“Recent comments made by Michel Platini have forced Tomasz Mortimer to look at the state of the game in Hungary. Troubling times lie ahead…” In Bed With Maradona

“Every once in a while, an individual comes along that just excels in their chosen profession. This isn’t an introduction to Leo Messi though, here’s Eric Beard to tell you more.” In Bed With Maradona

“Its December, which in my part of the world means that the snow is falling, the roads have iced over and its impossible to open an Airport, a school, or more importantly a football stadium. As a result, countless games have been called off up and down the country in Scotland and England to deal with the ‘danger’ of fans commuting to games and risking their very lives to follow their sides. Such behaviour leaves one to ponder, why can’t we have a winter break?” The Oval Log

“1. FIFA corruption. It’s been a long time since anybody thought of FIFA as a bunch of do-gooders, but this has been a damaging year for its reputation nonetheless. As Sepp Blatter’s merry troupe was courted by World Cup bidders, two members (Nigeria’s Amos Adamu and Tahiti’s Reynald Temarii) were suspended for offering to sell their votes, and the rest of the executive committee did nothing to quell suspicions that it was standard practice by giving the 2018 and 2022 tournaments to mega-rich, risky options Russia and Qatar, respectively.” SI

“Today I write about a country unlike our own, an ordinary sized country based in northern Europe of just over 9 million that defines itself with its beautiful countryside, over priced cities, and miserable weather. Yes I’m of course talking about Sweden. The land of the honourable Henrik Larsson, the not so honourable Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but perhaps more importantly, the land of an interesting football history.” The Oval Log

“Next year celebrates the 80th anniversary of the Cyprus Football Association. In 1931, football clubs from the Greek and Turkish communities on the island of Cyprus came together to set up the CFA. Of the eight founding members, 7 were Greek-Cypriot clubs – Anorthosis Famagusta, APOEL Nicosia, Olympiakos Nicosia, AEL Limassol, Aris Limassol, Trast AC and EPA Larnaca. Meanwhile, Nicosia-based Lefkoþa Türk Spor Kulübü were the only Turkish-Cypriot side in the inaugural Cypriot First Division.” In Bed With Maradona

“In the last 12 months we’ve suffered heavy defeats to Spain and Cameroon on an international level, while our clubs still have the problem of failing to advance past the early rounds in European competition – only Lech managing to buck the trend. Deciding to delve a little deeper, I wanted to take a closer look at 2010.” In Bed With Maradona

“Cypriot football’s story is more complicated then you could ever imagine. With the first of a two-parter, here’s Ryan Hubbard” In Bed With Maradona

“It wasn’t all fine wines and canopies at last nights NOPA awards. In between hobnobbing with Barry Glendenning, the chaps from the Football Ramble, Zonal Marking, Swiss Ramble and virtually all of Twitter, I managed to grab a few words with European football freelancer, Andy Brassell.” European Football Weekends

“2011 will be the year that dictates who will and won’t be going to the European Championships in 2012. Tomasz Mortimer is feeling confident that this might be a good twelve months for Hungary.” In Bed With Maradona

“A couple of weeks ago I was doing the translating when Dan Roan interviewed former Fifa president Joao Havelange at the Soccerex conference in Rio de Janeiro. Still entirely lucid well into his 90s, the Brazilian was asked what needed to change in Fifa. ‘Nothing,’ he replied. ‘It’s perfect. It’s not because of one fact in 50 years [a reference to the recent corruption scandals] that we have to change.’ It is impossible to agree.” BBC – Tim Vickery

“This week, the FIFA executive committee convened in the ‘House of Football’ a secretive, lavish and generally ostentatious layer nestled in the heart of Zurich, insulated from the public and out of touch with reality. FIFA welcomed the nine bid committees vying to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cups – England, United States, Spain/Portugal, Holland/Belgium, Russia, Japan, Australia, South Korea and Qatar.” Soccer Politics

