Roman and Suleiman carve it up: Tottenham's indignation at the twist in Willian transfer is naive at best.

Tottenham are furious today with the news Chelsea have 'stolen' former Anzhi player Willian from them. Their own naivety and stupidity aside, nobody should be shocked by the turn of events as it comes born of a system of billionaire ownership which we all enable, validate and indeed celebrate.

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich

Roman and Suleiman carve it up

By Mac

We followed the news all week, overloaded and overblown as always on the usual social networks. 'Willian on way to Spurs medical', 'Willian will sign for Spurs in next 10 minutes' and so forth. The initial narrative of this story line was that Liverpool were disappointed to miss out on the former Anzhi player and Spurs were delighted to maneuver into a position to obtain same.

Those following the Anzhi and Willian storyline will have been waiting for a sudden turn of events, and we certainly got one with news that Chelsea and owner Roman Abramovich have swooped in at the last moment and snapped the midfielder up from right in front of Tottenham's nose.

Of course now Spurs are disgusted, and putting on some sort of hurt-child act via the press. Oh, woe is us, how did this happen to us, big, mean, bad Roman and his club nabbing 'our' player from in front of our very eyes.

Give it a rest, Spurs.

First of all, please God do not pretend you haven't or wouldn't pull this very same act if you were in a position to do so. If Spurs are pretending that all their transfer work this and other seasons would stand up to close scrutiny, well then, they really think we are more stupid than we look.

Secondly, anyone following the breakup of Willian's former club Anzhi Makhachkala, which we reported to you back on August 8th, should fully have been expecting some kind of twist to events. A hugely rich football club owner, Suleiman Kerimov,  decides to break his club up basically on a personal whim, and you think the transfers of the associated players is going to go normally?

If Spurs expected that, then they are the naive and stupid ones.

All that aside, How on earth is anyone shocked about this turn of events? We allow this system. In fact, we don't just allow it, we celebrate it. We laud these billionaire businessmen who swoop in and buy up our clubs for personal gain. We don't question it, we simply carry on rooting for our clubs in the same old manner, never stopping to question motives or morals.

In this case, two of those same multi gazillionaire owners have quite clearly colluded on a last minute deal that no doubt contains more than the £32 million sale we are seeing on the surface.

To some extent Spurs have a right to shake their fist a little and be indignant, but please, spare us the fake shock. This was exactly how a deal like this should go down in this day and age, in this ridiculous system. Of course a couple of wildly rich, almost completely unregulated owners, both with serious questions against them and their dubious business pasts, were always going to play the game to their own rules.

Why shouldn't they, we allow it!

This whole thing smacks a little of the disgusting Home Run chase in the late nineties in Major League Baseball. The media and adoring fans fawned as dozens of cheating players, drugged up to the hilt on Performance Enhancing Steroids, smacked historic numbers of home runs. Meanwhile Major League Baseball did absolutely nothing to stem the tide of cheating, or worse, just didn't care. They too loved the adulation, money and attention being heaped on the sport.

Football today is at the whim of not unregulated, cheating home run hitters, but unregulated, motivated, super rich and entirely self obsessed billionaire owners.

We have allowed, cheered and supported this ridiculous, illogical and selfish system where rich, egocentric business men can come in and overload certain clubs with their billions in oil, gas or other ill gotten gain money, causing a massive destabilisation of football that will become clearer in the next couple of seasons.

The funniest aspect to all of this is that some people,  in this case Spurs, come across all shocked when the fruit of this tree of ownership insanity ripens and falls to earth with a thud.

Open your eyes Spurs, modern football is rotten to the core, and we are all witnesses.



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Billionaire owner pulls the plug and 'mega' football club Anzhi Makhachkala disintegrate

Super rich owner Suleiman Kerimov decides to pull the plug on his pet Anzhi Makhachkala experiment, leaving players, staff and fans out in the cold. 

Suleiman Kerimov - Anzhi Makhachkala's owner, for now

They say breaking up is hard to do, and the good folk at Anzhi Makhachkala are about to find out if that's true.

For the last few years in particular football supporters, players, coaching staff and media have watched in a kind of glazed awe as mysterious billionaires have swerved into town in their million euro sports cars and opened suitcases full of money to buy up clubs, big and small, in all corners of the football playing World.

Occasionally these new-wave owners with their billions of dollars earned in often shady circumstances (There’s a reason Roman Abramovich has armed guards discreetly around him) have their motives, tactics and intentions questioned by the media. However this does not happen very often. Perhaps media members are afraid of being banned from the interview room.

Either way, the increase in individual billionaire owners, buying clubs both big and small seemingly on a whim has expanded exponentially and basically without check in the last five years.  Every so often a warning sign pops up that maybe, just maybe, having a volatile billionaire come in and buy up your football club isn’t the most wonderful thing after all.

Fans, players and staff are finding that out right now at Anzhi Makhachkala.

Anzhi Makhachkala. Pre-breakup

Reports are coming out that Anzhi owner Suleiman Kerimov has decided to make a few changes at the club, Those changes will include a drastic slashing of the club’s wage bill, major changes in staff, a shift to a youth policy in terms of players, and a seismic change in the club’s ambitions.

Effectively, after trying to break into the big time by buying up boatloads of high priced players and subsequently failing to do so, Anzhi are now going to do things the traditional way, you know, like any normal football club. They are going to try and build and earn their place in World football. Imagine that!

Sarcasm aside, this is a stunning development, and a huge, blaring, glaring, flashing neon warning sign to the football World as we watch these billionaire business men buy up clubs with little intention other than to serve their own greedy whim, a ridiculous, stubborn and foolhardy chase for glory obtained not by blood, sweat and tears but by dumping millions of dollars, euros and pounds on big players lawns and saying ‘come play at my club, I’ll make you rich’.

Changes at Anzhi are already underway.  Club president Konstantin Remchukov has confirmed that Anzhi will be undergoing a “serious shake-up” with a wildly reduced budget, slashed from the 180 million euro region down to 50-80 million, probably depending on how many players they can offload in the short term. On that note, Russian media are reporting that Russian international captain Igor Denisov has already agreed contracts to join Dinamo Moscow.

