Sports Category
Sports news, commentary and scores with wit and added value. We compare and contrast the best and worst sports reporting in the mainstream press, blogs, TV and online. We love the English Premier League (Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs, Manchester United and Manchester City) and all things football but we cover cricket, rugby, the Olympics, tennis, golf, F1 and highlights of the sporting year.
Terrible tattoos: the pregnant Chicago Bulls star Nate Robinson
WHENEVER we see a terrible tattoo we remember the words of Ian Pointon, chairman of the Police Federation in Kent, who wanted coppers to display their tattoos. He told us:
‘”They can actually be a good way to start a line of communication with the public. It can be a bit of an ice-breaker.”
He’s right, of course. A tattoo will remind the public that policemen can also make mistakes. “LEEDS” across the knuckles or a noose on the throat can suggest that the copper is fallible. One terrible tattoo is now being sported by Ivan Garcia, a basketball fan who liked Chicago Bulls point guard Nate Robinson so much he got his form inked onto his back. Well, it might be Robinson or it might be the Voldemort, the Harry Potter baddie, holding his pregnant tum-tum and eyeing a piece of Swiss cheese.
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Posted: 24th, April 2013 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Twilight comes to Liverpool: Luis Suarez bite sparks copycat attack in school breakfast club
SO suggestible are the youth to the antics of “role models” that mums across the land are upset that Liverpool’s Luis Suarez didn’t finish his meal. If Suarez was going to engage in cannibalism, as the Daily Mail called it, than the player should recognise his position as a role model and finish his dinner. Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic might not appreciate being devoured on the field of play but, as mother of two young children, John Terry’s wife might be.
Mindful of the Suarez effect, the Mail reports on Sharon Ellis who says a biting attack on her 11-year-old son Ryan was “a direct result of the example Suarez had set”.
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Posted: 23rd, April 2013 | In: Sports | Comments (2)
Manchester United fan watches computer at Old Trafford as team win Premier League
EXCITEMENT spills over at Old Trafford on an historic night as Manchester United secure the Premier League title. The fans so wild!
If Mohammed won’t go to the telly, the telly will go to Mohammed…*
* It might well be an old image. Spotter: @maba723
Referee says coach’s testicle squeeze left him unable to have sex
Manchester United’s Patrice Evra bites a shaky Luis Suarez prawn sandwich (photo)
MANCHESTER Untied win the title and Patrice Evra takes the opportunity to mock Liverpool’s Luis Suarez by taking a bite out of an arm, which many believe to be false and not a loose chunk of meat from an Old Trafford ‘prawn sandwich’.
PS: Evra did not shake the hand.
The Biters: sportsmen who sank their teeth into their opponents
WITH Downing Street intervening to suggest that Luis Suarez should receive a sentence that reflects his position as a role model, it’s clear that the feisty Uruguayan’s crime has transcended the world of football and become a matter of national importance. But how exceptional were his antics? After all, it’s not the first time this kind of thing has happened. In fact, it’s not even the first time it has happened to Suarez himself. As recently as 2010 he was banned for seven matches after biting PSV Eindhoven midfielder Otman Bakkal…
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In photos: Robin Van Persie’s Manchester United win the Premier League 2012-2013
AND so Robin Van Persie led Manchester United to their 20th league title. Arsenal fans wonder what might have been had their captain opted to stay and if he pranked André Santos by handing him his shirt in full view of everyone (and not asking for the Brazilian’s top in return); and Manchester City fans wonder what might have been had the Dutchman opted to play for them. Still, always next year…
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Posted: 22nd, April 2013 | In: Sports | Comments (2)
Blame Kevin Friend for missing Suarez’s bite: England’s Jermain Defoe only got a yellow card for his ‘nibble’
POOR old Luis Suarez (Uruguay). Had only the Liverpool’s mouth antics earned him a booking. A yellow card for his bite on Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic and he would have escaped a fine and a lengthy ban from the Football Association.
In October 2006, Spurs forward Jermain Defoe (England) bit West Ham’s Javier Mascherano (Argentina). Defoe was booked for “aggressive behaviour”. No more punishment came his way because the referee had dealt with the incident at the time – even though the FA knew the official had missed the bite.
Said Defoe:
“The referee was standing over me and if he felt I had done something bad he would have sent me off.”
Friend was close to the Suarez bite. He did not send the player off. Defoe added:
“When the West Ham player fouled me, I reacted in a bit of a mischievous way – my character is a little like that at times.”
Suarez apologised for his “inexcusable behaviour”.
FA chief executive Gordon Taylor told Press Association Sport:
‘We have to work hard on anger management now. We have trained counsellors in this field and we will be offering their services to Liverpool and the player to try to improve matters.”
Did the PFA offer that service to Defoe? There is no record that they did. Defoe wasn’t banned. The FA says about Suarez:
“The FA has charged Liverpool forward Luis Suarez with violent conduct…The incident was not seen by the match officials and has therefore been retrospectively reviewed. It is alleged that the conduct of Luis Suarez constitutes violent conduct and it is The FA’s contention that the standard punishment of three matches that would otherwise apply is clearly insufficient in these circumstances.”
