Nuri Sahin to Real Madrid

Nuri Kâzım Şahin (22) signed a 6 year contract for Real Madrid on Monday. The creative midfielder has impressed a lot for Borussia Dortmund and there is no doubt he has been one of the most central players for Dortmund this season.



Despite his young age, he has already achieved several accomplishments. In 2005 he won the UEFA U-17 world championship with Turkey. In the 07/08 season he won the Dutch cup with Feyenoord (on loan) and in the current season Şahin and Dortmund, where he has been for over 10 years, are champions of prestigious Bundesliga.


Over the last months there have been lots of speculations regarding a transfer for Şahin. Clubs from all over Europe has been interested in signing the shooting star. The transfer fee for the young Turk is believed to be 12 million Euros. Şahin himself declared that it is a tough decision, and that he will miss Dortmund.


There is no doubt Nuri Şahin is a top class player. It is believed to be a good signing. Real Madrid is hoping he will become an even better player, which is not unlikely playing alongside some of the best players in the world.

By Aksel Petter Spence

Video - Highlights from Manchester City vs Stoke - FA CUP

Manchester City have won their first trophy in 35 years after winning the FA Cup final against Stoke. City went ahead in the 75th minute of the game through a Yaya Toure goal. They comprehensively dominated a nervous stoke. City and United alike both secured titles over night. Check out the extended highlights below.

   

FIFA aka 'The Untouchables'

By Paul Frederickson

FIFA has come under scrutiny once again for corruption in its ranks. Cash for World Cup votes has become the latest in a long line of scandals that are further tainting the FIFA brand. There have been accusations against a number of FIFA delegates regarding these issues, in particular FIFA's Trinidad and Tobago football executive, businessman and FIFA Vice-president Jack Warner. In an May 11, article by Harry Harris of ESPN (1) it was stated that the English FA's, Sir Dave Richards:

"Confirmed to ESPNsoccernet that while it was never explicitly said that it was to be cash for votes, he is under no illusions that it could be inferred".

Furthermore the article advises that:

"Lord Triesman claimed FIFA vice-president Warner suggested the FA fund an education centre in Trinidad with the cash to go through him, and later £500,000 to buy Haiti's World Cup TV rights for the earthquake-hit nation, also to go through Warner".

This follows a Swiss investigation launched in December 2010. The Mail Online (3) reported that:

"Ueli Maurer, the Swiss minister for sport, announced yesterday that the Swiss Sports Agency had been charged with investigating wrongdoing among the near 50 international sports bodies based in the country, of which FIFA is one of the largest."

This article does not intend to investigate these allegations but discuss why, with all the talk of transparency, the monolith that is FIFA is largely unaccountable to its constituents. In the 1997 film, The Untouchables (2), Sean Connery's character famously says of an assailant, "Brings a knife to a gun fight". It seems that anyone who challenges FIFA is coming to a gunfight with a rubber knife.

Does anyone have the courage and will power to take on the might of the FIFA juggernaut?

Formed in Switzerland in 1904 there is no greater power in world football than FIFA. It controls the laws, finance and most tournaments of its 208 member nations. Of the 208 member nations there are 24 vote deciders for tournaments such as the World Cup.

From time-to-time countries have spoken out about issues that have directly affected their own country and this can often smell like sour grapes. But there has yet to be wholesale condemnation by FIFA's member nations which is something that may make the FIFA board accountable because they have to be.

More importantly, does anyone want to?

FIFA spends a lot of money around the world and there is no mistaking that money does talk.The money that FIFA spends around the world is extraordinary. From the FIFA 2010 financial report (4):

"FIFA will increase its investment in football development programmes over the upcoming 2011-2014 period from the USD 691 million that was in the budget for 2007-2010 to USD 800 million".

Furthermore, if a nation does make a stand they may well fear the backlash and alienation that may occur as a result of being outspoken. Not participating in FIFA sanctioned tournaments could be one such result. The subsequent loss of money through FIFA sanctions could destroy confederations and its member nations.

Below is the current FIFA Executive Committee, arguably the most powerful men in world football.