The staff is changing too. Former Manchester United staffer René Meulensteen is being replaced as coach just 16 days after he replaced Guus Hiddink. The latter must have sniffed change in the air, and got out well before this drama unfolded. Meulensteen never stood a snowball’s chance in hell in succeeding at Anzhi.

Why is all this happening? There are basically two views going around. Most of the Western media are portraying this as a salary-dump due to the fact Anzhi are off to a bad start and languishing 13th in the Russian league table, with little hope of glory this, or next, season.

However, if you dig a bit deeper, the Russian media is reporting several interesting aspects to this break up.

Suleiman Kerimov in happier times

Russian media is reporting openly that Kerimov experienced ‘stress-related health problems’ after watching Anzhi’s ugly 1-0 home defeat to Rostov on Friday and after that pulled the trigger on changes he had undoubtedly considered previously. Other Russian news entities are reporting that Kerimov suffered huge financial losses from last week’s plunge in the share price of the Uralkali Russian potash producer in which he is a main shareholder.

Isn’t it just great when a football club’s future is tied to the share price of Uralkali Russian potash?

The club itself in a blatant attempt to save face are saying that these budget changes have been made necessary by Uefa's financial fair play regulations. If in doubt, blame a French man, eh (Platini in this case)?

Where does all this carnage leave Anzhi, their players and their fans?

Right back where they started, would appear to be the answer to that question. One thing is certain. This muddle has left the transfer market with one hell of a late-flurry type shopping list of suddenly available players.

Feast your eyes, you can bet managers in the Premier League, La Liga, The Bundesliga and all over the World are doing just that.

• Willian - 30 million euros
• Samuel Eto 'O - 22 million euros
• Igor Denisov - 16 million euros
• Lacina Traore - 16 million euros
• Alexander Kokorin - 15 million euros
• Lassana Diarra - 14 million euros
• Mubarak Bussufa - 14 million euros
• Christopher Samba - 11 million euros
• Zhusiley - 11 million euros
• Yuri Zhirkov - 11 million euros
• Vladimir Gabulov - 6.5 million euros

Sources:
Russian media:
Official club site:
The Guardian:
NDTV sports:
BBC sports:

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The top 50 highest paid athletes list is a cesspit of wasted money

Sports Illustrated's list of the top 50 highest paid athletes in the United States is full of names that will surprise and or shock you

The immortal Carl Crawford

Sports Illustrated's recently released lists of the top paid athletes in sports is well worth a look.

Fascinatingly SI have separated their lists into two, a United States list, and an international list. This separation perhaps unexpectedly provides a look into the soul of American sports. Much as we all love it, it's not always pretty.

I would argue the top eight athletes in the list are acceptable, from the point of view of value for salary. Every athlete in the top eight belongs in this list, it is hard to argue the impact and value of LeBron, Drew Brees, Kobe, Peyton Manning and so on.

From the 9 spot in the order we see problems start to arise. Alex Rodriguez is the 9th highest paid athlete in sports in the United States. That's right, A-Rod. Right after the man most to blame for the horrific logjam on the New York Yankees payroll comes perhaps the most overpaid individual on the list. Zach Greinke is good, sure, but unless you were his Dad, can you look me in the eye and say he should be the 10th highest athlete in sports in the USA? Forget athletes from other sports, there are literally dozens of MLB pitchers who should be ahead of Greinke in terms of annual earnings.

The rest of the list is a scrap heap of carnage. Take a deep breath, and, know that Alfonso Soriano, Barry Zito, Carl Crawford, Vernon Wells, Carl Nicks, Mario Williams, Johan Santana and A-Rod are all part of the top 50 highest earning athletes in the United States this year.

Soriano, Crawford and Wells (Vernon Wells, seriously!) are all laughable or chilling entries in the list, depending if you find the fact that people are paying them hundreds of millions of dollars to play sports funny or scary.

Whatever about those, Joe Johnson, Dwight Howard, Matt Schuab, Vincent Jackson and Zach Greinke might be decent athletes, but come on, seriously, top 50 paid athletes in the entire United States?

Those are just the most egregious names on the list. You could probably argue half a dozen more or so.

Compare that with the international list.

I'll give you David Beckham, he's questionable at best, and right at the top of the list. You could argue he is currently on the books of a hot French side (PSG) and is still very much 'significant' in the world of soccer, but he really doesn't represent value as the highest paid athlete in international sports.

After that though the list is pretty tight. Most, if not all of the rest of the athletes on the international list are worthy of their spot, and most if not all are at least close to the top of their respective games.

Put it this way, there is nobody like Carl Crawford stinking up the International list.

What does this all tell us?

In short, it suggests strongly that the system is, if not broken, seriously damaged in the United States. The best athletes are not the highest paid athletes. The highest paid athletes list in the USA is infected with a large percentage of players who are are broken, cheating, underachieving losers, clogging up the list with dead dollars.

Dead, wasted dollars.

I am sorry if it offends him or his 7 remaining fans, but in no universe is it logical to have Vernon Wells as one of the top 50 highest paid athletes.

Perhaps most worryingly of all, it does not appear that anyone gives a damn.


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Ten years on: Can Real Madrid and Manchester United pick up where they left off?

The Champions League is a beautiful thing. The knockout stages of the competition provide some of the most dramatic, endearing moments in sports anywhere in the World. The international element, combined with the quality of play make for pure dramatic tension, wonderful entertainment. To sports lovers like myself, this section of the sporting calendar is a fantastic time. Baseball is coming, the Six Nations, the NHL (Just!), the NBA, the Premier League and La Liga are all in action. Tuesday and Wednesday nights, Champions League nights, have a special aura about them.

With Real Madrid set to host Manchester United tonight at the famous old Bernabeu stadium, memories have come flooding back from their dramatic Champions League encounter which took place, that’s right, ten years ago.

Put it this way, we will be in for a sweet treat if these two home and away matches are anything like their predecessors.

