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Ten best Homeless World Cup videos

Ten best Homeless World Cup videos ?     I bet you didn’t even know there was a Homeless World Cup !!!

Well did you ??

Apparently there are over 1 billion homeless people in the world today and the Homeless World cup exists to help those people to rescue themselves from homelessness. It represents all that is best about football- no overpaid,underworked superstars, no Mercedes, no million pound salaries just homeless people from all over the world playing the game that they love.

The first Homeless World Cup was in Gazza in 2003 with only 17 teams taking part.

 The last involved 48 countries and 500 Homeless players .It was held in Copenhagen. The next Homeless World Cup is scheduled for Melbourne from 1st -7th December this year. You’ll have gathered that this World Cup is not every four years but is held annually.

The main aim of the Homeless World Cup is to encourage the homeless from all over the world to break out of lives of deprivation, of pain and suffering and to try and find jobs and begin new lives.

Check out Eric Cantona one of the patrons of the Homeless World Cup in Denmark.

73% of homeless footballers go on to leave their appalling lives behind them and go back to jobs, or education ,give up drugs and alcohol and football plays a massive part in their rehabilitation.

Apart from Eric Cantona a whole host of other famous names are involved in the Homeless World Cup including Nike, the United Nations, Manchester United, Real Madrid and individual players such as Rio Ferdinand and Didier Drogma.

Anyway onto the videos:

1. Melbourne 2008- check out  news about the latest Homeless World Cup to be held in Australia in December this year.

    2.    Copenhagen 2007- 45 second video reviewing the Homeless World Cup last year.

   3.   Copenhagen 2007- a really cool film showing Scotland win the Homeless World Cup as well as meeting various players.

  4.   David Duke- one of the World Cup’s heroes.How David Duke went from being homelss and alcoholic to changing his life.

 5.   Cherie Sayon- even women play at the Homeless World Cup!!! Check it out. I’m not being sexist by the way!!

 6.  Check out this great film of the Homeless World Cup Cape town 2006.

 7.  Check out the Canadian team in training.

 8.   Now for a really cool South African township dance.

 9.   Check out the trailer for ‘Kicking it’  a feature film about the Homeless World Cup.

 

 10. Last but not least check out the US trials for the World Cup.

If you laugh like I did at the thought of a Homeless World Cup I hope that by watching these videos you might change your mind.

Serious tournament-serious message.

Top 10 Italian footballers in England- not a candle to Zola!

 

 

With the appointment of Gianfranco Zola to the post of manager of West Ham United last week I got to thinking – who are the top 10 most successful Italian players ever to ply their trade in the UK and more usually in the Premiership.

 

10. Carlo Sartori. 

    Carlo who I hear you cry ?   He’s in for nostalgia’s sake.Carlo came to Manchester United through its youth system. He was one of the first non-British players to come up through the junior ranks at the club. Carlo made his debut with the club in 1967 He left in 1973, with a total of 55 appearances and 6 goals for Manchester United.

  9. Bonetti:

Bonetti made a huge impact when he was signed by lowly Grimsby in 1995 making not only a local but a national impact. After less than a year he left the club but the fact that Bonetti came third in the BBCs “Cult heroes” poll in 2004, after playing only a handful of games for the club, behind Mendonca (61 league goals) and Mcdermott (Over 600 league appearances) shows that affection for the Italian is still high amongst Grimsby supporters.

Check out the famous video of the chicken legs incident.

Check him out. Find out about the chicken wing incident in the video below.

8.Ravanelli

.Love him or hate him Ravanelli made a huge impact on Middlesborough when he was signed in the 1990s by Bryan Robson. Despite being one of the league’s top goal scorers Middlesborough were relegated in his first season and supporters grew to dislike him because of constant criticisms of the club’s management regime. I’ve put him in the top 10 not because of his charm but because of his goal scoring ability.

Check him out.

