You know you want to see the final scores before the matches are even started, so here they are. All results brought to you by Crystal Ball Corporation "When you need to know what your bookie does not".

All predictions are of course subject to the minor caveat that this is futbol, football and soccer where anything can and will happen except what you think will happen.

Jesus I am going to have nightmares about this for weeks. The quality of the acting from the former Sheffield Wednesday and England man is pretty good and is kind of Anthony Hopkins from Silence of the Lambs-esque. Scary!

Get a free £10 bet on your club by joining William Hill now.

Running out of time and patience

If I were Rafa I would be sick and tired of not being backed by the club's owners. It wouldn't surprise me if he decided to quit the club sooner rather than later and in fact it wouldn't surprise me if the Clowns who run the club sacked him before he had a chance to leave of his own accord.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

From the "Not that guy again" department comes word that the referee for the U.S. Under-20 national team's crucial Under-20 World Cup match against Cameroon on Tuesday (12:40pm, ESPN2) will be none other than Jorge Larrionda.

Hands up if you were cheering on the USA against Brazil in the Confederations Cup Final...... I was too. It would have been great to see an upset and despite Brazil getting themselves the win in the end it was still a great show from the USA to end Spain's record equalling run without a [...]

Andreas Ullmann, head of market intelligence at Sport+Markt, reckons that shirt sponsorship for Premier League clubs will increase slightly this year thanks to new deals emanating from the betting industry.
"Without them many clubs would have serious problems," he says.
ScudamoreWorld clubs dependent on betting sector cash to survive?

via Football365:

Sky Bet are praying that Fernando Torres fails to find the net tonight at Anfield after running up a six-figure liability on an enhanced goalscorer special, which will be landed if the Spaniard scores against Aston Villa.
Going into the weekend, the Harrogate-based bookie offered enhanced odds of 20/1 for Wayne Rooney, Emmanuel Adebayor, Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres all to score in their respective matches and with three-quarters of the accumulator already weighed in, Sky Bet - along with some 2,000 customers - are anxiously waiting to see if the Reds striker will do the business.

Image via Wikipedia With Ireland reeling from "Le Hand of God" bookie Paddy Power have issued a whole host of special bets on the man who will forever be known as "cheating Thierry." Unfortunately for Irish fans and Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, the likelihood of justice prevailing look slim with odds of 33/1 the match gets [.

Heading down the pub to watch the footie or even following the races at the local bookie is just not the same since those puratanical anti-smokers decided to force their holier-than-thou ways on us with their smoking bans.
Flights have already been a pain for years, and necessitate the slapping on of numerous nicotine patches.

"Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while." -Anonymous
Kenny Cooper leaves and FC Dallas scores 6 goals. I doubt any bookie laid odds on that, but if they did and there was someone crazy enough to bet it, they are a happy gambler today. A great result for FC Dallas, but the real test is Thursday as the mighty Houston Dynamo come to town.

Betting companies fascinate me, partly because I have a propensity for number crunching, and partly because the people involved have to be lightning quick, reacting with incredible speed to the most innocuous looking story, hidden in an unnoticed column on a newspaper's website.

Because these days, you can bet on anything.

In terms of English clubs that are facing financial disasters we are used to discussing WHU, Liverpool Beachballs and Manchester U. To that list we can now add Portsmouth. Their new owner in September turned out not to be the billionaire Sheik Yermoney but a guy who borrowed £50 off a bookie's runner and [.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

From the "Not that guy again" department comes word that the referee for the U.S. Under-20 national team's crucial Under-20 World Cup match against Cameroon on Tuesday (12:40pm, ESPN2) will be none other than Jorge Larrionda.

Betfair is the official Manchester United betting partner and we here at Red Rants have partnered with them to offer a free £25 bet when you register. Unlike other betting sites, Betfair allows you to place bets when the game is running and choose the odds at which you want to play. What allows you to do these things is you're betting against other fans, not the bookie, so if you want better odds than are currently available, for example, you can place an order for a better price (but bear in mind that if your price is unrealistic your bet is unlikely to be accepted).

Betfair is the official Manchester United betting partner and we here at Red Rants have partnered with them to offer a free £25 bet when you register. Unlike other betting sites, Betfair allows you to place bets when the game is running and choose the odds at which you want to play. What allows you to do these things is you're betting against other fans, not the bookie, so if you want better odds than are currently available, for example, you can place an order for a better price (but bear in mind that if your price is unrealistic your bet is unlikely to be accepted).

Betfair is the official Manchester United betting partner and we here at Red Rants have partnered with them to offer a free £25 bet when you register. Unlike other betting sites, Betfair allows you to place bets when the game is running and choose the odds at which you want to play. What allows you to do these things is you're betting against other fans, not the bookie, so if you want better odds than are currently available, for example, you can place an order for a better price (but bear in mind that if your price is unrealistic your bet is unlikely to be accepted).