FIFA’s official analysis of the World Cup seemed incomplete to most viewers that had actually watched the event this summer. The document highlighting the summer’s tournament seemed to overlook many of the mistakes made by the officials and several of the referee blunders left multiple teams prematurely removed from the Cup this summer. But nowhere in the detailed statement was even the suggestion that the poor officiating alone marred the event and needed to be corrected immediately.
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Portugal national team coach Carlos Queiroz will apparently be suspended six months by the nation’s Sports Institute for aggressive behavior the coach displayed when the country’s anti-doping agency visited the squad prior to the World Cup. No player tested positive during the visit, but Queiroz has been accused of disrupting the test due to his aggressive behavior towards the testers and foul language.
The former Manchester United assistant claims that the reported ruling is “totally wrong, harsh and unfounded.” And the coach was also not too pleased to discover the supposed suspension through media reports rather than first hand from the committee:
This summer’s transfer dealings did not have the bang to it as last years when Ronaldo, Kaka and Ibrahimovic all jumped to La Liga. But that does not mean that there were not some important dealings this summer.
Here is a list of the transfer dealings of the 20 La Liga clubs this summer (amounts in euros, * denotes transfer fee confirmed by club, otherwise based on reports in local media):
In: David Villa (Valencia, *40 million), Adriano Correia (Sevilla, *up to 13.5 million), Javier Mascherano (Liverpool, 22 million)
Although the Vuvuzelas may have gotten off on a break in South Africa since it was part of their tradition, it seems that no one else is looking to give them a break as UEFA became another organization to ban the instrument.
After having picked up major controversy in the World Cup, the vuvuzela instrument has been banned from a number of organizations including the English Premier League, World Basketball Organization, FIBA and many others. Now comes the words that UEFA will be banning the instrument from entering the stadiums in both National team and Club competition’s.
Jose Mourinho has warned Real Madrid fans that he is “no Harry Potter” following Los Blancos frustrating draw in their debut match against Mallorca last week. The Special One stressed the club’s need to work hard and remain patient in order to have success down the road.
Some upsetting news at Camp Nou have arrived as their star defender Carlos Puyol well be missing the next 3 weeks after sustaining a muscle injury during warm-up’s in Barcelona‘s clash with Racing Santander. Although the club did still go on to win the match 3-0 against Racing, it still has to suck to see the bench for 3 weeks when the season just got under-way.
Replaced by Spaniard defender Gerard Pique, Barcelona still look very confident on the field and showed a glimpse of many more things to come. I’m sure Puyol is anxious to get back on the field and captain the Catalan club but for now he will just be supporting from the side-lines.
Three weeks may not seem like a long time, but looking ahead at his schedule and realizing all the matches he will be missing not only for his Barcelona but his Country Spain as well, I can only imagine how upset Puyol might be as he is definitely a player who loves to play the game and loves to be on the field.
Tom Petty once said that “the waiting is the hardest part.” But in this case perhaps it should be “the waiting is the hardest Vaart.” As in Rafael van der Vaart of Real Madrid.
The Dutch midfielder has been on the La Liga powerhouse’s short list of potential transfer bait players for a few years now since his squad brought in the new era of los Galiticos and dealt away all of his Dutch national team buddies. But van der Vaart has always been the pleasant team player type of footballer that has stressed his desire to remain with Los Blancos and earn first team honors once again.
Well the next World Cup hosting nation has already been decided and the next decade looks to be a big deal in Brazil between the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics.
But the 2018 and 2022 World Cups are both still undecided and several respected nations have entered the paperwork to be considered for the honor of hosting the world’s biggest sporting event.
And Spain-Portugal have in a joint effort decided to run together and the two nations look like a significant force considering between the two countries they have seven elite category stadiums including one of the world’s biggest and best in Barcelona‘s Camp Nou. And the Spain-Portugal bid is the seventh and final one in Europe to be inspected by FIFA officials and the organization is currently evaluating the nation’s stadiums, transportation systems, and security plans.
Fernando Morientes has decided it was time for him to hang his cleats up as he went on to announce his retirement after having played “17 years of elite football”. Having enjoyed playing in Real Madrid and Valencia, Morientes made the switch to French club, Marseille, but unfortunately left the club earlier in the year when both sides agreed to his departure.
Although Morientes was still receiving offers from some other teams, the former Spanish National team player decided it was time for him to settle down and spend some time with his family.
Fernando Morientes went on to say the following :
No longer with Serie A giants, Juventus, David Trezeguet is currently in Spain where he is expected to try and seal a deal with Hercules, a club who has just recently been promoted. Although the former French striker has recievied a number of offers from better clubs around Europe including Liverpool from the Premier League, Trezeguet went on to say that it has always been his dream to play in Spain.
At 32-years of age, having played for one of the best clubs in the world and also part of the France National soccer team in which they won the World Cup in 1998, Trezeguet is definitely bringing a lot of experience to the newly promoted club and it would really be surprising if Hercules does not finalize the deal with him.
