Football and Fashion |

It is just another incident in the crazy life of Mario Balotelli. At least this time it is occurring on the football pitch rather than off it. Harry Redknapp had demanded that the FA take action against Balotelli for kicking Scott Parker in the head while he lay on the floor.

It was Balotelli who scored the fifth and final goal in Manchester City’s victory over Tottenham, but in Redknapp’s view he should not have been on the pitch. In the 84^th minute Parker put his body in the way of Balotelli’s shot, landing on the floor in the process. In regaining his balance, Mario Balotelli clattered Parker’s head with his boots. The question is whether or not it was done deliberately.

Having been sent off earlier in the season, against Liverpool at Anfield, if the FA do decide to penalise the player, it will be a four match ban that rules him out of games until the end of February. Redknapp does not question the penalty decision, but maintains that the player should not have been available to put it into the net. Scott Parker had to get stitches in his head for the gash above his eye.

In another incident, Joleon Lescott could also have seen red when he appeared to hit Younes Kaboul with his forearm when challenging for the ball. If Howard Webb saw the Balotelli incident, then Redknapp suggests he shouldn’t be in charge of any football match, never mind a World Cup final, as it is clearly a red card offence. He does concede the possibility that Webb did not see the incident.

Team coach for Manchester City, David Platt, said that he hadn’t seen the incident, and wouldn’t comment until he had seen it. However, he did mention that last month it was shown that different angles revealed different ‘facts’. Balotelli had nothing to say on the matter. Drawn to talk on his penalty he said that he was calm, just like every other time he took a penalty.

Some see the man as a ‘lovable eccentric’ thanks to his many public antics such as: throwing darts at a work experience student, letting off fireworks in his bathroom, attempting to score with a back heel during a friendly pre-season game, using school bathrooms in Manchester and driving into a women’s prison in Italy ‘to look around’.

Redknapp clearly does not agree with this assessment. He couldn’t see any reason for Balotelli’s actions, and can’t see how it could possibly be an accident. He believes that Balotelli was reacting to Parker’s challenge, but that there had been nothing wrong with what Parker did.

Redknapp was not alone in his views. Graham Souness echoed the sentiment on Sky Sports, saying the Balotelli knew exactly what he did, and that rather than bringing his right leg forward he pushed backwards in order to hurt Parker.

About his own side, Harry Redknapp was effusive, congratulating his team on their efforts. Had Jermain Defore been able to stretch an inch further to make contact with the ball from Gareth Bale in the dying moments, then it could have been Tottenham that walked away with the points, and the title would have been very open. Instead City have stretched their lead to 8 points over the London club.

The Football Association of Wales has announced that when Wales play host to Costa Rica on the 29^th February, it will not only be an international friendly, but also a memorial to Gary Speed.

Wales boss Speed, who was found hanged at home last November, made the first of his record 85 caps for Wales when they won a friendly against Costa Rica in 1990 with Dean Saunders scoring the only goal at Ninian Park. Speed, who was then 20 and a midfielder for Leeds United, was a 76^th minute substitute, replacing Glyn Hodges in the match in May 1990 that set him on his way to his illustrious international career.

The Welsh FA confirmed that their first friendly since the death of Speed would be held at the Cardiff City Stadium. The return of Costa Rica will undoubtedly be a very emotional first international fixture for Speed’s team since he took his life on the 27^th November. The FAW have also said that 10% of the profits from the friendly will go to charities chosen by Speed’s family.

The statement from the Welsh FA said that this was the perfect opportunity to celebrate both the life and the career achievements of someone who had been an excellent servant to Welsh football, as both a player and a manager. This is only the second time that Costa Rica have played Wales, and drew 2-2 against the European and World Champions Spain in November, and currently stand at number 65 in the FIFA world rankings.

Wales, who are currently in 48^th place in the world rankings, are expected to name Speed’s successor as manager just before kick off at the Cardiff fixture. The Welsh FA have also confirmed the process they are using to select the 13^th full time manager of Wales international team, and they have charged a managerial panel of 6 men, head by Phil Pritchard, the teams president, to appoint the replacement for Speed.

Speed’s assistant manager was Dutchman Raymond Verheijen, who has posted on Twitter that he thinks the FAW should give Speed’s hand picked back room team the opportunity to carry on his good work. Welsh star Gareth Bale has also backed both Verheijen and Osian Roberts to stay part of the Welsh management set up that was thrown into disarray due to Speed’s shocking and untimely death.

Bale, a winger at Tottenham Hotspur, has said that it would be absolutely ridiculous to make radical and significant changes to the management team. He told BBC sport that he knew personally that most of the players wanted to keep the same team in place.

A unanimous vote was taken in favor of a complete restructuring of the Scottish Football Association (SFA). The SFA president George Peat had commissioned the report and is stepping down from his position. Stewart Regan, SFA chief executive said that it was an historic day for the SFA and he is delighted that the members also share the vision for the future.

The entire 93 members of the SFA clubs at the meeting in Hampden voted to implement the entire package of recommendations in an attempt to modernize the way the game gets governed in Scotland.

