Favourite football / Soccer team

[mundodabolsa]

good for Ribery, he had a great cup.

p.s. I've always read every word in this thread but never posted as alas, while world cup games may serve as an excuse to skip out on work, regular season matches do not...

 

[Bluestar07]

APPIAH ... wanted by Gunners
Stephen Appi at Sol exit

By GARY PAYNE
SOL CAMPBELL’S Arsenal exit could open the door for Stephen Appiah to join the Gunners. Ghana captain Appiah is desperate for a move to North London but his club Fenerbahce have so far refused to sell.
However, the Turkish giants are now understood to be willing to let their prize midfielder go — if long-term target Campbell agrees to move the opposite way.
Appiah, 25, said: “No deal has been done yet but 50 per cent of me is coming to Arsenal.
“Clubs like AS Roma, Juventus and Marseille all want me. But I don’t want to go to Italy again.
“I prefer Arsenal — they are my No 1 choice.
“The Premiership is the league to be in right now and I think it will be good for my career.
“I’m in the best shape of my career and I want to win more trophies.
“Playing in London would be great but let’s wait and see what happens.”
Campbell, 31, quit Arsenal at the weekend following a series of personal problems and now wants to finish his career abroad.



thesun.co.uk

 

[amphrosyne]

LOL blue we're getting quite popular now that we reached the ChampsLEague finals

EVERYONE loves us now.. i'm dleirious

 

[Bluestar07]

RONALDO ... strike threat

Ronaldo will go AWOL
By ERIC BEAUCHAMP
CRISTIANO RONALDO is prepared to go AWOL to force Alex Ferguson to sell him to Real Madrid. The Portuguese winker has vowed never to return to Manchester United.
And he wants boss Fergie to agree his sale as soon as possible so he can link up with Real without having to show his face in Manchester.
The Spanish giants are preparing to make a formal bid for the player after chief Fabio Capello confirmed he wants to sign the winger, 21.
But Ferguson is fuming with Ronaldo for scheming with his agent Jorge Mendes to engineer a £25million move.
The United boss wants to drag Ronaldo into Old Trafford and give him the mother of all rollickings and tell him: You’re going nowhere!
But Ronaldo is determined not to give Fergie any chance to talk him into staying.

Sources close to Ronaldo in Portugal revealed the player is willing to go on strike to force through his exit.
Ronaldo thinks it is unsafe to return to England because of vendettas against him for his role in getting United team-mate Wayne Rooney sent off at the World Cup.
The star’s Cheshire home was targeted by vandals and he fears further revenge attacks. A close pal of Ronaldo said: “He has made up his mind and as far as he is concerned he does not want to go back to Manchester.
“Ronaldo wants to play for Real Madrid and Ferguson must understand it is impossible for him to go back now.
“He knows how the fans in England feel about him now and it’s best if Manchester United don’t make things more difficult for him."
[email protected]

It's dive talking for Ron
CRISTIANO RONALDO was doing some dive talking with his Portugal pals on their return to Lisbon yesterday.

\
ON THE FIDDLE ... Ronaldo and Portugal team-mates

The Manchester United cheat was no doubt playing a rendition of Sprawling in Love Again following his antics during the World Cup.
Fans may also have been treated to Lily the Wink by The Scaffold, while winger Luis Figo and striker Pauleta could have led a version of Baby You Can Dive My Car.
And if Ronaldo fulfils his promise to quit Old Trafford for Real Madrid it might be a case of We’ll Cheat Again . . .

thesun.co.uk

 

[Bluestar07]

LOL blue we're getting quite popular now that we reached the ChampsLEague finals

EVERYONE loves us now.. i'm dleirious

We get to pick and choose!

 

[Bluestar07]

From arsenal-mania.com



We've received more details for Dennis Bergkamp's testimonial at the new Emirates Stadium.
It is already widely known that the match will be on July 22 and an estimated 54,000 stadium capacity will be allowed (pending health and safety concerns).
Arsenal will play against Ajax for the first half of the match, with some Dutch legends coming on to play for Ajax in the second half.
These will include Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten and ex-Arsenal player Marc Overmars.
We will release more details when we receive them.

 

[amphrosyne]

Hahaha blue A-M is just one of the other sites I frequent ...do you post there?

 

[Bluestar07]

^ I"m a lurker

 

[Bluestar07]

SAVIOLA ... keen on Premiership
Saviola in £4m Arsenal switch

By TONY LITTLE
ARSENAL will this week sign Argentina hitman Javier Saviola from Barcelona for £4million. Saviola’s agent Alfredo Cabrera Brizuela said: “He will make his decision based on football and that points to the Gunners.
“He will have no problem playing in England because he is a world-class player and will be successful in any country.
"This week is very important because he wants to have a holiday knowing he has his future sorted out.”
Saviola, 24, still has two years of his Barca deal left but has failed to break into the first team.
He helped Seville to UEFA Cup glory while on loan last season but now wants a permanent move.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is also ready to make West Brom an offer they cannot refuse for defender Curtis Davies, 21.
Wenger will pay £10m for the England Under-21 star as a replacement for Sol Campbell, who quit the club last weekend.



thesun.co.uk

 

[truebluejen]

Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio have been relegated and deducted points while AC Milan are deducted 15 points. Definately going to be lots of transfers now then!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/5164194.stm

 

[Bluestar07]

^ Milan also hade 44 points deducted from last season so they will not get a Champions League berth either.
All have 5 days to and will appeal.

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]Juventus set to appeal[/FONT]

Friday 14 July, 2006​

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]Italian giants Juventus have this evening announced their intention to appeal the decision to demote them to Serie B with a 30-point deduction.

The Old Lady of Italian football were tonight stripped of their last two Scudetti and their Serie A status after the Calciopoli verdicts were finally announced.

Although the club were expecting to find themselves in the Second Division for the first time in their history, they have been shocked by the proposed points penalty.

New Juventus President Giovanni Cobolli Gigli was clearly furious after the news was delivered a little after 9pm local time.

“It’s unheard of,” said the Bianconeri chief. “We were expecting a balanced sentence but evidently we were mistaken.”

Gigli then confirmed that his club would appeal against the sentence before launching a broadside at Fabio Capello, the Coach who left Juve for Real Madrid at the start of this month.

“If Capello wants our players then he will have to pay the market value for them,” warned the official. “He left us in the most delicate of times and we aren’t going to give him any discounts.

“I’ve spoken with a few of our champions and I can concretely hope that a few of them have the desire to stay. After all, we’ll still pay their wages.”

Real are interested in numerous Juventini such as Gianluca Zambrotta, Fabio Cannavaro and Emerson.

Lazio and Fiorentina have also been condemned to the Second Division tonight, decisions which have been met with a similar amount of anger.

Capital chief Claudio Lotito has vowed to fight on in order to clear his club’s name, even if it means going to the European courts.

The Viola have called tonight’s events as “profoundly unjust” before adding: “We will fight with every means in every appropriate forum.”

Milan have survived the drop but have been barred from the Champions League and will start next term with a 15 point deduction.

The Rossoneri have released a statement in which they describe the verdict as an “extraordinary injustice” before adding that they will soon launch an appeal.[/FONT]

 

[amphrosyne]

​

CIAO BELLA BIANCONERI, ROSSONERI, VIOLA, BIANCOCELESTI​

Pity Milan is still up or it'd be hello Buffon, Tutu, Gattuso!​

Juventus
Gianluigi Buffon
Landry Bonnefoi
Christian Abbiati
Alessandro Birindelli
Giorgio Chiellini
Robert Kovac
Gianluca Pessoto
Federico Balzaretti
Domenico Criscito
Lilian Thuram
Jonathan Zebina
Fabio Cannavaro
Patrick Vieira
Fereira da Rosa Emerson
Pavel Nedved
Mauro German Camoranesi
Gianluca Zambrotta
Manuele Blasi
Giuliano Giannichedda
Claudio Marchisio
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Alessandro Del Piero
David Trezeguet
Adrian Mutu
Ruben Olivera
Marcelo Zalayeta​

Lazio
Angelo Peruzzi
Samir Handanovic
Marco Ballotta
Alessio De Angelis
Simone Santarelli
Guglielmo Stendardo
Felice Piccolo
Sebastiano Siviglia
Fabrizio Melara
Andrea Giallombardo
Massimo Oddo
Sanchez Emilson Cribari
Fabio Zaccardi
Marco Angeletti
Simone Sannibale
Fabio Firmani
Manuel Belleri
Luciano Zauri
Massimo Bonanni
Stefano Mauri
Lorenzo De Silvestri
Fabio Liverani
Gaby Mudingayi
Christian Keller
Francesco Torroni
Christian Manfredini
Valon Behrami
Guilherme Siqueira
Paolo Di Canio
Igli Tare
Tommaso Rocchi
Goran Pandev
Simone Inzaghi
Alfonso Delgado​

Fiorentina
Sebastian Frey
Marco Roccati
Bogdan Lobont
Gianluca Berti
Per Kroldrup
Dario Dainelli
Alessandro Gamberini
Andrea Paolucci
Cristian Maggio
Daniele Brivio
Enrique Mateo
Luis Jimenez
Tomas Ujfalusi
Manuel Pasqual
Giuseppe Pancaro
Marco Di Loreto
Marco Donadel
Andrea De Falco
Guilherme Do Prado
Stefano Fiore
Michele Pazienza
Riccardo Montolivo
Martin Jorgensen
Christian Brocchi
Valeri Bojinov
Samuele Di Carmine
Giampaolo Pazzini
Luca Toni​

Open your chequebooks David Dein!​

 

[ShuggaStiletto]

talks of Fernando Torres moving to Man U!!!! ohhh lala would I LOVE that As long as Cristiano stays. Then my 2 boys on the same team, hoorah!

"Several news sources consider that Cristiano Ronaldo's departure from Manchester United is imminent, however, Manchester United still hopes to retain the footballer. Sir Alex Ferguson has sent assistant boss Carlos Queiroz to Portugal hoping to change the young player's mind, and teammate Wayne Rooney has pleaded Ronaldo not to leave the team and let their differences rest. Ronaldo still has three years left on his contract and is currently expected by manager Sir Alex Ferguson to report for pre-season training.

On July 12, United released a statement saying: "The club can confirm there is no possibility of Cristiano being sold. Cristiano recently signed a new contract until 2010 and the club fully expects him to honour that contract. The club will not listen to any offers for Cristiano."

from wikipedia.

 

[ShuggaStiletto]

Coach Arena's contract not to be renewed

By Steve Ginsburg

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The contract of U.S. soccer team coach Bruce Arena will not be renewed in the wake of a bitterly disappointing World Cup performance, officials announced Friday.

The U.S. were knocked out in the first round of the World Cup finals in Germany last month, losing to the Czech Republic and Ghana and drawing with eventual winners Italy.

"Obviously we didn't get the results we wanted at the World Cup, but as I've said repeatedly, Bruce Arena didn't become a bad coach in three games or with a bad bounce of the ball," said U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati.

"It has much more to do with eight years and us thinking it's time for a fresh look."

The 54-year-old Arena was the most successful national coach in U.S. soccer history, winning 71 of his 130 matches in charge during an eight-year spell.

"He has been extraordinarily successful at every level he's coached at and what he's done with our national team program over the last eight years is unrivaled," Gulati said of Arena.

"To be there for eight years is unrivalled anywhere in the world.

To be at two World Cups with the same team, to have the level of success that he's had in where we were and where we are, he's certainly left the organization and the program in much stronger hands and in a better position than when he started.

"Frankly, he's given us credibility world-wide."

The search for a successor to Arena will begin immediately, said Gulati, adding that he will talk to Juergen Klinsmann, who stepped down from the German national team this week.

"I am proud of how far the organization has come over the last eight years, and I am extremely optimistic about the future of the sport in our country," Arena said in a statement.

"As for me, I am planning to take some time off to weigh my future opportunities."

Arena has been linked as a possible coach of the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer.

The U.S. national squad had a disappointing 2006 World Cup, although they did manage a 1-1 draw with Italy despite ending the match with nine men.

Arena's best moment as U.S. coach came during the 2002 World Cup finals when they reached the quarter-finals.

 

[LUCKY STAR2006]

i love Juventus and roma
im from qatar but i love italy

 

[mundodabolsa]

I'm finding it really hard to get excited over the campeonato brasileiro when my flamengo just sucks. And to think I was sooo happy before the pause that they'd won 2 (WOW, 2!) games in a row and were in 10th place, bleeeeh, they can't even score against vasco, bleeeeehhh....

brazilian girl, we can hang out together in the zona de rebaixamento real soon....

 

[amphrosyne]

First Italy, now English football faces its own
SCANDAL
By Rob Beasley
ENGLISH football is bracing itself for its own corruption scandal after Premiership investigators confirmed they have evidence of illicit transfers involving several top-flight clubs.
The stark news will send shock waves through the domestic game less than 48 hours after Italy's match-fixing scandal saw leading Serie A sides Juventus, Fiorentina, Lazio and AC Milan severely punished.
Here, a team of specialist bung-busters — headed by former Met Police chief Lord Stevens — has highlighted a series of highly-questionable Premier League transfers.
Now they want the green light to go further and grill the clubs, players and agents involved in those "dodgy deals" in a bid to bring them to justice.
And the investigators will enjoy unprecedented powers in their search for the truth.

Money​

They will be able to demand home, office and mobile phone records, and personal bank accounts in an effort to find out who paid and who received the money which allegedly "went missing" in the deals.
That could then lead to a number of high-profile cases being brought against some of the game's biggest clubs and biggest names — a shameful episode to rival the match-fixing sensation in Italy.
Nothing will happen for a couple of months because Lord Stevens' team will not officially present their interim report to the Premier League until September.
But inside sources say the report will provide enough evidence to convince the Premier League there are serious causes for concern in several high-profile moves.
It will also stress the bung-busters are keen to zero in on the biggest cases in a bid to bring charges against anyone responsible for flouting the Premiership's strict rules on transfers by making illegal payments.
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore sanctioned the on-going inquiry into all transfers made since January 2004.
Scudamore looks sure to agree, despite possible resistance and reluctance from club chairmen who may be concerned about the consequences for their teams.

Bungs​

An insider said: "What is the point of setting up an inquiry into allegations of illegal payments and illicit transfers if you don't follow the evidence and go all the way with it?
"Lord Stevens' team are sure to carry on this investigation, and a lot of people should be very uneasy about that."
A Premiership spokesman said: "We will receive Lord Stevens' initial report in September and examine it carefully.
"It was always going to be the case the inquiry would identify transfers they would like to look at in more detail."
Scudamore announced the inquiry into alleged transfer irregularities in March, shortly after News of the World published comments by then England boss Sven Goran Eriksson about corruption in the Premier League. Eriksson claimed the Premiership had a "bungs" culture and he knew of three clubs where illegal payments were paid, including to a boss.

source: NotW

The Telegraph go further and reveal that the 5 clubs at the centre of the inquiry are Man Utd, Newcastle, Middlesborough, Portsmouth and Bolton.

This just keeps getting better ...pity its from NotW. ManU and Bolton relegated B). Well I'd be f-n chuffed if it happens..although it probably won't.

Picture by: JASPER JUINEN/AP/EMPICSArsenal launch Buffon bid - report
2006-07-16 13:20
The agent of Juventus goalkeeper Gigi Buffon has claimed Arsenal have lodged a large cash offer with the Turin club with a view to signing the Italy star. Buffon is regarded as the world's best goalkeeper, and his excellent displays at the World Cup have done little to alter that perception. With Juve having been relegated to Serie B for match-fixing, Buffon is expected to be one of a clutch of players who quits the Stadio Delle Alpi. Arsenal are happy with current first-choice Jens Lehmann, but the opportunity to sign one of the stars of world football appears too good to turn down for Gunners boss Arsene Wenger.The News of the World claim the Gunners have made a bid of £12.6million for Buffon's services, and the player's agent Silvano Martina appears to have confirmed that assertion:

"It's true that Arsenal are very interested. Juventus informed me that Arsenal have made a very serious offer for Gigi."

Buffon appears almost certain to quit Turin, and the success of Arsenal's bid will now depend on what other options the former Parma star has on the table.source: clubcall

A bit of old Arsenal Squad News.

No. 5 has gone to King Kolo
No. 6 to Phil
No. 4 to Cesc
No. 7 to our little dumpling
No. 23 to Hoyte

I'm feeling very

right now.​

 

[saann]

Amphrosyne is Cesc still at Arsenal? I heard some talks about a possible move to real madrid.. I hope he stays

 

[mundodabolsa]

I know I'm the only one that cares, but...

Flamengo is currently WINNING the first game of the Copa Brasil final, there is hope yet, wooohooooo!!!

 

[Bluestar07]

^Sadly I don't get coverage of South American matches at all.

Amphrosyne is Cesc still at Arsenal? I heard some talks about a possible move to real madrid.. I hope he stays

Cesc is still with us

24 more days to go to the curtain raiser for the EPL 2006 / 2007! The Community Shield match between Chelski and Liverpool is on 13th August (Sunday)

The first match ever played at the new Emirates stadium is Bergkamp's testimonial on 22nd July.
Aston Villa has the honour of playing the first EPL match against Arsenal at the new Emirates Stadium on 19th August.

The new 2006 / 2007 home kit:
(arsenal.com)