Pick of the weekend fixtures

Games i will be keeping an eye on

Bundesliga: Bayern Munich vs. FSV Mainz (8 PM IST ) on NEO SPORTS Sat 30th Jan
Serie A : AC Milan vs. Livorno (8 PM IST) on NEO SPORTS Sun 31st Jan
EPL : It's the biggie . Arsenal Vs Manchester United ( 9:25 PM IST) on ESPN Sun 31st Jan

Arsenal VS Manchester United : in 3D !!!

Yup It's finally here.Came across this post in the Arsenal forum that i haunt.

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Sky has announced that it will launch Sky 3D, Europe's first dedicated 3D TV channel, this April.

As part of the final preparations for this ground-breaking launch, Sky will preview the new service with a world first this Sunday (January 31), becoming the first TV company anywhere to broadcast a live 3D TV sports event to a public audience.

The Premier League clash between Arsenal and Manchester United will be filmed in 3D and broadcast over the Sky platform to selected pubs around the UK and Ireland, with their customers becoming the first audiences anywhere in the world to experience live Premier League in 3D.

To support this landmark broadcast, the nine pubs - located in London, Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Dublin - have been kitted out specially with some of the first '3D Ready' TV sets to reach the UK and Ireland.

As 3D TVs become more widely available, Sky will roll out its 3D channel to hundreds of pubs from April, allowing football fans across the country the opportunity to experience a live Premier League match in 3D each week.

To make the 3D preview a reality, Sky Sports will produce two edits of its live coverage of Sunday's game at the Emirates Stadium, one for its HD channel feed and another dedicated to 3D.

The 3D broadcast will be supported by Sky's dedicated 3D production team and purpose built 3D outside broadcast truck, which will enable live mixing between camera positions, slow motion replays and the use of innovative 3D graphics. There will also be a dedicated commentary team to support the 3D edit.

Articles Worth Reading : 28 Jan 2010

:Sony replaces LG in German football Japanese electronic company Sony has replaced Korean counterpart LG Electronics as a premium sponsor of the German Football Association from 2010 to 2012.

Dubai opens $1.25 billion horseracing complex:Dubai today opens the 4.6 billion-dirham ($1.25 billion) Meydan horseracing complex that can hold 80,000 people and includes a 290-room five-star hotel.

And today's must read

Simon Jordan remains popular at Palace : Crystal Palace going into administration is not surprising. The shocking state of the club's finances has been known for a while. What is a surprise is the outpouring of sympathy from Palace fans for Simon Jordan. Ignore the angry emails to news outlets. Have a look on some of the Palace message boards instead. Fans who have been frustrated with Jordan's reign have been describing the sadness they feel for a man who may have lost everything in an ultimately vain attempt to make a success of the football club he loves.

Articles Worth Reading : 27 Jan 2010

Prime Minister Gordon Brown warns football over debts:Prime Minister Gordon Brown has issued a warning over football finances by saying some club debts are "too high".
Mr Brown, a shareholder in Scottish side Raith Rovers, urged owners and managers to consider the supporters.

Crystal Palace go into administration:Championship side Crystal Palace have gone into administration after a season beset by financial difficulties.Clubs entering administration are automatically docked 10 points, which would see Palace drop from ninth place to two spots above the drop zone.

Todays Must Read

Politics in football - Sepp Blatter and technology :After fully manifest against the deployment of technological resources in the game, Sepp Blatter said yesterday the possibility of studying the implementation of video technology (repetition of moves) in the near future.

By his own will be discussed in March at the next meeting between FIFA and the International Board (the only body in the world that can change the laws of the game). In truth and in sporting terms, we may again see the World Cup in South Africa a goal with his hand that can decide a game or even the championship, however in the last 4 years Blatter did not have time or willingness to discuss the issue with International Board. How many really believe that any action will be taken?

In recent years football has been a tremendous development at various levels, greatly weakening values and certainties of decades, bringing the audience scams and schemes that discredited the game and the fans away from stadiums. The need for measures to resolve or mitigate these problems is urgent, for the sake of all the football industry.

