Is Lionel Messi fitter than other footballers, as well as being a better player? The four-time Ballon D’Or winner played 69 high level games in 2012 scoring a record 91 goals and didn’t appear to be tired for a single minute.
But those ‘unfortunate’ enough to earn their living playing in the English Premier League apparently suffered terribly over the Christmas and New Year period.
Last weekend’s English Premier League match between Sunderland and Arsenal does not on the face of it merit much attention. A regular Premiership match, one of the rare ones played at 3pm on a Saturday, it ended in that classic score: 1-0 to Arsenal, after the Gunners weathered a late Sunderland assault.
February 13 – Celtic may have lost on the pitch in their Champions League first leg last 16 tie with Juventus last night, but off the pitch they are without doubt Champions League winners.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
February 13 – The long-running saga over using the London 2012 Olympic stadium for football appears to be a step closer following talks between West Ham United and legacy chiefs.
February 13 – Football has been struck by yet another episode of racism with Inter Milan fined €15,000 euros by the Italian league for abusive chanting by their fans towards Mario Balotelli who has just joined arch-rivals AC Milan from Manchester City.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
February 13 – World anti-doping authorities believe football should do more to combat the drug cheats even though the sport has no record of flagrant performance-enhancing abuse.
February 13 – Park Jong-woo, the South Korean Olympic team footballer, will be able to receive his Bronze medal from the 2012 Olympic Games after an International Olympic Committee Disciplinary Commission ruled in his favour.
February 13 – Scottish Premier League club Hearts face more financial uncertainty after Lithuanian owner Vladimir Romanov had the operations of his Ukio Bankas bank suspended and put under temporary administration by Lithuania’s central bank.
By David Owen
So Joseph Blatter doesn’t much care for the “unanimous” package of reform proposals for world football’s governing body published last month by UEFA.
The FIFA President conveyed his disappointment last weekend at a media conference in South Africa just before Nigeria’s triumph over Burkina Faso in the final of the 2013 African Cup of Nations.
I can’t say I am at all surprised.
However,
By Andrew Warshaw
February 12 – The price of success appears to be resignation for Nigeria’s successful African Nations Cup coach Stephen Keshi (pictured).
By Mark Baber
February 12 – A Special Report on the UK’s Sky Sports News broadcast yesterday (February 11) revealed how a 3 month investigation had filmed racist abuse by five white men at Millwall on November 18 aimed at Leeds forward and Senegal international El Hadj Diouf.
By Mark Baber
February 12 – The English Premier League has signed three year deals for audio-visual broadcast rights in several European markets, taking the decision to go with rights broking agencies rather than selling direct to broadcasters themselves.
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
February 12 – The latest stage in the long-running battle to prevent Portsmouth from being expelled from English football is set to take place on Thursday with another High Court hearing into efforts by fans group Pompey Supporters’ Trust to save the club.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 12 – FIFA’s determination to crack down on illegal activities by agents has been illustrated by Brazilian Renato de Moura Ricardo being fined SFR 7,000 by the world governing body’s Disciplinary Committee, the second time in two weeks FIFA has enforced its rules following last week’s sanctioning of CA Independiente of Argentina and Genoa CFC of Italy for misuse of the FIFA Transfer Matching System (TMS).
By Andrew Warshaw, chief correspondent
February 12 – Two years after its president Michel Platini admitted that inflated Champions League final tickets were a mistake, UEFA have cut the cost of the cheapest seats for this season’s showpiece finale.