יום ראשון, 31 ביולי 2011
Individual Match Highlights: Thierry Henry (New York Red Bulls) vs Arsenal
Where are all the black managers?
A quarter of professional players are non-white, so why are there only two black managers at the 92 League clubs? Reporter Richard Woodall puts some serious questions to the big names.
It?s a statistic that just won?t go away. The number of black managers in football simply isn't rising.
Four years ago, only two out of the 92 League managers were black ? and the situation hasn?t changed. Charlton?s Chris Powell and newly-appointed Birmingham boss Chris Hughton are the only non-white gaffers in the Premier and Football Leagues ? staggeringly inconsistent considering 25% of current players are black.
One idea is to follow American football's ?Rooney Rule?. Introduced in 2003, this anti-discriminatory legislation ? named not after Manchester United striker Wayne but Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who chaired the NFL's diversity committee ? requires clubs to interview ethnic-minority candidates for senior jobs.
Under the Rooney Rule, unless assistant coaches have contract clauses guaranteeing them promotion to chief coach when the incumbent leaves, clubs must interview at least one Black or Hispanic candidate. And this is no paper tiger: when the Detroit Lions flouted it in 2003, the club was fined $200,000 by the authorities. As a result, the percentage of African-American NFL coaches jumped from 6% to 22%.
But would a similar thing work in the Premier and Football League? British football has made great efforts to kick racism out of the stands and the dressing rooms, but what of the dug-outs and boardrooms? Are directors around the country inherently racist, or is it that the small number of black managers who have been given jobs have not produced the results expected?
Staffordshire University academics recently polled 1,000 fans, players, referees and officials. More than 50% thought racism existed in club boardrooms, while 82% said managers were given jobs based on their reputation in the media.
Hughton and Powell: rarities
Earlier this year, Notts County parted company with Paul Ince. In his first managerial role, the former Manchester United and England midfielder successfully led Macclesfield Town ? seven points adrift in 92nd place ? to safety before further success with Milton Keynes Dons.
When he took over at Blackburn Rovers in June 2008, he broke new ground as the first black British manager in the Premier League. He only served six months in the job at Ewood Park before fans called for his head and he was dismissed.
Ince ? who was also the first black player to captain England ? believes he would have found his pathway into management easier were it not for the colour of his skin.
?I?ve got enough experience in the game, and worked under some of the greatest managers," says Ince, a stalwart for bosses including Sir Alex Ferguson and Terry Venables.
"No disrespect to Macclesfield, but I end up sometimes questioning why I had to go to the lowest team in the Football League to start my managerial career.? Strong words, but Ince's former team-mates Gareth Southgate and Roy Keane cut their teeth at a higher level, with Middlesbrough and Sunderland respectively.
Ince thinks it will take more than success for himself and others like Chris Powell and Chris Hughton for inherent racism to be kicked out of touch.
?Racism in football is never going to go away," he says. "I?d hate to think that in the 21st century we don?t want a manager in football because he is black.
?But we need to look at the number of black footballers who have left the game and not been managers but rather pursued a media career ? Les Ferdinand and Andy Cole, for example. You wonder why this is.?
Paul Ince during his ill-fated Blackburn tenure
The numbers game is enlightening. Although Tony Collins became the first black manager, blazing a trail at Rochdale in the 1960s, he remained an anomaly until the 1990s when he was followed by Keith Alexander at Lincoln, and later Peterborough.
And although Hope Powell ? currently managing England at the Women?s World Cup ? is the first black head coach of any England football team, her appointment in 1998 has not been the start of a bigger trend.
Former England and Aston Villa defender Earl Barrett says he nearly left the game when he retired in 1999, precisely because of the lack of opportunity for black managers.
Barrett ? who currently coaches the under-14s at Stoke and is project manager for football?s equality and inclusion campaign ?Kick It Out? ? will complete his UEFA A coaching badges this summer and admits he would love to be in the managerial hot-seat one day.
?I wasn?t sure whether to go into coaching when I finished playing, so I did a sports science degree before deciding to give it another go," he explains. "At one time, though, I didn't even consider it for lack of opportunity. There was a pathway to management but it was full of obstacles for black ex-players.
"I definitely think we have a racist mentality when it comes to black managers. Even if I don?t become a manager, at least I?ve made the way for others by attempting to break the cycle.
Barrett notes, though, that he's not the first to try. ?Keith Alexander was a trailblazer for black coaches. He was very successful ? but didn?t get a shot at a top club. A quarter of players are from black and ethnic minorities and yet we don?t see that reflected in management.?
Earl Barrett in his playing days
What do the power-brokers of English football think of the situation? Brendon Batson MBE is currently an FA consultant on race equality.
?There are issues with regards to black coaches which need to be addressed," says Batson, a groundbreaking player as one of West Brom?s ground-breaking ?Three Degrees? alongside Laurie Cunningham and Cyrille Regis in the 1970s.
?We?ve had more black managers in previous years than at present but at the moment there are not many. There?s no easy answer to the problem. We know the numbers do not lie.?
To help correct those numbers, the NFL introduced the Rooney Rule ? and it's worth noting that even before its introduction 6% of NFL coaches were black, which would equate to five and a half Premier and Football League managers rather than the current two. (If we take the 22% figure, that would be 20 black managers.)
But do the FA have any plans to introduce a similar rule here? Spokesman Matt Phillips remains tight-lipped. ?The FA is aiming to inspire more coaches from black and ethnic minority communities and we are committed to working with the relevant football authorities to take this forward.
?Both Noel Blake [England U19s coach] and Hope Powell have carved out excellent careers as national coaches in the England set-up and the next step is to generate a new wave of coaches that can follow in their footsteps by gaining qualifications and experience across all levels of the game.?
Hope Powell CBE ? a shining but rare example
However, Charlton?s Chris Powell ? who broke into management this year at Charlton, for whom he played nearly 300 times in three separate spells ? is philosophical about the influence he has as a black manager.
?Obviously I have to do well because the be-all and end all is about good results. I need to produce. It's tough to be one of the only black managers ? you feel a bit like a martyr. Clearly the percentage of black players is not reflected in management.?
Even so, Powell disagrees with Ince over whether a playing career should influence how far up the scale you start as a manager: ?I don?t think your playing career should really have any bearing on it. If you?re good enough, you get an opportunity to manage and coach.?
Peter Coates, owner of Stoke City ? where Chris Kamara had a brief managerial spell in 1998 ? acknowledges the dearth of minority coaches but doesn't think it's down to prejudice: ?There are so few black managers but at Stoke there is no racism ? we hold black and white coaches in the highest regard.
?I don?t know a huge amount about the Rooney Rule but I think clubs would need to think long and hard before introducing something like that. I don't believe that there exists prejudice towards black managers in the game. Football management is very pressurised ? whatever the colour of your skin.?
Ince disagrees. ?We?ve managed to stamp out racist abuse dished out to players but the next step is to get more black managers into the game. It?s not the FA that can change it ? it?s the people running our clubs.?
As such, Ince is in favour of the FA introducing its own Rooney Rule: ?Without a doubt I would be in support of that ? look what it has done for the NFL.?
Ince is backed up by Professional Footballers? Association chief executive Gordon Taylor. ?The issue of black managers is the next glass ceiling to address,? says Taylor. ?We admit we need to look at the situation. Guys like Cyrille Regis, Les Ferdinand and Luther Blissett were hoping for positions in the game and they haven?t yet got them.
