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.
Did Roberto Mancini fall asleep watching Manchester City?
MANCHESTER City are having a mixed season. On the verge of being knocked out of the Champions Laegue, the Blue Mooners nonetheless top of the Premier League and are scoring loadsa goals. But the Daily Mail senses boredom. It sees Roberto Mancini, the side’s likeable if inceasingly spiky boss, asleep at the game. Yeah, really. So boring are City – so dull is the job of being their coach – that Mancini nodded off during the match.
The Mail tweets:
Roberto Mancini falls asleep during Manchester City v Tottenham
Read the rest of this entry »
Manchester United mercenary Robin Van Persie parks in disabled bay for two days
FOOTBALLERS are dreadful aren’t they? They get paid all that money and for what? To roll around on the floor pretending to be in agony while overweight people tell them that they’re rubbish at their job. It really is astonishing. Then they go and kiss their badges before buggering off to the next better offer. Dreadful.
And now, to cap it all off, they probably hate people with disabilities.
Read the rest of this entry »
Andre Villas-Boas was ‘terminated’ at Chelsea
CHELSEA chairman Bruce Buck explains the brutality of football management. When the club sacked Andre Villas-Boas, now making it up as he goed along at Spurs, glory followed:
‘”The proof is in the pudding: Andre was terminated and we wound up winning two trophies. I want to hear you congratulate Mr Abramovich and Chelsea for making that change.”
Read the rest of this entry »
The lower-league legends who played for England
THEY came from nowhere… Meet the lower-league legends who graced the highest stage of all.
Wilfried Zaha’s call-up to the full England squad has raised eyebrows among those accustomed to the Premier League closed shop that has become the norm in recent times. But there are historical precedents for the Crystal Palace wide man’s sudden rise to fame – and not all the lower-league debutants are from the dim and distant past…
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 13th, November 2012 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Sports | Comment
FIGHT! Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer make Nascar great to watch
NASCAR is not do dull. Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer’s team taking it outside the cars.
Driver Kevin Harvick speaks for many sports fans:
‘‘The sport was made on fights. We should have more fights. I like fights,’’ Harvick said after the race. ‘‘They’re not always fun to be in, sometimes you’re on the wrong end, but fights are what made NASCAR what it is.’’
That photo of Frank Bruno, Peter Sutcliffe and Jimmy Savile
THE third part in that amazing photograph of Jimmy Savile meeting the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, in Broadmoor is Frank Bruno. The former heavyweight boxer wants to put the record straight. Bruno was there opening a gym. He says Savile tricked him into shaking Sutcliffe’s hand. He says Savile apologised.
Bruno is called the “BOXING hero”. Of that 1991 meeting he says:
“I didn’t know who he was.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 11th, November 2012 | In: Sports | Comments (2)
Has Brendan Rodgers lost the plot at Liverpool?
SO. Brendan Rodgers Liverpool lose 1-0 to the mighty Anzhi Makhackkala in Moscow. Rodgers picked a largely young, inexperienced side. Would the club’s star names have fared better?
Says Rodgers:
“I don’t think I should have brought the likes of Gerrard, not at all…We just got punished for one mistake, otherwise the players who were here did fantastically well, and it wouldn’t have mattered if those other players were here.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 9th, November 2012 | In: Sports | Comments (4)
Thought police could investigate Spurs chants and morals
THE Society of Black Lawyers is not a work of parody. The head of SBL is one Peter Herbert. He says he will complain to police if Spurs do not stop their fans chanting songs about Yids, chiefly that they are Yids and proud to be part of a Yid Army.
The police will then do something, possibly chuck Jews out of Spurs’ ground for calling themselves Yids. The words Yids will then be discussed in courts. Everyone wil be talking about Yids until Yids is trending on Twitter. All things being possible, a Jew will then end up in prison for being a self-yidding Jew.
Herbert tells BBC Sport:
“Clearly Tottenham have a distance to travel before they learn of the offence that is being caused.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 7th, November 2012 | In: Sports | Comments (2)
John Cross blames Spurs fans as Andre Villas-Boas wonders
IS Spurs manager Luís André de Pina Cabral e Villas-Boas crap? Following the team’s home defeat by Wigan, The Daily Mirror’s John Cross wrote:
“…if you are a rational Spurs fan, just take a step back and remember we are only 10 games into the Premier League season and AVB’s side are sitting in fifth place. Yes, fifth place. Hardly a crisis… But he surely deserves more of a chance than he is currently being given by the White Hart Lane faithful. You get the feeling he is only ever one bad result away from the fans giving him stick.”