If you want to blame anyone, blame referee Kevin Friend for not dealing with Saurez at the time.
Posted: 22nd, April 2013 | In: Sports | Comments (7)
Luis Suarez bites Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic: Liverpool star tastes Champions’ League success (photos)
DID Liverpool’s Luis Suárez bite Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic during the Barclays Premier League match at Anfield, Liverpool? Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers told everyone: “This is a club with incredible values and ethics.” Someone should tell Rodgers you don’t need to be incredible and share the Dalai Lama’s ethical ways to think biting another man is not great. But this is Liverpool, whose previous manager, Kenny Dalglish, told the media that Suárez didn’t have a case to answer weeks after Suárez was fined 40,000 and banned for racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra. Also, Suárez has form, having earned a seven-match ban for biting PSV Eindhoven midfielder Otman Bakkal in November 2010. Anyhow, it’s good to see the unlikeable striker has finally tasted Champions League success…
Posted: 21st, April 2013 | In: Sports | Comments (3)
Me And The Boston Marathon Bombs: The LeBron James story
HAVING solicited the thoughts on the Boston Marathon bombing from a man with a dildo on his fridge, one TV station (ESPN?) asks LeBron James, a basketball player with the Miami Heat, what he thinks of the murder and the mayhem 1500 miles away in Boston.
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Liverpool star serves time on Newcastle and Millwall fans
FORMER Liverpool and Denmark player Jan Molby uses his EuroSport column to tells readers:
Disgusting violence must spell the end for late weekend kick-offs
Sure enough the FA Cup semi-final between Millwall and Wigan did not kick off until 16:15 GMT. But…
When it is rival supporters fighting that is one thing, but to have one set of segregated fans scrapping with each other – what do you do about that?..
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Boston Marathon massacre: it was about hurting ‘rich white people in the West’
THE Boston Marathon massacre was heinous crime. But to the ABC’s Virginia Trioli it has a message. Those nursing amputations and the loved ones of the dead and dying have it all explained:
The contrast of course with what goes on in, I mentioned Iraq in passing just before, what goes on there and also in Afghanistan on a weekly basis has not been lost on many people this morning. We did report this morning of course that there were a series of bomb attacks overnight in Iraq and it’s important to mention that again, 37 people dead and more than 270 others were wounded. Several cities were hit in those bomb blasts, the capital Baghdad, Kirkuk in the North and Nasiriyah in the South. They were coordinated attacks according to police there during the morning rush hour and they mainly involved car bombs. That’s the contrast that we always have on a day like today when it seems to me where we are overly focusing on what happens to rich white people in the West, versus what happens on a daily basis in those countries.
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Posted: 16th, April 2013 | In: Reviews, Sports | Comments (6)
Biking Boofheads told to stop bragging about sex lives
IN Brisbane, Australia, Tennyson Ward councillor Nicole Johnston has started a petition. She wants Brisbane City Council to erect signs commanding cyclists to keep the noise down. A local woman explains the problem to the Courier Mail:
”It’s a big issue, I get contacted on a weekly basis about the noise… Some of it’s what they got up to the previous night and how drunk they were and who they shagged…. Maybe a resident said something to him but every day at 6am you could hear him yelling out `wanker!'”
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The plot to turn Chelsea boss Rafa Benitez into a fool
IN “Rafa lost the plot”, the Sun’s Steven Howard says Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez is a failure. Another view might be that Chelsea lost their FA Cup semi-final to Manchester City by a single goal, and were unlucky that Aguero wasn’t sent off and no penalty was awarded for a foul on Torres. You might also say that Chelsea showed sings of fatigue having played in the Europa Cup earlier in the week.
But Howard has a different view:
The game was crying out for the injection of fresh blood, but Benitez refused to budge. When he did finally make changes in the 70th minute it was too little, too late.
And then, confusingly:
It wasn’t until the 65th minute that he finally dusted himself down, took off John Obi Mikel and sent on Fernando Torres to partner Demba Ba. Within 60 seconds Ba had scored to turn the match on its head.
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Posted: 16th, April 2013 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Bombs kill three and maim many more at Boston Marathon (photos)
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Posted: 15th, April 2013 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comments (2)
Panorama – Millwall 1977: when The Den was a zoo and Tottenham Hotspur were ‘northerners’
IN 1977, Millwall FAC’s fans were the subject of a BBC Panorama documentary. Terrace hard nuts luke The Halfway Line, the Treatment and the F-Troop, were glamorised. You want to make the club from the Second Division club form south-east London famous, then stick the fans on the magic box and get a public school anthropologist to take the viewers on a journey int their heart of darkness. Nowadays you might laugh at the class-laden voiceover. You might well chortle when around the 6minute 23second mark the Millwall fan looks forward to the visit of North London club Tottenham Hotspur. He says he won’t “take it from no Northerner”.
