England’s qualification for the World Cup finals next summer in South Africa has prompted the latest surge of fear that fans will fall foul to ticket touts and black market scams. Tickets for guaranteed entry to England games have already been sold out and tickets are already on sale online for upwards of £3,000.

England often take a lot of fans to a major tournament and some travel without tickets hoping to buy them outside the stadium of each respective match. This makes England fans a classic target for touts who are very clever at producing fake tickets, which fans will sometimes pay a lot of money for in the hope of seeing a game.

Abta spokesman, Sean Tipton, said: “We’re saying that when you book you should do so with a company authorised by Fifa. In the past we have had instances of people booking trips for major sporting events and then finding that their tickets did not materialise.”G

“Travellers should heed the Foreign Office travel advice for South Africa. It’s not a good idea, for example, to tour Johannesburg at night,” said Tipton. “[But] there is no doubt that this is going to be a tremendous boost for South Africa tourism and it’s a great destination for Britons. It’s one of the few places where the pound has actually strengthened against the local currency of late. The food is good and prices are low.”

There are many different avenues that fans can go down in order to make sure they are not eventually ripped off. FIFA say that are going to set up a bar code system that will allow ticket holders to enter certain numbers on an online website, which will then tell them if the ticket is valid for entry to the match that the ticket says.

It will not be the first time that England fans have been greatly ripped off if the authorities do not a grip on the situation very quickly. There were examples in Germany and South Korea of when England fans paid thousands of pounds in order to see a match and then were denied entry based on the fact that the ticket said the wrong staidum or a letter was out of place. In one instance a man even spent £20,000 on a fake ticket and had no way of getting his cash back.

Manchester United have warned Le Havre that they are ready and waiting to launch legal action against the French club if their complaint to FIFA goes any further. Le Havre complained to FIFA over the way that United handled the transfer of teenager, , in getting the player to actually arrive in Manchester.

Le Havre have alleged that the current Premier League champions made consistent and illegal approaches to the player’s parent sin order to get their permission to allow United to whisk the young man away to Manchester where he could not be contacted by any other club.

United have written to the French club and said that unless they provide full evidence to them that they will also put in front of FIFA than legal proceedings will start for damages against the club’s reputation.

United said: “In response to the wholly unfounded comments widely reported in the media of Le Havre president Jean-Pierre Louvel, Manchester United wish to categorically confirm that as a matter of club policy and in accordance with the applicable football regulations, we do not offer inducements to the parents of players who sign for the club such as monetary payments or the purchase of houses.”

“Manchester United have today written to Le Havre to put it on notice that action will be taken if such allegations are repeated in relation to the transfer of Paul Pogba.”

“Manchester United are entirely satisfied that the transfer of Paul Pogba has been conducted in accordance with the regulations set down by the world governing body, Fifa. We are ready to defend any claim brought by Le Havre at Fifa. It is to be noted that all contractual documentation relating to the player’s registration with the club has already been fully ratified by the Football Association and the Premier League.”

The news may eradicate the view in many football minds that United had approached the whole issue illegally. It does not suggest that they did any thing fishy when signing the player because it would be pointless to go to so much trouble hiring lawyers and representatives if they had actually done all of the things they were being accused of doing.

Le Havre have yet to respond but unless they can provide the evidence required then United would be well within their rights to proceed if the matter was not dropped by FIFA’s disciplinary panel.

AC Milan president, Silvio Berlusconi, has joined the bandwagon in launching an attack on the transfer policies of Spanish club Real Madrid. Berlusconi, also the Italian Prime Minister, believes that the figures being spent would mirror the expenditure of a small government and making for shocking reading on the outside.

It was from this very club that Madrid broke the transfer record to take Kaka to the Spanish capital. Only days after they then smashed the record they had just set in order to poach Cristiano Ronaldo away from Old Trafford meaning that they had spent an immense amount of money on the services of just two players.

Berlusconi is not alone in his views as a lot of people have already vented their frustration at the way Madrid have started to act this summer. Furthermore there will be a lot of organisations around the world e.g. health charities that will be furious that they are struggling to make ends meet and deal with the real problems in the world while a football club can spend a life changing amount of money on one player.

Berlusconi said: “These are figures in football that are pure madness. They bear no relation to the normal economy and it is beyond common sense and decency. (Kaka) I was the first to say he should stay, but we must consider our accounts.”

