“In the autumn of 2003 I was in the press box at Stamford Bridge to watch Chelsea host Lazio. It was the Blues’ first season with Roman Abramovich cutting the cheques, while the opponents were, by that stage, a spent force. A few minutes into the game, Simone Inzaghi was tackled by John Terry. The referee waved play on, as the Italian striker continued to roll around and writhe in agony, real or imagined. Demetrio Albertini won it back and, seeing his teammate still on the ground, booted it out of play to allow the physios on. After a minute or so, Inzaghi was on his feet and Glen Johnson ambled over to take the throw-in. Angelo Peruzzi, the Lazio keeper, advanced to the corner of his penalty box with one hand in the air. Pretty unmistakeable. Lazio had put the ball out of play because Inzaghi was down; now they expected it back.” Sabotage Times

“Google and Apple may not exactly be the first names that spring to mind when looking for alternatives to challenge Sky’s dominance of sports broadcasting in Britain, but it should be no surprise that two of the giants of the tech and online world are eyeing up sport as a way to lure consumers into their new offerings. It was, after all, a key part of Rupert Murdoch’s strategy as he battled to establish his satellite broadcasting operation in Britain at the start of the 1990s.” Pitch Invasion

“Although the passion and fervour of match day can occasionally spill over into hostility, and the casual spectator may need to keep their wits about them at times, the atmosphere at big games in Turkey’s capital is unlike anything anywhere else in Europe, with a memorable show of colour and noise being whipped up inside the stadia several hours before kick-off.” World Soccer

“Refreshed and reposed after a break for Christmas, we’re back this morning with a double dose of Non-League Videos Of The Week. We have a couple of matches from the Blue Square Premier coming up a little later this morning, but we are starting off with five of Boxing Day’s matches from the Blue Square South. Leaders Woking have pulled clear at the top of the table, and they attracted a crowd of over three thousand people for their match against Farnborough, but the chasing pack were also in action and we have derby matches between Chelmsford City and Thurrock, Bromley and Tonbridge Angels, Dover Athletic and Eastbourne Borough and Welling United and Dartford. As ever, our thanks go to those that record, edit and upload these matches.” twohundredpercent (Video)

Non-League Videos Of The Week: The Blue Square Premier
“For the second part of our Non-League Videos Of The Week, we have two matches from the Blue Square Bet Premier Division. At the top of the table, Wrexham are continuing to hold Fleetwood Town at bay and, while Fleetwood had a Lancashire derby match at home against third placed Southport on Boxing Day, Wrexham, who are now owned by their supporters, made the relatively short trip to Shropshire to play another supporter-owned team, AFC Telford United, and over four thousand people turned out at New Bucks Head for the match. Our second match comes from the other end of the division. Ebbsfleet United recently announced that they need to find £50,000 to plug a gap in their finances. They are just above the relegation places at present and can sure up their position with three points from a home match against Hayes & Yeading United. Our thanks go to those that take the time to record, edit and upload these videos.” twohundredpercent (Video)

“‘Ella, Ella, Under my Umbrella’….just five days prior to our arrival in Poland’s third biggest city, those words has reverberated across the Stadion ŁKS as one of the most famous and sought after artists in the world, Rhianna played in front of a sell out crowd in the adjacent Atlas Area. One hundred and fifteen hours later, Danny Last and I were wrapped up like Michelin men outside the football stadium, huddled under a canopy, waiting to pick up our press passes from ŁKS Łódź . Now don’t get me wrong, I love Danny Last but he’s no Rhianna and so when he uttered the chorus line for the umpteenth time I told him exactly where he could stick his bloody ‘Ella’ and I wandered off in a huff to find some football socks for my collection.” The Ball is Round

“Four players (Orhan Pamuk, Naguib Mahfouz, Kenzaburo Oe, Barry Hines) on the New York Times writers’ XI violate FIFA statutes by wearing spectacles. Hines, Jorge Valdano and Eduardo Galeano press forward, treading lightly on a manicured wheat-grass surface embossed with words from Mahfouz: ‘We play to forget our sorrows.’ Nabokov studies lepidopterology texts when play switches to the other end.” The Global Game – March 2009