In the first match at the Bernabeu a 25 year old Raul scored twice to give Madrid a 3-1 lead. While Madrid were, in stretches, sensational, United worked hard to keep the scoreline respectable, and give themselves a chance in the return leg in Manchester. The match was a celebration of football’s finest, just look at the teams that were on display. For Real Madrid there was Casillas; Salgado, Helguera, Hierro, Roberto Carlos, Figo, Makelele, Conceicao, Zidane, Raul and ‘Big Ron’, the original and still, in this writer’s book, the best Ronaldo  United countered with Barthez, Neville, Ferdinand, Brown, Silvestre, Beckham, Butt, Keane, Giggs, Scholes and Van Nistelrooy. 'Galacticos' everywhere you looked.

You can watch highlights of the first leg encounter here:



In Manchester, in the return leg, the fireworks really went off.

I remember watching the second leg match in a packed Dublin bar, full of excited, expectant United fans. It was literally standing room only. Myself and a friend, who was brave enough to wear a Real Madrid jersey, stood at the back clutching our pints and betting slips. The match did not disappoint. David Beckham showed his star power by scoring twice (including one absolute cracker), but even he could only watch in awe as Ronaldo bashed a hat-trick, to send Real Madrid through 6-5 on aggregate, despite losing 4-3 on the night. Just your average 7 goal thriller!

Ronaldo was in fine form, a unique combination of skill, size, power and skill. For those who never got to see him play, check the videos out, he really was that good.

It was nothing short of a glorious night of football. You can catch the highlights of the legendary match here:




We can only hope tonight's first leg is even a small percentage as good as any of the above. All the elements are there, including the match up of coaches, Mourinho hosting his old nemesis Ferguson. We even have another Ronaldo involved, although this time it is a Ronaldo of more pout and pomp than the previous incarnation.

Hopefully tonight and during the return leg we get to zone out of our real lives and just sit back and enjoy two great teams going at each other. Maybe 11 goals total this time might be a bit far fetched, but, we can dream, right?


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Comments
We love your comments! The communicative back-and-forth is one of the best parts of sports journalism. A couple of quick notes on same. This is a sports blog, and it deals with both the USA and Ireland, hopefully that answers a few questions! Also, your opinion is greatly valued, strong ones even more so, but if you revert to personal attacks or any kind of hate speech, your comment will be deleted. Repeat offenders will have their IP address banned.Thanks for all the great feedback to date! 

Celtic pull of magnificent upset of mighty Barcelona

They are already calling it one of the greatest results in the storied history of Celtic football club. Last night Celtic beat Barcelona 2-1 in the Champions League group stages, finding a way to beat what some people think may be the greatest club football team of all time.

Interestingly, Celtic tapped into the template that both Inter Milan and Chelsea have used in recent years to find a way past normally unbeatable Barce. Namely, 'park the bus', as in keep all eleven men behind the ball, chase and harass the opposition all night and try and catch them napping at set pieces and on the break. 

Many teams have tried those tactics, however perhaps Celtic were more physically suited to succeed. They are a massive team physically, and had just the right parts that worked on the night. Barcelona wasted far too many crossed from out wide into the box, and the big Celtic defenders handled them with ease.

At times, because of the fascinating size difference, it looked like men playing against boys, the big Celtic players often towering over their Barce counterparts to head a ball clear.

It should be noted, that the above tactics only work when a team has the players and skill to pull it off. Plenty of teams try to 'park the bus' against Barcelona, more often than not they end up on the wrong end of a 4-0 bashing.

Celtic stood firm. 

The match statistics tell us exactly what kind of a siege Celtic had to (skillfully) withstand.

It's not often you will see oddball statistics like that, so heavily skewed in one teams favour.

Whatever about tactics, nothing can be taken away from this magnificent and indeed heroic Celtic performance. They were nothing short of superb on the night, and fully deserved their win.

Regular readers of this column will know we are massive Barcelona fans, often fawning in admiration of their style of play and class. Even we are left tipping our cap and congratulating Celtic, on a job well done, and a wonderful night for the Celtic fans in particular.

You'll never walk alone, indeed.


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After disgraceful scenes at under 21 football match Serbia must be banned by UEFA and FIFA

First things first, apologies if any normal, polite and reasonable Serbian football fan or regular Serbian Joe Punter person takes offence to the below, this is not directed at you, this is directed at your brethren who can’t contain themselves, and your football federation, who won’t contain them.

On to the matter at hand. Our American readers are going to find the pictures and videos on this piece shocking. You just don’t see this level of hate and violence in organised sport in the USA. Now, our Irish and European readers are going to think ‘Sure, seen this before, it’s just Serbia being Serbia’. However, enough is enough. No more excuses. No more warnings. This has to be the final straw. It is time to kick Serbia out of all FIFA and UEFA competitions for a good period, preferably ten years. FIFA needs to act now, and show its members, show the World, that FIFA does not condone racism, violence and thuggery at any level. At this stage there is absolutely no alternative, and FIFA has to stand up to these disgusting Serbian bullies.

Throw. Them. Out.

Now.

A quick recap on last night’s Serbian indiscretions.

• England beat Serbia 1-0 in a crucial Under 21 match last night – meaning England went through and Serbia were knocked out. The end of the match saw the English players and coaches quite literally fighting, scrapping for their lives as some Serbian coaches, officials, players and fans attacked them
• Other Serbian fans hailed missiles in the form of bottles, cans and other paraphernalia at the English players and backroom staff
• England coach Martin Thomas was head-butted by a Serbian coach after the game (No, seriously, check the picture out above)
• English player Danny Rose was racially and violently taunted all night long 'Two stones hit me in the head when I went to get the ball for a throw-in and whenever I touched the ball there was monkey chanting.’

Serbia, as they say, has priors. Last year UEFA president Michel Platini threatened Serbia with expulsion from Euro 2012 and their clubs with exclusion from European competition if they did not sort out their hooliganism and racism problems. Prior to that Serbia were fined £16,000 in 2007 by UEFA after England defender, Nedum Onuoha was abused by fans at the 2007 Under-21 European Championship in Holland.

Enough is enough.

Check this video out. Watch as the missiles start to rain down, the crowd chants aggressive, racist slogans and slander, and then the fights break out amongst the players and staff.



