Roberto Di Matteo continues to refute injury crisis claims at Chelsea

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Chelsea manager, Roberto Di Matteo, keeps denying that there is an injury crisis at his club. The latest addition to the list of injured players is team captain, John Terry, who was injured in Sunday’s game against Liverpool. Terry had to leave the stadium with a brace on his right knee and a pair of crutches, but the medical staff at Stamford Bridge denied that the injury is serious. Terry was injured after a collision with Suarez, minutes before the half-time whistle.

Terry was treated on the field for almost five minutes, before being carried off the field. The fact that Terry, a footballer known for his strength and aggressiveness, held his head with his hands, shows that he was indeed in a lot of pain. Currently, the other injured players at Chelsea are David Luiz who has tonsillitis and Ashley Cole who is suffering from a hamstring problem.

Di Matteo spoke for the media: “Terry’s injury is a problem for us, but we have good cover for the centre-back position, so I’m confident that the team will be ok.” Di Matteo added that he believes that Luiz and Cole will be ready for Saturday’s game against West Brom. However, Frank Lampard won’t be able to take part in this game, because of his calf problem.

The match against Liverpool was the first match for Terry after he was handed a four-match suspension due to racism. There is still no official information regarding Terry’s injury, but considering that it affected his right knee which was operated in February then it won’t be a surprise if Terry stays injured for several weeks or even months.

Di Matteo continued: “Hearing one of your players scream like that is concerning. Everyone at the club hopes that John’s injury isn’t as serious as it seems, but we’ll find out this in a couple of days.”

 

European football

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European football is made up of all the national football teams across various countries that are all governed over by the Union of European Football Associations.

The culmination of European football comes once every four years during the UEFA European Football Championship. The major competition has been held since 1960 with the German football league holding the most titles overall and the Spanish football league currently holding the title.

Two of the strongest football nations in the union are the Spanish football teams and the German football teams. Both the Spanish football league and the German football league have major games within their own countries that are watched throughout the world.

As mentioned, Spanish football is leading the news these days due to their dominance of the Football Championship. However, it is ironic that while Spain is known for their league players, the world has not yet seen a Spanish World Cup victory.

On the other hand, German football teams have been able to not only win the European Championship title multiple times but have also succeeded in taking home a world cup showing that the German football league is well deserving of a note in the history books of European football.

 

Despite the ‘Red Card’ system racism is still alive and well in football

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Racism in football has been a topic of much debate lately, and in all truth it does not really matter if you agree or disagree with the idea of a black players’ football union because the fact that the topic has even come up shows that racism is alive and healthy.

Many former and current football players have spoken up in favour of the idea of creating a black players’ football union, but there is of course obvious opponents as well. After all, by simply dividing the players into a separate union you lay the groundwork for further problems between the races.

Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, stated that he believes the creation of a new union would hurt the overall fight against racism in football, but Nathan Blake formally of Wales international believes the group would be able to have a larger impact.

Last weekend about thirty black players including Rio Ferdinand refused to wear the ‘kick-it-out’ shirts meant to inspire unity. A lawyer that represents black players interested in a union has stated that talks are starting but they are only in the preliminary stages. At the moment the group has titled themselves the ‘Black Players’ Association.’

The topic of support for black players really came into the lineup after the treatment of John Terry-Anton Ferdinand by the English Football Association. Many believe that the English Football Association did not deal with the situation properly.

Although the courts found Terry not guilty of using racist language on the field, the FA decided that he had and assigned him a whopping £200,000 fine along with a four game ban. After this type of situation it is easy to see how some players may truly feel as if their interests are not being represented correctly.

Manchester City announce that Txiki Begiristain to be their new director of football

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Manchester City announced that Txiki Begiristain will officially take over for the team as director of football in the place of Brian Marwood. The 48 year old Spaniard previously held the exact same position while in Barcelona and was chosen because Manchester feels he will be able to help the team become club world leaders.

Begristain was with Barcelona from 2008 until 2010 and City stated that he will step in and help shoulder some of the responsibility that first team manager Roberto Mancini has had to deal with when it comes to operations and first team recruitment.

Current football administrator for City, Brian Marwood, will not be moving far as he is slated to take the role of managing director when the City Football Academy opens up during the beginning of next football season (2013/2014). Marwood will then be responsible for the training, management, development, and recruitment of as many as 400 players.

Back in his active days, Begristain played for Barcelona and Real Sociedad. He stated that he is very happy to have such a thrilling opportunity in front of him and that with so many achievements at Manchester City already he is honored to be given the chance to help bring more success to the team. He added that he looks forward to building a strong future with Roberto Mancini, Brian Marwood, and chief executive of City Ferran Soriano.

Soriano also welcomed Begiristain aboard stating that sustainability has always been a top goal of Sheikh Mansour’s and therefore the long future of Manchester City is dependent on how well they develop and recruit new young players. Therefore, he is delighted that they have such caliber coaches that will bring leadership and skill to the club that will help to create a formidable team.

Dynamic ticket pricing in football

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Dynamic pricing is used in many places – hotel rooms, train tickets, flights, theatres, etc. Everybody knows that you buy your ticket in the last moment it will be more expensive and this trend is set to take over football as well.

Some teams have already accepted this price model and the price of their tickets increases during match day. If you ever visit a match of Derby County, Bristol City or Cardiff, then you might sit next to a supporter who has paid less for his ticket. These three teams are the first to use the dynamic price model in Britain and if this turns out to be successful, many other clubs will follow their example.

Dynamic pricing is quite complex and the price of the tickets is based on the attractiveness of the game. A ticket to a single game is usually a bit more expensive than the season ticket, but with the most recent changes, the price of a single ticket may not have a maximum limit.

If there are only a few tickets left and the interest is high, then their price will quickly increase. Thanks to the dynamic pricing system clubs can increase their average attendance and bring more money to the club’s bank accounts.

Supporters will also be able to choose between paying less or more for a ticket. This choice can be quite important, especially now when the economy is failing. The vice-president of operations at Derby, John Vicars says: “This new price model will make tickets more affordable to the supports who buy them in advance.

You’ll just have to accept that if you show up at the stadium 30 minutes before the game, you’ll have to pay much more than the fan who bought his ticket few weeks ago.” Thanks to this system, regular supports who don’t own season tickets will pay less for a ticket and therefore the average match attendance should increase.