England will be allowed to wear poppies on their shirts against Spain on Saturday after all, albeit as an armband. An extraordinary row had been stirred up after the Football Association announced the England team would sport the Remembrance Day flower for their friendly against the World Champions. Scotland and Wales plan to do the same for their games against Cyprus and Norway. FIFA reacted monolithically by refusing to countenance it, citing their regulations against "political, religious or commercial" symbols on national team shirts. Political leaders and royalty reacted with rage, the London media went into frenzy and two members of the English Defence League, a protest group which draws a number of soccer thugs, scaled the roof of FIFA House in Zurich to protest. Ignoring the fact that several nations' shirts have Christian crosses or Islamic crescents on them, or that Adidas, FIFA's favourite manufacturer, Nike, Umbro and other brands already have their logos emblazoned on shirts, the accusation that the poppy was a political symbol was well wide of the mark. Poppies are ubiquitous in England in the week leading up to the 11th of September commemoration of those who served and/or died in conflicts. Military veterans man the entrances and exits to every major railway station, adults and children alike wear them and no TV presenter would be seen dead without the little red flower in their lapel. Indeed, the pressure to be seen honouring the fallen has led to some complaining of 'poppy fascism'. But it is definitely not "political". All parties unite to lay wreaths at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, Britain's national war memorial. The poppy, which comes from Canadian John McCrae's 'In Flanders Fields' poem and American campaigner Moina Michael, succeeds in uniting the nation in quiet reflection, pacifists and non-pacifists alike. On that basis, FIFA should never have interfered with something so close to a nation's heart which was a one-off because it just so happened England had a friendly at home a day after Armistice Day. The interventions of UK Prime Minister David Cameron and future king Prince William were probably due to their unpleasant experiences at the World Cup vote a year ago, where both left fuming at having been lied to by FIFA Ex.Co. members. At the same time, did England need to wear a poppy? Their alternative plans of having a giant red flower on the pitch and having poppies on England training shirts and tracksuits and a minute's silence before kick-off surely would have made the point that football remembers too. 1,000 servicemen and women are due to attend to as part of the FA's 'Ticke ts for Troops' giveaway. Indeed, there has been a creeping military feel to England home games in the last few years. Now it is customary for uniformed soldiers to carry the flags around the field, to sometimes line up to be honoured and for the P.A. system to encourage the crowd to applaud, as 'Help for Heroes' collectors raise money for the families of those serving in Afghanistan. The connection between the national team and the national army is becoming a little blurred in England, and FIFA were right to assume all national shirts should be left alone, but equally the strength of feeling in Britain on the issue was something they should have been aware of before clumsily putting their foot down. In terms of football politics, England and FIFA look as far apart as ever, with the motherland of the game having given up the dream of ever hosting the World Cup again. Until regime change happens in Zurich, the FA can content themselves with mini-victories like this one. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

The USA have fired Bob Bradley as their manager. The New Jersey-born coach was relieved of his duties today after five years at the helm. Last month's loss to Mexico in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final proved his undoing, as the US had led 2-0 in that game before capitulating embarrassingly 4-2 and the defeat also meant they missed out on the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. In the group stage the USA had also lost a game to Panama, 67th in the FIFA World Rankings. America's unexpected last-eight finish at the 2002 World Cup has set a perhaps unrealistic benchmark for future US elevens and compared to that unforgettable campaign in Korea, the national team has stagnated since. Having taken over from Bruce Arena following the 2006 World Cup finals, Bradley led the US into the 2010 competition in South Africa, where his team beat Algeria with a dramatic last-gasp strike and drew with England and Slovenia to win the group, before they lost 2-1 to Ghana in the second round. Under Bradley the US also won the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2007, which allowed his team its finest hour at the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa. There the Americans beat European Champions Spain 2-0 in the semi-final and led Brazil by the same score in the final, before going down 3-2 to a Kaka-inspired second half comeback. Last summer Bradley was linked with Aston Villa and Fulham. He previously coached Chicago Fire, Chivas USA and the Metrostars in Major League Soccer. The 53 year-old leaves the US ranked 30th in the world, one place higher than when he took over in 2006. Their highest position under Bradley was 12th in August 2009 following the Confederations Cup. Jurgen Klinsmann , who has run a soccer consultancy in California for some years now and was offered the job back in 2006, appears to be the favourite once more, although 38 year-old Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis is an outside bet. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