?We are giving serious considering to the Rooney Rule at the moment. It?s proven very successful in the USA and we are looking to bring Dan Rooney over to the UK to speak about his experiences of it.
"Something like this in English football would need the support of all the clubs. There's always going to be an issue with positive discrimination but with the number of black managers so low, something needs to change. The current situation is not fair.?
Regis, Blissett and Ferdinand ? capped but not appointed
Former Watford, AC Milan and England striker Blissett retired from the game in 1994 and is still waiting for his first taste of professional management. He managed non-league Chesham United for a year in 2006 and his most recent job was coaching the under-16s at Stevenage last season.
Blissett is damning of thre prevailing attitudes in football boardrooms.
?Football club owners are always looking for reasons to talk about experience but you can?t get experience without the opportunity. I?ve applied for many jobs over the years and been told I don?t have enough experience.
?I just think I?m wasting my time now. Sometimes when I?ve applied, I?ve not even had the courtesy of a reply. The reason for the lack of managers is simple ? there is racism.
?But I don't think this is just related to football ? if you look about in society you can see this. People in charge of football clubs just turn to the same people again and again.?
Former West Brom striker Cyrille Regis MBE thinks change will come, albeit gradually. Regis notched 82 goals in 237 appearances for the Baggies and won the FA Cup with Coventry in 1987. He hasn't gone into management and is now a football agent.
?It?s a gradual process,? he says. ?Black football players weren?t suddenly accepted. Getting more black managers will be a gradual sea-change. It takes time for race to cross both blue and white collar boundaries.?
Darren Moore, who won promotion to the Premier League four times with West Brom (twice), Bradford and Derby before becoming an international for Jamaica, also backed a Rooney Rule.
Moore ? now club captain at League Two side Burton Albion ? is currently taking his UEFA coaching badges with a view to management, and he hopes more black players will follow him.
?You can look at this issue in a number of ways," he says. "I think introducing the Rooney Rule would work. There are such a lot of black coaches in the game and more and more of them are taking coaching badges.
?It was good when Paul Ince highlighted the lack of black managers ? it means more black players are starting to be switched on about the low number of managers.?
Moore gets a gong from PFA chairman Clarke Carlisle
Richard Bevan, chief executive of the League Managers Association, said any move to enforce new regulations would need substantial support.
?If we felt black coaches were supportive of the Rooney Rule, the LMA would back it," he pledges. ?It?s disappointing we don?t have more black managers. Alongside the PFA, the LMA supports the black coaches' forum to help bring more managers into the game.
?Things haven't progressed as they should have done because there is no career pathway for black coaches at the moment. But we are pushing for more black players to get their qualifications.
"At the moment we have 23% of black players enrolled on coaching courses. As a result, black coaches will be getting more interviews.?
It's an interesting figure: if 23% of coaching-course candidates are black, that much more closely reflects the ethnic make-up of current players. If those proportions are reflected in the interviewees shortlisted for jobs, whether by a Rooney Rule or simple mathematical averages, it should result in a larger number of black managers.
There's still a long way to go, on both sides of the Atlantic. It's worth noting that at the time the Rooney Rule was introduced, 70% of NFL players were black. In that context, while having 23% non-white coaches is much better than 6%, it's still barely reflective of the sport's ethnic make-up.
Interviews ? whether or not achieved via a Rooney Rule ? are one thing; appointments are an entirely different matter. For British football to be in such a position in 2011 is staggering. The sport awaits a new generation of aspiring black managers and coaches. The jury is out and is in no hurry to return yet.
Guardiola does his best Arsene Wenger impression
Barcelona needed a penalty shootout to beat Internacional in the Audi Cup. Though it's only preseason, this did not please Pep Guardiola.
When Internacional equalized to make it 2-2 in the second half thanks to some poor goalkeeping from Jose Pinto, Guardiola lost his cool and resorted to Arsene Wenger's signature move: The water bottle spike. Wenger did this many times last season as a way to keep from spontaneously combusting after Arsenal's many disappointments and it seems Guardiola was paying attention.
The fact that Pep is doing this in preseason is a bit troubling. At this rate, he could be wearing a bubble coat and claiming temporary blindness by December.
The mood of the La Liga nation - Getafe to Mallorca
For the second time this week, La Liga Loca's Tim Stannard puts on his corduroy jacket, polishes his leather couch, cranks up some soothing Kenny G and assesses the mental wellbeing of the fans of all twenty clubs in la Primera, with most teams now back in pre-season training....
Granada
Mood ? Dancing in the street (or they would be if it wasn't too hot) sized happiness
Udinese ?B?, as LLL insists on calling them, are facing their first season in the Spanish top flight in 35 years. Happily, they are also reportedly about to leave administration and may have ?12m to spend, so the mood of the average Granada supporter is annoyingly perky.
However, that joviality will no doubt be flip-reversed by the end of October, when they will no doubt find themselves down in lower reaches of the division, blaming referring conspiracies for their Primera plight. But until the dreaded day grim reality comes along to kick ?em in the goolies, the Granada fans won?t give two hoots about what lies ahead after a very long absence from the limelight.
Getafe
Mood ? Fairly happy, but maybe feeling a tad let down. Like Royston Drenthe
It?s a confusing world for Getafe?s hardcore support of 23 hardy souls. When the deal with the Royal Emirates Group was announced by Angel Torres, the club president said that an extra cash injection of around ?20 million would mean the team?s best players would not have to be sold every summer.
Unfortunately, that pledge has immediately fallen flat on its face, with Manu Del Moral, Juan Alb�n, Derek Boateng, and Dani Parejo all flogged off for a total of around ?20 million. The newcomers are largely freebies ? two from Deportivo ? and Real Madrid Castilla?s Pablo Sarabia, who while being an undoubtedly talented attacking midfielder, is also a mouthy scrote-bag. Torres admitted the club did try to pick up Bojan from Barcelona, so there is hope of a big money cash splash for a new striker before the summer is over.
Levante
Mood ? Still skipping through the streets
There will still be smiles on Mr Johnny Levante Supporter?s face as he looks ahead to another enjoyable season of struggle and top flight torment, when it looked for some time last year that a return to la Segunda was on the cards.
The architect of their miraculous escape, Luis Garc�a, is now scowling away at Getafe, leaving former Cartagena boss Juan Ignacio Mart�nez in charge. His role at the club is to beg, steal and borrow players, keep striker Felipe Caicedo at the club and hope big-boned defender Sergio Ballesteros doesn?t return to the squad so large he has small lumps of cheese orbiting him like moons.
M�laga
Mood ? As happy as a toddler who has just wolfed down fifty bags of sugar
A more giddy bunch of supporters you could not possibly find. Around 12,000 fans renewed their season tickets in just one day. Then 15,000 saw Ruud van Nistelrooy unveiled, before 16,000 turned up for a stand-up routine from Joaqu�n. And it?s no wonder, given ?37 million has been blown by M�laga on seven players, and there is still hope for another big-name arrival in the shape of Santi Cazorla from Villarreal.
It?s the kind of summer that has united fans of 17 other clubs in la Primera, all of whom now consider M�laga supporters to be jammy b**tards.
Mallorca
Mood ? Jaws dragging along the floor depressed. Again.
BONG! This summer's headlines from Mallorca....
BONG! The club is still in administration...
BONG! Star striker Pierro Web� is raging against the machine, by refusing to play in friendly against Swedish side Hammerby...
BONG! Mallorca have signed someone called Gianni Zuiverloon who apparently played for WBA and Ipswich last season.
BONG! That?s about it...
