On Saturday, 14th November 2009, Ireland play France in the first leg of their World Cup playoff. France are the bookies' favourites to win the two-legged affair, but Ireland certainly have more than a reasonable chance of booking their place for the tournament in South Africa. Sports retailers

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The eyes of the world will be on Croke Park on Saturday, 14th November 2009, Ireland play France in the first leg of their World Cup playoff. France are the bookies' favourites to win the two-legged affair, but Ireland certainly have more than a reasonable chance of booking their place ... Click to continue reading...

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The United forward became a father yesterday when wife, Coleen, gave birth to Kai Wayne Rooney.
Bookies are already setting the line at which EPL team he'll play for. Others are quick to make Baby Shrek jokes.
The Daily Mail had this factbox on the name "Kai":

* The Rooneys' intriguing choice of name for their son - Kai - was the 68th most popular baby name in Britain last year.

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Well, English football's golden child has arrived and bets are already being taken on whether newborn Kai will eventually live up to his father's high standard as a professional footballer (you know, as the children of the incredibly talented and famous always do).

The bookies at Ladbrokes have set the odds on mini-Roo breaking into Manchester United's first team at 33-1.

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The Clock is Ticking!

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Bookies have suspended betting on the next Premier League manager to be sacked following speculation Phil Brown is on the verge of leaving Hull City.

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A few numbers to have a peer at.

First thing that jumps out:Â when the bookies have not got our games quite right (4/9), all four results have been in our favour.

That's interesting isn't it? I appreciate that bookmakers' odds are not the be all and end all, but they are a good neutral barometer of what we might generally expect to happen in a game.

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Listen to this week's Soccerlens Podcast, where Adrian Clarke and Iain Spragg discuss Liverpool's problems in detail, preview the Liverpool v United game and also talk about why Rafa Benitez is safe in his job regardless of results in the next couple of games [podcast link].

Ian McParland and Gareth Southgate's sackings have surprised people in recent weeks, although for both managers the tell-tale signs were there from the start of the season.

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After a succession of bad managerial choices, Steve Gibson appears to finally about to get it right!

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In a shock move, Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson gave Gareth Southgate his marching orders last night just hours after a 2-0 home win over Derby County which took Middlesbrough to fourth in the Coca-Cola Championship and within a point of the Championship summit.

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The four playoffs for the European Zone of World Cup 2010 qualification are:
Republic of Ireland v France
Portugal v Bosnia-Hercegovina
Greece v Ukraine
Russia v Slovenia
France, Portugal, Greece and Russia as the seeded teams are favorites with the bookies to progress to the World Cup finals in South Africa. Click to continue reading...

If ever two rounds of FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 Qualifiers demonstrated the utter and complete fake of the whole charade, these last two rounds were it.
The icing on an incredibly corrupt cake inevitably occurred at the Mall.
David Beckham performs no more than adequately for 32 minutes as a substitute, publicly displaying his new self-adhesive Dostoyevskian facial hair, and Steve Bruce, the man who still seems to think that Rio Ferdinand has his nose on the job, gives Our National Treasure the Man of the Match award. Click to continue reading...

As the international week goes on, its time for me to look ahead to this weekends fixture at home to Birmingham. One which I would usually refer to as "run of the mill" where by it doesn't really excite me when I get up on Saturday morning to head off to the game.Â

I'm sure most people can relate that once you've been going "Up the Arse" for a period of time, not every game is that exciting anymore and these sorts of games help fill the gaps between the big matches.

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Bookies slash odds on 'Arry to quit Harry Redknapp's odds for being the next Premier League manager to leave his post have been slashed by bookmakers after punters heavily backed the Spurs boss to jump or be pushed. The odds have been cut from 50/1 last night to 2/1 this lunchtime, causing Redknapp to overtake Portsmouth's [. Click to continue reading...

Chelsea welcome Liverpool to Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Chelsea will be hoping to bounce back from a shock defeat to Wigan last week while Liverpool will aim to continue their rich goalscoring form in recent games. It promises to be a cracker of a game, and you can watch Chelsea take on Liverpool live here.

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Just over half a dozen games in and the Premier League is beginning to take shape. There have already been some heavyweight clashes with the newly oil rich Man City upsetting Big 4 stalwarts Arsenal while Spurs' flying start was kept in check by Manchester United and Chelsea. With the electric Fernando Torres leading the line Liverpool have steadied the ship after a nervy start and last year's pretenders, Aston Villa, have picked up useful points despite not fully hitting top form yet.

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Interesting quotes from Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson about Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo. Fergie sold Ronaldo to Madrid for £80million this summer but remains a big fan of his former player.

Ronaldo has settled quickly into the Real Madrid lineup and he has scored seven goals already this season.

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Peter Reid has surpassed previous efforts at disinformational and disorderly discourse with two interviews (one in the September issue of World Soccer Magazine and one in Theo Guardian this weekend).
For the interview with World Soccer, Reid was manager of Thailand, a job that he combined with punditry on BSkyB and for Coral/Eurobet Bookmakers, and things. Click to continue reading...

In the eyes of some bookies, at least Troubled Blue Sq Premier League outfit Chester City have put their points deduction worries behind them and shot to the top of the table. That's according to the FreeBetting.net site anyway. Thanks to Matt Fairgrieve for the spot.

