The Futsal World Cup starts today in Brazilian capital Brasilia and in Rio de Janeiro.

The sixth Futsal World Cup will see hosts Brazil hoping to reclaim the trophy they have won on three occasions from current holders Spain.

In this 20 team tournament, there are five groups of four teams. The top two in the group will go into a second group stage, leading to the semi-finals and the final scheduled for 19th October.

The Teams

Africa: Egypt and Libya

Asia: China, Iran, Japan, Thailand

Europe: Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Ukraine

North and Central America: Cuba, Guatemala, USA

Oceania: Solomon Islands

South America: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay

Favourites

Brazil are currently ranked number 1 in the world and were the winners of the competition the first three times it ran. But the world’s 2nd ranked team, Spain have knocked the Brazilians out of the last two tournaments, whilst going on to win the Futsal Wolrd Cup in 2000 and 2004.

After six games and 22 players involved, Spurs have two points and find themselves at the foot of the Premier League table. And boss Juande Ramos, after less than a year in charge at White Hart Lane, is under heavy pressure.

Things seem to be going from bad to worse at the Lane, although it could be worse just look a few hundred miles north at Newcastle. But Tottenham are moving in the wrong direction and Ramos needs to halt that decline and fast.

Make no mistake, mug punters who have got carried away and backed Spurs to be relegated at current soccer odds of 13.5 will be disappointed come May. Spurs won’t go down, you just have to look at the well-deserved 1-1 draw away at title favourites Chelsea to see that and with the players at Ramos’ disposal they will have enough quality to escape the mire.

However the 54-year-old Spaniard needs to find his best XI and start playing them. The club have not fielded the same line-up in the Premier League this season and constant reshuffling does not have a positive effect on a struggling side.

Terry Venables has blamed Tottenham’s poor start on the exit of ‘poisonous’ Dimitar Berbatov and while that certainly didn’t help, it’s wide of the mark to lay the blame soley at the Bulgarian’s door.

Frontmen Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe have all left recently and left a huge void for Ramos to fill.

Assistant boss Gus Poyet has admitted he feels new striker Roman Pavlyuchenko and Darren Bent are unable to play together and it seems that neither Ramos or Poyet know the best XI to put out on the field.

It’s a massive problem for the Tottenham management and one they need to resolve quickly with Thursday’s vital clash in the UEFA Cup with Wisla Krakow looming.

By Phil Tomlinson

The weird and wonderful world of the football shirt industry produced a mixed selection of stories in this past week.

As documented in the last two football shirt round-ups, many clubs have suffered problems due to the credit crunch crisis including reigning Premiership champions Manchester United and Gianfranco Zola’s new team West Ham United. Joining the list are Wigan Athletic who have become the latest top flight team to receive unwanted sponsor difficulties due to the economic catastrophe.  Sponsored by the sportswear company JJB, uncertainty looms over the future of their partnership. The Wigan chairman Dave Whelan founded JJB and hence titled the club’s stadium as The JJB. However due to huge financial losses and a plummet in share prices, a new sponsor may have to be found for “The Latics”.

On an entirely different note, Wigan’s Premier League rivals Everton FC have unveiled another shirt for this season. In support of the Breast Cancer Campaign, a pink shirt will be available for all fans to purchase. The limited edition shirt follows on from last year’s unprecedented success when they released a similar pink selection. “Last season was a hugely successful campaign but this time around we want to make a bigger splash with our fundraising efforts,” said Ian Ross, Head of PR at Everton. “The launch of the new pink shirt gives us the opportunity to give something back to the community and hopefully make a difference to the work these charities undertake on a daily basis.” As well as the Breast Cancer Campaign, a contribution of the proceeds will go to two more of Everton’s chosen charities, the NSPCC and Everton in The Community.

Whilst some players may not like playing in pink, not many would object to their club honouring their personal achievements. However Brazilian legend Romario is currently considering legal action against his former club Vasco de Gama and manufacturers Reebok who without his approval have produced special edition shirts that celebrate the 1000 goals the striker scored in his career. According to Romario’s lawyer, the former Barcelona star has the rights to produce such a football shirt, and these shirts are not covered by the contract agreements made.