Joseph S. BLATTER

Switzerland

Senior Vice President
Julio H. GRONDONA	Argentina

Vice President
Issa HAYATOU	Cameroon
CHUNG Mong Joon	Korea Republic
Jack A. WARNER	Trinidad and Tobago
Ángel María VILLAR LLONA	Spain
Michel PLATINI	France
Geoff THOMPSON	England
David CHUNG	Papua New Guinea

Member
Michel D'HOOGHE	Belgium
Ricardo Terra TEIXEIRA	Brazil
Mohamed BIN HAMMAM	Qatar
Senes ERZIK	Turkey
Chuck BLAZER	USA
Worawi MAKUDI	Thailand
Nicolás LEOZ	Paraguay
Junji OGURA	Japan
Marios LEFKARITIS	Cyprus
Jacques ANOUMA	Côte d'Ivoire
Franz BECKENBAUER	Germany
Rafael SALGUERO	Guatemala
Hany ABO RIDA	Egypt
Vitaly MUTKO	Russia
Mohamed RAOURAOUA	Algeria

Secretary General
Jérôme VALCKE	France

This committee have the ultimate voting rights in world football. Many of the FIFA Executive Committee have been in positions of power for many years and are very hard to dislodge. Sepp Blatter is the classic example. Staring as FIFA's technical director in 1975, he became FIFA general Secretary from 1981 to 1998, and has been the ongoing face of FIFA as its President since then. He is now seeking re-election in the position once again.

Anyone who runs against a figure such as Sepp Blatter would need enormous influence, as the allegiances that the committee members have gained and wield are long running and financial. There is a fantastic story in Sport Illustrated (5) by an American journalist Grant Wahl announced his candidacy for FIFA president in February of 2011. After talking to many member nations he noted why it would be so hard for anyone to break the inner sanctum that currently presides at FIFA:

"Many of them voiced the same message I heard in that Paris hotel lobby: We don't really like the status quo, but nominating you is impossible. Nobody had the courage to do it. The prevailing mood was fear."

What can be done?

Sadly, reform at FIFA seems only to be able to be completed by FIFA themselves. Any form of transparency must be self-initiated. Whilst FIFA produces annual statements on finances, there is little accountability for how board members receive money. Voting on both the FIFA board and who hosts the various competitions is a convoluted and secretitive process with obvious political and financial implications and connotations.

Nations such as England, the United States of America and Australia were, at stages of the campaigning, front runners for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup. In round 1 of the voting they received a total of 6 votes. As an Australian I might sound like I have sour grapes but FIFA's own evaluation reports of the 2018 and 2022 bids showed a number of concerns over Qatar's bid. Two of these extracts are shown below:

"The final number of accomplished projects would determine the number of supporters who could be accommodated. Furthermore, the concentration of the majority of rooms in just a few properties could lead to the risk that the exclusivity of certain constituent groups could not be ensured."

"Any delay in the completion of the transport projects could impact FIFA’s tournament operations. Moreover, it appears to be difficult to test a transport concept prior to the event under conditions comparable to the FIFA World CupTM. The fact that New Doha International Airport would be the primary air gateway for the entire tournament period also requires careful consideration."

Most dammingly, the report stated of the conditions in Qatar:

"The fact that the competition is planned in June/July, the two hottest months of the year in this region, has to be considered as a potential health risk for players, officials, the FIFA family and spectators, and requires precautions to be taken."

If the final evaluations were not considered when the voting was completed then it has to be asked why they were conducted at all?

A starting point for future transparency would be solved if each member nation is given full voting rights above and beyond their associations. One vote for each of the 208 FIFA member nations. 208 voices would be much harder to manipulate and cajole. A fully democratic FIFA, now that truly would be the world game!

There is no doubt that football needs FIFA, but we also need FIFA to mirror the ideals of our great sport. Hard work, team work, skills and integrity. The cornerstones to any great team.

               

(1) Harry Harris, 'Richards: Warner proposals shocked me. May 11. 2011, ESPN Soccernet,

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/918287/sir-dave-richards:-i-was-shocked-by-jack-warner'-demands?cc=3436

(2) 'The Untouchables', 1997, The Internet Movie Databases, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094226/

(3) FIFA hosts launch corruption probe, Mail Online, December 8, 2010,

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-1336620/FIFA-hosts-launch-corruption-probe-World-Cup-scandal.html

(4) FIFA Financial Report, 1010.

FIFA.Com,http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/marketing/factsfigures/financialreport.html

(5) Grant Wahl, 'My story: What happened when I decided to run for FIFA president'. Sports Illustrated, April 1, 2011.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/grant_wahl/04/01/fifa.candidacy/index.html

(6) FIFA, Evaluation reports on the bids for the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World CupsTM Executive Summaries

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/01/33/59/45/bidevaluationreport.pdf

From Suarez to Poulsen - Best and Worst of the EPL 2010/2011

As we near the end of what has been a Premier League season full of surprises, let’s take a look at the best (and the worst) transfers we have seen this season. Just remember though … hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The best:

Javier Hernandez – C.D. Guadelejara to Manchester United for £8 million

Hernandez, or as his shirt says “Chicharito” arrived at United at the same time as another young striker Bebe, for about the same amount of money. No prizes for guessing which player most people are still speaking about. Hernandez didn’t have an easy task ahead of him, being up against Rooney, Berbatov, Owen and Obertan as competition for a place in the first 11 seems pretty intimidating, but he has managed 26 appearances scoring an impressive 13 goals, including the Hollywood moment 36 second goal against Chelsea. He’s only 22 and is on a long term contract with United, which could well mean the end of Berbatov’s career with the Red Devils.

