The new Indian League franchise got their squads ready during the week, with a fantasy league type auction.

The six week run tournament, seen each team bid for an "Icon" player and a foreign coach set up in the same style as the Indian one day cricket format currently used to great effect.

Photo by Jose L. Argueta/ISIphotos.com

By AVI CREDITOR

Santino Quaranta likely deserved a less abrupt end to his playing career. Instead, he is getting an unprecedented chance at a new beginning.

After not being offered a new contract with D.

Like an outdated fantasy league auction, the new Premier League Soccer featuring six teams based in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal bid for the rights to sign several "icon" players." Hernan Crespo, who scored nine goals for Parma last season, drew the highest bid and went for $840,000 (£536,000) at the sprightly age of 36.

The new tournament in India had its auction today. A quick refresher for those who allow quirky short-term tournament formats to slip from the back of their minds (shame): five teams, each team bids for a leading "icon", along with two foreigners and a manager, with a wage budget of $2.5m. (How much is being ballparked for the icons 30-40%?

Fabio Cannavaro. Sought after wherever he goes, apparently. Here, he's attracting a bit of interest from local kids in Phnom Penh on January 9th. Image: STR/AFP/Getty Images.

We're not going to get wrapped in the complexities of the newly founded Premier League Soccer tournament in India for two reasons.

Fabio Cannavaro will begin his Indian journey this February

This Monday, the six franchises of the new IPL styled soccer league put down bids for the marquee players. Fabio Cannavaro, the 38 year old former Ballon D'Or defender drew the highest bid of $830,000 and was sold to Siliguri.

By Alan Duffy

"F**king kick him, you ponce" Peter Reid, bringing the beautiful game to the India

Trying to break the massive, all-conquering hold cricket has on India ain't gonna be easy, but the organisers of the new Indian Premier League Soccer tournament are doing their best to get the locals interested by getting a number of ex-greats involved.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

The U.S. women's national team won 14-0 over the Dominican Republic on Friday. Yes, the women's soccer team won by that score. Amy Rodriguez scored five goals.

At halftime, Abby Wambach told her teammates to keep scoring in the Olympic qualifier, despite being up 7-0, because goal differential can impact Olympic qualifying qualifying.

Fabio Cannavaro: "She has nice..

Marco Borriello: "..hair"

Care to enter your own?

Fabio's clearly loving this.. [read more]

Former Liverpool strikers Robbie Fowler and Fernando Morientes have reportedly agreed to join a revamped Indian football league.
The format, which hopes to replicate the cricketing success of the Indian Premier League (IPL), is apparently attracting stars such as Fabio Cannavaro, Juan Pablo Sorin and Robert Pires.

With Martin Luther King's legacy being commemorated across the country, it's an eye-opening shame that blatant forms of racism still exist around the world, specifically in the soccer forum.

Over the weekend, U.S. midfielder Maurice Edu and Rangers teammate Kyle Bartley were the subject of racial abuse via Twitter, an incident that resulted in the arrest of a 41-year-old man who was due to appear in a Scottish court on Monday.

The practice of veteran stars seeing out their careers in lesser leagues isn't exactly new, nor is it rare. The Middle East has been using oil-soaked checks to lure eager foreigners for years. And yet, this weekend might just take the cake for odd locations and trail-blazing new football landscapes.

Indians will see Roberto Pires in action next month

Instant cricket, the 20/20 version has found a home in India's Premier league, one of the world's most lucrative sporting brands, till corruption eroded its worth. The success of the IPL is inspiring a new soccer league in India which will see the likes of Roberto Pires, Fabio Cannavaro, Juan Pablo Sorin, and others participating in a soccer competition styled on the IPL format.

Last year the Indian Football Association announced it would be launching Premier League Soccer in early 2012, with six franchises. The franchises are located in Kolkata, Howrah, Asansol, Midnapore, and Siliguri. When the league was announced, IFA also stated that each team would have one icon player and a maximum of three overseas players and one overseas player from Asia.

Fabio Cannavaro and Robert Pires will be two of the six icon players for the IPL-like Premier League Soccer, to be kicked off in the state from February 25.