“Milan are a great team. We could even have won the title this year, but we played in the wrong way at times. I was the first to say that we conceded too many goals in the last few minutes.”

The only way for other football clubs to be able to compete with the financial muscle of Madrid is to spend big themselves. This is what has caused many pundits and other professionals in the game to call on FIFA to take action against the over spending. A budget system has been talked about before in the last couple of seasons but it takes spending like this to prompt these views to be noticed.

If a system was brought in then it would make it a lot fairer for other clubs trying to buy players that simply can’t compete with the financial power that bigger sides have. This power also increases the gap between the top sides and everyone else, making football less competitive and more stale in the respect that it becomes harder for clubs in other leagues to get into the best leagues and compete against the best sides and players.

Berlusconi is not the first person to come out and have a stab at Real Madrid and there will probably be a few more before the summer has finished. It is a sad situation when a club has to accept a transfer fee rather than stick with their morals and doubtless this spending will stick in the mind of the powers that currently control football. They have to do something smart and they have to do it very soon.

Real Madrid president, Florentino Perez, has angered hundreds of thousands of people by saying that those who are criticising the club’s spending so far this summer are ignorant and misguided. Real have spent nearly £140 million on two players so far this summer and his comments are likely to annoy many fans as well as hard working organisations that are trying to stamp out many global problems.

Perez’s comments also just go to show how far the Madrid top man is out of touch with reality and the lives of hard working people who cannot understand how a football club can spend so much money on players in an economic climate that is the worst it has been since the start of time.

Perez said: “I simply believe that it is a result of ignorance. This is a corporate project and some investments (in players) and those who see it differently are misguided. But time will prove us right and that’s why I am relaxed.”





It is fair enough that football clubs are businesses and in order to make a business profitable you have to invest, but the context of a player being labelled with a price tag so high is completely different.

Perez does not seem to understand that paying £80 million for one player will obviously draw with it criticism due to the fact that there are millions of people in the world who cannot afford to even have clean water or more than one meal a day. It is highly doubtful that these people or ignorant or misguided as too the organisations that campaign on their behalf.

His comments will also increase the gap between the Spanish club and all of those that were starting to have doubts over any alliegance they may have or the way they were meant to view the side. This could leave the club completely isolated from any other side in Spain or Europe, making cooperation in future transfers and other activity extremely difficult.




The Madrid president clearly needs to take a reality check because not every person in Spain has the billions to fall back on that he does. All he has to do is go around and have a conversation with any of the four million unemployed in Spain to realise why they think £80 million for a player is immoral.

When there are good honest people in the world who are struggling to make ends meet, they do not need to pick up a newspaper and read such comments, which will only add to infuriate them further. The ignorance that Perez is talking about will turn into irony in the minds of many that choose to read his comments, he could be equally branded just as this himself.

The spending won’t stop either. It is a global problem with the system of football that FIFA needs to do something about. Players are traded for stupid amounts of money and a capping system needs to be introduced. All of the big European clubs spend a lot of money on players but the people in power at most of those clubs also choose to keep their heads down and stay under the radar so they don’t go and anger the masses.

Liverpool manager, Rafael Benitez, insists that Argentine midfielder, Javier Mascherano, is not for sale at any cost. Mascherano was being touted for a bigger move to a Spanish football club such as Barcelona but with Liverpool looking to build their squad this summer, Benitez is quite right to brush off any queries for his services.

Mascherano heads the important role at Liverpool of being the holding midfield player that allows Steven Gerrard to break forward and join Fernando Torres in attack. This accompanied with the fact that Liverpool missed out on the sale of Gareth Barry means that if Benitez let Mascherano leave then he would not have an equal or better replacement to fill in his position.

Benitez said: “Mascherano has no price. Barcelona could not afford to match his value to Liverpool Football Club. We do not want to sell and Javier is very happy here. Walter told me that two clubs with big, big names were asking after Mascherano. I told him to forget it, that Javier was happy in Liverpool. He has a long contract and any club can forget about bidding for him. They can offer £40million or even £50m, we don’t want to sell.”

However, in a summer where money is quite clearly talking in football it could be a matter of time before the Argentine leaves if Barcelona declare their interest early enough. Liverpool’s European chances are clearly not the same as the Spanish club who have only just regained the European Cup. This could be a big factor in the decision the Mascherano eventually makes.