“The Polish league has never really been an attractive one to those in modern Western countries with their modern football. For years, the Ekstraklasa was known only for it’s seismic corruption scandal (that has now been solved, hopefully), the few goalkeepers that made it to a better world and an international team that had their heyday in the 1970′s and 1980s’s. Were it not for the fact that Poland will co-host Euro 2012, you would, frankly, have little reason to pay any attention at all. But they are, you do, and since the games scheduled to see out 2010 have been postponed until February, it’s time for a mid-season roundup.” In Bed With Maradona

“The Baur au Lac hotel, a five-star palace on the banks of Lake Zurich, was the epicenter of The Game here this week: the final lobbying of the nine bids vying to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. As the official hotel of the FIFA Executive Committee, the 22 men who choose the World Cup hosts, the opulent Baur au Lac welcomed all manner of dignitaries this week, from former President Bill Clinton and David Beckham to Prince William and British Prime Minister David Cameron.” SI

World Cup 2018: The men who betrayed England and why they did it
“The morning after the night before, the shell‑shocked England 2018 chief executive, Andy Anson, shakes his head as he attempts to unpick why their core vote collapsed. “I still find it hard to understand what happened,” he said. ‘I’m not going to beat around the bush – individual members promised to vote for us and didn’t, clearly.'” Guardian

“Today, the talk of the soccer world is Barcelona’s sublime 5-0 destruction of Real Madrid. Come Thursday, though, for a brief moment at least, international soccer will grab the spotlight once again, as FIFA announces the hosts for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Political leaders and celebrities—from David Cameron to Elle MacPherson—from eleven prospective host countries have descended on FIFA’s Geneva headquarters for last-minute lobbying of the 22 executive committee voters.” The New Republic

Sepp Blatter
“As the World Cup (excuse me, the 2010 FIFA World Cup) was officially declared open last week amid great colour and emotion, one man in particular beamed with pride. That man was Joseph ‘Sepp’ Blatter, the long-standing President of FIFA, whose bold decision to award the most prestigious competition in world football to South Africa had paid off – in every sense of the term.” (The Swiss Ramble)

Panorama: The Righi Programme at the Right Time
“Have we completely missed the point? I watched investigative journalist Andrew Jennings’ Panorama programme on extensive bribe-taking among high-ranking FIFA executive committee members (unlike England 2018 bid chief Andy Anson, it would seem). So I find it hard to imagine that any of those named would vote for England to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and I doubt whether England will ‘get’ any World Cup in the lifetime of Sepp Blatter or his fellow-travellers in the FIFA hierarchy – present and future.” (twohundredpercent)

“Good evening and welcome to the 2010 AFR Website Award ceremony. Granted, it’s not an actual ceremony – we don’t have the financial finesse of an injured striker picking up £150,000-a-week for holidaying in the United States, and so the idea of renting a hall, hiring a DJ, and providing drinks and food sends shivers through our pockets.” (A Football Report)

“The broadcaster Mark Chapman once said that homophobia is football’s last taboo. The truth in his words has been evidenced by two recent controversial incidents in the European game. The president of the Croatian Football Federation, Vlatko Markovi, said that homosexuals are not permitted to play for the national side, mirroring comments made by former Croatia manager Otto Baric in 2004. Villarreal striker Giuseppe Rossi was also criticised for using the word ‘homo’ on Twitter and, like Markovi, he apologised for his comments. The biggest concern, though, is that such an apology in other European countries would be seen as a major breakthrough in tackling homophobia.” (In Bed With Maradona)

“Diving. Or simulation to use its FIFA approved name. Ask any player, manager or fan in the country and no doubt they’d tell you that they hate it, that conning a referee is never acceptable and that they don’t want to see their club benefit from flagrant cheating. Yet watch any match, from grassroots pub football to the World Cup, Premier League, La Liga, and you will see players accuse each other of feigning contact, referees booking players who they feel have dived and supporters getting angry that the opposition are cheating scumbags who should be in a swimming pool rather than on a football pitch.”(mindgames)

“‘Please accept my resignation. I wouldn’t belong to a club that would accept me as a member’, said the telegram that Groucho Marx in his famous telegram to the Friar’s Club of Beverly Hills, and the Football Association must be inwardly feeling the same as Marx with their admission that recent press revelations into the behaviour of various senior FIFA delegates has had an extremely damaging effect on their bid to host the 2018 World Cup. The FA had apparently at first thought that they had managed to escape the ire of those at the top of the world’s governing body over the revelations made by The Sunday Times, but with an edition of the BBCs Panorama on the subject also due to be shown before the vote next month it is now widely anticipated that the award will go to Russia.” (twohundredpercent)

