Didier Drogba had initially kept matters serious when asked about Bayern Munich manager Jupp Heynckes' accusations of him as a player who 'acts' too much on the pitch. However, the departing Chelsea striker has now comically turned the tables such that the joke is on Heynckes.

It was widely assumed across the English media that Heynckes' comments ahead of the UEFA Champions League final between the two sides were intended to derail Drogba's focus.

Bayern Munich have responded to Wesley Sneijder's accusations that the club has not been supportive of Arjen Robben following his penalty miss in the Champions League final defeat to Chelsea, particularly since the winger was jeered by some fans in a home friendly against Netherlands.

Tuesday night's exhibition match saw Bayern's Robben don his national team colors and every time he touched the ball, sections of the crowd voiced their disapproval by whistling at him.

Real Madrid winger Royston Drenthe, currently on loan at Everton, has made the surprising claim that Lionel Messi called him "negro" in a derogatory manner on multiple occasions in the past. Perhaps prompted by seeing Liverpool's Luis Suarez get hit with an eight-match ban and £40,000 fine for using the same word against Manchester United Patrice Evra earlier this season, Drenthe has now made his accusations to the press some time after the incidents allegedly occurred.

Forget player training camps or Platini's excursion to the chocolate factory, the UEFA Referee Workshop is the most important activity before the EURO 2012 kicks off next month. For the next two days, 11 of the world's top referees including Viktor Kassai, Wolfgang Stark, Carlos Velasco Carballo and Howard Webb (we can read your faces through the screen right now) will be in Warsaw, Poland to attend workshop asnd training sessions.

Blackburn Rovers fans have spent all season trying to get rid of the club owners who they blame for Steve Kean, Alan Shearer leaving and the rising cost of petrol. They wave their banners, they chant You Don't Know What You're Doing then they rush to get the bus to get home in time for tea.
Persib fans recently decided they had tired of Persib manager Umuh Muchtar, known in these parts as Um-Mourihno.

Racing Santander became the first team in the Spanish Primera Division to be relegated after a 3-0 defeat to Real Sociedad on Saturday. Racing went into the game knowing that a win no matter how how vital, would not keep them from escaping the relegation axe.

After 34 matches, Racing were at the bottom of the league standings having only garnered 26 points.

Real Madrid right-back Sergio Ramos has hit back at suggestions that yesterday's Champions League elimination to Bayern Munich was a sign of a massive collapse on both an individual and team level.

Two Cristiano Ronaldo goals within the opening 14 minutes put Real in the driving seat with a 3-2 aggregate lead, only for Arjen Robben to level the scores by converting a penalty won by Mario Gomez before the end of the first half.

Following a series of incidents that have drawn accusations of blatant diving and scorn from fans around the world, Manchester United winger Ashley Young has admitted failure in his attempt to design rocket-propelled football boots.

"When I joined Manchester United, I knew I had to improve my game," Young told reporters.

By Alan Duffy

Former Newcastle United schemer Emre Belözoğlu (above left) is at the centre of yet another racism storm after Trabzonspor midfielder Didier Zokora accused the Turkish star of racially abusing him during a league clash with Fenerbahce at the weekend.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has admitted that he should have handled the Luis Suarez racism row differently.
The Uruguayan was banned for eight matches after being found guilty of racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra during a Premier League match in October.
The Liverpool manager defended his striker staunchly in the face of the accusations, maintaining Suarez had done nothing wrong.

Activists took over the UEFA EURO 2012 page on Wikipedia.

Remember the Howling Football that was meant to raise awareness for animal protection ahead of this summer's EURO 2012 in Ukraine and Poland? Well activists/hackers (do people that change Wikipedia pages qualify as hackers?

Swiss charitable organization Solidar Suisse has launched a campaign targeting FIFA's habit of holding World Cups that saddle a country with debt while they profit. The campaign includes the video above, which shows a nightmarish fake Sepp Blatter dancing to a parody of Michel Telo's "Ai Se Eu Te Pego.

The plans for an official hotline that will allow whistleblowers to report match-fixing to FIFA is also being proposed to allow reports of corruption among FIFA executives, as well. With enough corruption and bribery accusations to fill a timeline last year, the fact that this proposal now being pushed isn't a surprise.

