Messi wins 4th straight Ballon d’Or

Barcelona and Argentina forward Lionel Messi has been awarded the Ballon d’Or for the fourth year running, beating his club teammate Andres Iniesta and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo to the trophy, after a record breaking 2012 which saw him score 91 goals in 69 games.

Was there any doubt? I understood the school of thought that because of Spain’s unprecedented dominance on the international stage it would have been justified to recognise Iniesta, but FIFA should have done that in 2010 and given the award to Xavi.

Due to all of the records Messi broke last year he had to be recognised, and as he’s already scored 36 goals this season and Barcelona have had a record breaking start to the season and look certainties for La Liga, I can almost hear the engraver etching his name onto next year’s award.

Of all the records Messi broke or equalled last year there is one important one that everybody seems to be glazing over, and that is that he equalled Gabriel Batistuta’s record of scoring 12 goals in a calendar year for Argentina, meaning the argument that he doesn’t perform for Argentina can’t be used against him anymore.

The other big award was coach of the year which was rightly given to Vicente Del Bosque, and it was interesting to see that the world team of the year was made up of 11 La Liga players, which again highlights the fact that La Liga is the best league in the world, not the most exciting but the best.

Wenger: Walcott belongs at Arsenal

Arsene Wenger feels deep down that Theo Walcott “belongs to Arsenal” despite his refusal, so far, to sign a new contract.

Walcott is currently in negotiations with the club over a new deal, as his current one expires in the summer.

While there appears to be no speedy resolution, Wenger maintains Walcott will not be sold in January and remains confident he will commit his future to Arsenal.

The big stumbling block between the two, unsurprisingly, is wages, Arsenal are offering Walcott a new deal worth £75k per week, whereas Walcott and his representatives are holding out for up to £100k.

I’m an Arsenal fan and I’m frankly bored of this mini soap opera that this become, couple of things, one Walcott is DEFINITELY NOT worth £100k a week it’s not even up for debate he just isn’t, he should be grateful to be offered £75k and he should take and if he thinks he’s worth more he should look elsewhere.

I’m also in total disagreement with all the ex-Arsenal players and many, many pundits who feel Arsenal can’t afford to lose him.

To that I’d say wrong, I mean I would like to see him stay as he has improved, if only slightly year on year, but those who say him leaving would be the same as when Nasri, Fabregas or van Persie left are just mad.  

In all honesty I think Arsenal would miss Walcott very little, he’s half way through his seventh season and has scored 53 goals in 238 games with 43 assists is that worth £100k a week, I think not.

And I don’t see why Arsenal should be pressured into to paying him wages he clearly isn’t worth for the sake of appeasing their critics, it just doesn’t make sense.

Apparently when asked about the negotiations Walcott produced the usual cliché of it’s not about money, well if that’s the case join the rest of the British players who all signed long term deals.

Not only that start playing like a hundred grand a week footballer who does it week in week out season in season out, not one or two games a month, you’re supposed to show through your performances that you justify being paid £100k a week, not demand it when you’ve shown you’re not worth it.                  

Mayan day of apocalypse’ is here

Thousands of people have gathered at ancient ruins in Central America and numerous other locations around the world in anticipation of what they believe will be the end of the world.

The date – 21 December – is, some believe, the end of the “long count” calendar of the Mayan civilisation.  

In China, police have arrested hundreds of members of a Christian group who apparently believe in the prophecy.

All this despite the fact that last year, experts said a new reading of the calendar showed that it did not in fact predict the apocalypse.  

In the Mexican city of Merida hundreds of spiritualists gathered about hour-and-a-half from the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza, many prepared white clothes and incense to meet the sunrise, which they believe would bring the birth of a new age.

Earlier this week spiritual leader Alberto Arribalzaga said: “The galactic bridge has been established, the cosmos is going to take us to a higher level of vibration where humanity is in glory, in joy.”

Now he either said this while very, very high, or he’s completely serious in which case he should be locked in a rubber room and never let out again.

For all those deluded fools who’ve made a pilgrimage to a mountain top somewhere, and genuinely believe the world will end today, I hope it does to, for them only.

I hope that all those congregated around Mayan ruins in the Americas, or those on a mountain are lifted up and carried off into another universe, because they’re certainly not wanted, or needed, in this one with the majority of us who are sane and rational and who know this is all bulls**t.

Or maybe for once it’s the minority who are right and the world will end today, if that’s the case then the majority still sort of win because the minority won’t be able to say I told you so.  

