So, France made it to the World Cup at the expense of the Republic of Ireland. Expected? Maybe. Still, the way Les Blues made it through is far more than questionable.

For those of you who were hibernating during the past week and somehow don't know how France qualified, Thierry Henry handled the ball 13 minutes into extra time and passed it to William Gallas, who headed the controversial goal allowing France to reach next year's finals with a 2-1 win on aggregate.

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Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni has vented his fury at FIFA in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport.
'I would like to know what have I done to (Sepp) Blatter,' Trapattoni said. 'If he explains it to me at least I would be calm.
'I often go to schools and speak of fair play. Click to continue reading...

Bad Thierry Henry. You cheated and you are the hero of all of France for it. Somewhere Michel Platini is dancing because you did it. Somewhere Sepp Blatter and the rest of FIFA are doing an Arsene Wegner impression. In Ireland your face will end up on dart boards and was the reason that children cried themselves to sleep last night. Click to continue reading...

Image via Wikipedia With Ireland reeling from "Le Hand of God" bookie Paddy Power have issued a whole host of special bets on the man who will forever be known as "cheating Thierry." Unfortunately for Irish fans and Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, the likelihood of justice prevailing look slim with odds of 33/1 the match gets [. Click to continue reading...

Congratulations FIFA, they've got the World Cup they wanted now haven't they, and I hope their proud of how they got it. It was a ridiculous decision to seed the World Cup play-offs in the first place, and ultimately prevent the the hard-work in qualifying of teams like Ukraine, Bosnia and of course the Republic of Ireland.

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When will this end!

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Former Manchester United defender Gerard Pique believes Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas will eventually return to European champions Barcelona and not join arch-rivals Real Madrid.

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On this week's podcast Internationals take centre stage. There are crucial World Cup play-offs and matches taking place around the world, but we focus on the Ireland v France match-up. We also review the football stories of the past week and make our predictions on the big games. Come along to the site at languagecaster.

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Deficit Cup

Michel Platini in settimana, ha citato a solo termine di esempio, alcuni club europei che adottano una strategia di gestione economico-finanziaria, lontana dagli obbiettivi primari dell'attuale esecutivo Uefa. Tra questi, l'ex fuoriclasse della Juventus, ha inserito l'Internazionale del presidente Moratti, il figlio di Angelo.

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While Michel Platini's plans for reform in European soccer may, at first glance, appear a serious threat to English soccer club Liverpool's future in European competition, the club's long-term future may be significantly brighter once the new measures are put in place.
Liverpool were one of the clubs namechecked by Platini when discussing his reforms in an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper, saying: "If Liverpool pay €60 million (interest) every year to the banks, it's a lot of money. Click to continue reading...

For once, UEFA President Michel Platini has said something nice about England. Platini has said a lot about the Premier League's spending, which was mainly aimed at Man United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and more recently Manchester City. However he didn't say anything about Real Madrid's spending and other high profile European clubs. Click to continue reading...

Yup, you guessed it... Michel Platini, better known as the Antichrist, is once again in the media criticizing Arsenal and Arsene Wenger. It is truly amazing how Platini has turned into a one-man crusade against Arsenal and his fellow countryman. We here at Arsenal Station have not long forgotten his psychologically-disturbed rant last season during which he exhibited the full extent of his obsession and disgust with Arsene Wenger.

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It had always looked a desperate, last-ditch attempt to avoid introducing video technology, but on Thursday night the true folly of Michel Platini's idea to introduce an extra assistant referee behind each goal in Europa League matches was truly exposed. Click to continue reading...

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Remember that fabulous Parma team that lifted the UEFA Cup in 1999?

Led then by manager Alberto Malesani the team was made up of superb talent from the back to the front. A young Gainluigi Buffon kept goal, protected by a back three of Lillian Thuram, Fabio Cannavaro and Nestor Sensini.

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Jesus Christ, he can't even shake hands correctly.

[Photo: Reuters]

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Uh, which club was from Romania, Ribin or Unirea

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Alternate headline: Holy crap! Who beat Barcelona?

Michel Platini is the reform-minded president of UEFA, European soccer's governing body.

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After Liverpool's opening day defeat to Spurs, Rafa Benitez shocked the football world with a tasteless, highly offensive gag at the expense of referee Phil Dowd. Football fans, players and managers around the world were outraged by Benitez's heinous conduct, which according to the FA, plunged football into a ‘state of almost irreparable disrepute'. Click to continue reading...

While the Aughts have been full of speculation/proposal about the Old Firm joining the EPL, the 90's was about the Old Firm joining what was dubbed as the Atlantic League. It was a joint proposal from the big clubs in the Netherlands, Scotland and Portugal. ESPN is reporting that there may be another attempt at this break away league, which would involve the aforementioned clubs along with Belgium and the Scandinavian clubs.

