Sepp Blatter's latest proposal

FIFA President Sepp Blatter has proposed for a new rule in which European Union clubs are no longer allowed to field more than 5 non-local players. (For example, Arsenal FC is only allowed to field at most 5 non-English players). This proposal has shaken the European Union footballing world, and this proposal is expected to make as huge if not bigger impact on football as the famous “Bosman” ruling.

Let us take one league, the English Premier League. Upon hearing about this proposal, many young English players would be delighted as they would be having more opportunities to grace the field week in week out with their teams and possibly getting into the limelight and be a superstar. The England National Team manager will also be delighted as more talents will mean more choices of players to choose from.

Meanwhile, top clubs in the league, especially Arsenal will lament on this rule as they have little or no English players in their squads. One notable example here is of course Arsenal. Their first team and even their reserves squad has very little number of English players. To compound this, the few English players in Arsenal’s team are actually fringe players with little or no potential to be world class players competent enough to compete in the highest level.

In my personal opinion, this proposal will not materialize, at least in the short run due to fierce challenges by the top clubs, and especially if G-14, the organization of 18 top clubs in Europe are already come into the fray, it will be a draggy and long legal battle.

However, we don’t know what might happen in the long run. Perhaps this will still materialize, albeit to the expense of the popularity of Sepp Blatter among Europe’s top clubs. All of us know that the charismatic and colorful president has taken such stances before, most notably in the introduction of “Home-grown rule” in the Champions League squads two years ago (in which this rule was also lamented upon by top clubs).

In any case, football fans like us can only keep our fingers crossed so that whatever policies or proposals are implemented into the beautiful game, the entertainment value and fair play elements won’t be eroded.

Viva la Futbol!

Football's funny moments

May I present, a compilation of various funny and exhilarating moments in football!

For Chinese (hokkien) music fans, enjoy the music. For those who can't stand listening to Hokkien songs, just turn the volume all the way down and enjoy the video.

Thanks!

Man Utd 1-0 AS Roma

It is very sad to say that AS Roma has been defeated by Manchester United at Old Trafford by a single goal to nil.

It has been known all along that Old Trafford is a very tough cauldron to win matches in due to the intimidating atmosphere that the stadium brings, even when the stadium is empty, the intimidating elements are still there.

This intimidating atmosphere was proven just before the match when Alexandre Doni, AS Roma’s first choice goalkeeper was “taken ill” prior to the match and had to be replaced by Gianluca Curci, a young goalkeeper who is dubbed as the next Gianluigi Buffon. Doni was ill perhaps due to his traumatic experience in the same stadium five months ago when he let in no lesser than seven goals.

Actually, as a fan, I always prefer Curci to be the first choice goalkeeper for Roma. The quality he possesses is obvious for all to see and putting him on the bench for every match is not doing anything good to his development and he might even lose his potential to be the next Gianluigi Buffon. It is very sad to see the number of young goalkeeper with immense potential being left to rot on the bench. Two other examples are Libis Andres Arenas who is rotting in Lazio as well as Oscar Ustari who is warming the bench in Getafe.

For the match of Man Utd vs Roma itself, the winning goal was scored by Wayne Rooney at the 70^th minute to prevent Roma from taking back anything from their visit to Manchester.

Even if Roma is defeated, this does not mean that their chance of progressing to the next round of the competition is hampered. There are many other matches to be played in the group stage of the Chsmpions League.

Forza Roma!

Man Utd vs Roma

Manchester United will be hosting AS Roma on Tuesday (European time) in their Champions League group stage match. This is the rematch of last season’s quarter final of the same competition. To be specific, this match is the rematch of the second leg of that quarter final in which AS Roma were trounced a whopping 7-1 and effectively knocked them out of the competition despite defeating Manchester United in the first leg which was played in Rome.

If all of you are thinking that I am posting this entry to express my support for Manchester United, like the majority would do, you are dead wrong here. I am not a football fan mercenary who is hopping from one team or another. I reckon there are way too many football fan mercenaries in this world. One great example is when Jose Mourinho left Chelsea and when Juventus were stripped of their two league titles and demoted to Serie B. Many of the fans of those two clubs left the club and decided to support other teams. Back to the main point, I am supporting and will still be supporting Roma no matter what.

In my opinion, there’s a chance Roma could stage a revenge against Manchester United at Old Trafford and brining back all 3 points to Rome. This is so despite the recent departures of some stars like Cristian Chivu and more recently, due to the fact that Roma were just thrashed 4-1 by the incumbent champions of Serie A, Inter Milan.

Many people would dismiss Roma’s chance to even get a point from this match based on tha latter fact alone. However, as a football analyst, we have to read scorelines between the lines. Which means, the 4-1 scoreline is actually does not reflect anything much. Think about this, it was a build up to the Manchester United match and Roma must choose to prioritize between these matches. Roma rightfully chose to sacrifice the Serie A clash with Inter as the Champions League clash is more crucial and this is compounded with the revenge effect. Also, focusing on Serie A would be pointless as Inter is predicted to run Serie A ragged and dominate again. In short, Serie A has been decided right from the start of the new season.

I am hoping that Roma could give Manchester United a run of their money and get all 3 points. I also hope to see Francesco Totti lifting the much coveted UEFA Champions League trophy in Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow in May 2008!

Feng Shui is a reality

For those of us who do not believe or are underestimating the power of Feng Shui, it would be good if all of you could revamp your images on Feng Shui.

For many people, especially non-Chinese and Westerners alike, Feng Shui might be thought as a ridiculous superstitious belief which serves only in making those who believe become a fool.

However, let me share with everyone my wonderful and perhaps scary experience with Feng Shui.

It happened a few days ago when I decided to remove the mirror in my bathroom to be put in my room instead. Just 2-3 days after the removal of the mirror, I had a terrible splitting headache. The pain was really unbearable, it is reminiscence to migraine in which one point on the head feels like being impaled by a knife.

Two days after the terrible headache started, I remembered about the mirror and decided to return the mirror to its original position, which is in the bathroom. The miracle happened right at this point of time. Just merely a few seconds after putting the mirror back in the bathroom, the headache suddenly subsided. The pain did not go away and as this entry is being written, the pain is still there, however, it has subsided considerably compared to when the mirror was still outside of the bathroom.

Based on this incident, it is important to respect Feng Shui and put things in their rightful place. This is because, putting things like mirrors in the wrong place could distract the flow of Chi energy by either inhibiting it or reflecting it to another place, resulting in jeopardy for those who live in the house.

The message is clear. Feng Shui has been tried and tested and the whole mechanism itself had been set with extreme scientific accuracy and precision by the wisemen of China in the past. Think about it, of Feng Shui is not true, why do people rake out millions of dollars just to hire a Feng Shui master to look into their houses and listen to their advices?