Sport Italia by Simon Martin Published by I. B. Tauris August 2011, £22.50, ISBN: 9781845118204 If anyone had any doubt about sport's ability to warp society, Simon Martin's sumptuous Sport Italia will leave them without arguments. A nation, remember, only since 1861; Italy has survived its first one and a half centuries by following the path described in Benedict Anderson's influential book, Imagined Communities – and sport has played an integral part in that.

SPANISH FOOTBALL continued today/tonight with Round 22 with four games scheduled of the SPANISH LEAGUE. Here are the final results & the scorers. Carmelo scores for Sporting REAL SPORTING DE GIJON had a new Coach & managed to draw 1 - 1 against OSASUNA. The locals started well & scored in the 31 st min, but then missed various occasions in the second half that made the team pay later when

Photo: Earl Gardner

UPDATE: The Union have officially announced that Kyle Nakazawa has been traded to the Los Angeles Galaxy along with a 2013 natural second-round pick in exchange for an international slot. The Union are now permitted to have nine internationals on their roster.

Leeds United have signed MLS star Robbie Rogers on an 18-month contract from Columbus Crew.
The 24-year agreed personal terms on January 10 but had to wait for his work permit to be approved before he could become officially part of the squad at Elland Road.
Rogers was given a taste of football in England in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Newcastle last week but was unable to feature for the reserves because not all of his paperwork had been completed.

AVB has responded today to claims made earlier in the week from Carlo Ancelotti that in order for Fernando Torres to step out of the shadows, Didier Drogba must be sold.
Let's just remind you of one thing, Villas-Boas very rarely likes to speak of individuals in relation to performances, he always focuses on the team.

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Pauno is gone. That much we know. Le Toux's status? Training with Bolton with the potential of a deal. Basically, completely up in the air. That makes this as good as any to look at the four strikers who will be battling to win playing time throughout 2012.

We all know that Harry likes to throw Ledley King into the big occasions if he possibly can and if there is a remote chance of the club captain being fit for Sunday's match with Manchester City, you can be fairly certain that the manager will use him.

The early prognosis on King's troublesome Hamstring was grim and it was expected that he would be out for another six weeks at least but after responding well to intensive treatment, he could make the final cut.

Liverpool has made Swansea midfielder Joe Allen one of their primary summer targets reports the Independent.
The 21-year-old Wales international has impressed in the Swans' debut Barclays Premier League campaign, and has captured the attention of a number of rival suitors.
His sensible use of the ball has helped teammate Leon Britton be ranked among Europe's leading passers - beating the likes of Barcelona duo Xavi and Andreas Iniesta.

By Alan Duffy

Wigan Athletic 0-1 Manchester City Premier League 16th January 2012

An Edin Dzeko header midway through the first-half was enough to give Manchester City a win at the DW Stadium on Monday night, a victory that puts them three points clear of rivals Man United at the top of the table.

Talksport: Man City v Man United, Arsenal v Liverpool and Leeds v Man United: what happens in the league when title challengers meet in the cup?

talkSPORT looks back at the occasions when title rivals have met in the FA Cup and how each team fared that season

View the full story here: Talksport

A news article on 2012-01-09 17:51:55 from: Talksport

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Talksport: Man City v Man United, Arsenal v Liverpool and Leeds v Man United: what happens in the league when title challengers meet in the cup?

talkSPORT looks back at the occasions when title rivals have met in the FA Cup and how each team fared that season

View the full story here: Talksport

A news article on 2012-01-09 17:51:55 from: Talksport

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Talksport: Man City v Man United, Arsenal v Liverpool and Leeds v Man United: what happens in the league when title challengers meet in the cup?

talkSPORT looks back at the occasions when title rivals have met in the FA Cup and how each team fared that season

View the full story here: Talksport

A news article on 2012-01-09 17:51:55 from: Talksport

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Talksport: Man City v Man United, Arsenal v Liverpool and Leeds v Man United: what happens in the league when title challengers meet in the cup?

talkSPORT looks back at the occasions when title rivals have met in the FA Cup and how each team fared that season

View the full story here: Talksport

A news article on 2012-01-09 17:51:55 from: Talksport

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Talksport: Man City v Man United, Arsenal v Liverpool and Leeds v Man United: what happens in the league when title challengers meet in the cup?

talkSPORT looks back at the occasions when title rivals have met in the FA Cup and how each team fared that season