 

7. Carlo Cudicini:Joined Chelsea in 1999 as first choice goalkeepr taking over from .Ed de Goey… Since then he has played inconsistently, sometimes Chelsea’s first choice ‘keeper, often not. The fans love hom for his loyalty because despite sitting on the bench for large parts of most seasons he has remained loyal and has showed no interest at all n furthering his career by moving on. The Daily Telegraph called him :’ the most unambitious footballer ever.’ In 2002-03 he won ITV’s golden gloves award for the best keepr in the Premiership but when Mourinho bought Cech in 2004 his first eam career was almost over.
   Despite this Chelsea fans love him.

Check out the video.

 

6. Paulo Di Canio ,

   Sheffield Wednesday and West ham United favourite comes in at number 6. He joined Sheffield Wednesday in 1997 from Scotland for £4.2 m and was the club’s leading goal scorer for that season with 14 goals rapidly establishing himself as a favourite with the supporters.

In January 1999, Di Canio signed  for  West Ham United  and helped them to 5th in the Premiership qualifying for the UEFA cup. In 2000 he was voted West Ham player of the year and scored the BBC goal of the season.

He remained a key figure at West Ham until 2003 and almost helped them avoid relegation. After West Ham were relegated he was released on a free transfer and went to Charlton Athletic only staying for one year.

In August 2004 he returned to his home team Lazio.

Check out some Di Canio action at West Ham- one of their legends.

 

 

5. Benito Carbone:

At number 5 its the Sheffield Wednesday, Aston Villa and other clubs legend ?? .

Check out this goal against Leeds.

Carbone joined Sheffield Wednesday from Internazionale in 1996. He became the club’s highest goal scorer in the 1998–99 season scoring nine goals and was voted the fan’s favourite player.After a contract dispute with Wednesday at the start of the following season, he went to Aston Villa, earning an FA Cup runners up medal after Villa lost 1–0 in the final to Chelsea. At the start of the next season, he went to Bradford City on a free transfer. Despite some disillusionment over his wages, he scored some great goals and contributed massively to the club. City were relegated and although he played the start of the following season with them he later moved on loan to both Derby County and Middlesborough.. In 2002, he left Bradford and returned to Italy

Carbone received a lot of criticism from the media throughout his time in England. Some writers and pundits accused him of being a mercenary due to Carbone moving clubs on a regular occurrence. The reason he appears in the top ten is that he was very popular with the fans of his clubs, particularly at Sheffield Wednesday and Bradford City.

Check out this action.

 

4. Di Matteo::

Di Matteo was hugely popular at Stamford Bridge and like Zola was selected for the Chelsea centenary eleven. Di Matteo was another one of Ruud Gullit’s signings and like Zola was hugely successful. He scored nine goals in his debut season and in 1997 scored the quickest goal in an FA Cup final only 43 seconds into the game! Apart from helping Chelsea to win a number of trophies Di Matteo also scored the winning goal in the 1999-2000 final against Aston Villa. Di Matteo eventually retired in 2002 after a comeback from a triple leg break.

Check out the fastest goal in FA cup final history.

 

3. Gianluca Vialli.

He’s in the top 10 not just for his work as a player but also as a manager.

He was signed in 1996 but due to consistent feuding with Chelsea manager at the time Ruud Guillit he played inconsistently. When he did play he was hugely successful registering as a favourite with the fans. In 1998 he replaced Gullitt as manager and under Vialli Chelsea won the FA Cup,the Charity Shield, the Coco cola Cup, the European Cup and the European Cup winners Cup- a record which still makes him one of the most successful Chelsea managers of all time.

Check out the video.

 

2. Gianluca Festa :

Festa played for Middlesborough in the 1970s . He was super fit, super professional and tough. The fans loved him and loved him still more when many of the other big names bailed out following relegation, Festa stayed, and helped win promotion back to the top with outstanding displays that earned him the player of the year award in 1998. Festa was squeezed out by the big money arrivals of Gareth Southgate and Ugo Ehiogu but remained as a useful squad player before leaving for a short spell at Portsmouth.

