With the Ballon d'Or nominations finally releasing this weekend, the headlines have mostly been
devoted to the fact that world champions Italy have no representation whatsoever. But why blame the
press for paying excessive attention to an irrelevant detail? After all, the award itself is
destined to be heading Lionel Messi's way, which means very little is there to be talked about in
terms of debating the winner, right?
Carlos Alberto Parreira is the new coach for the South African National Soccer Team. After two
weeks of rumours and denials, the South African Football Association (SAFA) made the announcement
just after 7pm at OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg.
During this Bafana coach fiasco, it seemed all that the loyal and passionate supporters were
agreed upon, is that they were happy that Joel Santana was out of the picture.
Beyond the nation's borders, Italian football has certainly faded into the background in recent
years. A devastating match-fixing scandal in 2006 bitterly overshadowed the country's World Cup
triumph that year while the domestic league has clearly become a one-horse race ever since.
Reigning champions Inter Milan have shown no signs of a slip up in the Serie A for the last three
seasons and that trend continued with their strong start to the current season as well.
