TOP 100 SOCCER SITES
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| Hammers hold fire on sale talk West Ham United's leading shareholder CB Holding said they were in no hurry to sell their stake in the Barclays Premier League club if offers didn't meet their own valuation. foxsports.com.au |
Chivu injury sours Inter's battling win • Inter maintain lead with battling 1-0 victory at Chievo• Juve beat Parma as Lazio come back to thrash LivornoMario Balotelli's goal gave the league leaders, Internazionale, a winning start to 2010 but the fractured skull suffered by the defender Cristian Chivu soured their 1-0 victory at Chievo.Balotelli scored the game's only goal in the 12th minute to settle the contest before a clash of heads between Chievo's captain, Sergio Pellissier, and Chivu in the opening moments of the second half led to the Inter defender being taken to hospital.The victory moved Inter nine points clear of Juventus, who won 2-1 at Parma, and 11 clear of Milan, who were still to face Genoa this evening.An own goal in the 39th minute from Paolo Castellini helped Juventus, who were reduced to 10 men for the remaining 17 minutes of the second half, claim just their second win in seven games at the Stadio Ennio Tardini. The defender headed into his own goal after the hosts had failed to clear a corner.Hasan Salihamidzic had headed Juve into an early lead before the veteran forward Nicola Amoruso grabbed an equaliser for Parma, but they were unable to find another even after MartÃn Cáceres was sent off in the 73rd minute and slipped to sixth in the table.Cagliari scored in the 90th minute and again in stoppage time to earn a 2-2 draw and deny Roma the chance of moving up to third. A David Pizarro penalty and a Simone Perrotta effort had put the Giallorossi on course for all three points in the second half, but, not long after Luca Toni came on to make his Roma debut, Diego López pulled one back for the Sardinians and Daniele Conti then equalised.Napoli continued their push for European football next season by moving up to fourth with a 2-0 victory at Atalanta. Fabio Quagliarella scored the opening goal after seven minutes and Michele Pazienza made the points safe 13 minutes into the second half, as Atalanta dropped to 19th.Fiorentina won the Tuscan derby in style with a 5-1 hammering of bottom-placed Siena. Per Kroldrup, Mario Alberto Santana and Alberto Gilardino put the visitors in the driving seat in the first half before the returning Adrian Mutu and a second for Gilardino completed the rout. Massimo Maccarone's late penalty was barely any consolation for Siena.Bari won 2-0 at home to Udinese thanks to a goal in each half from Riccardo Meggiorini and Vitor Barreto. Simone Pepe came closest to levelling for the visitors when he hit the crossbar just before the break. Sergio Floccari made an impressive debut for Lazio by scoring twice in their 4-1 victory over Livorno.Martin Bergvold put Livorno in front in the seventh minute before Floccari, signed on a six-month loan deal from Genoa this week, stole the show. The 28-year-old levelled shortly after the restart and put his new team ahead in the 54th minute. The substitute Tommaso Rocchi and Aleksandar Kolarov with a penalty added further goals to make it a convincing win for Lazio. Livorno had Romano Perticone sent off in the 90th minute.Sampdoria came from behind to rescue a 1-1 draw at home to Palermo. Sampdoria had won just once in their last eight fixtures coming into this game and found themselves trailing to Edison Cavani's strike five minutes before the interval. Palermo's lead was short-lived, though, with Antonio Cassano providing the perfect response a minute later.Sinisa Mihajlovic saw his Catania side move up to third from bottom with a 1-0 victory over his former club Bologna. Nicolas Spolli scored the only goal of the game nine minutes from time.Serie AInternazionaleChievoJuventusParmaCagliariRomaLivornoLazioSienaNapoliAtalantaSampdoriaPalermoBariUdineseFiorentinaCataniaBolognaEuropean footballguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Pompey are paying the price of success The rest of the game has a serious lesson to learn from Portsmouth's fall from great deedsA new year, a new decade – but what will it bring for football? As much as I would like to be positive I can't help but advise that we proceed with caution. With everything going on at Portsmouth right now, I think the rest of the game has a serious lesson to learn.Who would have thought that playing in the Premier League, winning the FA Cup, and playing in Europe would bring such disaster? Unbelievably we are now paying the price for that success at Portsmouth. Late wage payments, severe debts, the threat of administration and relegation, ironically