Once again Brazil failed at the World Cup despite entering the competition as favourites. Robinho looked to have sent them on their way to the last four in Port Elizabeth before a Wesley Sneijder brace put the Dutch through instead. The expected fightback never came and for a second World Cup in a row the world's most valued soccer nation trooped off into the shadows. So once again, young starlets are emerging post- tournament to raise the spirits of the seleçao. And most hopes are being pinned on the Santos duo of Ganso and Neymar . Paulo Henrique Chagas de Lima , known as 'Ganso', is a 21 year-old number ten, has drawn comparisons with Zinedine Zidane and seems the obvious replacement for Kaka once he hangs up his boots. His first game in the yellow and green was in last August's 2-0 friendly win over the USA. The name of Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior , who turns 19 this week, has been in global circulation a little longer, as he exploded onto the scene as a 17 year-old striker, but only made his Brazil debut in the same friendly last summer, bagging the opening goal . Needless to say, almost every big European club has been linked with the duo, especially with Neymar, and one hopes neither young man will risk hopping across the Atlantic too soon. With Brazil sure to be a force in 2014 with the World Cup on home soil, this young pair from Pelé's old club could be following in the great man's footsteps and raising gold to the sky... -Sean O'Conor Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

Not every day the Northern Irish league is in the spotlight, but was there a more audacious strike in 2010 than this effort by Glentoran's Matty Burrows, which looks better on each viewing... Burrows' strike makes it to the ten best goals of the year chosen by FIFA, along with usual suspects Messi, Neymar & Robben, plus Bafana Bafana's opening strike of the World Cup Finals: * Here's one they missed, from Andrea Pirlo , as the Parma defence obligingly opens up. - Sean O'Conor Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

If Alexander the Great conquered the known world and beyond by the age of 30, Samuel Eto'o has come pretty close on the football field. He has just been named African Footballer of the Year f or a record fourth time and shows no signs of calling a halt to an already illustrious career. At 29, the Cameroonian captain has a soccer CV most of us would die for. He is his country's captain and record goalscorer and has represented Cameroon in three FIFA World Cups , won an Olympic Games gold medal and won two African Nations Cups with the Indomitable Lions, while participating in a further four. He remains the all-time top scorer in that tournament and has netted 52 times in 101 games for his nation. His club resumé includes Barcelona, Inter and Real Madrid and Eto'o has won the UEFA Champions League at all of them. This year he became the first footballer to win two continental trebles of league, cup and Champions League, having collected a clean sweep first at Barcelona and then at Inter. Leaving Spain after five seasons and 171 strikes he joined José Mourinho at Inter in a swap deal with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and bagged 21 goals, not bad for an inaugural outing in defence-heavy Serie A. A string of other garlands include a purple year in 2006 when he became La Liga's top gunner and won the Man of the Match award in the Champions League final. Most recently, Eto'o scored in the FIFA World Club Cup final as Inter were crowned the best team on the planet, their Cameroonian ace receiving the Golden Ball. A lithe runner blessed with turbo-charged heels, a quick-thinking footballing brain and a lethal shot, Eto'o has also had h is fair share of knockers, from coaches, players and journalists who have questioned his attitude and priorities, to 'fans' bellowing racist abuse at him in Spain and Italy. Yet like all great players, he answers his critics on the field of play, a perfect pitch for this indomitable lion of Africa. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

