• Italian, born 1946.
• A former midfield player for Roma, Juventus, AC Milan and Italy.
• Has managed Milan, Real Madrid, Roma and Juventus, winning the domestic league title with each of them.
• Now England manager, Capello has announced that it will be his last management role. His annual salary will be £6 million.

By all accounts, a good resume. But tell me, what does an England manager actually do again? Put up with the press. Get free tickets to a game once in a while. Collect a pay cheque for over 16 thousand pounds every day, and put a team sheet together now and then. There aren't the day-to-day worries of a domestic league team and you don't need to worry about the player fitness/wages because the club managers are looking after them. And there's absolutely no incentive to leave any sort of lasting legacy, like restructure English football from the lower leagues on up. Surely it's really just a two day a week job?

Tags: Fabio Capello, England, football]]> http://www.nimisis.com/posts/fabio_capello_cv Sun, 16 Dec 2007 10:52:30 GMT
African Cup of Nations 2008 in Ghana is only a little over a month away so I've made a wall chart (poster) in MS Excel format for those who like filling in the results into a spreadsheet whilst following the tournament. Download from Sport.omani.ac.

Tags: football, wallchart]]> http://www.nimisis.com/posts/african_nations_cup_wall_chart Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:01:46 GMT Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham) have decided to raise their ticket prices still further this season. They deserve to be named and shamed! It's interesting to note that after this first weekend of action, all three are in the bottom half of the table. In fact, Spurs and West Ham are in the relegation zone!

Tags: football, ticket]]> http://www.nimisis.com/posts/premiership_ticket_prices Mon, 13 Aug 2007 12:43:29 GMT Scenes of rioting during the ManU game in Rome last night are all over the back pages today. Seems like the hooliganism baton has been passed on from England to the Italians... Nutty.

As a side note, I just found out that the meaning of SPQR is "Senatus Populusque Romanus", or "the Senate and People of Rome". Modern Italians use a different expansion - Sono Pazzi Questi Romani. In French it's Ils sont fous, ces Romains - They're daft, these Romans, or, as fans of Asterix might prefer to say, "These Romans are crazy!"

Tags: football, Asterix]]> http://www.nimisis.com/posts/these_romans_are_crazy Thu, 05 Apr 2007 09:23:29 GMT
Naturally, as most games of football only see an average of 2 or 3 goals, one more or one less makes all the difference. There are times when it's too close to call and, whatever the decision, it leaves one team and their fans enraged. On the odd occasion, a clear goal is missed by only one person - the referee. Let's be honest, refs need all the help they can get.

How it works:
Sensors are placed inside the goal posts (or at least inline with the posts) and they determine where the ball is. They look for a chip inside the special "smartball", which is a football, except that its total weight, properties in the air, rate of spin, etc are no different to an ordinary football. The chip must also remain in the centre of the ball despite all the knocks it receives. The sensors look for the chip about once every millisecond and when a ball has crossed the line, the referee's specially made watch vibrates and/or makes a buzzing sound (or if I was to design it, dispenses a reasonably high voltage electric shock).

So let's bring it on! We've all had enough of the type of bitterness exemplified by the German football fans over World Cup '66.

Tags: football, technology, World Cup]]> http://www.nimisis.com/posts/goal_line_technology_coming_soon Tue, 02 Jan 2007 19:06:53 GMT against Paraguay, I've done another simulation on Pro Evolution Soccer 5. The result? England 1, Sweden 0. Clearly that's what's destined to happen. Oh, and Owen scores.

Tags: England, football]]> http://www.nimisis.com/posts/the_dellolio_code Mon, 19 Jun 2006 18:26:36 GMT
Drop Crouch - The most embarrassing moment for all England fans during this World Cup must've been when Peter Crouch (at 6ft 7in) tried to do an overhead kick in the Trinidad and Tobago penalty area. It still makes me laugh now. So he's scored five goals in four games, so what? With respect, any premiership forward can score a hat-trick against Jamaica (without missing a penalty) and the most recent goal should've been disallowed as he clearly fouled his marker Sancho by pulling his dreadlocks! The style of play has now become, hit a long ball and try to hit Peter on the head into the goal. It doesn't work.

Light a fire under Beckham - Now I don't think David should be dropped but for all the overhit corners, crosses and free kicks that hit the wall half way up (he hasn't scored from a free kick for over 3 years), there's a case for it...

Light a fire under Lampard - Frank! How many chances do you need? Three apparently are not enough, one of which provided by Owen. Had that been converted perhaps some of the heat from the press might've been taken off him...

Give Walcott a half - Let's see what he can do! This game versus Sweden is a chance to experiment. We don't need to win the game. Indeed, you don't have to win seven games to win the World Cup, (in fact, you can theoretically even lose one and draw two during the group stages). If he doesn't play in this game I can't see him playing in any.

Don't risk the yellow carded players - Again, no need! Here's the formation to try, with Carrick and Rooney the subs to come on for Hargreaves and Walcott.

Tags: Sven, England, football]]> http://www.nimisis.com/posts/this_is_what_to_do_sven Sun, 18 Jun 2006 12:05:42 GMT video archive of previous World Cup football matches. Re-live 30 40 years of hurt and watch past greats like Pele, Maradona and Mark Lawrenson.

Tags: World Cup, football]]> http://www.nimisis.com/posts/watch_world_cup_highlights Sun, 21 May 2006 13:07:17 GMT FIRA The Federation of International Robot-soccer Association is where all the best fooball playing robots can be found. Yes, robots play football too. They even have a World Cup!

Tags: football, robot, World Cup]]> http://www.nimisis.com/comments/comment_329 Fri, 14 Apr 2006 17:18:06 GMT