Archive for September, 2009

Newer Entries »

Chelsea face big trouble

September 3rd, 2009

Today FIFA, governing body of football has punished the London based club Chelsea with a punishment which will not allow them to sign new players for the next two transfer windows. This means Chelsea will not be able to make any new signings during the entire 2010 year.

The transfer window in which Chelsea will not be able to get any players to North London will be the winter transfer window and the summer transfer window. The winter transfer window which remains open from 1st January 2010 to 31st January 2010 and the summer transfer window from 1st August 2010 to 31st August 2010.

This ruling can prove fatal for Chelsea’s dream of winning trophies this season as well as the next season. FIFA has reasons to believe that Chelsea encouraged 18 year old Gael Kakuta to leave his old club and sign a contract with the blues.

In 2001 at the age of 9 years, Gael started playing for RC Lens, a French League 1 club. Chelsea scouts saw the potential this young kid had and tried according to FIFA it was at this time Gael betrayed his club RC Lens and joined Chelsea.

According to FIFA, Chelsea will have to pay a fine of €130,000 to RC Lens and Gael will be banned for four months from playing any competitive matches. Along with that Gael will also have to pay a fine of €780,000 to his old club RC Lens for breaching contract.

Chelsea has denied the accusations by FIFA and are preparing to appear to the Court of Arbitration of Sports for justice. Chelsea feels the punishment will simply ruin their chances of winning any trophies this season and next season as well.

No comments »

Posted in Chelsea FC, French Ligue 1, General, Premier League, Premiership

Tags:

Italian Serie A Updates

September 3rd, 2009

Gianluigi Buffon believes that his team is capable of winning back to back World Cup. He says that it entirely depends on what players we select and how fit they are to survive the month long tournament. He also believes that the Italian players are susceptible to swine flu and should be vaccinated as soon as possible. Losing a player due to swine flu will not be acceptable.

Milan Vice President Adriano Galliani believes that losing the derby 4-0 to Inter does not mean that they have lost the Serie A title. He believes they are as much contender as Inter even after losing.

Ex Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri has revealed that coaching AS Roma was always a dream cherished by him. He was appointed as the new AS Roma coach few days ago after Luciano Spalletti resigned due to a bad start for the current campaign.

Alessandro Del Piero has paid tribute to Gaetano Scirea, regarded as one of the best defenders the game ever had by breaking record attendance mark for Juventus.

The transfer window has just closed and talks about winter transfer have already begun. Milan is in talks with Tottenham Hotspur for a possible swap of Marek Jankulovski and Gareth Bale. 32 year old Marek is a left back in the Milan side and 20 year old Gareth too playes in the same position. Milan would like the services of young Bale as the club is planning to build a new squad to replace its ageing players with younger counterparts. Milan has also offered €5m to Spurs for the swap.

No comments »

Posted in AC Milan, Football Transfer Market, General, Inter Milan, Italian Serie A, Juventus, Tottenham

Tags:

Spanish La Liga Updates

September 3rd, 2009

La Liga followers will be getting a break this weekend as there will be no games played. FIFA world cup qualifying will be underway this weekend so most of the league players will be reporting their national side.

The news from European champions Barcelona is that they have finally unveiled the new look of their home ground Nou Camp. The task of renovation has been handed over to Norman Foster architecture.

Barcelona FC club chairman Laporta thanked his well wishers for supporting him last year and hoped the same will be repeated this year. Laporta who today started his last year at office believes when his term is over as the club chairman by the end of season, there will be a peaceful transition in office which in no way will affect performance of players on pitch. It is also reported that the number of Swedish viewers have increased dramatically after the €69 million Swedish striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovich.

Real Madrid President, Florentino Perez has announced that the relation between him and Manchester United boss, Sir Alex Ferguson is perfectly in good condition. He also stated that he will try and make up with Ferguson for the troubles Manchester United faced because of Real Madrid under the Roman Calderon regime.

Fight over Ronaldo never seems to get over. Ex president Roman Calderon has claimed that it was during his tenure that Ronaldo was successfully signed by Ream Madrid and not during by Florentino Perez. He also said that luring Ronaldo to Madrid was his handiwork, whose finishing touches were given by current President, Florentino Perez.

