Nice commercial by Brahma made for the friendly tomorrow against England. I even cried a little

As expected, David Beckham is done with the MLS for now (or is it forever?). The British beau is set to come back to AC Milan in January and although this is supposed to be another loan from LA Galaxy I find it hard to believe that he will go back to the States. AC Milan's vice-president, Adriano Galliani, said this is the only player coming in the next window.

Adidas is bringing back all balls used on World Cups since 1970. The commemorative set includes 10 balls and goes for $849.99. Each ball comes with its own ring stand commemorating the year in which it was used. Such a neat idea!

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In London today, USL founder and president emeritus Francisco Marcos and USL chief executive Alec Papadakis were scheduled to be hobknobbing at the prestigious Leaders in Football conference, "the world's most exclusive football business event where 1,000 senior executives linked to International Clubs, Leagues, Federations and Brands come together to learn, network and do business.

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Right now, Chelsea are hosting the Leaders in Football conference, billed as "the world's most exclusive football business event where 1,000 senior executives linked to International Clubs, Leagues, Federations and Brands come together over 3 nights and 2 days at Chelsea FC to learn, network and do business.

This week saw the annual release of the club's financial reports (The full report may be downloaded here). After much speculation for the last six months, especially from groups with their own agendas (i.e., Red & White Holdings, the media, and "Arsene Out!" supporters), we can finally see the true state of the club's finances.

It's one of the worst situations in football business, when you have no more opportunities to resort to excuses, especially when you're mainly responsible for the prosperity of your team.

Hertha BSC-manager Lucien Favre lived through this said situation at the press conference after Hertha's 1:5 loss against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and the six straight loss in a row.

Arsenal released their financial results today and the Gunners showed an increase in turnover and a record profit after tax of £35.2 million from results for the year ending May 31.

The turnover of the Gunners' parent holding company, which also has substantial property interests at the Highbury Square development, went up to £313.

Financial boost for north London club.

Arsenal have increased their turnover and made a record profit after tax of £35.2m for the year ending 31 May, according to figures released this morning.

The turnover of the London club's parent holding company, which also has substantial property interests at the Highbury Square development, went up to £313.

We all have to agree that that would be a great location to host a World Cup. Holland and Belgium combined can definitely do a great job and make fans and teams happy. What's your opinion?

The site Futebol Finance produced a list of the top 25 salaries of Brazilian footballers around the world. The surprise? The list has a number of players who are veterans or have not produced much in recent seasons. That shows us that even in football, the brand is what counts. What is also scary about the list?

With the end of the transfer window, Blog do PVC listed how many what players left the clubs playing the first division of Campeonato Brasileiro. And this was not a good harvest season. Only 31 players left. Last year, by the 22nd round, 53 players had left, and four more left until the end of the tournament.

The newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported that the Brazilian cities that will host the 2014 World Cup missed their first deadline. The nine cities that will use tax payers' money to build stadiums failed to publish the invitation to the bidding process by the final date set by the local organizing committee.

This Friday, Palmeiras closed the deal to have back Vagner Love. The striker who started his career at Palmeiras will return on loan and will stay, at no cost, until July of 2010. The move makes Palmeiras even more favorite for the Brazilian title while he expects to be closer to the national team as the 2010 World Cup is approaching and Dunga does not have a reserve forward.

FIFA published the second part of the interview with Diego Maradona, Argentina's god and coach. The funny part is, FIFA would not stop asking questions about Brazil. Ok, Brazil plays Argentina on September 5th and if Brazil wins, Seleção already qualifies for the World Cup while Argentina would be in serious trouble (could this cost Dieguito's job?

Globo Esporte published the numbers of Brazilian clubs for 2008. 21 clubs were included in the list. And only 6 of them did not have red ink in their final balances, which shows the state of the clubs.

Sao Paulo is the club that made more money R$160 million (about US$ 80 million).

Months ago, I mentioned the danger of the 2014 World Cup turn into drain for public money. The final destination: the pockets of corrupt Brazilian politicians. It seems the party just got started.

Blog do Jose Cruz, which investigates the politics of sports, showed yesterday that the city of Cuiaba, capital of Mato Grosso and one of the 12 hosts, already broke the rules to avoid the waste of tax payers' money.

We all know that bad refereeing in Brazil has no limits. Last weekend, the match between Corinthians and Botafogo added another example to the pile. Now, Blog do Birner started to compile that data proves that Brazilian football has a thing for yellow cards.