On the plus side - and it?s spelled with a ?p? in a fairly small font - the usual fire sale of talent in order to keep the wolf from the door has yet to arrive, meaning Jonathan De Guzman and Emilio Nsue are still around, along with coach Michael Laudrup.
The mood of the La Liga nation:
Athletic Bilbao, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Betis, Espanyol
Granada, Getafe, Levante, Malaga, Mallorca
Osasuna, Racing Santander, Rayo Vallecano, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad
Sevilla, Sporting, Valencia, Villarreal, Zaragoza
Mick McCarthy Is? The Continental
Source: http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2011/07/02/mick-mccarthy-is-the-continental/
You couldn?t score in a brothel! Kevin Kuranyi (Dynamo Moscow) vs Volga
Club friendly wrap: Red Bulls claim trophy as Gunners choke again
Qatar 'spent big' to win 2022 World Cup
One of the areas Hassan al Thawadi refused to discuss during my Newsnight interview with him was the amount of money Qatar spent on its successful World Cup bid.
Despite repeatedly asking him to reveal the bid's budget the former chief executive, now overseeing preparations for the tournament 11 years from now, wouldn't budge.
He argued - perhaps with some justification - that if he opened up Qatar's accounts for public scrutiny then he would be inviting another wave of international opprobrium at the country's vast spending power. He didn't say this but he probably also felt that inferences would once again be drawn about Qatar's methods of winning influence during the controversial two-year campaign.
But al Thawadi does admit that his country's bid budget was way more than the $43m (�27m at current exchange rates) previously reported. My guess is that it is closer to $100m (�63m). He spent $27m (�17m) alone on a mini prototype stadium with the air-cooling technology Qatar plans to roll out during the World Cup, while about the same again was spent on the bid's marketing and press budget.
Once you include the money spent on high-profile ambassadors such as Zinedine Zidane and factor in the cost of building the Al Sadd Stadium - the first fully functioning air-conditioned arena in Qatar - then it's easy to see why rival bidders such as the United States argue that it wasn't a level playing field.
Al Thawadi says Qatar had to spend big because it was the underdog and had to convince the world it meant business.
"We will not lie, our budget was significantly higher than any of the other bids," he told me. "But if you take into consideration what we had to spend it on. We started behind everyone else, we had to win hearts and minds."
Maybe this really was what Jerome Valcke, the general secretary of Fifa, was referring to when he wrote that e-mail to Jack Warner decrying the fact that Mohamed Bin Hammam, the Qatari head of Asian football, was trying to buy votes "as Qatar bought WC" (the World Cup).
Al Thawadi said Qatar officials were angry when the e-mail was leaked by Warner and even went so far as to threaten Valcke with legal action unless he clarified his remarks. He goes on to hint at the possibility that Valcke and other senior Fifa officials were opposed to Qatar's bid.
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"There were a lot of people who did not take our bid seriously, whether it was inside Fifa or outside Fifa," he said. By finally coming out and putting Qatar's case, al Thawadi will hope he has drawn a line under the wave of negative publicity that he and his team have faced since winning the bid, publicity he said was motivated by prejudice. On this point I believe he is wrong. It is not prejudice which is driving the anti-Qatar lobby.
It is partly incredulity at the decision taken by 14 members of the Fifa executive committee to send the World Cup to a country, which despite all its money, is still at such an early stage of its development. A country which can experience temperatures of more than 50 degrees during the summer months when the tournament would be played.
It was unseasonably cool last week while I was in Doha but it was still in the mid-40s and when the humidity was high, it was unbearable for longer than 10 minutes. According to Qatar's current plans the World Cup final would have been played on 3 July.
But the main reason for the cynicism towards Qatar is that people refuse to believe that Fifa, an organisation now mired in corruption allegations, could have reached a conclusion on the contest for 2022 in a sound and untainted way.
With "whistleblower" Phaedra Almajid's retraction of corruption allegations against members of Fifa's executive committee and Qatar's 2022 World Cup bid, the main source of claims against the Gulf state appears to have gone quiet.
This means Mohamed Bin Hammam now poses the biggest threat to Qatar's reputation. If he is thrown out of Fifa for trying to bribe Caribbean football officials during his bid for the presidency, fresh questions will be asked about his role during the 2022 campaign.
Al Thawadi distanced himself and the bid from Bin Hammam, saying he wasn't the architect of their success. But however reluctant he may have been at the start of the campaign it still seems a bit far fetched to claim Bin Hammam played no part in persuading his fellow executive committee members to back his country.
Ultimately - and al Thawadi and his lawyers in London know this - it all comes down to evidence and as things stand there isn't a single piece of hard, irrefutable proof that he or his team did anything which broke Fifa's rules during Qatar's bid.
Fifa stated this again on Monday, backing its members who had previously been accused of corruption, and effectively closing down any remaining calls for a review of the 2022 decision.
That won't stop people wondering how on earth Qatar won it. But for now it buys al Thawadi and Qatar a bit of breathing space.
If only the same could be said for Fifa.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/davidbond/2011/07/qatar_spent_big_to_win_2022_wo.html
This Week In US Soccer Tweets: July 22nd
Source: http://worldsoccerreader.com/2011/07/this-week-in-us-soccer-tweets-july-22nd/
Can Juande Ramos break the duopoly in Ukraine with Dnipro?
When Juande Ramos popped up in eastern Ukraine last October to replace Volodymyr Bessonov as manager of Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, there was a renewed hope of establishing a third way. A way of breaking that long-standing duopoly in the Premier League and finally usurping the ?big two?.
Tavriya Simferopol may have won the inaugural post-independence championship after the fragmentation of the Soviet Union in 1992, but every other league title since has gone to either Dynamo Kyiv (13) or Shakhtar Donetsk (six). The last side to oust the pair from the division?s top two positions was Chornomorets Odesa some 15 years ago.
Even below them, Metalist Kharkiv have been bronze medallists five years on the trot.
The Spaniard is in the middle of his second transfer window at Dnipro though, and having been given considerable funds with which to stamp his authority on the team, greater things are expected than the fourth-place finish of the previous campaign.
Ramos ? previously coach of such sides as Sevilla, Tottenham Hotspur and for a short time Real Madrid - also ordered the pitch at their stunning 31,000-capacity Dnipro Arena to be enlarged in the offseason to better suit the style of football he is trying to instil.
So things, it seems, are finally coming together at Dnipro.
That they have emerged as a viable contender to challenge Shakhtar and Dynamo?s hegemony is no surprise, however.
Dnipro twice won the Soviet Top League in the eighties and under the tutelage of Yevhen Kucherevskiy and later Oleh Protasov became a force in the Ukrainian Premier League.
Not once in the past decade have the club finished outside the top six.
Their owner is Ihor Kolomoisky, an influential businessman and native of Dnipropetrovsk. He was second only to Shakhtar president Rinat Akhmetov in Ukraine?s rich list last year, with an estimated fortune of $6.243 billion. Yet in the past he has generally shied away from the big transfers.
Traditionally, Dnipro have been a team renowned for its strong Ukrainian core, so in some respects the appointment of Ramos denotes a new era for the club.
The 56-year-old still has a strong reputation in Europe ? despite the difficulties of his last few months at Tottenham - and his arrival has helped to attract a calibre of player that perhaps wouldn't have been possible with an Eastern European coach in charge, even with a lucrative contract being dangled in front of them.
Accordingly, Ramos? first five signings over the winter were all foreign.
