One of the disadvantages of working a paying job whilst trying to build a readership on your own blog is that sometimes we get blindsided by events that need immediate reporting such as we saw today in London as England manager Fabio Capello resigned his position immediately following a meeting with FA Chairman David Bernstein.

Wasn't it always going to end this way? Ironically.

Enough!

With Fabio Capello's rumored brush-up with John Terry again John Terry! at World Cup 2010 in mind here at TSG, Capello resigned his England post today, taking umbrage with the English FA for usurping his power and "de-captaining" John Terry last week.

Luis Suarez has been back in action for twenty-five minutes, and he's already lucky he hasn't been banned two or four or seventeen more times. In related news, the buildup to a match against Manchester United is always so very much fun...

* In amongst all the excitement over Kenny Dalglish reminding the world that the club never thought Suarez' ban was an entirely appropriate punishment, following Monday's match there was an even more ridiculous Suarez b-plot that popped up when Wayne Rooney hopped on Twitter to suggest that the Liverpool striker should be banned for his mis-timed kick to Scott Parker's midriff.

John Terry has been England captain three times. He has been stripped of the captaincy three times. Rio Ferdinand has been England captain once. He does not want the England captaincy again. Steven Gerrard has been overlooked for the England captaincy several times. He is no longer a guaranteed starter in the side.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

The English FA will meet with national team manager Fabio Capello after rising tensions over the dismissal of John Terry as captain threatens to fracture an already tenuous relationship between the two sides.

Capello has been very outspoken in his disagreement with the FA's decision to strip Terry of the captain's armband after the defender's racism trial was delayed until July.

Fabio Capello is furious at the English FA for firing his captain John Terry, and you have to begin to wonder whether Capello will still be in charge of England when this summer's Euro 2012 rolls around.

Capello was interviewed by national Italian broadcaster Rai 1 at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon, where he attended Chelsea's 3-3 draw with Manchester United, and he stated openly how angry he was.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

As Egypt reels from the tragic deaths in Port Said, national team coach Bob Bradley is taking a role in the rebuilding.

The former U.S. manager joined in a non-violent protest march on Thursday as public anger against the interior ministry grows.

The English FA have been forced to strip John Terry of the England captaincy after outcry over his racism case being put back till after this Summer's Euro 2012 Finals in Poland and Ukraine with many looking for the Chelsea defender to be stripped of even an
England Jersey
.

Tory MP Damian Collins who has campaigned for FIFA reform hit out saying:
"He is in a public position as England captain.

Another young SPANISH FOOTBALL pearl leaves for foreign shores to build upon his talents & hopefully begin a solid Football career. This time English Premier League Club MANCHESTER CITY has paid 3M€ to REAL MADRID for POZO . The U-17 Spanish International is in England but cannot play due to the fact that he is only 15 years old & needs to wait until he reaches 16 years according to English FA

John Terry Good Or Bad For England's Euro 2012 Campaign? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

The extraordinary delays in a resolution to the Terry-Ferdinand affair have already resulted in the wholly unnecessary cop-out by the FA and the Premier League in asking Chelsea and QPR to forego handshakes in their recent league clash.

We've never thought the English FA was the best run organization in the world. Alan Pardew it's just not fair In fact it's one of the worst, and they again showed their colors yesterday by the way they have handled the Yohan Cabaye charge of violent conduct. The FA charged the player on Monday [.

Dirk Kuyt's late goal gave Liverpool a 2-1 win over Manchester United at Anfield on Saturday to send his team into the Round of 16 of the 2011/12 English FA...

Manchester City, Mario Balotelli and his agent are all angry that Balotelli has been slapped with a four match ban by the English FA for stomping on Tottenham Hotspurs midfielder Scott Parker. Balotelli, his club and his agent would have ...
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Ian Barker has been a star in soccer coaching education here in the United States, and yesterday was offered the ultimate opportunity in that arena when he was selected as the Director of Coaching Education for the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.
"Ian is the perfect choice to lead the NSCAA's coaching education program to new heights," said Cummings.

Henrique: still off to QPR?

São Paulo director, João Paulo de Jesus Lopes, says that the door has not been shut on forward Henrique's transfer to QPR. The Morumbi club say that contrary to earlier reports, Henrique has not been denied a UK work visa. "The truth is the visa wasn't turned down.

The transfer rumours involving Spurs are very slowly starting to spark into life with stories that Roman Pavlyuchenko could be the first and possibly only departure from White Hart Lane this summer.

Yesterday, Pav's vocal agent Oleg Artemov claimed that Spurs had extended the Russian's contract until June 2013.

Mario Balotelli never seems to stop making the headline as despite being Manchester City savior in previous match against Tottenham Hotspurs, Balotelli caught himself involved in another case on that game.

The Italian striker was caught stamping Spurs' midfielder, Scott Parker, on Sunday and now are facing a disciplinary act by the English FA, who already confirmed their stance, only waiting for the forward to respons.

We wanted to talk about stuff that isn't Luis Suarez. We really, really did. But that didn't take into account one inescapable fact: Pretty much nobody is talking about Liverpool without also talking about Luis Suarez. So while the FA Cup draw against Oldham Athletic holds the potential for distraction on Friday, for now at least there's little to do but tie up a few more of the Suarez-related loose ends.

By Stuart Gilhooly, the solicitor for the Professional Footballers Association of Ireland who was also recently named Journalist of Year at the Irish Magazine Awards.

It seems as though Liverpool and Luis Suarez have finally closed the door on an unsavoury episode in their history and that of the English FA.

