I’m not sure if Alex Ferguson would approve of a decision taken by one of his old clubs but East Stirlingshire, where he began his managerial career as a 32-year-old in 1974, have just taken a very controversial stand against “sporting behaviour”.

The modest club, whose major objective in the recent past was to avoid
finishing bottom of the Scottish Third Division, but are currently third in the table, have ordered their players NOT to kick the ball out of play if one of their opponents is down injured.

Coach Jim McInally has told his team to only stop playing if the referee orders them to do so. He was furious following an incident during their 2-0 win at Forfar Athletic on Saturday.

After play stopped 10 minutes from time so an East Stirling player could be treated for injury, Forfar goalkeeper Ally Brown tried to restart play with a soft pass back to East Stirling. However, Forfar’s substitute striker Calum Smith had other ideas.

With time running out and his side 2-0 down, he decided to try and pull one back and was only prevented from scoring by a save from East Stirling keeper Mark Peat.

Players from both sides started arguing which led to three of them being booked and McInally banning his side from kicking the ball out for an injury in future.

“It may seem a bit unsporting, but football is a ruthless business at times,” he explained. “If Forfar had scored, they would have had a foothold in the game and the last few minutes might have been tricky for us.”

Most fans accept the sporting convention as part of the game now and remember how Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger offered to replay an FA Cup tie against Sheffield United after his side had scored without giving the ball back after an injury. It made no difference in the end. They won the original game 2-1 and the replayed game by the same score.

Of course, there is no law against being unsporting in this respect — it is just a convention that has grown up with FIFA’s approval to make the game fairer. But is McInally right or wrong?

Is there a place for sportsmanship in the ruthless world of the Scottish Third Division — or anywhere else for that matter?

PHOTO: Arsenal’s Dutch winger Marc Overmars (R) is congratulated by his Nigerian team mate Nwanko Kanu (C) after scoring a controversial goal during their F.A Cup fifth round match. Sheffield United’s captain David Holdsworth reacts angrily, Feb. 13, 1999. REUTERS/Ian Hodgson

There’s been a lot of talk about whether South Africa will be up to staging the 2010 World Cup but what about the hosts for the following event in Brazil?

A three-man FIFA team is currently in the South American nation, visiting the 17 cities which have put themselves forward as potential venues. The 12 lucky ones will be announced by FIFA on March 20. The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) describes the FIFA trio as an “inspection committee”.

To an outsider, a close look at Brazil’s efforts seems to be long overdue. When the country won the right, unopposed, to stage the event in October 2007, many critics wondered whether the stadiums, transport and hotels would be up to scratch. And then there are the worries over the startling crime rate in many cities.

But a quick look at the FIFA team’s itinerary raises questions about how thorough this investigation really is:

Jan 30 - Sao Paulo

Jan 31 - Porto Alegre and Florianopolis

Feb 1  - Coritiba, Rio de Janeiro

Feb 2  - Belo Horizonte, Brasília

Feb 3  - Goiania, Campo Grande

Feb 4  - Cuiaba, Rio Branco

Feb 5  - Manaus, Belem

Feb 6 -  Salvador, Recife and Natal

Feb 7 - Fortaleza

That is 17 cities in nine days, spread over a country which is bigger than continental United States.

Here’s how former Brazil striker Tostao, now a highly respected newspaper columnist, put it: “The FIFA members arrive at the stadiums by helicopter, look one way, they look another and say that everything is going very well, even when there’s no work going on. They have lunch with the authorities and, in the same day, go on to another city.

“The FIFA inspection… is more to do with protocol and is symbolic. Everything has been decided by way of videos and reports.”

PHOTO: FIFA’s Director of Marketing Thierry Weil (C), Dick Wiles (L), co-chairman of Match Company and Fulvio Danilas, general coordinator of FIFA 2014 World Cup in Brazil, pose for the media during their visit to Sao Paulo, Jan. 30, 2009. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

Manchester City’s failed 100 million euros plus bid for AC Milan’s Kaka now begs the question: should there be a limit on the amount of money a club can pay for a player or should there be a salary cap?