No comments »

Posted in Barcelona, Real Madrid, Spanish La Liga, Spanish Primera Liga

Tags:

Updates from Premier League

September 2nd, 2009

On its last day, the transfer window saw Everton successfully sign 25 year old Dutch footballer John Heitinga. A regular in the Dutch national side, Heitinga signed a five year deal with the blue side of Merseyside on 1st September. He selected the no 5 jersey which was previously worn by Joleon Lescott who left the club last month and joined Manchester City. Everton Have reported paid £6.2m to Atletico Madrid for the Dutch defender.

Manchester United’s wonder kid, Macheda who rose to fame after his 93rd minute winner against Aston Villa in a league game has again expressed his desire to return to his home country Italy.

26 year old Swedish striker, David Elm has successfully signed a one year contract with Premier League old timers Fulham for a reported fee of £500,000.

It is still not clear whether Portsmouth have signed 28 year old Aston Villa left back Nicky Shorey. Though, sky sports claims that the deal has completed successfully before the transfer window closed.

Finnish footballer Teemu Tainio will play the new season with newly promoted Birmingham City. Teemu joined City from Sunderland on loan.

Newly signed Niko Kranjcar of Tottenham Hotspur has revealed that he was also approached by Everton, before signing for Spurs from Portsmouth for a reported fee of £2.5 million.

The summer transfers saw Manchester City as the biggest spender in England as they approximately spent £120 million after deducting the money gained from selling five of its players for a seven figure price tag. Manchester United were seen the biggest gainers as they sold their star player Ronaldo for £80 million.

No comments »

Posted in Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Everton, Man U, Manchester City, Portsmouth, Premier League, Tottenham

Tags:

Groups and Standings for FIFA World Cup 2010

September 2nd, 2009

The African continent has a total of 54 countries fighting each other to take make it to the allotted 6 places of 32 in the 2010 finals. 1 of the 6 places has already been awarded rather easily to South Africa by virtue of them being the host nation. The remaining 53 countries will go through three qualifying rounds at the end of which only 5 nations will get a ticket to the finals.

The third qualifying rounds in progress as of now, and only 20 countries remain from the total of 53. These 20 teams are divided into 5 groups, and the topper of each group gets a ticket to play in the 2010 finals.10 teams will play from the Oceania leg for a possible place in the finals. After two rounds of qualifying games, New Zealand have emerged winners of the Oceania leg and will play against the winner of 5th ranked team from the Asia leg, for a place in the finals.

From the Asia leg, a total 43 teams have been fighting for 4 rounds for 5 possible places in the 2010 finals. The top 2 finishers from group 1 and group 2, Australia, Japan, Korea Republic and Korea DPR respectively have already booked their berth in the 2010 finals. The 3rd ranked team from both the groups, namely Bahrain and Saudi Arabia will play each other over two legs, and the winner will play against New Zealand for a place in the 2010 finals.

No comments »

Posted in General, World Cup

Tags:

Spanish La Liga Begins

September 1st, 2009

Real Madrid manager, Manuel Pellegrini started with as many as seven new players. All the high profile signings featured in the match against Deportivo La Coruna. Deportivo almost shocked the costliest team in the world but Real survived the scare and Diarra scored a super goal in the 60th minute to drive past Deportivo. The match also saw a goal from ex Manchester United player Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo scored a penalty after Raul was brought down in the penalty area and that’s just what was expected. Everyone go their money’s worth watching Ronaldo score at his Real debut.
Other results saw Real Zaragoza winning 1-0 against Tenerife, Almeria drawing 0-0 against Valladolid, Valencia winning 2-0 against Sevilla, Osasuna drawing 1-1 against Villarreal, Malaga winning 3-0 against Atletico Madrid, Mallorca winning 2-0 against Xerez, Athletic Bilbao winning 1-0 against Espanyol and Racing Santander was the only team in the league losing in front of their home fans 1-4 against Getafe.
The last match of the week saw Barcelona beginning to defend their league title at Camp Nou with a 3-0 win against Sporting Gijon. The match also saw summer signing, Zlatan Ibrahimovich scoring a goal for Barcelona at his league debut. Bojan began the goal scoring with a goal in the 18th minute. This was followed by Keita’s in the 42nd minute, which made it 2-0 at half time. Zlatan added a third in the 82nd minute to end the night with a 3-0 victory. Messi was rested for the match whereas Henry started as a substitute for tonight’s fixture.

No comments »

Posted in Barcelona, Man U, Real Madrid, Spanish La Liga, Spanish Primera Liga

Tags: