Gudjohnsen away; FIFA bribes; lay off Rooney chants

Eidur Gudjohnsen is said to be 80% on his way to joining Barcelona, after the Catalans failed to obtain the services of Thierry Henry and Diego Forlan. In Gudjohnsen, Barcelona will have a player who not only has the skill and pace to score goals but the awareness, vision, and passing that makes the Icelander more of an excellent player. He played in midfield under Jose Mourinho and did so without a whimper or tantrum, and did so well. But with Henan Crespo, Didier Drogba and now Andriy Shevchenko, Gudjohnsen is too far down the order to reclaim his forward role at Stamford Bridge. I'm looking forward to La Liga and Gudjohnsen's first match, provided his move goes through.

Middlesbrough have latched onto Robert Huth, another due to leave Chelsea. While Gareth Southgate has, inexplicably, been given the managerial role without his Uefa Pro Licence, which is to be discussed with the League Managers' Association and the Premier League with Middlesbrough, Huth will come in to plug Southgate's absence.

BBC's Panorama exposed allegations of bribery money at FIFA's HQ, with FIFA officials said to have accepted bribes in order to grant lucrative contracts of marketing and television rights to a company called ISL. The company went broke and liquidators found, amongst office records, evidence of bribes, bribes which constituted as company funds. The liquidators chased the funds to FIFA and certain officials repayed the bribes but some refused, so the liquidators took the matter to court. The result was a secret deal for those who had not repayed, to repay...more. A Swiss investigative magistrate had to obtain authority from the court for seizure of documents at the HQ, the investigation is only centred on whether FIFA repayed the money. Sepp Blatter has made no comment about it but denies anything untoward at FIFA. I have always wondered why Mr Blatter has found time to drop comments particularly on our FA and our football set-up, possibly to steer away from a guilty conscious. Nonetheless, FIFA repaying the monies mean they accept certain officials there were corrupt AND those who did not pay are keeping those bribes.....unless those bribes were turned into FIFA funding.

Maybe I'm jumping the gun, but Mr Blatter ordered a ban on Panorama investigators at FIFA press conferences for asking questions. Panorama went to Trinidad & Tobago to interview FIFA vice-president Jack Warner, who clearly did not want to be interviewed, questioned or even approached by Panorama, all on camera,. His mannerism was rude, inaccurate and intimidating, and he had the gall to instruct lawyers to contact the BBC about the assaulting behaviour of Panorama's investigators, which was clearly a lie. Mr Warner has or had a company that dealt in arranging flights to football tournaments like the World Cup, therefore a clear conflict of interest. This is the governing body for world football, the very same that is overseeing the current World Cup tournament, now under investigation for corruption. With Mr Walker an influence in the running of the T&T squad, something that has been going on for two decades may just eventually emerge in full detail, to football's detriment.

In the tournament, referees are meant to be very stringent in cutting out or reducing the occurrences of diving, feigning of injury, rash and ill-timed challenges of a threatening nature, yet a distinction between firm and just tackling to diving that wouldn't go amiss at the Olympics is still not universally clear. Steven Gerrard went in twice with solid tackles that earned him a booking, while Ghana's Asamoah Gyan ended a superb run into the box with a dive that should have earned him a yellow but did not. So at the moment, all the big talk about keeping a clear line of acceptability was simply political gabble. The English are use to that.

Philip Lahm, Torsten Frings, Tomas Rosicky and Andrea Pirlo. All have taken advantage of the new ball and its supposed swervy talent. God knows what Roberto Carlos will make of it, but someone should in the England side. Wayne Rooney likes to shoot, Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, even David Beckham, whose freekicks can lead to John Terry headers. I've mentioned before that we should employ a shoot-on-sight policy and test the opposition keeper more often, for some opposition aren't afraid to test Paul Robinson.

Finally, I implore for less of Rooney's exlcusives all over. It's as if our World Cup hopes are on this young man taking part, and yet the very doctors who have been evaluating his recovery from injury are due to arrive in Baden-Baden on Friday, after the Trinidad & Tobago game, and he will not be considered playable until these doctors give the all-clear. So he will not be playing on Thursday, we have what we need to win on Thursday, those who cheer on England should realise this and stop chanting for Rooney. Man Utd have won, lost and drawn games with and without him, so he is influential but not the ideal answer.




RedsMan.