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I've lost all respect for FC Barcelona.
Of course they have the living legend Thierry Henry and on their day football-wise they are almost as good as Arsenal reserves but thats about it for me. To put it politely, they can go fuck themselves.
Its not Chico time but it has to be time for UEFA, FIFA or the WWE to throw the book at the Catalan's. Click to continue reading...

Once again, it's that time of the calendar. I expect the US to take care of business, so I'll be looking at how the other matches will affect us.
If you haven't heard, the big news is that Sepp Blatter announced a week ago that teams will be seeded in UEFA's World Cup qualifying playoffs. The eight playoff teams will be split into two pots based on their FIFA ranking. Click to continue reading...

UEFA president Michel Platini is (was?) in Israel and recently he was lauding the country and saying it could possibly host a tournament in the future.
Maybe he spoke to soon.
On Tuesday, six crazy Beitar Jerusalem fans interrupted a press conference apparently to berate Israel FA chairman Avi Luzon. Click to continue reading...

Apparently Zidane and Marco Materazzi have become the new Israel and Palestine since the Headbutt Heard Round The World at the 2006 World Cup final. The two have never kissed and made up, despite numerous attempts to bring peace between the two by surprisingly important people who must not have anything better to do with their lives.

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The biggest threat to football's credibility in modern times Following Michele Platini's goal against Fulham last month, OTP can now lift the lid on another Brazilian player pretending to be a French superstar. Meet Makelele - or Leandro dos Santos de Jesus to his parents - of Brazilian outfit Coritiba. Click to continue reading...

At the weekend we discussed accusations of Serie A referees favoring bigger clubs and now we have similar accusations of French referees favoring French clubs in the Champions League. Well, not actual French clubs, because their success in the Champions League would be far too suspicious. No, they're accused of favoring the one good club that's more French than Gerard Depardieu in a beret Arsenal.

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As Arsenal prepare for Matchday 2 of the Champions League Group Stage this evening, it is hard to look at the changes made to this part of the tournament by Michel Platini, European football's equivalent to the anti-christ, as being, in any way, beneficial to the competition.

Platini's motives are somewhat sound, even if his execution is not.

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Back in June, as Major League Soccer was finding its stride on the other side of the Atlantic, Michel Platini and UEFA confirmed that this year's Europa League would be the testing ground for a new officiating structure.

By adding an 'additional assistant referee' behind each goal line, Platini hopes to do away with the cheating which occurs in the penalty area, from a playful tug on the shirt at a corner to the game's crime of the moment, diving.

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All the stuff being covered outside the unfriendly confines of the award winning Dirty Tackle...

The Telegraph's top 15 football websites. And we're #1. Though there were a few glaring omissions, I consider this a victory for all of us. As a collective force we can't be stopped.

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Our latest contributor to COS, Mr Rant, can get a little carried away so if there are any small children reading this, we apologise.

I'm sure they just hate English football.

They're talking about bringing in the 6-5 rule. They blame the amount of
foreigners in the English game on the national teams poor showing at recent
international competitions.

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In an exclusive interview for the Guardian, Manchester City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak criticized Michel Platini's planned control of football club expenditure. He has a point.

Platini wants new financial rules by 2012. Under those guidelines, Clubs would spend within their soccer-generated income.

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Anish references the six referee rule that Michel Platini has implemented for the Europa Cup and already David Moyes is irate because he believes that the goal line assistants missed a deliberate foul on Louis Saha by AEK's Juanfran which got the Everton striker sent off as he retaliated.

So why is it not going to work:

The Parallax error.

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Fate favours Uefa president Michel Platini's name was already destined to be written into the Europa League's brand spanking new history book given that he oversaw its introduction, but he made doubly sure last night by finding the net against Fulham. Well, his namesake at least. Brazilian striker Michel Platini Ferreira Mesquita found the perfect opportunity to [. Click to continue reading...

Por otra parte, también aseguró que "no hay ningún desencuentro" con el presidente de la UEFA, Michel Platini, que criticó los fichajes del Real Madrid. "Nos llamaron la atención sus declaraciones sobre el gasto en fichajes que hacíamos. Hablé con él durante el sorteo de la Liga de Campeones y me explicó que en ningún caso quiso criticar al Real Madrid. Click to continue reading...

Big Story

It's not quite what video replay advocates were hoping for, but Michel Platini is betting the experimental addition of two goal line officials during tonight's Europa League group stage opener will eventually silence critics and placate fans, managers, and players tired of diving players and dodgy goal mouth calls like the one made at Ashton Gate last month.

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There's a bit of a shakeup happening in the world of football right now, with more than one organization taking steps to self-correct the problems they've (more than likely) caused. First there was Europe's big spending clubs approving the Michel Platinin-led plan to only spend what they earn. No debt, no sugar daddies from 2012 onwards. Click to continue reading...

When Michel Platini's plan for clubs to spend only what they earn take effect, then prize money is going to get extra important. So now's the time for clubs to start thinking about income, and what better cash cow is there than the the UEFA Champions League? Jan beat me to this on Bundesliga Offside yesterday, [. Click to continue reading...