World Soccer News For week of 2/24 Martin Taylor shocks Arsenal and Croatia Arsenal's Eduardo da Silva saw his great season cut short as he was cynically mowed down by Birmingham's Martin Taylor on Saturday. The Brazilian's left fibula snapped under Taylor's irresponsible tackle and doctors say that the Gunner, operated the same evening, will be out of action between five and eight months. Arsenal's coach Arsene Wenger fumed over Taylor's dreadful tackle, pleading for a lifelong suspension. "This guy should never play again. It is horrendous and you cannot tell me he tried to play the ball first. It is unacceptable," said the Frenchmen, who hours later toned down his fury towards the Birmingham player. In Croatia, the news immediately grabbed all the headlines. Eduardo's former teammates at Dinamo were so shocked by their pal's injury that they lost the league game to Varteks (1-2), their first home defeat in 23 months. Croatia coach Slaven Bilic was close to tears as he lamented over Eduardo's misfortune. "He is like a son to me. We grew together, he as a player, me as a coach. Why did it have to happen to our best guy? To the Devil with the European Championship, what I care about now is his health. I hope he recovers as soon as possible," said the former Everton and West Ham defender. And Martin Taylor? For the Croatian fans he will forever remain a synonim for the brutality in soccer. Cruyff and Van Basten to return to Ajax While still a player, Johan Cruyff oversaw Marco van Basten's debut for Ajax in 1982. Later he coached the talented centre forward at the time when Ajax won the Dutch Cup and the Cup Winners' Cup. The two of the greatest European footballers of all time will reunite again in the following season, Cruyff as the director and Van Basten as coach. This has been announced by the current Ajax board of directors, who plan to retire at the end of the current season to make way for somebody who can hopefully turn the club's fortunes around and make it great in Europe again. Van Basten will coach the Netherlands until the end of the European Championships, while Cruyff will abandon his unofficial role of advisor to Barcelona's president Joan Laporta. Alternative weapon: brief history of spitting Atlético Madrid's Sergio Agüero has been banned for two games by the UEFA for spitting at Bolton's Matthew Taylor in their first leg UEFA Cup game. Agüero at 20 has already joined an illustrious group of soccer giants who also salivated their rivals or the nearby grass in the past two decades. Since the television cameras started to cover more attentively all the events on the pitch, the first notable spitting was performed by Real Madrid's Juanito in the direction of Uli Stielike of Xamax. The German had apparently incurred Juanito's grudge while they both played for Real. Stielike would have the last laugh though with a tremendous tackle on his Spanish foe later on in the game. The author of the most famous incident of this type was Frank Rijkaard at the 1990 World Cup, spitting several times at Rudi Völler. The latter had previously insulted him, possibly even on the racial basis. They were both sent off. Other famous spitters include Lazio's Serb Sinisa Mihajlovic, who soaked and stepped on Adrian Mutu of Chelsea in 2003, earning himself an eight-match European cup ban. A year later, Francesco Totti got sent off and suspended at the 2004 European Championship for spitting at Dane Christian Poulsen. Spectacular hommage to Hans Krankl in Vienna Austria is preparing a charming event to honour Hans Krankl, the nation's most prolific goalscorer after the Second World War. During the Euros, the streets of Vienna will be decorated by hundreds of plastic life size figures of the legendary Hansi. The organizer of the show, Peter Jöbstl, says that is the way Vienna will welcome numerous tourists who may like to pose by the figure of the cult soccer hero. After the Championship, the figures will be sold at an auction and during the event they will be fixed onto a 250 kg pedestal to discourage the fans from taking them home. The European Golden Boot in 1978, Krankl played in Rapid, Barcelona and Salzburg. Austria will always remember him for the winning goal against West Germany at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. Not a joke: lottery to help Brazilian clups repay debts The Brazilian government has presented a public lottery whose primary goal will be helping the clubs to repay their huge tax debts. The lottery, called timemania (team-mania) should raise 300 million dollars in the first 12 months alone. The winners will share 137 million dollars, while the rest will go to the clubs for the specific purpose of paying their debts to the Public Treasury. All in all, the clubs will have five years to pay off the debts which amount to 450 million dollars. Incidentally, the players will be required to write the name of their favourite club on the coupon and the club that gets mentioned the most times in any one round will get 2% of the revenue. All other professional clubs will get just 1% apiece. Since the most popular Brazilian clubs are Flamengo, Corinthians and Sao Paulo, the biggest share will probably end up on their bank accounts. Embarassment for the tabloid: Guti's "boyfriend" was his sister Knowing that Real Madrid's Guti is married to tv-presenter Arancha de Benito, the Spanish public must have been shocked by a series of photos showing the blond midfielder in a suspect position with another man, as it seemed at the moment. Spanish weekly Cuore spotted Guti in a restaurant and shot his "passionate" farewell kiss with a "man". The subsequent story titled "Tender Mr. Guti" effectively shed some doubts as to Guti's sexual preferences. A day later, the serious daily El País uncovered the true identity of Guti's "boyfriend": the other person on the photos was Guti's short-haired sister! "What happened in the restaurant was a family dinner during which the member's of Guti's family congratulated the girl on her second pregnancy," confirmed the player's manager Zoran Vekic. Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

The second part of the Argentinean soccer season started with some surprises. Boca Juniors, Rosario Central, Independiente, Racing and Olimpo, Velez Sarsfield and Colon all played with shockers. It's difficult to explain, but February marks the start of the second half of the season with a completely separate championship from the first half's season. The two halves of the seasons are called the "opening" and "closing". The shockers were the superpower and perennial favourite Boca Junior's tie and also Independiente's defeat by the "opening" champion, Lanús. The favourite was River Plate, that in their stadium defeated Gimnasia of Jujuy 2-0 with goals scored by Matías Abelairas and Paulo Ferrari.

No, there was no intent yesterday when Birmingham City defender Martin Taylor horrifically injured Arsenal striker Eduardo Da Silva, but there was a more subtle motivator behind the injury: money. Huh? Yes, money. Relegation is a death sentence to a club in a top flight league. It was not that way 20 years ago. But today, the gulf in finances between the top leagues and the lower divisions is a chasm. The pressure is intense for clubs like Birmingham, just once place outside the relegation zone, and it causes players to risk the bodies of the opposition in a quest for that little bit extra to bring in a result. You may say that is the way it should be, that it makes the intense competition that is modern football but I disagree. Over and over again I see so many close calls that it’s amazing these types of injuries don’t happen every week. Players just aren’t careful enough and although its anti-win-win to suggest you show a bit more caution on the pitch it’s what needs to happen. Week in and week out team sheets are littered with injuries. This can’t continue because modern football now sees a top club stacked with top players who hardly play, why? Because managers need the depth because they know their players will go down injured and need a ready replacement in that event. It’s a shame, because if you want to see more competitive football then have these players playing for 2nd and 3rd tier clubs instead of filling reserve sides for the top 4. Today what we have is overmatched sides struggling for a win and willing to take unwarranted risks to achieve a result. Sports and opposition are one thing but just like cops need robbers, Arsenal needs Birmingham. And the Premier League needs them both. While it might not be what you want players on your club to do, pulling out of a challenge is what is best for football as a whole.