the real deal?
Awaiting your thoughts.

Bobby – Much warmer than where I am! United deserve to be considered as one of the favourites to win the Champions League. They have been given a decent draw (not easy but Lyon are a side that United can beat) but often a bit of good fortune is also needed along the way.

There is still a month to go before the first leg of the first knock out round and things can change very quickly. Injuries, suspensions and key players losing form can all hit at an inopportune moment. In terms of their most significant weakness it is probably a lack of height and power up front.

You can see in some of the league games this season that without that option it gives the opposition one less thing to worry about. Having a big strong forward on the bench that could go on just to mix things up a bit would provide that additional alternative.

Since Ronaldo joined United he has improved every season. If you look back at his play when he joined United in 2003 the raw talent was there for everyone to see. Four and a bit years on and every aspect of his game has improved – some parts by leaps and bounds.

Craigy_f – 1. Was Probert correct to book Arteta? Has a card ever been used in that situation that you are aware of?
2. Does the lack of ACoN on any American network show the ignorance of the American networks as to the value of the tournament in Ghana? 3. Was it omitted for the same reasons that the Asia tournament was omitted?
4. What’s your impression of Lord Coe?
5. What’s your:- Goal of the week, Save of the week, Game of the week, Referee of the moment.
6. Favourite clip from Flash Gordon
7. What was your take on the teams and the result for the USMNT against a Sweden B team?
8. Will you and the boys try some colour this week?

Bobby – 1. It seemed to be a strange decision. The only way that I could see the referee having a valid cause would be if he had told Arteta to wait for the whistle.

2. The value is set by the number of people who would watch the tournament and despite what we think soccer on English language stations in North America do not regularly draw big numbers. A tournament that has games scheduled during the work day is an obvious problem.

3. I don’t know the reason why the Asia tournament was omitted so I can’t answer the question.

4. He used to be a very fast runner and was able to turn left? You can’t hang-out at the upper echelons of global sport without being forced to hold your nose at the goings-on. If you decide to hold true to your principles at that level it means you will have a short and largely ineffective career in the political world of sport.

5. Sully Muntari’s winner against Guinea, can’t think of one, poor weekend nothing stood out, oops the moment just went.

6. The End

7. Meaningless friendly for all except for the players and coaches.

8. Probably not.

GSfromWinnipeg - How about opinions on possible rule changes? You can certainly throw in your two cents, as well as everyone else.Here are some of my thoughts:
1. Why do we need to get so fancy with goal-line technology. Chips in the ball? Come on. If you want to position cameras along the line, fine. But, why can't they just add a back-line official who is in charge of watching for balls crossing the line? He could also assist with fouls in the box. It seems to me this would satisfy the purists and be at least as effective as technology that often still doesn't answer the question 100%.

2. Get rid of this passive offside rule. It just adds to the confusion. Vassell's goal on Sunday was a perfect example. Since the ball does not go to him, is that the end of Phase 1? Then he is back onside by the time the ball ricochets to him, so that makes it a good goal. But this must be a nightmare for the linesmen. Especially when it seems standard practise for players to line up offside on deadball situations to try and confuse the defense. By the way, since you are supposed to play to the whistle, and, as a defender, a man is behind you heading for goal, therefore you have to make an attempt to catch him, pulling yourself out of position. But the ball never goes to that attacker so he is "passive" while the onside attacker takes advantage of the space left by the defender to score. How is this helping the game.

KEEP IT SIMPLE (which offside will never be). If anyone is offside, play is dead. Period.

3. NO TO SIN BINS. As Harry Redknapp says, that will just encourage 10 minutes of time-wasting and defensive play. Just what football needs, 10 more minutes of 10 men behind the ball.

4. 3 YELLOW CARDS BEFORE YOU GET A RED. Encourage the refs to hand out a yellow every time a foul deserves it. I think they often don't give a yellow, because they know how serious the ramifications a second yellow is. This leads to inconsistency. The good refs talk to a player first and warn him a yellow is coming next time, but we can get rid of that need. The "talking" will be the first yellow. This would especially be of use in internationals where language is often a problem.

Also, get rid of suspensions for accumulated yellows (or at least increase the number of yellows before suspension). This almost always ends up excluding the best players from the biggest games due to some idiotic decision by the player or the ref, three games ago. I am thinking of Roy Keane missing the Champions League final in 99, Ballack missing the 2002 World Cup final, Zidane missing a key match in the 98 Cup, etc.

