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.
London Olympic park loses 75% book value: Londoners wince
THE London Olympics are coming and The Olympic Park is looking like a bad investment. The 500-acre site was to be sold off for between £1billion and £2billion after the Games.
Only the land is now worth just £157m if it was sold in lots and £138 as a big lump. Surely 250-acres of parkland, the Olympic Stadium and the Aquatics Centre, which includes two 50m swimming pools and a diving pool, is worth more than that? How much more? Well, the land was bought with public money – £750m of it.
This low valuation by Jones Lang LaSalle is not pretty. How is the Government going to pay £675m to the lottery and £230m to the Greater London Authority without the money from the sale of the Olympic Park?
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Did Wayne Bridge shop John Terry to the police? Race row gets Taiwanese animation treatment
THE Taiwan-based media group NMA has produced a Luis Suarez / Patrice Evra / John Terry / Anton Ferdinand animated racism video. The Taiwanese have a theory over who shopped John Terry to the police. Anyone at the News of the World ever seen Wayne Bridge’s phone records?
Banque Populaire V wins Jules Verne trophy: round the world in 45 days 13 hours 42 min 53s
LOICK Peyron and his thirteen-man crew have won the Jules Verne Trophy, taking 45 days 13 hours 42 min 53s to circumnavigate the globe in the 40m maxi-trim Banque Populaire V boat. Among the crew – Loïck Peyron, Thierry Chabagny, Florent Chastel, Thierry Duprey du Vorsent, Kevin Escoffier, Emmanuel Le Borgne, Frédéric Le Peutrec, Jean-Baptiste Le Vaillant, Ronan Lucas, Pierre-Yves Moreau, Yvan Ravussin, Xavier Revil and Juan Vila – was British sailor Brian Thompson. Highlights of the adventure are: Santa delivers two French chocolates and a knife for very crew member; in mid-Atlantic a plastic bag attaches itself to a rudder; Thompson communicated in “schoolboy French”. Taking a boat to who knows where is one of the few great adventures anyone can do. No real rules. Just go as fast as you can without stopping…
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French skipper Loick Peyron, center, is lifted by crew members as they arrive in Brest harbour, western France, Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012. Peyron and his thirteen-man crew have beaten the around-the-world sailing record by more than two days to take the Jules Verne Trophy, beating the old mark set by Franck Cammas on Groupama 3 in 2010. With this trip British sailor Brian Thompson, 2nd left, has become the first Briton to sail round the globe non-stop four times. (AP Photo/David Vincent)
Tom Adeyemi ‘race storm’: Police and state want to re-educate the Liverpool bigot
WHO called Oldham defender Tom Adeyemi “a fucking black bastard” as his team took on and lost to Liverpool in the FA Cup? Well, allegedly, it was some mentally negligible pillock in the Kop End at Liverpool’s Anfield ground. One person.
One is not many. But it is enough for the Daily Mail’s David Gerges and Damien Gayle to write:
Racism in football reared its ugly head again last night as a young soccer star was so badly abused by the crowd in an FA Cup match that he broke down in tears.
So badly abused was Adeyemi that he cried.
We then get this :
Race is also high on the political agenda, with this week seeing the jailing of two thugs, Gary Dobson and David Norris, for the murder of young black teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993 in Eltham, South-East London.
On what planet is an idiot calling someone names equated to the brutal, pre-mediated murder of a man because he was black? Is everything now seen through the prism of a racist murder 18 years ago? Is it always racism and not prejudice? This is not a debate on racism. This is not exposing bigotry. This is about singling out the wrong uns and re-educating them in the right way to behave. The State is not racist – it’s just individuals.
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Posted: 7th, January 2012 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comment (1)
Liverpool’s Luis Suarez gave us a moral education
ROD Liddle is a columnist paid to say controversial things to a deadline. This week, he uses his Sun column to defend Liverpool’s Luis Suarez in his row with Manchester United’s Patrice Evra. In a piece entitled: “I don’t like Suarez…but he’s the victim” Liddle calls Suarez a “gobby little cheat”. He then tells readers that Liverpool:
“…does not understand why…Evra himself has not been charged by the Football Association. By his own admission, he said something in Spanish to Suarez along the lines of “your sister’s vagina”. Or it could have been “Your sister IS a vagina. The records aren’t clear on this…”
Liddle reminds readers that Luis Suarez does not have a sister.