The main changes are the SFA board get reduced from 11 to seven and will include an independent member. The SFA says the board will act more strategic than representative. Two additional boards will be created to work under the main board with one for the professional game and one for the non-professional.

The maligned disciplinary procedures will be entirely rewritten with a compliance officer deciding if cases will be heard by the new semi autonomous judicial panel. The different SFA committees will be disbanded immediately and an audit committee will be formed in order to ensure an efficient organization is operated.

Jeremy Hunt, Culture Secretary, has urged Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales not to boycott, at the London 2012 Olympics, the Great Britain football team. Jonathan Ford the chief executive of the Football Association of Wales says by refusing to let players compete he is protecting the FAW’s independence even though Sepp Blatter, Fifa president has assured their independence would not be threatened.

Hunt also indicated he hopes other players besides just English could play saying how fantastic it would be have players like Gareth Bale. Adding that this is a time to think about the athletes and put aside the football politics.

At the 125^th International Football Association Board conference, Blatter gave his assurances about nations’ independence this at the conference where goal-line testing technology was voted in favourably.

BBC’s Sport Wales was told by Hunt in response to him being asked if he was happy about the nations guarantee this month that if they are happy with the 124^th meeting where technology was not going to be introduced, that changed as well. He also said that he took on Blatter’s words but that Blatters was only one among many at Fifa.

We will ultimately want is insurance that both now and in the future and we have a Welsh team competing and representing our country at the highest possible level going forth into the European Cup and the World Cup saying he did not want that to change nor does he think the English fans want that to change. By combining we would be eliminating an English, Scottish and Northern Ireland team now who would want that.

President of the Union of European Football Associations Michel Platini has announced that all 53 EUFA members have signed an agreement to centralize the television rights for European Championship and World Cup qualifiers.  Platini said in a statement on Tuesday that the new system will benefit all parties, and make financial planning much easier.

Under the present system, each UEFA member negotiates its own television rights for home games, but with the new approach the sale of rights will supposedly guarantee revenue for all the individual Federations.  It is also expected to generate around £100 million for the FA over the next four years.

General Secretary for FA Alex Horne told the UEFA Congress in Paris that the FA had considered the move very carefully and he believes it to be a good deal for England.  He said that with the centralized sale England will get more for its international rights than under the current set-up.  The FA is still in debt from the construction of Wembley, and they are counting on television revenue to help balance the books.

As of 2014, the EUFA will begin marketing the collective rights to qualifiers in four-year cycles.   England currently has four-year contracts with ITV and ESPN, but they are not for the same four years.  Therefore the FA will try to synchronize them by selling a two-year deal to either ITV or BBC so they can market FA Cup rights concurrently with EUFA’s sale of international rights.

According to Michel Platini, the change in marketing approach will lessen the dependence of the smaller national associations on the luck of the draw.  Under the current system they have to hope they draw a big name that will boost revenues.  Hopefully the change will level the playing field.

A charge of improper conduct by the Football Association against Sir Alex Ferguson has led to indignation and preparation for an appeal that is against legal advice. The charge is for his comments about referee Martin Atkinson, following a defeat at Chelsea and by appealing the charge he risks a four-match ban.

Just his indignation means he is going to declare innocence of the charge and this is clear in his actions not to appear in public to even discuss his team’s next game at Liverpool tomorrow. At a meeting at United’s training base, he rejected legal advice given to him yesterday.

Last season’s two-match ban for calling out referee Alan Wiley’s fitness would take immediate effect if he admits to guilt of this current charge that he has until Tuesday night to respond to.

A one-game ban for challenging the incident and an additional one for the incident with Atkinson could be assessed if his appeal is declared frivolous and Sir Alex’s defense is still unknown but may be the appearance of immediately backtracking from his comments. All this is mute until we know if he is to appeal of not by Tuesday.

MP’s are going to Germany to find better ways to run the game of English football. The members of the Culture, Media, and Sport select committee are due in a couple of weeks to arrive in Munich and Frankfurt on a duty to discover facts,

The straw that broke the camel’s back for England was the loss of the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa to the German footballers. Since that loss the English are checking their motivation and technique. Following the bid to host the World Cup in 2018 and its subsequent loss at a very low vote of only two last month, the introspection has become severe.

The Germans have long been seen as the leader in developing youth into great footballers. They have set severe restrictions against foreign footballers in the Bundesliga. They forbid foreign ownership above 49% in the club’s shares, as well.

The best factor that allows the Germans to retain control of their football club is the  Deutscher Fussball Bund is constantly managing the entire game throughout their country, particularly the Bundesliga.

The Football Association in England has given way more and more over the past 20 years to the Premier League.

Hugh Robertson, Sports Minister, made statements last week that of all sports in Britain, football was the worst run. This has mounted pressure as well.

This temporary measure of a trip is now a nationally significant soul search.

Written evidence has the deadline of Wednesday, while verbal evidence will open in February.

Lord Terry Burns, who penned a special report regarding the management of football, that was cast aside without reading by the FA, is due to be a key witness.