AFTER Friday's quarter-final draw, two English Premiership clubs - Arsenal and Liverpool against themselves, Manchester United meet AS Roma and Chelsea against Fenerbache. There's a big chance to see three clubs EPL in semi finals, and it seems the Champions League now appear to lead from England to Moscow in May.
The word English is almost as misleading as the description "champion." Liverpool started only two home-bred players against Inter, which had no Italian on its team sheet. Arsenal
regularly lines up without any English blood, Chelsea and Manchester United blend British with global talents.
Furthermore, none of the four clubs has an English coach while Liverpool is owned by a couple of squabbling Americans, Manchester's ruling family is based in Florida, Chelski
belongs to the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. It is an even money bet whether Russian or American suitors end up buying Arsenal.
So, England's domination depends on the money, the motives, and the movements of foreigners. The English Premier League's gargantuan global TV rights might not last forever, and the leaders of FIFA and UEFA, the governing bodies of world and European soccer, seek to impose a quota system on imported players throughout.(***)
English will dominate Europe ?
Egyptian Soccer History
WHILE not much is known about Egyptian Soccer, or other ball games, it is thought there was a version of a type of ball game played by young women during the age of Baqet III. On his tomb, images of this sport were depicted, although no one is certain how the game was played or whether or not it truly affected the outcome of modern soccer.
Recordings of this game date as far back as 2500 B.C., although not much more is known asides the fact that it was played with a ball. The lack of information on the sport and how it was played has eliminated it from runnings as the first evidence of a game similar to soccer. (***)
Did You Know
* Three of the seven confirmed quarter-finalists are "English," though Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United are anything but in terms of management, playing strength or commercial activity. The eighth place will be decided next Tuesday, with Liverpool the clear favorite to become the fourth Premier League side to qualify for the draw three days later.
* Local media calling Frank Rijkaard a liar after he tried to tell them a week ago that Lionel Messi needed careful handling because of his physical state.
* Kasper Schmeichel, a goalkeeper who is 21, and Kelvin Etuhu, a 19-year-old forward, are both, despite their Danish and Nigerian births, graduates of Manchester City's productive youth system. They both made the break through to Premiership soccer this season, but, as the coach Sven Goran Eriksson explained, they are out of his first team at the moment.
* In Asia, Chelsea taking its next small step in what its chief executive Peter Kenyon refers to as his mission to make Chelsea "the world's No. 1 club by 2014." He talks of the brand and the soccer in the same breath. He talks of expanding in China and India, the two big burgeoning economies and TV markets.(***)
Japanese Soccer History
KEMARI, the Japanese version of "Soccer", is perhaps one of the most different forms of the sport, in comparison to modern soccer. Kemari was a game of "Keep it up", much like modern hacky sacks, although used with a larger ball that was stuffed with saw dust.
This version involves a "pitch", or the field, designated by the selection of four trees, the cherry, maple, pine and willow. Many great houses in Japan would grow trees to have a permanent pitch, or field, established.
Kemari was normally played with two to twelve players. Established in roughly 1004 B.C., it vies for position of the oldest game with China's Tsu Chu. In fact, China's Tsu Chu players and Japan's Kemari players were the first to have an "international" game of their versions of Soccer, which is dated to have occurred in roughly 50 B.C., although a definite date of 611 A.D. is known.
Regardless, this game stands with China as a sister sport to Soccer, while it never affected the modern version of the game. (***)
Soccer Facts
Associazione Calcio Milan, commonly referred to by the abbreviation AC Milan or simply Milan, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. The club was founded in 1899 and has since spent most of its history in the top flight of Italian football.
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* Michel Platini, a special talent in his youth and now the presidentof Europe's ruling authority, UEFA, said that he and the politicians must stop the selling of gifted children to the highest bidder.
* Roy Keane, the former Manchester United hard man who boasted in his autobiography that hedeliberately kicked Alf Inge Haaland, ending his career, in retribution for a severe foul he had received from Haaland four years' previously.
*Exactly one week before Eduardo da Silva, a Brazilian goal scorer employed by Arsenal, hadsurgery on a double compound fracture of his left shin on Saturday night, He was given a yellow card, for a tackle that caught the shinbone of Manchester United's Portuguese winger, Nani. Most observers gave Eduardo the benefit of the doubt, but later, when Nani indulged inshowboating against Arsenal, two men - William Gallas and Mathieu Flamini - kicked him in anger. (***)
Soccer Facts
Soccer According Chinese History
To many, this is the oldest version of soccer to exist. However, thereis quite a lot of controversy of whether or not this is the oldest, orJapan's version is the elder. The Chinese version of the game,originally named "Tsu Chu", involved players on a field that had tohit a leather ball stuffed with fur into a small hole. like Soccer, nohands were permitted during the play of the game, and it wasconsidered an honor to be a member of a team.
The Emperor of the Han Dynasty, when the game was developed, was anavid player and fan, and spread the popularity of this game all overChina during his reign. This roughly dates back to 300 B.C., althoughthere is controversy on the subject of dating, which could result inthe origins of the game being as far back as 5000 B.C. Regardless,this version of Soccer is extremely old. Despite that, there is stilla version of Tsu Chu played today. While the two games are similar,Tsu Chu has had no effect on the modern version of the game, as it wasoriginally developed and created for play in Great Britain.
Did You Know
Paolo Maldini professional career with Milan began before Cesc Fabregas and half the Arsenal players - were even born. Arsenal fields six players whose fathers are of Maldini's vintage.
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This is my first posting. Since now, I'm gonna tell you what about soccer, averything about soccer (of football for someone else). I hope You'll join it.....
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