Premier League rules dictate his starting line-up must contain at least four Ukrainians though and Ramos has been active in the local market, most recently buying midfielder Denys Oliynyk from Dnipro?s rival?s Metalist for a considerable amount.
A 3-3 draw in their opening game of the new season against Arsenal Kyiv revealed the need for a centre-back.
He?s also looking for a striker to fill the void left by Yevhen Seleznyov.
The 25-year-old was Dnipro?s top scorer in each of the past two seasons, but has returned to his boyhood club Shakhtar and in spite of options up front the Ukrainian international will be sorely missed.
Matheus? impact after joining from Braga has been curtailed by injury, Oleksandr Hladkiy hasn?t hit it off at Dnipro since a big-money move from Shakhtar and young forward Roman Zozulya isn't yet ready to lead the line.
Ramos also has Alexei Antonov, a striker with a decent record last year at Illychivets Mariupil who actually scored twice in that draw at Arsenal, yet he?s unlikely to be the one to spearhead Dnipro?s efforts to dislodge Dynamo and Shakhtar from the Champions League places.
Their real strength lies in midfield. Ramos? marquee signing during the winter break was the ?10 million purchase of Giuliano, a gifted Brazilian who won the Copa Libertadores last year and although the 21-year-old is yet to score for Dnipro he has nevertheless proved himself a talented individual.
With half a season already under his belt in Ukraine it?s hoped Giuliano will realise his potential and justify that such a hefty transfer fee.
There will also be more bite in the centre of midfield with Derek Boateng after the Ghanaian international rejected a move to Dnipro in favour of the English Premier League.
Key though isn?t one of Ramos? new arrivals, but rather a young Ukrainian: Yevhen Konoplyanka.
A versatile, attack-minded midfielder, the 21-year-old is an integral part of the side and when he doesn?t play, Dnipro aren?t the same.
Konoplyanka failed to light up the European Under-21 Championships recently like some predicted he would, but nevertheless he?s taken over the mantle of chief playmaker at Dnipro.
Last season constituted something of a learning curve for Ramos.
One Ukrainian publication used the succinct heading ?perestroika?, a Russian word synonymous with the Mikhail Gorbachev era that literally means ?restructuring? while assessing Dnipro and their manager?s performance. And while the title is perhaps beyond them this year, certainly usurping Metalist isn't.
Shakhtar look well and truly ensconced in the Champions League places and Dynamo will be resurgent under Yuri Semin but the battle for third went down to the wire in the previous campaign.
If everything comes together though, if the side gels and plays as a team under Ramos then maybe, just maybe, the big two?s duopoly could be broken at long last.
This is Oguchi Onyewu towering over his tiny new teammate
American defender Oguchi Onyewu made his debut for Sporting CP recently, entering the match at the same time as 21-year-old midfielder Andre Martins. At 6-foot-5, Onyewu is a full foot taller than Martins, which makes this look like a before and after shot of a young Bruce Banner hulking up to play football.
It's unclear whether Sporting put them in at the same time in order to have them join together (i.e. have Martins sit on Onyewu's shoulders) to form a SuperFootballer (sponsored by Super Bock!). I'm guessing that's the ultimate goal.
Thanks to Andre (not Andre Martins) for the picture!
The Beginner?s Guide to Aussie Rules, 2011 Edition
Source: http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2011/03/21/the-beginners-guide-to-aussie-rules-2011-edition/
DT Exclusive: Barcelona plot to free Cesc, part 3,412
Cesc Fabregas still has not been sold to Barcelona as Arsenal wait for the Spanish champions to meet the �40 million price tag. So while members of Barca continue to publicly discuss Cesc, his supposed suffering and their desire to "fight" for him, they are also plotting how they can free him from the clutches of Arsene Wenger. The following is a transcript of one such strategy session.
Guardiola: Cesc is suffering. We all know this. So how can we help him?
Xavi: We can have Cesc's hometown mayor say that Wenger is a terrorist and that he will soon cut off Cesc's fingers!
Guardiola: Good. I like that. Andres, do you have an idea?
Iniesta: We could pay what Arsenal want for him?
Guardiola: No. That's too easy. Stupid idea, Andres. Anyone else? Pique? How can we save Cesc?
Pique: Who?
Guardiola: Cesc Fabregas.
Pique: Who's that?
Guardiola: Arsenal's captain. You know -- he plays for Spain.
Pique: He plays for Spain?
Guardiola: Well, he comes off the bench for Spain.
Pique: Oh. So why do we want him again?
Xavi: Because this is his home and he is suffering!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pedro: Maybe Gerard can get Shakira to hypnotize Wenger with her truth hips!
Pique: Wait, are you guys sure you aren't talking about Fernando Llorente?
Guardiola: Yes.
Pique: OK, then I'm officially confused. And when I'm confused my head starts to bleed, so I'm going to walk away now.
Xavi: And I'm going to run to London! Cesc! I'm coming for you!
[Xavi runs, disappears over the horizon]
Photo: Reuters
Mick McCarthy Is? The Continental
Source: http://www.davesfootballblog.com/post/2011/07/02/mick-mccarthy-is-the-continental/
Spurs mess with want-away Modric, make him captain for friendly
Tottenham clearly have a wicked sense of humor because their response to his very public accusations of broken promises and very unwelcome plea for the club to sell him to Chelsea was to give him the captain's armband for their friendly against South African champions Orlando Pirates.
Slapping the armband on him (I imagine this caused him to wail like a toddler getting a shot at the doctor's office) shows that they're serious about not wanting to sell him. Or that they don't want Arsenal to be the only North London club that gets attention for begrudgingly selling their captain this summer.
Photo: Getty
Euro 96: Watching with the fans
It was the first major tournament on these isles in 30 years: you may recall that football was "coming home". The then FourFourTwo editor Paul Simpson set out to watch it with the fans?
Can't cross. Can?t take a free-kick to save their lives. Always giving away free-kicks just outside the box. Can?t get a corner in the box and away from the keeper. This isn?t an assassination of any particular footballer, just an all-too-accurate description of too many of the teams who competed in the football fest that was Euro 96.
Somehow, by the end, it didn?t really matter. But for too much of the time fans watched games which were littered with mistakes which would have made any Endsleigh League Third Division coach wince.
Turkey v Croatia in Group D, which was my first in-the-flesh experience of Euro 96, was just such an encounter. Not for the first time, the fans were more impressive than the players. Some 19,000 Turkish fans and 700 Croats filled the City Ground with noise and banners (one of the Turks? banners wished all the best to "Queen Elizabeth II, symbol of the British nation and to all good English gentleman").
They were briefly united when Queen?s We Will Rock You came over the PA and they all sang the chorus together. The Croats were so taken with the chorus that they sang it over and over in their fake American accents throughout the game. But then they?re a musical bunch: one of their squad is called Elvis Brajkovic, presumably named after the man who gave us Hound Dog and There?s No Room To Rhumba In A Sports Car.
The teams came out and the tension dropped. The Turks started brightly and faded, the Croats started dimly and faded. Zvonimir Boban got caught in possession more often in one game than some cat burglars do in their entire careers. The Turkish fans whistled whenever the Croats got the ball, but when the Turks got the ball, the Croats remained resolutely silent.
The Croats settled the issue in the 81st minute. Elvis didn?t come off the bench, not even to wiggle his hips, possibly because the Croats were still singing Queen songs. And that, as they say, is about as good as it gets. Both sides have excuses: the weather is foul (metal walls of water sweep across the pitch in the second half) and their eardrums were probably punctured by the non-stop whistling of 19,000 Turkish fans for 92 minutes.