There is absolutely no excuse for last night, and Serbia has a back-list of priors, so there has to be a line drawn under this. Toss the book at them, and make them an example to all who would try to bring hate, ignorance and aggressive bullying to the stadium. The excuses being set forth so far are completely pathetic. History, colonialism, cultural differences, excuse me but that’s just pathetic. Take responsibility, Serbia. No one is picking on you, this is your problem. Stop lashing out and blaming everyone from Imperialist Britain to Bosnia to Obama’s America.

This is your problem, take responsibility and deal with it. No one forced your fans to throw missiles at the English players last night, and certainly no one forced the idiots amongst your fans to make monkey noises at Danny Rose, the young, talented English player. Look at yourself in the mirror, Serbia, and ask yourself, ‘Is this acceptable?’ No it is not.

This video gives an even more graphic portrayal of events last night (not sure how long it will survive before being taken down however)




At best, Serbia look simply like sore losers, throwing missiles on the field after England beat them 1-0 with a dramatic late goal from Sunderland’s Conor Wickham. At worst, Serbian football supporters look like hateful, spiteful, ignorant and dangerous racists. They have priors, they have been doing this for years and FIFA and UEFA has warned them over and over.

Until their football federation is brave enough to do something about their disgraceful behaviour, Serbia has to be banned from World football.

There is simply no place in the modern World for their knuckle-dragging behaviour.
 

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Ireland U21 beat Italy in Casarano with a wonder goal from Conor Henderson - VIDEOS

Conor Henderson

It may have been 'only' under 21 level, however last night Irish soccer achieved one of its finest results ever, as our young guns pulled out a stunning European Championship qualifier win in Casarano, Italy. The hosts had already won the group and Ireland would have to settle for a non qualifying yet admirable third place. This doesn't take the gloss of what was a wonderful result against some of the best U-21 players in the world. Add to this the fact Ireland had not one but two players sent off, and you have to consider this as a fine achievement.

The goal of the night was scored by young Conor Henderson, on the books currently at Arsenal.

Check this cracker out:



No doubt senior side boss Gio Trapattoni will be ignoring him soon.

You can catch more highlights from the astonishing match below, a truly wonderful result for Noel King's side. The future looks bright for the Irish youngsters, with seven of the Irish players are eligible for the next Under-21 campaign so manager King will have more time to mould the lads into potential stars for Irish soccer's future.



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Fenway Sports Group taking it from all sides as the Red Sox and Liverpool continue to fail on the field

The Fenway Sports Group (FSG) which has its fingers in a number of sporting pies, is under a level and weight of pressure it has never experienced before. In Boston, the Red Sox are absolutely reeling right now, sinking faster than even last season’s September demise. They just got absolutely pounded in Oakland, a team which it has out-spent by eleventy billion dollars this season. They are being swept out of every city they visit, and they appear to be very much a ship without a rudder. Meanwhile, Liverpool were unmasked 0-2 at home in front of their ever faithful fans by Arsenal, a talented team no doubt, but a team that had failed to score in their previous two games.

Well, the natives are restless. In Boston, several elements of the media are quick to accuse the FSG of being distracted by their Liverpool venture, whilst in England, many Liverpool fans are sadly resorting to basically racist criticism, suggesting ‘The Yanks’ don’t know what they are doing.

Much of the criticism is unfair and also unfounded. Clearly FSG is ‘in it to win it’, in terms of both the Red Sox and Liverpool also. People in Boston in particular have forgotten very quickly that FSG have turned the fortunes of a cursed, moribund franchise around very quickly, taking the team to the pinnacle of success twice in 2004 and 2007. The jury is out on their Liverpool venture thus far, however given time you have to assume they will at least turn the fortunes of ‘The ‘Pool’ around relative to the years preceding their entry to the game.

In Boston, the local Knights Of The Keyboard, are gleefully finding new ways to poke fun at FSG for, thus far, failing to turn Liverpool into instant champions. The general line goes that John Henry and team are only being distracted by the frivolous venture in England. The accusation is basically that they are somehow distracted by their ownership of Liverpool.

Those same writers are obviously ignoring the number of serious corrections and amendments FSG has clearly made to attempt to address the issues that have arose in the last season plus. You cannot blame FSG for Josh Beckett suddenly morphing into the Ghost of John Wasdin, morbidly dishing out 91mph ‘fastballs’ that get lost in the Fenway bleachers. You cannot blame FSG for Lester, Buchholz and the rest of the Sox rotation not pitching up to their ability. Kevin Youkilis was enduring a horrific batting slump before he was shipped to Chicago, can you blame FSG for that? They have clearly attempted to address each and every issue that has arisen, dramatically so in the case of the Gonzo\Beckett\Crawford trade.

How can anyone keep a straight face and accuse them of not acting, when everything they have done since they have taken over in Boston has been directly related to trying honestly to improve the ball club? They may not be perfect, but you cannot accuse them of sitting on their hands and not acting.

To do so is just lazy.

In terms of Liverpool, it would appear they are working very hard to completely rebuild the club, with an emphasis on young, talented players like the clearly gifted Joe Allen and the exciting Raheem Sterling. You could argue that not over-spending on a 29 year old player with high salary demands (Clint Dempsey) was absolutely in line with their desired approach and path to future success. Liverpool may be lagging behind at time of writing, however they are actively trying to build a youthful, talented squad. This is in direct comparison to, for example, Manchester City, who’s model for success has seen them spend over £700 in order to basically purchase the title.

The Manchester City model is potentially a recipe for disaster, if UEFA and Michelle Platini follow through on their ‘Fair Play’ rules for entry to the Champions League in 2014. Platini’s new rules will bar teams like Manchester City, that cannot ‘balance their books’ without rich owners dumping hundreds of millions of oil money to solve their problems, from entering the Champions League.

 Liverpool are one of the few teams, particularly one of the few big teams, that are actively trying to maintain their books in a manner that will mean they will succeed under these new fair play rules, and frankly that should be applauded.