Evra’s alleged verbal assault echoes that of Marco Materazzi, the Italian who provoked France’s Zinedine Zidane into headbutting him during the 2006 World Cup final. Materazzi made a sexual slur about Zidane’s sister. He wound up the other team’s best player. Italy won. As the Italian said:
“We both spoke and I wasn’t the first. I held his shirt but don’t you think it is a provocation to say that ‘if you want my shirt I will give it you afterwards’? I replied to Zidane that I would prefer his sister, that is true. I brought up his sister and that wasn’t a nice thing, that is true. Thankfully there are tens of footballers who could confirm that much worse things are said on the field.”
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Posted: 5th, January 2012 | In: Sports | Comments (8)
Linesmen stretcher bearers sit on Confianca player’s face
USELESS stretcher-bearer video of the day features the two linesmen hauling off Confianca (Brazilian youth side) midfielder Arthur an giving the lad a face full of arse…
Posted: 4th, January 2012 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Half of synchronised swimming ticket holders delighted with cock up
MANY converts to Olympic synchronised swimming are to be disappointed – the organisers have oversold the event. The London Olympic Organising Committee (Locog) wants 3,000 people to hand back their tickets because every seat has been sold to two bottoms. Locog are killjoys. Lapsitting will bring the nation together. Team GB is tops at sitting down sports – cycling, rowing, yachting. We’d have felt at one with the athletes.
But Locog says that every disappointed fans of artful drowning will have their tickets exchanged for athletics and diving. They have been offered seats at events they originally applied for but did not receive through the public ballot.
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Liverpool’s Luis Suarez is Manchester United fan who just needs to apologise
HERE’S a thought for Liverpool’s Luis Suarez: why not just say sorry? Why not just sorry to Manchester United’s Patrice Evra for racially abusing him?
Back in November 2011, Luis Suarez told media
“Now we have to wait to see this issue decided and then the Manchester player and I will have to clear things up. Depending on who ends up in the wrong, one of us will have to apologise.”
But which one, Luis, who says:
“I will carry out the suspension with the resignation of someone who hasn’t done anything wrong and who feels extremely upset by the events. I do feel sorry for the fans and for my team mates whom I will not be able to help during the next month. It will be a very difficult time for me.”
Maybe something has been lost in the translation but Luis Suarez sounds like a man full of self-pity rather then one about to “clear things up”.
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Posted: 4th, January 2012 | In: Key Posts, Sports | Comments (12)
Weymouth Olympic Tower photos
YOU are viewing the big hole in the ground which will become the Weymouth Sea Life Tower. The rotating tower will provide views over the Olympic Park and the waters of Weymouth Bay where the sailing competitions will be held. Either that or else the big Olympic hole will be filled with your tax money…
Alternative Olympic Sports: belly spoon racing
BELLY Spoon racing is Our Alternative Olympic Sport of The day. Before Graham introduces the Grand Fational, a few rules:
No waxing
No oiling
Spoons must be of equal weight, texture and size
Ladles are not spoons
Silver spoons can be engraved
No eggs
Chelsea and England captain John Terry is the face of lung cancer in Pakistan
CHELSEA and England captain John Terry is the face of lung cancer. His face and torso appear on the cover of packets of Gold Flake tobacco sold in India and Pakistan. Do you think John Terry approved the use of his image? And is ‘Smoking Kills’ the full message, or does it wraparound the packaging to say “Oi! I never said smoking kill, you f***ing knobhead”?
The Liverpool Post defends racially abusive Luis Suarez badly
IS football so partisan that the only colour Liverpool’s Luis Suarez concerns himself with is red? Sure, the FA says he is guilty of racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra, but Evra’s not a black man making a stand – he’s just a United player doing down The Reds.
