A plan to increase the tax burden on foreign stars playing in La Liga could result in strike action in the near future.

The Spanish government is planning to raise the rate of tax for overseas players from 24% to 43% should they earn over 600,000 Euro’s per year. The new rule is bound to affect a large number of players as many of them earn that figure in a matter of months.

With the Spanish economy in meltdown, the authorities argue that the new ruling is nothing but fair however the the LFP say that the tax hike will stop leading players from making the switch to la Liga.

The plan, which is due to come in to force on 1st January 2010, will not affect players already plying their trade in Spain such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka or Lionel Messi but even so, it could have a divisive effect as Raul has called for all players, foreign or national, to be treated equally.

No wonder he’s smiling, the new law won’t affect foreign stars already in Spain

The LFP’s top brass are to discuss the problem today with a players strike one of the options being put on the table.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta condemned the government’s move, saying it should have consulted those affected more thoroughly before acting.

Speaking to the club’s web site he said:

This measure damages Spanish football. It would mean that talented players will think twice before coming to our league.

Grimsby Town groundsman Mike Phillips has blamed the near-impossible job of keeping Blundell Park pristine on the advent of bladed football boots.

Phillips, who was crowned League Two groundsman of the year for last season, has no high tech aids to keep the pitch playable, such as undersoil heating, sunlamps and artificial turf.

Instead he tends to a pitch made up of what he calls meadow grass – which is not far removed from your back garden at home.

And the bane of his life is blades on football boots.  He told the Football League website:

After each match we are taking grass away. I took eight big bags of grass off the pitch after the Youth Cup tie here. That is grass that won’t grow back over the winter.

Some of the wear is down to the boots players wear these days – the ones with blades. Boots with blades have up to 13 studs on them, which is going to tear up the grass.

In the 80’s they had boots with aluminium studs. There were only about six studs on each boot.

With all the twisting and turning you do with a pair of boots with blades, there’s going to be a lot more damage than there would be with studs.

Phillips adds he “winces a bit” every time his hard work is undone by a rambunctious tackle, but he said:

You get used to it.

It is my job to get it as good as possible and part of that is to get it back after it has been played on.

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Sir Alex Ferguson has called for the right to challenge bookings issued in the Champions League.

The Manchester United boss made his point following last night’s match against CSKA Moscow after seeing Darren Fletcher cautioned for diving when he had clearly been tripped in the area.

The Scottish international hasn’t enjoyed the best of luck in the Champions League. Last season he missed the final after being sent-off for a professional foul in the semi-final against Arsenal despite seemingly playing the ball.

Speaking after the match, which ended in a 3 – 3 draw, Ferguson said:

I can’t believe the decision. It’s one of the worst I’ve seen.

You can’t appeal a yellow card - it is crucial because to miss an important game because of that is unfair.

They should look at that but they won’t.

At present, Uefa follows a strict policy with appeals only allowed on the grounds of mistaken identity.

Chelsea’s Joe Cole says the London club must win the Champions League before they can take their place amongst the elite clubs of Europe.

Cole has just returned to the Blues first team after a lengthy spell on the sidelines with injury and is in the squad for the trip to Atletico Madrid.

Cole was injured in last season’s FA Cup tie against Southend

Despite winning the Premier League in 2005 and 2006, Chelsea have yet to secure European club football’s biggest prize. This season, they’ve made a fine start to the campaign winning their opening three fixtures without conceding a goal and Cole says its time to go all the way.

Speaking before the clash in the Spanish capital, Cole said:

Chelsea are building a genuine claim to be as big as the Manchester Uniteds, the Real Madrids, the Milans but you have to win trophies.

It’s important for the club, we need to win the Champions League.

Obviously the Premier League is very important but for this club the Champions League is a massive target for us. We’ve not won it yet.

The Champions League is going to help show us as a worldwide club that means business.

We’ve come close over the last five years and we probably should have won it on a few occasions.

We have the right people in charge, we have the experience now and we have to come to places like this and win, that’s the challenge for us.

