Outside the Box – Football on TV: Spain conquered, but Fabio gets a reality check from a Spurs and England legend

I don’t know if you noticed but the greatest footballing nation of recent years popped over during the weekend. You could quite legitimately be forgiven for letting it pass you by though, as the life of an England supporter over recent times has left the vast majority of us bare husks, bereft of hop...

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Get on side and sport your colours for Shelter this World Cup

In celebration of this years FIFA World Cup, housing and homelessness charity Shelter are teaming up with Nationwide Building Society, Official England Team sponsor, to launch their fantastic footy fundraiser, Strip4Shelter. Shelter is asking people across the country to replace their regular work ...

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Squads and quotas are good for English football

I've long been an advocate of the idea of a declared squad for Premier League games, in much the same way way as exists for European tournaments. It stops clubs from hoarding players because once a player is excluded from a squad he will agitate for a transfer and therefore improve the squad at ano...

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Christiano Ronaldo Bags The Hat-Trick

The award of the FIFA Player of the Year trophy means that Manchester Uniteds Christiano Ronaldo holds all three of the world individual prizes for the sport, based around three different voting groups. The FIFA award came into being back in 1991 and it is based on the opinions of national coaches ...

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Why avoid the easy answer to Team GB at the 2012 Olympics?

There are reports that FIFA is to allow a British team to compete at the Olympics without affecting the beaurocratic meetings that the home nations consider so important to belong to. This of course being the real reason that the Scottish FA so vociferously object to an Olympic team. Part of the a...

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Amidst slavery jibes a cynical person would question Blatter's motives

That Sepp Blatter should use the word 'slavery' to describe poor old Cristiano Ronaldo's position at Manchester United is bad enough in itself; that, as reported in today's Guardian (11.07.2008) he is an horourary member of Real Madrid whilst saying it smacks of self-interest at best. If Blatter is...

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New Squarefootball book on the 39th game

The 39th game: Premier League plays at imperialism Seven of the writers of the long-established football website, Squarefootball, have collaborated to produce the first in-depth appraisal of the Premier League’s contentious proposal to add internationally based fixtures to the Premier League season...

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Fifa change spells end of Almunia's England shot

Amidst all the reporting of Fifa's 58th conference decision to approve the six-plus-five proposal a more subtle rule change should mean the end of Manuel Almunia's chances of appearing for England. Fifa has now introduced stricter rules on changing nationality for uncapped players; just before Almu...

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Fifa's six plus five is designed to hurt English football - but it probably wouldn't

Sepp Blatter may have dismissed the Premier League's idea of a 39th game, but is less negative about one of his ideas that has been roundly rejected by the Premier League. The six plus five plan would start in 2010/11 by forcing every team to start with four players eligible for the international s...

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3967: Sepp Blatter: Summer Schedule?

by : Bill Urban In an interview with Kicker magazine, FIFA President Sepp Blatter called for a radical over-haul in the European football calendar, with a proposal that European clubs should move from the traditional August/May schedule to one more centered on the calendar year, running from Februa...

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3694: Corruption and bureaucrats

by : Andrew Rogers Chaos ensued as McCarthy was sent off for manhandling McKeon while Alan Cawley’s barrage of abuse directed towards Daly ensured he also saw red. Whatever Cawley said paled in comparison with the abuse that rained down from the Jodi Stand from an enraged Waterford contingent. A...

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