The old state of Czechoslovakia was prominent in world football and had contested two world cup finals, in 1934 and 1962. The Czech breakup spawned two new countries – Czech Republic and Slovakia. Czech Republic maintained a degree of success but South Africa 2010 will be Slovakia's first major finals . Click to continue reading...

Image via Wikipedia Although many have called it unfair, the seeding system adopted for the play off matches to decide the final four European teams that will make it to the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa, has produced four potentially exciting match ups. The two leg matches will be played on November 14th [. Click to continue reading...

The playoff between the Repiblic of ireland and France to see who makes it to the 2010 World Cup finals is set to take place in the 14th of November but at the moment one of Irelands key players, Damien Duff, looks set to miss the match with the news ... Click to continue reading...

According to Fran Merida's agent, the 19-year old is tempted by a move to Atletico Madrid. Impressive with Spain's Under 20 side in the World Cup Finals and scorer of an amazing goal against Liverpool ...

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According to Fran Merida's agent, the 19-year old is tempted by a move to Atletico Madrid. Impressive with Spain's Under 20 side in the World Cup Finals and scorer of an amazing goal against Liverpool ... Click to continue reading...

Saudia Arabia's soccer chiefs are head-hunting former Liverpool pair Gerard Houllier and Rick Parry to sort out their football.
The oil-rich government plan to recruit former Kop chief Houllier as their new director of football to oversee the national team and their top sides.
Houllier is in charge of France's football empire and could even be allowed to do both jobs - although the cash in the Middle East may tempt him to go there full-time. Click to continue reading...

Time is short today, so the weekly stadium spotlight series takes a brief look at a stadium that has a considerable transformation planned for it.

In May, the twelve host cities for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil were announced. One of the winning bids was Fortaleza, the state capital of Ceará in Northeastern Brazil.

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Has to be a quick one this weekend due to the imminent arrival of most of wife's family for lunch, then I'm straight off to a game in the Championship. Last weekend I managed to watch no football whatsoever due to a family gathering and a wedding ('Likely Lads' moment: I was the guest with the mobile phone looking at score updates from Liverpool/Man UÂ during the speeches), so I'm looking forward to this weekend, especially Ajax v Feyenoord tomorrow lunchtime (ESPN)

It's about an hour or so to go before the lunchtime game: Arsenal v Spurs (12:45pm, Sky Sports 1) looks a tasty one, Arsenal have won all four of their home league games this season and Spurs have a decent away record; the rest of today's slate is notable for the players that are missing.

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Big Story
MLS looks like it will kick off next season without its two biggest stars, David Beckham and Cuauhtemoc Blanco, with the former set for a return to Milan and the latter returning to Veracruz.

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Liverpool's defender Fábio Aurélio was handed the chance of winning a place in Brazil's World Cup squad yesterday when he was named for next month's friendlies against England in Doha and Oman in Muscat.
The coach, Carlos Dunga, has named a 24-man squad made up of Europe-based players in order not to disrupt Brazilian clubs in the run-in to their championship. Click to continue reading...

Martin O'Neill has expressed his delight at the form of Aston Villa number two Brad Guzan, who has so far been restricted to the sidelines as fellow countryman Brad Friedel occupies the number one spot. O'Neill claims that Guzan is so good that he could walk into virtually any Premier League side, tipping the former Chivas USA player as a potential United States number one.

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For almost 60 years, Lyon have been playing in the Stade de Gerland, a venerable old stadium built in 1914 and a World Cup finals venue in 1998. But their recent run of success of eight consecutive championships from 2002 to 2008 has Lyon planning a rich new future at the Grand Stade in eastern Lyon.

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A pair of young prospects were linked over the weekend with imminent moves to the club. Firstly, Slovenian midfielder Rene Krhin - currently at Inter, who The People suggest is all but a done deal:

Krhin should join Hughes's revolution in the New Year, with City keen to do business now before he costs even more - and possibly appears in the World Cup finals for his country next summer.

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The Beauty: You can't deny that Brazilian soccer players have historically been the world's best. Exhibit A: Pele. Exhibit B: Ronaldo. I rest my case. You also can't deny that Brazilian models have historically been the world's hottest. Exhibit A: Gisele.

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This week's Video Of The Week is "Heading For Glory", the official film of the 1974 World Cup Finals in West Germany. There was no English presence (although with the benefit of hindsight there was no disgrace in being knocked out by a Polish side that didn't get a million miles from reaching the final of the competition), but Scotland began their four-yearly routine of almost getting to the Second Round of the competition, the Dutch fielded possibly the best ever international team to not win a World Cup, East Germany met West Germany for the only time (and beat them) and Gerd Muller eventually won the tournament fof the host nation.

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Tradegy confirmed in bordering Venezuela.

At least 10 bodies believed to be those of a kidnapped Colombian football team have been found across the border in Venezuela.
The bodies, with multiple gunshot wounds, were found in Tachira. One of the team is reported to have survived.

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On this week's main report we take a look at the world football governing body FIFA.

Main Report 11 Transcript

'It is an institution that ... has taken on a social, cultural, political and sporting dimension in the struggle to educate children and defeat poverty. At the same time it has also become a powerful economic phenomenon.