In the Liverpool Post, Ben Thonley thought it was good idea to write:
Is it acceptable to smear Liverpool FC striker Luis Suarez’s reputation on the hunch of three men?
And his editor thought it wise to publish it:
IF you have neither the time nor inclination to read the Football Association’s hefty report on their investigation into the Luis Suarez/ Patrice Evra racism row, let me save you the trouble.
Go on:
After two months and 115-pages, the entire case came down to one man’s word against another’s.
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Posted: 3rd, January 2012 | In: Sports | Comments (11)
FA Evra Racism Report Saves Liverpool Player Luis Suarez’s Career
IS Liverpool’s Luis Suarez a racist? It might depend who you ask. Suarez has been found guilty of racially abusing Patrice Eva, the Manchester United player, on the “balance of probability“. In other words, not beyond reasonable doubt. Suárez has been banned for eight matches and fined £40,000 for racially abusing Evra.
Suarez says his language was nuanced. The finger Suarez gave to Fulham fans that earned him a one match ban was not so couched in an alien culture. He opted for a US hand gesture, not a South American one. Suarez is picking up the local culture the hard way. Maybe he’s just a slow learner?
The Football Association has published a 115-page report into the matter of Evra v Suarez.
Key parts are:
* In the match between Liverpool and United, Evra starts the verbals by insulting Suarez’s sister in Spanish.
* The entire conversation occurred in Spanish.
* FA Report: “After the referee Andre Marriner separated them, Mr Suarez said that he turned to Mr Evra and said, ‘Por que, negro?
* FA: “Mr Suarez said that he pinched Mr Evra’s skin in an attempt to defuse the situation. He also said that his use of the word ‘negro’ to address Mr Evra was conciliatory and friendly. We rejected that evidence.”
* Evra asked Suarez why he had kicked him. Suarez replied in Spanish: “Because you are black.” Evra invites Suarez to say it again, stating that he will “punch him”. Suarez said: “I don’t speak to blacks.” Evra replied: “Okay, now I think I’m going to punch you.” Suarez responded: “Dale, negro, negro, negro.”
The FA’s hired linguist expert translates this as: “Okay, blackie, blackie, blackie.”
* Suarez is alleged to have used the term “negro” seven times in around two minutes.
* Evra to the referee “Ref, ref, he just called me a fucking black.”
* FA: “He [Suarez] said that he used the word ‘negro’ at this point in the way that he did when he was growing up in Uruguay, that is as a friendly form of address to people seen as black or brown-skinned or even just black-haired. He [Suarez] said that he used it in the same way that he did when he spoke to Glen Johnson, the Liverpool player. He [Suarez] said in no way was the use of the word ‘negro’ intended to be offensive or to be racially offensive. It was intended as an attempt at conciliation.”
* Suarez: “I would refer to Glen Johnson as ‘negro’ in the same way that I might refer to Dirk Kuyt as ‘Blondie’ – because he has blond hair, or Andy Carroll as ‘Grandote’ – ‘Big Man’ – because he is very tall. Where I come from it is normal to refer to people in this way by reference to what they look like. There is no aggression in referring to somebody in this way and there is certainly no racial connotation.”
* FA: “Mr Suárez claimed it is used as a friendly form of address to people seen as black or brown skinned. Thus, it meant ‘Why, black?’ [In his own witness statement, Suárez added: “my wife calls me negro in an affectionate way.”
* The FA: “The first aggravating factor was the number of times Mr Suarez used the word ‘negro’ or ‘negros’. We have found that Mr Suarez used [them] seven times in his exchanges with Mr Evra. Whilst we recognised that the exchanges occurred over only a two-minute spell in the second half of the match, there were multiple uses of the insulting words by Mr Suarez. The second aggravating factor was what Mr Suarez said when using the insulting words. He did not simply use the word ‘negro’ to address Mr Evra. He did that, but he also said that he had kicked Mr Evra because he was black and that he did not talk to blacks. Even if Mr Suarez said these things in the heat of the moment without really meaning them, nevertheless this was more than just calling Mr Evra ‘negro’. According to the Spanish language experts, the uses would have been regarded as racially offensive in Uruguay.”