Some of Europe’s top soccer clubs and the game’s European governing body UEFA seem to think so, with the news that they have started talks on curbing the amount of money that can be spent on player transfers or wages.

Sources familiar with the discussions have told Reuters that the European Club Association (ECA) — which represents the continent’s leading clubs such as Manchester United, Real Madrid and AC Milan — has proposed clubs should only be allowed to spend around 51 percent of their revenue on transfers or salaries.

Under the ECA proposal, revenue would be determined as money received only from ticket sales, sponsorship, merchandise and television income. It would not include any financial investment by owners or major shareholders. (more…)

Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo was named FIFA World Player of the Year on Monday night, adding the award to the Ballon d’Or he picked up from France Football and the FIFPro World Player of the Year title voted for by his fellow professionals.

It was an inevitable choice after the season he had for United in 2007-08 but I’m pretty confident that next year the award will be going to the man who finished second this time. Lionel Messi is playing ridiculously well at the moment, just streets ahead of anyone else in Spain, and I don’t think too many people would disagree that on current form he is the world’s best player.

On the basis of what the two achieved in 2008, though, Ronaldo deserves the award, I think. Here’s how we described him:

The Portuguese winger is blessed with strength, pace, aerial ability and savage shooting power and he invariably delivers when it matters most — his magnificent header in last season’s Champions League final a prime example.

He arrived at Manchester United just as David Beckham was leaving but he was no straight replacement. While Beckham was all precision passing and energy, Ronaldo has more tricks up his sleeve than a circus magician.

His initial tendency to over-indulge his exhibitionist personality with endless stepovers has gradually receded over the years at Old Trafford and last season he turned into a ruthless scoring machine.

An extraordinary tally of 42 goals propelled United to the Champions League and Premier League double and earned him a place in United folklore alongside George Best.

Fair enough, I’d say.

PHOTO: Cristiano Ronaldo holds the FIFA World Player 2008 award in Zurich, Jan 12, 2009. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

Rafa Benitez was on the attack ahead of Liverpool’s game against Stoke City but then decided to leave Robbie Keane and Fernando Torres on the bench.

The game ended in a goalless draw and on Sunday Manchester United put three past Chelsea to close the gap at the top.

Owen Wyatt and Jon Bramley discuss Liverpool’s team selection and look ahead to Monday’s FIFA World Player of the Year Awards Gala. Should Messi or Ronaldo take home the title?

UEFA’s teams of the year feature is irresistible reading for lovers of footballing gossip, particularly in Spain and Argentina.

Javier Zanetti, Leo Messi and Kun Aguero have all published their best XIs of 2008 on uefa.com and there are a couple of conspicious absentees…

Aguero could find no place for his countryman Messi, despite his brilliant form over the year, while Messi himself left out… Cristiano Ronaldo.

Here’s Aguero’s team: Cech; Sagna, Ferdinand, Carvalho, Evra; Ronaldo, Xavi, Fabregas, Ribery; Del Piero, Ibrahimovic.

There’s a little comment on each and here’s what he says about Ibrahimovic: “He has the ability to destabilise opponents. Next to Ronaldo he is the best player in the world at the moment. He is the complete striker.”

Ouch! Isn’t he forgetting someone?

Here’s Messi’s team of the year: Cech; Maicon, Ferdinand, Puyol, Van Bronckhorst; Zanetti, Xavi, Fabregas, Iniesta; Aguero, Rooney

Here’s what Messi says about Aguero: “I love him and not just because he’s Argentinian! He plays like the gods, has extraordinary quality and a great instinct for scoring goals.”

UEFA promise more teams from Marcos Senna and Pepe but the one I’d really like to see would be Ronaldo’s… Think he’d find space for Messi?

The pair will meet on Monday when the FIFA player of the year award is handed out. Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo (who presumably won’t be driving) is one of five nominees along with Messi.