2018 World Cup Decision - Zurich Hours of debate and acres of column inches have been expended debating the pluses and minuses of the various 2018 World Cup bids, and the FIFA Executive Committee have their exhaustive technical study to go on (which rated England and Spain/Portugal as the safest bets) as well as the McKinsey report (which claimed the English bid would be the most lucrative). Recent news has hurt several bids - the military exchanges between the two Koreas, the looming financial crises in Portugal and Spain, the Wikileaks diplomatic assessment of Russia as a gangster state and the pitch invasion at the Birmingham derby in England. Only the low countries' bid seems to have avoided the bad headlines, but it has missed the good ones too. The Dutch government's reluctance to turn the tournament into a tax haven for the tournament and bankroll FIFA to the tune of 300 million Euros probably dealt their bid the coup de grace. Yet at the end of the day, the two-year lobbying process, which has become frenzied in Switzerland as the hours count down to the vote, tell the true tale about how World Cup hostings are decided - by forming alliances. With 22 different nationalities on the Executive Committee, international networking is a must. According to all accounts, the low-key Spain/Portugal bid has been the most successful in making friends, despite a budget one third of England's or Russia's. The Iberians appear not only to have worked their cultural heritage in bagging the three South American votes on offer, but also struck a potentially winning alliance with Mohamed Bin-Hammam of Qatar, whose influence is believed to extend to two further members. England's repeated courting of Jack Warner seems to have translated into an understanding that CONCACAF's three votes will support them, although Rafael Salguero of Guatemala may be tempted to join his Hispanic brothers . Cultural heritage is clearly a factor, which means not only the North and South American votes will head back to their ancestral homelands but also that the Egyptian delegate Hany Abo Rida is more likely to follow Mohamed Bin Hammam from the Asian confederation than vote with other (sub-Sa haran) Africans. If Korean Chung Mong-Joon plumps as expected for the Dutch/Belgian bid, it will partly be down to his federation has hired four Dutch coaches in the last ten years. Personal friendships and sentimental reasons will be factors too, as well as old sores and prejudices. Predicting the outright winner is only an approximate exercise given the voting format where the lowest-scoring bid's votes will be allocated elsewhere with each successive round until one nation is left. And who knows, one or two wavering candidates may even change their mind between rounds in the anonymous ballot boxes. If England and the Iberians have say seven votes apiece to begin with, that still leaves six second preferences to swing it either way. All that does seem sure going into the final day is that the Dutch & Belgians have no hope of winning and that Spain & Portugal have a slender lead over England, who are narrowly ahead of Russia. Vladimir Putin's last-minute decision not to fly to Zurich while Prince William and David Cameron press the flesh sounds like an admission of defeat. Iberia is the favourite for now, but Angel Maria Villa Llona's boast that "all the fish is sold" a week ago may come back to haunt him if England turn an ear or two at the last minute. Predictions are inevitably risky given the difficulty in reading the minds of 22 diverse men and the secret nature of the ballot renders prognostications doubly moot, but these nevertheless are mine: 2018 decision - possible first round voting intentions Spain/Portugal Julio Grondona (Argentina) Angel Maria Villa Llona (Spain) Nicolas Leoz (Paraguay) Ricardo Texeira (Brazil) Mohamed Bin Hammam (Qatar) Worawi Makudi (Thailand) Hany Abo Rida (Egypt) England Geoff Thompson (England) Jack Warner (Trinidad & Tobago) Chuck Blazer (USA) Senes Erzik (Turkey) Junji Ogura (Japan) Rafael Salguero (Guatemala) Russia Sepp Blatter (Switzerland) Franz Beckenbauer (Germany) Vitaly Mutko (Russia) Marios Lefkaritis (Cyprus) Jacques Anouma (Ivory Coast) Issa Hayatou ( Cameroon) Holland/Belgium Michel D'Hooge (Belgium) Michel Platini (France) Chung Mong-Joon (South Korea) (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

Fifa's World Rankings came out today. World Cup winners Spain remain in top spot followed by The Netherlands, Brazil and Germany who swap places England are unbelievably in 6th place, one adrift of Argentina who remain in 5th. Egypt is the highest African team in 11th. The USA are down again to 25th. Italy also continue their descent to 16th. 1 Spain 2 Netherlands 3 Brazil 4 Germany 5 Argentina 6 England 7 Uruguay 8 Portugal 9 Croatia 10 Russia 11 Egypt 12 Greece 13 Norway 14 Chile 15 Slovenia 16 Italy 17 Ghana 18 France 19 Côte d'Ivoire 20 Slovakia Full world rankings Previous Fifa World Rankings Bet with Bet 365 Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football fifa