1. Zola.

Zola is the numero uno. He signed for Chelsea in November 1996 for £4.5 and was an immediate hit with fans. He won the player of the Year trophy at the end of the season- the first Chelsea player to win the award. Such was his huge popularity in the UK and such was the extent of his achievements that in 2003 he was awarded an honorary OBE in a special ceremony in Rome. Two years later he was voted by fans as a member of Chelsea’s centenary eleven.

Check out the footage.

 

  So that’s it . My Italian top 10. Love it,hate it, just talk about it. Who should be in, who should be out ?  You decide.

Football Hooliganism-dead or just sleeping ?

Football hooliganism was really big in the 1970’s and 1980’s. You couldn’t open a newspaper,listen to a local news programme on television without hearing about injuries caused by football violence. So where have all the hard nuts gone?

 

Disappeared or resting?

 

Football hooliganism was actually a term coined by the media to sensationalise violence- pictures of bloody and injured supporters on the back pages made for great sales to a public eager to read about main stream violence.

Really there were two main types- the first was spontaneous: fights brought about by too much alcohol or just because some young blokes are naturally stupid and enjoy a punch up. There were rarely serious injuries caused by this type of terrace violence-these weren’t hard men just kids who pretended to be hard.

The second type of football hooliganism was something else again. The’ firms’ were composed of hard men who took football hooliganism to a whole new, organised level. Fights would be arranged, tactics would be talked through-the firms especially of clubs such as Millwall and Chelsea were to be feared, and if you had half a brain cell, avoided. Of course there were plenty of aggressive young men who enjoyed the thrill of the fight and presumably didn’t mind the pain of injury. The ‘firms’ came close to ruining the good name of football and destroying it forever as a family game. You couldn’t even categorise these men- some of them were unemployed, un-intelligent yobs others had degrees, good jobs, families; some were company directors, successful businessmen.

 

So why did they do it?  Any numbers of explanations were put forward. Speaking personally I believe that there were only two reasons. First: they liked a fight and the adrenaline rush. Second all the men wanted to belong- the ‘firms’ were a little like working men’s’ or gentlemen’s’ clubs only with violence !!

 

Whatever the reason incidents of football hooliganism began to reduce drastically after Heysel and Hillsborough and with the advent of all seater stadia- that and the fact the use of CCTV improved radically and led to easier arrests.

 

Football hooliganism rarely gets a mention in the national press nowadays. The only time it tends to feature is either in a European club game or an international tournament when England are involved. Not that we’re the only nation responsible-Germany and Holland also have their own incidences of violence but we’re still famous as being the kings of football hooliganism.

 

So is football hooliganism a sleeping giant or is it dead ? 

Its not dead. The firms still exist, more and more young people are turning to drink and England is becoming the drinking nation of the world. This will inevitably lead to an escalation of violence. In 2007 for the first time in twenty years there was an increase in the number of violent incidents at football matches and of course the firms still ply their trade only now they fight away from the grounds. The problem has just moved away from the grounds themselves.

 

Violence is not dead and never will be. Whilst excessive amounts of alcohol are available these fuel violence and whilst footballers are treated like Gods men will always express their worship through violence.

 

In my view football hooliganism will increase again –caused by our drink society and the way that nothing else matters now in football-only winning.

 

Check out some examples

 

 

and

John Terry permanently appointed as England skipper

 

England coach Fabio Capello has made John Terry of Chelsea  permanent England captain.

Terry had been closely conteseted by Rio Ferdinand for the role,  but finally Capello has opted for the man from Chelsea.

During Steve McClaren’s failed stint in charge of England, Terry became captain after replacing David Beckham in the job following the 2006 World Cup.

Since succeeding McClaren as coach, though, Capello has been rotating the armband during his four friendlies in charge.

Steven Gerrard of  Liverpool had been in contention but for whatever reason has been passed over.

