FIFA president criticises UEFA ‘disrespect’

Sepp Blatter has indicated he wants to seek a fifth term as FIFA president and called UEFA “disrespectful” following calls for his resignation.

He has been widely criticised over the damage corruption allegations have caused football's governing body.

But the 78-year-old Swiss said he was angered when a number of European football chiefs urged him to quit.

Some of Blatters antics in the last few days: calling the allegations levelled at Qatar racist, acting surprised that a lot of people have realised he’s useless and now throwing out this managers can challenge decisions during a game idea without thinking about it look like the actions of a man realising the end is nigh and is just melting down blurting out the first thing that comes to mind hoping he can somehow save himself.

I hope that’s the case because the World Cup starts later today and most of the talk is about an ageing Swiss crack pot and not the football, which is usually the beginning of the end and for footballs sake I hope this is true of Blatter.

Anyway enough of that feckin eejit it’s time to sit back and let the beautiful game take centre stage.  

Platini in Qatar re-vote call

UEFA president Michel Platini says he has no regrets about supporting Qatar’s bid for the 2022 World Cup - but says there should be a re-vote and sanctions if corruption is proved.

Platini’s name has been dragged into the furore surrounding payments authorised by former FIFA member Mohamed Bin Hammam to officials in Africa, allegedly to gain support for Qatar’s bid.

What more has to come out before the governing bodies of the game do the right thing and take the World Cup away from Qatar and re-run the vote and make sure whoever wins the re-vote has done it properly and fairly.

These allegations of corruption surrounding Qatar’s bid came out almost as soon as they won the right to host the tournament in 2010, and it has continued for the last three and half years and it will continue right up until the tournament.

The list of reasons why Qatar shouldn’t host the tournament is getting longer by the day, Blatter admitted it was a mistake, two FIFA members who were expelled for corruption were part of the voting process, the tournament will have to be played in the winter and all the European leagues will have to be disrupted because it’s 50c in summer and the workers building the stadiums are being treated like slaves.

Despite all that at this stage their still going to host the tournament!

Happily though there is still a long time for everybody at FIFA to come to their collective senses and award the World Cup to a proper footballing nation who can put on the tournament properly without all this excessive and unnecessary baggage.   

Conservatives see off UKIP to win Newark by-election

The Conservatives have won the Newark by-election, retaining the seat with a majority of more than 7,000.

Candidate Robert Jenrick polled 17,431 votes, beating UKIP's Roger Helmer, who finished second with 10,028 votes.

Well this result proves what I and many others suspected, the UKIP surge across in the recent Euro elections was one thing, in fact Nigel Farage himself described the Euro elections as a free hit, but winning seats in Westminster is a different animal entirely and UKIP have a very long way to go before they are, as Farage keeps saying, ‘serious players’.

It will be interesting to see what UKIP do in the next year as they have to announce a manifesto and will have to have their policies on issues other than Europe analysed, after that happens and we can see the public’s reaction to that then, and only then, can talk start about where UKIP are and what they can potentially do. 

World Cup 2014: Gerrard backs Rooney

England captain Steven Gerrard has made a passionate defence of Wayne Rooney after former Manchester United team-mate Paul Scholes suggested the striker may be past his peak.

Scholes also questioned whether England's management team would have the courage to ever drop Rooney.

But Gerrard, 33, said: “I think Paul Scholes was wrong.

“Wayne has been Manchester United’s best player throughout the season, both at home and in Europe.”

I get that Gerrard is trying to stick up for Rooney but saying he was United’s best players last season isn’t the way to go about it.

That’s not saying much is it, being the best player in a team having their worst season for 25 years.

While I’m not entirely in agreement with Scholes it must be said that the Rooney we see today is some way off the one we all thought he could be when he first burst onto the scene.

In his first few seasons he would take players on at will, smash volleys in from all angles and looked a world beater, now he doesn’t do any of that he drops far too deep, doesn’t run at players, rarely shoots from outside the area and seems obsessed with picking the ball up in midfield and hitting 40 yard diagonals out wide. 

Every time you see him now you can’t help but think what the f**k happened? Where did all that drive and energy go? He’s gone backwards!