View the full story here: Talksport

A news article on 2012-01-09 17:51:55 from: Talksport

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Talksport: Man City v Man United, Arsenal v Liverpool and Leeds v Man United: what happens in the league when title challengers meet in the cup?

talkSPORT looks back at the occasions when title rivals have met in the FA Cup and how each team fared that season

View the full story here: Talksport

A news article on 2012-01-09 17:51:55 from: Talksport

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Talksport: Man City v Man United, Arsenal v Liverpool and Leeds v Man United: what happens in the league when title challengers meet in the cup?

talkSPORT looks back at the occasions when title rivals have met in the FA Cup and how each team fared that season

View the full story here: Talksport

A news article on 2012-01-09 17:51:55 from: Talksport

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Michael Dawson declared that he was delighted to be back in the fold after his contribution helped Spurs to a 3-0 win over Cheltenham at the weekend. However the news was tempered with reports that club captain Ledley King has suffered yet another injury setback.

"It was great to be out there playing again," said Dawson after the match.

Talksport: Liverpool lead hunt for Dijon midfielder

Benjamin Corgnet has been watched by Reds on numerous occasions

View the full story here: Talksport

A news article on 2012-01-09 17:01:47 from: Talksport

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Forget Roy Keane, among the weapons the now former Bristol Rovers manager Paul Buckle had in his armoury was an icy stare that could single-handedly re-freeze the polar ice caps. I've seen it used on misbehaving players in training, at fans who've had a differing opinion, and at journalists (including myself) who've asked questions that he doesn't think are worth answering (which, on some occasions, has been a fair response).

Ireland international Simon Cox fired West Brom into the fourth round of the FA Cup with a hat-trick against Cardiff this afternoon.
Cox headed his first home from eight yards after a cross from Baggies captain Nicky Shorey. He doubled his tally in the 61st minute with a scorcher from 25 yards that gave Heaton no chance as it crossed the line after rattling off his post, and he sealed his hat-trick with an easy tap in from an Odemwingie pass.

Wolves captain Roger Johnson makes a return to his former hunting ground for the first time since his £8m transfer from Birmingham to Wolves last Summer and will expect the usual boo's a former player at any club gets.
Here's the tale of the tape for this Derby tie.

MATCH FACTS

Wolves have won the Cup 4 occasion's 1893,1908,1949 and 1960.

Liverpool host League One strugglers Oldham to-night with the home side looking to put right the wrongs of their 3-0 drubbing at Manchester City. The tale of the tape of these two side's are as follows:

MATCH FACTS
Liverpool have won the FA Cup on 7 occasions 1965,1974,1986,1989,1992,2001 and 2006.

One of the most pleasing moments to see in our game is a goal being scored from a dead ball situation, or primarily, a free kick. Over the course of history there have been numerous occasions where a player will simply make your jaw drop in striking a perfect shot past a flailing goalkeeper's hands from 20-35 yards out.

Liverpool is once again being linked with a move for talented young midfielder Ryad Boudebouz who was heavily linked with a switch to Anfield over the summer.
The 21-year-old impressed many with his superb performances for Sochaux last season and was reportedly close to leaving the Ligue 1 side in the summer but in was convinced by the clubs management to stay.

Often, when push comes to shove in radicalising a group of football supporters, it will take one, symbolic moment to push those that might otherwise have merely got on with the job of watching their team to realise that the time for action is now.

For those that follow the ailing Blue Square Premier club Kettering Town, that moment may have come at any of three or four different occasions over the last month or so, but the tipping point for many may have cone with twin five-goal defeats at the hands of Luton Town over Christmas and the New Year (results which plunged the club back into the thick of the relegation places at the bottom of the table), it with the release of an official club statement which sought, unsurprisingly enough, to place the blame for the club's woes at the foot of everybody but those with the overall responsibility for managing its finances.

One of the things that's surprised me this year is David Stockdale's distribution. Earlier in his Fulham career he seemed to be clearly better than Mark Schwarzer in this area. Now? Not so sure.

Take yesterday:

Which looks unfortunate: 31 possession concessions there (and I accept that we may have won a bit of second ball there, but on past form, probably not much, and not enough to justify just giving the ball back like that).

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has piled the praise on Maxi Rodriguez ahead of Friday's Premier League clash with Newcastle.
The Argentinian attacker is expected to play a key role against the Magpies, with striker Luis Suarez missing due to a one-match suspension.
Rodriguez has been prolific at Anfield with 11 goals in his last 12 home starts, including finding the back of the net in their Boxing Day draw with Blackburn.

