The mystery surrounding the death of Wales coach Gary Speed unraveled somewhat today at the official inquest.
While the coroner concluded there was not enough hard evidence to record a deliberate suicide, instead of just a cry for help presumably, we did learn that Speed and his wife had been having problems in their marriage and had rowed on the night he died.

Almost two years to the day since Robert Enke took his life by jumping from a bridge in front of an onrushing train, Gary Speed similarly took his own life.
Whatever the reason(s) behind Speed's decision, it will probably never become public.
Tributes have rightly come from across the footballing and political worlds including tweets from Michael Owen and Robbie Savage.

RIP GARY SPEED

Wow, we're still pretty traumatized as we write this. The football world has lost a great man, an all-round personality and footballer in Wales national coach, Gary Speed after he took his own life yesterday. Growing up, we used to watch him play for Wales with our proud grandpa (Speed has appeared a total of 85 times for country, which makes him the highest capped outfield player) and his suicide is surely a heavy burden for Speed's loved ones and fans everywhere to bear.

Referee Babak Rafati suicide attempt (Selbstmord)- Bundesliga Cologne Mainz game postponed is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Referee Babak Rafati suicide attempt (Selbstmord)- Bundesliga Cologne Mainz game postponed is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter The German Bundesliga game between Cologne ( Koln) and FSV Mainz 05 on Saturday, November 19, 2011 was postponed after referee Babak Rafati attempted suicide in the lead up to the fixture.

Kyle Barber wrote a review of Ronald Reng's recently translated book about Robert Enke. (Bundesliga Lounge) Nick Amies examined the reasons behind Mario Gomez' Super Mario form... (Deutsche Welle) Ryan Bailey wrote about how Union Berlin is planning to sell shares of its' soul.

Bei so viel Unvermögen, Doofheit, Blödheit fehlen einem echt die Worte. Steht die Torfrau irgendwo neben dem Tor und lümmelt da rum. Und als sie merkt, dass da ein Ball auf ihr Tor zurollt, tut sie was? Na klar, sie rennt gegen den Torpfosten und fällt um. Super Geschichte, klingt unglaublich, ist aber wahr wie [.

You may or may not have an interest in cricket, but I highly recommend a BBC radio show from this week for a listen to anyone interested in learning more about a taboo subject in the sporting world: depression, something that afflicts men and women in every sport but is too rarely talked about in a mature fashion.

Weltweit verzichten immer mehr Menschen bei ihrer Ernährung auf Fleisch. Das ist für die einen schick und hip, für andere aus gesundheitlichen Gründen lebensnotwendig und wieder andere wollen einfach aus prinzipiellen Gründen keine Tiere essen. Das aber ist alles kein Problem, jeder darf doch essen was er will, wo er will und wann er will.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Having mastered the Dutch/English crossover accent, McClaren's at it again and this time he's giving us his best impression of a German man speaking English, or should that be an Englishman, in Germany, speaking English, with a German accent? You decide.