Whether Terry is the right choice remains to be seen. No-one doubts his courage or determination to succeed but I personally doubt his ability to manage his volatile temperament for the benefit of the team.

Check out John Terry in action.

Its all over for England

OK-so it’s the opening day of the Premiership. How do you feel ? Excited ? Anxious ? Bored ? No matter how successful your club team there’s only one thing that will inevitably happen this season. England will screw up and have yet another disappointing year. Perhaps Capello will achieve something but if you’ve read Part One of this article you’ll know my views on this subject. England will fail- mainly because we play football too fast and without thought but also because most of our players have little tactical nouse or technique. Another reason is a more practical one. Unlike most other European nations our national team still spends too little time together. In the Club vs Country debate it is inevitably the club that wins and as a consequence our players like  Gerrard, Terry   ,Lampard, Ferdinand et al are unable to develop any international understanding. For any team to function whether its in Sport, or the Arts, or Business it must spend time together to learn to work together, to know each others strengths and weaknesses, to plan, to learn how to win. As a nation we do not give our players that time. For us the dominance of club managers and the success of our clubs takes priority, hence our international team fails. Lastly we fail because many of our players do not feel the passion for playing for their country that they do playing for their club. In club football players develop a loyalty to their team-mates, to their supporters, even to their city  but most importantly it is their club who pays their over inflated ,rich boy salaries and therefore it is to their club that their main loyalty lies.Our players are spoilt ,cloistered and sheltered from the problems of real life; what does it matter to them if their country loses an international , doesn’t qualify for a championship ? A bit of unfavourable publicity –shake it off and come out with the same old ‘we cocked up’ routine. The bottom line is that our spoilt players don’t care enough. Other than pride they lose nothing if England loose; this has been made worse by a procession of inept international managers such as Mclaren and Ericsson. 

Maybe Capello will be different but don’t waste your breath hoping.

Watch a real example of hurt- England vs West Germany. Quarter final of the world Cup in Mexico-38 years ago. 2-0 up  and we lost 3-2. Does nothing change ??   

Why England will never win the World Cup

 

Why England will never win another World Cup or a European Championship .

 

We’ve only ever won one International Football tournament -the World Cup in 1066, sorry 1966. And we were lucky to do that. Mediocre teams in a mediocre tournament. Lucky to beat Argentina in the quarter final, lucky to beat Portugal in the semi-final. Sure we had one or two great players- Moore and Charlton for example but we were not a great team. And as a nation we’ve lived on the back of this success ever since.

 

Why have we never won anything else- we’re not good enough!! But there are a number of reasons for this; reasons which I’ll examine in this 2 part article.

 

Why do we have such a successful Premier League, supposedly the best in the world, and such a mediocre international team ?

 

There are a number of quality teams in the Premiership but too many of them play football the English way. What is the English way – too fast, too many long balls, too many balls hit high with the midfield being bypassed too often. English players still play football without thought, too many English players have too little technical awareness and too many managers don’t allow players the freedom to express themselves fully.

 

The best football played by Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool tends to be in the champions League where the game is slower and the ball is played on the ground to players’ feet. Arsenal, in particular, displayed a fluidity in passing and movement which at its best was rarely surpassed last season. Football should be a game where the ball’s played on the floor and where players move into space to receive it.

 

How many times have you seen a premiership player , paid millions of pounds, meant to be amongst the best in the world ,give away the ball by passing badly when under no pressure ??

Countless times- why ? Because we play the game too fast and with no thought.

 

Until Premiership teams play consistently with thought and with tactical awareness we will never win another international football tournament. How many great players have come and gone, how many great players will come and go before we begin to understand that to win a football match at the highest level requires slow football, accurate passing and the ball to be on the ground.

 

The second reason that we will never win another international football tournament is that our players are, on the whole, less technically gifted than others. This is closely allied to playing too fast,our top players don’t have the time on the ball to develop sophisticated ,innovative skills. How many of our best players have truly great skills- Terry, Lampard ,Owen ?

