The Road to Rio

by

Today sees the launch of The Road to Rio, a mini-guide to the destinations – San Marino/Rimini, Podgorica, Novi Sad, Stockholm, Split and Zagreb – hosting World Cup qualifying games this spring.

England, Scotland and Ireland travel to San Marino, Montenegro, Serbia, Sweden and Croatia – and the Libero Guide team has visited every stadium and half-decent pub, sports bar and hotel there to produce the Road to Rio website available at www.footballfansguide.co.uk

Libero (£1.49) is the football fans’ travel app, for Apple and Android smartphones, the most up-to-date travel companion to Europe’s most exciting destinations, city-by-city, club-by-club.

Packed solid with freshly researched information and thousands of original photos, Libero is massive – so massive it is best downloadable with a strong WiFi or via iTunes.

liberoguide.co.uk/liberoguide.com

FIFA President, Sepp Blatter decides to finalise the integration of Goal-Line Technology

by

How many times have fans seen legitimate goals waived and controversial goals counted by linesmen and referees alike; too many times. This is why it does not come as a surprise as FIFA has publicised that the much-awaited World Cup in Brazil will feature goal-line technology. In addition to that, bidders have been invited to present their programs before the CONFED Cup starts in the summer.

Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, was known to be a lover of such technology. Thus, during the Club World Cup last year, they tried the program and saw success. That’s why he would want to finally implement said technology starting from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The FIFA president expressed his delight at seeing success in what was the first time he allowed goal-line technology. When he was interviewed, he stated his plans of finalizing the use of the technology before the CONFED Cup and the World Cup so as to see how good it will be for the players, the fans and the officials alike. However, there are a lot of people that have expressed their thoughts on the matter negatively but still Pres. Blatter stands firm on his decision earlier in the year.

The goal-line technology that Sepp Blatter wants to integrate in football is primarily intended to help the linesmen and referees during the course of the game. Furthermore, it somehow helps both teams because the eyes of the fans across the globe have realised that there are some instances when human error is costly.

On the other hand, this shows some kind of disrespect to the legacy of football. The past has seen the skills of officials in deciding whether or not to give a foul or not, let alone allow or disallow a goal but Sepp Blatter has seen and has hear enough of this shenanigans and imposes upon world football to use goal-line technology.

 

Aaron Ramsay no scapegoat insists Chris Coleman

by

Following the humiliating 6-1 defeat that Wales suffered at the hands of Serbia in September, Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsay was relieved of the captaincy and replaced by Ashley Williams but, according to Chris Coleman, the Welsh manager, he has not been made a scapegoat. The Welsh national team have lost all 4 games since Coleman took charge, and the former manager of Fulham said that if he didn’t start changing things he would be a coward.

Coleman met up with Ramsay on Thursday at the Arsenal training ground and said afterwards that the 21 year old, who became the youngest ever captain of Wales when he was appointed skipper by Gary Speed back in March 2011, had responded maturely to the news. Coleman even suggested that Ramsay was actually relieved that the pressure of leading a struggling national team had been taken off his young shoulders.

Coleman has admitted that it was a far from easy decision and that it was something he had been considering for a while, and he felt that with Ramsay being so young he had really felt the pressure. Coleman added that he thought the team needed to go in a different direction to get out of this slump as the current system clearly wasn’t working and of all the changes he decided to make, this was the biggest.

Coleman went on to say that he fully expects Ramsay to lead his county again in the future, and wanted to make it clear that by making the decision to ask him to step down as skipper he was in no way pointing the finger of blame at Ramsay for their current poor form. He said that Ramsay could in no way be blamed for the losses simply because he was captain, and in fact blamed himself for not changing things sooner.

Ashley Cole takes to Twitter to rant about the FA

by

Ashley Cole, the Chelsea and England defender, has taken to Twitter to vent his anger after doubts were cast over the viability of the statement he gave supporting John Terry over the alleged racial abuse aimed at Anton Ferdinand. In a charming turn of phrase, Cole called the FA a ‘bunch of t—s’ for implying that he could be lying.

His outburst was the response to a report being published that questioned the statement Cole made which supported Terry’s version of event during the hearing of the former captain of England which took place last week. Cole’s tirade took place the day after he had been named in the England squad for the crucial World Cup qualifying matches against San Marino at home, and away in Poland.

It rounds off what has been an exceptionally busy week for Roy Hodgson, the England manager, which included an apology to Rio Ferdinand, the Man Utd defender after discussing his international prospects with a complete stranger on the London Underground. Just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse up pops Cole and his rant, throwing his own participation in the qualifiers into serious doubt.

Terry was cleared back in July at Westminster Magistrates Court of a racially aggravated public order offence, which was partly due to the testimony given by Cole, his team mate at both club and country level. The FA commission has since, however, found discrepancies in the initial statement which Cole gave in an FA interview regarding what he heard Terry say to Ferdinand compared to statements he gave later.

Cole didn’t say the word ‘black’ in the initial interview on the 28th October, but on the 3rd November David Barnard, the Chelsea club secretary, asked for the word to be inserted into Cole’s statement, this suggesting that Cole may have heard Terry use the term after all.

 

Steven Gerrard tries to rally the fans for the 2014 World Cup

by

Despite a poor showing in recent international tournaments, Steven Gerrard is still convinced that England can lift the 2014 World Cup. The Liverpool and England stalwart has appealed to the football nation to keep faith, and has said that miracles do happen, and you should never stop believing in football.

The next step in Roy Hodgson’s road to Brazil is a stop off in Chisinau to play Moldova in the Group H qualifier. A team from Europe has never won any of the 7 World Cup finals that have been held in North, South or Central America, but Gerrard believes this will inspire England and not deter them.

He said in an interview that he is realistic and honest when he speaks and while England are not one of the current favourites for 2014, that shouldn’t mean that they stop believing or working hard to improve themselves and learn from the mistakes they have made in previous tournaments. He added that the team had time to improve and grow over the next 2 years, with a combination of experienced and new players.

The team have been training at the Zimbru Stadium, where the earlier fears regarding the playing surface unfortunately proved to be founded. The ground, that has a 10,500 capacity, has an uneven pitch with rather longer grass than is suitable for football, even though the local federation had claimed it would be cut. Hodgson also has to deal with losing 3 players he had selected for both this game and the home qualifier against the Ukraine on Tuesday.

The last manager of England who lost the first qualifying game of a World Cup campaign was back in 2000, when Kevin Keegan saw his side go down to old adversaries Germany. Hodgson has spoken out about his reluctance to jettison the likes of Gerrard and Lampard simply because of the public wanting a change, and he said it is very possible that they will both be in the starting line up.