Something happened in the world of football that happens once in a blue moon.
No, a big name player didn't choose loyalty to his club over a big money contract elsewhere! Nor did Thierry Henry receive honorary Irish citizenship...the rare occurrence was actually an act of fair play. I know, shocking! Something, sadly, so rare that it has sent the footballing authorities in Italy scrambling to see if it was legal!
Here's what happened:
The match was Ascoli vs. Reggina, a league game in Italy's Serie B. Early on in the game, a Reggina defender, Carlos Valdez, seeking a pause in play as he'd been injured, attempted to kick the ball out of play. Ascoli's Vincenzo Sommese, intercepted the touchline bound ball, drove towards the goal as the Reggina players protested (Barthez-Di Canio anyone?), and squared the ball for Mirko Antenucci to slot home and give Ascoli the lead.
Either Sommese thought the static defense was just an unconventional attempt at stopping him from scoring, or he was very aware of what was going on, but seeing as Ascoli are in the relegation zone of Italy's lower division, he thought "why not?!"
Regardless, the goal stood, and this didn't sit well with Reggina who surrounded Sommese. In fact one of the Reggina players even got sent off for pushing him to the ground.
Next came the bizarre moment. In a good way! The Ascoli players stood aside and allowed Reggina's Biagio Pagano to jog towards their goal and score the easiest goal he'll ever score. Although he did try to make it hard for himself by briefly tangling with one of Ascoli's players.
No really...it happened!
Interestingly enough, 10 man Reggina went on to "come back" and beat Ascoli 3-1. So much for no good deed going unpunished!
And to make matters worse, not only were the Ascoli players bombarded by protests from their own fans, but there is now an investigation into the legality of the gifted goal! Talk about ludicrous! First the FIFA - Henry situation, now this!
Maybe someone should show the footage to Reading? Then again, I doubt they want to get punished either!
Ascoli's manager, Bepi Pillon (who, funnily enough, managed Reggina last season) put it best:
"There is too much exasperation in Italy, too many interests that force you to look only at the results. It’s not fun like this."
Too right! And if you can't have fun in Italy's second division, where can you?
Monday, December 7, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Nothing on the telly...I think I fancy buying a football player
There are two things that money can't buy: Happiness and a team. Remember that!
May 24th might be the saddest and yet one of the more exciting days of the year for a footy fan...shame on you if you don't know why!
Well this year at least, it was the end of the Premier League season. Sad sad day, especially for fans of those three teams that won't be playing Premier League football next season...
But there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel, yes even in England where it is most likely dreary and cold outside...because the end of the season signals the beginning of a summer of transfers, and more annoyingly transfer speculation!
As far as speculation goes, there are the easy ones to weed out...you know, Robinho from Real Madrid to Manchester City and...wait, sorry!
But really transfer speculation is crazier than ever. Yes, it's that grand old story of the age we live in, the speed that information (and misinformation) flies around the globe. A glance at the transfer section on any footy forum will show you this. Over-zealous fans drooling over the prospect that they heard the biggest name in football and their club mentioned in the same sentence on the sports news, or heard someone mention it in the adjacent bathroom stall...you get the idea!
Now there's lots to be said in articles about summer transfer...an easy place to start is speculating about the big names that could be shipped about in the next few months. Perhaps am examination of a worryingly increasing trend where insanely rich owners are taking control of football clubs, and issue "wanted" lists to managers like a shopping list. Except this case is more like receiving a shopping list from someone who has no idea what to cook...or what to buy in this case. Am I still making sense?
Ok, it's taken me far too long to get to the point of this article. Certainly a point that's in everyone's mind given the events of the last couple days (I'm getting to it!), if not for the last couple years.
35.5, 37, 45.6, 56, 80...those have been the World record transfers that have been set, and subsequently broken, this century...sorry, that's in British Pounds by the way...millions of British Pounds.
Quick facts about the transfer record in the last century...starting with Alf Common's £1000 move from Sunderland to Middlesborough.
It's a game that is increasingly, like everything else in this World, being driven by money. Bigger stadiums are comprised by more expensive seats, and more expensive players are the reason that these seats are being filled.
Imagine your team just spent £80M on a player, wouldn't you want to see him?!
The sad story is the transfer record means so little (I'm tempted to say nothing) anymore. It was broken twice in the matter of a week, by the same club. I personally don't think Kaka is worth £56M, nor is Ronaldo worth £80M!
But it's just the latest in an increasingly worrying trend of excessive spending. We're definitley going to be seeing it at more clubs, as the newest accesory of the multi-millionaire becomes not a Ferrari, not a yacht or a private plane, but a football team!