Lead photo 1978: A Milwall supporter (3rd r), with blood pouring from an eye wound, is led away for treatment by a companion from the Den, New Cross, London, aFter football violence. Police and Millwall supporters fought a running battle during the Millwall v Ipswich Town FA cup 6th round game.
Millwall Fans Vs Police. Part of the football violence which flared today between police and the notorious Millwall supporters at their FA Cup 6th round tie against Ipswich Town at the Den, New Cross, London. Ipswich won the Game 6-1.
Fighting spectators befor the start of Chelsea’s League Division Two promotion battle against Millwall at Stamford Bridge.
Police in Action at Chelsea. A Policeman escorts a young fan nursing an injured head at Stamford Bridge, where rioting spectators spilled over the barriers before the start of Chelsea’s League Division Two promotion battle against London rivals Millwall.
Posted: 15th, April 2013 | In: Sports, TV & Radio | Comment
Video of Newcastle United fan punching a police horse named Bud
FOR those of you who missed it, this is a video of a Newcastle United fan punching a police horse named Bud.
Bud, of West Yorkshire Police’s mounted section, is at his stables in West Yorkshire after he was attacked after the Newcastle versus Sunderland match. Why they named a horse after fizzy alcohol seems worth questioning:
Was the Millwall FA Cup semi-final fight triggered by a row over a man bag?
AT the FA Cup semi-final between Millwall and Wigan Athletics, there was argy-bargy. Fourteen men were arrested at Wembley following the violence. Twelve Millwall fans. Two Wigan fans. The Mirror says the “riot” was “fuelled by cocaine”. Other says it was the result of a late kick-off allowing for more pre-match drinking. One other argument is that Millwall fans were tanked up on stories of 1970s and 1980s thuggery, pretending they were the F-Troop and the Treatment, gangs gilded by the BBC Panorama show in 1977. But maybe it’s about another kind of fashion? We noticed that one of those involved in the violence was wearing a man bag. It’s a metrosexual take on the old Butcher’s coat of yore:
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Hillsborough: In 1981 Tottenham Hotspur not Liverpool fans were the white working-class scum in the cage
IN Liverpool, two memorials to the 96 football fans who died at Hillsborough have gone on display. It was On 15 April 1989 when it happened. Liverpool were playing Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup semi-final. There was a crush of bodies in the Liverpool end. And it got worse. And worse. The fans had nowhere to go. The police would not open the gates to release the pressure. The fans begged them to. The police did nothing. To them, the unfolding human disaster was only about crown control.
As the bodies were being collected, the police, the State and the media colluded to blame the fans. They lied.
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Posted: 14th, April 2013 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment (1)
Kompany fouls Torres in photos: the FA Cup semi final between Chelsea v Manchester City at Wembley Stadium
THE best photos from the FA Cup semi final between Chelsea v Manchester City at Wembley Stadium. Including the foul on Torres. Save it for Wigan in the Grand Final, Vincent Kompany, they do rugby league up
No red card for this:
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Posted: 14th, April 2013 | In: Sports | Comments (2)
In photos: Wigan reach their first FA Cup Final with 2-0 win over Millwall
IN photos: FA Cup – Semi Final – Millwall v Wigan Athletic – Wembley Stadium. Wigan are in their first FA Cup final. Wigan, who have qualified for next season’s Europa League. Magic stuff. Less magic was the fighting in the stands between Millwall fans. No-one like them, says the song. But everyone should like Wigan:
Margaret Thatcher and Hillsborough: Her Press Secretary Bernard Ingham’s letter to a ‘disgusted’ Liverpool fan
ANORAK has argued against a minute’s silence at football grounds for Margaret Thatcher. She was no football fan. Her time as Prime Minister coincided with English football’s slide into darkness. The nadir was the Millwall fans rioting at Luton Town. The horrors were at Bradford City (56 dead), Heysel (39) and Hillsborough. Of that last tragedy in which 96 Liverpool fans – adults and children – lost their lives at the FA Cup semi-final, voices poured misinformation into Thatcher’s ear. She was a willing audience to their lies – “One officer, born and bred in Liverpool, said that he was deeply ashamed to say that it was drunken Liverpool fans who had caused this disaster, just as they had caused the deaths at Heysel.”
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New England rugby kit plans victory through steady vomiting
RUGBY has always done okay when it comes to their kits, preferring to go plain and simple. This has led to much derision being aimed at football with its silly, fancy-dan jerseys which date quicker than yoghurt.
However, the release of the England Sevens home and away kits will put an end to that, in what has to be one of the most putrid shirts ever worn in any sport. Presumably, England will be hoping to win this summer’s World Cup and the 2013-14 World Series by making the opposition so nauseous that they faint through steady vomiting.
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The LV County Championship Day One photos: grab your anoraks and enjoy the view
THE CRICKET season is here again. The snow has given way to relentless rain. Men in anoraks head out to see the action at day one of the LV County Championship.
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