Articles Worth Reading : 25 January 2010

Manchester United raise £504m in bond issue: Manchester United have successfully raised £504m through a bond issue, which will cover most of what the club owe to international banks.

But Also

Bond issue “cost Manchester United £54 million”:Manchester United's £500 million raised last week through a bond issue cost the club £54 million, according to UK newspaper reports.


Liverpool owner sells baseball stake: Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks has agreed to sell his controlling interest in Major League Baseball side the Texas Rangers to a group headed by the club’s former pitcher Nolan Ryan and lawyer Chuck Greenberg.

OffTopic : How much football is too much football ?

Ask me......

i was at my parents this weekend while my missus was at hers...

Saturday i walked 2 hours in order to get a few football books ...was able to get 3 pretty decent ones....walked back home

watched werder bremen V Bayren Munich 2-3
then Man united V Hull 4-0
continued watching Spurs Vs Leeds in FA cup 2-2
read a little of the football books i got
watched the first half of Juve Vs Roma


Sunday

Drove back home
Went to the gym
Watched Stoke Vs Arsenal 3-1
saw a little of Scunthrope United Vs Man City
And then continued reading the books till i dropped asleep

this clearly proves that without my wife i would have been a miserbale and dull guy whose idea of fun would have been to watch hours and hours of football on TV....i am sure this is the case with lot of lads i know...they would be nothing without their better halves

Articles Worth Reading : 22 Jan 2010

Turkish Airlines seals Man Utd sponsorship:Turkish Airlines has agreed a three and a half year sponsorship deal with English Premier League champions Manchester United.

Udinese take Portsmouth to court:Italian football club Udinese is taking embattled English club Portsmouth to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for failing to pay for a player transferred between the clubs.(Sulley Muntari)

Today's Must Read

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sportdaq/insideline/howtoplay.shtml


What is Sportdaq?

SPORTDAQ is a sports stock exchange game. Instead of shares in companies you buy shares in sports stars. To play you have to sign up. Once you're signed up we'll give you a cool ten thousand pounds (that's Sportdaq pounds, not real cash!).

The aim of the game: to make as much profit as you can by buying and selling 'shares' in listed sports stars. The person with the highest weekly percentage gain is crowned Top Trader.

Articles Worth Reading : 21 Jan 2010

Manchester United debt hits £716m Debts at the parent company of Manchester United have increased to £716.5m ($1.17bn), according to its latest accounts.

Sportswear brands top sponsor recognition listSportswear brands adidas, Nike and Puma are the most recognisable football sponsors in the top five European markets, according to a new survey by Sport+Markt.

YouTube secures worldwide IPL broadcast dealVideo-sharing website YouTube will show live coverage of this year’s Twenty20 cricket competition the Indian Premier League (IPL) in every country except the US.

Transfer Window : 11 Days more to go and nothing much going on

Beyond all the speculation and gossip that a few newspapers,websites and channels ocassionally create , the bottom line is that it has been a very slow January transfer window this year in England.

A quick look at the transfers that have happened and the only notable ones are

Sol Campbell [unattached - Arsenal] Free
Andrea Dossena [Liverpool - Napoli] Undisclosed
Patrick Vieira [Inter Milan - Man City] Undisclosed
Maxi Rodriguez [Atletico Madrid - Liverpool] Free

That's precious little movement considering the way teams in the EPL are being hit by injuries and the African player exodus that has occured due to the African cup of nations.

