...::[The Footy Desk]::...

[Tchuck]

If the player wants to leave a club, he has to see it out or pay the fine. He can't just go "hey I'm tired of this club, goodbye" while still under contract. I'm sure he can negotiate pre-contracts with other clubs, but he'll only move once his current one has expired. Similar thing happened in Brazil a couple years ago, Dagoberto wanted to leave his club, but his club would not negotiate him. And then they started to refuse to play him, relegating him to the reserve team and all. He found a club who wanted to have him, and they went to the court to lessen the fine of his contract so he could get transfered.

[kietotheworld]

"Almost as soon as the news came through, we heard that familiar thwack; it was the race card on the table. But this is no conspiracy against the English. Even through the haze of paranoia it could be seen that exactly the punishment delivered to Chelsea by Fifa yesterday in the Gaël Kakuta case had been given to Sion, the Swiss club, five months earlier for the manner in which they lured Essam El Hadary, the Egypt goalkeeper, from Al Ahly."

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle6820890.ece

[Stefan.]

Is that meant to mean that they have a conspiracy against Swiss and English clubs now, does it?

[Eminence]

No, just that there's no conspiracy and that it's the standard, fair punishment in this situation. Though I still think Chelsea will succeed with an appeal.

[Girish]

Though I still think Chelsea will succeed with an appeal.

We have to. I'm pretty sure Ancelotti had certain players in mind for the January window. And realistically speaking, we can't afford to go without any new signings for 2 consecutive windows.

 

Although, this bit here looks pretty good;

 

An interesting twist would therefore surround the timing of Chelsea's appeal. It will be a number of weeks before the official papers are delivered to Stamford Bridge, from which time the club will have those 10 days to appeal. It then takes at least three months for the CAS to hear a case and that means it is highly possible Chelsea will be able to sign players for some or all of the January window.

Source: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id...england&cc=4716

[Seddo]

It won't be the January transfer window that will hurt Chelsea, it's the summer transfer window that's going to be the huge kick in the balls.

 

I still think Chelsea will win an appeal but it will probably just be shortening the transfer ban and if it takes a while for the papers to go through then the summer transfer window will be the first to come.

[Vercetti27]

If the appeal is unsuccessful then I'd love to see how chelski will get on with 30 year old warhorses in every part of the pitch.

 

But I think it would be good for football for this to happen. They'll have to develop more youth talent and intergrate it with experience.

 

But the appeal will be successful

[Stefan.]

girishb, it's not about what's more realistic for your club, it's about what's more fair. Your club broke the rules, deal with it. You've been handed the fair punishment which is required and that's that.

 

I only hope that if Chelsea do appeal, they still miss out on at least one transfer window, specifically the Summer one. However, all FIFA and UEFA need to do now is make sure that when they're consistent with it; although I'll probably have a seedy grin on my face if Manchester United to do the same thing, I'd still expect and accept a punishment from FIFA if we were to do the same thing.

 

Nice to see the law-makers of the game actually stepping up with things now; diving, snatching players, what next?

[SIKKS66]

Nice to see the law-makers of the game actually stepping up with things now; diving, snatching players, what next?

Perhaps wishing for realistic wages would be a step too far But atleast they're sticking officials on the goal line to clamp down on penalty area offences and "ghost goals".

 

I'm just waiting for FIFA to bitch-slap United atm. Pretty certain United are as bad as Chelsea. If so, the pretty quiet transfer window we just had may feel a whole lot more quieter if we have 16 months of inactivty to come...

[LanceVanceDance07]

International qualifiers this week, the match I'm most looking forward to is Argentina/Brazil tonight, should be a heated affair between the two.

 

Surprised that the match isn't being played at Buenos Aires, but rather at Rosario, which is a much smaller stadium than the stadium that the Argentine national team normally uses in Buenos Aires (River Plate's stadium? I'm not sure). I'm guessing that Argentina wants a more intimidating atmosphere when Brazil come to town, which can make a huge difference in the morale of the team.

[mark-2007]

 

I'm just waiting for FIFA to bitch-slap United atm. Pretty certain United are as bad as Chelsea. If so, the pretty quiet transfer window we just had may feel a whole lot more quieter if we have 16 months of inactivty to come...

I read in some paper today that Fiorentina have joined another club in lodging a complaint againgst Man Utd in something similar to this whole Chelsea-Kakuta thing. The article only mentioned it in passing though, and I've forgotten the other club who were mentioned lodging a complaint to FIFA. I'll try find some source. EDIT: Perhaps something to do with this: here. Looks like Man Utd are repeat offenders, as will many clubs be. The "loophole" mentioned might mean they avoid punishment, perhaps? Also, Le Havre are the other club. Check here. That loophole in Italiuan law is about pre-contracts before players turning a certain age are not allowed in Italy, so I guess Man Utd won't be punished for that. Perhaps Italian football law will be changed though?

 

England match on now. Ridiculous penalty decision going England's way. I dunno if Rooney dived, but he seemed to raise his arms to the referee asking for the penalty in replays of it. He also seemed to put a foot in on his way down on the defender, who's since gone off injured although that's more through how he landed the jump. I like to see England winning, but if it's a result of cheating the referee, as it might've been, I'd prefer Slovenia won. Rooney just hit the post from yards out too...