“As Barcelona’s Lionel Messi cruised by tens of million pounds’ worth of defensive talent and rolled the ball past Real Madrid’s sprawled goalkeeper last month, I found myself shouting, cavorting and – most important, this – demanding that the world should agree with me that the goal was pretty well as good as the one scored by another small Argentine, Diego Maradona, against England 25 years earlier. My companion that night did his duty and acceded. And that, I thought, was enough for a good evening’s football entertainment. But not a bit of it. Courtesy of Italian television, which is risible in all editorial matters except, predictably, football, I was able to listen to more or less all of Real Madrid manager José Mourinho’s press conference. (British television tends to cut quickly to the sludge of postmatch clichés masquerading as analysis.)” FT

The Football Men
“The great footballers and coaches are rarely glimpsed up close. They shield themselves from the tabloids, hide their personalities behind professionalism, and in the words of the cliche, ‘do their talking on the pitch’. This book gets up close to them. The Football Men is not a series of celebrity profiles, and it doesn’t attempt to unearth secrets in the players’ private lives. Rather, it portrays these men as three-dimensional human beings. It describes their upbringings, the football cultures they grew up in, the way they play, and the baggage that they bring to their relationships at work.” amazon

“So, the English Premier League will not be staging that dreaded 39th game overseas any time soon, which perhaps allows some of those grassroots fans to be thankful for something while they see the rest of their game being taken away. Chief executive Richard Scudamore certainly wanted to distance himself not only from his own failed idea but also from Scottish Premier League chief Neil Doncaster’s idea of taking the Old Firm abroad, which could be taken as simply a throw-away comment or a cheeky notice to Mr. Doncaster not to send him a holiday card.” twohundredpercent

“How many times have you heard that? At IBWM, we thought long and hard about compiling a comprehensive directory of the most exciting young players in world football. It is, after all, always good to have a handle on where the next global superstar is coming from, don’t you think? But we decided not to.” In Bed With Maradoma

“Football on TV was restricted to Match of the Day on Saturday and The Big Match on Sunday tea time. Occasionally, we were also treated to extended highlights on Sportsnight, presented by Harry Carpenter, during the week if there was an England game on or some FA Cup replays. Back then the football authorities were sensible. None of this “we need 10 days to sort out replay days” malarkey. It was as simple as “if we draw on Saturday, we replay on Tuesday”…and if that one is a draw then we will toss a coin to determine where the 2nd replay will be two days later (or on some instances the 3rd and 4th replays).” The Ball is Round

“A cold autumn mist seasoned with woodsmoke hangs over the stadium on what was no man’s land during Sarajevo’s four-year siege – the first Serbian machine-gun post was just behind the goal where the ‘maniac crew’ of Željeznicar Sarajevo sing and the electronic scoreboard now stands. Tonight, it shows a result of 2-0 in favour of Željeznicar against Celik Zenica in the Bosnian cup.” Guardian

“Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Etienne. The Englishman receives the ball inside the opposition half and embarks on a purposeful run towards the goal in front of the Tribune Charles Paret. He is with new company in unfamiliar surroundings but, with the ball at his feet, he is reassured to find that the sensations are the same. Defenders disappear in his slipstream before a body-swerve takes him past another opponent and into the penalty area. With one sweep of his right foot, a new chapter in his life begins.” Football Further

“Divided by the Nepliget park, city rivals Ferencvaros and MTK are the country’s two most successful clubs, winning every title from 1903 until 1929 between them, and boasting a combined total of 51 championships (28 and 23 respectively). MTK are by tradition a club with Jewish origins, while Ferencvaros – due to much of the anti-Communist uprising of 1956 taking place in the area surrounding their stadium – have a big right-wing following, so racial undertones now blight any game between the two teams. However, their intense rivalry is currently on hold as MTK were relegated at the end of last season and they now play in the second-tier NB II.” World Soccer

“It is a swift six hour drive along the modern, three-lane freeway from Tabriz to Tehran. Descending from the historic city, the driver traces the ridge of the Sahand volcano, where the tower blocks of Tabriz give way first to sparse, sandy villages, then to vast, empty dust plains. The journey skirts the eastern edge of the Angoran protected area, where wild boar and wolves roam freely in the grey, scudded hills. On arrival at Qazvin, an ancient city once razed by Genghis Khan, the traveller joins Freeway One for the final ninety minute run into the capital.” In Bed With Maradona

