Could this be the reason for England's failure at International level?
June 2011: England's U21s and another Euro Championship under-performance. There has to be a reason.
I watched as England's Under 21 side crashed out of the European Championships in Denmark and found myself again pondering on that old mystery of why England so often underperform at international tournaments. Why does it keep happening, especially at the senior level of the England footballing setup whenever players pull on the England shirt? I don't buy the theory that the players are not good enough - we know they are good at their clubs and often good enough as individuals to win games they manage to lose as a team, and look clueless doing it. The more I thought about it, the more I felt there is one overriding reason, plus a few others. MORE
(this article is free for use by match day programme editors - no other use permitted)
As Carlsberg would say 'Probably the Silliest Voting Session of All Time'
but when it happens in FIFA, no one is surprised
London, June 2011: We are now all so used to the daft things that the FIFA Executive gets up to that it was barely a surprise to see them religiously counting the votes in the recent ballot for FIFA President, even though there was only one candidate! They seem not only set on ignoring the opinion of the vast majority of football fans around the world that they are a complete shambles of an organisation, but appear intent on proving it to us! MORE
Goodbye To The Arsenal Offside Shuffle
There was a time when the offside rule was the one jewel of knowledge understood only by the male population of this country.
Husbands and boyfriends - constantly challenged when it came to cooking the Sunday lunch, setting the washing machine on the correct cycle, writing a shopping list or adjusting the length of a new pair of jeans - could wallow in the satisfaction of knowing that their partners would stumble hopelessly when it came to describing the offside rule in Association Football.
Oh how we have laughed at the attempts, even after describing the rule to them, in detail, at the dinner table, using the condiment set and sauce bottles to show precisely how the rule is applied.
"So, the ketchup is the goal-keeper and the pepper pot is Tony Adams. But if Eric Cantona is the salt, who's the Daddies...? Oh, right, but what's a linesman and can he be offside?" MORE
(this article is free for use by match day programme editors - no other use permitted)
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