* Suarez said Evra called him “South American” in a derogatory. But FA commission said: “We found that Mr Evra did not use the words ‘South American’ when speaking to Mr Suarez.”
* After the match Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish told referee Marriner in reference to Evra, “Hasn’t he done this before?”
* FA: “Given the number of times that Mr Suarez used the word ‘negro’, his conduct is significantly more serious than a one-off use of a racially offensive term and amounts to an aggravating factor. In our judgment, Mr Suarez’s use of the term [negro] was not intended as an attempt at conciliation or to establish rapport; neither was it meant in a conciliatory and friendly way.”
* FA: “Mr Evra was a credible witness. He gave his evidence in a calm, composed and clear way. It was, for the most part, consistent, although both he and Mr Suarez were understandably unable to remember every detail of the exchanges between them. Mr Suarez’s evidence was unreliable in relation to matters of critical importance. It was, in part, inconsistent with the evidence, especially the video footage. For example, Mr Suarez said that he pinched Mr Evra’s skin in an attempt to defuse the situation. He also said that his use of the word ‘negro’ to address Mr Evra was conciliatory and friendly. We rejected that evidence. To describe his own behaviour in that way was unsustainable and simply incredible given that the players were engaged in an acrimonious argument. That this was put forward by Mr Suarez was surprising and seriously undermined the reliability of his evidence on other matters. There were also inconsistencies between his accounts given at different times as to what happened.”
THE FA SAVES SUREZ:
* The FA: “This case is not about whether Mr Suarez is in fact a racist. Indeed, the commission will no doubt conclude that there are some indications that he is not.”
* FA: “Mr Evra said in his evidence that he did not think Mr Suárez is a racist. Mr Suárez said in evidence that he will not use the word ‘negro’ on a football pitch in England in the future, and we believe that is his genuine and firm intention. He has in the past supported, and continues to support, a charitable project in South Africa designed to promote multi-racial football.”
So. Suarez learns the hard way. It’s just a shame that when he played for Groningen and Ajax in the Netherlands for four years no-one told him about attitudes to race in the UK.
Posted: 1st, January 2012 | In: Sports | Comments (10)
Manchester United 2 – Blackburn Rovers 3 – Steve Kean is a hero
MANCHESTER United have lost 3-2 at home to Steve Kean’s Blackburn Rovers, a team universally derided as being rubbish and managed by man the fans want out. Incidentally, it’s Alex Ferguson’s 70th birthday today. Happy birthday, Sir Alex from David De Gea and the lads. An era does not end with a bang – it peters out with the old guard hanging on.
Says Sir Alex Ferguson:
“I think I’ve got three years at the club. s long as my health stays up, and as long as I’m still enjoying it and still getting the satisfaction of the team doing its best.”
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Alternative Olympic Sports: the lit cigarette toss and catch
CONTINUING our look at Alternative Olympic Sports, we bring you the lit cigarette toss and catch – in mouth. The London Olympics 2012 would all the richer for homegrown British sports: darts, cribbage, pub crawling and shove ha’penny. Instead, we get beach volleyball and kayaking.
Pass the Spandex and 20 pre-lit Rothmans – darts just got sexy:
Gillingham’s Chris Whelpdale suffers scrotum-splitting tackle
GET well soon, Gillingham winger Chris Whelpdale, 22, who during a 2-1 Boxing Day win at Crawley was the victim of a scrotum-splitting tackle.
Says Gillingham manager Andy Hessenthaler, tenderly:
“It’s absolutely disgusting. He’s going to be very sore, and I’m sure his wife won’t be too happy either.”
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Joe The Cameraman crashes at the MCG
JOE the cameraman crashes at the MSG. Good to see the Australians are still developing cricket as a go-ahead sport. If they keep adapting the game, they might actually win one:
Is Barcelona’s Cesc Fabregas heading back to Arsenal?