Hong Kong youth side ESF Lions had a grudge to settle going into their match with rivals Kitchee Escola, having lost the previous encounter 16-0. The bad blood wasn't helped when one of the Lions earned himself a trip to the police station — and the starring role in a race scandal — by delivering a fairly unsubtle kick to the head of an opponent who had suffered a bad tackle.

Every once in a while, every person experiences an event that can only be termed life changing. I've been fortunate to have experienced a number of such moments that have shaped me into who I am today. I doubt too many of you reading this have heard the names Susan Koch or Jeff Werner. I hadn't either, three years back.

South African Premier League club Platinum Stars have suspended manager Owen Da Gama and launched an independent investigation into allegations that he made his players pay him in exchange for playing time. Da Gama, who won the Coach of the Season award and a league cup in 2006 during his first stretch as Platinum Stars manager, will be called as a witness to defend himself in front of the independent team.

Martin O'Neill disputes criticism that his Sunderland side were 'dirty' in the weekend's derby against Newcastle United. Martin O'Neill has been responding to accusations that the mackems are a bunch of dirty, fouling thugs whose only aim was to kick the opposition of the park on Sunday. Some of those accusations were at least insinuated [.

If one had made a list before the season began, ticking off the players most important in determining the success or failure of Liverpool's campaign, most would have gone through the same five names: Pepe Reina, Daniel Agger, Lucas Leiva, Steven Gerrard, and Luis Suarez. Of those five, three are injured and one is horribly off-form as the club head into their most important league match of the season against an Arsenal side seven points ahead in fourth place but with Liverpool holding a game in hand.

Lionel Messi scored his first international hat trick in Argentina's 3-1 win against Switzerland on Wednesday and he is crediting the breakthrough to the intense hatred football fans have for FIFA's Swiss president, Sepp Blatter.

Though Messi has scored six hat tricks for Barcelona this season and a total of 13 over the last three years for the Catalan club, he had never been able to score three goals in one match for his country.

Very interesting revelations from Ghana coach Goran Stevanovic on the main reason why the Black Stars failed to win the AFCON are emerging. According to Stevanovic, the heavy use of 'juju' greatly affected the team during the tournament.

Ghana along with the Ivory Coast and Senegal was one of the favourites who were hotly tipped to win the AFCON, however, a shock quarter final defeat to Zambia ended their hopes of winning a fifth title and first since 1982.

It has, as many of you will already be aware, been a long few months for the supporters of Kettering Town Football Club. During this period, their club has been uprooted to the former home of their defunct former local rivals, they have been promised the earth and have seen only the delivery of unpaid bills and an uphill battle to avoid relegation from the Blue Square Bet Premier.

Alright, here is what we know from various media sources. Tyler Deric and Warren Creavalle were both arrested on Saturday night outside the Roosevelt Lounge. Deric was charged with assaulting a public servant (an off-duty police officer) and Creavalle was accused of interfering with public duties (interfering with the officer).

The Bundesliga title race keeps getting more interesting each week. Yesterday, the chasing pack of Schalke and Borussia Mochengladbach who were just a point behind leaders Bayern heading into this weekend's games were both held to draws that saw them lose ground in the title race.

However, the shock result of the weekend was Bayern's 1-1 home draw with Hamburg.

Messi coverboy on Time Magazine (Photo: Time)

TIME COVER: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH LIONEL MESSI
This week's international edition of TIME features football star Lionel Messi on the cover with the title, "King Leo." In an exclusive interview with TIME's Bobby Ghosh, the Argentina native and FC Barcelona superstar speaks to TIME about handling criticism from his fellow countrymen and how he still has room to improve his unreal skills.

Liverpool say they expect to earn a staggering £300m through their new six-year deal with the US sportswear company Warrior Sports, and have denied accusations that underachievement on the pitch led to the collapse of their current kit deal with Adidas.
Warrior, owned by New Balance, will become the club's kit supplier from June having agreed a £25m-a-year deal to enter the football industry for the first time.