Those fans, eh, demanding that their team win, or try their best to. (My opinion is that Villas-Boas makes it up as he goes along.)
Read the rest of this entry »
Mitt Romney’s related (by marriage) to Preston North End’s Deepdale Duck
FACT: Mitt Romney’s fourth cousin twice removed is Maria Nash, 32. Her husband, Simon Nash, earns a living as Deepdale Duck, the mascot of Preston North End Football Club.
True enough, Simon Nash is seven degrees separated from Mitt Ronmey, and may be more closely related to Kevin Bacon. But Kevin Bacon never was much of a football mascot.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 3rd, November 2012 | In: Politicians, Sports | Comment
Huge effigy of Lance Armstrong wearing Jim’ll Fix it badge to be set on fire
TO Edenbridge, Kent, where a 30ft effigy of Lance Armstrong wearing a Jim’ll Fix it badge is to be burned. DO NOT INHALE!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 2nd, November 2012 | In: Celebrities, Sports | Comment
Chelsea fan Gavin Kirkham might not be exercising logic
THE Daily Mail is aghast and agog. Jonathan McEvoy can’t get his head around the sight of a white Chelsea fan apparently pretending he’s a monkey. The Chelsea fan seemingly scratching his armpits as watches his team take on Manchester United is called Gavin Kirkham. In allegedly incriminating photo, United’s Danny Wellbeck (black) can be seen in the foreground. It doesn’t look good. But it’s not proof of anything. Still, here’s McEvoy:
There appears to be no uniform or even logical standpoint among Chelsea fans. Ruud Gullit, as long ago as 1996, was the first black manager in the Premier League; Didier Drogba was one of the icons of the Abramovich era; the current assistant manager, Eddie Newton, and technical director, Michael Emenalo, are both black. Yet the yob thought to be doing the monkey routine allegedly taunts an opposition player on the basis of his skin colour. The club are owned by a Jew and their chairman, Bruce Buck, is a Jew. Yet, as recently as a week ago last Saturday, Chelsea fans made their customary hissing noises at the Tottenham fans, imitating the gas chambers of the Holocaust.
Read the rest of this entry »
‘CLATTENBURG – REFEREE – LEADER- LEGEND- Man United fans mock Chelsea
“CLATTENBURG – REFEREE – LEADER- LEGEND.” So declares the banner unfurled by Manchester United fans at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge. This might well be the world’s second best banner. The winner was unveiled at the same match.
It’s ok to laugh at Chelsea, who conducted an investigation into the allegation that referee Mark Clattenburg called Blues’ midfielder John Obi Mikel a “monkey” after going public.
Chelsea captain John Terry got a four match-ban and an FA Bentley-sized fine for racially abusing QPR’s Anton Ferdinand – Westminster Magistrates’ Court said Terry was not guilty of the same. Clattenburg has already been suspended from refereeing Premier League matches. His entire career is in jeopardy:
‘Chelsea – standing up to racism since Sunday’ (Manchester United fans unveil world’s best banner)
CHELSEA v Manchester United in the Capital Cup. No John Terry. The Chelsea captain is banned for using racist words on the pitch. Referee Mark Clattenburg has been relieved of his duties while police and the FA investigate the allegation that he racially abused two Chelsea players during the side’s Premier League match last Sunday. Manchester United fans note the irony:
Posted: 31st, October 2012 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment (1)
Chelsea and lawyers Monkey of Mark Clattenburg and racism
FOR a while it looked like we were not going to be told what Chelsea staff says referee Mark Clattenburg allegedly said to their players that caused them to report him. Like Kate Middleton’s naked chest the story would contain lots of shock and horror but the the criciual details.
The Guardian told us:
“Senior Chelsea players spoke to Mikel, the Nigeria midfielder, and asked him if he was absolutely certain that he had heard Clattenburg correctly in the flashpoint that followed Javier Hernández’s controversial winning goal for United, when Mikel was booked for dissent.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 31st, October 2012 | In: Sports | Comments (2)
Mark Clattenburg, another Chelsea race row and a ‘kiddy fidding’ Celtic-loving Pope
REFEREES are people too. Mark Clattenburg claims that after Manchester United had defeated Chelsea in controversial circumstances (is it ever not so?), a few Chelsea staff came into his room and he was abused. Clattenburg has filed an “extraordinary incident report” with the FA. The story goes that after sending off two Chelsea players and allowing an offside goal by which United won the match 2-3 – a moment that triggered some Chelsea fans to toss as much as £20 in coins onto the pitch – Ron Gourlay, manager Roberto Di Matteo, Eddie Newton and Obi Mikel went to see the ref.
