World Cup 2010 Blog: “European Club Association Threatens FIFA” plus 1 more

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European Club Association Threatens FIFA Posted: 07 Sep 2010 08:45 AM PDT European Club Association chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge had some harsh words for FIFA ahead of today’s Euro qualifying games. “It is no longer acceptable that we have to give up our players, taking the risk that, in case of injury, we still have to play their salaries,” Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, president of the European Clubs’ Association (ECA), told reporters. “We believe it is the right moment for (world ruling body) FIFA and (Europe’s) UEFA to take care of our players.” The European Club Association is basically a pressure group representing Europe’s biggest teams. And no big European team currently has a bigger beef with international football than Bayern Munich, where – ever so slightly co-incidentally – Rummenigge is also chairman. For those with short memories, Bayern’s Dutch winger Arjen Robben played for the Netherlands in the 2010 World Cup while carrying a thigh injury, which had become a two-inch hole in his muscle by the time he got back to Bayern. Robben will be out for the rest of 2010 and Bayern are understandably miffed. FIFA currently shares $40 million of its World Cup profits with clubs of the players called up for duty, but Rummenigge pointed out that the payment Bayern received for Robben covered more or less one week’s pay. In the club vs country debate, I usually side with country. If only because the clubs usually hold all the cards. And by cards I mean players. But I think some sort of compromise can be reached here. I don’t necessarily agree with Rumenigge that FIFA should be paying out every time a player gets injured on international duty. Can you imagine insuring every international footballer in the world? Covering the big boys like Leo Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo alone would put a hole in FIFA’s fundage. And it’s unfair to expect that no player can get injured on international duty. You can’t player a competitive international covered in bubble wrap (although… write that down and pitch it to Sky Sports for Summer 2013). Maybe some sort of compromise can be reached for situations like Robben’s where the national team has pushed a player to his limits and caused damage in doing so. (I’m not saying the Netherlands were 100% wrong to do so by the way, the World Cup is worth the risk and Robben came thisclose to winning it for them.) So FIFA should give in, and insure players for exceptional circumstances. But don’t give too much, because the European clubs will be back for more before you know it.

Andres Iniesta Has Seen World Cup Winning Goal “A Thousand Times” Posted: 07 Sep 2010 07:27 AM PDT Have you ever wondered why Barcelona and Spain midfielder Andres Iniesta is so pale? Well apparently he spends a lot of time indoors watching video of his own games, and as a result has seen his World Cup final winning goal 1,000 times. “I watch all my matches many times,” the 26-year-old Barcelona playmaker told the Spanish daily El Pais. “It helps me to improve. Also, they repeat it a lot. So whether I like it or not, I have seen the goal a thousand times,” said Iniesta. My guess is that Iniesta is exaggerating, so let’s not take that four figure number too literally. But I’m genuinely fascinated to learn that Iniesta rewatches his games in order to improve. Just last week I was complaining that Iniesta makes football look too easy. Now I realize that it only looks easy because he puts so much effort in. So, if you’re reading Andres, here’s that goal one more time:

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World Cup 2010 Blog: “Euro 2012 Qualifiers, Matchday 2: Five Games to Watch” plus 1 more