“Football ‘has always been‘, writes David Conn in The Guardian, ‘riven with contradiction between the amateur sporting principles of the game’s founding fathers and the professional carnival to which they unwittingly gave birth‘. This is undoubtedly true, and such a split is wider now than it has ever been. The chasm between the grassroots and the £100,000 salaries of celebrity players or £100 non-VIP tickets at the Emirates Stadium emanate from the popularity of the 1990 World Cup and the advent of Sky Sports soon after.” In Bed With Maradona

“The release of Football Manager 2012 is just weeks away, but we have a sneak preview of what the enhanced 3D Match Views will look like. As you can see from the above video, the level of detail that has been added to the 3D Match Views is quite substantial. That includes everything from improved stadiums, player injuries, animated player responses, better lighting and much more.” EPL Talk

“The 2011 EFW Oktoberfest will take place between October 20-24. Based in Prague, and branching out as far afield as Bratislava, forty or so fans of clubs from all around Europe will attend a festival of football, beer and giggles. Danny Last and Stuart Fuller put some meat on those bones……” European Football Weekends

“When a football club averaging just 350 regular fans plays its way into the European history books you cannot help but wonder how it has belied the odds against it. After frightening mighty teams such as RSC Anderlecht and CSKA Sofia in recent years its progression could be the catalyst for a generation of change both in its own fortunes and the league in which it plies its trade.” In Bed With Maradona

“Beautiful women, sweet oranges, 3000 tapas bars and Real Betis – that’s my kind of European Football Weekend. Forget your swimming with dolphins nonsense: a visit to the Estadio Benito Villamarín has been on my ‘things to do before I die’ list for years. Betis are a fun club; one with a fan base possessing an all important – to me anyway – self-deprecating sense of humour. Think Manchester City before the money started to roll in. It may have been the thick end of 40 degrees today, but that didn’t stop a mad Englishman and around 40,000 Béticos going out in the midday sun.” European Football Weekends

“When England took on Bulgaria in this month’s European Championship qualifiers the commentators mentioned the name of a little known Bulgarian striker of the 1960’s and remarked, “He was the Dimitar Berbatov of his day.” I can assure you he was far more than that. The name Georgi Asparuhov may not mean a great deal to a large number of people but in his native Bulgaria he was and still is a footballing icon. He was a talent of enviable proportions and a man of grace and humility but his untimely death robbed the world of his skills.” In Bed With Maradona

“Jamie Casey on why his enforced desertion of Armagh City is part of a wider problem affecting football both sides of the Irish border. The last time I went to watch my hometown team, Kevin Pressman was keeping goal for the opposition. It shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise, really, given that the former Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper was 39 years old and carrying even more weight than his usually plump self.” In Bed With Maradona

“Writing in The Guardian a couple of days ago, columnist Charlie Brooker bemoaned his inability to partake in the nation’s passion for sport, going through each major national pastime in turn and finding fault with almost every one. Football was quickly dismissed. He did not feel remotely like roaring with delight at the sight of a multimillionaire kicking a ball at a net.” Guardian

“This weekend sees the second Non League Day. With Engerland playing on Friday night and no distractions of the Premier and Football League, Non League clubs up and down the country are throwing open their gates to encourage those fans who have never really experienced real football to give it a go.” The Ball is Round

“It’s funny how these things start off. A casual conversation with Neil, my brother, after a Chester game and a few months later there we were, fanzines in hand, selling as hard as we could. It had taken us around four months to launch the first issue of The Blue & White and after all the work we had put into it, we were desperate for it to be a success. It all came down to a few hours of standing outside the Exacta, hoping it stayed dry and that people would be interested enough to buy it.” In Bed With Maradona

Peter Oborne: “David Cameron, Ed Miliband and the entire British political class came together yesterday to denounce the rioters. They were of course right to say that the actions of these looters, arsonists and muggers were abhorrent and criminal, and that the police should be given more support.” Telegraph