Luis Suarez – Ajax to Liverpool for £23 million

In January Liverpool were in desperate need of some fresh firepower and Suarez was their first choice throughout the month, finally completing his transfer just hours before the deadline. When Torres left, Suarez was suddenly dubbed as his replacement, a daunting title, but one which he has managed to live up to with some style. His movement, speed, trickery and more has made him a real menace to defences and at under half the price that Torres sold for he looks more than twice as good. £23 million isn’t cheap, but at this point you’d have to say it was money well spent by Liverpool. Suarez will be central to any hope Liverpool have of continental qualification next season.

William Gallas – Arsenal to Tottenham on a free transfer

As free transfers go, they don’t get a lot better. Signing an experienced player from your bitterest rivals who will end up captaining your team to victory against them? Yes please.

Peter Odemwingie – Lokomotiv Moscow to West Bromwich Albion for £1 million

Odemwingie has to represent the best single million pounds spent in years, let alone just this season. West Brom are not a rich club and this season were in real danger of having to fight to avoid relegation, so any signings they did make had be both fiscal but effective. Odemwingie is both – 15 goals this season, 9 more than any of his teammates has meant that West Brom are going to survive the drop comfortably. Sadly, he only signed a 3 year contract, 1 of which has already gone. West Brom are surely already considering offering him an extension to this or they could lose him cheaply in just a year’s time. Somehow, I don’t think they’ll find as good a replacement with another million pounds.

Daniel Sturridge – Chelsea to Bolton on a loan.

Bolton have had an excellent season and may actually be a little disappointed to currently be sitting 9th in the Premier League. If domestic cup results hadn’t ended up securing European football for Birmingham and Stoke, Bolton would have been in with a real chance of scrapping for Europa League qualification. Sturridge signed for Bolton in January, scoring 7 goals in 10 appearances, not a bad return for minimal effort on the club’s part. Sturridge’s future depends largely on what will happen with Chelsea’s striker situation this summer, but it is more than likely he will end up staying in London next season, rather than being sent out on loan. Even if his Bolton career is limited to this half a season, it’s been a good loan spell for him, scoring some important goals and really helping them cement their place in the top half of the table.

The worst -

Edin Dzeko – Wolfsburg to Manchester City for £27 million

I don’t understand this one. What does Dzeko have which Adebayor, Balotelli, Santa Cruz or Jo combined don’t? Apart from the third highest transfer fee paid in the Premier League this season. Dzeko has managed only a single competitive goal so far, making him an extremely expensive bench-warmer.
I suppose when you have so much money and you’re buying so many players (some 22 first team players since 2009), you’re bound to make a few bad purchases. Some players, especially strikers just aren’t the type who will flourish in the Premier League, and Dzeko’s encouraging performances for City in the Europa League suggests that the best thing for his career may be a move back to the continent.

Fernando Torres – Liverpool to Chelsea for £50 million

When you’re a big name striker and a big name club makes a big money offer for you, you have to perform. Taking almost 1000 minutes to score your first goal, failing to link up well with the other top striker at the club and disappearing from games for 20 minutes at a time, doesn’t count as performing. At Liverpool, Torres was able to have a bad 89 minutes but still score in the 90th. At Chelsea , he has a bad 89 minutes and then a bad 90th as well. Having been played instead of Drogba seemingly because of his price than his form, it’s easy to imagine that Drogba may be interested in leaving Chelsea this summer. There have been rumours of him returning to France, and Real Madrid, coached by Drogba’s old coach Jose Mourinho, are also in the hunt for a top striker. If Drogba leaves and Torres doesn’t find form, Torres could become a whole lot pricier than the 50million Chelsea paid.

Stephen Ireland – Manchester City to Aston Villa for £8 million

I remember watching Stephen Ireland’s Manchester City career and thinking that it was only a matter of time before a top club took him somewhere else. Then City got rich and suddenly he was surplus to requirements. An 8million move to Aston Villa seemed perfect. He was put into a team that was desperate for a big presence in midfield, still feeling the pain of losing Gareth Barry and fresh from losing James Milner too. Sadly, Ireland managed just 10 appearances for Villa before being loaned out to Newcastle. Injury has played a part in his poor season, but attitude problems and form seem to be the overriding factors.

