We saw Barcelona's 2012/13 fuzzy striped home kit before it was officially released, so the real shocker of Tuesday's unveiling was the orange and yellow away kit. Sort of like staring at the sun after squirting alcohol into your eyes, the club's official website describes it as "a veritable array of vibrant colors to celebrate the team's dazzling football.

By Chris Wright

Spotted in the Stacey West Stand after Lincoln City's Alan Power knocked in a penalty during their 4-0 win over Tamworth at Sincil Bank a couple of weeks back a veteran Imps fan showing the young'ns in attendance how to really celebrate a goal.

Alcohol may have been a factor.

The Premier League chairman and FA vice chairman, Sir Dave Richards made a thorough ass of himself at a recent symposium on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. His is a very Eurocentric view and on top of that it's a subset (England and Germany) he uses to make his point. As if these are the only two countries that matter.

It sucks to be right sometimes. We mentioned this back in October that Qatar was going to try to wriggle out of FIFA's agreements with Budweiser and providing alcohol during the matches.Obviously, there are religious issues to overcome, but it isn't unheard of as "premium" hotels in Qatar (not sure what a not premium one is) are allowed to sell alcohol, but the talk is now that Qatar will offer
[[ This is a content summary only.

It's just two days now until the Houston Dynamo open the 2012 season in a game against the Washington Generals, and...uh...wait just a sec... what's that it says here? Chivas USA? Dynamo are opening the season by playing against a bottle of scotch? That can't be right. Playing FOR a bottle of scotch maybe, but, oh well.

This can't be what LMFAO had in mind.

What was supposed to be a run of the mill BBQ get together, turned into much more when pictures of underwear model and Athletic Bilbao player, Javi Martinez, and his teammate, Iker Muniain, in a semi-raunchy webcam pose-off surfaced. Now, we know these ballers are still on the young side and were probably fueled by alcohol when doing this, but the fact that Carolina Abril (the dark haired chica) is an amateur adult "actress" has really got folks talking.

By Chris Wright

"Dorus, you're my besht mate *hic* I love you man..."

Wolves captain Roger Johnson has publically apologised after turning up to training on Monday morning 'bleary-eyed' and 'under the influence of alcohol' less than 24 hours after their humiliating 5-0 defeat against Fulham.

It's been a difficult season for Wolves. Currently sitting in the relegation zone and now with a caretaker manager after Mick McCarthy got the sack, traveling to Fulham just to lose by a Leo Messi of goals would be enough to drive some to drink. Which is exactly what Wolves' summer signing Roger Johnson did.

The 2014 World Cup in Brazil is little more than two years away, but the action surrounding the event has reached a fever pitch as a war of words between FIFA and the Brazilian government has cast an ominous tone around World Cup preparations.

Last Friday, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke was quoted as saying Brazilian preparations for the 2014 World Cup are moving too slowly and that the nation needed to pick things up.

By Chris Wright

Bournemouth chairman Eddie Mitchell has been charged with misconduct by the FA after repeatedly swearing during an appearance on BBC Radio 5 Live's 606 call-in.

The Cherries' chief rowed with presenter Mark 'Chappers' Chapman following last Saturday's 1-0 defeat by MK Dons, after rumours surfaced that Mitchell allowed Bournemouth co-owner Maxim Demin's wife into the dressing room at half-time to talk to the team.

By Alan Duffy

OMG... Da playrz h8 me... Im a total ****... FFS!!! :(

We've all done it, had a few too many down the pub only to drunkenly text someone, usually an ex or someone we fancy. However, I doubt many of us have sent a late night text informing professional footballers that they had been dropped for the following day's game.

Image via tumblr.

We thought long and hard about how to thank our faithful band of soldier boys and girls for their support this year. Among the management proposals vetoed by the staff were:

1. Spending the money set aside for the party season bar bills/lawyers fees on a couture outfit for each and every one of you, with the balance to be contributed towards the search for Fernando Torres' mojo.

Why watching the FA Cup 'with' Budweiser won't be everyone's glass of beer

It's only beginning to dawn, with the third round in sight, that the oldest cup competition in the world is now called "The FA Cup with Budweiser." Not the Budweiser FA Cup, as that would sound like they were endorsing alcohol.

By Chris Wright

Here's a little firecracker to start the morning off. Last night's last-16 tie in the KNVB Cup between Ajax and AZ Alkmaar had to be abandoned after just 38 minutes (with Ajax leading 1-0) after an incident involving a pitch invader caused the away side to leave the field in protest.

