Third-Time-Lucky? Will Wenger try to sign Paul Pogba for a third time? by GN
Wenger is reportedly interested in the ex-Man United youngster Paul Pogba who he tried to sign before he went to Old Trafford, and again when he became a Free Agent before he joined Juventus.
A strong presence in the central midfield position seems to be somewhat of a high priority for Arsenal this summer, with a variety of different names being discussed amongst the wide-spread majority.
This Post was originally published at Football is a Country. My thanks to them for permission to cross-post.
The French national anthem, La Marseillaise, is, if you think about it, a pretty nasty song. It dreams, in one of its more memorable verses, that the "blood of the impure" will "irrigate our fields.
Mark Clattenburg will referee Chelsea against Swansea this Sunday.
Despite Clattenburg's magnanimous efforts to put the recent racial accusations against him to bed, we can learn some lessons, lest another hapless victim falls foul to indiscriminate accusations of racism.
Liverpool's Luis Suarez and Chelsea's John Terry are two high-profile players who've been punished for racial abuse.
The FA announced this morning that "An Independent Regulatory Commission has today found a charge of misconduct against John Terry proven and has issued a suspension for a period of four matches and a fine of £220,000, pending appeal." The charge is in relation to the alleged racist remarks that John Terry aimed at QPR defender Anton Ferdinand in the October 23, 2011 match.
The FA announced this morning that "An Independent Regulatory Commission has today found a charge of misconduct against John Terry proven and has issued a suspension for a period of four matches and a fine of £220,000, pending appeal."...
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A Game Weekend is ought to be filled with excitement and quality. Nevertheless, the exciting fixtures lately were completely overshadowed by non-football related issues. The media's intervention has definitely irritated the matters, but unfortunately the players themselves have not helped in resolving the disputes either.
A Game Weekend ought to be filled with excitement and quality. Nevertheless, the exciting fixtures lately were completely overshadowed by non-football related issues. The media's intervention has definitely irritated matters, but unfortunately the players themselves have not helped in resolving the disputes either.
Having missed out on Euro 2012 due to manager Roy Hodgson electing John Terry over him,
Ferdinand is now being chagred by the English Football Association over remarks he made on Twitter
following the conclusion of Terry's recent trial.
The FA have today announced that Rio Ferdinand has been charged for comments he made on Twitter
in reference to Ashley Cole, who gave evidence in defence of John Terry in his trial following
allegations of racism towards Rio's brother, Anton.
"The allegation is that the player acted in a way which was improper and/or brought the game
into disrepute by making comments which included a reference to ethnic origin and/or colour and/or
race.
Ducky's Note: Krish Prashanth is a Chelsea fan and a student of
engineering, fast becoming a regular in the Blue Corner of this blog. In his last post, he looked
back at Chelsea's improbable Champions League victory. Here he provides his perspective on what
seems to be a never-ending sub-plot to football these days racism.
Chelsea boss Roberto Di Matteo has revealed that captain John Terry will return in the Blues'
uniform this Sunday when the European champions square off against French giants Paris St. Germain
in New York.
Di Matteo was speaking in his post-match press conference following Wednesday evening's 4-2
exhibition win over the Seattle Sounders when asked about the status of Terry, who was declared not
guilty last week in the alleged racism scandal involving QPR's Anton Ferdinand.
Sir Alex Ferguson has been fined €10,000 for refusing to speak to the media following Manchester United's unjust exit from the Champions League.
Last month UEFA fined Inter Milan €15,000 after their fans racially abused Mario Balotelli. Last year, Manchester City were fined more by UEFA for coming out late for the second half than Porto were for their fans racially abusing Balotelli in that game.
FIFA's new anti-racism chief wants to meet the perpetrators and victims of racial abuse in the Premier League - including John Terry and Luis Suarez - as part of a fact-finding mission. Jeffrey Webb, the president of the CONCACAF federation, said he wants to "hear both sides". Webb is to head up a new FIFA task force to tackle racism and is to come to England to see how the Football Association has responded to the Suarez and Terry cases.
John Aldridge's take on Luis Suarez's racial abuse of Patrice Evra has always been embarrassing, but after reading his latest Sunday World column, it appears as though it's not just his Liverpool bias which has lead him to look like an ignorant prick when it comes to racism.
To give you some context to Sunday's column, here is a selection of some of Aldridge's most ridiculous remarks on the issue, which come from several different articles he has written.
Spotted at Stamford Bridge last night, it seems like several Manchester United fans got creative with their Crayolas...
United fans also pledged their support for referee Mark Clattenburg, who is currently the subject of an FA and police investigation after Chelsea accused him of using racial slurs against John Obi Mikel after losing to United in the league on Sunday.
In 2009, Juventus had to play a game behind closed doors after their fans racially abused Mario
Balotelli following the goal he scored against them for Inter Milan in a 1-1 draw. This wasn't the
first or last occasion that this club has had issues with racism though.
Last October they were fined €10,000 for racist chanting in another game against Inter Milan
and were dished out a repeat punishment in January this year after Colombian wing-back Pablo Armero
and Cape Verde-born Switzerland midfielder Gelson Fernandes were the victims of racist chanting
during both the first and second half in a game against Udinese.
Lazio have accrued a total of €180k in fines for three separate racist incidents in the group stages of the Europa League this year. Including €40k for racist behaviour at the Lane, UEFA reports....
"Lazio have been fined €90,000 for the racist behaviour of their fans, throwing of missiles and/or fireworks, incidents of a non-sporting nature, late handling of their team sheet and late arrival at the stadium, at the UEFA Europa League group stage match against Tottenham Hotspur FC on 22 November 2012 in Rome.
