Reuters Soccer Blog

from Photographers Blog:

Goodbye to hell

In the second half of the 2010-2011 Turkish football season Galatasaray moved to its new home ground in Istanbul, the Turk Telekom Arena, a 52,000-seat multi-purpose stadium replacing the Ali Sami Yen Stadium.

The fate of the legendary Ali Sami Yen Stadium is now sealed.

The demolition of Ali Sami Yen, one of the most iconic venues in Turkish football and the home to one of the three oldest Istanbul football clubs Galatsaray for 47 years, started last week. For almost half a century, the yellow-and-red lions hosted their rivals in this temple with the slogan "welcome to hell". The stadium played host to victories against European giants FC Barcelona, A.Bilbao, AC Milan, Real Madrid, E.Frankfurt, and a historic victory against Neuchatel Xamax. Most notably it was the scene of Galatasaray’s triumphal UEFA Cup campaign in 2000.

The team played all its home group and qualification matches for the 2000 UEFA Cup at the stadium before winning the final against Arsenal in Copenhagen, the biggest success in the history of Turkish football. World renowned Italian referee Pierluigi Collina even once admitted: “I love this Hell.” It was witness to unforgettable national and international football matches, hosting world class teams, players, coaches and referees. The stadium witnessed 14 of Galatasaray’s 17 Turkish league titles. Opened in 1964, Ali Sami Yen Stadium has always played a major part in the Turkish football scene, being home to Galatasaray’s heyday and many victories of the Turkish national football team.

But within two to three years it will be replaced by a vast residence and office project, rising above the memories where Ali Sami Yen Stadium used to stand.

FIFA takes agenda by scruff of the snood

There will be a lot of fashion-conscious footballers holding their breath for item “V.1.b” at the International Football Association Board’s annual meeting next month.

Forget goal-line technology and positioning of goal posts and the other very sensible items on the agenda, the one sure to get a few people rather hot under the collar is the “wearing of snoods” – those snugly neck warmers much loved by the likes of Carlos Tevez and Samir Nasri.

Soccer’s rule makers will determine whether the fluffy accessories are a safety hazard in the “Any Other Business” section submitted by FIFA.

“There may be a safety issue – if for example a player was running though on goal and an opponent grabbed his snood, that could pose a potential danger to his neck,” a FIFA spokesman was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Based on that, shouldn’t Andy Carroll’s long ponytail be quickly added to the agenda? One tug on that would also pose “a potential danger to his neck”.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has already said he thinks snoods actually protect against injury.

Players already grab each other by the shirts and shorts – the latter which could have pretty painful results too – so surely nipping at a snood is nothing that really needs discussing.

Beckham’s value is his values

Harry Redknapp does not need a right-sided midfield player and, with the depth of talent regularly available on his bench, he hardly needs to bolster his squad with a three-month loan signing.

Yet he, and several other Premier League managers, are trying to secure the services of 35-year-old David Beckham.

Many observers are scratching their heads and wondering just what is the enduring appeal of a player clearly several years past his peak.

They point to the unavoidable media frenzy that will come as part of any loan deal arranged with LA Galaxy, if the American club agree to let their number one asset go again after he suffered a serious injury on his last sojourn, to AC Milan last year.

Yet Redknapp, who has seen football from all sides, knows the value — or more to the point – values, Beckham brings.

Having served his apprenticeship with West Ham in the penny-pinching 1960s and now overseeing players earning millions of pounds a year, Redknapp recognises that the professionalism and dedication to his art that Beckham shows could help turn some of his “nearly men” into the finished article.

“I am a great fan of his,” Redknapp said.

Liverpool board leads 2-1 in court cases with end now in sight

Here we go again. After another legal victory in the High Court for the Liverpool board and main creditor RBS, all eyes turn to Dallas, where a new hearing on the ownership battle is underway.

