World Soccer News for week of 04/02 Czechs new European champions, says an analysis The Czech Republic will win the next European Championship by beating Italy in the finals, while France and Portugal will suffer dismal failure in the first round. This is the prediction of UBS Wealth Management Research, the company that accurately predicted Italy's win at the 2006 World Cup. The analysis is based on a complex model that takes into account the current estimated quality of the teams, their history in the competition, home field advantage and economic and monetary factors. After all the factors were weighed, UBS worked out that the Czech Republic and Switzerland would go through from the first group, Germany and Croatia from the second, Italy and the Netherlands from the third, Spain and Greece from the fourth group. Switzerland would then upset Germany, the Dutch would kick out Spain, the Czech Republic would take care of Croatia, while reigning champs Greece would succumb before world champs Italy. In the semis, Italy would see off the Netherlands and the Czechs would put an end to the Swiss hopes. Finally, Czech Republic will edge Italy with the narrowest of odds, 51% to 49%, which suggests that the winner will be determined in extra time or on penalties. Dinamo Zagreb closest to the title The month of April has barely begun and one country could already salute its soccer champions. Croatia's Dinamo Zagreb is a mere two points away from their third consecutive title since they are leading Hajduk Split by 19 points with seven games to go. If Dinamo defeat Inter Zapresic on Sunday, or if both Hajduk Split and Slaven Belupo fail to win, the Croatian league will already be solved as far as the top spot is concerned. In the past two seasons, the Zagreb Lions were also quite convincing. Two years ago, their final advantage over Rijeka was 11 poins, whereas last year Dinamo ran away from Hajduk by 20 points. Close to the title, but not just as close as Dinamo, are PSV Eindhoven in Netherlands and Rangers in Scotland. The Glasgow blues are four points in as many matches away of regaining the league after three seasons, while it will take PSV five points to make it four in a row. Finally, Porto will repeat the title if they collect six points in the remaining seven games. Malaysian laws to stop Chelsea's Asia tour Chelsea may cancel their summer tour of Asia if Malaysia does not allow their two Israelis to enter the country (and, presumably, guarantee their safe stay and return). Due to the absence of diplomatic ties between Malaysia and Israel, the midfielder Tal Ben Haim and the coach Avram Grant would not be able to be with the team during the preparations. "We are certainly not go on tour without our head coach. That mini tour is the key part of our preparations for the next season. There is no point of going there withoug the key man from our technical staff," said Chelsea's executive director, Peter Kenyon. However, should Chelsea fail to win a trophy this season then Grant would surely be sacked and then the Blues would be able to enter Malaysia with a non-Israeli coach. Mexico dumps Hugo Sánchez Mexican national team coach Hugo Sánchez has been unceremoniously dumped from his post by decision of the country's FA. "The FA's assembly unanimously voted to terminate our last coach's contract," said the secretary general, Decio de María. The official added that "Hugo Sánchez's tenure was a colossal failure", announcing Jesús Ramírez as the interim successor. Ramírez is the coach who took Mexico's U-17 team to the world title three years ago in Peru. Sánchez's undoing was the failure to win the qualification for the next summer's Olympic's. The greatest Mexican player in history was named coach in late 2006 and his contract would have normally ran out in 2010. Romário postpones retirement again One of the most venerable veterans, 42-year old Romario de Sousa Faria, has yet again postponed the retirement. The great Brazilian forward said this week that the claims of his imminent retirement were false. Curiously, the claims were made by Romário himself a day earlier. "I have not stopped playing. I am jobless and waiting for new offers," said to the Globo television one day after announcing his "adeus" to soccer in an interview to O Dia daily. Romario played his last game for Vasco da Gama last November, when he was given a four month suspension for using a hair-growth product containing an obscure banned substance. In the meantime, he worked as Vasco's coach, but quit the job as the club's chairman tried to interfere with his coaching decisions, including line-ups. Eduardo da Silva on the way to recovery Arsenal's Eduardo da Silva is doing fine in his recovery from a horrific ankle injury. He has had his cast removed and replaced with a protective air boot and now he is about to undertake the next stage of his rehabilitation in Brazil. After a check-up in a London clinic where the surgery had been performed on his shattered left ankle, the doctors informed the Croatian international that the traumatized tissue and the broken bone were healing well. Eduardo had worn cast for exactly five weeks after that misfortunate tackle from Birmingham's Martin Taylor put him out of action for a period estimated at around nine months. Raúl González makes history Who is the most effective Spanish forward besides Liverpool's Fernando Torres? Obviously Raúl. However, unlike Torres, Real Madrid's skipper is not in coach's Luis Aragonés's plans for the forthcoming Euro 2008. The irrational veteran coach does not appreciate the fact that Raúl last week scored his 16th league goal of the season, raising his career totals to 290 official goals for Real Madrid. The captain, who is having his best season after 2000/01, is currently the second all-time scorer for the royals, tied to legendary Carlos Santillana, but is only 26 goals short of the top scorer Alfredo Di Stéfano. Since Raúl is only 30, he will have plenty of time for overtaking Di Stéfano possibly by the summer of 2009. Incidentally, Raúl has played 475 games in the Primera división, scoring 205 goals. In 14 seasons, he has stayed unter 10 goals just in four of them. Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