Writing blank cheques for managers to go star-player-hunting is going to become a permanent stain on the game, and while fans of teams like City and Portsmouth may be licking their chops thinking it will help them win the league, it won't! Sorry, just not happening...
Ok, so call me a hypocrite. I support Man United, who everyone seems to think are one of the biggest spending teams ever. Can't totally deny that, but I'm talking about wise spending, and homegrown talent. Maybe the latter is unlikely these days, but look at Barcelona. Probably two of their best players are products of their youth system. Players who I'm sure played a pivotal role in their treble this year, certainly in the Champions League Final.
Then again, we are talking about Barcelona. They had enough players to keep the trophy cabinet from collecting dust, while Xavi and Iniesta developed their skills.
As Gerry Sutcliffe said, sustainability is at greatest risk with these financial giants ruling football. What's the next Ronaldo going to fetch? £100 plus?
And yes, it is a very serious problem! While money can't buy you trophies (at least in football), not having it will make trophy winning a lot lot harder!
May 24th might be the saddest and yet one of the more exciting days of the year for a footy fan...shame on you if you don't know why!
Well this year at least, it was the end of the Premier League season. Sad sad day, especially for fans of those three teams that won't be playing Premier League football next season...
But there is a bright light at the end of the tunnel, yes even in England where it is most likely dreary and cold outside...because the end of the season signals the beginning of a summer of transfers, and more annoyingly transfer speculation!
As far as speculation goes, there are the easy ones to weed out...you know, Robinho from Real Madrid to Manchester City and...wait, sorry!
But really transfer speculation is crazier than ever. Yes, it's that grand old story of the age we live in, the speed that information (and misinformation) flies around the globe. A glance at the transfer section on any footy forum will show you this. Over-zealous fans drooling over the prospect that they heard the biggest name in football and their club mentioned in the same sentence on the sports news, or heard someone mention it in the adjacent bathroom stall...you get the idea!
Now there's lots to be said in articles about summer transfer...an easy place to start is speculating about the big names that could be shipped about in the next few months. Perhaps am examination of a worryingly increasing trend where insanely rich owners are taking control of football clubs, and issue "wanted" lists to managers like a shopping list. Except this case is more like receiving a shopping list from someone who has no idea what to cook...or what to buy in this case. Am I still making sense?
Ok, it's taken me far too long to get to the point of this article. Certainly a point that's in everyone's mind given the events of the last couple days (I'm getting to it!), if not for the last couple years.
35.5, 37, 45.6, 56, 80...those have been the World record transfers that have been set, and subsequently broken, this century...sorry, that's in British Pounds by the way...millions of British Pounds.
Quick facts about the transfer record in the last century...starting with Alf Common's £1000 move from Sunderland to Middlesborough.
- That record lasted 17 years...since then, only once has the record lasted for longer Bernabe Ferreyra (20 years)
- The record has been broken as many times in the last 25 years, as it was in the 75 before that...
It's a game that is increasingly, like everything else in this World, being driven by money. Bigger stadiums are comprised by more expensive seats, and more expensive players are the reason that these seats are being filled.
Imagine your team just spent £80M on a player, wouldn't you want to see him?!
The sad story is the transfer record means so little (I'm tempted to say nothing) anymore. It was broken twice in the matter of a week, by the same club. I personally don't think Kaka is worth £56M, nor is Ronaldo worth £80M!
But it's just the latest in an increasingly worrying trend of excessive spending. We're definitley going to be seeing it at more clubs, as the newest accesory of the multi-millionaire becomes not a Ferrari, not a yacht or a private plane, but a football team!
Writing blank cheques for managers to go star-player-hunting is going to become a permanent stain on the game, and while fans of teams like City and Portsmouth may be licking their chops thinking it will help them win the league, it won't! Sorry, just not happening...
Ok, so call me a hypocrite. I support Man United, who everyone seems to think are one of the biggest spending teams ever. Can't totally deny that, but I'm talking about wise spending, and homegrown talent. Maybe the latter is unlikely these days, but look at Barcelona. Probably two of their best players are products of their youth system. Players who I'm sure played a pivotal role in their treble this year, certainly in the Champions League Final.
Then again, we are talking about Barcelona. They had enough players to keep the trophy cabinet from collecting dust, while Xavi and Iniesta developed their skills.
As Gerry Sutcliffe said, sustainability is at greatest risk with these financial giants ruling football. What's the next Ronaldo going to fetch? £100 plus?
And yes, it is a very serious problem! While money can't buy you trophies (at least in football), not having it will make trophy winning a lot lot harder!
Friday, June 5, 2009
Why work, when you can read football articles?
First attempt at this, let's see how it goes then...
I came across this article during my daily browsing of certain websites, while at work.