“I read a statistic the other day which gave me pause for thought: Russia, the world’s largest country by area, takes up approximately 11.5% of the Earth’s entire land mass. Actually as a journalist covering Russia I’ve have to learn by rote a good number of shorthand statistics to express the country’s size. 7,500 kilometres from East to West; a ten hour flight from its Baltic to Pacific coasts; nine time zones (thought it used to be eleven until earlier this year).” (The Football Ramble)

“So today and tomorrow, in Zurich, FIFA are discussing what – if anything – to do to rescue the reputation of its World Cup bidding process, a process which has descended very publically into the pettiest of playground squabbling in the couple of weeks since The Sunday Times first called its integrity into question with its allegations of cash-for-votes. I expect they’ll do the absolute minimum they think they can get away with – which might be as little as nothing, but will probably involve some token gestures, possibly including the delay of the 2022 vote until sometime next year.” (twohundredpercent)

“Mexican striker Javier Hernandez stole the Monday morning headlines following his match-winning brace for Manchester Utd against Stoke City but things aren’t so rosy back at his old club Guadalajara Chivas. Sunday’s ‘clasico of the clasicos’ against bitter capital city rivals America ended 0-0, the second half of which was at times exasperating to watch. The clash pits the all-Mexican, provincial ‘people’s club’ from second city Guadalajara against Mexico City’s America, whose name alone alludes to intentions of grandeur.” (WSC)

“When Ottmar Hitzfeld was the coach of Borussia Dortmund back in the 1990s, he admitted that defeat would prompt him to sink into a two-day depression. It’s hardly surprising when you consider that being a manager (to use the British term) is the most demoralising job in football. You stand on the sideline, impotent to influence events other than through gestures and calls. And when your team loses, you end up taking most of the blame.” (WSC)

“The latter qualifying round stages of the FA Cup have a habit of rather creeping up on us. One week, village teams are playing each other in front of a handful of men and their dogs, but before you know it there is something altogether more significant at stake. This weekend it’s the Third Qualifying Round stage, and everybody involved this weekend has something to play for. The relative giants (and it is relative – Luton Town or Darlington, say, look like goliaths on the horizon if your club struggles to bring in a three figure crowd on a regular basis) of the Blue Square Premier enter the competition in the final qualifying round, and the winners of this afternoon’s matches also pocket £7,500 – a tidy sum for a small club, and on top of that lies the opportunity to profit still further from involvement in the next round, at least.” (twohundredpercent), (The Football Association – Video)

“It’s incredible to think of all of the enhancements that are made to Football Manager year after year. The game becomes closer to real life football management with each release. And now we have a sneak peek of what will be featured in Football Manager 2011 which will be released before the end of 2010.” (EPL Talk)

Football Manager 2011
(Football Manager)

“It was supposed to be a friendly game. One team, led by the president of Boliiva, Evo Morales, versus a team led by a political foe, the Mayor of La Paz, Luis Revilla.” (npr)

“FIFA 11 reinvents player authenticity – on and off the ball – for every player and at every position on the pitch with Personality+, an all-new feature that sees individual abilities reflected in game, enabling clear differentiation for every player.” (EA)

The twohundredpercent FIFA 11 Review
“Football games on consoles. FIFA vs Pro Evolution Soccer. There was a time when it was all so much easier than it is now. EA Sports had spent all of the money for FIFA on the licences and seemed to have very little left over for the game itself. Konami, on the other hand, knew that with Pro Evolution Soccer, if you wanted something that felt like the real thing, you would put up with Merseyside Blue playing against Connaught. With the seventh generation – the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 – of consoles, however, the balance tipped dramatically in the other direction. Pro Evolution Soccer stood still, while FIFA 2008, FIFA 2009 and FIFA 10 made quantum leaps in terms of the actual game-playing experience itself.” (twohundredpercent)