Phil Brown has been told that he’ll be in charge for Sunday’s game against Stoke City but the club’s new chairman has stopped short of giving him long-term backing.

Adam Pearson, who’s been with Championship side Derby County for the past two years, will arrive at the club for work today after replacing Paul Duffen as chairman.

Pearson appointed Nigel Clough as boss when at Derby

He takes over with the club in the relegation zone, 2 points adrift of safety after winning just twice in the Premier League this season.

Pearson conceded that if Brown does not start to change things he may find himself under pressure to keep his job.

Speaking to the BBC, he said:

Phil will be manager on Sunday but there’s no point me saying he’s got a job for life, that’s not the case.

We need results, quickly, and that puts pressure on everyone at the club.

How secure is the manager? That’s a tricky one, I think if we don’t get results then that security goes down.

Phil knows that, it’s the business we’re in. It’s been a difficult year and we need to achieve results quickly. We’re all in this together but we’ll have to see what happens over the next couple of weeks.

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo was the main attraction in the Spanish capital last night at the unveiling of the inaugural Castrol Rankings – the world’s first rankings based on the actual performance of every football player across Europe’s top five leagues.

Whilst all other football rankings are based on opinion, these have been created using 100% objective analysis and accurate data to measure every pass, every tackle and every single move of over 2000 players. It hopes to draw a line under the age-old debate about who are the best performing players, and may even answer the much-disputed question of who is the greatest current footballer?

12 months in development, the Castrol Rankings are updated on a rolling monthly basis, so from now on football fans can regularly check whether Kaká is out-performing Gerrard, or whether Messi is proving more effective than Thierry Henry (which he’s not by the way – see below).

Fans can also customise the rankings by player nationality, position or club, allowing them to compare the players or teams they support.

As for the player currently topping the charts, that honour goes to Barcelona’s Thierry Henry.

His efforts in front of goal are what have made him the stand-out player of the last year. The French international scored five goals and provided three assists during Barca’s successful Champions League campaign and has contributed a further 18 goals and eight assists in La Liga during the 12-month period all of which have helped him become the world’s best performing player.

The key to Henry’s success has been the accuracy of his shooting with the forward finding the target with an impressive 70% of his shots compared to an average of 42% across the five main European leagues.

Henry currently leads the way with 978 points, 14 ahead of his Barca team mate Lionel Messi. Cristiano Ronaldo is in third on 914, Gerard Pique 4th with 909 and with Fernando Torres in 5th with 903.

To see the full list, go to castrolfootball.com

Manchester United striker Michael Owen has revealed his surprise at the low match ratings he has received over the past few weeks. The 29-year-old has been happy with his displays of late, but hasn’t received rave reviews from pundits.

Speaking after scoring in Manchester United’s 2-0 win over Barnsley in the Carling Cup, Owen said that he thought he ‘played well’ after starting against Bolton in the Premier League, but only received a match rating of ‘three or four’ in the newspapers.

Then, after admitting he played ‘pretty average’ against Barnsley on Tuesday, he was surprised to see that he scored ‘seven out of ten’ in some reports. The former Real Madrid man believes that this is because scoring goals is ‘how people judge’ him.

Regardless of how well he plays, Owen believes that unless he scores a goal – he won’t get very good ratings for his performance. Overall, he is of the opinion that he deserved ‘a five in the Barnsley game and seven or eight from the Bolton game’.

Much of the discussion in recent months, of course, has been about Owen being able to force his way into the international set-up once again. Although the player himself said he was only focused on club matters at the moment, he has received support from one of his team-mates.

Jonny Evans said that Owen always ‘gets in really good positions’ when he comes on and that he made the goal against Barnsley ‘look easy’.

As for Owen himself, well maybe he is concentrating on what other people think of him a little too much. He should try and let his performances and goals do the talking. Then, the praise and improved football betting odds will come his way.

Phil Brown says he’s confident about keeping his job at Premier League side Hull City despite the departure of the club chairman.

Hull were forced to call a press conference after Paul Duffen decided to quit the top flight strugglers.

