Joe Kinnear makes shock return to The Magpies

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In an extraordinary development the Newcastle United manager for the 2008-2009 season, 66 year old Joe Kinnear has been appointed the Magpies’ new director of football for recruiting players. Joe is much admired by owner Mike Ashley and MD Derek Llambias for his turbulent spell in Newcastle which was aborted due to ill-health. Whether manager Alan Pardew is involved in this restructuring or feels undermined by Joe’s influence in assembling the squad, remains a matter of intrigue.

Newcastle was seen struggling last season and it is expected out of Pardew to see them get a top 10 finish. Pardew’s reaction is awaited. Kinnear confirms with Sky Sports News that the deal is sealed with owner Mike Ashley and he intends to meet Pardew during the course of the week. Newcastle, who finished fifth from bottom last campaign, are yet to announce Kinnear’s appointment.

The former Wimbledon manager said his intention was to improve the team, tactfully adding that he would not interfere with selection or tactics. He considers himself a good judge of players and a better tactician. Having been involved with anything and everything to do with football, he intends to make Newcastle way better than the present state of affairs they are in.

Kinnear continues that when he sees a good player, he knows a good player. Should the present crop of players in the club not be good enough in his judgement, he would skilfully allow them to move on. On a positive note, he feels that there would be no nagging issues between him and manager Pardew. Kinnear’s intention is not to pick the team. The sole purpose of his appointment is to make sure Newcastle gets the best possible team on the field.

FA introduces insurance scheme

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The Football Association has been forced to set up an insurance scheme owing to the culture of players being sued over bad tackles. From next season all 11-a-side teams will have to pay up to £82 a year in cover as part of the National Game Insurance Scheme.

There have been cases where players have tried to sue opponents over broken bones owing to rash challenges on the field. From the next season, 15 player squads of Saturday and Sunday league teams will have to pay £26 for the basic package and £82 for the most comprehensive one.

Mike Dowling, secretary of the Birmingham Amateur Football Association feels, it is not so much about the money but more about the cumbersome processes. Personal accident cover which is mandatory may not be as expensive as your kit but is in no way hassle-free.

Most basic insurance which costs a player £2 a season also needs doctor’s certificates and letter. Yet the benefits may be a paltry £100 a week if you break a log and are off work. In case you have children and pay a mortgage to pay off, this amount is pretty negligible for all the hassle undertaken.

He admitted there was a compensation culture problem. In the six seasons that he had been secretary of the Birmingham AFA, there had been three cases of players trying to take litigation action against opposing players or the opposing team. Even a referee can be cited. Usually players try to get most out of a no win, no fee solicitors situation.

NGIS is being provided by the FA’s appointed broker Bluefin Sport. Mike Brown, secretary of the Amateur Football Alliance, says that FA have formed a deal for clubs which is cost effective and fits football. Former Chelsea and England star Graeme Le Saux appears in a two-minute video promoting the plan.

Stoke footballers in trouble over pigs head prank

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The trouble began when Kenwyne Jones found a pig’s head in his locker at the training ground. Jones was sure that it was Glenn Whelan who was  responsible for this prank and ended up smashing the wind screen of Glen’s car. The issue is currently being investigated by the Stoke City club officials.

The team has their final match lined up on Sunday with Southampton, so team officials are going to need to talk to both the players before that. A social media site carrying a caption “Locker room banter gone wild” posted the picture of the pig’s head. The post was by another team member, Brek Shea.

Kissa Abdullah, Jones’ partner, tweeted that humour which hurt someone’s belief and more so religious beliefs was not at all an accepted norm anywhere. Whelan, who is from Republic of Ireland and takes the teams mid-field position is whom she also accuses of placing the pig’s head wrapped up in Jones’ clothes in his locker.

The club officials have officially announced that investigations have begun and that the incident was completely unbecoming of whoever committed it. The club also mentioned that disciplinary action would be initiated against the perpetrator(s) of the act. They have however included that both acts of placing the pig head in the players locker as well as the player reacting and breaking the windscreen to be warranting disciplinary action. The investigation is being taken on by chief executive of the club Tony Scholes.

Kenwyne Jones hails from Trinidad and first played in the England league matches for Southampton in 2004. He moved to Stoke three years ago for a contract amount of £8m. He rarely speaks to the camera and has a principle of “put god first” which he had mentioned during one of his rare interview. Whelan on the other hand has been with Stoke since 2008 and is one year older than Jones. Whelan had also been named by Michael Owen as his suspect for an incident where his car had been covered with eggs and flour.

 

People leaving homes so Anfield can be expanded

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In the area around the Anfield stadium in Liverpool many residents are choosing to pack and move away from their homes so that the football club can tear down the family homes and make their Main Stand larger. Over the last six months the club has decided to scrap plans to build a new stadium and instead is now settling for an expansion. The Liverpool city council has been working hard to purchase the homes with the added incentive of legal compulsory purchase.

Most people that are moving are bitter and angry since the area has been steadily declining for the past few years. They are especially angry that the club purchased many homes and left them open for decades leading to the decline of the area.

Some residents are still refusing to be uprooted and are angry that the council offered them a low price for their home owners. These residents want to be paid enough to purchase a new home and receive compensation for the many years of living in the neighbourhood that has suffered from the football club’s decisions.

They are even angrier about the fact that they are being forcibly told they have to move so that the new owner of Liverpool, Fenway Sports Group, can make money. A man who lives on Lothair Road which sits against the Main Stand stated that the house next to him has been empty for years and he is not giving up his home until they forcibly remove him from the property.

The residents are bitter because the club purchased homes decades ago along Lothair Road without telling the community what they intend to do. This has led to the overwhelming idea that Liverpool purchased the homes to purposely drive down the market in the area.

UEFA financial regulations to be challenged in court

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UEFA’s financial fair regulations are going to be challenged in the courts of Europe due to a players agent being upset that the rules are restricting the total amount of money that a player can earn.

The Belgium agent, Daniel Striani, has placed a formal complaint with the EC stating that the rules are unfair since they require clubs in the EC from 2011 forward to financially more forward. Lawyer Jean Louis-Dupont will represent Striani. Louis-Dupont successfully challenged contract rules in 1995 for Jean-Marc Bosman and won allowing Belgium players from that point forward to move without any costs at the completion of their contracts.

This time around Dupont believes that he will once again beat the rules outlined by UEFA even if they are argued additionally by the European Commission. He stated that the regulations that are supposed to help prevent financial losses from occurring at clubs will have many adverse consequences that are not competitive.

The very first argument he plans to make is that by not allowing a club to run at a loss they will not be able to make any proper investments. The second argument is that it will give an unfair advantage of rich clubs and will secure their power in the league making it hard for any other team to rise up as Manchester City has done in the past.

In addition, he plans to argue that the FFP simply wants to reduce wages and transfer fees which is obviously anti-competitive and not fair to the players because it will end up reducing the amount of transfers that take place on a regular basis as well as the number of players that actually end up on a contract with different clubs. Over time this will also lead to salaries of players decreasing.