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Euro 2012 Qualifiers, Matchday 2: Five Games to Watch Posted: 06 Sep 2010 07:16 PM PDT The Road to Euro 2012 continues on Tuesday… Euro 2012 qualifying continues tomorrow (Tuesday, September 7) after the most countries kicked off their qualification campaign last Friday.  And even though we are two years away from the final tournament and its only matchday 2- some countries are already under pressure to get results. FIVE QUICK FACTS Only 4 games on Day 1 were draws (Romania-Albania, Portugal-Cyprus, Greece-Georgia, Lithuania-Scotland) 4 teams scored 4 goals in game 1:  England, Portugal, Cyprus and Spain Netherlands scored the most goals matchday 1 with their 5-0 win over San Marino. 1-0 was the final scoreline in 6 games – making it the most common scoreline of Day 1 (Germany 1 – 0 Belgium, Ireland 1-0 Armenia, Slovakia 1-0 Macedonia, Slovenia 0-1 Northern Ireland, France 0-1 Belarus, Montenegro 1-0 Wales) 16 teams accomplished shut-out victories (Turkey, Germany, Ireland, Russia, Slovakia, Serbia, Northern Ireland, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Belarus, Moldova, Sweden, Netherlands, Croatia, Montenegro, England and Spain) FIVE GAMES TO WATCH Russia vs Slovakia:  Russia and Slovakia approach the second game in qualification having both won all three points on matchday 1.  Russia swept past Andorra with a 2-0 victory while Slovakia had a tougher time disposing of Macedonia.  Though Russia has more historical success, most recently making it to the Euro 2008 semifinals- they ultimately failed to qualify for the World Cup this summer, losing to Slovenia in the playoffs.  Slovakia, on the other hand, did make it to the World Cup this summer where they beat defending champions, Italy.  Since then, Slovakia has struggled with injuries and Russia seems intent to avenge their absence this summer.  Even in the best conditions, Slovakia would struggle to beat Russia, who hold an intimidating record at home (won 4/5 home games in World Cup qualification).  But despite comments by the Slovakian coach indicating a draw “wouldn’t be the worst result” – don’t expect Russia to let them get one.  Russia will be confident playing at home and three of their four victories at home during World Cup 2010 qualification were by 2-3 goal margins. Serbia vs Slovenia:  Both teams, having failed to meet expectations this summer at the World Cup, were both hoping to put South Africa behind them and make early, strong statement in their European campaign.  Serbia started their campaign in flying fashion winning 3-0 away from home against Faroe Islands.  Now, they return home to face Slovenia- and are hoping Belgrade remains the fortress it was during World Cup qualification.  In their next match, Serbia will face a Slovenian team who are already struggling after losing their first game to Northern Ireland 1-0 at home.  Quotes from the Serbian team indicate they aren’t taking this challenge lightly with defender Neven Subotic saying, “They are a serious team, but will be under pressure because they lost their first game and will be looking to get at least a point in Belgrade." Bosnia and Herzegovina vs France:   After dumping Domenech and replacing him with Les Bleus legend, Laurent Blanc – France was hoping to restore credibility to it’s national team after a chaotic, drama-filled summer.  The new regime, which introduced several young players to the mix, struggled to gel in their game 1 loss to Belarus.  The lack of chemistry is natural considering that most of the players on this team has never played together before.  After South Africa, many of France’s “core” players under Domenech retired or were suspended for several games by the French Football Federation.  This only allowed Blanc one friendly (vs Norway) to experiment with new players- that combined with serious injuries to key players (Benzema, Lass, Cabaye and Nasri were all declared unfit for the Belarus game and Loic Remy and Louis Saha joined that bunch after they left the field injured).  Luckily for Blanc, Benzema has been declared fit enough to face Bosnia and Lyon’s Jimmy Briand has been brought in as a reinforcement.  For France to win this game, they will need to strike quick and early- and hope to hold on to a lead.  This Bosnia team is dangerous and feeling incredibly confident after collecting all three points game 1.  If France lose,  it will be hard even for a man of Blanc’s stature to control the fan and media backlash. Switzerland vs England:  England will hope to follow-up their 4-0 game 1 victory against Bulgaria with another stunning victory.  As the Spanish learned during the World Cup, this may be harder than most want to admit.  The Swiss are a disciplined, patient team that are willing to sit back and defend, until the time is right to strike.  In the build up to this game, many have questioned if Wayne Rooney will be involved…and if he is, how will he play?  Until I hear otherwise, I assume the answer to the first question is yes – and though I’m not an England fan, I have enough respect for Rooney to expect him to give 100% tomorrow. Spain vs Argentina: Alright, this one isn’t a Euro qualification game – but even with nothing “real” at stake, it is bound to be entertaining.  In their qualification game vs Liechtenstein on Friday, Spain easily disposed of their first challenge with a 4-0 win.  Argentina will undoubtedly be a much tougher task for the World #1.  The two teams should both be familiar with each other -  Messi,  Higuain, Milito, Mascherano, Villa, Iniesta, Xavi, Pique, Casillas, Alonso, Ramos, Busquets etc- all play together in La Liga.  Add Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas to the mix and it sounds like the makings of a pretty amazing game. To check out who Ozil and Arjen Robben will be playing with Germany and the Netherlands this weekend , see the list below (courtesy of UEFA.com)…. UEFA EURO 2012 QUALIFICATION GAMES, MATCHDAY 2 SCHEDULE