Another simple, somewhat related note, John Henry, the principal owner of FSG, cannot be accused on not caring about his Liverpool adventure. He is a frequent attendee at Anfield and indeed ‘road’ games, and has clearly thrown himself into the project. Take that for example against Manchester City’s Sheik boss, who attended a grand total of two of City’s games during the Premiership winning title run last season. He watched the final game on TV, no doubt whilst being fed grapes by Norwegian lesbians in his billion dollar, air conditioned palace.

As a fan, which owner would you prefer, the one who comes to plenty of your club’s games, or the one who watches (occasionally) from afar, and treats your club like some kind of expensive car, to show off in conversation with other rich oil baron’s on their million dollar yacht moored in Monaco?

Chastise FSG all you want for the mistakes they have made, mistakes they often themselves admit to (Carl Crawford, Andy Carroll), but let’s draw a line under the silly accusations that FSG aren’t trying their best to make things better in both Boston and Liverpool.

Neither distraction nor inactivity are the problem.



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Two top French soccer players face trial and possible jail for soliciting underage escort

Let’s take a walk on the murky side.  Close your eyes for a second and imagine the greatest ever underage prostitution scandal hit American professional sports today. Imagine, if you will,  LeBron James and Tim Tebow being linked with an underage ‘escort’ in a scandal as explosive as any Michael Bay ‘movie’. That doomsday scenario, LeBron and Tebow being caught, cough, with their pants down, is basically playing itself out in France as we speak, with two of the greatest stars of French soccer filling in for King James and the Jets backup Quarterback. Franck Ribéry and Karim Benzema are both French national team heroes, and both play for gigantic clubs, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid respectively. France is tearing itself apart from the inside with what to do with this situation.

Prostitution is basically legal in France, so the fact Ribéry and Benzema solicited one isn’t a big deal (apart of course from the moral issues), however the fact that when they did so, the girl in question was under 18, is a massive issue. The name on everyone's lips is Zahia Dehar, now 20. Dehar has told police that Benzema was first, and that the nefarious deed took place in 2008, when she was only 16 (and Benzema was 20). Interestingly Dehar still speaks relatively highly of Benzema, who’s lawyers maintain he is "innocent" and would explain himself in court.

Dehar speaks considerably less glowingly about Ribéry. The French winger has delivered the stunningly narcissistic explanation that he flew Dehar to Munich as a birthday gift to himself. Whilst most of us are happy with a nice cake and a card, Ribéry, married with children, chose to basically buy another human being for the night. Whatever makes your frog’s legs tasty, I suppose. Dehar has since comments that: "It was hard to get him to pay me, but he did all the same."

Whatever about being basically mocked by a 20 year old prostitute turned fashion designer (more on the latter shortly), Ribéry has opened himself up to further ridicule with his slimy and incredulous defence. Unbelievably the tricky little winger seems genuinely surprised he is going to court. He has called the trial "surprising and unfair" and has gone so far as to complain openly that the whole affair has hurt his family deeply.

Earth to Franck, the moment you dropped your pants and (reluctantly) handed over thousands of euros to sleep with a woman who was decidedly not your wife, that’s where your family started getting hurt.

As for Zahia Dehar, the girl at the middle of this French furore, France seems to be viewing her through some sort of odd rose tinted glasses as the trial approaches. Fashion designers have taken to her, writers are pouring praise over her, and even the French movie business is talking about committing her ‘story’ to the big screen.

Wait one hot French second here, what on earth is the attraction, other than sleazy, murky and greasy scandal?  The designer Karl Lagerfeld has, tongue firmly in cheek one would presume, said that Dehar is so interesting because she is a throwback to France's 18th-century courtesans, paid mistresses of the rich, "a purely French tradition that the whole world admired and copied".

Or, she has really, really big fake boobs

She might be the nicest, most intelligent woman in the World, but why all this sycophantic praise?

The woman is famous because she took money off two soccer stars to have sexual intercourse with them. Without that, she is just another fame chasing, Z-list ‘celebrity’. There are literally billions of women Worldwide who ‘deserve’ fame more than her, and billions more who provide a more meaningful input to the societies they live in.

However, the French, like the rest of us, love a good, dirty, filthy, scandalous story, and bottom feeding scavenger fish people like Zahia will always be in demand.

The whole story is playing out something like the tag line for the brilliant 2000 movie ‘Traffic’, ‘No One Gets Away Clean’.

Who knows how long Zahia‘s ill-gotten 15 minutes of fame will last, and who knows how much trouble Ribéry and Benzema will find themselves in. All we do know is, is this was America, and this was James and Tebow, as hypothesized above, the Internet would quite literally break.

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The NFL rules the airwaves (In the USA anyway)

It’s official. The NFL owns the USA. Well, it at least owns bragging rights to ‘most watched sport on television’. It is the King of TV. It is an inflated, wrecking ball of a  Godzilla sized monster. How can we say this with such authority? The website Sports Media Watch has compiled the ratings for the 50 most-viewed sports telecasts of the first half of 2012. The NFL is all over it like white on rice. It’s not even close.

Click on the below to view it in a larger view.

Perennial Piñata The Pro Bowl had almost as many viewers as the most important date in Nascar (although, that’s not really fair because, well, Nascar involves driving around in circles and even the Pro Bowl is more exciting than that)

The figures are staggering. The twelve top watched sporting events belonged to the NFL. Of course, these figures reflect the relative isolationist view of the US sports media when talking about sports and viewing figures.

An estimated 350 million people watched the Chelsea v Bayern Munich Champions League final in 2012.

Even the NFL dreams of figures like that.

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Irish soccer legend Damien Duff visits Irish troops in the Lebanon

Some professional athletes talk a big game. Others put their money where their mouth is.

While we go about our normal lives, worrying about paying the bills, what we are going to have for dinner and what’s on TV later, there are currently over 330 Irish soldiers serving in the Lebanon as part of the strong UN remit in that country, keeping the peace in a time of great stress for the region. It is an incredibly dangerous task, and tragically, 47 Irish soldiers have died defending the peace in South Lebanon. All the while the fear remains that the problems in neighbouring Syria could explode across the border. It is a tense time to be a UN peace keeper based in the region.

