18 entries found with tag football.

Euro 2008 wall chart

Noticed in Switzerland last week that everywhere you looked there were posters for the upcoming European football championships. So I guess it's not too early to bring out the MS Excel spreadsheet for the tournament. All the fixtures are listed and group standings are calculated as each goal is scored. Download from Sportomaniac.

Tags: football, wallchart, Euro 2008

Fabio Capello CV

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?

Related: Fabio Capello, England, football

African Nations Cup wall chart

Update (11th Jan): Fixed a few errors.

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.

Premiership ticket prices

As if football tickets weren't expensive enough already, three teams in the English Premier League (Manchester United, 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

These Romans are crazy!

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!"

Related: football, Asterix

Goal line technology... coming soon?

Over 80% of football fans are in favour of it and it's going to be trialed at the 2007 FIFA World Club Championship - so will goal line technology be here to stay? I thought I'd do a bit of research on this and share that here.

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.

See also: football, technology, World Cup

The Dell'Olio code

England's record against Sweden is pretty awful, is this due to some global conspiracy? Will Sven go all out against his home country? Will we be playing Germany in the next round? Well, like 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

This is what to do, Sven

Seeing Poland lose to Germany in the last minute was, well, a swift nut kick for the Poles and despite not having the heat and absence of Rooney to blame, Sven Goran Eriksson almost dished one out himself on England last thursday. At the risk of sounding like Mark Lawrenson, here's what you want to do, Sven.

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...

england team 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.

Related: Sven, England, football

Watch World Cup highlights

The BBC have a free 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.

Football World Cup 2006 Draw

The groups have been decided!

World Cup groups

Which group is the "Group of Death"? I think it's Group C...

[18:00][remarks 1]

Some great video clips

Ski jump gone wrong.
Lucky basketball shot.
Swerving free kick.
Awesome table football skills.

South Africa

Question: Where in the world can you see 100 football matches being played in one place on one day?

Answer: Hackney Marshes, NE London. There you'll find no fewer than 87 full-size football pitches. Tomorrow I'm going to be playing there so before I head off for an early night let's get something down for Sept... My slackness is probably due to this festival of sport we've had recently and I've been caught right up in it. We've done pretty brilliantly. Two wins in the football, a massacre in the rugby and a drawn test series in the cricket. Not a bad effort. Must say though that in the cricket had we been playing away in South Africa it might've been a different story. I still remember going on tour there and us not winning a single game... <reminiscing> It was still a great tour though. If you've never been to SA it's well worth going. I remember seeing some of the guys in the national teams of SA (including Mr Cronje) and Oz (including Mr Warne) by chance in our hotel at Port Elizabeth. Durban's very cool, so was the Waterfront at Cape Town and so was Stellenbosch... actually all of the Garden Route was great - apart from a dodgy braai here and there... But now I'm rambling! Clearly I need a holiday. Must go back one day, Ja!</reminiscing>

Related: football, London

Come on West Ham! You can do it. Yes, although you might need an electron microscope to see the straw I'm clutching, I still think they can stay up. Wouldn't you rather Leeds go down?

Bend it like Ferguson

All this fresh air I'm getting on my suburban walks into work has given me a cold. I'm over it now though, 40 min walks are a bit of a shock to the system but it's actually really nice. Lots of posh houses around here and often not a single other person to be seen. I saw a fox yesterday and that was about it. Just walking isn't enough exercise though. I'm looking forward to a bit of football this weekend. I'm going down to Eastbourne for an Alpha weekend. I've only got white astro shoes though and I hate white football shoes. It's a clear sign of the person's ego I think. Shame most of the England football team wear white football boots. May explain why we can't even beat Australia!

Related: football, Ferguson

This is so insightful.