Now if we examine history we find

in Jan 2009

Arsenal: Andrei Arshavin (£10m initially, Zenit St. Petersburg)
Aston Villa:Emile Heskey (£3.5m, Wigan)
Blackburn Rovers:Gael Givet (loan, Marseille), El-Hadji Diouf (£2m, Sunderland)
Chelsea:Michael Mancienne (loan return, Wolves), Gokhan Tore (undisclosed, Bayer Leverkusen), Ricardo Quaresma (loan, Inter Milan)
Everton:
Manchester City: Nigel de Jong [SV Hamburg],Craig Bellamy[West Ham],Wayne Bridge [Chelsea]

2006 shows even more hectic activity

Jeremie Aliadiere [Arsenal - Wolverhampton] Loan
Theo Walcott [Southampton - Arsenal] £5m
Vasiriki Abou Diaby [Auxerre - Arsenal] Undisclosed
Emmanuel Adebayor [Monaco - Arsenal] Undisclosed
Dan Agger [Brondby - Liverpool] Undisclosed
Nemanja Vidic [Spartak Moscow - Man Utd] Undisclosed
Albert Riera [Espanyol - Manchester City] Loan
Maniche [Dynamo Moscow - Chelsea] Loan

Let's check 2005

Emmanuel Eboue [Beveren - Arsenal] £1.5m
Jiri Jarosik [CSKA Moscow - Chelsea] undisclosed
James Beattie [Southampton - Everton] £6m
Fernando Morientes [Real Madrid - Liverpool] £6.3
Thomas Gravesen [Everton - Real Madrid] £2.5m
Mido [Roma - Tottenham Hotspur] Loan
Nicolas Anelka [Manchester City - Fenerbahce] £7m


The writing is on the wall unless something drastic happens this looks to be the slowest and most drab January transfer window ever.
A sign of the times maybe ?

the top4 clubs are under 500 million pounds plus of debt and remaining clubs like Portsmouth are facing winding up orders from the tax man....


If this continues, we might not have January trnasfer window in 2011.

Articles Worth Reading : 20th Jan 2010

Leaders in Football returns to Chelsea : The 2010 Leaders in Football conference will take place at Chelsea FC on October 6 and 7, with an expanded programme of events over two days and three nights.

Haitian sport hit by earthquake tragedy: At least 30 members of Haiti’s football federation, and at least seven Haitian Olympic athletes were victims of the earthquake which hit the country.

and today's MUST READ

The image rights of players:The monthly income of a football player is made up of several parts, including his / her salary, the bonus game and signing of the contract and the percentage of the image rights of the player.The latter is related to the use of player image in advertising campaigns and marketing activities of the club.

Off Topic: Hate days like today

...when it's just WORK WORK and MORE WORK

Today Arsenal play Bolton at home...a 2 goal margin victory will see us go to the top of the table...looks like it's gonna be a real close race this time for the EPL and i am so happy that the Red and White is very much in the reckoning...

Unfortunatley, the game will not be shown here but i think the Spurs-Liverpool game is gonna be on today...should be quite a decent game and i might watch the first half as there would be updates of the Gunners Bolton game through out

COME ON YOU GOONERS !!!!

The IPL Auction that took place today...

Kieron Pollard [West Indies] - Mumbai Indians (£458,000 tie-break)
Shane Bond [New Zealand] - Kolkata Knight Riders (£458,000 tie-break)
Kemar Roach [West Indies] - Deccan Chargers (£439,000)
Wayne Parnell [South Africa] - Delhi Daredevils (£372,000)
Mohammad Kaif [India] - Kings XI Punjab (£153,000)
Eoin Morgan [England] - Royal Challengers Bangalore (£134,000)
Damien Martyn [Australia] - Rajasthan Royals (£61,000)
Justin Kemp [South Africa] - Chennai Super Kings (£61,000)
Adam Voges [Australia] - Rajasthan Royals (£30,000)
Thissara Perera [Sri Lanka] - Chennai Super Kings (£30,000)
Yusuf Abdulla [South Africa] - Kings XI Punjab (£30,000)

Only 11 out of the 66 overseas players attracted successful bids, with England's Graeme Swann and all 11 Pakistan players left unsold.

Articles worth reading : 19 Jan 2010

France's Thierry Henry escapes Fifa ban over handball: Striker Thierry Henry will not be punished by Fifa for his handball in France's World Cup finals play-off victory over the Republic of Ireland.