He is also the exact sort of player that Barcelona do not currently have. It could be argued that Barca do not need him but what he would do in the side would mean Andres Iniesta and Xavi could play for a lot longer as their roles would become completely attacking without having to worry about tracking back or defence.

For Liverpool they need to do everything they can to keep him. He has been an integral part of the success at the club in recent times and if they want to entertain any thought of moving forward then they must hang onto him. With Xabi Alonso also being strongly linked with a move to Real Madrid, the importance of getting Mascherano to stay doubles.

Another worry for Liverpool fans will be the wealth that Real Madrid have just pulled out of the bag and displayed. This is a Spanish club that aren’t even the best side in Europe and yet they can afford to spend £140 million on two players. It makes you wonder at the potential cash that Barcelona could whip up if they wanted to go for a certain player.

As the whole Cristiano Ronaldo saga showed, if a club offers big money for a player then the host club will most likely accept the bid and this story could well turn out the same. Until FIFA steps in to do something about it, money will continue to talk in football.

After watching the England vs Andorra game on June 10th and seeing an England goal called back for offside, I realized it’s still a rule that baffles many supporters. In fact, the offside rule in football has to be one of the most misunderstood rules in all of sport.

An offside call can lead to endless arguments between fans, coaches, referees, players, and even team mates. People all over the world often have difficulty coming to grasps with this law of the game. If the wording of the rule doesn’t confuse fans, the interpretation of it often does. In fact, this rule has undergone several changes during the history of the game to make it easier to understand and to try and promote attacking football.

Perhaps the best way to understand the offside rule is to first understand what isn’t offside. You can never be offside during a soccer game when:

• You’re not actively involved in the play
• You’re positioned in your own half of the field
• You’re carrying the ball yourself
• You’re shooting the ball
• You have been passed the ball from a goal kick, throw in, or corner kick
• You’re evenly positioned (parallel) to the second last or last two opponents
• You’re positioned even with or behind any teammate who passes you the ball

Now, let’s to try to understand the offside rule if we can. The laws of the game state that a player is in an offside position if they’re closer to the opposition’s goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent when the ball is passed to them. The key to this rule is when the ball is passed. It doesn’t matter where the player is positioned when receiving the ball, as long as they were onside when the ball was originally played. To put it into other words, if there is at least one opposing player (goalie) between you and the goal line, you’re considered to be onside as long as you’re even with the second last player.

For example, if you’re even with or in front of the last defender and there is a goalkeeper in net, you’re onside as the goalkeeper is the last opponent and the defender is the second last opponent. If you’re the only player between the ball and the opposing goalie when the ball is passed, you’re offside. Once you get behind the second last defender, you’re offside, so it’s important to stay level with him/her.

This rule gets somewhat complicated when the “active” player interpretation is brought into it. A player can be in an offside position but not be offside as long as they’re considered inactive. This rule was introduced by FIFA a few years ago as a way of promoting more offensive games and more goals. A player can now be in an offside position and not get called for it as long as they don’t interfere with the play, which means touching the ball. It may sound simple, but a player can also interfere with play by preventing an opponent from playing the ball, and by blocking the goalkeeper’s view.

If an official decides a player is interfering with play, the player will be called offside. If a player isn’t considered to be interfering in any way, they may be in an offside position without being called for it. In a case where an inactive player is in an offside position, they will be called active and offside as soon as they touch the ball as they have gained an advantageous position on the field unfairly.

Depending on whom you are and what your views are, some good news did come out of the recent FIFA get together that was held down in the Bahamas, and no, it wasn’t the resignation of boss Sepp Blatter.

FIFA’s congress has decided to take away the age limit on players who want to change national teams. What this really means is that any player who has dual nationality can play at any level for one country, as long as it’s not at the full senior international level, and then may decide to play for their other country.

Up until now, players had to choose either one nationality or the other by the time they were 21 years old. FIFA has now taken the age limit away after it was brought up by the Algerian Football Association. Most of the other African countries agreed, as did a few others, and the motion to change the rule was voted on and passed by 58% of the 205 football federations present.

It’s not really certain how many players will benefit from the ruling, but in the case of Algeria, many of their players head over to France and other European nations to play at youth level and once they hit 21, are stuck and unable to return home to play at the senior level for their or their parent’s birth countries.

