May 31, 2008

As tactless acts go, sending over a letter to ‘request a price’ for Crystal Palace’s midfield superstar John Bostock takes some beating; especially if you throw in the fact that this letter arrived at Palace HQ the night of their second leg play-off tussle with Bristol City. The culprits were Spurs, but the focus of Palace chairman Simon Jordan’s molten rage is Bostock’s stepdad Mick Brown, who he has accused of engineering a move to White Hart Lane. Simon Jordan yesterday opened his cakehole and unleashed a top quality rant, he even managed to get a reference to the Usual Suspects in there:

“He [Brown] looked me in the eye on three occasions and categorically assured me that the boy wanted to stay at Palace.

“Then he tells me that a member of our coaching staff, some mythical Keyser Söze figure [a character from the film The Usual Suspects], told him that John wasn’t Neil Warnock’s type of player and that he’d no future at the club.

“That is a blatant lie. The man is a barefaced liar. It’s all about money, which is pitiful when it reaches the level of a 16-year-old. If John had wanted to join Tottenham then fair enough, just say so. Why did we’ve to go through the whole charade of his step-dad’s litany of lies?” (Guardian)

So is the step-dad a sly git, or is he just looking out for his step-son?

…as captain of the English team - believe it or not.The game is a friendly against Trinidad and Tobago and the purpose of the exercise is apparently so that the Football Association can secure the vote of Jack Warner for its 2018 World Cup bid.Figure that out.

Austria beat Malta 5-1 in a pre Euro warm up friendly.For those who still think that the Austrian team shouldn’t play - there’s a signature campaign going on over here….Signing on the dotted line means the following “It means you care about attractive football.It means you appreciate a blind pass that actually reaches its destination.It means you thoroughly enjoy amazing dribbling skills.It means you jump for joy when a free kick is expertly bent into the far corner of the goal.In short: it means you love this great sport for the sheer beauty of it.”And so on and so forth.The creators of the website believe that the Austrian team will never get warmed up enough to deliver that kind of football.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s plans to limit the number of foreign players in a team, otherwise known as the “6+5″ rule, received overwhelming backing at FIFA’s congress in Sydney on Friday.

His plans, which would see clubs allowed to field a maximum of five foreign players, are contradictory to European Union laws and Brussels has already warned of legal action against any country which allows this rule to be implemented. Many national associations, leagues and clubs also say the plan is unfair and unworkable.

Blatter is forging ahead with the idea “for the good of the game” and says he has the backing of the fans.    But does he? Would such a rule make it fairer for smaller clubs? Or would it lead to, say, Manchester United and Chelsea purchaseing all the ideal English players, or Real Madrid cherry-picking Spanish players for reasons of nationality rather than ability?

UEFA says its ”home-grown player” rule — which has the backing of Brussels — is a “more balanced” approach.

Under this rule, clubs would have to have in their squads at least eight locally trained players, defined as players who have spent three years with that club or a club in the same association between the age of 15 and 21, without any nationality conditions. 

UEFA says this will make clubs invest more in local talent and give any youngsters coming from Africa or Latin America better training and education.

Mike Collett writes in his analysis at our soccer website that Blatter’s plan is laudable but unworkable, while there’s another thoughtful piece over at Soccerlens. 

Elsewhere, Chris at Gooner Talk calls the idea ludicrous, Soccer Guru carries the headline “Sepp Blatter destroys Premiership” and there are far less polite comments around the Web.

What do you think? Is this merely a romantic idea that hasn’t a snowball’s chance in a world of soccer dominated by money? If it does go through, would it really benefit the game? Give us your thoughts in the comments.

PHOTO: FIFA President Sepp Blatter listens to a delegate on day two of the 58th FIFA congress in Sydney May 30, 2008. REUTERS/Will Burgess

May 30, 2008

What an impact the little Argentine has made in the Premier League since signing for West Ham. It’s strange to think that the Hammers struggled so much with him and Javier Mascherano in the squad, although it took both a while to settle in England and the latter didn’t play that much for his first English club.

Carlos Tevez has been tearing it up for Manchester United this season, scoring nineteen goals, although his Old Trafford future appears far from certain according to the Manchester Evening News. They report that fellow striker Wayne Rooney is desperate for the Red Devils to sign a permanent deal with his partner in crhyme, rather than continue to farm him out on loan.

“It is crucial to get him signed and I’m sure that’ll happen,” he said.

“Carlos loves playing football here, he’s enjoying it so I don’t see why it will be a problem.

“We saw him at West Ham what a great player he was and how hard he works for the team,” said the England international.

“I had no doubts that we could play together and from training with him when he first came you could immediately see the qualities he’d. I couldn’t wait to play with him.

“Towards the end of the season we didn’t play together a lot, but when we did, we did really well.”

Tevez scored a number of crucial goals for Man United last season, in particular the equalisers in the lleague at Ewood Park and White Hart Lane. Surely it’s a long shot that he’s going anywhere else in the summer?