Balkan celebrations (Simmo not pictured)
The weather soon improved but the football took a little longer to warm up, as did some of the fans. At St James? Park for the Bulgaria-Romania derby I think I heard the Romanian fans cheer once, but they were drowned out by the sounds of the journalist next to me twiddling her thumbs.
Crosses continued to be ludicrously over-hit (it wasn?t just Steve McManaman who didn?t get many good crosses in) and free-kicks in allegedly dangerous positions continued to get ballooned over the bar. The only player who seemed to have a handle on how to strike a dead ball was Trifon Ivanov, who struck the ball so well you couldn?t help but wonder how accurate he?d be if he bothered to open both eyes when he was kicking the ball. With one eye half-closed and the other swivelling apparently on a separate axis both to his other eye and the rest of his head, Ivanov tried (successfully) to patrol the Bulgarian penalty area like a disgruntled werewolf.
His hairstyle helped. He looked as if he?d tried to save money by agreeing to have his hair cut by the first-year intake at the local hairdressers? college in Vienna, where he plays his club football. But at least he hadn?t fallen for the Kevin Keegan Head Over Heels mid-1970s bubble-perm which too many of his team-mates, including Krassimir Balakov, obviously considered the height of fashion. The bubble-perm count when the Czechs took the field against the Russians was even higher.
Ivanov rubs Stoichkov's head, possibly for luck
You expect such patent unsophistication from eastern Europeans but the bubble perm also appears enduringly popular in Germany ? possibly because of King Kev?s halcyon days at Hamburg. There was Andreas Moller, allegedly a flair player, who when he came out of the tunnel against the Czechs, bore a striking facial resemblance to Sir Cliff when he was forever failing to win the Eurovision Song Contest. Moller is a very cool talent who can't help the fact that he looks very uncool indeed. After banging away the winning penalty against England in the semi-final, he tried to impersonate Gazza?s crazed, celebratory strut but he simply ended up looking like Rowan Atkinson doing Mr Bean.
Moller, like many of his team-mates (particularly those who play for Bayern Munich), was rather too fond of falling over for my taste. And anyone who criticises the refereeing standards at Euro 96 should remember that because of the gamesmanship of some teams (the Germans were by no means the worst), referees were forced to make twice as many decisions as they needed to.
Hristo Stoichkov, who can swear at referees in more European languages than any other international footballer, was booked in his first game for suggesting that a Spanish player should be booked. This policy was then quietly dropped, possibly because the referee in the Spain v France game realised he might have to book all 10 Spanish players, all of whom were always suggesting that every time they went for a header they?d been elbowed by the nearest French player. At least that?s how I interpreted the continuous elbow gestures of the Spanish players, though it?s always possible that they were signalling to the team chief that they wanted Chicken Tonight again for dinner.
The inevitable result? More errors. And there were some wonderful errors in Euro 96: the Romanian goal that wasn?t, the Czech penalty that wasn?t, the German golden goal which was offside, the Spanish offside goal that was probably onside, the Stoichkov onside goal against Spain that was declared offside? The worst refereeing was in the Germany v Croatia quarter-final where the Swedish referee appeared to have forgotten the law banning violent conduct, possibly because the Swedes have studiously avoided any violent conduct for the last 400 years with their policy of complete neutrality.
So, as the tournament wore on, the refereeing grew worse and the crosses failed to get any better. As, sadly, did the Turks. I was particularly disappointed watching Hakan Sukur, to whom I paid particular attention against Portugal. My notes on ?the Bull? read as follows: "Hakan gesticulates to team-mate to move? Hakan shoots over the top... Hakan plays useless ball on the edge of box... Hakan penalised for tugging... Hakan is frowning again... Hakan mumbles an apology after missing a sitter."
Sukur spots a pen-wielding journalist
He wasn?t alone in his crisis of confidence. The rest of his team were suffering from the same inferiority complex, frustrating those like Graeme Souness who?d hoped they?d do more than just turn up and get stuffed. "I?ve been banging on about that for 18 months," he said, the day after their first defeat, while he was on the phone from Glasgow airport. "They?ve just got to believe in themselves."
But the Turks weren?t the only ones to face a crisis of confidence. The English had, within a few days of the Swiss game, sunk into a gloom from which only a victory against the Scots would lift them. I watched the Swiss game in my new local in Shepperton with two new-found drinking partners, Danny and Tom, who hailed from Terry Venables? neck of the woods in Dagenham. ("We went to the same school as Tony Adams," Tom informed me proudly after his fifth pint of Guinness.)
Danny was the more voluble of the two and, before kick-off, had stood at the bar and declaimed: "I?m looking for a good performance from England today. I think it?ll be 2-0. And it will be a very strong and classy performance." Two hours, seven pints of Guinness and one peach schnapps later, he stood in the same spot trying to order a round and saying over and over: "I?m gutted. Absolutely gutted. Gutted. Gutted. Gutted."
The nation remained gutted until Shearer and Gazza gave us the tonic we needed. But nothing could prepare us for the Holland game. I watched that in a pub too ? a Dutch one called De Hems, off Shaftesbury Avenue. Before the game the Dutch fans were sitting around drinking Oranjeboom and wearing T-shirts saying that Princess Diana was screwing up, they were in our pub and were going to win the Cup (they?d made them themselves, they told me proudly, when I asked).
That certainly was the pre-tournament expectation but upstairs I watched with a crowd of Dutch fans as the goals kept going in. At 3-0, a Dutch fan was sober enough to say that if England scored another, they were out. And then it happened. By this time, the whole experience was beginning to feel thoroughly unreal. Exhilaration isn?t one of the emotions with which you?re supposed to watch England. No, there?s all those other -ations: desperation, frustration, devastation, but a state of exhilaration bordering on rapture? Absolutely not.
I thought at this point of standing on my chair and shouting: "Johan Cruyff, Ruud Gullit, Vincent van Gogh, your boys have taken a hell of a beating!" but the Dutch fans were being so nice. Here they were, 4-0 down, going out of Euro 96, and were they laying waste to Central London? No, they were contenting themselves with aiming the occasional swear word at Paul Gascoigne and saying "Two pints of Oranjeboom please barman" in their mother tongue.
Dutch fans patiently wait to celebrate
Then Kluivert scored and they were back in. The Dutch woman next to me was complaining: "We don?t deserve to go through. We?re not good enough." I advised her not to be so silly, that the English had been celebrating undeserved victories for years and there was no need to feel guilty about it.
England 4 Holland 1 was the biggest shock of Euro 96 but there were plenty of after-tremors. Like the Czechs beating the Italians. I was especially surprised by that because I was listening to the last few minutes on Capital Gold on the way back from Turkey v Portugal. When Casiraghi went clean through, bloody Jonathan Pearce ran through every vowel in the alphabet and invented a few new ones, thereby convincing me the Italians had equalised. Eventually, after 30 seconds of vowel sounds, he gasped: "Missed!"
But the quarter-finalists were, Czechs apart, sadly predictable. I knew Spain were going to lose because I had touched an Orange ball on my TV screen the night before at the behest of Uri Geller ? even though as I did so I wondered: if orange is such a powerful colour, how come the Dutch lost 4-1?
The least surprising part of the run-up to the semis came when Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan declared soccer war on Jerry. Fortunately he was dragged from the cockpit by his boss David Montgomery moments before he could lead a squadron of Lancasters on a dawn raid on Bayern Munich.