I’m not really sure if it’s a step in the right direction though, or if it’s just going to stir up more controversy. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens when a player suits up for one nation at the under 17 and under 21 levels or higher and then decides to switch teams. I’m sure there will be some unhappy people when it happens.

Also FIFA president Sepp Blatter told the congress that enclosed fencing at football stadiums around the world needs to be taken down as football supporters shouldn’t be treated like criminals or animals. He added that football needs better security systems to deal with recent tragedies such as the deaths of 19 fans in the Ivory Coast. But he said aren’t really the way to go.

Blatter said that England, which just marked the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster when 96 fans died, has being one of the world’s leaders when it comes to stadium security as there are no more fences and the grounds are all seaters. He added that English supporters still cause trouble when travelling out of the country, but that it was a different matter.

Blatter wasn’t finished there, as he asked FIFA members to try and improve security outside of the stadiums as that’s where a lot of the trouble often starts. The Hillsborough tragedy took place when fans from outside of the ground tried to push their way into the stadium.

He also said hooligans needed to be driven out of football as they aren’t real fans, Well we all know that Sepp, but are waiting for a solution to get rid of them once and for all, but it appears nobody has one at the moment.

And last but not least, FIFA announced that it made a US$184-million profit in 2008 and also came in at 13% under its budget. They collected $957 million in revenue and had $773 million in expenses. Most of the revenue came from television and marketing deals for next year’s World Cup in South Africa. FIFA’s assets are currently listed at about $1.6 billion.

So while Blatter may not necessarily be a good football man, I suppose he’s at least a pretty good businessman.

There’s been a big fuss recently, well actually for a couple of years now, over the British presence in football at the upcoming Olympic Games in England.

The original idea was to have England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales unite to form one team, much like they did decades ago when they entered Olympic competitions.

However, it appears that Scotland, Northern, Ireland and Wales aren’t too keen about lacing up the boots with English players. These countries for some reason, seem to think they will lose their footballing independence with FIFA if they play under the name of Great Britain, or the United Kingdom, or whatever. Of course, England are sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place here as they are hosting the event.




So it seems England has invited the rest of Britain to join them, but have now come to the, “screw you, we’re playing anyway,” conclusion. And I can’t say I blame them. The argument against playing that is put forward by the rest of the nations does seem to be a bit far fetched. Does anybody seriously think for one minute that all of a sudden Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales will lose their spots with FIFA because of one Olympic tournament? It’s very unlikely my friends.

But anything’s possible with the incompetent FIFA, especially with Sepp Blatter in charge. He’s definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer, actually he’s one of the dullest. Still, let’s get real here. England isn’t worried about their independent stature and they are in the same boat as the rest of the nations.

I’m wondering if there’s something else behind the opposition to a united squad. Euro 2012 will take place just before the Olympics, but with Olympic teams being made up of under-23 players with a couple of oldtimers thrown in, I don’t really see this having a bearing on things, especially with British teams often missing out on Euro competitions. The Olympic teams are often made up of the country’s Under-21 squads.

One of the major problems here is FIFA‘s involvment in the first place. It should be a matter for the International Olympic Committee and none of FIFA‘s business. What goes on in the Olympic Games shouldn’t affect a team’s status with FIFA. They should be two separate things.

The current mess is exactly the opposite of what sport, and especially the Olympics should stand for. It has now become a political issue with overtones of money-making. There’s no way England wants to host the Olympics with no football representation as it’s the most popular sport in the land, let’s face it.

On the other hand, wouldn’t more money be made and more public interest be roused if all four countries were allowed to enter a team. Shouldn’t Great Britian ask the IOC for an exception to the rule here and seek permission for four teams?

It’s certainly a mess that has gone on long enough and I understand England’s stance here. We need a football team at the Olympics and if you don’t want to help out, we will go it alone. Unfortunately it will be under the banner of Great Britain and not England.

Argentina’s Diego Maradona punched the ball into the net in a World Cup game against England, FIFA referees are still blowing calls and games…and players are still actually thumping in goals with their hands.

Well, the brains behind FIFA, the game’s governing body, put their heads together on Feb. 28th to discuss a few changes to the rules, including extra referees. The board is thinking about adding linesmen at each end of the pitch to keep their eyes on fouls and diving in the penalty areas. If they do their job properly, which would be a minor miracle in itself, there would be fouls called on just about every free kick and corner taken, as players are literally pulling each other down in the box on every play.