For all the latest news and stories regarding shirts, visit FootballShirtCulture.com.

By James Bailey

There are a few things in football that you wouldn’t want to be right now. Juande Ramos at Tottenham’s next board meeting, Rob Styles judging a penalty decision at the weekend, William Gallas defending Arsenal’s next corner, but top of the list must be having your name on the front of a football club’s shirt.

Football shirt sponsors are feeling the dramatic effects of the credit crunch right now. Traditionally, having a company brand on the front of a football shirt has been associated with prestige and success, but the recent trend seems to be saying the opposite.

Here’s a round-up of some of the major sponsorship concerns affecting football clubs in the UK.

Newcastle United

Newcastle were he first club to see their sponsor struggle. Northern Rock had to be taken over by the UK government in February. Northern Rock (UK tax payers) will continue to sponsor Newcastle until 2010 to the tune of £5 million per year.

West Ham United

The XL Leisure Group went into administration in September 2008. They were one year into a three year deal as West Ham’s shirt sponsor, paying £2.5 million per year.

Manchester United

Man Utd’s sponsor AIG (American International Group) were ranked the 18th largest company in the world, but that didn’t stop AIG going the same way as Northern Rock and needing the US Government to bail them out with a loan of $85 billion. Man Utd have two years left on the sponsorship deal worth £56.5 million pounds.

Bradford City

Bradford City’s sponsor the Bradford and Bingley have also been nationalised with some assets sold to Spanish giant Santander. The sponsor has paid for this years sponsorship, but the football club will need to wait and see what happens for their final year of the deal which runs until the 2009/10 season.

Wigan Athletic

Wigan Athletic sponsors JJB Sports have been warned over its ability to survive. The sporting goods retailer has seen the share price plummet by 60%.JJB’s sponsorship of the Wigan stadium and shirts ends at the close of this season.

Now here’s a fact for you. In previous games, going in to Saturday’s Merseyside derby, Liverpool had failed to score a goal when both Fernando Torres and new striking partner Robbie Keane were on the pitch together.

I take it that it’s a fact. To be honest, I haven’t bothered to check it out, but the commentator mentioned it on Match of the Day, so it must be true. If it’s good enough for Hansen, Lineker and Shearer, then it’s good enough for Footy Boots.

Of course, it’s a piece of information that won’t see the light of day again after Keane set up the Spaniard to open the scoring at Goodison Park on 59 minutes. It was a delightful pass from the Irishman who stood the ball up for Torres to volley home.

Torres Football Boots

And Torres, and his Nike Total 90 Laser II football boots were on the spot again three minutes later when the ball was directed in to his path as Phil Jagielka tackled Dirk Kuyt.  As you’d expect with the goal at his mercy and Tim Howard totally exposed, Torres made no mistake as he lashed the ball home to double Liverpool’s advantage.

Liverpool start the week in second place in the Premier League table after their 2 - 0 win but thanks to Fernando’s double strike, Everton find themselves a lowly 14th, with just seven points from their first six games.

After scoring what were his first goals in seven matches, Torres said:

We know if we can stay near the top of the table in January or February we can win it.

I knew the goals would come. Now I am back into form, I hope to go on a run like last season and maybe get more than the 33 I managed then.

If Liverpool do mount a serious title challenge, and to the neutrals that has to be a good thing, then here’s another fact for you. Torres and his Total 90 II  football boots will have a lot to do with it.

Order the T90 Lasers here

Fernando Torres Football Boots

How Martin Jol must be looking at the situation at Tottenham and laughing his little Dutch head off.

Jol, who was ‘A Dead Man Walking’ at White Hart Lane last season before being badly treated and dumped didn’t engineer a great start to the last campaign but by comparison to what’s going on now, he could return as a King Kev style Messiah.

As of right now, Spurs are bottom of the Premier League, beaten 2 – 0 by Portsmouth at the weekend and enduring their worst start to a top flight season in 53 years.

Having gleaned just 2 points from six games (and to put that in perspective, that’s worse than Newcastle!!) Ramos has started to feel the fury of the Tottenham fans as was seen when he replaced expensive new signing Roman Pavlyuchenko with Darren Bent with 17 minutes left at Fratton Park chasing a 2 goal defecit.