IPL is America-bound Indian cricket authorities will organise Twenty20 matches in the United States between Indian Premier League sides within the next 18 months.

World Cup ticket rethink amid low local interest: The organisers of this year’s football World Cup in South Africa are altering ticket sales procedures in an effort to boost weak local demand.

David Gold and David Sullivan seal West Ham takeover : Former Birmingham City owners David Gold and David Sullivan have taken control of West Ham.The duo bought a 50% holding, valuing the club at £105m, and will have the final say on all matters.

Articles worth reading : 18 Jan 2010

BT aims to undercut Sky on TV sport viewing packages: BT says it is ready to enter a price war with Sky over the price charged for fans to watch premium sports events, including football and cricket, on TV.

Portsmouth threaten to sue Premier League over embargo:Portsmouth have threatened to sue the Premier League in a bid to get the club's transfer embargo lifted

Intel Sports Inventor: What an experience!!!.Thank you Neo Cricket and Intel

We have just finished watching the Intel Sports Inventor competition on Neo Cricket.
What a tremendous and unforgettable experience it was to be part of the show.

I will always remember Jan 6th 2010 as one of the happiest days in my life.

When Manish Agrawal (who was also one of the contestants), my dad and me set off from Pune at 6:30 AM that day I was quite apprehensive on how the show would go and if I would be able to present my ideas properly. We reached Mumbai and then managed to get lost. Somehow after a lot asking around and directions from the Neo Cricket crew we reached the Neo cricket guesthouse.

It was such a pleasure to meet the other three contestants. There was Ram Babu who has been working on his idea (in parallel with his job) for the past five years, a young and confident lad from Delhi called Ankur and a jovial and interesting inventor from Nagpur , Manish Sahu.Manish Agrawal works in Pune and in fact stays just next door to my place.
Over a few cups of tea we talked about cricket, football, TV broadcasting rights, players , commentors, the general state of the game and of course about technology and our inventions. There was also the gripping Australia-Pakistan test as well that we were keeping tab of.

After an hour or so we traveled to Bandra to the set where the shooting was to take place. The first thing that struck us was the sheer beauty and magnitude of the set. We were all expecting it to be a small scale affair in a studio but here we were at an amphitheatre that was capable of seating a sizeable audience. It looked quite daunting. But luckily there were people from the Neo crew like Aayush and Aditya(he supports Chelsea, but still a great guy) who kept our morale high.

I also met RK (who hosts programs like “Dial C for Cricket” and “Extra Cover” on Neo Cricket ) and had quite an interesting conversation with him. He turned out to be a die hard Manchester United fan so obviously there was some friendly banter which infact continued even on the program.

We then had lunch in a small cabin and the conversations on sports continued. I learnt that quite a few of the folks at Neo have been state level players themselves in tennis, badminton etc. and was also really happy to see that they followed and were very knowledgeable in a lot of sports apart from cricket.

We then proceeded to the set again where there was to be a dry run on how things were to go in the program. It was here that I realized as to what goes into making a TV program and was probably the most exciting part of the day. For someone who watches a good amount of TV it was fascinating to see what goes on behind the scenes. The crew at Neo Cricket who were making the program struck me as highly creative, talented and focused.
You got the feeling that every second was valuable and the team was doing it’s best to be completely prepared. The team on the whole is very young and seemed very dynamic and vibrant. The word that best described them was ‘all business, no nonsense’.
The hosts RK and Archana looked so confident and cool it front of camera,it was as easy as breathing for them.
I’ve never seen any other TV crew before but having worked for 8 years in the service industry I think I can see sense when a team is enthusiastic and really believes in what it is doing. I think that was there for all to see.

Once we were done with the rehearsals the crew had arranged a few snacks and tea for us. While we were having our tea the person directing the show (I think his name was Rajvinder and his team) came to check if everything was okay and gave us a pep talk. There were a few glitches with the wardrobe but again Aayush was there to help us out.