Wayne Rooney, The Hooker and Why It Shouldn’t Matter to England Fans Posted: 06 Sep 2010 09:17 AM PDT You’ve probably read the Wayne Rooney in Not Very Good Role Model Shock! stories, detailing how the Manchester United and England striker (allegedly) paid prostitute Jennifer Thompson for sex while his wife Coleen was pregnant. Click that link if you want to read a story that’s part Rooney exposé, part advertisement for said prostitute. Obviously it’s no surprise that the English press is publishing scandalous stories about England players again. It reminded me of something from Ethan’s Rafa Honigstein interview on the England blog. German born but English based journalist Honigstein suggested that German tabloids are just as capable of digging up dirt on German national team players, but are more judicious about what’s worth publishing. Honigstein’s exact line was “Bild have tons of material on people that they won't use.” I don’t imagine the News of the World or the Sunday Mirror has any material they wouldn’t use. Because scandal sells papers. But in a weird way, this story doesn’t feel like a big deal to me. We already knew from way back that Wayne Rooney enjoys the pleasures of paid lady company. That’s not news. We know he smokes as well, and we know he sometimes swears at referees. We shouldn’t try and pretend that he’s any sort of role model, and I’m with Rob on the England blog in hoping that Rooney plays vs Switzerland and plays well. Does that mean I’ve lowered my standards of what to expect from England footballers? Maybe as an England fan I’m now fully desensitized to scandal after the exploits of Ashley Cole, John Terry and others. Maybe the News of the World would have to publish an exclusive revealing that Joe Hart played a pivotal role in starting World Wars I and II and that Frank Lampard Jnr. is actually Satan himself for me to be genuinely outraged at this point. There’s an argument that footballers are representing their nation and so should uphold certain moral ideals. And I agree with that up to a point. If Joe Hart did start both World Wars or Lampard was Beelzebub, then neither should be allowed to play for England again. But in the case of Rooney, maybe we have to accept that footballers are just people and that people do weird things and make stupid mistakes. If we’re really interested in them as footballers and not just celebrities then we should all be mature enough to just ignore the scandal and go back to watching them play football. And that includes you, English tabloids.

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World Cup 2010 Blog: “Was La Liga Spain’s 12th man in their World Cup victory this summer?” plus 1 more