Uefa have fined Lazio the paltry amount of 40,000 euros (£32,500) following racist chanting by their fans during a Europa League game at Tottenham last month.
Jermain Defoe, Aaron Lennon and Andros Townsend were reportedly subjected to monkey chants during the match.
In a whitewashing campaign Uefa is planning on using the Champions League and Europa League matches next week to showcase activities organised by the governing body and the equality group Football Against Racism in Europe.
Lazio were today fined £32,500 for their racist abuse towards Tottenham's black players during our UEFA cup game.
Meaningless fines continue to be handed out for racist behaviour, the idea I assume is to prevent further incidents. Likedisciplininga child, they might get told off for doing something they're not supposed to, next time they might get a smack, said child won't like getting smacked so presumably they won't do it again.
Unbelievable comments last week fromSpain‘s football federation chief who denied that racism is a problem in Spanish soccer despite several racist incidents among its fans at Euro 2012 andLa Ligamatches.
Angel Villa Llona, president of the Spanish FA and a member of both FIFA and UEFA's executive committee was asked how racism in Spanish football compared to the game in England, which has had two high-profile abuses cases in the last year, Villa Llona said:
West Ham player Matt Jarvis features on the cover of a gay magazine to tackle issues regarding homophobia
It is reassuring to know that football, and those within the game, can still play a part in attempting to tackle some of those issues which affect many in society. In the past two days we have seen the actions of two individuals whose respective stances against racism and homophobia grab media attention for all of the right reasons.
A friendly match between AC Milan and lower division Pro Patria turned ugly when racist chants from the home crowd directed towards Kevin Prince Boateng resulted in AC Milan's players walking off the pitch on Thursday.
The video below shows AC Milan's Kevin Prince Boateng on the ball in front of a set of Pro Patria supporters before he picks up the ball and kicks it at them in outrage.
Ex-Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish says the controversial decision to wear t-shirts in support of Luis Suarez following racism allegations against him was not made by him. He claims the decision was made by the players. He told talkSPORT: "I didn't send them out in the T-shirts. The boys decided that themselves.
You remember our run in with Sachin Nakrani a few months ago. He posted that well known picture
from years ago of a Chelsea fan doing the Nazi salute with his daughter in his arms and claimed
that it was from Chelsea's FA Cup semi-final game against Spurs that day. Nakrani is a Liverpool
fan and obviously had taken offence to Chelsea fans singing "murderers" during the minute's silence
for Hillsborough, and fair enough.
Is Brendan Rodgers playing dirty in the transfer market? - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
Brendan Rodgers has entered Liverpool Football Club hoping to be a breath of fresh air, with
attacking football and positivity the key words. However, the Northern Irish manager seems to be
using negative tactics in the transfer market.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers says Luis Suarez has to "travel on" from last period's
antisemitism argument. HTTP://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image/62031000/jpg/_62031551_luissuarez.jpg
The fallout from the racism that overshadowed England U21′s victory in Serbia this week continues after the Serbian FA released an inflammatory video on their official YouTube account. The video is entitled: "Danny Rose is lying to whom?" It's accompanied by a lengthy spiel, which digs further into the Serbian position that there was no [.
The Serbian FA have claimed that they saw no ships in Krusevac.There was, in their own words, 'no racism' during England U21s game against their Serbian counterparts. Remember, the one that was played amid a relentless chorus of monkey chanting?
Racism rears it's ugly head again in Serbia tonight
England's Under21 football team clinched a spot in next years Under 21 European Championships with a 1-0 win tonight over Serbia but the match ended in ugly scenes sparked off by racist abuse of the black England players by Serbian fans. UEFA has now a serious decision to make regarding disciplinary action against the Serbian footballing community who are habitual offenders in race issues.
(Article cross-posted from "Muslim Feminisms" forum at The Feminist Wire) Members of the Iranian National Women's Football team (Source: FIFPro) On Friday, July 6, the French Football Federation announced that it would ban the wearing of hijab during all organized competitions held in France. The Federation declared that in doing so it was fulfilling [.
"He was born in Italy. He grew up two hours from Milan in a little town named Concesio, taken in by a white Italian couple when he was 3 years old. Balotelli's birth parents are immigrants from Ghana, and although he looks like them, he sounds like his provincial neighbors, speaking with the well-known Brescian accent.
It was a textbook case of "So close, Yet so far" for Malaga in the Champions League last night, as they crashed out to Dortmund on a 3-2 aggregate after Felipe Santana scored a last-gasp and controversial goal in the dying minutes of the game. Was it an offside goal?
New York Red Bulls striker Thierry Henry is advocating that soccer officials deduct points from teams as a way of punishment when fans are racist towards players. He didn't say that officials or governing bodies should absolutely do this but he at least had a good point.
Racism. It just won't go away will it. The game of football is currently blighted by incidents of racism both on and off the pitch. In my view none of the accused in the highest profile cases over the last 12 months have a leg to stand on despite their best, and frankly hard faced, [...]
This 'ere is the work of artist James Hible, a couple of A1 posters entitled 'Football
Anecdotes: The Beautiful Game?' which documents everything about the modern game that fills our
James with venomous rage. As the man himself explains:
"Football is a big passion of mine and what these posters highlight is the problems affecting
the beautiful game.
The middle class and education needs to move forward in this country, anyone thinking differently
shouldn't be reading this site.
It is like the Obama campaign says, the country needs to be built back up from the middle class
outward.
The top-down economics may have worked in the past because there was enough excess and enough
illegal immigration to make up for the needs of businesses.