Wednesday’s original ruling had, it seemed, paved the way for Liverpool to be sold for 300 million pounds ($479.8 million) to New England Sports Ventures (NESV) — owners of the Boston Red Sox — but that was before George Gillett and Tom Hicks obtained a temporary block in a Texas district court.

Lawyers for Royal Bank of Scotland went back before the same judge in London Thursday and he granted an injunction to restrain the Dallas court ruling, saying the case had no connection to Texas.

“The owners’ behavior conclusively demonstrates just how incorrigible they are,” he said. “They are absolutely determined to stop this transaction in its tracks and they have no lawful justification for behaving in this way.”

Liverpool’s independent directors issued a statement on the club website (www.liverpoolfc.tv) saying: “We are glad to have taken another important step toward completing the sale process.”

Whether this really is the green light to sell depends on what happens in the 160th civil district court in Dallas, after a judge adjourned Thursday’s hearing.

We will have to wait until Friday, then, to find out whether Liverpool will have new owners by the time they play the Merseyside derby against Everton Sunday.

from Photographers Blog:

Yes, my job really is this glamorous

When people ask me what I do for a living, or they hear tales from my wife about me being away at the Olympics or shooting football or golf or a Papal visit somewhere, the usual response is to tell me how glamorous my job is, rubbing shoulders with all these famous sporting and political icons and how lucky I am to get to attend all these events and call it work!

Granted, I am incredibly lucky to have an office that regularly includes Premier League football grounds and other major sporting events, but glamorous......not a word I would often use, and last night was a perfect case in point.

I've been shooting professionally now for 15 years. Being located in the north of England, an awful lot of that time has been spent shooting football, which we all know is an outdoor sport. I've experienced most things that football can throw at you: the thrills, the spills and the bad weather. But I have never been as wet as I was at last night's league cup game between Liverpool and Northampton Town.

The early rounds of the annual cup competitions always throw up the classic David and Goliath contests with teams from the lower leagues drawn against the Premiership big boys,. This one had all the ingredients for an upset, especially when you take into account my beloved Liverpool's off pitch going's on with talk of takeovers and board room splits being rife. So, the game plan had to be to shoot as if Liverpool would lose, after all they are expected to beat a team from the lower divisions with ease, so where is the story in that?

I positioned myself in front of the Northampton fans, knowing that this would usually give me Liverpool's attack in the first half should they run away with it but also give me a picture if Northampton scored and ran to their own supporters in celebration. The only issue with this plan was it was raining, not too badly, but enough to get you soaked and the end I had chosen to sit at offers the photographers no protection.

Liverpool duly scored early on and ran towards me, job done I thought. The floodgates would now open and Northampton would be swept away. But at half time it was still only 1-0 and Liverpool were far from dominant. I would have to file pictures and return to the same end, just in case.

Blackpool offer refreshing antidote to bloated Premier League

August remains a time for cricket and athletics in many people’s minds but if we are going to have football then it was probably fitting that the most uplifting performance of the opening day of the Premier League season came from the country’s number one seaside holiday destination.

For a few heady hours Blackpool were top of the league after their remarkable 4-0 win at Wigan Athletic and though Chelsea later displaced them after thrashing West Brom 6-0 Blackpool’s fans will cherish memories of Saturday for as long as they live.

In the top flight for the first time since 1971, red-hot favourites for an immediate relegation and with an annual budget that would barely cover Manchester City’s weekly wage bill, Ian Holloway’s team are the antithesis of what the Premier League has become.

As City continue to shell out untold millions to build a squad so big that someone like Craig Bellamy is squeezed out, Blackpool have steadfastly refused to be drawn into the potentially ruinous spending spiral that arrival in the Premiership can often spark.

Chairman Karl Oyston has already earned a reputation as a man not prepared to throw money around and Holloway was starved of any new players right up until last week when he brought in six on the eve of the first match.

His team produced a great performance at Wigan, maintaining their commitment to a fluid, passing game, that brought them up via the playoffs and may well cost them dear in the dogfight to avoid the drop.