But the Spaniard says he feels secure in the job and that he has the backing of the Spurs hierarchy.

“Whether I survive is something for the chairman and the board to decide but I’m not hurt (by the fans’ abuse). What hurts is not winning matches.

“It is true that when you come here and feel up for winning that it is very disappointing when you lose, but the players know we have another game in another competition on Thursday and we must recover from this very quickly.”

The other competition referred to by Ramos is the Uefa Cup. Spurs go in to their first round match, 2nd leg against Wisla Krakow leading 2 – 1 from the first encounter at White Hart Lane.

Joe Kinnear has been confirmed as the interim manager of Newcastle United.

Former Wimbledon, Luton Town and Nottingham Forest manager Joe Kinnear has accepted the role of temporary manager of Newcastle United. His short term contract will run until the end of October.

Joe Kinnear: 

  I am very excited about the challenge. Results have not been great of late, but there is a lot of quality in the squad and I am very confident the players are capable of climbing the table.

Newcastle United is a great club. When I was in charge of Wimbledon, I always remember the passion of the fans up there and how great a stadium St James’ Park is.

I believe the club will be sold soon and at the moment Chris Hughton needs all the help he can get. I hope now that I can help to get a few results together.

It is a big challenge, but one I am really looking forward to.

Terry Venables rejected Newcastle’s offer due to the offer being too short to turn around the club, David O’Leary and Geln Hoddle were also thought to be in the frame, but Mike Ashley surprised everyone with the Kinnear anouncement.

Kinnear had been out of work since December 2004 when he resigned as manager of Nottingham Forest.

Glenn Hoddle and David O’Leary are in the frame for the manager’s job at Newcastle United after Terry Venables turned down a game-by-game deal.

The former England boss had been looking for a fixed term contract and said there was “too much uncertainty” in the offer from the North East club.

Speaking to the Sun newspaper, Venables said:

There is one reason and one reason alone why I’ve turned down the chance to take temporary charge at Newcastle – time.

Newcastle United means too much to too many people to take the job on a short-term basis. It demands total commitment and dedication from a manager who is prepared to throw himself heart and soul into the club.

I didn’t want to move up to Tyneside and find myself surplus to requirements before I’d even had the chance to get my teeth into the challenge.

The way the job was offered to me meant that I might be working at St James’ Park for two months, two years - or two weeks. There was far too much uncertainty involved.

The Newcastle supporters have suffered more than enough in recent years. I didn’t want them to think I’d gone up there just to pocket a few quid from Mike Ashley and then wave ‘cheerio’ a couple of weeks later.

Newcastle, who had been hoping to make a managerial announcement before the weekend, have lost their last 3 games, most recently to Spurs in the Carling Cup.

Here’s some advice for you if you ever get your collar felt by the long arm of the law. However serious the crime, just tell them you’re George Michael or the Croatian Football Federation. Either way you’ll only end up with a slap on the wrist.

Because that is exactly what today’s Fifa fine of £15,000 amounts to.

Yet again, the Croatian FA has been found bang to rights regarding the racist behaviour of their fans and yet again, Fifa have effectively done absolutely zip to put an end to the problem.

In this case, Fifa found that Croatia fans were guilty of racially abusing England’s Emile Heskey when the two countries met in a World Cup qualifier earlier this month. England won 4 – 1.

In a statement, Fifa said: “Racism has no place in football.”

“Fifa is determined to continue broadcasting this message around the globe and deploying all of the means at its disposal to eliminate this form of discrimination.”

Deploying all of the means at its disposal? Many around the world and in the game will find that statement laughable when placed in context with Fifa’s actions.

A fine of £15,000 will achieve nothing as it amounts to nothing. Ordering Croatia to play their next two qualifying games behind closed doors would have been a more suitable punishment, particularly as the Croats have form when it comes to this sort of thing.

In June, they were also fined after being found guilty of showing racist conduct towards Turkey supporters at Euro 2008.

Indeed, being second time offenders, not only should they be forced to play a certain number of games in an empty stadium but they should be on a warning that one more offence will lead to automatic ejection from their World Cup qualifying group.

