“The fortunes of the 32 teams competing in the World Cup will begin to take shape Friday when the draw for the 2010 tournament takes place in Cape Town, six months before the first ball is kicked in South Africa. Eight of the teams will be seeded and drawn into groups of four teams for the first round of play scheduled to begin June 11 in Johannesburg. In the past, earning a seed meant a team would avoid facing another seeded team in the first round of the tournament. But the rules and procedures can change from tournament to tournament.” (NYT)

“Once more, may I begin with a big fat apology for not updating the site in recent days? My reasons for this are twofold. First are the demands of a job that has turned out to be relentlessly energy sapping and sleep deprivating. Who would have thought that working in a school would be so challenging? I now know how Mrs Smog feels when she gets home in the evening and just wants to remove her brain and crash. The other excuse is that it’s just no fun covering Boro at the moment. I’m not trying to argue that there’s no interest in talking about a team that doesn’t win very often – if we all felt that way, MFC on the web would be a barren place indeed.” (Smog-Blog)

“We’re not saying these are the 10 best Kops in football – some of them are now long gone, some will probably disappear in the near future, and crikey – some Kop aficionado’s will be horrified that not all of them are built on hills in the traditional Kop way ! But they’re all worth knowing about…” (midfielddynamo)

“If you want to better understand the Premier League’s position on digital rights, go ahead and read Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore’s letter that was published in The Guardian last week on the topic of The Digital Economy Bill. The proposed legislation would kick accused, not convicted, file sharers off the Internet in the United Kingdom.” (EPL Talk)

“Originally, this article was intended to look at the reasons behind the complete lack of any managerial changes in the top flight of English football this season. But news emanating from Fratton Park on Tuesday 24th November confirmed Paul Hart as the first managerial casualty of the season, 101 days after the opening fixtures of the Premier League season.” (Just Football – Jaymes Monte)

“Before the FIFA World Cup of 1930, the Olympic Games football tournament represented the first organized attempt to stage a world championship. Even as early as 1908, that’s precisely what it was, featuring the United Kingdom, France, Holland, Sweden and Denmark. Only the withdrawal of Hungary and Bohemia before the tournament started prevent 1908 from boasting a full house of serious footballing nations of the time.” (James Hamilton)

“Nothing goes together like sports and gambling. Occasionally, the consequences of this for the integrity of sport are exposed: whether it’s Pete Rose or Bruce Grobbelaar or Hans Cronje or Matt Le Tissier, a high profile case briefly puts the issue back in the limelight.” (Pitch Invasion)