Warner U-turn boosts England 2018 hopes
November 30, 2009
By Josh Allen
England’s hopes of hosting the 2018 World Cup have been giving a boost by the news that FIFA’s Jack Warner is now backing the bid.
The FIFA vice-president had previously labelled the bid “lightweight” and said in October: “if they [England] do not get their act together they will lose. You have no divine right to anything — you have to earn it.”
However, following a meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Warner has dramatically changed his stance and said: “Brown felt England’s time had come. I agreed.
“England has the best infrastructure to stage the tournament. After a 52-year gap this is England’s time.”
As well as vice-president, Warner is also head of the Concacaf union and as such, controls three of the 24 votes on FIFA’s executive committee. The vote is due to take place in December next year and Warner’s influence could prove to be decisive.
The meeting with Gordon Brown took place in Trinidad on Friday, with the Prime Minister quick to point out that the government was completely committed to the bid and that he was willing to do: “whatever is necessary” to support it.
Afterwards, Warner seemed suitably impressed. He said: “It was an exceptionally good meeting - it was the best case I have heard for a long time about the World Cup being in England.
“I was very impressed by Brown’s humility, his sincerity, his knowledge of the game, and most importantly he didn’t feel England had any divine right [to host the tournament].”
Up to this point, the bid had been plagued by problems and just last week, Premier League chairman, Sir Dave Richards, resigned from the team. However, the remaining members will now be hoping to build on Friday’s progress, with another big meeting scheduled for this week.
Warner explained: “I will meet David Beckham in Cape Town. These are not for my ego, but they are the assets that the bid should be using and I am happy to see that they are being used.”
In other sports news, the odds for the Cheltenham Gold Cup are starting to heat up, so these could be worth keeping an eye on.
USA Home Shirt World Cup 2010
November 30, 2009
Football, or soccer as it is known in the The
The new Nike World Cup shirt will be manufactured by Nike, with the shirt first expected to be worn in international friendlies on the run up to the World Cup in the summer.
The new 2010-11 USA home football shirt is available in sizes S, M, L, XL, XXL with the official USA football kit shirt printing available for the USA World Cup shirt of all your favourite players including Jonathan Spector, Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore, Freddy Adu and DaMarcus Beasley. You can buy the
South African World Cup Stadiums Almost Ready
November 30, 2009
Once a headache for the local organising committee, the 10 South African stadiums for the 2010 World Cup are now pride and joy as they are set to be ready on time for the football extravaganza.
Stadium construction faced many challenges, including strikes in July when more than 70,000 workers asked for salary hikes, countrywide blackouts in January 2008 that crippled the economy, budget deficits and sometimes unpredictable weather.
“It has been a roller-coaster ride. Sometimes we were happy and most times saddened by the criticism and the pessimism but we always knew we would be ready on time,” local organising committee spokesman Rich Mkhondo told AFP.
Mkhondo said five new and five renovated stadiums were now more than 95 percent complete and the final touches were being applied, such as security barriers, planting trees, roads leading to the stadium and parking lot paving.
To win confidence of the local and international community in advance was not easy as many times the capacity of South Africa to deliver world-class tournament infrastructure was scrutinised.
The country’s readiness for the world’s biggest sports spectacular was also questioned when the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Port Elizabeth, which cost 2.1 billion rand (282 million dollars, 189 million euro), missed its construction deadline for the curtain-raiser Confederations Cup during June.
Instead, renovated stadiums such as Pretoria, Rustenburg (north-west) and Bloemfontein (central) stole PE’s limelight.
Since then the stadium was the first to be ready for the World Cup.
Other challenges the stadiums faced were public protests.
Greenpoint stadium in Cape Town, one of the semi-final venues, faced fierce competition when residents opposed the development and took the municipality to court.
“We overcame tremendous challenges because in the beginning some residents were opposed to the development (stadium) and tried to stop construction through legal process but lost,” Cape Town World cup 2010 spokesman Pieter Cronje said.
In Nelspruit, township residents protested outside the stadium, demanding a school be built as theirs was used as offices during the construction of the stadium with children taught in containers.
Authorities said construction of a new school would start this week and finish in March.
The stadium architecture had an African feel with roof poles resembled giraffe while criss-crossed black and white seating resembled zebra prints.
Soccer City in Johannesburg, venue for the June 11 opening match and the final on July 11, will seat 91,000 spectators and resembles a calabash while Peter Mokaba stadium in Polokwane is inspired by the locally iconic Baobab tree.
However, there are question around government spending about 10 billion rands (857 million euros), excluding host city contributions, in a country where poverty affects 43 percent of the population.
Mkhondo said all the stadiums had sustainability programmes beyond 2010.
“Before we gave the go ahead to cities to build stadium we asked them (about) long-term plans to utilise them and were satisfied. Most of them will be turned into multi-purpose centres,” he said.
Opinion on Italy squad that faced Holland.
