Me and My Football

Although the majority of the British football team that will compete in the 2012 Olympics will be under 23 as required by the regulations, each side is allowed a maximum of three older players, and it is David Beckham’s ambition that he will be one of them; and why not, we say, if anybody deserves the honour then it is he.

Not only has Beckham done so much for England and English club football, he has been one of the best sporting ambassadors we have ever had. His part in winning the bid for the 2012 Olympics may not have been pivotal, but it was still important, and the failure to persuade a corrupt FIFA to award England the 2018 World Cup Championship can hardly be laid at his door.

Although Beckham is very keep to play, the same cannot be said for all the other players from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who might have the opportunity to play. The problem lies in their home Football Associations which are concerned that if their players play for Team Great Britain then position as sovereign nations within FIFA could be compromised.

There is no love lost between the FA and FIFA, and the unopposed re-election of Sepp Blatter as president of FIFA has hardly poured oil on troubled waters. Blatter has contacted all home nations and has stated that taking part in Team GB would not have any impact on their autonomy, but such is their trust in him and the rest of his organisation that they don’t feel entirely comforted by his reassurances.

The British Olympic Association is insistent that all British football players should be considered, not just English ones. The legality of excluding home nations could also be called into question.

There are also problems concerning dome England premiership players who would like to play for Team GB but their clubs are not keen to release them as the timing of the Olympics collides with the start of the Premier League season.

Despite being 37 years old, there is still some good football left in David Beckham and it is hoped the British public will be able to enjoy some of it in the 2012 games.

Ryan Giggs has been a Manchester United staple for 20 years now. With all the buzz surrounding his two decade engagement with one of the premier football clubs in the United Kingdom, a lot of fans are taking a closer look at what Giggs has brought to the club during his time with them.

Only 37 years old, Giggs began his time with Manchester United at the early age of 17 and has managed to avoid career ending injuries, trades, and anything else that could prematurely end his career for the past 20 years.

Jokingly, when asked about the 20 year anniversary of his arrival and Manchester United, Giggs reveals some of the ways that he has “survived” in the football world. He mostly attributes his success to his ability to side-step a lot of the common pitfalls that younger players get bogged down with. In reality however, it is his drive that has helped him to lead Man-U to the 11 Premier League titles that the club has won during his stint with the club.

In addition to the 11 Premier League titles, Giggs has also been with the club to help them work their way towards 4 UK Football Association Cups, 2 Champions Leagues Cups, and 3 Leagues Cups. Looking back on his exhaustive resume you can see that Giggs not only just “survived” playing with Manchester United, but has done extremely well for himself and his club.

The most popular form of football betting is by fans who bet on their own club to win, but if you really want to make money out of it then that is not the right way to go about it. To make money out of football betting you need to detach your betting from your emotions and adopt an entirely rational approach uncoloured by prejudice.

Once you cut through the emotion football becomes a very rational sport and its results are simply a picture constructed from a palette of players, managers, coaches and circumstance. The challenge to the football better is to unravel the complexity of the sport and use a combination of immediate data and accumulated knowledge in order to extrapolate the most likely results. Successful football sports betters can do this to the extent that luck plays very little part in their long term success rate.

The simplest way to bet is on outright results. You simply bet on the outcome of specific games. Here it is important to consider how the bookmakers make their money. The majority of bets are on wins and there are just as many wins as there are losses. It is when a match ends in a draw that the bookmakers win as very few people will have bet on that result (of course this is very different from the football pools where effectively you are betting on draws). There are plenty of sites offering odds comparison and betting tips so it is a good idea to research before you bet if you are new to the sport.

You should pay a considerable amount of attention to the odds that are offered by bookmakers, and particularly to how these odds evolve over time. It is relatively rare for bookmakers to make errors, but if you can spot when they do you stand the best chance of making a substantial profit. There have been times in the not far distant past when bookmakers lost so much money in a single season that there was a danger of some of them going out of business; it is rare but it does happen

Once you get accustomed to betting on outrights then you can start to get into making in-play bets and spread betting. These are both great ways to really enjoy football betting, though they do carry a higher risk.

There is no doubt that football in the United Kingdom is sometimes accompanied by bouts of violence from unruly fans either celebrating or lamenting the outcome of their favorite team’s latest match. Even with the acknowledgement of the interesting climate surrounding football in the UK, it is still horrible when innocent football fans are injured or killed when these acts of violence occur.

Today it was announced that 4 Zambian police officers are being charged with murder after an unfortunate incident at a bar in the town of Mazabuka where two patrons were reported watching the latest Chelsea versus Manchester United match. Evidently a number of patrons declined to leave the bar after a request from the police, who then threw in two canisters of tear gas into the bar, inciting a stampede.

