Mes: enero 2022

I have decided to write this little in the pretext to highlight the significance of the financial problems faced by Arsenal and had subsequently affect the team’s performance.

Point: Arsenal’s board lead by Peter Hill-Wood and Co has not kept their promise to hand Wenger and the fans the supposed budget to buy players.

30/08/2008: Hill-Wood says Arsenal have plenty of money to spend and that Wenger’s critics should stop telling the Frenchman how to do his job. He said: Everyone tells Arsene how he ought to run the place but no-one is a better judge than him. We have plenty of money and enough to spend.

19/12/08: Arsenal’s Board have made it clear that funds are available should he wish to spend them next month. Indeed, some reports have suggested that Wenger has been urged to splash the cash by the Club’s hierarchy. At his pre-match press conference, the manager reiterated that HE has the final decision over potential reinforcements. «They [the Board] let me do what I want to do,» said Wenger. «I know how much money I can spend and I will try to do it in a wise way.»

23/12/08: Arsène Wenger admits he is more likely to enter the transfer market next month in the wake of Cesc Fabregas’ knee injury. «Yes [I am more likely to buy], but we also have internal solutions so we are not desperate because of that,» said Wenger.

02/01/09: Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood admits manager Arsene Wenger has a limited budget for the January market. «I don’t think there is a lot of money anywhere,» Hill-Wood said in the papers. «One has got to look ahead – in the future there is probably not going to be much more money coming in.

04/01/09: The Daily Mail reports that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is on a collision course with his higher-ups over the modest transfer budget he has been given this winter. The Frenchman is eager to sign Andrei Arshavin, but Zenit St Petersburg are demanding in excess of 20 million Euros for their star forward – a figure the Gunners have thus far been unable to match.

The North London club have always maintained that they will back Wenger to the hilt in the transfer market, although that claim has rarely been tested due to the gaffer’s low-budget, youth-oriented approach. But now that the ex-Monaco boss has set his sights on a big-money target, the Emirates board are unwilling to free up the funds required to seal the deal. This is is not the first report of friction between Wenger and his bosses to emerge this season. Indeed, it is has been whispered that the 59-year-old could break his contract with Arsenal to join Real Madrid next summer. That remains the remotest of remote possibilities, but if the Gunners fail to secure Champions League qualification this term – they currently sit fifth in the Premier League table – their long-serving manager could consider his options.

May we know where are the 50 million pounds that the board has promised us? Where are the support that was supposedly promised to Wenger, now that we want a player?

The formal name of the club is Blackburn Rovers Football Club, and they known by many nicknames, the most popular among which are Rovers, the Blue and Whites, and the Riversiders.

Founded in 1875, the squad host matches at their home venue of Ewood Park, in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which has a capacity of just over 31,000.

The owners are the Trustees of the Jack Walker 1987 Settlement.

The chairman is John Williams, while the manager of the club is Sam Allardyce.

Blackburn won the Premier League in 1994-95, beating rivals Manchester United to the post, a year after they had ended in second place on the Premiership rungs.

Barely four years after winning the championship the Riversiders were relegated. Three years later they were back.

In two matches played this season, Rovers have a win and a loss; they won 1-0 in their opening match against Everton, and lost 2-1 to Birmingham City on the second weekend.

Pre-season Review:

Blackburn finished in 10th place, in last season’s Premiership campaign. They also got to the semi final at the League cup.

This relative good showing will put a weight of expectation on Sam Allardyce.

Transfers have been conspicuous by their relative absence at the Blackburn headquarters.

The following players comprise the Blue and Whites:

Robinson, Salgado, Samba, Olsson, Jones, Nelsen, Givet, Kalinic, Dunn, El-Hadji Diouf, Pedersen, Emerton, Bunn, Nzonzi, Hoilett, Andrews, Chimbonda, and Mame Diouf.

Their goalkeeper, Paul Robinson, got called up to represent England in a friendly against Hungary, and Blackburn called on Frank Fielding, who had never played for the Ewood Park side, to stand in for him.

The generously built Christopher Samba’s all-round skills as a goal scoring defender must make him Blackburn’s man for every occasion.

Alan Judge is back from Plymouth Argyle where he had been on loan over the past 18 months. Judge could get several starts this season in the absence of signings.

Manchester United’s Mame Biram Diouf is in on loan and expected to add to the goal count.

Yildiray Basturk has departed after an all too short tenure at Ewood Park after a less than impressive outing.

Steven Reid has left for West Bromwich Albion.

Blackburn will try to top last year’s good performance, and you can expect some Allardyce moves to strengthen that resolve while the transfer window is still open.

I expect Blackburn to do as well or even better than last year, with the black cloud of possible relegation lifted.

Hungary’s Viktor Kassai did not feature in the initial shortlist of referees drawn by Cricinfosite, for the semi-finals and final of the World Cup.

The reason why we did not consider him was his relative youth. At 35, he is among the youngest referees on duty at the World Cup.

A referee’s job is thankless, made more so by the fact that he is often dealing with prima donnas with a huge fan following. a single error could be hyped up by the media to such an extent as to threaten the referee’s international career.

Often a referee’s support staff, namely, the linesmen could blunder, and the main referee could still get blamed for it. This was highlighted in England’s match against Germany where the linesman failed to see Lampard’s shot at goal cross the line. And Larrionda copped all the blame.

And we had serious doubts as to whether a younger referee would be able to handle the pressure in a tournament where senior referees such as Larrionda have floundered.

But when we heard that the second semi-final between Spain and Germany had been assigned to Kassai, we were not unhappy about FIFA’s choice. Because Kassai has been among the more non-controversial referees in South Africa, this last month.

Kassai became part of FIFA’s elite panel in 2003. Among his best accomplishments, the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada, the UEFA Euro 2008 the 2008 Olympic Games (men’s tournament), including in the final, and the qualifiers for the 2010 FIFA World Cup stand out.

Before tonight’s semi-final, Kassai has officiated at 3 matches, in this tournament: Brazil Vs DPR Korea, Mexico vs Uruguay, and USA Vs Ghana.

In all, the young Hungarian handed out 6 yellow cards, and no red cards, in these 3 matches. In the Brazil match, Felipe Melo was the lone man to be awarded a yellow card. In the Mexico-Uruguay encounter, Hernandez and of Mexico, and fucile of Uruguay were the three men to be penalized. In the USA Vs Ghana game, USA’s Donovan and Ghana’s Gyan and Castro were the recipients.

There are some similarities between Irmatov (who refereed the first semi-final) and Kassai. Both are among the youngest referees, with Irmatov 2 years younger than Kassai. Also, neither referee is card happy. Like Irmatov, Kassai has also not awarded any red cards, during this tournament.

We wish Kassai a great match, in tonight’s semi-final, between Spain and Germany.

La Liga refers to the first division Spanish League. The top professional football league in Spain is officially called as Liga BBVA for the reason of sponsorship. It is one of the most professional and exciting leagues in Europe, attracting some best football talents from all over the globe.

Just like any other leagues, La Liga is also guided by some strict rules and regulations regarding promotional and relegation of the clubs as well as how many non-EU players can play in the league. Let us take a quick glance over the La Liga rules.

Rules of Promotion-Relegation

Every year, 20 teams take part in the competition. The three teams finishing at the bottom of the league table are relegated to the 2nd division of the Spanish league system, with the top two rankers in the immediately lower division and the winner in a play-off replacing the relegated clubs.

Inclusion of Non-EU Players

There is an upper cap in regards to retaining of non-EU players in this top-most division of Spanish league. In La Liga, every team is allowed to retain a maximum of three offshore players. Even in the second division, each participating clubs can keep hold of only 2 players. If any La Liga club is relegated to the lower division, it is allowed to keep hold of the same number of foreign players until their contracts are expired.

What does it mean by «Non-EU»? The phrase has been repeated many times following several verdicts from the European Court of Justice. According to a decision adopted by the Spanish Federation in this regard, the participating La Liga teams are entitled to make the best use of the rules and bring many foreign players to their squad.

Claim of Citizenship

The foreign players are allowed to apply for Spanish citizenship from the countries where their ancestors descended from. In La Liga, a non-EU player can claim for Spanish Citizenship if he has played in Spain for at least, five years and it may result into triple citizenship. Let us give you an example. Leo Franco was born in Argentina and has Italian ancestry. He is capable of applying for Spain citizenship, having played in the country for more than five years.

The players arriving from the ACP countries including Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific, are not considered against the Non-EU category as per the Kolpak ruling.

Breach of Rules & Conduct

All the La Liga clubs are required to abide by the rules and regulations as clearly specified by the highest authority in the Spanish football league system that, in turn, ensures compatibility with the guidelines made by FIFA, the governing body of football in the world. In recent times, Barcelona have been handed punishment by FIFA for failing to conform to the rules regarding transfer of the players after allegation of transfer of the under-age players (below 18).

The defending La Liga champions are not allowed to play any new player until January of 2016. The club applied against the ban but it was not lifted. However, they have been allowed to sell players during the time of transfer ban.

Arsenal will host West Brom Albion this Saturday afternoon at the Emirates Stadium, in their sixth game of the ongoing Premiership season.

The last time the two sides met was at the same venue, and the game ended 2-0 in the host’s favour.

Arsenal with 11 points are second, and just behind champions Chelsea, in the League table, and are among the few unbeaten teams, this Premiership season.

Head to head, in the Premier League, Arsenal and West Brom have met eight times, with Arsene Wenger’s squad emerging winners in six games, while Albion have won on just a solitary occasion against the three-time champions.

In fact, in the last ten matches between the sides, Arsenal have emerged winners eight times, while one match in 2004 was drawn. West Brom Albion recorded a solitary home win during this period.

In nine home matches, in the Premier League, Arsenal have conceded just two goals. Added to that is West Brom’s failure to score a goal in their most recent four away matches in the League. Consider also that in their last 18 away games in the Premiership, West Brom have failed to win a single one, while losing 14, and drawing the remaining three.

All of the above facts might make Arsenal look more formidable than they are. But Sunderland’s injury time strike via Darren Bent last weekend proved that Wenger’s men could be tackled, by a team that’s prepared to attack.

That said, Arsenal’s own attack is not a mediocre act, by any stretch, with 19 goals to show for in five matches played this Premiership season. The defence has also stood up, with only three goals finding the back of Arsenal’s net, in these five matches.

Arsenal could find West Brom hard to handle this season. West Brom are coming off a morale boosting 3-1 win against Birmingham, their third win in five Premier League matches, this ongoing season. However, Albion are a defensive side, and just seven goals scored in five matches is a clear pointer to this fact.

For Arsenal; Fabregas has been ruled out for three weeks with a hamstring injury. The Spanish midfielder is key to Arsenal’s performance this season, and with their match against Chelsea coming up, this is bad news, indeed.

Arsenal’s probable eleven: Almunia, Koscielny, Sagna, Squillaci, Clichy, Song, Wilshere, Denilson, Arshavin, Chamakh, Nasri

West Brom’s probable eleven: Carson, Scharner, Shorey, Jara, Olsson, Thomas, Tamas, Mulumbu, Brunt, Odemwingie, Fortune