November 29, 2009
The squad selection by Marcello Lippi carries some interesting choices, most notably Davide Biondini, Antonio Candreva and Mattia Cassani. I admire these additions to the setup, but I still feel there is room for more change, as Lippi looks to build his squad towards Italy’s World Cup defence, next summer.
The obvious exclusion is Antonio Cassano, whom I would have included at the expense of Giuseppe Rossi, whose recent form for club and country has been indifferent, even if he did net in Villarreal C.F.’s recent victory against Tenerife. Cassano has the magic and the unpredictability that is lacking from current setup. Antonio Di Natale potentially has that, but he struggles to replicate his Udinese form at international level. Raffaele Palladino is another who is something of a fantasy player, but he lacks consistency and if he really had the talent for the highest level, he would still be with Juventus, right now.
Aside from Cassano, his Sampdoria team-mates Daniele Mannini and Luca Castelazzi deserved involvement. Mannini has had an outstanding start to the campaign. He has netted five times from a wide midfield role and has been instrumental in Doria’s early season success. His work ethic and creativity would offer something a bit different to Mauro Camoranesi, while he would also offer better defensive protection for Gianluca Zambrotta. With regard to the goalkeeping situation, Castelazzi has been the best goalkeeper in Serie ‘A’ this season, alongside the great Gianluigi Buffon. Morgan De Sanctis has made an admirable return to Italian football, with Napoli, but surely Castelazzi is more deserving of a maiden call.
Looking at central defence, I am surprised Lippi has not chosen to blood another option. Nicola Legrottaglie proved against Republic of Ireland that he is, perhaps, a bit out of his depth at the very highest level. He has performed admirably for Juventus over the past couple of seasons, but he is not a reliable enough option for a team with World Cup winning ambitions. Dario Dainelli would have been interesting selection, but the most interesting of all would surely have been the prodigious Andrea Ranocchia, the Genoa-owned Bari defender. His performances alongside another talented defender, Leonardo Bonucci, have been outstanding. He has all the hallmarks of a potentially top class defender, a heir to Fabio Cannavaro. He looks ready to be involved, certainly in the squad. Another token U21 appearance will not benefit him in the same way some involvement against Holland, defending against Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben and alike, would have. Failing this options, Lippi’s best bet would be persuading Alessandro Nesta out of retirement.
On the whole, I like many of the changes Lippi has made, but it is still perhaps too little too late. And, as long as Cassano remains uninvolved, their remains a lack of fantasy and creativity in the side.
Paraguay Home Shirt World Cup 2010
November 27, 2009
ied for the 2010 World Cup with some impressive form in the qualifiers and became the second team to qualify for the tournament from the CONMEBOL qualifiers ahead of the likes of Although
The new
The new 2010-11 Paraguay home football shirt is available in sizes S, M, L, XL, XXL with the official Paraguay football kit shirt printing available for the Paraguay World Cup shirt of all your favourite players including Justo Villar, Denis Caniza, Paulo da Silva, Julio Cesar Caceres, Christian Riveros, Salvador Cabanas, Roque Santa Cruz and Nelson Haedo Valdes. You can buy the
Lippi stands firm on Cassano snub
November 27, 2009
Italy coach Marcello Lippi on Thursday offered Sampdoria forward Antonio Cassano no encouragement over a possible call-up, explaining that his omission is a matter of personal choice.
Despite a sustained campaign in the press and public pressure to pick the bad-boy of Italian football, Lippi has remained steadfast in his refusal to call up the former Real Madrid and AS Roma forward.
Italy have no other attacking player in their squad who can do what Cassano does, but Lippi won’t be budged.
“Many people say I’m stubborn and arrogant but my true default is coherence. Fans and journalists are like political parties,” he told Friday’s edition of L’Espresso magazine.
“Each one has his candidate for the national team. But I follow my own convictions and ideas.
“And when I don’t give explanations it’s because I know it will only fuel other polemics.
“And, with my ideas, if I have to, I’ll go against the flow. I’m truly sorry for him because he’s a good kid. But this is getting out of hand.”
Lippi constantly has to answer questions about Cassano and also recently Roma’s Francesco Totti, who has admitted he would like to return to the Italy fold despite having announced his international retirement after the World Cup victory in 2006.
Hands Up
November 26, 2009
World Cup qualifying finished on a sour note when France defeated Ireland with a controversial goal. Who is to say what would have happened next had the goal not happened? There is every chance that France would still have gone on to win, but the point is that we will never know.
Now there is no way that technology can not be brought into the game. The game needs it and needs it in order to eliminate incidents such as this. If the referee is the only person on the field who hasn’t seen something, that makes a mockery of the sport.
Martin Hansson was a good referee and one wonders how he could have made such a basic mistake. Firstly, players don’t react like the Irish players did unless there was some merit to it. Why would they protest like that unless there was something they are protesting about? Players don’t protest just for the hell of it.
