Football and Fashion |

The Blackburn Rovers will not have Ivelin Popov on the team, at least not right now.  Two weeks ago the deal was struck and the Bulgarian striker for Litex Lovech had completed a medical and agreed to terms.  According to reports, the Rovers were ready to pay £2.5 million for the star.

However, the British government has stymied the transfer.  It seems that Popov has not played in enough internationals, having missed several games during the last year because of injuries, and the government denied his application for a work permit.

Since the striker made his debut for Bulgaria in 2007, he has made three goals in 15 matches, and played a crucial role in his team winning the league title last year, as well as the domestic Supercup and two national cups.

David Beckham’s stellar career is clearly not over yet, but he won’t be returning to his ‘roots’ in the east end of London, despite continuing efforts on the part of David Gold, co-owner of West Ham United.

Beckham, who is currently under contract with the Los Angeles Galaxy, has given no indication that he’s interested in Gold’s offer, and Gold told reporters on Sunday that he has given up on the idea of the big name signing.

Gold said he thought West Ham would have been an ideal place for the English star to end his career, but that Beckham is apparently planning to “move on” and the Hammers will have to do the same.

Earlier this summer, England manager Fabio Capello indicated that Beckham’s international career was over after his Achilles injury kept him out of the World Cup.

Recently, however, it seems that Capello has rethought his decision, and will be giving the English champion some more time for full recovery.

Heir to a £3m farm, Peter Wallace, caused an entire crowded train to panic after he set Arjuna Rabindranath on fire, who then ran throughout the carriage enflamed in agony.

The Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard that the duo were fans out to celebrate Halloween and were on their way back from the Aberdeen Scottish Premier League fixture on October 31^st of 2009.

Wallace, age 24, was said to have been flicking his lighter near Rabindranath’s costume, which was made of wool, until it finally lit up. Prosecutor Mark McGuire stated that suddenly people heard screaming and then saw the man running up and down the carriage.

A passenger that was on the train stated that it was like watching a scene from a horror movie as the victim ran burning throughout the carriage.

Many tossed beer on the outfit in an attempt to put the flames out but to no avail.  Rabindranath was taken to a Dunfermline hospital but later had to be transferred to a specialty burns unit in Livingston at the St. John’s Hospital.

The court was told that after the event Wallace went to a police man at the railway station and told him that he was fooling around with a lighter and accidently was the one to set fire to the man.

Rabindranath had second and third degree burns that covered over 40% of his body and extensive smoke damage to his lungs that at some points caused doctors to believe he would not recover. He was ordered to pay £25,000 in compensation to Rabindranath.

Ian Wright and rock legend Alice Cooper talk about their hopes for the next football season.  This is part of a series from the Sun newspaper which has spoken to a host of celebrities, including a few you would not usually expect to hear from, about their hopes for the upcoming football season.

It does appear that the ‘soccer wars’ will be heating up in the coming months before FIFA announces the winner of the bidding to host the 2018 World Cup.  The announcement will come in December, and until then the race is on.

England got a boost from Mohammed Bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation, with his comments in an article for the Premier League’s season review.

Bin Hammam praised the League’s work with the Asian soccer community, referencing coaching clinics in India and speakers from the English league who share their knowledge at AFC seminars.  He certainly gave the strong impression that he’ll cast his vote for England in December.

However, it’s going to take more than the Asian vote to land the World Cup on British soil for the first time since 1966.  Since this year’s win by Spain, the Spanish contingent, in a joint bid with Portugal, is focusing on the challenge with renewed vigour, but Russia and the U.S. are both strong contenders, and both have a lot of positives to offer in the venue department.

Depending on who you’re listening to at any given time, the odds on the favourite keep changing, and there may be even more surprises before the winner is declared.

Sepp Blatter might have indicated that football goal line technology will be debated in Wales at a football law makers meeting, but it now seems that the subject will not be discussed until October.

The International Football Association Board (IFAB) technical sub-committee is due to meet on Wednesday but plans to only discuss one thing that was agreed to be on the table back in May.

Thus, the debate about the new technology will not take place until autumn.

A spokesman for the FIFA told reporters that this week will be focused on ratifying requests that have come about as a result of the assistant referees’ experiment which was started last year within the Euopra League.  The spokesman added that the formal meeting will take place in October.

In March the IFAB first rejected the idea sating that it would be too disruptive and expensive to introduce.

However, after a series of high profile incidents that occurred at the World Cup finals, the matter was once again brought to the centre of attention.  One of these events was a goal made by Frank Lampard in the game against Germany that was wrongly disallowed.

The president of FIFA had made comments that implied the debate would happen during this week even though it is now apparent that it has been pushed back.  During the World Cup, Blatter stated that it would be silly not to discuss the allowance of technology at the FA Board meeting in July.

Ben Shires and the Wrapped Up team are back to wrap up the round in which four teams became two – the 2010 FIFA World Cup semi finals. There’s a trippy recreation of the Van Bronckhorst goal with commentary from a couple of Dutch stoners, PLUS we see why nobody would refuse an offer from Fabio Capello…