Olympic funding for Rio games announced

Most of Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic sports are celebrating the announcement of funding rises for the next four years but several sports, including swimming, basketball, volleyball and handball are paying the price of failure with severe income cuts.

UK Sport announced a record amount of £347m to be invested in the run-up to the 2016 Olympics in Rio, with cycling, rowing, boxing, athletics and gymnastics among those whose funding has increased.

However it’s a very different story for those sports that failed to hit their performance targets in London, swimming has had its budget cut by 15%, volleyball by 90% and basketball, handball, wrestling and table tennis miss out on funding altogether.

Despite some of the inevitable complaints from those who’ve had their funding cut, I think UK Sport have got it pretty much spot on.

I understand the argument that those sports where we underachieved should see an increase in funding and those where we were successful shouldn’t see a rise because they’re doing well, but I would argue for the opposite.

Why should those who failed to hit their target be rewarded with extra funding when they haven’t earned it?

I’m glad to see volleyball has seen a substantial reduction and that sports like basketball, handball and table tennis have had their funding removed, because frankly none of these should be Olympic sports and the IOC should get together and update the list as to which sports should be included in the Olympics and which shouldn’t.          

Premier League clubs agree spending controls

The Premier League took a significant step towards spending controls after agreeing in principle to make breaking even a necessity for clubs.

The move was agreed by the majority of the 20 chairmen despite some ongoing opposition from a minority of clubs, Manchester City/Fulham/Aston Villa, at a meeting in London on Tuesday.  

While the exact details are yet to be finalised, the club chairmen have now put their case to the Premier League executives to bring back much more detailed plans on spending controls for the next meeting on February 6, and on proposals to cap wage rises for players in the short term.      

When the details are finalised 14 out of the 20 clubs would need to agree before the measures could be put in place, but as only three seem against them now this might make it through.

This does prove how useless and ineffective UEFA’s financial fair play rules are as the Premier League clubs felt the need to meet and introduce their own system.

It should also be pointed out that if this system is actually put in place UEFA and FIFA should ensure that all the other leagues follow suit otherwise any English club who plays in Europe will be at a disadvantage.   

But for now the Premier League clubs have shown that they are, finally, prepared to be responsible and stop clubs operating with huge losses.

This will also curb the power that players have over clubs which has reached farcical levels, and it should also make the Premier League more competitive.

Hopefully on February 6 the detailed plans will be agreed on and we could see these measures introduced by the start of next season.        

TV chef recipes unhealthier than ready meals

Recipes by prominent TV chefs aren’t as healthy as supermarket ready meals, according to researchers from the University of Newcastle.

Meals by Jamie Oliver, Lorraine Pascale, Nigella Lawson and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall were compared to those from Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.  

The meals in the TV chefs’ cookbooks contained more calories, fat, saturated fat and sugar, although they did contain less salt.

A spokeswoman for Lorraine Pascale said: “Some of the recipes in Lorraine's book are healthy, some not quite so much so.”

A spokesman for Jamie Oliver said: “We welcome any research which raises debate on these issues.

“We would regard the key issue to be food education so that people are aware of which foods are for every day and which are treats to be enjoyed occasionally.”

Prof Martin White, from the Institute of Health and Society at Newcastle University said: “We're not bashing TV chefs, among them are chefs that have done a huge amount for healthy eating and tackling obesity.”

Maybe the chefs have hidden behind their spokespeople because they’ve been rumbled, not because of the embarrassment caused by having meals that are unhealthy when compared to supermarket ready meals, but because they secretly knew their meals were unhealthy and that they knew the more people who bought their books the fatter they’d get and the richer the chefs would get.

Then the chefs all became obesity and healthy eating campaigners, not out of guilt but because they knew once those who were overweight lost a few pounds they could then go out and buy the chefs cookbooks and put that weight back on making the chefs richer still, it’s a really vicious and ingenious cycle, or their just embarrassed.

Maybe now we might see a reduction in the number of TV chefs who seem to populate every channel all of the time, I’m not a big fan of cooking shows all they do is make me hungry, then they end and you realise I have none of the ingredients to make what they did, even if I did I’d probably set fire to the kitchen attempting it.

So I’ll just eat this quick and easy to prepare supermarket ‘junk’ food and spend the evening full of guilt and self-loathing, but as this study has shown I don’t have to anymore I can sit there with my supermarket ready meal while watching a TV chef and think, you’re just trying to fatten me up so you can pay for a holiday.

