Ronaldo’s football boots
Manchester United should insist that Nike provide Cristiano Ronaldo with a newly designed pair of football boots every time he walks out on to the pitch. Having scored a debut goal wearing the Mercurial Vapor IV back in January last year he was again on target in the Champions League final when he wore the Vapor SL’s for the first time. Last night he did it again – providing Manchester United with their second goal against Inter Milan and the first for the new Vapor Superfly.
The big four
Once again the big four English clubs have made it through the quarter finals of the Champions League. This is something to be celebrated. Not because it shows the Premier League in a good light, not because it’s good for the ‘English’ game and certainly not because it means more football on ITV. No, the reason we should enjoy the success of Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal is that it will really annoy Sepp Blatter at Fifa and Michel Platini at Uefa. And that’s got to be worth it!
Uefa must respect Hillsborough victims
Uefa have refused to rule out the possibility that Liverpool may have to play the second leg of their Champions League quarter final on April 15th, the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. Immediately after qualifying for the last eight, Liverpool contacted Uefa and asked not to play on that date. Instead of realising that this was a ‘no brainer’ Uefa have issued a statement saying that they hope this will be possible but that they will have to wait for the draw to be made. Why? 96 people lost their lives in Sheffield in 1989. Surely that’s a good enough reason for playing a game a football 24 hours earlier or later isn’t it?
Goal line technology
A new call has gone out for the football authorities to embrace technology, particularly after Chelsea’s ‘goal’ that never was against Juventus. One thing is for sure though – if the game does ever go down the technology route they must learn from the complete cock up that cricket has made of the job. The referral system for the West Indies v England was so farcical that players who were clearly out were reprieved whilst those who deserved the benefit of the doubt were dispatched to the pavilion. There are a number of lessons that football can draw from cricket, but how to use technology isn’t one of them.
RE: Hillsborough, totally agree with your sentiments and I am certain that Uefa will, if needs be agree to rearranging the game. Like you say though, they should just come out and say so straight away rather than making an issue of it.
Have to agree with you on the technology story. It’s been a joke in West Indies. ICC should be ashamed.
But at least they’ve tried it and will learn from all the negatives that have come out of it.
Interestingly, the cricket commentators make more sense than the ICC officials – perhaps in the UK, we should leave the technology issue in the hands of Andy Gray, Clive Tysdeley and Alan Hansen!!!