Torres would have missed him.
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Torres would have missed him.
And cole would have shot him while terry would have shagged him.
imagine cantona in that situation
would have booted the kid out of the stadium
neg. cantona wouldn't kick a child. the bloke is righteous.
think we're underselling the awesomeness of the ballboy. made christiano look like an oscar winner.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A-34uxPCQAIszO0.jpg
Poor Hazard misheard Fergie, thought he said "kick ballboys out of sport"
A lot of those ballboys go on to be refs...get in early I say !
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-0...vealed/4500644Quote:
European investigators say they have identified about 680 suspicious soccer matches including World Cup qualifiers and Champions League matches in a global match-fixing scandal spanning 2008-2011.
The European Union's police agency, Europol, has revealed evidence of fixing in about 380 matches across Europe and a further 300 games outside the continent.
Europol director Rob Wainwright said the investigation had identified about 425 corrupt officials, players and serious criminals in 15 countries. Fifty people have been arrested so far.
"This is match-fixing activity on a scale we have not seen before involving hundreds of criminals and corrupted officials and players, affecting hundreds of professional matches and generating very large amounts of illicit profits," Mr Wainwright said.
Investigators say the scam was backed by a Singapore-based betting cartel and had brought in at least 8 million euros ($A10.4 million) in proven profits after paying almost $2.5 million in bribes.
German police described a global network involving couriers ferrying bribes around the world, paying off players and referees, with the biggest bribe being $180,000.
Accomplices would then place bets on the internet or by phone with bookmakers in Asia, where bets that would be illegal in Europe were accepted.
"One fixed match might involve up to 50 suspects in 10 countries on separate continents," Friedhelm Althans, chief investigator for police in the German city of Bochum, said.
"Even two World Championship qualification matches in Africa, and one in Central America, are under suspicion."
Other matches fixed included World and European cup qualifying matches and top flight league matches in several European countries.
They also included two Champions League matches, including one played in Britain.
Investigators found that criminals from Asia also participated in the match-fixing and that some of the fixed matches took place outside Europe.
Investigators said no names of players or clubs would be released while the investigation proceeded.
'People will be shocked'
BBC sports commentator Phil Parry says the breadth of the corruption is astonishing.
"I think people will be shocked when they understand the scale of it and when they – the audacity of it, actually," he said.
"When we were talking about some of these high-profile competitions, which are globally known, and it seems to have tentacles that are touching every strata of football across the continent."
He admits the scandal will likely damage the code.
"I think in the short term it will certainly create some damage because people will start doubting the sporting integrity, they will start doubting some of the validity of results that have happened," he said.
"I think that from a long-term point of view actually, the action that's already been taken, as long as that campaign carries on, as long as we don't lose our vigilance in regards to this, then I think the battle can still be won and the sport can come out on top."
ABC/Reuters
let's hope this brings about some action from FIFA.
See, the idea is to get your corrupt team to the top. Its the only way.
who can fix their wins if he leaves? Jose?Quote:
Alex Ferguson may leave Manchester United
just jokesQuote:
Premier League club Stoke has launched an internal investigation into reports of a dressing-room prank featuring a bloody pig's head and a smashed car windscreen.
It has been reported that a pig's head was left in Kenwyne Jones' locker by teammate Glenn Whelan on Friday. On discovering the pig's head, Trinidad striker Jones was reportedly so furious that he stormed outside and smashed the window of Whelan's car in retribution.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/p...#ixzz2TdtVxOie
.Quote:
The Premier League is close to finalising its deals which will bring a total of around £5.5 billion in broadcasting rights for 2013-16. That is £2 billion more than the current deal.
The league champions next season can expect to earn close to £100 million in broadcast earnings while the bottom club can expect their earnings to go up from £39.8 million, which Queens Park Rangers picked up this season, to around £63 million.
The way the Premier League distributes its TV money means half of the total cash from the domestic deals is divided equally between the member clubs, and all of the overseas broadcasting income is also split equally.
A further 25 per cent of domestic TV income is split as merit money depending on where each club finish in the league, and the final 25 per cent is paid in ‘facility fees’ for each time a club’s matches are shown on television in the UK.
For that reason, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur both earned more than Chelsea despite finishing below their capital rivals in the table because both appeared in more live TV games.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...e-winners.html
west ham sign a bloke named razvan rat :rof:
Pulis gawwwwn
no more naked headbutts in the sheds rofl
This is magnificent.
Enjoy.
http://abload.de/img/moureturrrrrnedj4n.gif
Saturday 8th June
4-30am Czech Republic V Italy LIVE
7-45am Argentina V Colombia LIVE
WC Qualifiers on SBS One.
If anyone interested
Scots always ahead of the EnglishQuote:
Scottish Football League clubs have voted in favour of a proposed merger with the Scottish Premier League .
The bodies will form a new Scottish Professional Football League in time for next season, averting a threatened breakaway from Division One clubs.
A revised financial distribution model will be introduced, feeding more money into the second tier.