5. GOLDEN GOAL IN TOURNAMENTS AND ENDLESS OVERTIME. I know, this is a pipe dream. But how about giving it a try. I agree with Bobby, penalty kicks is dramatic and a test of mettle and skill, but it isn't the game that was intended. I think overtime rarely works as is because at least one team plays for the penalty kicks, and both teams are so afraid of conceding, they hang back and trust to fate in the kicks. If there is no promise of penalty kicks,

Bobby – 1. Sign me up for that position. Six officials for a game of football? Don’t like that idea.

2. That’s fine make it simple but just wait and hear the cries when someone slots one home into the top corner from 35 yards out and the goal is disallowed because one of his team mates stopped to tie his bootlace and was offside on the other side of the park alone on the touchline.

3. Sin bins are one of the stupidest ideas to come out and until you brought it up again I thought it had died.

4. The language problem was the exact reason that coloured cards were brought in so now to have a mandatory “talking to” being a warning before a yellow card only compounds the problem. Players will just claim that they didn’t know they were on a warning.

Idiotic decisions - Zidane missed games in 1998 because he stomped on a Saudi player.  Your basic argument is that players should be given more leeway to foul. I don’t think that is going to encourage anyone to think twice about sliding in late.

5. I####ame goes to overtime the least that both teams deserve is the opportunity to fight back should they go behind. With the Golden Goal rule we would never had the likes of West Germany and Italy sharing five extra time goals in 1970 or France and West Germany playing an epic extra time in 1982.

Mts2284 - 1. Recently, a reader asked you about commentators and which ones you liked. What’s your take on BBC’s John Motson? I live in the States and don’t get BBC but I’m a huge fan. Just wanted your opinion on the matter.
2. Why have Thierry Henry or Premiership players like Cristiano Ronaldo not won the FIFA Player of the Year award? Its always players from Serie A and La Liga, like Messi, or Ronaldinho.
3. Why does Ryan Babel not feature more in Liverpool’s starting 11? He’s a fantastic talent with loads of potential.

Bobby –1. His biggest break came when Ronnie Radford thumped the 30 yard winner for Hereford against Newcastle in the FA Cup. I was never a huge fan (although there were many who were aweful)  when I lived in the UK – my preference would be for Martin Tyler.

2. I think basically because although they may have good domestic seasons they fail to make a real impact in the Champions League, European Championships or World Cup. Like Ronaldo I don’t think Messi has ever won a senior world or European individual award.
3. You probably nailed it with “loads of potential.” There are few teams willing to commit a regular spot to a player who is not considered the finished article although he may have potential. Having said that I’m also a bit mystified given that a couple of Liverpool players are having poor seasons so far.

Gregz - I was just wondering how much have you seen of Angel di Maria. How goes his development at Benfica and why would he choose to go to Benfica over Arsenal?

Bobby – Not very much since his move to Benfica. Di Maria has yet to score a league goal although the statistics show him with three yellow cards. He has been called up for the Argentina Olympic squad that has a friendly against Guatemala on February 6. Javier Mascherano is in the squad as an overage player. Benfica over Arsenal – probably thought there was a chance to play more at Benfica.

4Everton - Chris Coleman just left Real Sociedad after new management/ownership took over despite getting the team to within three points of promotion on the table. Coleman kept Fulham up even though he was not given a war chest of funds (see Sunderland) last year. Do you see him coming back to the Prem anytime soon?

Bobby – Managers that leave English football for some continental adventures take two routes. If you are the likes of John Toshack or Gordon Milne you don’t come back and instead you make a career of it in foreign lands.

On the other hand there are the likes of Howard Kendall and Graeme Souness who were adventurous enough to try their hand but returned after a relatively short time. I think Coleman will be like the latter.

Ollofan - Did Jeremy St. Louis leave the FSR?

Bobby – He is using up his vacation time.

Redfan2000 - While you are all watching Spurs spank Arse, I just found this on Aunty Beeb and you gotta laugh at Mark McGhee. George Burley is to be offered the Scotland job and Mark McGhee said after he found out: "If George does not win the World Cup then it opens it up for me to be one who does" Thoughts on this one?

Bobby – If it is George Burley then I like the choice. Understated but a very competent manager who has a good track record of getting the best out of his players.

Henry14 - q1 What is your assessment of Adebayor as player bearing in mind you thought he would be on the bench if rvp and da silva were firing?

q2 If you were Liverpool owner would you stick with Rafa?