PHOTO: Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Lionel Messi pose after a press conference before the FIFA World Player Gala in Zurich Dec. 17, 2007. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

I have a suggestion on how to clear up inconsistencies with handballs.

Law 12 states that “a direct free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a player…handles the ball deliberately”.                                                                  

In reality, we all know this rule isn’t always applied correctly. When the ball strikes a hand or an arm which is well away from the body and all the stadium can see it, the referee will invariably give a foul whether it was deliberate or not (we can also argue whether the player is being naive by having his arms flailing about).

I think we should take ‘deliberately’ out of the law and replace it with “…gains an advantage from handling the ball”.

A perfect example was Sunday’s 2-2 draw between Torino and AC Milan. Hosts Torino scored a late equaliser from the spot after the ball hit Milan defender Kakha Kaladze on the thigh before striking his outstretched arm. 

Milan were furious but Torino would have been as well had the penalty not been given. If the ball had not struck Kaladze’s arm it would have flown across the face of goal and given the home side a chance to score.

If the ball had bounced down off Kaladze’s arm into the path of a Torino attacker, then there would have been no advantage to Milan and therefore it should not be a foul.

Defenders don’t deliberately score own goals but they count. Forwards don’t deliberately run offside but they are still penalised. What’s the difference with handball?

I know controversies make football so enjoyable but if we sorted out the handball rule, we’d still have tackles, offsides, red cards and goalline technology to argue about…

This week we had the nominations for FIFA world player of the year, discovered the winner of the FIFPro world player of the year and mulled the contenders for the Ballon d’Or.

Exactly how many gongs do we need? In the recent past the situation was a bit clearer.

The Ballon d’Or was originally just for Europeans (hence the foreign language-challenged English calling it the European player of the year). In 1995 magazine France Football, which runs the award, decided any player playing in Europe could win it and since 2007 any footballer in the world is eligible (although it will surely be rare for a player not playing with a European side to win). (more…)

As we reported earlier this week the Palestinian national football team (ranked 180th in the world) will take on Jordan (ranked 112th) in a friendly this coming Sunday.

Anywhere else in the world a friendly between two such lowly sides would not generate much media coverage but when Palestine are one of the teams and they are playing their first ever game on home soil, interest mounts and, being in the Middle East, controversy cannot be far behind.

For starters – there’s the issue of the name Palestine and its use in the football context.

Jibril Rajoub, one-time right-hand man to Yasser Arafat and now head of the Palestinian Football Federation,  told a news conference on Thursday his organisation was celebrating its 80th anniversary.

The Palestine FA was formed in 1928 and joined FIFA in 1929 but at the time the association was made up of Arab clubs, Jewish clubs (including the venerable Maccabe Tel Aviv) and clubs representing British policemen or soldiers serving in the region during the British Mandate rule that spanned the period between World War One and the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. (more…)

Africa’s remaining World Cup contenders have to travel north across the Mediterranean, over the Alps and on to Zurich next week to find out who they meet in the battle for places at the 2010 finals.

How ridiculous is it that the draw for the last phase of the African preliminaries will take place in the Swiss city ahead of a first-ever African World Cup and at a time when FIFA is trumpeting all sorts of African initiatives.

While the ceremony will take no longer than an hour, the symbolism of holding it in Zurich is sure to last longer.

One wonders what is wrong with the headquarters of African football, which are in Cairo, or in South Africa, where the next World Cup is being hosted.

The preliminary draw was a spectacular event in Durban last November and the Confederations Cup draw is scheduled for Johannesburg next month. But the draw for the business end of the African qualifiers is to be held in frosty Switzerland, stuck away in an obscure auditorium.

Holding the draw in Zurich actually makes it handy for some. African Confederation president Issa Hayatou has meetings in Zurich during the week and, as chairman of the 2010 World Cup Organising Committee, he will be a fairly important presence, one would think.

Mark Gleeson covers African football for Reuters