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Last night, the Chicago Fire made their latest induction into the club's Ring of Fire, which acknowledges heroes of the team's history. Added last night was Chris Armas, joining Bob Bradley, Piotr Nowak, Lubos Kubik, Frank Klopas and Pitch Invasion's own Peter Wilt in the Ring. Despite the pouring rain all night, Fire supporters, including myself, stayed in the stands to recognise Chris at an excellent half-time ceremony, midway through a critical game that eventually saw the Fire reach the MLS playoffs after a 1-0 win over Chivas USA.

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Jonas Gutierrez had two goals this season, and one to get Argentina to the World Cup Finals next year has already been achieved. Jonas Gutierrez next goal get Newcastle promoted The second goal is to get Newcastle promoted and it seems that the Argentine International is more than determined to ensure Newcastle are [. Click to continue reading...

These are exciting time for Newcastle Jonas Gutierrez but he has come crashing back to earth after Newcastle's two defeats since he returned from Argentina's triumph in qualifying for next summer's World Cup Finals in South Africa. Jonas Gutierrez - helped Argentina qualify for World Cup finals Jonas talked about Argentina's dramatic qualification today: "We needed to [. Click to continue reading...

According to AP, Nestor de la Torre, the director of national teams for Mexico said today that the national team is preparing to play eight times in friendlies between now and next summer's World Cup finals in South Africa. The...

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It's been seven matches since West Ham last tasted the joy of victory. Struggling from defensive lapses, visibly lacking goalscoring power and down on luck, West Ham faces a difficult London derby against "le magnifique" Arsenal. To hope for victory would be bordering on impossible but there is reason to be bullish. Click to continue reading...

On the most emotional night in Argentinian football history, Diego Maradona celebrated Argentina's direct qualification for South Africa World Cup Finals 2010 with a sexually provocative and profanity loaded outburst towards media critics and doubters alike.
This is what Maradona let fly during that now-famous TV interview,

"To those who did not believe in us, and I apologise in advance to the ladies present, they can go and suck my c*** and they can keep sucking it," he said.

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Fit-again Liverpool defender Daniel Agger has vowed the Reds will get things right and drag themselves out of their current crisis.
Five defeats this season already in all competitions has turned a harsh spotlight on Liverpool ahead of Tuesday's Champions League Group E home clash with Lyon. Click to continue reading...

The four playoffs for the European Zone of World Cup 2010 qualification are:
Republic of Ireland v France
Portugal v Bosnia-Hercegovina
Greece v Ukraine
Russia v Slovenia
France, Portugal, Greece and Russia as the seeded teams are favorites with the bookies to progress to the World Cup finals in South Africa. Click to continue reading...

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The Croatian international, who also suffered the heartache last week of seeing his country fail to qualify for the World Cup finals, was expected to be back in action by now.

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The new Ghana home football shirt that they will wear throughout the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa has now been released. Ghana, nicknamed the Black Stars, first appeared at the World Cup in 2006 failing to qualify in previous years but have now qualified for two tournaments in ... Click to continue reading...

The new 2010-11 Ghana away football shirt that they will wear throughout the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa has now been released. Ghana, nicknamed the Black Stars, had failed to qualify for the World Cup prior to the 2006 tournament in Germany but have now qualified for two ... Click to continue reading...

The Republic of Ireland will have to beat former World Cup winners France over two legs if they are to make it to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Giovanni Trapattoni's side will contest the tough play-offs ties against the 1998 champions on 14 and 18 November.

Elsewhere, Portugal will play Bosnia-Herzegovina, Greece face Ukraine and Russia meet Slovenia.

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England will play Brazil in a friendly game in Doha, Qatar, on 14 November 2009. The date falls in the last international break of the year and also coincides with the final World Cup qualifying playoffs. Both England and Brazil qualified at the top of their respective groups and therefore directly qualified for next year's World Cup finals.

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The FIFA World Cup finals are the biggest event in the sporting calendar and in the summer of 2010, the world's eyes will descend on South Africa as 32 nations compete for the most prestigious trophy in the world - the World Cup. For the leading sportswear manufacturers Nike, Adidas and ... Click to continue reading...

The new 2010-10 Ivory Coast away football shirt for the 2010 World Cup finals was made available for purchase this week after Cote D'Ivorie became the second African nation to secure their place at the finals in South Africa following their 1-1 draw with Malawi. The Ivory Coast World Cup shirt is manufactured by . Click to continue reading...

Well first the bad news. Sergeant Wilson is a likely absentee today after helping Honduras qualify for the World Cup Finals on Thursday. However, he carries possibly the best no-show excuse in the history of the game, as he is returning late on account of having been ordered to stay behind and party, by the country's ruling military junta.

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A very interesting day today, perhaps more so than initially meets the eye: much has been made of Torres and Gerrard both being out when Liverpool face Sunderland at three, it should also be remembered that their only remaining half decent player Macherano played two hard games in South America this last week, working like a demon to get Argentina to the World Cup Finals; the result being that he is unlikely to be on top form; Sunderland should get a draw at the very least.

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The new Ivory Coast home football shirt for the 2010 World Cup finals has now been released. Ivory Coast became the second African nation to secure their place at the finals in South Africa after a 1-1 draw with Malawi. The Ivory Coast World Cup shirt is manufactured by Puma, who ... Click to continue reading...