I wanted the Czechs to reach the final because all the commentators so obviously didn?t. Kevin Keegan liked the French, he made that very clear when they played Spain. But then the French, against Spain, played some fluent flowing football and threw away a 1-0 lead in the last five minutes. Now which Premier League team does that remind you of?
Berger consoles Djorkaeff after the French go out
The Czechs went through on penalties and so, after a lot of hope and grief, did the Germans. Everybody says penalty shoot-outs are a lottery. Not when you?re playing the Germans. There are few certainties in life. One is that life will eventually end. Another is that everyone hates Jeremy Beadle. And a third is that Germany will win a penalty shoot-out.
For England, the worry is that our destiny in international tournaments is to finish fourth after losing to the Germans on penalties, just as the Scots are destined to go out unluckily in the first round. So in 2002, Gareth Southgate will emulate Psycho and score from the spot but some other poor bugger will miss.
I went to Wembley on that last Sunday hoping that the Germans might blow the final by falling foul of the curse of the sixes: they?d lost the World Cup Final in 1966, lost the European Championships to the Czechs in 1976, and lost the World Cup final to Argentina in 1986. Could they break this 30-year-old curse?
A young Paul Simps? no, only joking
Stupid question. They weren?t the best German side I?d ever seen but it?s a mark of their quality that they won the thing without really having to play out of their skins. England pushed them but couldn?t make the pressure tell. And the Czechs, who has less pressure but created more clear-cut chances than the English, had them worried for a while.
So what, after all that, did Euro 96 prove? That England are no longer a joke, neither are Scottish goalkeepers (try telling the one about the Romanian goalie instead), that FIFA still haven?t got the referring right, and that a disturbing number of European football fans know the words to We Will Rock You.
And just think how good the 1988 World Cup could be if a few of the players could cross the ball to one of their colleagues and get a free-kick on target. Still, as David Pleat said on Radio 5: "There?s seven trees to every person in this city." No, I don?t know what he was on about either.
FEATURE Euro 96: England's Glory ? FourFourTwo's contemporary reaction
See FourFourTwo.com every day this week for more features on Euro 96. And peruse the web's best football interview archive...
INTERVIEW Perfect XI, Sep 2006: Tony Adams ? "There?s an art to making things look easy ? that?s why I've picked him"INTERVIEW One-on-One, Sep 2005: Paul Gascoigne ? "I trained with Goram every day, so I knew how to beat him"
Source: http://fourfourtwo.com/blogs/fourfourtwoview/archive/2011/06/21/euro-96-watching-with-the-fans.aspx
Arsenal 1-1 New York Red Bulls: 2011 Emirates Cup Highlights (Video)
Harry Redknapp Stars In Fairly Amusing Sky Sports Ad
Source: http://www.caughtoffside.com/2011/07/31/harry-redknapp-stars-in-fairly-amusing-sky-sports-ad/
Ashley Young Set To Join Man Utd
Source: http://www.footyblog.net/2011/06/ashley-young-set-to-join-man-utd/
Bob Bradley Relieved of Duties As US Manager
Source: http://worldsoccerreader.com/2011/07/bob-bradley-relieved-of-duties-as-us-manager/
Cult of the idol and chronic mismanagement prevent Argentine success
There was a delicious irony in Carlos Tevez? penalty miss in Argentina?s shoot-out defeat to Uruguay on Saturday.
?El Apache? or ?Carlitos?, call him what you want, the ongoing saga surrounding him in recent months has been symptomatic of the problems running deep through the veins of Argentine football.
For a player who was categorically ?not in [the] plans? of manager Sergio Batista just two months ago to line up in the starting XI for the tournament curtain raiser against Bolivia on July 1 confirmed many people?s thoughts on the Argentina boss.
He was not the first, and he won?t be the last ? but he caved in to external pressure to include the Manchester City forward.
?El jugador del pueblo? (the people?s player) was included by a manager who had, in the previous week, said that he did not need Tevez.
It?s worth mentioning at this point that Carlos Tevez is by far the most popular player in Argentina. His rags-to-riches story twinned with years of success at the country?s best-supported club ? Boca Juniors - has seen him become a working-class idol and national hero, the like of which hasn?t been seen since ?El Diego? himself.
Hero or not, in the months approaching the tournament, coach Batista made it clear the Manchester City forward was not in his plans ?for football reasons?.
Tevez and Batista in (marginally) happier times...
He confidently declared that Messi was his ?number 9? and that he also had Diego Milito and Gonzalo Higuain for that position.
But this all seems to be patently false: Tevez wasn?t even being used in that role.
The former Manchester United man had also been vocal in support of former boss Diego Maradona ahead of Batista, and declared himself ?injured? for a friendly match against Brazil, only to turn out for Manchester City just two days later. It was suggested that their differences were more personal than professional.
When the decision was made to bring Tevez back into the fold, Batista claimed that he had ?cleared the air with Carlitos?, but why the need to clear the air if the disagreements were football-related.
Batista?s lying on this topic has not gone unnoticed, and if it were simply a case of flagrant populism then it might be less damaging.
The truth is that the pressure exerted on him from AFA boss Julio Grondona has lead to the inclusion of Tevez, and it?s Grondona?s immovable and repugnant influence that is to blame for the general state of the Argentine national team.
Grondona has been in his role as AFA president since 1979. You may not recognise the name, but you may recognise some of his quotes. He recently demanded that the English return the Falkland Islands in exchange for a vote in the selection process for the 2018 World Cup.
Going further back, he declared: "I do not believe a Jew can ever be a referee at this level. It's hard work and, you know, Jews don't like hard work."
Plenty of blame for Argentina?s exit will rest on the shoulders of manager Sergio Batista, and with reason, for being tactically poor and a shoddy man-manager sees that he should leave his post.
Fortunately for him, Grondona prides himself on having never sacked a manager, so he is safe in his job despite the utter failure at the Copa America.
Grondona - always game for a laugh...
That is if you deem the host nation, with the best player in the world on their side and a ludicrously favourable draw, being knocked out in the quarter finals having only beaten a Costa Rican under-23 side as a failure.
Batista doesn?t, and has said as much this week.
His predecessor, Diego Maradona, left the post at the end of his contract in the wake of their 2010 World Cup elimination.
A popular man manager, but with the tactical knowledge of a lampshade, the real question should be how he got the job in the first place, given his failure with every team he managed previously.
However, as with ?Carlitos?, Maradona?s popularity was the key, and when he put himself in the frame for the job, Grondona found himself in a win-win situation.
Had Maradona succeeded, Grondona could count the pesos and take credit for what on the face of it looked a bold decision. Had Maradona fallen short, Grondona could portray him as an unstable individual and distance himself from the failure. Of course, the latter proved to be the reality.
While Maradona is even more revered than Tevez, the point is that this idolatry is still causing damage to the national game.
The deification of these individuals is bordering on the obscene, but while excessive, it seems harsh to criticise members of the public for having a role model, a hero.
Instead, it is the way that the authorities (and not just in football) use people?s emotional attachment to these stars to partake in cynically-built, populist policy decisions, that is the issue.
Even on a basic level, pandering to the whim of the football fan can never be a successful way to run a major organization.
Henry Kissinger once said: ?Leaders are responsible not for running public opinion polls, but for the consequences of their actions.?
It?s there that Batista and Grondona have failed. Weak through the fear of criticism; abject failure has resulted, but neither have faced the consequences.