 

Not really- Owen hasn’t dribbled a ball since he scored against Argentina in the World Cup when he was 18 and Terry and Lampard are gutsy,courageous, brave players but top in terms of skill?

 

If you think they are what planet are you living on ?

 

Where are our players with Brazilian flair, with European culture ?

 

We haven’t got any! We must slow our game down, starting at school boy level and teach how to beat a man, how to control the ball, how to have the ball glued to our feet. Only then will we begin to compete again at international level.

 

If you think the first part of this article is rubbish or you hate me for my views- good. I hope you’ll read the second part due out at the weekend.

 Check out England below. Losing with an own goal !!

Joey Barton- second chance ?

Joey Barton -how many second chances does one man get ?

Joey Barton’s name will be remembered in football circles long after he’s retired. Not because he’s a great player but because ,currently at least, he’s a disgrace to the game of football.

I’m all in favour of people being given a second chance to be a success or to redeem themselves. Just because someone committed a crime when they were 16 or 18 doesn’t mean to say that by the time they’re in their mid-twenties that they can’t hold down good jobs or be a credit to society.

Unfortunately Barton no longer deserves a second chance and Kevin Keegan’s determination to allow Barton back into a Newcastle shirt straight after completion of a 6 month prison sentence for assault committed on the streets of Liverpool after a drunken incident on December 27th 2007 is unwise at best, utterly stupid at worst. Barton has a history of violence both at the workplace and on the streets. Many of Newcastle’s toon army,have probably temporarily,turned against Keegan because of his willingness to forgive Barton.
Newcastle punished Barton harshly for his transgression (!!!!!!) still paying him £60k a week but depriving him of such fantastic perks as his Newcastle box for family and friends and the help of a club driver. How will he survive!!
The FA meanwhile look as if they may be going to punish Barton more severely for his vicious training ground attack 15 months ago on French midfielder Dabo when Barton was still with Manchester City. The assault was so vicious and bloody that Dabo likened himself to ‘elephant man’ afterwards. The FA were unable to act until Barton had served time for his streets of Liverpool attack but are now talking of imposing a 15 match ban for violent conduct which will mean Barton won’t play until after Christmas.
At last -the FA are (probably) going to do something. I’m afraid that if it was me I’d ban Barton for playing football for life. He’s had more than enough opportunities to show that he’s not a mindless thug who would have been more at home in the terraces in the 1970’s but he’s failed miserably.
He is vicious and nothing indicates that he won’t repeat his violence on some other innocent whether its on the training ground,the pitch or on the streets.
Football has enough problems, it doesn’t need second rate men such as Joey Barton to drag it further into the mire. Get rid of him for good!

Check out yet another Joey Barton assualt.

An end to referee intimidation ?

n an effort to rid football referees of the fear of intimidation at all levels in the sport the Football Association are set to introduce a new rule at the beginning of next season which will only allow team captains to approach the referee over a disputed decision.

The Premiership begins on August sixteenth and it is expected that ,apart from a few minor tweaks, the rule will be in force then. The new rule, however, will apply to all levels in the game from the very highest competitions to school matches.

Don’t think its necessary ? Try attending school boy games where there are often as many disputed decisions as in the top flight.

The rule, the FA hopes, will mean an end to groups of yelling, screaming players haranguing refs for decisions that they don’t agree with.

 

Currently there are over 40000 registered football teams in the UK but only 30000 qualified referees. This amounts to a shortage but no matter what moves the FA takes to try to reduce the shortage they fail, mainly due to the fact that for all the new referees that are trained annually at least as many give up every year.

The reasons- simple. By and large referees are unwilling to put up with the levels of abuse and often physical intimidation that are handed out by players, spectators and parents.

Parents are often the worst- disagreeing violently with referees’ decisions which deprive their beloved child of a free kick or a goal or whatever!

Parents and other spectators will be asked to stand in roped off areas .Additionally players and managers at all levels of the game will be subject to harsher penalties than currently.