Two individuals, a male and female, 23 and 21 years of age respectively, were killed during the stampede. Protestors who had received word of these deaths rioted in the streets of the Zambian capital Lusaka, breaking windows, looting, blocking streets, and causing a lot of damage throughout the capital until it was reported that the officers responsible for inciting the initial stampede were placed under custody and charged with the murders of these two young individuals.

Since English football is so popular in Zambia they do have to deal with a lot of the same issues that UK football fans have to deal with, including the prevalent violence issues surrounding these matches. Even still the loss of these two young football fans is incredibly regrettable.

The UK Football Association is incredibly displeased with the Wales Football Association for forcing 951 football fans to return their tickets to the 2012 Euro qualifier that will be taking place in Cardiff on March 26, 2011. While the fans did receive a full refund for the tickets they purchased, they were obviously incredibly unhappy with the situation. The UK Football Association expressed their displeasure with the Wales FA by saying that they “let down” a significant number of football fans.

The Wales Football Association sold 1,500 tickets to football fans for the match that is to be played later this month at the Millenium Stadium. Evidently allowing the sale of close to 1,000 tickets that were not available was an administrative oversight that eventually led to the refund of those 951 additional tickets to fans that the stadium was not prepared to seat for the match.

It is yet to be determined if the letdown fans will receive additional compensation for the administrative oversight by the Wales Football Association. The UK Football Association released a statement to the press today that echoed the disappointment shared by the close to one thousand football fans who were excited to be able to attend the match in person. In the statement that they released the UK Football Association remarked on their shared disappointment over the unfortunate incident and promises to ensure that everyone affected by this oversight will receive a full refund for the ticket prices as well as any delivery or transactional fees that were also imposed.

Peterborough United fans have recently been granted the option of forking over 15,000 pounds for a season ticket with the club. The incredibly steep price tag comes in as the most expensive season ticket football package in the entire country, but also offers a great deal of amenities and features that will hopefully intrigue some die-hard fans with deep enough pockets to shell out that kind of cash.

Purchasers of the 15,000 pound season ticket package with Peterborough United with receive season ticket seats in the director’s box, which features private access, luxurious padded seats, and complete cover from the elements. In addition to the seats themselves, season ticket holders will receive a three-course meal before each game they attend as well as being able to carry the newly created title of Honorary Director.

The announcement of the availability of this package is met with some skeptics who are not entirely convinced that fans would be willing to shell out that kind of money for season tickets that come with just a few more perks, especially considering the fact that most fans with season tickets are currently only paying a maximum of 450 pounds for their season passes (this price has been frozen at this rate for a few years now).

Fans interested in this “deal” can sign up to shell out some serious cash when 10 of these tickets go on sale in the next week. In addition to this interesting offer, Peterborough United is also giving true fans the option of purchasing season tickets for the next 75 years for a price tag of 12,000 pounds.

Tottenham fans can still hold out for a spot in the Champions League. A lot of fans’ hopes were dashed when Manchester United went down to Chelsea during the game on March 1st, but Les Ferdinand, the Spurs coach, still believes that there is a chance for the Tottenham team to gain a spot in the Champions League this year even with Chelsea now being 4th in the standings.

The coach has been trying to reassure both his team and Tottenham fans in the press today by pointing out that there still is a lot of football yet to be played this year and that it is still entirely possibly for his team to come back into the 4th ranking. His confidence in his team’s winning abilities is a much needed boost to the Tottenham program, and has helped to give fans hope for the remainder of the season. Fans have reacted positively to Les Ferdinand’s statement and believe in both their coach and their team.

Tottenham is hoping to go into the next Milan game strong, coming off of a 10 day stint at a training camp in Dubai. Hopefully the camp will prove to have focused the team to help get them ready to finish out the season strongly, which they will need to do in order to be eligible for a spot in the Champions League. Fans will be able to see how the team comes away from the training camp next Wednesday when their team faces off against AC Milan.

A lot of viewers of the match featuring Manchester United against Wigan were stunned when star footballer, Wayne Rooney, clashed with Jame’s McCarthy in the center circle of the field during the game. McCarthy walked away from the collision after taking Rooney’s elbow to his head. The ref responsible for dealing with the incident was Mark Clattenburg, who opted to not give Rooney a card and awarded Wigan with a free kick.

The incident got a lot of media attention after the game, with a lot of individuals claiming that Rooney should have been awarded a red card and since no such punishment was handed down during the game, he should face some kind of sanctions from the UK Football Association for what some people consider to be a deliberate blow to opponent McCarthy. The Football Association declined to indict a punishment on Rooney after speaking with referee Clattenburg who was adamant that he did view the entire incident and that his ruling on the field was appropriate; in his opinion Rooney did not deserve a stiffer punishment.

The UK Football Association’s decision to not sanction Rooney has been met with a significant amount of resistance from the United Kingdom’s football fans, many of whom believe that Rooney should face a suspension of some sort for his actions. However, according to the rules, since the referee does not believe his ruling was incorrect the Football Association is not allowed to take retrospective punitive actions against players.