WPS Preview: Week 15 ? Back At It
Source: http://worldsoccerreader.com/2011/07/wps-preview-week-15-%e2%80%93-back-at-it/
Meet the chief leading Azerbaijan from the ashes
Every aspect of modern football can be broken down into commodities that are compared, priced and sold on the transfer market ? and none more so than youth. The embodiment of hope, it's the thing that drives the beautiful game on, controlling the priorities of our federations, the direction of our clubs, the value of our transfers.
A miracle cure for any situation ? whether it be a bright new prospect with the talent to match his extravagant haircut as he helps a country return to its Samba roots, or maybe a bright-eyed coach from Portugal with the fresh ideas to reform a London establishment that?s found itself stuck in backwards ways ? it solves predicaments throughout the sport.
But we?re not here to discuss Neymar or Andre Villas-Boas. Let's talk about international football's youngest chief administrator, Elkhan Mammadov ? General Secretary of the Azerbaijani FA.
Appointed in 2007, Elkhan ? still only 32 ? has spent the past few years working to improve the standard of football in his beloved nation, which nestles on the Caspian Sea to the east of Turkey, but very much looks west to UEFA, where Elkhan has thrived.
NEVER MIND THE BOLSHEVIKS Madonna, war zones, ghost towns and Hull
Indeed, the country has always relied upon its relationship with Europe to help drive the game onwards ? from football's introduction in 1911 by English workers, through the newly-formed youth leagues and professional clubs, to UEFA investment for next year's U17 Women?s World Cup.
While similar federations in this part of the world may have persisted with egocentric plans to develop the sport by their own means, Elkhan was quick to establish strong bonds with UEFA. Leaving no doubt in anyone?s mind, he swiftly transformed the backwater football wasteland in to a hustling hotbed of action on and off the field with constant support from the European body as well as clubs and charities throughout the West ? a far cry from the corrupt game Azerbaijani football had become only a few years prior.
At the turn of the century, Azerbaijani football found itself in the grasp of Ilham Aliyev (the son of the country's then President Heydar Aliyev). Made head of the Azerbaijani National Olympic Committee, the younger Aliyev did little to help the Association of Football Federation of Azerbaijan (AFFA) and football around the country. Fans and players alike turned from the game in favour of Russian and Iranian alternatives.
Azerbaijani football hit rock bottom when tax police stormed the offices of the AFFA claiming it owed half a million dollars in unpaid taxes. Private cars were seized to pay off debts, the national stadium was shut down, AFFA president Faud Musayev had his visa taken from him, and general secretary Oktai Zeinalov was arrested and charged with tax evasion and sentenced to solitary confinement.
Things came to a dreadful conclusion in the spring of 2002 when a number of clubs refused to play in the forthcoming season while Musayev remained AFFA president, leading to a lockdown of the sport until the following May and a suspension of the national team from all FIFA and UEFA tournaments.
Many things have changed since then ? for a start, in 2003 Ilham Aliyev succeeded his father as the country's President ? but one of the most notable improvements has been in the opinion the Azerbaijani people hold for their national sport.
Ilham Aliyev makes a friend...
Where football was once nothing but corrupt, it now stands in its centenary year as a bastion of inspiration for the nation, which is in no small part down to Mammadov ? appointed AFFA's General Secretary in 2007.
Earlier this year, UNICEF were brought on board to help promote women?s football with training initiatives and a certain focus on coaching and introducing young women to the sport. Mammadov has been heralded as an inspiration figure for the women?s game and gender equality within a predominantly Islamic state. This was shown through the country's dedication and enthusiasm in holding next year's women's U17 tournament.
Mammadov?s influence and authority is evident in the standard and organisation in every aspect of Azerbaijani football. The country played host to this year's UEFA Group Study Scheme, as 2,000 technical coaches from the continent's 53 associations arrived to discuss the state of grass-roots football within Azerbaijan.
Although the domestic game is yet to reach a level where it can compete at a reasonable level within Europe?s qualification rounds, the league now finally has structure and consistency. Neftchi, from the capital Baku, won the title this year and are considered by most as the largest club within the country. AFFA will hope that Azerbaijani clubs can start to challenge in European competition.
The national sides are certainly improving. In January the senior team reached an all-time highest FIFA ranking of 97, and in May the U17s beat Ukraine 5-4 on penalties to win the recent President?s Cup in Kazakhstan.
With average league attendances growing to just over two thousand spectators per match, the sport is evidently enjoying a much needed period of prosperity. Whether or not this rise can continue, and just how far Azerbaijani football can go, will only be answered with time and continued effort. Fortunately for Azerbaijan and its young leader Elkhan Mammadov, they have both in abundance.
Atalanta fans in denial as hero Doni accused of match-fixing
A primitive-looking sign made out of cardboard hangs in the window of the Barettino, a bar just a few streets down from Atalanta?s ground, the Atleti Azzurri d?Italia.
It bears a message scribbled in the local dialect, probably by the man who runs the joint, Claudio Galimberti, better known as ?Bocia?, the shaggy-haired head of the club?s group of ultr�. It reads: ?Paura de nis�,? Fear of no one.
Ever since newly promoted Atalanta were seriously implicated in Italian football?s latest betting scandal, a mood of defiance has swept through the Lombard town of Bergamo. Its proud and hard-working residents, distinguished by the findings of a recent study showing that only the people of Milan declare more income for tax purposes, continue to walk through the streets with crapa olta - their heads held high.
Around 4,000 marched in defence of their club on June 9 with the front line of protesters holding up a banner on which the slogan ?get your hands off Atalanta? was written. No one has been left indifferent by the situation. Bergamo after all is a one-club town. Just ask the mayor Franco Tentorio. His father Luigi was a player, a coach and later a director with the club.
It?s enough to remember that only last November, Atalanta?s president and former player Antonio Percassi announced an initiative to send every newborn baby in the town a mini replica kit. With that in mind, is it any wonder so few Bergamaschi support any other team in Italy even considering the relative proximity of Milan and Inter? This is a family affair and thereby a matter of honour for Atalanta as their adopted son and captain Cristiano Doni is at the centre of match-fixing allegations, and not for the first time.
A decade ago, he along with 10 other players was accused of manipulating the result of a Coppa Italia tie between Atalanta and Pistoiese. Doni was eventually cleared and reminds spectators of the ruling every time he finds the back of the net with a provocative goal celebration, placing a hand under the chin to gesture that he too can walk with crapa olta.
After 10 seasons at the club with a brief parenthesis at Sampdoria and Mallorca in the middle, Atalanta supporters revere Doni. His rhetoric is typical of a talismanic figure. He needles local rivals and former club Brescia by saying: ?We?re back in our home, Serie A, while they?re back in their home, Serie B,? and often talks of blue and black blood running through his veins.
?This is a really special shirt, almost magical,? he gushes. ?Perhaps I could jokingly liken it to the costume that transformed Clark Kent into Superman.? Doni?s acts of heroism include becoming Atalanta?s all-time top scorer with 103 goals between Serie A and B, a remarkable achievement for a midfielder, and though Roman by birth, he was made an honorary citizen of Bergamo in 2008.
Percassi has repeatedly said, with a finger on the populist pulse, that Doni has a future at the club once his playing days are over, even going so far as to suggest: ?He would be the ideal president.?
All of which makes the very idea Doni has in any way wronged Atalanta inconceivable to the fans.
One told La Repubblica: ?I don?t believe it? It?s not our thing. Because Doni is Bergamasco, I swear? He can?t have stolen. He couldn?t have, could he??
His coach Stefano Colantuono won?t accept the accusations either. ?Cristiano would never do anything to hurt Atalanta,? he insisted.