Holloway, always forthright in his views, praised his players’ attitude, saying that if they were interested in money they would have gone elsewhere — with dozens of lower league clubs offering better deals — but that instead they were playing for the love of the game and the joy of pitting their talents against the best in the game.

from The Great Debate UK:

Luck is the residue of design—even in football

- Isaac Getz is a professor at ESCP Europe Business School and co-author of Freedom, Inc. (Crown Business, 2009). The opinions expressed are his own. -

This Sunday will decide the World Cup champion. Yet, most nations will ask themselves again what’s needed to build a world-class national team?

The majority will go for the easy answers: great players, great coach. England had both. Some nations, though, might search for more complex answers—as Germany did.

After the French won both the 1998 World and 2000 European championships, the German World Cup winning player and coach Franz Beckenbauer said: "France is a model with its school tracks [combining] sports and studies and its [soccer clubs’] training centers. We are trying to copy… but we will need ten years to catch up with them."

And Germany did. Its football federation completely redesigned the German football system. Its most important new component became the mandatory academy for every professional club which trains future great players beginning from the age of 12.

Spain’s queen visits locker room, Puyol in towel

Spain’s Queen Sofia visited the locker room  after the national team beat  Germany 1-0 in the World Cup semi-final on Wednesday. Most of the players got a heads up and scrambled into their clothes.

But no one warned Carles Puyol, hero of the moment, who emerged from treatment on his knee, wearing only a towel. Discomfitted, the Barcelona defender blushed and scurried to hide behind his teammates.

from Photographers Blog:

Samurais in South Africa

I arrived in South Africa with the Japan team filled with excitement and an acute feeling of anxiety. Never mind that I would be on the scene to cover the world's biggest sporting event, and never mind that I would be competing against the top sports photographers from around the globe to get the best pictures. For a Reuters photographer like myself dedicated to a single team, when your team drops out of the competition, you're finished. Like the defeated team, you go back to the hotel, pack your bags and spend the long flight home wondering what went wrong. Based on Japan's lackluster showing in the East Asia Soccer Championship my expectation for Japan was three defeats in a row and no victories. Mine would be a short stay in South Africa.

But during Japan's first match against Cameroon the Samurai Blue seemed to transform themselves in front of my eyes with Keisuke Honda’s goal being the catalyst. Japan was defeated by the Netherlands in their second match but the Samurais demonstrated the unity of the team in their performance and they were victorious against Denmark in their third match. In doing so they completely wiped out the image that I held of the Japan team before going into the competition. I was covering the world's biggest sporting event, and I was going up against the top sports photographers, but in this World Cup Japan's victory meant that the formidable teams of France and Italy and the even more formidable photographers accompanying them were going home. Not me.

On June 29, 2010, Japan faced Paraguay in World Cup match 55. Even after extra time the game remained scoreless and a penalty shoot-out would determine the outcome. I moved into position according to the instructions of Chief Photographer UK and Ireland Dylan Martinez, the leader of the Reuters photographers for this match.

A penalty shoot-out is all about luck. The psychologically intense method of deciding a match seems especially hard on the players, but it's just as tough on the photographers with a split second making the difference between front pages around the world or a postage stamp-sized picture on page S15. Both the players and the photographers tuned out the screaming of the crowd and focused with tense stillness on the battle between the penalty kicker and the goalkeeper. My position was on the opposite side of the pitch allowing me to see the face of the goalkeeper. Japan’s goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima, who had saved many shots up to then, clearly showed the strain. Following the two successful shots by both teams it was Yuichi Komano, Japan’s third kicker’s turn.

World Cup 2010 podcast 1

Check out our first, slightly low-tech podcast featuring assorted Reuters football stattos Paul Radford, Mike Collett, Brian Homewood and the voice of African football, Mark Gleeson.

I’ll be here throughout this World Cup to discuss the big issues with our soccer correspondents from around the world. And we hope to have a better microphone next time!

And please, don’t forget to check out our live blog at http://scrbliv.me/16947 for updates on all the matches and news as it happens.