This is part of the FAs respect agenda to restore some sort of order to the beautiful game- a game which is turning ever more ugly due to mass dissent by players.

I, for one hope that the FA stands by any measures-it is time that football players, premiership players in particular, acted as role models both for young players and for youth in general.

If young players see their idols behaving like spoilt children is it any wonder that the schoolboy game is subject to protests and arguments which mirror the premiership.

From August only the captain will be able to communicate with the referee and any protest will go through one person. This will add to the influence of the captain on the pitch and prevent the type of mass hysteria practised by Chelsea and other teams in the premiership.

Lets hope it works.

 - referee attacked after dishing out yellow card

Footballers Wages- glorified gods or worth every penny ?

In my view footballers earn an obscene,disgusting amount of money but then perhaps if I earned obscene,disgusting amounts of money perhaps I’d feel happier. (!)

At a time in England when people are losing their homes because they can’t pay the mortgage, when some can’t eat properly ,when many can’t go on holiday footballers in the Premier league earn salaries of £1,000000 a year ! Some like Ronaldinho ,Gerrard earn much more !

Is that right ? Let’s have a closer look.

Premiership wages increased by double the rate of inflation last year and the average player will earn about £1.1m next season.

Is it right when loyal supporters,many of whom struggle to pay for their expensive tickets, are discriminated against when clubs pay much of the revenue back from TV deals into the pockets of players instead of into reducing ticket prices for fans ?

Is football entertainment or sport- if its entertainment then it can be argued that footballers should earn their high salaries and are worth every penny like movie stars,like rock stars ?

Football is part of the entertainment industry - where rock stars and actors  probably earn even more.

Obviously, market forces determine how much a player is worth and if the clubs are prepared to pay up then no player is going to turn money down.

For your interest here are the top ten earners in Europe for last season:   

1. Kaka (AC Milan): 9m

2. Ronaldinho (Barcelona): 8.25m

3. John Terry (Chelsea): 8.04m

4. Frank Lampard (Chelsea): 8.04m

5. Thierry Henry (Barcelona): 7.8m

6. Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd): 7.68m

7. Michael Ballack (Chelsea): 7.44m

8. Andriy Shevchenko (Chelsea): 7.44m

9. Steven Gerrard (Liverpool): 6.78m

10. Wayne Rooney (Man Utd): 6.78m . These figures are in Euros by the way, so in pounds Wayner Rooney only earns £5.1 million, about 3/4 of the Euro figure.

If you factor in,in endorsements figures go up hugely and the names of the players change. These are the biggest earners worldwide:

Top 10 earners (wages & endorsements):

1. David Beckham (LA Galaxy): 21.75m

2. Ronaldinho (Barcelona): 20.25m

3. Wayne Rooney (Man Utd): 16.09m

4. Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd): 13.18m

5. Thierry Henry (Barcelona): 11.74m

6. Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus): 10.66m

7. John Terry (Chelsea): 10.26m

8. Frank Lampard (Chelsea): 9.8m

9. Steven Gerrard (Liverpool): 9.38m

10. Francesco Totti (Roma): 8.89m

Life has certainly changed 

Less than 40 years ago, our top footballers earned about the same amount as skilled plumbers or electricians. Nowadays, as the latest rundown of the world’s top-earning footballers reveals, big-name stars regularly command salaries in excess of £100,000 a week. Now I’m not saying that the very best footballers shouldn’t earn good money,well above the plumbers and electricians what I am saying is that this money has reached obscene levels and that with clubs desperate to sign players like Robinho, ronaldo, Berbatov et al that salaries are going to reach even more obscene heights . Will things ever again become more realistic?

I believe not and over the years only the very richest clubs will attract the best players perhaps even resulting in a World Super League.An interesting thought but would this sort of thing be any good for football or for the majority of football supporters.While you’re mulling that one over watch these videos of the world’s 3 biggest earners:

Beckham, Ronaldinho and Rooney.

Enjoy!

 

                                       

     

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