     

Obama seeks “complex” gun reform

US President Barack Obama has met senior officials to discuss how to respond to Friday’s horrific school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 20 children and six adults died.

The White House said curbing gun violence was a “complex” problem that required a comprehensive solution.

“We can't tolerate this anymore,” Mr Obama said. “These tragedies must end and to end them we must change.”

Democrats have been reluctant to pursue gun control legislation, but that there are signs that fear could be abating, with two pro-gun senators calling for changes.

This is further backed up by the call for a national debate on curbing gun violence by the gun lobby.

Maybe this time the rhetoric will lead to action being taken and real changes being brought about, so incidents like the Newtown shootings will act as a constant reminder as to why gun laws were changed and stricter regulations were introduced.   

It is disturbing that the shooting of 20 kids and six adults is the catalyst for the change in attitude and hopefully the change in law but, if this is just history repeating itself where it’s all talk and no action, the question has to be asked what would it take for laws on gun control in the US to be changed.       

FIFA Club World Cup should be scrapped

After watching the incredibly boring final that saw Corinthians beat Chelsea 1-0, I was overcome with the thought that football could do without the FIFA Club World Cup.

There’s no real competition as it’s always the winner of the Champions League versus the winner of the Copa Libertadores, because whoever those two teams happens to be they always have too much quality for the teams who win the other FIFA competitions.

And the winners of the Champions League, as Chelsea proved yesterday, don’t really care, all taking part seems to do is interrupt their season for two weeks, and when they return they find they’ve got two more games squeezed in to an already congested Christmas period.

I also don’t understand why this competition is valued so highly by the South American teams, yes it means you can technically call yourselves the best team in the world, but nobody who knows anything about football thinks Corinthians are the best.

The only reason I could come up with for this competition being of any use is because this year they used it to test goal-line technology, but there wasn’t an incident to test whether the technology worked during a game.

There are many other competitions of this kind like the Community Shield or the UEFA Super Cup, but both those are the openers to the league and European season and are only a one of game, so I see the point of those but as for the FIFA Club World Cup, I still see it as a big waste of time that really isn’t needed.             

Don’t introduce netting at football grounds

What do Sir Alex Ferguson, Brendan Rogers, Vincent Kompany, me, Malcolm Clarke (chairman of the Football Supporters Federation) and many others (not including Gordon Taylor) have in common?

Answer we’re all against introducing netting to football grounds, although admittedly some people’s opinions carry more sway than others, i.e. mine counts for nothing.

The reason the call for the introduction of netting came was because in the thrilling Manchester derby on Sunday, as United were celebrating a last minute winner Rio Ferdinand was hit in the face by a coin thrown from the crowd.

Ferdinand seemingly got over the incident very quickly posting on Twitter “what a shot”; clearly whoever threw the coin is an idiot and should be charged, but it must be remembered it’s just one incident and I think those who want netting are over-reacting.

Why should tens of thousands of people have to stand behind a net because one or two people thought throwing things at players was a good idea?

But if netting isn’t introduced what can be done to stop incidents such as the one on Sunday, well Ferguson has a more sensible and workable solution which is to have more vigilant stewarding.

Maybe to improve the vigilance of stewarding all Premier League players could give a small percentage of their wages so more can be hired and better CCTV can be installed, and those fans who do misbehave can be identified, removed or charged much easier.

Still think we need netting, well recently released figures show fans are behaving better arrests are down 24% from previous seasons, and I don’t think it would be fair to introduce netting and, as in every aspect of life, let the minority ruin it for the majority.           

UEFAs farcical racism fine

UEFA are, rightly, being criticised for their decision to fine Serbia £65,000 for the racist chanting during, and the violent brawl after, a game with the England Under-21 team in October.

To put this into perspective Nicklas Bendtner was fined £80,000 for wearing sponsored underpants.

It’s clear that UEFA need to quickly get up to speed and realise that fines like this won’t do anything, the inconsistencies in their punishments are impossible to rationalise.

However it is worth a mention that the same inconsistencies exist in the Premier League as John Terry and Luis Suarez received very different punishments for the exact same crime.

The only way the issue of racism is going to be addressed is hand out much more consistent and much tougher punishments.

UEFA and all the Football Associations from across Europe could meet and agree to introduce lifetime bans for anyone, fans, players, managers, coaches etc who has either made a racist gesture or used racist language at a game.   

That way there would be a zero tolerance, clear model in place and football can begin to liberate itself from this problem.