By Chris Wright

A gaggle of footballing legends turned out for the UN's ninth annual 'Match against Poverty' last night, which saw a squad of 30-odd luminaries such as Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo (who are both UN Goodwill Ambassadors), Didier Drogba, Fernando Couto, Luis Figo, Edgar Davids, Pavel Nedved and Fabio Cannavaro take on a Hamburg SV All-Stars side in front of a 24,000-strong crowd in Germany.

French great Zinedine Zidane and Brazilian icon Ronaldo put on their annual Match Against Poverty event Tuesday, taking on a team of Hamburg SV All-Stars in Germany, and the legend-laden squad did not disappoint.

Ronaldo scored as part of his team's 5-4 victory, with proceeds from the event going toward combating poverty in the Horn of Africa.

The curtains were finally drawn on the Calciopoli trial yesterday when chief suspect Luciano Moggi was found guilty of sporting fraud and sentenced to 5 years and 4 months in prison.

The 74 year old was director of Juventus during the infamous 2005/2006 season when the club was demoted to Serie B for its involvement in match fixing scandals that saw them win the league that season.

The Golden ball has released their shortlist of players of which one will be chosen as the undisputed best player for this past year. Yet, as it's been the case for a couple of years now, the shortlist raised more questions than provided answers.

The list, which is chosen by France Football Magazine, has always had its critics although as of late, it has attracted more widespread criticism than ever before.

In 1996 Olympic Games, Italy played its second game against Ghana. Both lost their first game 0-1: Ghana lost to South Korea and Italy to Mexico. It will be a definite disaster for the team that will lose this game. Italy had some great names like Gianluca Pagliuca, Alessandro Nesta, Fabio Cannavaro.

Italy have had a solid qualifying campaign for Euro 2012, which has seen the side go unbeaten and concede a mere two goals. The side has also looked impressive in some recent friendlies, beating World Champions Spain 2-1 back in August. Although it could be argued that the Spain squad fielded that day was somewhat experimental, it is still quite an achievement for a national side that only a year previously was in crisis and bereft of confidence.

Serie A expert Eric Giardini is just that. Here, on Roma

This past week marked the 2011 version of the Leaders in Football conference which, according to its website, was created to provide a "networking environment in order to bring together football's most important leaders to share knowledge, best practice and ideas.

Don't blame yourselves for not recognising that noise. That, dear friends, is the sound of the Kickette office, moments after being stunned into awed silence by the above image. Credit: Claudio Villa/Getty Images Europe.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support over the years.

Manchester City is one of the best club in the World. In the last years they have bought amazing players, such as David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Samir Nasri, Yaya Toure and Edin Dzeko, plus they have a great manager like Roberto Mancini. However the winning in the match of tomorrow agaist Naples is not to be taken for granted.

When we are not refreshing Net-a-porter or scoffing down Jaffa cakes (well, some of us scoff Jaffa cakes, some prefer Bourbons) we like to ponder life's big questions – what should Becks do about his bald patch? How did Joe Hart get his bum to look like that? WWJD with David Villa's soul patch?

And to think: people often accuse us of being superficial.

Royston Drenthe has expressed his excitement at joining Everton on loan by launching an astonishing attack on Real Madrid, where is contract will expire at the end of this season.

Although the Dutchman insists he learned a lot during his time in La Liga, he firmly believes that the club has declined in recent years.

Royston Drenthe has expressed his excitement at joining Everton on loan by launching an astonishing attack on Real Madrid, where is contract will expire at the end of this season.

Although the Dutchman insists he learned a lot during his time in La Liga, he firmly believes that the club has declined in recent years.

By Sam Blakeley, writing from London

To the uninitiated, the ‘number 10' in football is that archetypal player who links midfield with attack, floating between the two and becoming the playmaker of the side. He must be blessed with vision, composure, awareness, and an incredible range of passing, culminating in an almost extra-sensory ability to control the game and be within and without everything that happens going forward for the team.

This image would have made for a fabulous Christmas card if Claire Scholes had been wearing a United kit. Reuters/Daylife.

We're surprised that Paul Scholes testimonial was a football match. If the event had truly been in keeping with his well-known reticence to take the spotlight, a celebration of his career should have taken place in the back room of a small pub in Oldham, involved a few close friends and team-mates and possibly a game of darts.