If you've got a moment or two to spare might I point you in the direction of The Away End?
They're on the lookout for the 100 greatest Scottish league players of all time.
That is the best players - of all nationalities - to have graced league football in Scotland over the decades.

When it was first announced that Thierry Henry would be returning to the club, as an Arsenal fan, it was always going to be impossible not to get excited about the move.

Some people however, were quick to criticize the deal, stating the 34-year old forward was "past it" and this was just another "desperate" signing by Arsene Wenger.

Guardian: Kenny Dalglish: It's rubbish to say Liverpool are not fighting racism

• Luis Suárez T-shirt stunt was 'interpreted wrongly' • Liverpool 'will always support' battle against racism Kenny Dalglish has said that it is "utterly rubbish" to suggest that defending Luis Suárez against racism accusations showed Liverpool are not interested in fighting racism.

Suarez sorry but reiterates he used the word once

LUIS SUÁREZ has issued another statement following on from his decision not to appeal the eight-match ban issued by an independent commission after it found an FA charge against him proven. In this latest statement he says he apologises if his use of a certain Spanish word offended anyone.

You have to love the drama of matches in the highly-competitive Premiership competition. And over the holidays we had drama a-plenty: massive upsets, last-minute victories, players too hung-over to train and so fined a week's wages, accusations of players' plots...

Sir Alex Ferguson has implied his indifference at the way in which players and staff at Liverpool has conducted themselves in the aftermath of Luis Suarez being handed an eight-match ban following alleged racist comments towards Manchester United left-back Patrice Evra.
Suarez was handed the punishment at the start of last week after a rather tedious few months of allegations and accusations.

Blind loyalty at Liverpool and Chelsea will not help beat racism | Ian Prior

Football has fought a long campaign to fight prejudice in the game, but the reaction of two clubs to recent allegations has been shortsighted and damaging The pictures above were taken less than five months apart.

Liverpool striker Luis Suarez has lamented the 8 match ban and £40,000 fine the FA handed him for his racist slur towards Manchester United defender Patrice Evra.

Suarez who still maintains his innocence was quoted as saying that the guilty verdict handed to him by the FA marked a 'very difficult and painful day' for him.

Carl Markham has written an article for The Independent in response to Luis Suarez being found guilty of making racist remarks to Patrice Evra.

The FA report: "The two witnesses who say they heard those words directed by Mr Bethell at Mr Evra are the Manchester United first team coach Mr Mike Phelan and the goalkeeping coach Mr Richard Hartis.

England's Football Association has sent Liverpool striker Luis Suarez quite the message.

Suarez was handed an eight-game ban and fined £40,000 after the FA found him guilty of misconduct for using racist remarks toward Manchester United fullback Patrice Evra when their two clubs met on Oct.

Disappointment is part of football, of course. We all know this and in some respects enjoy it: our real lives are generally on the ordinary side and furthermore it's very rare for us to be able to shout, scream, jump around or make outrageous accusations in the real world without there being consequences.

Kenny Dalglish uses DVD to show 'truth' about sinned-against Liverpool

• Manager shows videos of flashpoints in Fulham match • Flurry of accusations against Luis Suárez irk Scot Two years ago it was Rafa Benítez with his folded sheet of paper containing various "facts" about perceived Liverpool grievances.

FA defends decision to appeal England striker Wayne Rooney's international ban

England's football governing body had faced accusations of double standards from Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish, but have stood by their disciplinary procedures

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2011-12-08 18:37:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Yes, referees make mistakes... but not as many as the managers and players who criticise them

Referees were in the spotlight again over the weekend. Decisions were analysed ad infinitum and accusations of incompetence leveled at the officials. And once again the argument for video technology – and the fragmented effect it will bring was put forward.

Kenny Dalglish believes it is time Luis Suarez was afforded some protection after describing chants of 'cheat' during Liverpool's defeat at Fulham as 'scandalous'.
Uruguay international Suarez has seen his reputation come under attack this season amid accusations that the striker is a diver.
During Monday night's 1-0 loss at Craven Cottage, Suarez saw a goal disallowed for offside and he also had a couple of penalty shouts.