all of these problems can be traced back, in part, to our achievements.After we won the Cup I was told that one of our financial people predicted it would ruin us. They were right. The heavy bonus culture, endemic in our game, became the curse as the earnings of the Cup run did not tally up with the bonuses paid out. I'm a big fan of performance-related pay, but if it's not within the realms of reality then it's just irresponsible. No wonder the fans are upset. A lot of money came into the club via prize money and transfers and yet we're £60m in debt. I've been told by the club that they'll sit down with me and explain where it's all gone. They also said we'd get paid on time.Luckily we are blessed with a very strong changing room. Maybe it's because the group of players collected here have all experienced some kind of adversity through their careers. We seem to be dealing with it well as a group. But we shouldn't have to worry about transfer embargoes and non-payment, and all that peripheral stuff.I mention Portsmouth, in the context of the next decade, because I think finance in football will dictate the future of the game. The result could be positive – perhaps at last English clubs will invest in developing English players because in the long run it is the more economic solution. It is obvious that developing a player like Everton's Jack Rodwell is ultimately cheaper than buying him ready made off somebody else.But it may also make us more aware of who the real power brokers are in this game. For me that's the TV companies. They created the Premier League and their money is what sustains it. But as TV budgets shrink, so does the competition for broadcasting rights. If one company ends up with the monopoly will they still want to pay top whack for the privilege?I think TV money could dictate what happens to the game, and if that means shaking up the format and changing the rules that may happen. Look at darts, and now snooker. Those are sports that struggled and then became TV-savvy to jumpstart a revival. This may sound completely wacko – and it may not be for another 20 years – but I can imagine things like the substitutes rule changing.Imagine if we had unlimited substitutions – we could bring David Beckham on to take free-kicks, aged 40, and then take him off again as play restarts. Or someone like Jamie Ashdown, our reserve goalkeeper who is a fantastic penalty stopper, could be brought on for the crucial moments. Why not? It could lengthen the careers of older players, liven up the game, include more big-name stars in fixtures. It's not football as we know it, but it's a development. In order to survive in a market that's increasingly entertainment focused, this could be the way forward.What else might change? Personally I'd like to see an end to the transfer window. It creates pandemonium and forces up prices unnecessarily. Desperate managers make desperate decisions, often buying in the wrong players and paying over the odds for them. I'd like to see an end to Fifa's endorsement of 3rd Generation grass – it's rubbish, it creates injury problems for players and until they've come up with a 4th or 5th Generation version I don't think they should even consider using it in competitive matches.I'm convinced that by the end of the decade we will have goalline technology in place. It already seems overdue. But although the debate about video referees will run and run, I can't see that being implemented. Perhaps also we will see our first Indian or Pakistan-born player in the Premier League. That would be a major first, and could spark the subcontinent to develop more interest, and talent, in the game.The final missing part of the jigsaw would be to have a woman manager in the Premier League. Why not? We already have female referees, commentators, chief executives and physios. But if even England manager Hope Powell isn't being headhunted for the professional game, then I can't see it happening in the next decade.That's one taboo that remains stuck in decades gone by. Perhaps the only opportunity would be if a lower-league club would take a chance, and were successful. It could set a precedent for the rest of the game to follow. Whatever happens in the next 10 years, I do hope that prudence prevails. For the sake of the future of the game.Premier LeaguePortsmouthDavid Jamesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Fyfe red card overturned Adelaide United defender Iain Fyfe has escaped suspension after the A-League's match review panel found he was incorrectly shown a red card in the loss to Perth. foxsports.com.au |
German champion Wolfsburg fires coach Veh Defending Bundesliga champion Wolfsburg has fired coach Armin Veh after a nine-match winless streak in all competitions. cbc.ca |