Bobby – 1. If you said I said that then I guess I must have although I don’t recall that particular statement. I do remember defending Adebayor last season when you wanted him punted out the Emirates. 2. If I was the Liverpool owner I would be focused on whether or not I wanted to remain as owner rather than worrying about the manager.

And finally the resurrection of Chelsea. I may have missed it and apologize if someone got there first. But it seems to me that Glenn Hoddle was the catalyst for the Chelsea revival.

Henry14 - Q1. l think an arsenal take over is really on the cards, it might not happen as early as some reports suggest but rumours that some Russian guy and a whole lot of Dubai guys will not go unchallenged. With the money the share holders want and all the stadium liabilities, l really can not see the American guy as a possible bidder, because anyone to take over Arsenal should be prepared to lose and then gain in the long run. What is your take on that?
Q2 l think Ade is made to look like a villain, but l think the guys who run African soccer embezzle quite a large sum of money and to have players not paid for two years is a shame. l think the problem would occur even with England but because they take care of that it’s under control. If any civil servant can go on strike why can't footballers. l really think African football really has to change in administrations.

Bobby – Q1. All clubs are sold eventually but I don’t see Arsenal being sold in the near term.
Q2 A total lack of organization has been major drawback for a lot of African countries and until it is fixed an African country will never win the World Cup.

Bigdave disaster - I’m late in writing this but your comment about Portuguese reporters "falling down" was amazing and I'm curious if you got a letter from the Portuguese associated press? or were you simply fined by FSCFA for disparaging remarks?

With the television contract now signed by the EPL and the mess in Italy do you see the EPL becoming the highest paying league in Europe? and is that why we began to here all the rumors about a weekly player salary cap?

Bobby – Carlos did threaten to send me to the stands. As far as I know the Ppremiership is the highest paid league in the soccer world. You will find some players in other leagues getting higher salaries but I doubt that the average salary would be higher.

Mistafantastic – What's your opinion of one, Landon Donovan? It frustrates me to the core that he can play as brilliantly as he did Sunday, but when he's needed most he folds up. His lack of heart & commitment to stick it out in Europe is another sore subject & NOW comes the news that he doesn't want to play in either the Gold Cup or Copa America this summer so he can stay & help the Galaxy! With all the great young talent the US has now, why must they continue to force him down our throats as the "Golden Boy" of US footy? Any opinions? Thanks!

Bobby – Donovan on his day can be a match-winner at any level. However, because he has done it in the past then many expect him to do it everytime and he is never going to be a player of that caliber. He has fantastic pace, he is a good finisher and tactically he appears to be sound. Inconsistency will be the hallmark of his career but because he is a potential game breaker he will always be a first choice for the USA. “Mercurial” might be a good description of him which is a lot better than being an “enigma.” A Scottish commentator once described former internationalist Jim Bett as an enigma and went on to say that it was just a nice way of saying that Bett had played a good game about five years before and everyone was waiting for him to have another.

Realmadridccfan - 1. What is your favourite and least favorite play by play soccer commentator right now? 2. With the Copa America this summer, what do you think are the best hopes for Mexico and the United States at this tournament? 3. Do you think that Jose Mourinho is actually done like dinner at Chelsea and move in years end to Real Madrid CF?

Bobby – 1. Favourite is Martin Tyler by a country mile. Another I enjoy listening to because he has a very understated delivery is John Helm. As for the least favourite it would have to be Ian Darke – the man must wake up each morning in mid-sentence, he never shuts-up.

2. I am assuming Mexico will send a full team and will qualify for the knock out stage. It looks as if the USA will be hampered by sending a squad without any MLS players but with up to three teams qualifying then one win can almost put you through. in passing I did hear that Argentina will be taken a squad made up completely of home based players to Copa America.

3. My money is on a Mourinho move during the summer but on the other hand I would not be surprised if he stayed either. When he moved to Chelsea he made mention of coaching in Italy one day and I think that is a more likely destination for him than Spain.  

The British Sport Book Awards were announced yesterday. In the Best Autobiography category Paul McGrath, Back from the Brink was the winner. Leo McKinstry's Sir Alf won the  
Best Football Book.

Under 20 update from Tuesday evening - Hyundai Under 20 men's national team presented by Yahoo! Canada 1-2 Scotland. And we wonder why the European media make fun of North American soccer!!