That’s the only action that will have a bearing deep seated racism. Fifa know it but clearly aren’t willing enough or brave enough to take it.

Former England boss Terry Venables is wanted by troubled Newcastle as a short term managerial fix.

Venables held talks with the Newcastle on Wednesday and is expected to make a decision on the offer on Thursday.

Owner Mike Ashley has put the club up for sale and is looking for a temporary solution whilst he searches for a buyer.

Terry Venables told the Sun:

I can confirm I met Newcastle representatives on Wednesday, those talks will continue Thursday when, hopefully, I can give them a final decision.

Newcastle are desperately in need of an improvement in results. They are on a run of four successive defeats following this weeks defeat to Tottenham in the Carling Cup.

The 2-1 home defeat to Tottenham witnessed a crowd of just 20,577 - the lowest for a competitive match at St James’ Park since the capacity was increased to 52,387.

Residents of the UK could well be forgiven for thinking that they’ve been transported back in time. Just look at the evidence.

An extremely unpopular Labour government is in power, the Conservatives are on the rise, the Union’s aren’t happy about the power companies, the economy is on its backside, the Yanks have possession of the Ryder Cup, Great Britain has only got one half decent tennis player and The Two Ronnies, Open All Hours, Columbo and Last of the Summer Wine are still all on the box.

It’s a retro world in which we live. And so too with football boots.

Old School is back in a big way and while innovation continues to flourish in the football boot market, some old favourites are more than holding their own in the market place.

So, for old time’s sake, we’ve been listening to records by Queen and Roxy Music, dressing up in flares, though some in the Footy Boots office have never realised that they went out of fashion (yes Roger, you) and we’ve picked out our current top three old style boots.

Adidas adiPure

Inspired by the iconic footwear Adidas made famous, the adiPure boot reflects a growing trend for a return to simple football values.

The boot is made from 100% K-leather which moulds to the shape of your feet, making it one of the most comfortable boots on the market and it incorporates many Adidas technologies as standard.

But it also meets the demands of many football fans who admire traditional football values, be that in boots, shirt design or even conduct on the field of play itself.

Chelsea and England’s Frank Lampard is a major fan and agreed with Footy Boots when he said: “adiPure to me is the finished article in football boots, clean, classic and does everything a modern day boot should do, while staying traditional to football values”.

Nike Brown Boots

You’ve got to hand it to Nike. Their decision to redesign their top makes in brown for Euro 2008 was a master stroke. And they don’t look half bad either.

OK, Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t  wear them, preferring his green Mercurial’s, and Cesc Fabregas went back to his new style Tiempo’s but in the main, the Nike decision was hit.

The collection was inspired by the host countries of the 2008 European Championships (Austria & Switzerland) and the style of football boots seen on-field during the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland.

The Mercurial Vapor, the T90 Laser and Tiempo all incorporate clean and technical outsole plates in a vivid blue, contrasted with vintage soft & crafted chocolate brown leather.

Each football boot has a different tonal laser graphic on the heel to represent the location of the  tournament and it is also screened in the sockliner.

Puma King XL

Celebrating it’s 40th birthday this year, it just wouldn’t be possible to put together a feature on retro football boots without including the Puma King XL.

Worn by legends such as Eusebio, who was instrumental and indeed the inspiration for its creation, Pele and Maradona, the boot was relaunched this year and boy, it looks great.

The Puma King XL (XL stands for Roman numeral “40″) football boot stands for quality, heritage and tradition. The newest edition includes classic lines and traditional styling, but with updated materials, enhanced features and new design details.

With raised bead line, toe overlay and lateral stability insert inspired by the Eusébio boot 40 years ago, the King XL is executed with today’s best production technology. Super-soft, ultra-thin full-grain leather is complemented by a high-density silicon heel counter and conical firm ground stud construction for optimal stability and maneuverability.

The upper is embossed with a leaping cat logo on the vamp and King logo on the lateral side - with the limited edition version featuring the “Eusébio 68″ signature.

So, do you agree with our top three? Why not drop us a comment or an email.

What do the following all have in common: Sepp Maier, Ubaldo Fillol, Toni Schumacher, Joel Bats, Jean Marie Pfaff, Chris Woods, Bodo Illgner, Peter Schmeichel, Jorge Campos, David Seaman, Claudio Taffarel, Andreas Kopke, Dida, Julio Cesar?