The blog is comparing the amount of cards given in Brazil and in the main European leagues.

Some of you may remember the scandal of result fixture in the 2005 Campeonato Brasileiro. At the time, referees Edílson Pereira de Carvalho and Paulo José Danelon were caught being bribed by "investors" to fix results that would benefit their bets in international websites. When caught, Carvalho was even jailed and confessed his participation.

On this Friday, Inter released the documentary about its 100 years. "Nada Vai Nos Separar" highlights the great moments in the history of the club its foundation, the important participation of the black community, the construction of its stadium, the three Brazilian titles and the titles of Copa Libertadores and the Club World Cup.

Blog do Paulinho published a picture of what is supposed to be the new third jersey of Palmeiras by Adidas. The jersey is blue and makes reference to when Palmeiras was called "Palestra Italia".

This is the first time this has ever happened. FIFA is allocating 120,000 free category 4 tickets to South Africans who are in worthy social and development initiatives linked to the World Cup. This was announced on August 14th by FIFA's president, Joseph Blatter and I believe it to be a good idea since it will give a chance to the ones putting on effort to get to see the greatest sport event on earth.

So a "new" (at least to me) study found what we already new: referees are biased towards the home team. The study called "The Influence of Social Forces: Evidence from the Behavior of Football Referees" by Thomas J. Dohmen was published in the Economic Inquiry in July of ­2008. One of the findings is that refs called 5-15 less fouls against the home team.

Well, I agree with that. England's boss Fabio Capello has sent his message: unless David Beckham returns to European football by the end of the year, he can kiss goodbye to joining the English team in South Africa in 2010. Coming from the bosse's mouth reiterates what everyone, including Becks, already knew.

Wenger plays Cool Hand Luke.

"In five months, if he doesn't prolong his contract, Chamakh will be free to talk to any club and Bordeaux won't get anything," Wenger told L'Equipe. "In the current context, to me, it is over. Let's say that at the moment it is terminated.

The difference is £10m.

One reason and only one reason for bringing Marouane Chamakh is that he has such a compelling last name. If he scores the winning goal for Arsenal against Man Utd, you can be sure to hear more Chamakhdowns.

But the big news is that the striker needs no Michael Owen like glossy brochure and is in London to negotiate on his behalf.

Kolo Toure told the BBC that Arsenal have sold their leaders

Listen Kolo so tell me something we didn't know.

"When you look at Arsenal you see all the great players have left and are now in the past,"

"Thierry Henry, Patrick Vieira and Ray Parlour have gone.

Elano is the newest addition to Galatasaray. The Brazilian was playing at Manchester City and has signed a 4-year deal with the Turkish club. Now, Elano show be getting more playing time, something which was not happening at Man City, and should have better chances of going to the World Cup in South Africa next year (Dunga has told him he needed more playing time in order to be eligible for going).

Funny ad! This is a sponsored post.

Bookmaker Paddy Power is launching its second wave of TV advertising ahead of the new football season.

The new ad, to be launched from August 4th, features legendary Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar promoting the firm's unique football betting concessions.

I think I can turn that question into a statement. With the World Cup in South Africa approaching, I am inclined to be against the vuvuzelas because, like we saw during Confederations Cup, it allows absolutely no space for chanting which is one of the beauties of being at a football match and screaming your lungs off.

Ibrahimovic will play with Barca's number 9 shirt. Hello Ibra!

Carlitos Tevez is no longer a Manchester United player. The Argentinian has signed a 5 year deal with Manchester City and will wear the blue #32 shirt. He wasn't cheap as well, the transaction went for about £25.5 million and is part of Man City's promise of pumping up the squad so that they can win some titles.

For those of you not in the loop, here's a quick summary: Donovan said to the media Beckham was unprofessional and not committed to Galaxy. Beckham replied Donovan should have talked to him directly and that that is unprofessional. Read more here. And this image below represents pretty much the end of the story.

Nicely done Lula! (thanks Limonada for the tip)

US defender Oguchi Onyewu has joined AC Milan on a three-year contract. A big deal, since no American has touched Serie A ground in 13 years - plus it's not everyday ay player joins AC Milan. The last one to play in Italy was Alexi Lalas, who played for Padova from 94-96.

Milan acquired Onyewu from Standard Liege in Belgium.