The Fan

Chelsea and Champions League holders Barcelona will renew their rivalry after they were drawn together in the first phase of this year’s competition.

From: BBC

 

Comments

Greeks bearing gifts give McClaren perfect start

England 4 - Greece 0

England gave new coach Steve McClaren a perfect start by scoring four first half goals against a poor Greece side in a friendly at Old Trafford.

Read More

League new boys struggle for support

Accrington Stanley battle to win over local fans

The low attendances for League 2 new-comers Accrington Stanley’s first two home games have shocked the club’s chairman Eric Whalley, and there are fears that the club will struggle to survive.

Just 2,600 fans (including 700 opposition fans) watched Stanley’s first game after returning to the league 44 years after they slipped into non-league oblivion.

Read More

The Sun newspaper is reporting that Newcastle will tell Inter Milan to drop the £10m asking price for Obafemi Martins because the Magpies are looking into rumours from Nigeria that the striker is possibly six years older than his reported age of 21.

Via: BBC

 

Comments

McClaren names first England squad

No Beckham - Large Manchester Utd influence

David Beckham looks unlikely to add to his 94 England caps as the 31 year old was left out of new England coach Steve McClaren’s first England squad.

Winners are West Ham’s Dean Ashton, and a large number of former McClaren players from his time at Manchester Utd.

Read More

Materazzi banned for Zidane insult

FIFA set dangerous precedent

FIFA have announced that Italy defender Materazzi will receive a £2,170 fine and 2 game suspension, and Zidane a £3,260 fine and 3 game ban.

In choosing to punishing the ‘victim’ nearly as strongly as the perpetrator, FIFA have given players a who commit serious foul play a dangerous ‘get out’ by allowiing provocation to be blamed.

Read More

With Juve effectively relegated for 2 seasons due to their 30 point deduction in Serie B it seems inconceivable that they will be able to hang on to all their players or even loan them out for a year.

Not too many leagues will be able to match the Italian clubs’ salaries, so England will be a likely destination for many who leave.

Here’s a list of transfer speculation of England’s top clubs and who they are targetting.

Chelsea

Alessandro Nesta (Milan), Fabio Cannavaro, Pavel Nedved, Gianluca Zambrotta (Juve);

Manchester United

Patrick Vieira, Pavel Nedved (Juve), Gennaro Gattuso (Milan), Luca Toni (Fiorentina)

Liverpool

Mauro Camoranesi, David Trezeguet (Juve)

Arsenal

Gianluigi Buffon, Lilian Thuram, Patrick Vieira, David Trezeguet (Juve), Filippo Inzaghi (Milan)

Tottenham

Lilian Thuram (Juve), Filippo Inzaghi (Milan)

Source: BBC

Comments

Serie A sides Juventus, Lazio and Fiorentina have been demoted to the second division for their involvement in Italy’s match-fixing scandal.

Juventus were also stripped of their last two Serie A titles and had 30 points deducted, meaning they are likely to stay down for two seasons.

AC Milan will stay in Serie A but will start the season docked 15 points.

All are barred from playing in Europe.

Inter, Roma, Chievo and Palermo, who finished third, fifth, seventh and eighth, are in line to take the places of the penalised clubs in next season’s Champions League.

Lecce, Messina, and Treviso will avoid relegation to Serie B and keep their places in the top flight as a result of the verdict.

From: BBC

 

All 4 clubs are expected to appeal.

Related: Juventus face relegation from Serie A

Comments

After an exhaustive study of the match video, and with the help of an Italian translator, Rees claimed that Materazzi called Zidane “the son of a terrorist whore” before adding “so just f*** off” for good measure.

From: The Times

 

Seems to be corroborated here: The Daily Mail

3 Comments

World Cup losers

A tournament to forget for some...

The World Cup finals can make and break reputations. Who has come off worst this time around.

Read More