Five days after Mexico beat Ghana 2-1 in London, Hugo Sanchez was fired as Mexico's coach. How so? He had only been in charge a year and a half, so what went so badly wrong? Under his tenure, Mexico lost the Gold Cup final 2-1 to the USA in Chicago, but that should have been no reason for dismissal since the CONCACAF bragging rights definitively crossed the Rio Grande when the States downed El Tri 2-0 back in the 2002 World Cup. Mexico also thumped Paraguay 6-0 and beat Brazil, yes Brazil, 2-0 in last summer's Copa America in Venezuela, before finishing third overall; another reason not to sack him one would have thought. Expectations had been raised by the fact Mexico won the U17 World Cup in 2005 and reached the last eight of the U20 World Cup in 2007, and thus the recent failure of the U23s to qualify for the Beijing Olympics was the biggest casus belli for the Federation. Olympic soccer is roughtly on a par with five-a-side football for most European nations, but apparently not so in Mexico, where the national team coach, in this case Sanchez, is also tasked with coaching the team to go to the Olympics. “We want leaders; we cannot accept another failure, another Olympic failure,” said Justino Compeán, the Mexican federation president. “If that was difficult, could you imagine if Mexico didn’t make it to South Africa?” Sanchez was perceived as arrogant and too much his own man, which got him on the wrong side of the big clubs, whose directors, each with one vote, ultimately blew the whistle on his tenure. He was dismissed 16-1, his only supporter being his old team, Pumas. But don't we want coaches to be Brian Cloughs and not Graham Taylors? That Premier League clubs could decide the England manager is a horrifying idea, but that it is they way they do it in Mexico. Criticisms of Sanchez's rigid playing style are easier to entertain. Mexico were playing with some flair under previous coach Ricardo La Volpe but seemed to stutter into stifling 4-4-2 inflexibility under Sanchez. Even in the flattering 2-1 win over Ghana, it was clear the full backs were not overlapping and that the static central midfield was inferior to that of the free-running Africans. But I still think the sacking was premature. A year and a half is not that long for any coach, especially one who sees his players so rarely, and while the Olympic team fell short, is that really that important? Mexico were always going to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, given that CONCACAF is the beneficiary of FIFA's largesse with three and a half places in the finals. And when it comes to the finals, Mexico reached the 1986 quarter finals (in Mexico), but otherwise have never advanced beyond the second round. Therein perhaps lies the key to Sanchez' sacking. A large and Latin football-mad nation naturally has some arrogance welled up as a result. That it has never achieved anything of note on the world stage is a source of constant frustration, so the fans look to the Olympics for some succour. Appointing its soccer icon as national team coach was always a dream waiting to be actualised, but like so many other countries and clubs have found out, the best players rarely make good coaches. Sanchez obviously made enough enemies amongst the league clubs to be voted out of office so comprehensively, but his record was not that bad. He walks away at least $8 million richer, but Sanchez' firing over a failed Olympic qualification (as if that really mattered) only masks the perennial failure of what should be one of the major football nations to take its place at the high table of world soccer. Mexico have perhaps unrealistic expectations of one man to cure their ills, but rather like another great underachiever, England, they are also guilty of using him as a scapegoat so they won't have to look themselves in the mirror. Rather than analysing what Sanchez did wrong, the Mexicans should be wondering what is it about their domestic football culture that has kept their national team so mediocre for so long. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

PSV manager Sef Vergoossen today commented on the upcoming match of his side with Italian team Fiorentina in the UEFA Cup quarter finals.

Dutch Eredivisie side FC Utrecht received a significant financial injection as a local businessman announced to be buying half of the shares.

A goal by second-half substitute Aruna Diane gave Paris Saint Germain a 1-0 win over fellow strugglers Strasbourg here on Wednesday and was enough to see the League Cup winners move out of the bottom three.

Arsene Wenger has insisted that Arsenal´s Champions League showdown with Liverpool remains wide open, despite his side´s failure to grasp their chances to establish a first-leg lead to take to Anfield.

Liverpool will consider themselves winners after a 1-1 draw in London and Fenerbahçe's Champions League dreams are still alive after a home win over Chelsea.

Avram Grant insists Chelsea can still reach the Champions League semi-finals despite watching Colin Kazim-Kazim take the fizz out of his side´s quarter-final first leg against Fenerbahce.

Sunderland manager Roy Keane hopes to spare the north-east side´s fans the relegation fears that have dogged them this term by bringing in new players ahead of the next Premier League season.

Asian Football Confederation chief Mohamed bin Hammam on Thursday called match-fixing a "cancer" that is destroying the game after an illegal approach to players in Singapore.

Thailand's national football coach said Thursday that he would stick with the team for the remaining World Cup qualifiers, despite calls for him to quit after their defeat against Oman.

You can always tell when it's getting close to the end of the season and the big clubs are starting to put their transfer plans in place for next season...

Lovely links from around WCB, The Offside and elsewhere… Lippi never saying never (Italy WCB) Polish goalies on the move? (Poland WCB) Week 12 action in Mexico (Mexico WCB) Portugueezers of the future (Portugal WCB A great day for people born in the nineties (The Offside) What next for Clint Dempsey? (FanHouse) Argentina fans vs Brazil fans (SI) Zico: Great name, great footballer [...]

It’s not often that footballers take a political stance. Do you know how Wayne Rooney feels about the hybrid embryonic stem cell debate in the UK for example? Course you don’t. He probably doesn’t either. But Bhaichung Bhutia, captain of the Indian national team, is making his feelings known. He’s refused an invitation to carry the [...]