 

Also, double standards much? I know he mentions not being pleased if his own players do that thing, which plenty of them have done and continue to do, but it's a bit rich coming from him. There needs to be some consistency in these punishments. Players are rarely punished for diving (that I know of at least), even less when they don't earn a major, match-changing decision from their dive. Why? There should be consistency in the punishments for diving, as there should be for the thing Chelsea got done for.

Edited September 5, 2009 by mark-2007

[Vercetti27]

Rooney diving in an england match after telling publicly in a national paper what a curse it is to football and how it was brought to england by foreigners, and its them who do it the most

 

WHAT A STUPID PRICK

[mark-2007]

Jermaine Defoe with a great goal. Took a deflection, mind, but still a nice shot. He's on fiyuhhhh! 2-0.

 

Brilliant run by Aaron Lennon only for Rooney to fail to score what should've been an easy goal.

Edited September 5, 2009 by mark-2007

[The Killa]

On another note, this seemed interesting:

 

Edited September 5, 2009 by The Killa

[Seddo]

Haha took me a while to figure out what you were getting at .

 

First half wasn't the best for us but the second half was much better, Defoe has got to start upfront with Rooney against Croatia, he's on fire at the minute.

[LanceVanceDance07]

Ba boom boom! Brazil up 1-0 on Argentina, Luisao with the goal, atmosphere is absolutely electric, well, up until that goal.

 

Saw the second half of that England game, and I'm not too convinced on their performance. Defoe is looking damn good right now, but the defense need some work, especially when they let in the Slovenian goal.

 

Edit: Oh sh*t! 2-0 now. Luis Fabiano. Brazil are clearly in control, and they have clearly shut this Argentine crowd up.

Edited September 6, 2009 by LanceVanceDance07

[Stefan.]

On another note, this seemed interesting:

 

I don't get it.

 

I giggled like a little girl when I found out that Romania managed to snatch a point from France. This leaves us well placed for finishing in top spot, and perhaps being one of the next Europea nations to qualify for the World Cup. We're 4 points ahead now with 3 games left, and if we beat the Croissants on Wednesday (which I know that we are definitely capable of) then bring on South Africa mahf*cka.

[LanceVanceDance07]

 

On another note, this seemed interesting:

 

I don't get it.

 

Look at the headlines "McFadden sinks Macedonia" and "Macedonia boat sinking kills 15" It took me a long time to get the joke.

 

As I was typing this, Luis Fabiano scores for Brazil again, 3-1 now, this is quite an exciting game.

[The Killa]

I haven't looked at the table or anything, but I heard that if Argentina loses to Brazil they will be on the verge of not qualifying. yikes.

[Stefan.]

No, Argentina can still qualify. They're 4th on 22 points, and the top four in South America qualify. Colombia, who are are 5th, are only on 20 points, and there are 4 matches left. Brazil have also become the first South American team to officially confirm their spot in South Africa.

[Lethal Nizzle]

As always I was gunning for England's opponents, but I had to applaud Defoe's goal. He's showing he's 100% at club and international level very early on in the season.

 

And what was that Rooney corner all about?

[Seddo]

 

And what was that Rooney corner all about?

I don't know why Rooney was taking a corner in the first place but everyone was expecting a whipped in ball so it left a pretty big gap at the near post, needed a bit more pace on the ball but it was just going narrowly wide anyway.

 

Just saw McFadden's goal, that was a cracking run and good composure once he got near the keeper.

Edited September 6, 2009 by Seddo

[norniron]

Great away display to Poland, 1-1 we probley could have won 2-0 if we were a bit lucky but we would have took 1-1 before the match kicked off, 2 wins and we should be on the plane, although one match is the Czech Republic away they aren't doing too well only 9 points i think but it will be very hard.

[Vercetti27]

I'm supporting Bosnia to qualify for the WC for the first time in their existence since the break up of yugoslavia

[BreadBasket]

I would like Northern Ireland to qualify, as I want to see another British side in the finals for once, and I don't mean Scotland.

[Vercetti27]

Wales?

[norniron]

Wales?

They can't qualify anymore, can't get enough points anymore.

[Stefan.]

I'm supporting Bosnia to qualify for the WC for the first time in their existence since the break up of yugoslavia

Why exactly? Why not support Slovenia or Macedonia? lol.

 

I wouldn't normally say this but I hope that they do qualify. I'm not quite the biggest fan of Bosnia myself, but the football team (much like the country itself) is a huge clusterf*ck of Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats, so it's essentially the closest footballing nation to the former Yugoslavia. And it's nice to know that the different ethnicities among the team don't start sh*t with one another, they all seem to get along pretty well. Plus one of their best players, Zvjezdan Misimovic, happens to be a Bosnian Serb so eh, I can't bitch about them. All the best to them.

 

I would also like (and at the same time, not like) to see a group where Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia (and possibly by some retarded occurence Macedonia) in the same group. They're all different rankings so, with seeding, they could possibly end up in the same group. Very high chance that it won't happen, but I'd be willing to fly to South Africa if we end up with those 3.

[Vercetti27]

Don't forget about Vedad Ibisevic, the hoffenheim striker

[joemcg15]

the republic of ireland could get northern ireland in the world cup playoffs.

how dangerous could that be