Former Hull chairman Adam Pearson has been linked with a return to the KC Stadium to replace Duffen after he stood down as Derby chairman on Wednesday.

Hull recorded some impressive results after their promotion to the EPL but struggled in the second half of last season and have continued to do so in the early part of the new campaign. They currently lie in 18th place.

Speaking to media, Brown said:

I think the players are one million per cent behind me and hopefully that will show in the performance on Saturday.

As you’ve seen on the training ground there are some bright lively players looking to put their case forward to play on Saturday.

The support of Paul Duffen was there for everybody to see, that’s gone now. What is around the corner you can only guess, and only time will tell who his replacement is.

I don’t think it was on football results, I think it was on the business of football. It’s difficult to separate the two, but you do tend to run a business as well as a football club.

I run the football side of things and I remain in charge for the game on Saturday.

I’ve spoke long and hard with Paul Duffen and Russell Bartlett, the owner, in the last couple of days. He is in extensive talks with a replacement and something will be announced after the game on Saturday.

It doesn’t affect me in terms of my position, as has been made reference to by Russell Bartlett in conversations I’ve had with him over the last 24 hours.

Real Madrid were humiliated in the Copa del Rey last night, losing 4 – 0 to a side best described as a village team.

Madrid, who spent around £230 million in the summer, were thrashed by Alcorcon who play in the Segunda Division B, the third tier of Spanish football.

Although Madrid were without some of their best known players such as the injured Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Iker Casillas, they still fielded a strong team including Karim Benzema, Raul and Guti.

The Spanish giants haven’t won the ‘Kings Cup’ since 1993 and were also embarrassed by another lowly side as recently as last season when they went out of the competition on the away goals rule to Real Union.

Speaking after the loss, coach Manuel Pellegrini said:

There’s no reason or explanation for how the team performed. We hope our fans can forgive us.

I am not thinking about my job or about resigning, only the next match.

We’ve seen it 3,200 times before: a team who were tremendously motivated and were able to play at their best.

I saw them in recent games, we had reports, but they played very well.

Tottenham Hotspur have submitted a planning application to Haringey Council for their new 56,000 seat stadium.

The new ground is set to be built next to White Hart Lane where Spurs will continue to play during the construction project.

It’s estimated the cost of the project, which also includes 434 new homes and a 150 room hotel, will reach around £400 million. Spurs hope to be playing in the new stadium by 2012.

Describing the ambitious project, club chairman Daniel Levy said:

We have designed what will be a vibrant area 365 days a year and not a stadium with dead space surrounding it.

Our desire from the outset has been to create a scheme of major benefit for local people and to deliver the most fan-friendly stadium in Europe.

The inclusion of a new single-tier stand combined with a fantastic stadium design demonstrates our absolute commitment to create the most atmospheric stadium for our supporters.

Every fan will have an exceptional view of the action and will find themselves closer to the pitch than at any other comparable stadium.

Image courtesy of tottenhamhotspur.com

Liverpool broke their worst sequence of results dating back 22 years to deservedly beat Manchester United 2 – 0 at Anfield.

In doing so, they eased the pressure on manager Rafael Benitez who had recently over seen 4 successive defeats. As it was, Benitez went in to the match buoyed by the comments of managing director Christian Purslow added his weight to co-owner George Gillett’s message that the Spaniard’s position was not under threat.

Liverpool were in the ascendency for most of the game and displayed a fantastic work ethic and hunger, something that had been missing over the past month or so.

Fernando Torres demonstrated his world class with a 65th-minute opener, comfortably shrugging off the attentions of Rio Ferdinand before powering an unstoppable finish high past United keeper Edwin van der Sar at The Kop end.

And after United’s Nemanja Vidic was sent off for the third successive time against Liverpool and Javier Mascherano also saw red in a thunderous finale, substitute David Ngog raced on to Lucas’s pass to wrap up a fully-merited victory which puts the Merseyside club just 4 points behind the reigning champions in the Premier League.

Visiting boss Sir Alex Ferguson admitted that Liverpool were the better team but questioned a number of referee Andre Marriner’s decisions saying:

There were so many controversial things that happened we have to feel aggrieved at some of them.