Rooney’s performances at the last two World Cups left a lot to be desired, no goals, no intensity, no moments of genuine quality, granted there were mitigating circumstances in both cases but he should have delivered much more than he did.  

But he does have one final chance in Brazil to prove himself and perform on the big stage; otherwise the analysis from Scholes will be spot on. 

Deal reached on ‘gist’ of Blair-Bush Iraq talks

Details of the “gist” of talks between Tony Blair and George Bush before the Iraq war are to be published, the UK’s Chilcot inquiry says.

But transcripts and full notes of conversations will remain secret, at the request of the Cabinet Office.

The agreement between the inquiry and Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood could clear the way for the report to be published this year.

This is such a cop-out, the whole point of the Chilcot inquiry as I understood it was to officially establish and present the reason(s) why we went to war in Iraq, so why will the public not be allowed to see the full transcript of the conversations that will give us the answers?

If the inquiry is just going to give the gist of things then they might as well not bother, because this news confirms that the inquiry has failed and has been a total waste of time because it’s agreed not to do the one thing it was supposed to do.

Also this deal suggests that there is some deeply embarrassing stuff in those conversations that Blair would rather no-one saw, so he’s done what all establishment figures do he’s struck a deal to ensure a cover up. 

Mauricio Pochettino named Tottenham boss

Tottenham Hotspur have appointed Mauricio Pochettino as their new manager on a five-year deal.

The Argentine resigned from Southampton after 18 months with the club.

“This is a club with tremendous history and prestige and I am honoured to have been given this opportunity to be its head coach,” Pochettino told the Spurs website.

Well as expected we’ve got the usual pr rubbish whenever a new manager joins a new team, but I still can’t work out why Pochettino took this job because if you look at the evidence, managing Tottenham under Levy equates to managerial suicide.

You don’t have a say in what players you bring in and if you don’t finish in the top four you’re sacked, in fact even if you do finish in the top four twice and take Spurs to a Champions League quarter-final it’s still not enough.

So I really don’t understand why so many managers covet the White Hart Lane job so much, are they all so arrogant they think despite what’s happened to my many predecessors it’ll be different for me?

Let’s go right back to the beginning of Levy’s tenure, George Graham was sacked in such bizarre circumstances he threatened to sue and hasn’t managed since.

Glenn Hoddle came next and he lasted a little over two years before he was sacked and ended up dropping down to the Championship to mange Wolves, and after 18 months there hasn’t managed since. 

Then it was Jacques Santini who resigned after just 13 games because he was fed up with the interfering of Levy’s sporting director, and apart from a brief stint managing Auxerre hasn’t managed since.

Then came the Martin Jol farce. He came close to getting Spurs in the top four but most of the players brought in during his regin didn’t have his approval, and two members of the Spurs board were pictured with Juande Ramos in Spain basically confirming his as the new Spurs manager while Jol was still in charge. Since he left Spurs Jol managed both Hamburg and Ajax with ok results and then ends up back in the Premier League with Fulham battling relegation.

Ramos won the league cup with Spurs but still lasted less than a year, he ended up being a stop gap coach at Real Madrid for six months and has spent the last four year coaching a club no one’s ever heard of in Ukraine.

As I’ve already mentioned Harry Redknapp actually finished in the top four twice and took Spurs to the quarter finals of the Champions Legaue and his reward for all that, he was sacked and ended up joining QPR and being relegated to the Championship.

Villas-Boas got Spurs their highest ever points tally and then had to stnad by and observe as Bale was sold and the money was spent on players he didn’t want and then was sacked despite having a higher win percentage than any Tottenham manager since 1946.  And he’s now coaching in the Russain league with Zenit St Petersburg.

I’m not counting Tim Sherwood because he’s made it clear that he never had a chance of coaching beyond the end of last season.

Just look at the list look at all those managers and look at how managing Tottenham has messed up their careers, and yet everyone manager and pundit still sees Tottenham as this big prestige job, I just don’t get it, look at the evidence it’s a poisoned chalice.

I think the next time Tottenham look for a new manager they’re should be a big poster with Levy’s face on it and a slogan underneath that says: “BE AFRIAD. BE VERY AFRAID”. 