"La gente me dio el poder como un futbolista popular."
"Si la gente no tiene el poder de decir las cosas, entonces yo las digo por ellos."
"Si yo estuviera del otro lado, no del lado de la gente, no habría nadie que escuchara mis opiniones".

Sócrates is dead. It's hard to see how anyone could be surprised. It's also hard not to think that he died because he wanted to, since Sócrates always seems to have done what he wanted to. He smoked incessantly because it gave him pleasure; he seems to have ingested vast amounts of alcohol for the same reason.

11.11.2011 - Si a diez meses de haber asumido (como DT de la selección chilena), Claudio Borghi no terminó de combatir la sombra (comparativa) de Marcelo Bielsa (y sus "viudas"), el estallido en la Roja lo volvió a foja cero.
El complejo Pinto Durán (rebautizado como "Tinto Durán") es un polvorín desde que el Bichi decidió separar del plantel a Arturo Vidal, Jean Beausejour, Carlos Carmona, Jorge Valdivia y Gonzalo Jara por llegar 45 minutos tarde a los entrenamientos en un estado "indefendible".

Via DW-World, nos enteramos de la iniciativas del alcohol en los Estadios en Alemania y en la Selección Alemana, les transcribo la nota.
En el exterior, es decir, allí donde ustedes leen esto, cuando se menciona el nombre de Alemania, hay tres cosas en las que automáticamente se piensa (¿o me equivoco?

Chelsea's performance (especially in the first half) and result on Wednesday night was fantastic against (it has to be said) a disappointing Genk side at Stamford Bridge. For me, it was simply the best night of Chelsea football for many different reasons.
I have been a Chelsea fan all my life, I am from the area, my family are Chelsea fans and my Father, Uncle, Brother and Cousins all go to the game.

On 19 November I'm going to be a doing a 24 hour blogathon. A (minimum 500 words) post every hour for 24 hours.
One of the organisations I'll be fundraising for is the Homeless World Cup.
Here's why:
There are one billion homeless people in the world today.
That figure is so big as to be almost incomprehensible.

Former Arsenal and England attacking midfielder Paul Merson (43) was arrested on suspicion of drink driving yesterday after crashing his Mercedes into the back of a 40 ton truck at 3.30am.

Merson who admitted cocaine abuse in 1994 while playing for England and Arsenal, has had a serious of addiction problems from Drugs, Alcohol and gambling and it seems the likable SkySports pundit has fallen off the wagon again, let's hope he can back back to the Paul Merson so many of us love with his great sense of humour and constant piss taken.

Gratis bum shot via The Spoiler.

Alcohol is not merely a constituent of a good party. Rather, it's the party's host.

Shay Given knows this, which is why he issued a call to the Republic of Ireland fans before last night's Euro 2012 qualifier vs. Armenia to hit the booze. Shay apparently felt that a wee dram or ten might help the faithful blow the roof off the stadium and simultaneously propel the team to victory.

When you consider the amount of hot air, high fashion, alcohol and misbehaviour that generally occurs when awards are dished out, you'd think we'd have a staff member whose only job is to sniff out those nominations.

Well, we don't.

Generally, if we learn we've been nominated it's too late and even if we win, we're too disorganised to go to the ceremony.

Top Gun, voodoo dolls and and avoiding the JPT and X-Factor

Matt Lawrence has played for seven league clubs including Fulham, Crystal Palace and Millwall, for whom he appeared in the 2004 FA Cup final during his 16-year career. Now with League Two Gillingham, his diary will appear on MirrorFootball every Monday.

Schalke fans might want to skip this. Everybody else, who has seen enough of Bayern players in Lederhosen and WAGs in Dirndls, can skip this as well.

It's Oktoberfest time in Munich again and Bayern paid a visit. As they do every year. And either Bayern are already operating on a level, where a 0-0 draw away at Hoffenheim equals a horrible defeat, or they really would have rather spend their day someplace else.

First spotted on ONTD_FB.

Giovani dos Santos appears to be from the same moral fiber as Ashley Cole, y'all. How interesting.

A cautionary piece of counsel if we may, Kickettes. Never and we mean ever should anyone be in the presence of alcohol if their mobile devices are in possession of nude self-portaits.

