By Ollie Irish

When there is a lull during a football game, it's now a cliche tradition for broadcasters and photographers to focus on pretty girls in the crowd. Especially during the World Cup. And who are we to argue? Here's a gallery of some hawt (and some not quite so hawt, to be honest) fans and WAGs from World Cups past (watch out for the nipple slip):

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Welsh language channel S4C's soccer show called Sgorio scored a zero with viewers when it screened highlights of European football.
Viewing figures revealed the programme broadcast at 11.

Rejoice!

British broadcasters ITV have sacked their World Cup pundit Robbie Earle, after discovering that he breached FIFA regulations by selling his press tickets on to a third party which hopefully means we will no longer have to be subjected to his gummy, dribbling (yet somehow still televised) post-match nonsense for the foreseeable future.

An underwhelming final completed a largely disappointing World Cup last night, with Spain edging out Holland to lift the trophy for the first time. And just as in the European Championship final two years ago, it was Cesc providing the assist for the only goal, this time setting up Iniesta to crash in the winner just minutes from a penalty shoot out.

AC Milan's Alexandre Pato. Apparently, there is a fine line between pretty and putrid. Images via ahh_serie_a

To vandalise something beautiful is a crime, people. And we abhor all crime here at Kickette. (Unless it involves the liberation of abandoned cocktails, in which case our Puritanism becomes a touch hazy.

Ah, the undisputed League classic. Manchester United versus Arsenal the scrap between two of the country's footballing heavyweights, a match never short of thrills, spills and clichés galore. While admittedly things have changed and Arsenal are no longer the dominant force as once before, the fixture is still regarded as special and it truly is an undying rivalry.

Aaron Ramsey's horrific injury has stirred up emotions everywhere this weekend, and the way it is being reported is dividing the nation. Some are looking into the wider issue of the supposed 'coincidence' that the team who opposition are encouraged to 'get stuck into' are the ones suffering a series of career-threatening injuries.

It has been a telling week in the media. Aaron Ramsey's dreadful injury, and in particular Shawcross' tackle, have divided opinions everywhere. More pertinently, the way the story has been presented has differed wildly while most reasonable writers have noted that it was a terrible and avoidable moment, only some have called for a change of mindset in the English game, while others have shrugged it off as 'one of those things'.

Earlier this season, I laid into SI.com writer, Steve Davis for his poor season preview of the Wizards and his comments about the Wizards not making many changes. Tonight I have to give him credit for coming out and putting into words what most MLS fans have been saying for years about the announcers and crews that do MLS broadcasts around the league.

Yes please!

Join SkyBet and get £20 bonus and refund if England win World Cup!

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South Africa's World Cup organising chief Danny Jordaan may ban vuvuzelas from inside stadiums after complaints from broadcasters and supporters.

It was a transformation more complete than a Doctor Who regeneration. "North" Korea went from "well-organised, but more than that, they can play" just before half-time to "this lot" by the end of the BBC's coverage, by-passing "plucky" completely. In fact, the transformation was quicker than that.

AC Milan's Alexandre Pato. Apparently, there is a fine line between pretty and putrid. Images via ahh_serie_a

To vandalise something beautiful is a crime, people. And we abhor all crime here at Kickette. (Unless it involves the liberation of abandoned cocktails, in which case our Puritanism becomes a touch hazy.

"These figures are stupid," Fabio Capello once said after being asked what formation England were playing after a qualifying game. "In the modern game, the only formation is 9-1." Of course, that is all nonsense. Nonsense, unless you're Rangers however. At times, they reverted to the old 'park the bus' system where they constantly put blue shirts into their own box.

Digiturk, the satellite service hosting LigTV, has renewed their contract to broadcast the Turkcell Super League for the next four seasons, from the 2010 to 2014. Digiturk will play $321 million each season for the broadcast rights. Compare that with the current deal that Digiturk has, which is $140 million dollars per year, starting from 2005.

It is nearly three years since Arsene Wenger first coined the term 'Sky Sports Justice' following the Carling Cup final with Chelsea. That day, in case you've forgotten, Adebayor was sent off for slapping Wayne Bridge, when that was in fact Eboue's action. The press machine went into overdrive, focusing heavily on the 'brawl', and Eboue in particular, and as a result both clubs were disproportionately fined, with Eboue banned (Adebayor's ban was not rescinded).

The Premier League has long made a dubious virtue of the fact that broadcasting rights to live and highlights packages are negotiated collectively, ensuring that the money generated is spread between the clubs rather than concentrated in the hands of the few. The reality is that those whose games are shown more frequently take a bigger slice of the cake.

Reading the newspapers, listening to Five Live, and watching Arseblogger get more and more irate by the Soccer Saturday coverage of the Ramsey incident, it strikes me that the written and spoken press are completely missing the crux of the issue.

• Shawcross did not mean to break Ramsey's leg, but that is not the point.

By chopping up the game with cutaways and pointless camera angles like they do here:

In the US, where ESPN built its reputation, there is a culture of coaches and players allowing cameras into dressing rooms, being interviewed live during games and even briefing broadcasters on their tactics ahead of a match so they can choose the best camera angles.

It's bad enough that Portsmouth supporters have had to endure a terrible season off the pitch, but now Fox Soccer Plus prevented them from watching the second half of their match against Bolton on Saturday.

Here's what happened during the 4pm ET delayed match on Fox Soccer Plus.

Soccer fans living in the United States who want to watch Blackburn Rovers against Arsenal today (Noon ET) will be disappointed to learn that the game is not available and is, for lack of better words, blacked-out. It's not being shown on ESPN2 (as originally planned) or Fox Soccer Channel nor Fox Soccer Plus or even FoxSoccer.