Hansson should have taken the time to liaise with his linesman and then flat out asked Henry if he had touched the ball with his hand? In that instance, it is unlikely that Henry would have flat out lied.
The thing is, is that incidents like this are only going to grow at the World Cup proper. At the stakes get higher and higher, players are going to do whatever they can to gain an edge. They will dive in order to milk a penalty.
The game is really fast – too fast for one referee and two linesmen. If they are not going to bring extra officials into the game, then video technology would have to be just about mandatory. This thing is that the whole world watches the World Cup and you don’t want further embarrassments such as this. You could have millions of dollars in soccer betting change hands all because of a horrible mistake by the referee.
Now is time for Sepp Blatter to show some real leadership and improve the sport for the better. And as long as players know they can get away with these kind of antics, they will continue to try them. FIFA preaches fair play but when push comes to shove they turn a blind eye.
Ireland was already upset before the game started. They instituted seedings so it wouldn’t be a clean draw where any team could play any other team. Then Ireland were the only of the four unseeded teams who had to play the second team away.
FIFA needs to be careful that they don’t divide the World Cup between the have and the have-nots.
David Wiseman writes for this blog. He also writes about greyhound betting.
Australia Home Shirt World Cup 2010
November 26, 2009
Australia will be at the 2010 World Cup, only the third time they will have appeared at the tournament. Australia first qualified for the World Cup back in 1974 then again in 2006 so this will be the second tournament in a row they will compete at. The new Australia World Cup shirt has been released in preparation for the tournament.
Although Australia have not competed very often at the World Cup they have won the Oceania Nation Cup four times. Although Australia are not one of the favourites for the 2010 World Cup they have a talented group of players pulling in the Australia soccer jersey and they have the potential to go far in the competition.
The new Australia home shirt will be manufactured by Nike with their logo to appear on the right chest with the country badge on the left. The Australia football kit will be in the traditional yellow colour with green detailing.
The new 2010-11 Australia home football shirt is available in sizes S, M, L, XL, XXL with the official Australia home kit shirt printing available for the Australia World Cup shirt of all your favourite players Mark Schwarzer, Lucas Neill, Tim Cahill, Brett Emerton, Harry Kewell and Mark Bresciano.. You can buy the Australia home shirt online at UKSoccershop.com, the leading online supplier of official World Cup shirts.
Cities to fight it out for England 2018 World Cup bid
November 26, 2009
About 10 cities will need to be chosen from a list of 15 including London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Derby, Hull, Newcastle-Gateshead Nottingham, Plymouth, Leicester, Milton Keynes, Sheffield, Sunderland and Bristol. The case will be made at Wembley today with the decision set to be announced on the 16th of December.
Portsmouth pulled out of the race to be a potential host on Wednesday after the City Council refused to provide the necessary financial guarantees.
Between 12 and 18 stadiums will be selected for inclusion in England’s bid, which will be presented to Fifa in May 2010.
Four of the 15 cities - London, Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield - will submit proposals that contain more than one stadium.
However, England’s bid can contain more than one city with two stadiums or more.
Manchester’s bid will include Eastlands and Old Trafford, the homes of Manchester City and Manchester United respectively, while Liverpool’s campaign centres around the yet-to-be-built new grounds of both Liverpool and Everton.
But Everton’s plan for a new stadium and retail facilities in Kirby were dealt a blow on Thursday when the government backed a decision to refuse planning permission for the scheme.
The proposal from Sheffield will focus on improvements to Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane ground and Hillsborough, the home of Sheffield Wednesday.
London’s effort will be the largest bid, with four stadiums included.
These are Wembley, Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur’s proposed new ground and the 2012 Olympic stadium.
Depending on how many stadiums the England 2018 team decide to include in their bid, as many as one third of the venues for the tournament could be in the capital.
The campaigns of Leeds, Hull, Milton Keynes, Leicester, Newcastle-Gateshead, Derby and Sunderland are based on existing facilities in the shape of Elland Road, the KC Stadium, Stadium MK, the Walkers Stadium, St James’ Park, Pride Park and the Stadium of Light.
The bids from Nottingham and Bristol include stadiums that have yet to be built while Plymouth’s revolves around the redevelopment of Plymouth Argyle’s Home Park ground.
Milton Keynes is a town but for the purposes of the bid the venues come under the heading of city.
Cameroon Home Shirt World Cup 2010
November 25, 2009
The best position that
The new
The new 2010-11 Cameroon home football shirt is available in sizes S, M, L, XL, XXL with the official Cameroon home kit shirt printing available for the Cameroon World Cup shirt of all your favourite players including Idriss Carlos Kameni, Rigobert Song, Landry N’Guemo, Geremi, Samuel Eto’o and Modeste M’Bami. You can buy the Cameroon home shirt online at UKSoccershop.com, the leading online supplier of official World Cup shirts.
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