The league structure will remain the same, with a top flight of 12 and three lower divisions of 10.
http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/news/...World-Cup#Menu
blatter now wants the qatar world cup moved to december: "it's too hot".
no shit sherlock.
surely there could be a legal challenge mounted on the fact that the bids were all made for a June/July tournament
utter bullshit from FIFA
FIFA a corrupt and bungling organisation only looking out for it's own interests?
well blow me down with a feather
for the good of the game (and ourselves)
I imagine if it does get moved that's going to F**k over a fair few people. Lulz.
Edit: Durp.
Cheeky buggers in the media wondering how much the weather paid Blatter to get it moved.
bbc are reporting that legal cases are already being prepared.
ya dont need to count transfers fees when buying the compQuote:
Manchester United are prepared to double Barcelona midfielder Cesc Fabregas's current wages in a bid to lure him to Old Trafford.
Found this doing the rounds on some sites.
NBC (America) has made a pretty huge investment into Premier League so they are running some different promos.
This one isnt too bad, especially considering the target audience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=6KeG_i8CWE8
Pippo Inzaghis 40th birthday (yesterday).
Geez he knew where the back of the net was didn't he.
So Jedinak starts for Palace.
Jedinak had a great game, easily the best on the park.
Truth 380? Did you watch?
Yeh watched the whole game and was a standout. Commentators constantly praised his vision for being in the right spot at the right time and his work rate.
Nice work Jedihack let's hope he can keep it up.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/...gue-friendliesQuote:
Uefa explores internationals shake-up with Nations League plan
Uefa is considering a radical overhaul of international football that would see national teams playing a new Nations League competition.
The idea, floated at executive committee meetings that preceded aUefa meeting in Dubrovnik last month, would see Uefa using existing dates for friendlies in the international calendar to launch a new league involving all 54 member nations.
Uefa sources have told the Guardian that the idea was one of several floated at the meeting as part of a discussion about how to improve the attractiveness of international football from 2018 onwards. The Uefa executive committee will now examine the idea in more detail before deciding whether to adopt it.
The new concept, first revealed by Norwegian paper Dagbladet, would see all Uefa's members divided into a series of perhaps nine divisions based on their recent results, with promotion and relegation following each round of matches.
The winner of the first division would be Uefa's Nations League champion and win a substantial prize, with the bottom team in each division being relegated in favour of the winner of the tier below.
The Norwegian FA president, Yngve Hallen, who sits on UEFA's national committee for international tournaments, said: "It is true that a series of games is one of the models being discussed."
The discussions are taking place against a backdrop of concern that the qualifying campaigns for the expanded European Championships from 2016 will prove less attractive because there will be less jeopardy.
In conjunction with other Uefa innovations due to be introduced from 2014 onwards, including its "week of football" in which qualifiers will take place across six days to maximise viewers, the drive from its HQ in Nyon is to boost the profile of the international game.
Uefa has recently taken central control of TV rights for the competitive qualifying matches of all its member nations, promising large underwritten guarantees to the biggest countries. That has increased the pressure on Uefa to bring in funding from TV and commercial partners in order to meet them.
If the Uefa Nations League idea is explored further, then the European governing body would be likely to look to centralise the TV and marketing rights in the same way as it has for the Champions League.
"The success of the Champions League has already inspired the Europa League. This is also something they are trying to look at in connection with the Nations League - how this can sharpen the market. That's what this is largely about," said Hallen.
"But there have been very clear political guidelines from all 54 federations that the focus needs to be on the football/competitive aspect. All countries should have equal opportunities," he added.
"No-one should have to qualify for this tournament - everyone plays from the first game. And then there is also a recognition that tournament form should be easy to understand for most people. All this we need to work out."
The Swedish FA representative Karl-Erik Nilsson told Aftonbladet that "it has been established that it is difficult to get interest around friendlies".
"For 2020 it has been looked at whether it would be possible to combine traditional qualifiers with with this league format, instead of friendlies, to increase interest," he said.
"It is worth looking at but we were clear that it can't have an impact on the qualifiers for the Euro tournaments. The qualifiers are No1 and have the highest priority. There won't be more international games because of this."
He said the initial reaction among the 54 members was that "creating more interest is not something negative".
Nilsson added: "All 54 members were in Croatia and the idea was presented from a perspective of: is this worth looking at? And the overall feeling was: 'let's look at it but don't let it have an impact on the qualifiers'."
He said that one idea included in the presentation was to divide the groups so that clubs next to one another in the Fifa rankings were grouped together, while another version envisaged a geographical structure.
The FA and the other big European associations may be among the most difficult to convince of the merits of the plan, because they would have to give up the possibility of lucrative friendlies against big South American sides.
How the groups might look
First division Spain, Germany, Holland, Italy, England, Portugal
Second division Russia, Greece, Croatia, Sweden, France, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Third division Ukraine, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Hungary, Czech Republic
Fourth division Republic of Ireland, Serbia, Norway, Slovakia, Turkey, Israel
Fifth division Slovenia, Austria, Romania, Montenegro, Poland, Finland
Sixth division Scotland, Armenia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus
Seventh division Wales, Northern Ireland, Albania, Iceland, Lithuania, Macedonia
Eighth division Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Kazakhstan
Ninth division Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands, Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Gibraltar