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Was La Liga Spain’s 12th man in their World Cup victory this summer? Posted: 05 Sep 2010 06:17 PM PDT If you ask José Luis Astiazarán, the President of the Spanish League of Professional Footballers, then the answer is an unequivocal “yes”. Why? Because, according to him, Spain’s success is a result of “hard work with youth setup” that the LFP has done to promote “homegrown” talent in Spain. This principle enabled Spanish players to have the experience of playing at the “highest” level every weekend. Err- is anyone else scratching their head at this bold statement? Then again, this is the same man who declared Spanish football as “objectively the best league in the world” and La Liga “superior to England” after Spain won the European Championship in 2008.  Yes, I know, its his job to promote La Liga.  But, as a Ligue 1 fan (who didn’t even get a mention!), you can already imagine my opinion of the man after hearing those bold statements… Even if I put aside those very strong biases – I find it hard to follow the logic in his statements. First of all in 2008, several of Spain’s players – including the final goalscorer, Fernando Torres played in England, along with – Xabi Alonso, Alvaro Arbeloa, Pepe Reina and Cesc Fabregas. And even though many of those players have now returned to Spain – I still find it hard to stomach some of these claims.  Yes, it is impressive how many of the national team’s players choose to play in Spain. But can a national team that only has players from 6 of its domestic league’s teams really be credit to the league?  Even looking at it that way is pretty generous.  Because in reality, 50% of the Spain national team is composed of two teams- Real Madrid and Barcelona. The club breakdown of the Spain national team at the 2010 World Cup was as follows… Real Madrid (5):  Casillas, Albiol, Alonso, Ramos and Arbeloa Barcelona (7):  Pique, Iniesta, Puyol, Xavi, Valdes, Busquets, Pedro Valencia (4):  Villa, Silva, Marchena, Mata Villareal (1):  Capdevilla Sevilla (1):  Navas Athletic Bilbao (2):  Llorente, Martinez Plus the three players who still play in England:  Fabregas (Arsenal), Reina (Liverpool) and Torres (Liverpool).  (Please note, some of these players club affiliations have changed since the World Cup….) So if the league’s job is to promote a two-horse race year and year- I think they are doing a swell job.  But, if they are claiming to promote competitive football among all of the league’s teams to strengthen the league overall- I’d say they still have their work cut out for them.  Sid Lowe put it best in his article on the subject (which I recommend you all read!) when he said… It is tempting to conclude that all it does do is organize a league in which the best players play — and organize it badly. A league in which you don’t even know what day games are on until a week before.

FIFA linked to sale of personal details/information of World Cup attendees Posted: 05 Sep 2010 01:43 PM PDT 2006 World Cup attendees like this one may be at risk after their information was (allegedly) illegally sold on the black market… According to The Guardian, an investigation is underway regarding the leak and sale of personal information and details provided by thousands of football fans who purchased World Cup tickets directly from FIFA and their official sponsor, Match Hospitality. I suggest you read the whole article on The Guardian for all the details, but in a nutshell … As many as 35,689 English fans who attended the 2006 World Cup in Germany may have had their personal details/information sold for up to half a million Euros. Information sold includes passport information as well as dates of births – and perhaps more sensitive information for “high profile” guests such as dignitaries. Dagbladet, a Norwegian newspaper, broke a story last month alleging that they had been able to obtain a list of 250,000 fans personal details they submitted while purchasing tickets through the official, legally provided channels. The newspaper claims they were given these records through several email conversations with a Match Hospitality employee. Until confronted with the details of Dagbladet’s investigation, Match Hospitality had no idea they even had a breach in security. The firm maintains they’ve done everything possible to keep the data of ticket holders secure. This leak is considered the work of one employee who gained access to the data. THE REAL KICKER: Match Hospitality is the same firm that is owned in part by Sepp Blatter’s nephew, Phillipe. It’s the same firm that rather controversially won the bid to exclusively provide ticket hospitality at both the 2010 and 2014 World Cup tournaments. First, I’m shocked this hasn’t received more ink today in the papers. I consider this to be a pretty serious issue. Fans who have had their information (allegedly) stolen followed the protocol stipulated by FIFA to ensure they were safely and securely purchasing their tickets. This is something you may expect from fans who are duped into purchasing tickets from the black market, not from the agency that deals with providing tickets/hospitality to the Swedish Prime Minister (who, yes, had his information stolen). The stolen information was collected in 2006 – and wasn’t sold until the database (which is thought to have been created by FIFA) was in the hands of FIFA’s new official provider of World Cup Hospitality. Which begs the question of what type of investigation FIFA performed to ensure the firm was able to adequately secure the data. After the initial wave of shock, I’m trying to be fair. Security breaches happen. They shouldn’t, but they do. Instead of damning the company that fans will inevitably have to deal with in 2014 for Brazil (they already won the bid to provide the tournament hospitality)- I’m more interested in learning how they intend to deal with this leak and prevent it in the future. For now, they appear to be cooperating with the authorities and it is good news that this seems to be the work of only one person in the firm instead of a chronic epidemic of corruption within the company itself (though I’m sure Andrew Jennings would disagree with me there…). So, football fans, how do you feel about this? Are you as outraged as me – or are you more concerned about the state of Rooney’s marriage? If its the latter, please don’t tell me.

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