FIFA 11 – Demo Impressions
“It’s that time of year again football fanaticos. It’s FIFA time. Europe’s top leagues are now all underway and the transfer window has just slammed shut. The World Cup is now nothing but a memory, and a great one at that. While fans get used to their favorite European club’s new players and lineups, this time of year is full of hope, ambition, and potential for soccer fans the world over. There’s only one thing missing: an up to date FIFA!” (mmomfg)

FIFA ’11 Features You Won’t See
“It shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of our super-secret-sources has given us the heads up about some of the features that DIDN’T make it into FIFA ’11. So when you put your brand spanking new copy into your PS3/Xbox today, you can think about what could have been.” (Cheeky Chip)

FIFA 11 – Arsenal vs Real
(YouTube)

“Football management is an extraordinarily harsh business. Managers are judged in the harsh glare of the public eye, with debate over their shortcomings often being led by those that shout the loudest, regardless of whether those doing the shouting are right or not. Many people that we might have expected to be very effective managers have fallen at the first hurdle, and many of them have not been given a second chance. It feels extremely doubtful that the position of manager of a football club could be beneficial in any way for the wellbeing of an individual that has suffered from alcoholism or is understood to have mental health issues.” (twohundredpercent)

“When you watch football you hope that the game flows, the referee knows what he/she is doing and there’s nothing really hideously unfair going on. That’s what FIFA are there for – to make the game better; like stopping the keeper picking up back passes or allowing a player who’s offside not to be offside, if you know what I mean. So why then haven’t they sorted out penalties? If ever there was a case of the punishment not fitting the crime, this is it. Something barely discernible happens and before you know it the game’s turned on its head.” (WSC)

“The latest FIFA World rankings are out with Spain on top followed by the Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, and Argentina. There are a few changes but not many as the top 20 teams remains about the same. The major move is Slovakia who are now 16th after jumping 11 spots.” (The 90th Minute)

Wassily Kandinsky, Project for Yellow, Red, Blue
“The beauty of football is that it is essentially a subjective pastime, it can be as simple or as complex as the individual wishes it to be. There is no one way to watch football, no template for interpretation, no defined set of behaviours to adhere to. Football can be mathematical, it can be scientific, it can be poetic and it can be abstract. The same simple action can be delineated in a multitude of ways, each as improbable as the last.” (The Equaliser)

“In no small part, the print media and the film and music industries both made the same mistake with the arrival of the internet. They both reacted to slowly at first to the new technology and both are repenting their tardiness at their leisure. The print media have been unable – yet – to find a method that successfully been able raise revenue from the shift to online viewing (and the silence from The Times after their paywall went up would seem to indicate that the numbers probably haven’t been spectacular, although Rupert Murdoch has described them as “strong”), but how will football, which has been happily wedded to television for the last two decades or so, react to changes in viewing habits?” (twohundredpercent)

“In some strange turn of fate, Swedish channel SVT1 decided in early 2009 that it would behoove their nation to get a glimpse into Martin Hansson’s run up to the World Cup just finished. One year under the camera’s glare for a look into the life of Sweden’s best referee. You’ll know, of course, of the sharp turn the focus took in the late fall, when Thierry Henry handled the ball which became the goal which sent France to South Africa at the expense of Ireland. What was a simple documentary became a year in the life of the man who oversaw one of the biggest botched calls in recent footballing history.” (World Cup Blog)

“After a defeat at Staines Town in their opening Blue Square South match of the season on Saturday afternoon, the real test followed for Lewes this evening. Tonight’s match against Thurrock wasn’t merely their first home match of the new season. It was the first test of a brave new world, the first chance to see if they have a chance of stabilising their club under new management.” (twohundredpercent)

“The World Cup thus far has been less about the Beautiful Game on the field and more about the inexplicable refusal of Sepp Blatter and his clan to uphold FIFA’s own Fair Play Code of Conduct. In the wake of recent controversial decisions (or indecision – you make the call), the pressure is mounting on FIFA to stop making nonsensical excuses and step into the 21st Century and embrace the use of technology by game officials.” (Nutmeg Radio)