2011 Asian Cup
AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011™ kick-off times confirmed
Kuala Lumpur: AFC has announced the kick-off times for the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011™.
All the group matches will kick off at 4:15pm and 7:15pm local time (Doha local time is GMT +3 hours).

By Chris Wright

Veteran Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Claude Makelele has turned down the chance to make a shock return to the French national side after rejecting an approach from current coach of Les Bleus, Raymond Domenech.

By chopping up the game with cutaways and pointless camera angles like they do here:

In the US, where ESPN built its reputation, there is a culture of coaches and players allowing cameras into dressing rooms, being interviewed live during games and even briefing broadcasters on their tactics ahead of a match so they can choose the best camera angles.

The World Cup will be broadcast on televisions around the world next month. One big question many people will have in the run up: On which channel or channels exactly?

Below you'll find a list of what television channel is showing the World Cup in 84 different countries. Hopefully including yours.

Wikipedia-changes List of FIFA World Cup Finals broadcasters - http://en.wikipedia.org/w... 8 minutes ago from Wikipedia - Recent changes... - Comment - Like

Just as I get plenty of emails leading up to the World Cup from folks trying to take advantage of the event in some way, Major League Soccer could be using the World Cup to their advantage when it comes to their TV deals.

Reports this morning suggest the league could be in talks with Comcast-owned network Versus to begin carrying their games instead of Fox Soccer Channel.

Low scoring affairs, a controversial new light ball, and the now infamous vuvuzelas have been the major talking points of the World Cup thus far. Perhaps the most talked about of all of them, though, is the vuvuzela, which has affected millions of pairs of ears around the world. The trumpet-like instruments are a staple of the crowds in South Africa, but broadcasters, players, and fans have all compared the irritating noise to a swarm of bees.

I'm enjoying World Cup 2010 so far. I hope you are too. But there have been two major complaints: The noise of the vuvuzelas and the flight of the adidas Jabulani ball.

For the uninitiated, the vuvuzelas are the plastic horns the fans are blowing at the stadium that sound like a swarm of bees.

The opening game of the 2010 World Cup (played before breakfast on the West Coast), averaged 5.4 million viewers on Univision and 2.6 million on ESPN. The Univision broadcast was the number 1 program of the day in more than five US Cities. The USA/England game on ABC averaged just under 13 million viewers and was the fifth most watched soccer match in ABC history.

World Cup organising chief Danny Jordaan has revealed he may consider banning vuvuzelas from the tournament.

The sound of the trumpet-like instruments has droned through every match since the competition got under way in South Africa on Friday.

Singing from the stands has generally been drowned out as a consequence and Jordaan, the chief executive of the World Cup organising committee, admits action may have to be taken.

A simple $3 plastic horn is causing quite a stir at World Cup 2010 in South Africa. The "vuvuzela", a horn blown by African fans at sporting events has drawn global criticism as players, fans and broadcasters have complained about the constant blaring noise. In case you haven't caught any of the World Cup so [.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi joined calls by broadcasters and fans to ban the vuvuzela at the World Cup as British supermarkets reported selling one of the plastic horns every two seconds.

Some horn players complain of "vuvuzela lip" from the plastic mouthpiece. Bruce Copley, who has been teaching pupils to play the vuvuzela, advised using baby oil to reduce friction.

By Chris Wright

What a dingbat!

ITV have confirmed that they have terminated Robbie Earle's contract 'with immediate effect' after discovering that the pundit had sold World Cup press tickets to a third party.

You analyse the fixtures, pick a match you're desperate to watch, and get into work early to ensure you're home in time. Minutes before kick off, you grab a beer from the fridge and perch yourself on the sofa, no intention of moving for a couple of hours. On goes the television, and then comes the big moment is it on BBC, or ITV?

BT is unveiling a £30m aggressive marketing push to promote its recent deal with BSkyB to offer Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports 2 on its BT Vision platform.

When Setanta Sports went belly up during the summer of 2009, it left the Blue Square Premier in something of a bind. There was talk of this being a repeat of the ITV Digital disaster of 2002, when the collapse of a broadcaster left a large number of Football League clubs in serious trouble having already spent money that they hadn't yet received.

Manchester United Football Club are prepared to pay a possible £60,000 worth of fines for boss Alex Ferguson which he will receive if he doesn't change his stance on giving BBC Television Company after match interviews.

Ferguson has refused to speak to BBC since they aired a programme in 2004 called "Father and Son" which implied his son Jason was using his Fathers influence in the game to financially benefit himself.

Clive and kicking
Clive Tyldesley has been commentating on football matches for over 20 years. He's had two stints at ITV with a four year spell at the BBC sandwiched in between.
Clive was good enough to give up some of his time to talk to EFW about his career, a new website to help budding commentators follow in his footsteps, Roy Keane, Brian Moore, Sir Alex, and of course Manchester United:
Do you have the best job in the world?

Anyone that has regularly had to endure the BBC's "6-0-6″ will be more than aware of the uniquely frustrating feeling of listening boors arguing with boors for hours on end about matters that neither party seems to fully understand. Football on the radio has been ghettoised by the formulaic phone-in for more years than can be healthy but there have been a couple of exceptions to this rule, not least of which has been the outstanding broadcasting of Danny Baker over the last couple of decades, which has steadily broken the mould of what we have a right to expect from football on the radio (and old episodes of which are still available here).

By Ollie Irish

A triffic little report on Millwall's relegation scrap in the George Graham era (early 1980s). The incomparable Danny Baker is your guide:

We learned today that Danny, the piratical genius of the airwaves, is battling cancer. This sucks, as he is one of the few broadcasters who know anything about football and why it really matters.