It was nearly time for the shoot and the five of us could not bear the tension any more so we went back to the set and sat amongst the audience. We saw that there were people like Ayaz Memon, Marvin Attapatu , Akaash Chopra etc. in the audience and the butterflies in the tummy began to flutter a little bit more frantically.

Once the show started all the anxiety and nervousness went out of the window and the whole experience became highly enjoyable. The judges (Mr.Javagal Srinath and Mr.Prakash Bagri) were highly supportive and appreciative of our ideas.
Luckily, all 5 of us were able to explain our ideas quite well.

The show was executed really well (as I said I am a complete novice in TV production etc. but as an outsider you got the feeling that things went well).

Post the show it was really nice to see that fellow contestants as well folks from Neo (like Ayush and Aditya) were very supportive of the guys who did not win.
I think all 5 ideas were brilliant in their own right.

The evening ended with a wonderful party that Neo had organized for all the people involved with the show.Unfortunatley I couldn’t stay long as I had to be at work by 10 AM in Pune. :( .But since I had already had so much fun the whole day it really did not matter.



A special mention to Aayush who really helped bring my ideas to the fore during the shooting in Pune and for also guiding and helping us out during the shooting that day.

I do feel that the show should be continued and as I said in the post show interview “the next big invention in sports is definitely coming from India” and a program like this would help in the search for this invention.

More on the bond that Man United are set to issue

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/mattslater/2010/01/fergies_bond_is_a_bind_for_eve.html


I really liked the following lines


"The truth of it is that there are very few "business models" in British football (Arsenal's springs to mind as an honourable exception). Proper businesses are not based on endless supplies of free money, whether that money comes from old-fashioned banks, clever-clever hedge funds, Arab sheikhs or Russian oligarchs. There is no such thing as free money. It always runs out or gets bored and goes home in the end.

Why Manchester United cannot spend anymore

a really detailed analysis on how the loan noose is tightening around the red devils

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2010/01/can_man_utd_spend.html

Mediator fails to resolve Mayweather-Pacquiao dispute

What a bout this would have been :(

Manny Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum says the proposed 'super-fight' with Floyd Mayweather Jr is off after talks failed to resolve the fighters' differences.

Pacquiao pulled out of the lucrative contest, which was scheduled for 13 March, after Mayweather demanded random drugs tests ahead of the bout.

The 'super-fight' was likely to have been the richest in boxing history.

With potential purses of up to £25m per fighter acting as a strong incentive, former judge Daniel Weinstein, who had helped resolve previous spats between the pair, was brought in as a mediator.

The duo had previously agreed all points of the contract apart from the drug testing and were said to be close to a deal after the mediation, but subsequent discussions on Wednesday led Pacquiao's promoters Top Rank to declare the fight was cancelled

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxing/8440821.stm

Intel Sports Inventor Update

Man, i reached back in the early hours of today morning (5 AM) from Mumbai after the shoot and was in office by 10:30 AM

Absolutley drowsy and tried...am seing 2 screens...2 key boards and 4 hands ..the world is double at the moment...it's like being drunk

anywyas...i managed to make it to the top 3 and won an intel laptop plus a grand prize from intel( still not so sure what it is though)

i'll write a detailed post of my experience once i have had some sleep

clocks move so slowly when you want them to just just whizz by ...

whiz......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

City post second-biggest ever EPL loss

English Premier League football club Manchester City posted a £92.6 million loss in the year to 31 May 2009.

The figure is second only to Chelsea’s £132.8 million loss posted in 2005


http://www.sportbusiness.com/news/171335/city-post-second-biggest-ever-epl-loss?utm_source=sbinsl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jan07

The Intel Sports Inventor Competition gets better...

Well, after i saw myself on TV for the first time and have managed to get an intel laptop i today got news that my entry has been shortlisted to the final of the competition.

I am quite looking forward to this because i need to present my idea to a TV audience and a judges panel that includes Javagal Srinath and the Intel India Head.

For that i need to make a presentation and stuff over this weekend...(good to be busy with such things)

It's going to be sometime next week..should be fun