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Milan will take on Marseille in a few hours to kick off their 2009-10 Champions League campaign. Milan are the bookies' favourite but not by much and this is not a surprise for a few reasons. One is that Milan do not have a good record on the road in Europe. In their last ten matches [...] Click to continue reading...

When Ahmed Hassan wheeled away to celebrate scoring a 92nd minute equalizer against Trinidad and Tobago, Bahrain believed they were on their way to the 2006 World Cup. Colombian ref Oscar Julian Ruiz Acost had other ideas. The goal was of the Best Banks variety. The sort of goal no one wants to see disallowed, especially when the forward's cheekiness is executed with such fine precision.

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Saint turns sinner Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier has confessed he hatched a plan to cheat bookies out of £10,000 during his playing days. The Sky Sports pundit got his mates to place bets on the first throw-in of a 1995 Premier League match coming within 60 seconds. Le Tissier planned to get the ball straight from [. Click to continue reading...

If you are Paul Hart - by far the bookies' favorite to become the first sacked manager in the Premier League this season - you would need a miracle to save Portsmouth from relegation at this point. Four games into the new season, Pompey are yet to scrap up a single point, which is a clear indicator of how the team roster was in desperate need of major bolstering on the final day of transfers.

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No. No it's not.

There is just no way Spurs will last the pace. They have been cut from 200/1 to 30/1 after an impressive start - that's a huge over-reaction from the bookies. They will be the Villa of last season, a bright start fading away at Christmas as teams get wise to them and fatigue sets in.

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Liverpool FC supporting journo, Derek McGovern, wrote for The Mirror this morning having a good ol' laugh at Manchester United. The 'betting guru' talked up United's chances of finishing the season empty-handed whilst picking apart our 'misfiring' strike force.

Bookies now quote Manchester United at odds-on to finish the season potless - but I doubt they'll even do that well.

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It's just a sick joke!

Over 600 Ashes tickets still available Click Here to Buy!

Rumours abound on the internet that Rafa Benitez could be set to quit as Liverpool manager.

A number of bookmakers are believed to have already suspended betting on the next Premier League manager to go in light of the whispers coming out of Merseyside.

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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.

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(All Times - UK)

Monday 17th August
9:45 Dundee Utd v Hearts, Scottish Premier League, ESPN
Only Hamilton failed to score in the opening round of the SPL season. While the old firm tend to operate in a league of their own, the rest of the league is set to be pretty finely balanced this season. Click to continue reading...

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Carlo Ancelotti was in his first competitive game at Stamford Bridge, while Hull City began their sophomore season against the team that has been the bookies' choice to win the Premier League this season.

The early stages were heavily dominated by Chelsea, but the Tigers took a shock lead against the run of play a little before a third of the game was completed.

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Ding Ding! In the purple corner, Burnley, back in the big time. In the Blue corner, Alex McLeishs'Â Birmingham, both battling it out for the wooden spoon.

This season promises to be a blinder. Any one of 10 teams could beat Derby's dreaded record of 11 points in a Premier League season.

Here's my bottom half predictions.

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So, it's once more unto the breach, for the new season is upon us. The friendlies are done, fantasy league teams picked – all that's left is for AANP Towers to rustle up a list of top ten aims for season 2009-10, and then we can get cracking...

1. European Qualification

Top six, or a trophy.

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- For cutting-edge, continually-updated, football-only news about QPR: Visit the QPR Report Messageboard (and quasi blog)! Feel free to just read. But your posts are welcome! All views genuinely welcomed!
- QPR Report and Twitter
- Compilation of Match Reports & Comments for QPR vs Blackpool
- Earlier Match Reports and Managerial Comments
- QPR Season Predictions: What They All Said
- On This Day (August 9) Flashbacks
- Flashback to last season's opening day vs Barnsley - and Eleven years ago vs Sunderland
- Q&A With Ossie Ardiles
- What Makes a True Football Fan? Click to continue reading...

The wait is over, the first match played and a surprise result already. Season previews and bookie odds are in tatters after a team most tipped to finish in the bottom three up staged last years premiers (and bookies favourite) to take the points in the opening match.
To be honest Victory hardly looked interested in the first half. Click to continue reading...

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For cutting-edge, continually-updated, football-only news about QPR: Visit the QPR Report Messageboard (and quasi blog)! Feel free to just read. But your posts are welcome! All views genuinely welcomed!
- Updated Throughout the Day
- Masters Final Draw
- QPR vs Blackpool: Past Games
- Daily Mail's Top 50 Football League Players
- Fascism and English Football
- Hours Per Week Fans Spend on Football - Survey Findings
- Carlisle Win Tribunal Case vs Watford
- Blackstock on Nottingham Forest's Prospects
- Video Snippet: Sousa as Swansea's Special One
- Coca Cola/Football League Promotion/Prizes
Championship Diamonds Daily Mail/Abigail Montrose
"Young diamonds in the lower leagues: Southampton boss Alan Pardew's guide to the rising stars from QPR to Crystal Palace
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Bookmakers always provide an valuable insight into professional football research, since they above anyone else have shedloads of their own money on the line. That makes their offers not only interesting but relevant to the Fantasy Football manager. Lets look at a few, starting with goal scoring options. Click to continue reading...