Much to my disappointment the first few paragraphs didn't tell me anything more than I feel I already know. Skipping to the bit about Florentino Perez's pursuit of Kaka brought me back to a conversation I had the previous day with a friend, about a near pipe dream of mine that Real (Madrid) would in fact buy Kaka, and then promptly swap him for Ronaldo (The one who is still World class, in case there was any confusion)...but I digress
Scrolling through the article feeling none the wiser, (a failure as far as most articles go!) I came across a small black box! "Potential World XI of Transfers". I hope you're as interested as I was at this point...
I came across this article during my daily browsing of certain websites, while at work.
Much to my disappointment the first few paragraphs didn't tell me anything more than I feel I already know. Skipping to the bit about Florentino Perez's pursuit of Kaka brought me back to a conversation I had the previous day with a friend, about a near pipe dream of mine that Real (Madrid) would in fact buy Kaka, and then promptly swap him for Ronaldo (The one who is still World class, in case there was any confusion)...but I digress
Scrolling through the article feeling none the wiser, (a failure as far as most articles go!) I came across a small black box! "Potential World XI of Transfers". I hope you're as interested as I was at this point...
1. Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus)
2. Maicon (Inter Milan)
3. Yuri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow)
4. Nemanja Vidic (Man Utd)
5. Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea)
6. Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal)
7. Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd)
8. Kaka (AC Milan)
9. David Villa (Valencia)
10. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter)
11. Franck Ribery (Bayern)
2. Maicon (Inter Milan)
3. Yuri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow)
4. Nemanja Vidic (Man Utd)
5. Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea)
6. Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal)
7. Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd)
8. Kaka (AC Milan)
9. David Villa (Valencia)
10. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter)
11. Franck Ribery (Bayern)
Subs: Joleon Lescott, Xabi Alonso, Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero, Samuel Eto'o
...do you see it?
Here, I'll help a little
Does this surprise anyone else?!
Ok, understood, the author is an English fellow. My best guess, Lescott is there by default.
1) No one is going to be fooled into believing that an English striker (potentially up for a transfer) could even compete with those already on the list.
2) No worthy English midfielders are up for a transfer anywhere...
3) Same goes for English defenders. Yes, Rio Ferdinand is probably England's best defender...(this next one is for the Chelsea fans, and those still living in the past about 2 years back), John Terry could be there too...but neither of them are leaving their clubs anytime soon
But really, that one name just stuck out like a sore thumb to me. I may be exaggerrating a tad. On a better day / time (i.e. not 3am) I'd crunch some of the numbers, show how almost everyone on that list has either won awards / trophies at the top level / made multiple appearances for their country. I'm pretty sure Lescott hasn't. If someone proves me wrong, I apologise...a bit.
For now, let's save his name for "Best XI central defenders in England", "Best XI Wolverhampton players to make an appearance for England"...
If it means leaving his name off of this list, then cut the subs bench to four players or something...anything rather than just throw in a filler to a class list like that!
Phew...that was a little longer than I expected!
Oh, and feel free to hit me back with any comments or whatever...you know the drill!
Cheers
...do you see it?
Here, I'll help a little
1. Blah
2. Blah
3. Blah
4. Blah
5. Blah
6. Blah
7. Blah
8. Blah
9. Blah
10. Blah
11. Blah
2. Blah
3. Blah
4. Blah
5. Blah
6. Blah
7. Blah
8. Blah
9. Blah
10. Blah
11. Blah
Subs: JOLEON LESCOTT, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah'h
Does this surprise anyone else?!
Ok, understood, the author is an English fellow. My best guess, Lescott is there by default.
1) No one is going to be fooled into believing that an English striker (potentially up for a transfer) could even compete with those already on the list.
2) No worthy English midfielders are up for a transfer anywhere...
3) Same goes for English defenders. Yes, Rio Ferdinand is probably England's best defender...(this next one is for the Chelsea fans, and those still living in the past about 2 years back), John Terry could be there too...but neither of them are leaving their clubs anytime soon
But really, that one name just stuck out like a sore thumb to me. I may be exaggerrating a tad. On a better day / time (i.e. not 3am) I'd crunch some of the numbers, show how almost everyone on that list has either won awards / trophies at the top level / made multiple appearances for their country. I'm pretty sure Lescott hasn't. If someone proves me wrong, I apologise...a bit.
For now, let's save his name for "Best XI central defenders in England", "Best XI Wolverhampton players to make an appearance for England"...
If it means leaving his name off of this list, then cut the subs bench to four players or something...anything rather than just throw in a filler to a class list like that!
Phew...that was a little longer than I expected!
Oh, and feel free to hit me back with any comments or whatever...you know the drill!
Cheers
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