Leaders agree to review EU agenda at Brussels summit

EU leaders have agreed to re-evaluate the bloc’s agenda after voters “sent a strong message”, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has said.

Mr Van Rompuy said leaders of the 28 member states had asked him to launch consultations on future policies.

This is a very interesting change in tone, and in fact David Cameron went even further and called the EU “too big, too bossy and too interfering” which you can’t disagree with, but it’s interesting that he’s saying this now after we’ve had the European elections.

The EU was “too big, too bossy and too interfering” last week, last month, and last year! Why has he waited until now to say this?

What is it about politics that things have to reach the point of no return before anyone thinks about saying hang on a minute maybe what we’re doing isn’t working and we need to change.

Why have the EU only recognised the problem now they’re dangling over the edge of a cliff.

Why did they not say months or years ago, hey we acknowledge people don’t like us or what we’re doing and we’re making an effort to change, then maybe the EU wouldn’t be so bloody unpopular! 

Internet training would cut pensioner loneliness, says think tank

Loneliness among the over-65s could be tackled by training more older people to use the internet, a report by a centre-right think tank has suggested.

Policy Exchange has called for every person in the UK to be taught basic digital skills, including how to send emails and use social networking sites.

I don’t know why there is this philosophy that ‘if you get people online it will suddenly solve all their problems’ is coming from but it is majorly flawed and puts the emphasis in completely the wrong place.

I would love to hear someone from this think tank explain to me how teaching someone over the age of 65 how to send an email or getting them on Facebook does anything to lessen their isolation, because to me that wouldn’t solve anything as most elderly people don’t have email or Facebook for a reason, they don’t want it.

Forcing them on there would probably only add to the problem, instead why not focus on fact that in families where more senior relatives feel lonely put the onus on the rest of the family to do more to rectify the situation, don’t put the onus on the over-65s and tell them the reason you’re lonely is because you’re not on Facebook, so get an account even though you don’t want one and won’t use it.

Chelsea agree deal with PSG for David Luiz

Chelsea have agreed a deal with Paris St-Germain, worth in the region of £40m, for the sale of defender David Luiz to the French champions.

Luiz, 27, joined the Blues from Benfica for £21.3m in January 2011.

“The move is now subject to David Luiz agreeing personal terms with PSG and passing a medical,” a statement on Chelsea’s official website read. 

I bet Chelsea couldn’t believe their luck when PSG agreed to pay £40 million for David Luiz, I’ll say it again £40 million for David Luiz, this transfer shows money really does go to people heads as that’s the only explanation I can think of as to why PSG would do this.

Luiz was a bit part player for Chelsea last season and apart from scoring a couple of spectacular goals from long range he hasn’t done a lot or brought much to Chelsea since he arrived and yet he’s now worth £40 million and is the World’s most expensive defender, WTF!

How can he be worth more than Juan Mata who was Chelsea’s player of the season two years running, how can he be worth more than what Chelsea are going to pay for Diego Costa?

Given that PSG have recently been fined by UEFA and had their squad reduced for next seasons Champions League, their reaction to that is to spend £40 million on a player who’s worth about half that, nice to see the FFP rules are keeping big spending clubs in check. . . . .  

UKIP now serious players – Farage

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has said his party were “serious players” after it made gains in council polls across England.

Mr Farage said the “UKIP fox is in the Westminster hen house” after it gained more than 150 council seats.

While UKIP made some gains and built a little momentum you’d have to say they’re still some way short of being called serious players.

UKIP doesn’t have a single MP in Parliament and despite their gains in the council elections UKIP don’t control a single council.

Add to this that they have less than half the number of councillors than the Lib Dems, who are facing their worst result in an election of this kind for 30 years, and it makes you think that Farage and co clearly aren’t as ambitious as they come across, because at present they’re still very much on the fringes.

I also found it interesting that a spokesperson for UKIP went on BBC Radio 4 and said that UKIP had trouble appealing to “the educated, cultured and young,” and this is why they didn’t do so well in London. But on the plus side they did do extremely well among the elderly, illiterate philistines in the north.

Joking aside if a party has no MP’s in Westminster, has fewer councillors than the Lib Dems, doesn’t appeal to anyone in London and everyone is only familiar with one of their policies, talk of that party being a serious player is very premature.