Well that was frustrating, but not entirely unexpected. Just before writing this post I saw a Tweet by Orbinho (follow him) that summed up a lot of what's been going on with the side over the last year or so: in Arsenal's last 15 home games in the prem, they've only scored more than one goal on 4 occasions.

By Alan Duffy

West Bromwich Albion 0-0 Manchester City Premier League 26th December 2011

Good old Roy Hodgson and his merry band of Baggies became the first team in the league this season to stop the Citizens from scoring, after putting on a superb hard-working performance.

After watching this match I can see why dutch football is not where it was in the past. Although both teams tried to play and open game most of the time the ball was played around in the midfield and only on a few occasions, mostly on the counter, the ball reached a penalty box.
Feyenoord won the game with two goals to zero, both scored in counterattack situations and one of them with a lot of help from a naive and very young PSV central defender.

I am a big fan of Huntelaar and i still cannot understand why Milan let him go! Despite rescuing Milan on a number of occasions in the 2009/2010 season, Huntelaar was regularly used a substitute for the Rossoneri something that eventually led to his move to the Bundesliga.

The Dutch international has gone onto establish himself as a goal scoring machine for Schalke this season scoring 15 goals in 16 appearances for the German club.

Aston Villa 1 – 2 Arsenal Match Report

1st half observations from a bad stream

The first 45 minutes were pretty different from what I expected. Aston Villa did not close us down frantically and allowed Arsenal plenty of space. Especially Gervinho and Theo saw plenty of the ball, as Villa sat deep in the beginning, allowing our wingers to attack them from the sides.

Luis Suarez has been banned for eight matches and fined £40,000 by the Football Association for racially abusing Patrice Evra.

Evra told French TV he was racially abused by Suarez on 10 occasions during Manchester United's Barclays Premier League match at Anfield on October 15.

The FA said in a statement:

"An Independent Regulatory Commission has found a charge of misconduct against Luis Suarez proven, and have issued a suspension for a period of eight matches as well as fining him £40,000, pending appeal.

Luis Suarez has been banned for eight matches and fined £40,000 by the Football Association for racially abusing Patrice Evra.

Evra told French TV he was racially abused by Suarez on 10 occasions during Manchester United's Barclays Premier League match at Anfield on October 15.

The FA said in a statement:

"An Independent Regulatory Commission has found a charge of misconduct against Luis Suarez proven, and have issued a suspension for a period of eight matches as well as fining him £40,000, pending appeal.

England's Football Association has sent Liverpool striker Luis Suarez quite the message.

Suarez was handed an eight-game ban and fined £40,000 after the FA found him guilty of misconduct for using racist remarks toward Manchester United fullback Patrice Evra when their two clubs met on Oct.

It's common knowledge that Chelsea offered ridiculous money to try and sign Luka Modric back in the summer and Spurs stood firm and resisted our advances. You have to hold your hands up to them and say fair play to them really. Levy backed his manager, stood by him and look how well they are doing this season so far.

In March 2010, we produced a post on a peculiar bias in the decision making of Jon Moss, a then Football League Referee - "Doing A Little Deal Down The Moss" (http://footballisfixed.blogspot.com/2010/03/doing-little-deal-down-moss.html).
The post is reproduced in part below.
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"Yesterday, Jonathan Moss, a bog-standard referee from the wrong side of the Pennines, gave a fallacious penalty (the infringement occurred outside the penalty area) that allowed West Bromwich Albion to defeat Blackpool by 3 goals to 2.

By Alan Duffy

Newcastle United 0-0 Swansea City Premier League 17th December 2011

Newcastle have now gone five league games without a victory after failing to break down a stubborn Swansea side on Saturday afternoon.

According to the Daily Mail, Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is keen on bringing Borrusia Dortmund midfielder and reported Arsenal target Mario Gotze to Old Trafford. The newspaper is reporting that the sinister Scot had sent scouts to watch Gotze on four different occasions and that there were United scouts present during Germany's recent [.

It's been a few weeks since my last post, but I thought now would be a good time to see what has become of my Barclays fantasy premier league team.
As you can see from the earlier post, only Silva has been able to keep his spot in the team, all the other players have been forced to give their places to more suitable fantasy football players.