No player named Lucas will be on the pitch for Liverpool by the end of January. Though by this time next year there could be two Lucases (Luci? Lucai?) regularly in the starting eleven. And maybe even one Luis Suarez, assuming the English FA doesn't manage to drive him and Liverpool Football Club into the Irish Sea like some unwanted nation state by then.

AP Photo/Christian Thompson.

A tanker full of eggnog has just broken down outside our HQ.

It's just provocative really.

GOOD WEEK

Toure Treasure: Yaya Toure has been named 'African Footballer of the Year' for his performances for Manchester City in the EPL this season.

STARTERS
One day after Luis Suarez was given and 8 game suspension by the English FA for racial abuse, Rob Harris of the AP reports that Chelsea captain John Terry has been charged with racial abuse in a criminal court. Both were part of on field incidents. So why are they being treated differently?

BBC Sport Liverpool striker Luis Suarez handed eight-match FA ban.

After several weeks of investigation, the English FA today gave Liverpool striker Luis Suarez an 8 match ban coupled with a $60,000 fine for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra.

With Euro 2012 seemingly drawing ever closer, it is still unclear whether or not the English FA have begun to consider who they would like to see replace current boss Fabio Capello whose contract expires at the end of the tournament next Summer. Whoever takes the job will have the task of getting England to the finals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

I thought I'd go the easy route today with a post that allows you, the reader to give an opinion. Many times as fans we argue about the "Best Player" or the "Best Team" but rarely do we get a chance to to vote on who is "The Most Overrated Player". With the vast amounts of money available in the Premier League, there's no doubt there are is a plethora of talent on display every week, but amongst all that, there are several players who, in my opinion, have not lived up to expectations, and who may, or may not, still be regarded by fans and media as star performers.

As we prepare to enter this sixth quarter of the ninth three-year plan, we take joy in the chocolate ration being raised to twenty grams and in the continued success of our glorious struggle against East Manchester. And also in the English FA having not yet banned Luis Suarez for displaying his non-regulation incisors in joy or anger whilst in public.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter is facing what could be the toughest phase of his career as football head in the more than 10 years since he took over from Joao Havelange.

The president recently came out to say that England are still bitter at him for their failed attempt to land the hosting rights to the 2018 tournament.

Roy Rees coached the USA at four U-17 World Cups, from 1987 through 1993, a tenure during which the young Americans celebrated historic victories over Brazil and Italy. Rees also co-founded the Houston Texans in 1983 and helped create the Dallas Texans in 1993. He died on Saturday at age 74.
Mike Woitalla of Soccer America writes of 'one of the pioneers of the modern period of US Soccer'.

We've talked before about the FA's unfortunate scheduling of Liverpool's next two matches to satisfy Sky Sports, giving them the week's biggest game on Sunday for their prime slot and leaving both Liverpool and Manchester City to play their League Cup quarter final draws two days later later on Tuesday evening.

Team GB: The facts

The London Olympics will be the first time in 52 years that Great Britain has fielded a football team in the games. Team GB plans to enter both male and female teams to play on home turf next year. While this will be an exciting and historical moment in British sport, it has caused a great deal of controversy among the organisers, fans and players.

Why racism will always be a problem in football while FIFA are in charge

I now finally realise what a ‘Eureka moment' feels like. Because a light popped on in my head hearing Sepp Blatter announce that racism does not exist in world football, and the little that does should be resolved with a ­handshake.

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In this week's review section, we congratulate The Czech Republic, The Republic of Ireland, Portugal and Croatia on Euro 2012 qualification, while Guus leaves Turkey and Suarez makes the back pages for the wrong reason.

You may have heard about this little disagreement between FIFA and the English FA over the use of poppies for England's friendly against Spain on Saturday. A compromise was finally reached, but that didn't stop Nike from taking things into its own power-tripping hands.

Nine England internationals will wear Nike boots embroidered with a poppy for the match.

FIFA have continued their tradition of embarrassing themselves on the world stage by refusing to let England wear poppies on their shirts during their friendly match with Spain. This latest PR disaster follows on from the recent gaffes of substantiated allegations of vote fixing for World Cup venues, refusing to deploy technology to make the game fairer and voting in their bumbling leader, Sepp Blatter, unopposed for a third term.

So why do I know so much about football?
Grew up in Burton-on Trent, England. We played the beautiful game in Burton now the centre of English Football excellence.
The beautiful game we learnt and played?
You know where you turned up in cars, waited for 2 minutes before the game - ran out, scored late on.

The English FA have announced that the England team at Euro 2012 will be based in the historic city of Krakow in Poland. The team will stay at the city centre Hotel Stary close to Rynek Square in the Old Town district and train at the rather dilapidated Hutnik Municipality Stadium on the city's outskirts.

The English FA has gone quiet when it comes to Patrice Evra, Luis Suarez, and allegations of racism, but with the case still theoretically open there's finally some new information to talk about. Plus Liverpool's inability to stick with Plan A even when it seems to be working and preparing for a public execution at Wembley in today's news and notes.

Remember that time I wrote that post which was neither funny nor insightful and wasted your time? Well, I've found an easy solution for both you, the reader, and me, the writer. Links!

Kaka conducts the greatest Q & A session in the history of soccer (Dirty Tackle)

Iranian football has its own regional rivalries.

I begin with a basic and ironic premise: when dealing with racism, we too often think in terms of black & white. No, not black people and white people, but rather innocence/guilt, right/wrong, good/evil. The most dangerous aspect of evil is its ability to snuff out empathy, even for its own evil bad-ass self.

Liverpool will seek assurances from the Football Association that Steven Gerrard's workload will be carefully managed in England's home friendlies against Spain and Sweden next month.
Gerrard only returned to first-team action at Anfield earlier this month after being sidelined since March with a groin injury.