They were or are world beating, truly legendary goalkeepers, obviously, but what else?

Answer: they are all goalkeepers who have played at the highest level of football wearing Reusch goalkeeper gloves.

Many, many world and European champions, at club and international level, so many true goalkeeping greats – Reusch is a brand whose history has always been closely entwined with goalkeeping legend and folklore.

Present day Reusch stars, Rost, Abbiati, Cesar, Dida

Fortunately, the quality and reputation of Reusch’s goalkeeper gloves continues to live up to the company’s great name.

Arguably, where Reusch stands out most is in its attention to detail. Many brands today are capable of producing high quality goalkeeper gloves, with top performance latex foams, good construction and fit, and innovative technologies. But consistently across its ranges of gloves, Reusch manages to go beyond the general standard of quality, and is well known among goalkeepers for this.

With 2008’s Reusch Goaliator Pro goalkeeper gloves, for example, almost every inch of the glove seems to feature some different use of materials, colours or technology. The backhand of that glove is produced from many separate pieces of material, at greater difficulty of production and probably cost, but it is features like these that set the gloves apart.

At the very top end of the range, this is reflected in the prices – Reusch, along with a small number of other goalkeeping specialists such as uhlsport and Sells, is one of the few contemporary brands confident enough to produce a pair of goalkeeper gloves for sale at £80.

So the 2009 range, as every year, will be released with huge expectation. Here we give one of the first public profiles available anywhere of the new Reusch range of goalkeeper gloves, most of which will be available from early 2009.

Reusch has opted for an interesting split in the new 2009 range, dividing the range of goalkeeper gloves between the more conservative and the more progressive. On the progressive side, the Reusch “Raptor” range is added to the existing Reusch “Goaliator” range (which will still be available throughout 2009), and continues in very much the same spirit.

The colour schemes are maintained, and the visual design is very much in the same mould, although with some interesting cosmetic innovations. More on that coming soon! But this week we look at Reusch’s move to the more traditional and classic visual appearance, with the Reusch Pure Contact (aka ‘The Gentleman’) goalkeeper gloves.

The Gentleman introduces a brand new palm type from Reusch – the ‘C1 Cyberstretch’ palm material. Sounding a bit like a comic book robot hero, the Cyberstretch material has been developed to give even greater flexibility in the gloves. In Reusch’s words, “The palm material is exceptionally flexible compared to normal latex and can be stretched both horizontally and vertically in a unique way. This offers excellent wearing comfort and fit…”

This development from Reusch can be seen as part of a trend forming over recent seasons, with the increasing popularity of the negative cut goalkeeper glove. Many pro keepers like Van Der Saar and Cech are now wearing negative cut gloves, partly because of their ability to give a more natural ball feel. Although the Reusch Pure Contact goalkeeper glove is still in fact essentially a pre-curved flat cut glove, rather than a fully negative cut glove, the Cyberstretch fabric aims to continue and develop the ability to give a very close and natural ball feel, by enhancing the sense of contact between the hands and the ball via the gloves.

Also aiding this close and natural fit, the Reusch Gentleman features a unique “inserted thumb”, with negative stitching creating a very close fit to the hand, as with negative cut gloves. In fact, the backhand of the Pure Contact glove is also constructed from C1 Cyberstretch material, meaning that the whole glove shares the C1 material’s flexible properties.

Cosmetically, the Reusch Pure Contact goalkeeper gloves are a real step away from the Reusch ranges of recent seasons, and a really interesting new development from them, with a much more classic and simple colour scheme and plainer one piece glove backhand. The Pure Contact glove comes in black and gold or white and gold, with the options of a full latex wrist strap, or a neoprene strap for wet conditions.

In the coming weeks we look at the rest of the 2009 Reusch range, including the classic ‘Core Function’ line, and the excellent new ‘Raptor’ models.

Arsenal produced the outstanding performance of the night, thrashing Championship side Sheffield United 6 – 0.

More impressive was that the average age of the Gunners side was a mere 19. Striker Carlos Vela was the star of the show as he scored a hat-trick.