This suggestion was seen as an alternative to video replays as both UEFA boss Michel Platini and FIFA’s Sepp Blatter see extra officials as a better solution than video replay for some inexplicable reason. These two geniuses say television replays will ruin the pace of the game with unnecessary stoppages.

Huh…what the hell are these guys talking about? Have they seen a pro football game these days? You’ve got guys doing triple and quadruple somersaults on the pitch, diving like Olympians, handing the ball off to three teammates before finally taking a throw-in, taking five minutes to set up a wall on a free kick, and making substitutions in the 93rd minute of a 90-minute game, and they’re worried about spoiling the pace of a game.

They’ve got to be kidding us. It takes about a minute at the most to watch a video replay and get the game going again. What takes longer, both teams surrounding the referee and arguing while he goes and checks on a call with his linesman, or checking a video replay at the side of the pitch? Isn’t this what the fourth official should be doing anyway, instead of arguing with the managers and taking verbal abuse all game long as they do now?

It’s no wonder more and more top flight managers are calling for replay to be implemented. You can now add Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink to that list as his team suffered through one of the worst refereed games in history last week against Barcelona in the Champions League.

Video replay is also the way to go morally, as football is a huge, billion dollar business these days. The main objective should be to make the right call. A mistake could be very costly these days. There’s just no logical reason why football shouldn’t join the 21st century like most other sports have done.

The problem with FIFA is the organization is way too arrogant and too big for its britches. FIFA says it is concerned for its officials, but if they really wanted to help them out and were as worried about their safety as they say they are, then why the hell don’t they help them out, either with more on-field refs, or video replay? Instead, FIFA just leaves its officials hanging out to dry, to take the abuse of fans and players and to ultimately receive death threats.

What a great, caring bunch they are.

It seems like 33-year-old David Beckham has made a fine impression over in Italy with AC Milan by scoring two goals in his first four games. Beckham is under a five-year contract to the Los Angeles Galaxy of the North American Major League Soccer, but it seems the Italian giants are trying to persuade him to stay in Serie A and are willing to pay a £4.5m transfer fee. But so far there’s been no deal.

Since England has spent tons of money on the new Wembley Stadium, they want to put the pitch to good use, so the country has officially submitted their bid for the 2018 World Cup to FIFA. The deadline for submitting bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups is February 2, and it’s believed that the USA is interested in bidding on both of them.

Wembley has been chosen by UEFA to host the 2011 Champions League final though.

It was chosen ahead of Munich’s Allianz Arena and Berlin’s Olympiastadion. Dublin’s Lansdowne Road will host the 2011 Europa League final, which is the new name for the UEFA Cup. In 2012, Munich will hold the Champions League final and Bucharest’s National Stadium will get the Europa League final.

Man United kept their grip on the top of the table with a convincing 5-0 drubbing of West Brom at The Hawthorns on Tuesday. During the game the team set a new top-flight English league record as it was their 11th consecutive game without conceding a goal and keeper Edwin Van der Sar broke Chelsea keeper Petr Cech’s record of going 1, 025 minutes without being beaten.

More news in the world of football includes West Ham signing German Under-20 forward Savio Nsereko from Brescia. Nsereko is only 19 and was actually born in Uganda. The player and club have hammered out four-and-a-half year deal

Transfers that you might just see in the next couple of days before the Feb. 2nd deadline comes include Manchester City manager Mark Hughes finally having his latest offer for 27-year-old Roque Santa Cruz of Blackburn being accepted. It’s reportedly up to £18.5m now. It seems City just can’t get rid of their money fast enough as they’re also trying to pry goalkeeper Shay Given away from Newcastle for £5m, so it must be burning a hole in somebody’s pocket.

And speaking of Newcastle, it appears that manager Joe Kinnear has a new soap opera on his hands as midfielder Charles N’Zogbia is crying because the Magpies manager mispronounced the 22-year-old Frenchman’s name in a TV interview. N’Zogbia insists he was insulted and would never play for Kinnear again. I say get rid of the baby. The club as also been busy in the transfer department by announcing the £4m signing of Bolton Wanderers captain Kevin Nolan. It’s believed the 26-year-old midfielder has signed a four-and-a-half-year deal and will fill the hole left by Joey Barton, who is out for 10 weeks with a broken foot.

Meanwhile Blackburn has paid Sunderland £2million for Senegalese striker El-Hadji Diouf.