“I love football. No seriously, I do. And when I was little I loved Lego. Who didn’t. I was a very serious Lego builder. But I had rules. All of my constructions had to be in one colour. I couldn’t half finish a structure using a different shade, oh no. I would have to take it apart and build it smaller. I would spend hours sketching designs before building them, making my Dad take loads of pictures before knocking them down again. Nobody wanted to see a day old structure, irrespective of how good it looked.” In Bed With Maradona

“If there is one particular role within football that is analysed more than any other, it is that of the manager. So much of the culture of the modern game is wrapped up in the cult of the football manager that it would be easy to reach the conclusion that their value is over-stated, but when they get things right, they can set a club that may have been heading towards choppy waters towards, perhaps, a brighter future. One of the more understated success stories of the last couple of years or so has been the appointment of Owen Coyle by Bolton Wanderers. Coyle’s appointment wasn’t without a degree of controversy and the nature of the way in which he was poached from Burnley left a sour taste in the mouth for many. Bolton Wanderers supporters, however, may wish to reflect instead upon the extent to which Coyle has been a success on the pitch and how this has reflected upon the club’s well-being in a more general sense.” twohundredpercent

“There is a particularly notable passage in Friedrich Nietzsche’s book The Gay Science (a play on Thomas Carlyle’s The Dismal Science) which encapsulates much of his thinking in an arrestingly allegorical fashion. In it a madman rises in the early hours of the morning, lights a lantern and runs screaming into the local marketplace with great agitation.” The Equaliser

“I suppose that I’ve always been prone to pessimistic over-analysis, that’s just who I am, but the handful of weeks that have passed since I finished my educational career have given me far more time to occupy myself with the indulgences of introspection. Naked to the urgent winds of post-university reality, I have taken it upon myself to take a step back and look more fully at the tasks over which I regularly obsess. Needless to say, as I spend a great deal of my time writing (or at least attempting to do so), my activities as a blogger have not escaped close scrutiny.” The Equaliser

“In a more recent piece for the Financial Times, Simon Kuper informs us that top flight football clubs have rapidly turned the business of player evaluation into a quantifiable pursuit. As opposed to a more personal scouting scheme where a club manager might have to rely on whether the opinion of whomever he sent to watch whomever he’s watching is worth a flutter, instead a few statisticians can torture the mountain of numbers at their fingertips sufficiently enough to objectively assess a player’s potential value to his squad. Having read that piece, one might wonder why the Alex Ferguson who misinterpreted the stats on Jaap Stam made, what thus far appears to be, another error in statistical analysis when he signed Bébé without having seen him play.” twohundredpercent

“Here’s a quick one for you: what do Alexander the Great, Josef Goebbels, William Blake, and Keith Southern have in common? Their personalities and abilities are all combined within Henry Winter. Or Paul Hayward. Or Patrick Barclay. Or whoever else you care to mention that lives that dream, the important role of god of war – controllers of information, directors of foot-soldiers in the great struggle, inquisitors, commissars, and giants among men – the football journalist.” Surreal Football

“Each window provides big stories and the next few months will be no exception as teams across Europe prepare for intense negotiations and skullduggery from antagonistic rivals.” Sky Sports

“The English lower leagues are always fertile ground for Icelandic footballers. With a startling lack of supermarket puns, Football League archduke David Bevan reports on the season that was.” Stone by Stone

“When a football legend parts from the game either through retirement or death, ink splatters as tributes are furiously written to consider the man’s style of play, his memorable moments on the pitch, his connections with his fans, and his contributions to club and country. Even for an almost legend, debates commence over whether the player had been underrated, if he should indeed be a member in the pantheon of the greats instead of simply a distinguished guest, or what flaws he might have had as a player or person that prevented him from achieving truly legendary status.” twohundredpercent

“BAB has always represented one of the great mysteries of football sticker producers. Now, with the help of a website visitor, Mark, this website is proud to exclusively reveal at least part of the mystery. Bernard Babani began publishing technical books in 1942. In the late 1950s and early 1960s Clive Sinclair was an employee, and the author of some of their books on transistors.” Nigel’s Webspace

“The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) came into being after a walk in the park. That walk in the park occurred about 30 miles north of the Belorussian city of Brest, as the leaders of the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine formalised the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The alliance, signed on the 8th of December 1991, not only changed the landscape of eastern European politics but precipitated the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States Cup.” Slavic Football Union