WILL Cesc Fabregas be heading back to Arsenal from Barcelona? Sky Sports announces:
Cesc could return to Gunners
The BBC counters with:
Fabregas wants to end career at Barca
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Gary Speed: smears, lies and Fleet Street’s desperation
WHEN Gary Speed died the tabloid press reported the facts and little more. There was some emoting and grandstanding grief on twitter and the therapy industry cop-opted the dead man for their own purposes. The PFA glamorised his death as being something unique to football. But the tabloids were relatively retrained. Why? Answer: the Leveson Inquiry into media standards.
It is believed Gary Speed took his own life. He was 42. He left behind a wife and two children. And that is where the facts end.
The Times editorial is worried, saying that we know “possibly a great deal less than there is to know”.
Do we have a right to know why Gary Speed committed suicide, as it appears? No. Can you sense in that Times line the side-ways eye of a cynic tapping his nose?
In the past, tabloids would have hunted this story down. Doing this now, however, might not seem wise. The press is, after all, under investigation. And, because some newspapers have failed to make the public interest case for their stories, they have lost confidence in their ability to do so. Many newsrooms are also, rightly, questioning their methods. As a result, this story is being left alone.
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Posted: 24th, December 2011 | In: Sports | Comments (4)
Peta Todd’s lover Mark Cavendish Is BBC Sports Personality Of The Year
MARK Cavendish (not a woman) is the 2011 BBC Sports Personality of the Year winner. Cavenish, the road race champion and Tour de France green jersey holder, beat, in order, Darren Clarke and Mo Farah.
Incidentally, Mark also dates page 3 stunna Peta Todd.
Expect to see lots more of her in a sporting environment (Daily Sport, Sunday Sport, Sports Illustrated etc.)
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Liverpool’s Luis Suarez employs the Sepp Blatter Defence
LIVERPOOL striker Luis Suarez is not a racist. We know this because his lawyer Alejandro Balbi has photos of Luis Suarez with his arm about the shoulder of small black boy. This is known as ‘The Blatter Defence‘.
Surprisingly, Chelsea captain John Terry has yet to circulate a photo of him doing a Blatter, but Terry does “count people from all races and creeds among my closest friends”.
All of them.
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Chelsea captain John Terry charged with a ‘racially aggravated public order offence’
CHELSEA and England captain John Terry has been charged with a “racially aggravated public order offence”. It is alleged — and if you don’t know about this, we take the opportunity to welcome back from Mars – John Terry called QPR’s Anton Ferdinand a “fu**ing black c**t”. Terry denies any racial intent in the words.
John Terry will appear before West London Magistrates’ Court in early February.
Says Terry:
“I am disappointed with the decision to charge me and hope to be given the chance to clear my name as quickly as possible. I have never aimed a racist remark at anyone and count people from all races and creeds among my closest friends.”
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Manchester United Sub Michael Owen calls fans peasants on twitter
GOOD to see Manchester United substitute Michael Owen has embraced the bitchiness of Twitter. In reply to @Stueylar the charming Owen writes:
“Hilarious when your picture has a big roll of fat hanging over your shorts. Had a successful life have you? Peasant.”
Odd then that Own should also tweet:
“If somebody shouts abuse in the street like they do in a football stadium they would get locked up.”
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Posted: 21st, December 2011 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Daily Mail buries Liverpool’s Luis Suarez in hypocrisy
FOR a newspaper like the Daily Mail whose Steve Doughty said racism in football was no big deal, the decision to assassinate Liverpool’s Luis Suarez in print is weird. Suarez has been found guilty of using racist language towards the ears of Manchester United’s Patrice Evra. (See here.) Liverpool and Suarez deny any wrongdoing.
Chris Wheeler adapts the Mail’s failed editorial policy to castigate Suarez:
Considering Luis Suarez had just received a seven-match ban and been branded the ‘Cannibal of Ajax’ when he moved to Anfield in January, Liverpool should perhaps have realised their new £22.8million signing might land himself in hot water sooner or later.
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Posted: 21st, December 2011 | In: Sports | Comment (1)
Santa Claus shows Crystal Palace fans his big eagle
GERRALOAD of Santa Claus. He’s a Crystal Palace fan. And so is his massive eagle… Can the Millwall lions top that?