This brings us to Damien Duff, or ‘The Duffer’

The veteran Irish soccer star could have stayed at home, licking his wounds after the disastrous Irish European Championships campaign. He could have zipped off somewhere hot and sunny and hit the golf links, or collapsed by the pool. Instead, The Duffer chose to make a difficult, dangerous trip to Beirut, and subsequently on to the Lebanon. He has gone to help lift the spirits of the Irish force there, and will no doubt offer them stories from his Irish team and Premiership exploits in his colourful, successful career. Duff also paid his respects the memory of the 47 Irish men who died in the name of peace.

It is a fantastic, unselfish gesture from a clearly level headed and thoughtful man. The 33 year old Irish star will spend three days with the Battalion, and apart from meeting and spending time with the troops, he is also scheduled to visit a local orphanage.

Professional sports can be a depressing entity at time. Having to listen to the likes of morons like Dwight Howard procrastinate as to what team he wants to pay him millions of dollars to play basketball next season, while holding the NBA loving city of Orlando to hostage, is very unappealing. The same goes for Carlos Lee, the bloated Houston Astros slugger with his similarly bloated $100 million contract. We really need to read endless stories about what team he refuses to be traded to, seriously?

Modern professional sports can be an ugly creature. Thankfully there are still characters as strong and honourable as Damien Duff. His heart warming decision to visit his countrymen in the Lebanon is an example to us all.

It also makes your heart burst with pride to be Irish.

Hopefully Duff and the boys in green enjoy his visit to the utmost.

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Why Italy can beat Spain and win the UEFA 2012 European Championships

First to the full disclosure. This column is a gigantic fan of Spanish soccer. Except for a hard to explain, forlorn love for Sunderland, the sometimes Premiership English club, the Spanish La Liga takes precedence in terms of weekend soccer on this column's TV. They just make it look so pretty, don't they? Barcelona, Real Madrid, Athletic Bilbao and even Raya Vallecano. They play the beautiful game like the beautiful game should be played. Beautifully.

We could babble on about how much respect we have for the Spanish game, but as always, money talks. If someone handed this column one million euros, dollars or pounds sterling and said, 'You can have this, but you have to bet it on who is going to win the European Championships' basically, it would be going on the Italians.

Here's why. 

In many of the great sports we love, it is crucial to be 'strong up the middle'. For example, in baseball you need a good catcher, pitcher, short-stop and center fielder to be a decent club. Italy are like a rock up the middle. Buffon, their goalkeeper, is playing better than any other net minder in the world right now. He has kept Italy in some games, providing a calming, veteran experience that other teams just don't have. He has completely dominated at time. For goodness sake, the guy has the cosmopolitan confidence to keep his hair out of his eyes with feminine bobby-pins! The Italian center backs, Balzaretti and Barzagli, may sound like sports cars, but they are absolute rocks at the heart of the Italian defence. Their tackling, heading and overall decision making has been simply superb. 

Then there is Andrea Pirlo in the middle of the park. Pirlo is hands down the best player of the tournament at this point, bar none. He has completely bossed the two most recent Italian games, against Germany and also England, and his unbelievably cheeky penalty in the latter match quite literally changed the tide of momentum within same. 

Then there is Super Mario. Balotelli is every coaches worst nightmare. There is quite literally no way of telling which Mario will turn up, Super Mario, or Mario the monster. Luckily for Italy, in this tournament, it has more often been the former. He scored an absolute belter against Ireland, and then tonight scored two crackers against Germany for good measure. If he keeps this up he may actually challenge Pirlo for the player of the tournament title.

Apart from being strong up the middle, Italy have an undeniable air of destiny hovering over them like an angel guiding them to their destiny. Before this tournament started legions of sports writers wrote them off, largely because there are serious accusations against some of the peripheral players in the Italian squads of gambling on soccer. Those investigations are ongoing, and the common thought was that this stress and tension would rip Italy apart from the inside.

So much for that theory. 

Finally, there is the Hunt For Red October factor. In the oddly watchable and re-watchable movie, Hunt For, a Russian submarine commander sinks his own submarine because of a ridiculous set of orders that backfire horribly. His exasperated second in command, as the torpedo homes in on their boat, whines, 'Kommandant, your arrogance has got us all killed!'. Well the Spanish manager Vicente del Bosque is the Russian submarine commander of the good ship Espana. He is quite literally tempting fate with some audacious, head scratching tactical decisions, including playing without a striker on multiple occasions. Now, say what you want about Fernando Torres and his abysmal lack of form, but the 'other' Fernando, Llorente, is a man on fire this season, and yet the magnificent Athletic Bilbao striker rots on the Spanish bench like out of data tapas.

Vicente del Bosque isn't as much tempting fate as he is pulling down his pants to moon it full on. Should he dare to face the Italians without a striker, we may be in for an absolute stinker of a match as the tiny Spanish midfielders run around in pointless circles like five tiny ants trying to scale the walls of a medieval castle.

The Spanish manager, and his team, have been basically begging to be beaten all tournament long. They squeaked through against Portugal on penalties, and apart from a serious shallacking of hapless Ireland, have not looked like the greatest team in the world. Instead they have looked like a collection of the greatest players in the world forced into unusual systems that haven't fully come off.

Italy are currently 14/5 to beat Spain on Sunday night. Perhaps a better bet is the 6/4 the Italians lifting the trophy. Can't you just see Italy scraping past the Spanish in a dramatic penalty shoot-out, Buffon making a couple of dramatic saves on route to destiny?

Just remember, you heard it here first.

Viva Italia!

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Andrea Pirlo cheekily chips Italy past England

One of the main reasons we watch sports is that every now and then an athlete does something amazing. Every so often an athlete does something so spectacular that we remember where we were watching it, we remember the surrounding circumstances, for a very long time. Well, tonight, Italy's Andrea Pirlo pulled off one of those stunts.

To set the scene, Italy were facing England in the European Championship quarter finals, and the Italians had attacked all match long but couldn't get passed the massed ranks of English defenders, the latter having decided to adopt distasteful 'park the bus (in front of the goal)' tactics. As first normal time and then extra time fizzled out slowly, England were clearly playing for penalties.