Capello is right: alcohol DOES cast a shadow over our game

In football, just as in our ­society as a whole, there is a booze culture that is ­careering out of control. So, I was interested to hear Fabio Capello say Andy Carroll drinks too much. I have no idea whether the Liverpool star has been hitting the bottle too hard, but I know ­today's players are the product of a system that makes it tough for clubs to educate them how to refuel.

Chips, hats and alcohol free Amiens 0-1 Le Havre (12:08:11) Reporting on the first leg of a three-part French and Belgian European Football Weekend, Andy Hudson of Gannin' Away... The coach turned onto Buckingham Palace Road. "Thank fuck we're here" came the mackem accent from behind me, "I'm never doing that again" it continued before morphing into a yawn.

Brandon Marshall has had a number of incidents off the field that have left many wondering whether he was a bad apple. On Sunday, Brandon Marshall announced that he may have found an answer for his behavior. The superstar wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins says he has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

20.07.2011 - Máximo goleador histórico de la Bundesliga (365) y de la selección alemana (68), más 66 goles en Copas Internacionales, Botín de Oro europeo (1970 - 38 goles y 1972 - 40 goles), Botín de Oro del Mundial 1970 (10 goles), Balón de Oro al mejor jugador europeo (1970), máximo goleador de la Eurocopa (1972 – 4 goles), 7 veces goleador de la Bundesliga y 4 veces goleador de la Copa de Europa: es Gerd Muller (66) quien fue encontrado anoche perdido (y confundido) en las calles de Trento (Italia) 15 horas después de que la delegación del Bayern Munich denunciase su desaparición.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If an EPL footballer accidentally kicks a fellow player in the face during a goalmouth scramble in a pre-season friendly (0.34), we are unlikely to run a post on the matter. We prefer to avoid violent confrontation unless alcohol honour is involved.

Liverpool 6: Adam 27′, Ngog 68′ 69′, Maxi 76′ 90′, Kuyt 94′
Malaysia XI 3: Rahim 40′, Mohd Sali 79′ 80′

Charlie Adam gets his first goal in Liverpool shirt, David Ngog and Maxi get two a piece, and Liverpool wrap up their Asian tour with a victory in front of 80,000 fans at Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lampur.

We were all shocked when the story initially broke. If you were living under a rock at the time, it surfaced in early May that Marcos Alonso was involved in a crash. One woman died and three other passengers of the car were seriously injured. Alonso, the driver of the car, escaped relatively unscathed but also with a hefty amount of alcohol in his system.

By Chris Wright

'Scandal' has broken out in this morning's Il Corriere dello Sport, who claim that Lionel Messi, both Gab and Diego Milito and cape-wearing crime fighter Martin Palermo attended a 'sex and alcohol' party in their native Argentina which was being hosted by local reality TV strumpet Xoana Gonzalez.

Over the weekend, we said signs indicated that Oscar De La Hoya was having marriage problems. We used Oscar De La Hoya's Twitter account as evidence. Well, it turns out we were right! TMZ is reporting that cocaine use by the boxing legend led to him to marital infidelity. As a result, Oscar De La Hoya checked into rehab.

Images: REUTERS/Darren Staples; Shaun Botterill/Getty Images.

What we love about the end of the football season is the innumerable chances we have to rub shoulders with the rich, famous and successful. We also relish any and all opportunities to join in on any winning side's celebratory champagne showers.

Fabio Capello's warning to Andy Carroll to steer clear of alcohol has seemingly fallen on deaf ears. The Liverpool star, who scored his first international goal in England's 1-1 draw with Ghana in March, was pictured apparently enjoying a pint of lager in Madrid on Wednesday.
Carroll was in the Spanish capital to watch the semi-final clash between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Scotland's top police officer has warned that a combination of alcohol, sun and a bank holiday could make Sunday's Old Firm clash "the perfect storm".

The chief constable of Strathclyde police, Stephen House, predicted that violence, including rape and domestic abuse, will surge this weekend.

Phone your bosses from your lunch breaks, Kickettes, and feed them a convincing "I'm siiiiiiiick" excuse because this afternoon is finally the time for you to audit some tantalising thighs in the privacy of your own homes.

You read right: everyone's beloved Thursday Thigh-Off competition has returned and with a cool new logo to boot.

Gloria James, mother of LeBron, was arrested by Miami Beach police after reportedly assaulting a valet worker. With alcohol on her breath and bloodshot eyes, Gloria slapped the valet parker, Rockfeller Sorel, at the Fontainebleau Hotel for taking too long to get her car.

Gloria James and the man she slapped

The victim's account of the incident was supported by several witnesses.