Manager Arsene Wenger was full of praise for his side saying: “They remained focused and they looked a complete team.

“I am very proud of that. We looked strong in every individual position and that takes a lot of hard work.”

Meanwhile, the Sheffield United manager Kevin Blackwell was also suitably impressed.

“We knew they were a good set of lads at Arsenal, but nobody knew how good they were” he said.

“He has gone around the world to pick out the best - but there are also four or five top-class English kids in there so that can only bode well for the future of the national team.”

Two Premier League sides were beaten by lower league opposition, Fulham going down at Burnley and West Ham losing, via a Hayden Mullins own goal, at Watford. And Sunderland nearly went the same way, needing penalties to beat Northampton Town after their match ended up all square at 2 – 2.

A horror tackle by Emanuel Pogatetz on Rodrigo Possebon enraged Sir Alex Ferguson who saw his side progress with a 3 – 1 win at Old Trafford. Pogatetz was shown a straight red card for the challenge which left the Brazilian youngster with a suspected broken leg.

Lucas Leiva was the match winner for Liverpool as they beat Crewe 2 – 1 at Anfield, a deflected Jordi Gomez free kick gave Swansea a 1 – 0 win over Cardiff City in the first Welsh derby at this level for almost a decade and Leeds came from behind twice at home to Hartlepool to win 3 – 2 after extra time.

One other game went to spot kicks with Stoke edging out Reading 4 – 3 while it was more straight forward for League two side Rotherham who were too good for Southampton, winning 3 – 1.

What was the worst aspect of the ‘phantom goal’ awarded to Reading against Watford at the weekend?

Well, first off you have to say it was a gaffe of major proportions.

Assistant referee Nigel Bannister was adamant that the ball had crossed the line even though it was 4 yards wide of the sticks at the time.

Referee Stuart Atwell, a young, ambitious and highly thought of official, allowed himself to be swayed by his assistant, even though he was in a far better position to see, and awarded the goal to the Royals.

Total cock up, total farce.

But, wasn’t what happened after this even worse? Let’s look at the reactions of the parties involved.

First off, every single Reading player knew that they hadn’t scored. Yet all 11 of them happily trotted back to their own half when Atwell made his mistake. No-one was big enough, man enough or brave enough to buck the trend of the modern day player (and some would say modern day Britain) and approach the officials in an attempt to make them change their minds.

Stephen Hunt said afterwards: “It was a screamer! No, it was probably the worst decision I have ever witnessed.”

“We can’t do anything about it. It’s not our mistake, but what can you do? You can’t say, no ref, it wasn’t in.”

Really? Why not? It might make you unpopular with your team-mates and the fans but that’s exactly what you can do.

Steve Coppell’s performance wasn’t much better either.

He said that his team would happily replay the game if the Football League so ordered it, which they’ve confirmed they won’t do. But a replay was never necessary.

Coppell should have instructed his side to allow Watford to score an uncontested goal from the resulting kick off.

Remember, Reading went ahead through a truly atrocious error. This wasn’t a goal scored from a tight, offside position or from a spot kick won by a player diving and conning the ref…the ball didn’t go in at all.

Coppell’s view was this: “The responsibility is not with the opposition to right a wrong. It is up to the officials to get it as right as they can,”

So that’s clear then. And I’m sure he would have said exactly the same if the boot had been on the other foot.

Talking of which, you could argue that Aidy Boothroyd’s reaction to all of this is the worst of the lot.

As the wronged manager he had a go at the officials and no-one would deny him the right to do that. But then he went on to defend Reading’s actions by saying: “I don’t expect players to take things into their own hands. It’s not up to them.

“If someone stops you in a car park and gives you a present you don’t say no do you?”

Well hang on Aidy, you can’t have it both ways mate. It sounds just plain wrong to criticize the officials for getting it wrong in one breath then with the other, admit you’d have done the same thing as Reading, ie happily profit from the error by doing nothing.

Let’s be clear. This debacle isn’t about replays, goal line technology or uncontested goals. It’s about one thing and one thing only. Sportsmanship.

Sadly for the game there was little sportsmanship in evidence either on or off the pitch at Vicarage Road at the weekend.