SportsDirect.com invites you to discuss your ultimate football team

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SportsDirect.com invites you to discuss your ultimate football team

SportsDirect.com invites you to discuss your ultimate football team

All football fans have what they think is the ultimate dream team, their selection of 11 of the greatest players who they feel, should they combine, will be capable of winning every cup and title available to club football. For those fans who live, breathe and talk football, you can now talk to like-minded fans in the Facebook page created by SportsDirect.com, the top UK retailer of football boots

The team from SportsDirect.com have opened up a discussion forum for anyone who wants to create their ultimate dream team. Unlike other dream team competitions, this time can include any footballer who has ever lived, so you can have George Best playing with Wayne Rooney if you want to. Once you have chosen your star team, you can tell the world about them with World XI.

The editor of 4 4 2 magazine, David Hall, recently logged on and told SportsDirect.com which 11 players he would have on his team, and why. His team was packed with legends of the game such as Booby Moore who, according to Hall, could read a game so well he could play entire matches in the rain without getting his kit dirty. Other inclusions are Sir Bobby Charlton, Zinedine Zidane and Deigo Maradona.

This is certainly a dream team to be reckoned with, and that’s just the start. If you reckon you can put together an even better line up, then get yourself onto www.facebook.com/SportsDirectUK . Discuss your team with others and have your own World XI featured on this official Facebook page.

 

 

New anti-sectarian law up in the air

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New anti-sectarian law up in the air The SNP has confused football fans over the new law proposals that will eliminate sectarianism. The law means that the singing of some football chants will become illegal, while the singing of others will not. The Scottish Community Safety Minister is Roseanna Cunningham and she has said that, “Songs that can potentially cause public disorder are the ones that we want to stop. Police officers are going to be the ones making the decisions on the street about which songs may cause public disorder.”

Critics have said that the law will just create confusion as people will not be sure which songs are a criminal offence and which are not. The implementation of the law has been delayed after comments by Ms Cunningham that the singing of ‘God Save the Queen’ could be illegal.

Tom Devine a leading academic drew the comments from Ms Cunningham after he asked her to clarify the law saying that in its current state, “It could make this whole area of Scottish law into nothing more than a joke.”

Ms Cunningham further said, “This Bill does not suggest that any offensive behaviour would become illegal. It only covers offensive behaviour that the reasonable person would see as being able to cause violence. To think it could cover all offensive behaviour is just absurd, and besides, we simply do not have the space in our jails.”

The Scottish Labour justice spokesperson is Tom Kelly and he has said of the comments made by Ms Cunningham, “Those attending football matches need to know what is, and is not, allowed. We cannot have some arbitrary law; it is just going to leave people confused. This is just a complete shambles; it’s just leaving us with more questions than we have the answers to.”

Is Abramovich stepping away from football

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Is Abramovich stepping away from football It was Roman Abramovich’s investment in Chelsea that has allowed for the club to become one of the best in the country. He took over ownership of the club in 2003 and has a serious passion for the game. Some have noticed though that he is not attending as many of the matches as he used to and some fans are seeing this as him losing interest.

Chairman of the Chelsea is Bruce Buck and he says this is anything but true. In a recent interview for a book by Ian Ridley called There’s a Golden Sky, he says that Abramovich has an incredibly deep knowledge of the sport and that is passion for it is as alive as ever.

Buck said, “Abramovich’s knowledge and passion for the game has only increased. He is so informed about the game it is incredible. There is probably not a player in the world that he couldn’t give you up to date statistics for. I would say that since taking over the club he has only become more interested in the game. He still watches the Chelsea games, just he can’t always do it in person, but wherever he is in the world, you can be sure he is tuning in.”

In the book Buck is also reminiscing about when Abramovich wanted to get involved with the Premier League, “He asked UBS to look at which clubs where the best ones to invest into. He considered Manchester United and Aston Villa, but they did not seem so financially viable. In the end it was down to two Tottenham or Chelsea. For whatever reason Tottenham were not willing to meet, so Chelsea, who needed the capital were the club Abramovich chose. Our fans have sure been pleased with the results.”

Scottish players and drug tests

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Scottish players and drug tests Garry O’Connor, the international footballer, has had problems with passing drugs tests in the past. He has recently come back to play for his first team, Hibernian, in the Scottish Premier League. In the past he has been banned from the sport for failing drugs tests and despite claims that he is clean, he is waiting for the results of a court case against him.

The Football Association has long had the right to keep the names of players who have failed drugs tests for using only recreational rather than enhancing substances, confidential. Indeed, O’Connor was permitted to serve his first ban in secret. The Association has long claimed that players have the right to face their addictions in their private lives and not have public shame forced upon them.

There is however an alternative side to the argument that claims that if players were to be named when they used recreational drugs it would act as a strong incentive not to do them in the first place. Football players can go onto become role models for young people and they should not have secret drug addictions. That said, it does not seem from the information that has been compiled by Sporting Intelligence, that there is a major drug problem in UK football – most players are testing clean.

Some people have criticised the sport for being too focused on the recreational side of the equation, saying that investigating players for the use of performance enhancing substances is far more important. It could be said that recreational substances are private to an individual but the use of performance substances can influence the sport. Some have even said there should be no testing at all and that the controversy around the use of recreational drugs just detracts from the real issue of performance enhancing drugs.

Wada, the drug testing authority, has said they have a general dissatisfaction with the way that testing is conducted in the sport. In a statement they have said, “The sport doesn’t think that it has a problem because the number of failed tests is low. This suggests to us that a more detailed investigation into doping should be conducted as people are known to be able to cheat drugs tests.”

The government maintain that there should be a zero tolerance policy on drugs and Sebastian Coe has said that, “The idea that there should be lesser penalties for recreational drugs is morally bankrupt.”

Football offensive behaviour law may not be legal

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Football offensive behaviour law may not be legal Members of the Scottish Parliament have been cautioned by a notable academic that changing the law with the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Bill could make the legal process look foolish. Tom Devine is a professor from the University of Edinburgh has described the bill as far too wide, saying that it could say that simple political statements were sectarian crimes.

Devine has commented, “The problem is people are not going to be sure what is a political belief and what is an offensive statement. If these bill is made law than it will bring this area of the law into disrepute. I also wonder why this Bill has been extended to such a great extent, so that it now covers many other things, rather than the sectarianism that it was originally made for.”

The potential law has been expanded to cover any offence that is driven by race, colour, sexual orientation or disability, among others. Devine has said, “There are important issues that need to be covered, but this law will just make everything far too ambiguous. We need to wait for there to be real evidence for making such a law, only that way will it be effective. There has only been one study conducted, back in 2004 and that was no where near deep enough.”

Cardinal Keith O’Brien  has said in the past that the reason for the religious violence in Scotland is because the state is against Catholics, Professor Devine has said the passing of this law will only confirm this belief. Research from the 2004 report suggested that Catholics were many times more likely to be subject to a sectarian attack. He also urged the Scottish government to wait for the Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland to complete a more conclusive study, which has been collecting data since 2003.