Euro 2012 Finals promise plenty of drama & thrills!

The draw for the next European Championships which will be held in mid 2012 in Poland & Ukraine was made in late 2011. The competition remains very popular & is widely acknowledged as the third most watched event in the world (after FIFA World Cup & the Olympics). As a result it will be expanded to 24 teams from 2016. In my view this is a silly money grabbing idea even though UEFA currently has 53 members!

Due to the fact that both co hosts were seeded, the group stage draw produced very uneven groupings with two groups being as groups of death. Poland & Ukraine would have both been in pot 3 (or even 4) normally, but due to hosting rights were elevated to the seeded pot 1 condemning many more competitive teams to pots 2 & 3 as a result!

Here are my predictions for the tournament: Spain & Germany are clear favourites to win the tournament, and they were the finalists in the 2008 competition. Holland & England are also strong & Italy may also pose a threat.

Spain will face Italy in the group stage & in Ireland & Croatia have very difficult opponents. I do believe both Croatia & Ireland are capable of surprising Italy into second place. In case of Ireland their wily Italian coach Trapattoni, knows all about Italian football & how to beat them!

Germany are once again drawn in arguably the toughest group in the tournament & in drawing Holland, Denmark & Portugal will have a tough task to qualify. But if Germany manage to continue to perform at the level they have been performing since the 2010 World Cup, they have the potential to win both Euro 2012 and World Cup 2014. On the other hand, I believe Holland will be too strong for Portugal & Denmark to qualify ahead of them.

Neither England nor France impress me! I find England's coach Capello pompous & out of touch & hope Sweden or Ukraine can at least knock one of these two teams out! England will be in trouble if they do not get a central defence pairing right, with injuries & aging legs of the likes of King, Terry & Ferdinand making them questionable defensively, AND will not be able to use Wayne Rooney for the first two matches in the tournament due to suspension, which was reduced from 3 to 2. On the other hand, France continue to show any sign of life & remain uninspiring.

In the easiest group of the tournament Poland & Russia are favourites to qualify for the knockout quarter final round but I can not see either team go beyond that!

I will be writing regular blogs during the tournament & will continue my predictions as the competition progresses! So please visit my page regularly!

World Cup qualifier playoffs: Ireland lose to "Hand of FIFA", whilst the "Gus Hiddink" legend is shattered by the minnows of Slovenia

Two major news items made the main football headlines across the world this morning, one full of the astonishing & simple beauty of football, "The people's game", & the other a story of the tarnished image of the stubborn, out of touch, money chasing FIFA acting like a sect trying to protect itself from criticism & investigation, and the perception that its  has sold the "Beautiful Game's soul to sponsorship money.

a. The smallest & wealthiest of the former Yoguslav regions, Slovenia made history by stunning the legendary Gus Hiddink's Russian side & qualifying for the World Cup this morning. In doing so, Slovenia achieved something even more profound, something that stunned the rest of the football world: . It exposed & shattered the legend that was Gus Hiddink!

The "Legend of Gus Hiddink" in no more! The mythical legend "Gus Hiddink"was born when he helped PSV win the European Cup in 1988. He then took Holland to the brink of WC final in 1998 and repeated the same feat with the much lesser footballing nation of South Korea in 2002. He grew even more in stature by taking Australia to the brink of a quarter final birth in WC 2006 in Germany, Russia to the semi final of the European Championships last year, and helping Chelsea back on track by winning the FA Cup final with them whilst missing out on a Champions League birth by a last gasp goal by the magical Inesta.

All the big footballing nations, coaches,clubs & players were in awe of Gus Hiddink & his magic touch, and unable to stop him. The first cracks in the legend appeared when Germany comfortably beat Hiddink's Russia 2-1 in Russia in the first leg, and then again 1-0 last month. But it took the tiny Slovenia this morning to bring joy to true football fans worldwide. They beat Russia & its legendary cooach Gus Hiddink. In the process they demonstrate the intrinsic beauty of the game & its magical moments, and the fact that much love Gus Hiddink is after all human!

b. Whilst the beautiful events above were occuring, the ugly side of the game showed its ugly head & the Republic of Ireland got eliminated, literally in the hands of Thiery Henry, who shamelessly redirected the ball by his hand and created an equaliser for william Gallas & France & its undeserving coach Demenech.

In my view, Ireland lost to the "Hand of FIFA". FIFA is starting to act like an exclusive sect. It fools the fans into accepting what it offers as all that there is, and meanwhile rolls in money & pays its undecisive vote grabbing self serving executives from Sep Blatter down millions of dollars in remuneration & fringe benefits.  FIFA is distinctly creating the perception amongst fans that it is ok for crucial matches to be decided in favour of more profitable sponsorship outcomes.

If the above comments sound too harsh, then FIFA must at start clamping down on all forms of chating on the field by threatening to reverse results and/or order a rematch in order to deter players from acting so shamefully. Thiery Henry is not the first player who acted in an unsporting fashion and won't be the last. Players cheat in all shapes & forms, from diving, to throwing themselves on the ground holding their faces when hit by a feather, to handballing & getting away with it. Just ask Maradona and his "Hand of God" in 1986 against England. Remember the shameful behaviour of AC Milan's Brazilian goalkeeper Dida a few years ago in the Champion League?

Players do this totally shameful acts simply because they know they can get away with deceit because they are confident FIFA will not clamp down or punish them! All FIFA has to do is to order a few matches to be replayed & before too long coaches will come down hard on any player who acts in such shameful manner as the infinte examples of the last 15 years or so suggest.

If FIFA continues to hold the line that all is working in the interest of the game & its broader appeal, and it is not hostage to sponsorship money & its greedy self serving executives, then it must acknowledge the short comings of the current model & the need for  introduction of technology assisted refereeing.

Otherwise, it is only fair to accuse FIFA of selling out the game to generate sponsorship money & favouring teams/players with more sponsorship dollars appeal.