The most controversial decision was Carragher bringing down Michael Owen. He was clear through.

The laws of the game were altered to prevent professional fouls of that nature and if Carragher goes off, he is their best player and their captain. It would have been a different game. They would have been under pressure.

The referee was only four or five yards from it so he cannot use a covering defender as an excuse. Michael was clean through. With Michael’s pace he is going to get away from him.

Image courtesy of uefa.com

Manchester United and Chelsea may have won in the Champions League in midweek but what has been a relatively poor few days for British clubs in Europe continued last night.

With Arsenal only managing a draw and both Liverpool and Rangers being beaten at home in the CL, British fans would have been hoping for more success in the latest round of matches in the Uefa Europa League. Sadly, the supporters of Everton, Fulham and Celtic were to be disappointed.

Everton went down to their heaviest ever European defeat, losing 5 – 0 away to Benfica. David Moyes had 11 players unavailable because of injury and it showed as they were torn apart by a rampant Portuguese side.

Winger Angel di Maria set up the first three goals - the opener for Javier Saviola, and the next two for Oscar Cardozo. Luisao’s header from a Pablo Aimar corner made it 4-0, and Di Maria set up Saviola for the final goal.

Saviola got the scoring underway for Benfica

Fulham looked to be heading for victory at home to Roma but were undone at the death.

Brede Hangeland headed home to give Roy Hodgson’s team the lead and was then nearly wrongly sent off before the referee red carded Stephen Kelly only for Mark Schwarzer to save the resultant penalty from Jeremy Menez.

But Roma kept pressing and with time running out Marco Andreolli volleyed David Pizarro’s corner past Schwarzer from three yards out. Fulham are no longer top of Group E but remain unbeaten in the competition.

Meanwhile Celtic completed a dismal week for Scottish football as they were beaten 1 – 0 at home by Hamburg. In what was their 4th consecutive home European game without a win, Scott Brown and Shaun Maloney wasted a couple of first half chances before Marcus Berg grabbed the winner on 62 minutes.

Celtic are now rooted to the foot of Group C, three points adrift of third-placed Rapid Vienna.

Image courtesy of uefa.com

Rafael Benitez is coming to terms with an ever lengthening injury list ahead of this weekend’s crucial Premier League encounter with leaders Manchester United.

If losing in the Champions League last night at home to Lyon wasn’t bad enough, Liverpool now have to contend with the visit of United without some of their most influential players.

Steven Gerrard limped out of the Lyon game with a groin injury while Glen Johnson and Fernando Torres are also doubtful.

Winger Albert Riera needs a scan on a hamstring injury and teenager Martin Kelly, who replaced Johnson at right-back has picked up an ankle injury.

The defeat was Liverpool’s fourth on the trot in all competitions and equals their worst run since 1987.

Benitez said:

I cannot remember an injury situation like this.

There are other players with other problems too. I have no idea what team I can put out against Manchester United until we have had the players tested and seen by the medical team.

Liverpool’s Premier League title ambitions have been rocked by four defeats in their opening nine games  while Tuesday’s Champions League defeat means the Reds are in danger of not qualifying from their group.

Clarence Seedorf has backed David Beckham to make England’s squad for the 2010 World Cup finals.

Beckham, who was controversially given the man of the match award in England’s last game against Belarus, will be 35 before the competition gets under way in South Africa next year.

He’s currently playing in the MLS for LA Galaxy but is expected to join up again with Seedorf on loan at AC Milan during the American off season.

Speaking to the BBC, Seedorf said:

There should not be any discussion for anybody in England about taking David to what will most probably be his last World Cup.

His will to perform and still play for the national team is very big.

He showed that here with Milan and he will definitely show it again once he’s back, there is no doubt about that.

He was already a great help last year. I’m very happy that he will be back again as we also became friends. We all know Beckham. The most important thing is that he is going to bring a lot of professionalism and personality with his game.

His specific qualities are well known but what we need in a team of AC Milan players are those who are not afraid to play the big games and not afraid to take responsibility - and David is such a player.