What is it they say, be careful what you wish for?

In the penalty shoot-out England grabbed the early momentum via the unfortunate Montolivio, who slashed his shot wide. Suddenly Italy were staring at the abyss. England scored their next penalty, and if Pirlo, Italy's next penalty taker, had missed, well the Italians were in deep carbonara.

Then Pirlo stepped forward to take his turn, and this happened.

Pirlo's incredibly cheeky penalty can be looked at simply as the artistic touch of an entertainer at heart. However, this column believes Pirlo was actually making a bigger statement. With his decision to go with flair and panache, it was if Pirlo was showing his team-mates not to fear the penalty shoot-out. He was treating it with a measured disdain, but not out of disrespect, instead in an attempt to both crush the hearts of the English, and lift the hearts of his Italians.

Pirlo grabbed the momentum of the shoot-out and his team-mates refused to hand it back to the English. His audacious chip shot quite literally changed the course of the shoot-out, the game and the quarter final.

There is no doubt the 'right' team progressed on the night.

England offered absolutely nothing to the entertainment value of the match, and this is emphasized dramatically by the shooting statistics, Italy finishing with 36 shots to England's relatively pathetic 9.

There was only one 'just' outcome in this match, and thanks to Andrea Pirlo's fantastically cheeky penalty, justice came out on top on the night.

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Zlatan Ibrahimovic may have scored the best goal of Euro 2012: VIDEO

The group stages of Euro 2012 finished tonight, as England 'beat' the Ukraine 1-0 (we all saw that ball cross the line, FIFA and UEFA better stick their heads in the sand again!) and Sweden stunned France 2-0. In the relatively meaningless latter game (Sweden were out no matter what), Zlatan Ibrahimovic may have scored the goal of the tournament.

Judge for yourself, but his beautiful, crisp volley, executed at speed with the clinical precision of an assassin, might be hard to top.






Whatever about the goal itself, the marvelous commentary is worth hearing on its own. Any commentator that excitedly yells 'Abracababra Sweden!' is OK with this column.

Of course, he will have to do this a few times to come close to topping the all time greatest European Championships goal, and one of the greatest goals ever scored. Step forward, Mr. Marco Van Basten.



Hard to see anyone topping that, however we do have a fabulous knock out round to look forward to, and as 'Ibracadabra' showed tonight for Sweden, anything is possible!

Isn't this just one of the greatest tournaments you have ever seen?

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Irish fans sing The Fields of Athenry, Spain v Ireland Euro 2012: VIDEO

So tonight Ireland's Euro 2012 effectively came to an end. Sure we still have to play Italy, and who would bet against the Irish playing out of their skins and causing a huge upset, this team has a lot of pride and will want to go out on a high, not just for themselves but for their loyal fans too. Tonight however they ran up against possibly the greatest team in the world in the Spanish, and the result was a predictable 0-4 trashing.

Bizarrely, what most will remember from the match will be the absolutely incredible display of support the magnificent travelling Irish fans showed, as the clock ticked down first to 90 minutes and then through the last three minutes of added time. With the match dying out, the masses of Irish fans ripped out a six minute long, stirring rendition of 'The fields of Athenry'. Several TV shows (I hear German, Dutch and even Spanish) deliberately didn't speak over the singing to allow their viewers experience it properly.

There are going to be plenty of cynics who try and bring this wonderful little moment down, but just ignore them. Crank up the volume, sit back and enjoy the 6 minutes video from German TV below. This is just a wonderfully unusual moment in sports, a moment of goodwill, kindness, passion and loyalty.

Enjoy it for what it is. Support, in the truest sense of the word. No Nazi banners, no bananas thrown on the pitch, no angry, hateful chants. Just pride and passion, displayed in a dignified, moving way by literally thousands of Irish who refused to let the score get in the way of their support for their boys.

We live in what can be a nasty, brutish world, it is heart warming every now and then to find an oasis of goodwill and humanity.  Low lie, the fields of Athenry..

Update - Friday15th June
The morning after

So UEFA have forced YouTube to take the original video in all its brilliance down. Congratulations to UEFA for trying to stop people enjoying a wonderful sporting moment. Brilliant minds at work in there obviously. Fear not. We have trawled the web and come up with the below alternatives.

This is a simple, short one with excellent audio.




Another short, grainy one that nonetheless has superb audio. Notice this is well after the match has finished and the Irish are still singing!


Finally, a top notch video and audio rendition, however I am not confident UEFA won't swoop on this one also.



There we go. Big Brother can go take a hike. We will make sure a working video of the amazing Irish supporters stays up on this come hell or high water! Enjoy.


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Ireland and the Boston Celtics lose, but their fans come out winners

It is going to take a while to shower the clingy, sticky mucus that was the sporting weekend just past off. For fans of the Irish soccer team and fans of the Boston Celtics (and indeed fans of both like myself!) Monday morning is depressing to an extra factor of twenty after the brutal results Saturday and Sunday night. Don't even talk to me about the Red Sox.

The Celtics, injury ravaged to an unbelievable degree, teased us with an early ten point lead, only to tire and get worn down with the ridiculous LeBron precession to the free throw line, finally succumbing to the abhorrent Heat and their Nuremberg Rally like fans (Note to Miami: Big rallies where everyone dresses the exact same, and chants to pre-arranged material handed down from 'the authorities' has been done before, and is pretty creepy). Ireland? What can you say about Ireland? Well, I had this to say about them last week in my Irish Central column;

''There are some in Ireland suggesting this Irish team might unite the country much like the Jackie Charlton led teams and indeed the Mick McCarthy World Cup team did in years previous. Largely fueled by greedy companies trying to cash in on merchandising and such, Ireland is being led down a blind alley of false hope in the inevitably doomed belief it might win a match or two and qualify for the next round. A huge dose of realism is well overdue. Glenn Whelan in midfield? This might be the single worst quality team to qualify for a European Championship in the last decade. Having said all that, Ireland's undoubted grit and determination, and wonderful, colourful and positive fans (the single greatest traveling fans, bar none, in all sports) will bring something to the tournament, even if Ireland don’t score in any of the three matches.''