Christian Poulsen – Juventus to Liverpool for £4.5 million

Someone said to me at the beginning of the season that all defensive midfielders are the same. If that’s the case, why did Barcelona pay 18million for Mascherano and Liverpool ’s replacement Poulsen cost only 4.5? His displays have been poor at best, giving the ball away cheaply and failing to provide any cover for the defence. It didn’t take long for him to be benched, and of his 11 first team performances so far, he’s made none since January when Jay Spearing emerged as a real candidate for first team action. With Gerrard, Meireles, Lucas, Spearing and Shelvey all preferred to Poulsen, it’s hard to imagine he will get another chance to justify the money spent on him.

By David Astley

No More Lustre: Has The UEFA Champions League Lost Its Glamour?

So as FC Barcelona managed to sweep their bitter rivals Real Madrid and Manchester United FC brush aside German hopefuls FC Schalke 04 in the 2010/11 edition of the UEFA Champions League, there’s one thing that creeps into mind when you look at the two finalists for the final at Wembely: Normalcy.

The Champions League is European football’s (nay, the world’s ) most elite and prestigious club footballing tournament, where the very best of European clubs get the chance to cut their metal and test their grit against other European footballing elite. It’s literally the stuff dreams are made of. Mouth-watering group stage encounters, nail-biting semi-finals and a melting pot of the world’s footballing elite players competing to lift the coveted trophy at the end of the tournament.


Quite romantic when you think about it. After all, imagine the prospect of a (say for example) Marseille taking on Juventus in the quarter-finals to see who will take on the winner of Chelsea FC and Valencia in the final. It could be about the “little clubs” fighting and battling against European royalty and brushing them aside to hold that illustrious trophy at season’s end.

But as recently history will tell you, it’s been far from that. The romance and the thrill of the ties in the Champions League is slowly and surely fading away. This season’s edition sees FC Barcelona take on Manchester United in what no doubt should be a very entertaining affair. But it’s become all too typical. For the past few seasons (since 2000) the Champions League trophy has only been placed in the trophy cabinets of four different footballing nations (England, Spain, Portugal and Italy), with Germany’s Bayern Munich making the final twice but losing to Inter and almost to Valencia on penalties(Valencia CF in 2000/01 and Inter Milan 2009/10).


So you can only imagine the lack of variety when it comes to the passing of the trophy. The only season when the trend was bucked was when a Jose Mourinho led Portuguese outfit FC Porto to a 3 – 0 victory over French side Monaco in 2003/04. But a tie like that hasn’t been had in a while because of the dominance in this point in history has been confined to the four footballing nations, but yet more specifically to FC Barcelona and Manchester United. Kudos to both teams making the final, an achievement for any fan of the sides to be proud of. It’s been labelled as the rematch of 08/09 final where FC Barcelona ran riot over Manchester United, beating them 2 – 0 in style.

It’s great prospect to watch. If you’re a Manchester United or FC Barcelona fan. But what about to the footballing neutral? Can it be that Europe’s prestigious club competition has become too top heavy? Or that the game of football has become the play thing of billionaires and global brands as opposed to actual teams? It would be stupid to say or even think that the game between two of Europe’s biggest teams would be anything short of entertaining. But it’s the same old thing again and again.


It’s a sad thing to say, but it seems there cannot be a variety in the Champions League anymore. Those with some of the deepest pockets in Europe can only be successful and simmer to the top of the European footballing stew.

How great would it have been to be a FC Schalke 04 or a Tottenham Hotspur fan during this season of the Champions League. Just a few mere wins away from reaching the grandest of all club footballing finals the world over. But yet look at their games in which they were knocked out. Tottenham lost a crushing 0 – 5 on aggregate (losing 4 – 0 in the opening leg) and FC Schalke, the team from Gelsenkirchen who carried the imaginations of many (including myself) were systematically thrown out of the Champions league by Manchester United 6 -1 on aggregate, despite the heroics of goalkeeper Manuel Neurer . The fairy tale run of the underdogs came to a screeching halt and those romantics who dream, dreamt for too long.


But this isn’t to take away from the skills and talents of Manchester United or FC Barcelona. They both have incredibly talent squads, brilliantly tactically minded coaches with both an arsenal of attacking weapons and an inventory of defense strategies to complement their playing styles. Both squads should be commended on their achievements because after all, you don’t become champions of your leagues by sheer luck and chance.

But on that night on the 28^th of May when both teams grace the grass of Wembley Stadium in London, one team will come out the victor. But who really loses here? Without pointing out the obvious (the team who loses), it’s the imagination of many a footballing fan who has grown tired of seeing the “topheavyness” of European football battle it out. Again.


Is there space for the imagination for the footballing romantic? Yes, but it can only exist in that form, in the imagination. Reality can deal a cruel blow for many a fan.

By Marcel Abboud