However, on Tuesday, Doni along with 25 others including his teammate, the defender, Thomas Manfredini were ordered by the FIGC?s chief prosecutor Stefano Palazzi to appear before a disciplinary commission to be held next week. He faces a three-year ban, which if imposed would almost certainly bring about the 38-year-old?s retirement.
Fears that Atalanta?s promotion would be revoked have been played down with the latest reports speculating that they will start the season with a seven-point penalty.
Under scrutiny are two matches from last March. The first a 1-1 draw at Ascoli with their defender Vittorio Micolucci asserting that ?before the game Manfredini said to me: ?Oh come on Vitto, what do you say, today let?s draw, it?s better for both of us??? The second came a week later at home to Piacenza (video above), with abnormal betting patterns raising alarm bells after a suspicious amount of money was staked on at least three goals being scored in the first half. Sure enough, that?s how it happened.
Doni scored two soft penalties, the first called for hand-ball on Damiano Zenoni, the second for an avoidable challenge made by another player under investigation, Carlo Gervasoni, on the Atalanta striker Francesco Ruopolo who would get his side?s third just before the interval with a close range finish at the far post.
The prosecution alleges that a fix had been arranged with wiretaps appearing to indicate that Doni and Gervasoni were contacted by mediators acting on the behalf of one group in the betting ring.
In Doni?s case, this was apparently Nicola Santoni, a former goalkeeping coach at Ravenna and someone he admitted to knowing in an interview with La Repubblica. It is claimed Santoni bet ?30,000 on Atalanta beating Piacenza in the first half and by full time. He was also overheard on the wire the day before the game telling Gianfranco Parlato, a former player caught up in the scandal, ?I have seen my man?? Santoni?s explanations when presented with the evidence were found to be unconvincing.
The town of Bergamo, meanwhile, continues to rally behind Doni who claims to have been made a scapegoat. ?It?s an ugly story even if the things that I have read in the papers seem very vague,? the mayor sighed. ?Up until now the wiretaps that have emerged on Doni and the club are third hand, between a friend and the friend of a friend,? added Daniele Belotti, a town planner and ultr�. ?We demand certain proof. If they come up with it we?ll make our own judgements. What has come out up to now is not enough to renounce Doni.?
That of course is for the disciplinary commission to decide and as the so-called queen of the provinces embarks on a 51st season in Serie A, the question is will she do so without her king?
The most interesting part of Paraguay?s win was the fight after it
Paraguay are now in the Copa America final for the first time since they last won in 1979. Three of their five matches have ended 0-0 and they haven't won a single game outside of a penalty shootout. So it's really quite fitting that they reached the final with a 0-0 match against Venezuela that they won 5-3 on penalties. Even if it is also incredibly boring. Which it was.
Perhaps to remind themselves that they were all still alive, the two sides engaged in an ugly brawl after the match. It was the kind of thing you never want to see, but after a game like that it was kind of nice just to see something.
So now the 2011 Copa America final is set and it is a battle of the -guays -- Uruguay v Paraguay. The winners will not only be champions of South America, they will also get to rename their country "Totalguay." The losers will be forced to name themselves the first word out of Larissa Riquelme's mouth that isn't "Paraguay" or "naked."
Ibra bristles with ambition as Milan seek Mr X
It has come to that point of pre-season when the main players in the upcoming title race look to send out a strong signal that they are to be taken seriously.
Inter, Juventus and AS Roma are all getting to grips with working under a new coach and new systems, while Napoli are easing their way into the friendly circuit, but AC Milan look to be that bit ahead of the pack in terms of preparation and self-belief.
It's not surprising really, considering that the champions are a settled unit; their only immediate reinforcements so far are in the back-line with the arrival of Philippe Mexes and Taye Taiwo ? although they have also astutely signed one for the future in talented teenage striker Stephan El Shaarawy.
There is also the Mr. X to consider ? that missing piece whom the Rossoneri hierarchy believe will turn the team into the masters of the football universe once again. There is much speculation on who that name will turn out to be. Marek Hamsik, Javier Pastore, Cesc Fabregas, Bastian Schweinsteiger and even Ricky Kaka have been mentioned. Riccardo Montolivo ? a target to replace Andrea Pirlo ? doesn't have the X factor.
While the majority of Serie A teams have been encamped in mountain retreats in the Alps, Milan have done as they do every year: prepare in the familiar surroundings of their Milanello training complex. However, on Monday the team ventured out of Italy for their first full friendly of the summer. (Their previous run-out, a 12-goal blitz of amateur side Solbiatese, barely counts.)
There was plenty of symbolism in the opposition and the stadium. Munich's Allianz Arena will host next May's Champions League Final, and hosts Bayern Munich could make it much harder for Milan to get there: if the Germans qualify for the group stages of the competition along with Arsenal, that will relegate the Rossoneri to pot two when the draw is held at the end of August.
There's still plenty of time for Massimiliano Allegri to fine-tune his players. Against a lively Bayern, the team was unsurprisingly a yard off the pace and lost on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
However, one player who looked sharp was Zlatan Ibrahimovic who scored with his first touch after four minutes in Milan?s first foray across the halfway line.
Looking relaxed (honestly), tanned and almost Jack Sparrow-like in ponytail and goatee, the Swede was at his swashbuckling best during his 45 minutes on the pitch: the darting runs into space, the familiar stop and drawback, a bit of defender-bumping.
It was no surprise that he didn't appear for the second half. Allegri?s aim this season will be to keep his star turn happy and he's already gaining dividends from giving his main man another week off before returning to training.
Last August, Ibra arrived at Milan from a turbulent time at Barcelona and settled with gusto to the task of proving Pep Guardiola wrong. However, it became clear that the Rossoneri were frequently too reliant on his ability to get them out of a sticky situation, and by the second half of the season the physical and mental strain began to tell.
This season, Allegri and his backroom staff will want the big man in prime condition heading into spring months, especially if everything goes according to plan for the knockout stages of the Champions League: reclaiming the trophy is the club?s main objective.
Antonio Cassano was also excused for a further seven days but that has made little difference to his general languid approach. Tellingly soon after Ibra?s opener, the barrel-chested Bari boy missed a good opportunity to double the score when set up by his strike partner.
Cassano may have to play the bit-part once again this year behind Alexandre Pato and Robinho, but there is no doubt who is still set for star billing ? even when the elusive Mr X is finally revealed.
Milan street vendors already selling Tevez Inter shirts
Since the bootleg products of Milan street vendors are the best indication of things to come, you can go ahead and mark Carlos Tevez down as Inter's next signing because they're already selling his (totally fake) shirt.
So far it seems the only contact Tevez has had with Inter was a supposedly chance run-in with sporting director Marco Branca on a beach in Sardinia. But according to Branca, that was the end of it.
Still, how funny would it be if the player who demanded a transfer away from Man City so he could be closer to his family in Argentina moved even farther away from them? (Answer: Very funny.)
Photo: Gazzetta dello Sport
Milan street vendors already selling Tevez Inter shirts
Since the bootleg products of Milan street vendors are the best indication of things to come, you can go ahead and mark Carlos Tevez down as Inter's next signing because they're already selling his (totally fake) shirt.
So far it seems the only contact Tevez has had with Inter was a supposedly chance run-in with sporting director Marco Branca on a beach in Sardinia. But according to Branca, that was the end of it.
Still, how funny would it be if the player who demanded a transfer away from Man City so he could be closer to his family in Argentina moved even farther away from them? (Answer: Very funny.)
Photo: Gazzetta dello Sport