Now, in light of the unbelievably poor showing against Croatia, we don't want to get all Brian Griffin on you, however, it must be noted, we did tell you so!

However, the 'lost weekend' of sports wasn't without a couple of dignified, heart warming aspects to it. First to the incredible Irish soccer fans who have traveled to Eastern Europe to follow their team. It is important not to just nod your head and mumble 'yeah I know, they are great'. What we are seeing unfold in front of us is one of the greatest displays of support ever seen in soccer and maybe in sports as a whole.

Think about it for a second.

Despite a knee-buckling recession in their homeland, Irish fans have thrown caution to the wind and flocked en-masse to follow a team that includes such luminaries as Keith Andrews, Simon Cox and, yes, him, Glenn Whelan.

They not only deserve our adulation, they deserve a medal! UEFA release some incredible figures last week, as it turns out, Irish soccer fans bought up 35,000 tickets to the finals. By comparison, English soccer fans bought a miserly 15,000. That gives you some idea how passionately the Irish support their team.

The fans in green are being recognised around the world for their magnificent support. Take for example this comment from The Guardian;

''The remarkable Irish supporters had scarcely been cowed even by the disturbing start. Those fans made such an impression in noise and number as the match began that they might have been mistaken for followers of a host nation.''

Even better yet, the Irish fans are doing it all with a smile on their faces. First here...

...and then, a little inside, I know, but this is a cracker

Now to the Celtics fans, and their incredible display of support as Game 6 slowly phased itself out to a close. At first glance this below footage may not look like much, but then consider the context, Boston had just been beaten up by LeBron and the Heat, on their home court. Consider the likelihood that this was probably (and as it turned out, most likely) the last time these fans would see these players together as a unit.

Then consider the sheer volume and passion of the 'Let's go Celtics' chant that hovers in the air for a full four minutes as the game fades away slowly to zero seconds.





You can see LeBron and his cohorts chuckling away to each other as the game dies out, however we all know full well they were thinking 'I wonder is this how Miami fans would react?' 

For me, this amazing display of passion from the Boston Celtics fans was a dignified and heart warming 'thank you' to the big three in particular. Everyone knows the team will probably be blown up this off-season, and Celtics fans have loved every second of cheering for Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and their team mates.

Despite being down and beaten on the night by Miami, the look on the faces of Allen, KG and Pierce is one of incredible dignity and thankfulness to have played in front of such a basketball-knowledgeable  and passionate crowd. That thankfulness is repaid in full by the Bostonians in attendance on the night.

Terrible sporting weekend, however the memory of the incredible Celtics fans, and the colourful, passionate and gregarious Ireland fans will live on way longer than the score of any game.

Let's go Celtics. Come on Ireland.

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2012 European Championships cheat sheet - Group C

As you must surely know by now, soccer's less glamorous and yet possibly technically superior second biggest tournament starts on the 8th June. Just around the corner. This 2012 European Championships cheat sheet? So what's this all about, you might ask. Simple. What we're doing here is taking a team from the upcoming European Championships and equating them with a team from American sports, just to give, in particular, our American users a better idea of what to expect from teams in the Euros.

Over the next few nights we will be knocking these out, group by group, like Justin Verlander racks up strikeouts. Tonight we turn to Group C.

Let's chop it up.


Group C 

Spain 
For Spain, you can quite simply equate them to the 2002/2004 era New England Patriots. Yes, they are that dominant. Xavi and Inniesta mould into one Spanish version of Tom Brady, whilst Pique and Puyol can play Bruschi and Vrabel. Spain won the last World Cup, and the European Championships is there for them to take, if they want it bad enough. We could be witnessing a period of dominance as good as if not better than the incredible Patriots team of 2002-2004. No side has ever won back to back European Championships whilst being holders of the World Cup, but Spain might be just about to do exactly that.

Italy 
 In direct comparison, Italy may well prove to be the Indianapolis Colts of the 2002/2004 era. If you recall, the Colts were heavy favourites both to beat the Patriots and to win the Superbowl during that timeframe, but instead fell flat on their face. Italy, for some bizarre reason, are still being touted by some as potential tournament winners. Perhaps those who are coming out with this drivel forget the Paper Tiger Italians failed to beat Slovakia and New Zealand in the 2010 World Cup and crashed out at the group stages. Italian football in is turmoil, amid allegations of max fixing at its highest levels. Still, some still think Italy can win this thing. They are in for a shock when Andrea Pirlo breaks out his best Peyton Manning face, upon the occasion of their inevitable demise.

Croatia 
The Butler 2010/2011 NCAA Basketball team. The dark horses of the tournament. They have actually taken the description for ‘Dark Horse; out of the dictionary and just replaced it with a team photo of Croatia. They are the poster boys of the phrase. Well, them and Butler. Much like Butler before them, Croatia are a team low on star-name-power but high on team work and discipline. They are extremely well coached by former Croatian great Slaven Bilić and have plenty of young talent to see them past Ireland and Italy (maybe not the Spanish, though) which would see them qualify from the group. Croatia are the real deal. You just don’t hear much about them. They are, like Butler, a true dark horse.

Ireland 
There are some in Ireland suggesting this Irish team might unite the country much like the Jackie Charlton led teams and indeed the Mick McCarthy World Cup team did in years previous. Largely fuelled by greedy companies trying to cash in on merchandising and such, Ireland is being led down a blind alley of false hope in the inevitably doomed belief it might win a match or two and qualify for the next round. A huge dose of realism is well overdue. Glenn Whelan in midfield? This might be the single worst quality team to qualify for a European Championship in the last decade. Having said all that, Irelands undoubted grit and determination, and wonderful, colourful and positive fans (the single greatest travelling fans, bar none, in all sports) will bring something to the tournament, even if Ireland don’t score in any of the three matches. So, for Ireland, read the Oakland Raiders. A pretty useless team, that isn’t going to win anything, but people will end up talking about their fans.

Tune in tomorrow evening for Group C!




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