By Chris Wright

'Twas Paul Scholes' testimonial last night, and the United leg-end was sent merrily on his way by a sold-out Old Trafford, though not before the he opened the scoring against the Eric Cantona-helmed New York Cosmos (who boasted Fabio Cannavaro, Patrick Vieira, Brad Friedel, Michel Salgado and Robbie Keane amongst their number) with a trademark peach from the edge of the area after only eight minutes.

By Chris Wright

'Twas Paul Scholes' testimonial last night, and the United leg-end was sent merrily on his way by a sold-out Old Trafford, though not before the he opened the scoring against the Eric Cantona-helmed New York Cosmos (who boasted Fabio Cannavaro, Patrick Vieira, Brad Friedel, Michel Salgado and Robbie Keane amongst their number) with a trademark peach from the edge of the area after only eight minutes.

United (from): De Gea, Kuszczak, Lindegaard, Amos; Evra, Jones, Ferdinand, Smalling, Vidic, Fabio, Rafael, Evans; Anderson, Giggs, Park, Carrick, Nani, Scholes, Young, Fletcher, Valencia, Obertan, Gibson, Cleverley, Pogba, Norwood, Morrison; Owen, Berbatov, Rooney, Welbeck, Macheda, Diouf.

A couple of years ago, when Brian was running his "Inner Life of ... " posts, I wrote to him to suggest that this would be a good representation of the Inner Life of Fabio Cannavaro. Cannavaro may be the calmest defender I've ever seen, and his on-pitch serenity stemmed directly from his uncanny positional awareness.

A couple of years ago, when Brian was running his "Inner Life of ... " posts, I wrote to him to suggest that this would be a good representation of the Inner Life of Fabio Cannavaro. Cannavaro may be the calmest defender I've ever seen, and his on-pitch serenity stemmed directly from his uncanny positional awareness.

Gary Neville to line-up against Manchester United A host of big-name players of varying degrees of being past-it have been named in a New York Cosmos squad that will face Manchester United in Paul Scholes' testimonial match. United will face the Cosmos at Old Trafford on August 5 as they American outfit take to the [.

Gary Neville to line-up against Manchester United A host of big-name players of varying degrees of being past-it have been named in a New York Cosmos squad that will face Manchester United in Paul Scholes' testimonial match. United will face the Cosmos at Old Trafford on August 5 as they American outfit take to the [.

By Chris Wright

...for Paul Scholes' testimonial at Old Trafford on August 5th.

MWUHAHAHAHAHA!!!

The Cosmos' Pele-assembled, 17-man squad in full:

Nicky Butt, Sol Campbell, Fabio Cannavaro, Brad Friedel, Robbie Keane, Brian McBride, Gary Neville, Michel Salgado, Patrick Vieira and seven U23 Cosmos players; Chad Calderone, Ibrahim Diaby, Stefan Dimitrov, David Diosa, Marvin Iraheta, Dane Murphy, Yanik Reyering, Moriken Sangary.

Former U.S. men's national team stars Brian McBride and Brad Friedel will be among the list of standouts who will suit up for the New York Cosmos in the Paul Scholes Testimonial Match against Manchester United at Old Trafford on Aug. 5th (on Fox Soccer Channel).

Scholes will be playing in his final match for Manchester United, ending one of the most impressive careers in the club's storied history, and the New York Cosmos is putting together a star-studded squad to face Scholes and United in that final match.

So here it is. The first non-youth team that will don the colors of the fabled NY Cosmos since the Reagan administration. What do you think? There's some great old names there like Fabio Cannavaro, Brian McBride and Brad Friedel but there's quite a lot of young blood from the academy.
Sure, they'll most likely be sacrificial lambs for Paul Scholes' going out party but hey, there are worst things to achieve as a young American soccer player than playing alongside Patrick Vierea and Gary Neville against Manchester United at Old Trafford wearing the same kit that Pele & Beckenbauer wore.

Paul Scholes. Not just a fan's favourite, judging by the star studded cast lining up to play in his testimonial. Image: Reuters/Daylife

Last night, during Manchester United's 7-0 tonking of Seattle Sounders, the The New York Cosmos released their roster of footballers who will be gracing the Old Trafford pitch for Paul Scholes' upcoming testimonial.