Read the rest of this entry »
Dougie Freedman’s bullshit masterclass
DOUGIE Freedman is dead to Crystal Palace fans. Their hero spiked them. He’d left for Bolton Wanderers. And that’s some shock for readers of his October 20th column in the Croydon Advertiser:
“Speculation comes with this job; either you get sacked or you get rave reviews. Either way, I can’t comment on maybe some young guy in his bedroom putting money on me getting the Bolton job – it’s just ridiculous The simple facts are that I’m in the middle of building Crystal Palace Football Club, and when I picked the club up, we were in a dark place. I think I’m halfway there in getting the club the way I want it to be, and I’m not the sort of guy to leave jobs half done. It’s clear to say I’m halfway building something that I’d like to finish. I have to say, though, if the Scottish national job came along one day, yes, I would take it, of course.”
As we says, he’s just left Palace for Bolton…
Ian Wright gets confused explaining racism anti-racism T-shirts
IAN Wright has things to say about the decision of Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand to show he has a mind of his own and not wear an anti-racism T-shirt:
Says Wrighty on the 12th paragraph of his rambling rant:
“I hate the attitude of some people who have questioned the players for not wearing the tops. Players have been wearing T-shirts for years and it has not made any difference. That is why I never get involved in their campaigns as it is tokenism. T-shirts? Is this the best we can do?”
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 23rd, October 2012 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
UCI president Pat McQuaid makes us feel sorry for Lance Armstrong
THE queue to bash Lance Armstrong is long. At its head is The International Cycling Union (UCI). It’s stripped the American of his seven Tour de France titles. The UCI says the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s (Usada) investigation sas right. It agrees that Armstong cheated.
Was he the only one? No.
Should the organisation that presides over such a mess be made to answer why it never noticed that its champion of champions was cheating on a grand scale?
Read the rest of this entry »
Leeds United fan Aaron Cawley got away with it because he upset the elite boat races
AARON Cawley got away it it. The Leeds United fan has been sentenced to 16-weeks prison for assaulting Kris Kirkland, the Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper. That Cawley committed a crime before 28,581 witnesses (plus playing staff and officials) and the TV cameras marks him out a special kind of pillock. Prison might be where he’s safest.
Read the rest of this entry »
What we know about Leeds United fan Aaron Cawley
LEEDS United. They’ll chant! They’ll shout! They’ll knock your keeper out! It’s Leeds United!…
Some Leeds fans will doubtless revel in the antics of Aaron Cawley, who ran onto the pitch and slapped Sheffield Wednesday Chris Kirkland in the face. When Leeds United equalised, Crawley attacked a big professional athlete who was looking the other way.
Leeds United manager Neil Warnock said Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Chris Kirkland “went down like a tonne of bricks”. But, come on, it looked like a foul…
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 20th, October 2012 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comments (5)
The history of football doping: soccer’s biggest drugs cheats
THE news that England players took caffeine pills before their match against Poland – and then sleeping pills after the game was called off – have prompted predictable jokes about performance-reducing drugs. But this innocuous incident takes place at a time when questions are being asked about the prevalence of doping in sport. Football has usually been regarded as a “clean”, on the grounds that drugs can’t improve your game. But while it’s true that most failed tests involve recreational drugs which are anything but performance-enhancing, this has tended to overshadow the ways in which the medical advisors to top teams have pushed the boundaries in order to steal a march, or even a match.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 20th, October 2012 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Sports | Comment
Soula Alevridou is here to save Greece with sexy football
“Unfortunately, amateur football has been abandoned by practically everyone. This year, because of the more general financial crisis, that has affected us greatly. We were forced to seek any type of financial support for the club so that we could survive.”
Is Jason Roberts right to protest against Kick It Out?
RACISM in football has long been an issue and one not dealt with even-handedly by football’s governing bodies. Wear Paddy Power underpants and get fined £80,000, being found guilty of racism and you get fined 30p. And so, unhappy at the feeble action of the FA, Reading’s Jason Roberts has decided to protest against anti-racism group, Kick It Out.
The striker believes the anti-discrimination body has failed to tackle racism. It is worth pointing out that racism is a bigger problem than football. It’s a bit like asking football to cure cancer. Kick It Out are doing their bit, but the football associations don’t seem to be.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 19th, October 2012 | In: Sports | Comments (11)