As at the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan some of the stadiums built for the 2010 World Cup have already or will become white elephants, while a large proportion of South Africa's population still live in poverty. Most of the profit made at the tournament has gone into the coffers at Fifa. The managers of the World Cup stadium in Cape Town have pulled out of their 30-year contract as it has very little potential for ongoing business. Sail Stadefrance said it had projected “substantial losses” if it took up the project. Western Province rugby team will not move to the new stadium, which is facing heavy losses and the running of which has been taken over by the city. Cape Town invested around R2-billion of its own money before the World Cup. Fifa rejected cheaper sites at Athlone and Newlands as ”not suitable”. “We had no choice. It was Greenpoint or don't be involved in the World Cup. At an overall cost of Rand 5 billion, Mr Blatter's real legacy to the poor of Africa. Tags Volunteer in Cape Town World Cup Posters football

As if FIFA were not in enough hot water already over goal-line incidents. In an interview with Germany's Focus magazine , President Sepp Blatter made an extraordinary admission that football's governing body was considering abolishing draws and extra-time in World Cup finals matches. According to Blatter's admission, penalty shoot-outs could replace ties in the group games, while, mirabile dictu, the ' golden goal ' could make a return to the knock-out stages in order to spice up extra-time before another shoot-out, if necessary. What has prompted this sudden revelation of another p otential volte-face, following FIFA's u-turn on technology last week? Blatter is presumably reacting to the meagre 2.27 goals-per-game average from the 2010 World Cup , the second-lowest on record, narrowly beating Italia '90's 2.21 haul. The opening round of two games per group yielded only 1.6 goals on average, with nothing beyond Germany's 4-0 trouncing of Australia to write home about. The tournament was dull in footballing terms, with the exception of Germany's brief but fantastic foray to the semi-finals, which yielded a rich harvest of breakaway goals and sent the lumbering old battleships of England and Argentina spiraling to the bottom with aplomb. But a resoundingly negative final littered with b ookings, gamesmanship and brutal tackles put an unhappy seal on what should have been a carnival of football. At the climax of Sepp's big show, the watching world was left unhappy and even the winners Spain took their crown having netted fewer times (eight in seven games) than any previous champions. Blatter felt responsible. South Africa after all was the President's baby from the moment he first garnered African votes to win the top job in football with the promise of a World Cup hosting in return. Perhaps he is over-reacting to the bad impression the finals lef t on the field, or indeed looking to be a pro-active president as a re-election looms in 2011, although his throne looks safe. With UEFA increasingly strutting its stuff and steaming ahead with its own innovations such as the extra linesmen, FIFA does not want to be seen to be an ostrich with its head in the sand, and while it is reassuring that they are ope n to change and eager to improve the aesthetic experience of top-level soccer, this latest shock still begs two questions - if it ain't broke, why fix it and if it is broken, what can we do? We can all agree on the need for more attacking and entertaining football, though we surely do not want as much scoring as in basketball. Yet short of increasing the size of the goals to gargantuan proportions or reducing the number of players per side, can anything realistically be changed ? Is doing away with extra-time going to increase the amount of attacking play over 90 minutes? And will teams determined to play for spot-kicks anyway not welcome a half-hour less in which to have to run around? This has been tried before of course in many competitions. Abolishing draws in the NASL and later, MLS, was resoundingly unpopular with fans, players and coaches. Replacing the award of a hard-earned point with the lottery of penalties le ft honest teams unpaid for having clawed back a deficit, and superior sides equally penniless for having failed to break down a stubborn defence only to lose on spot-kicks. So it seems unthinkable that if American fans succeeded in binning the shoot-out after four miserable seasons, FIFA is all set to re-introduce it at the highest level. 'Golden goal' was another aberration best confined to the annals of past mistakes we have learnt from. Introduced as a compromised response to the dissatisfaction with the penalty shoot-outs of the 1990 and 1994 World Cups, golden goal, where the first goal in extra-time wins, debuted in Euro '96, when Oliver Bierhoff's 95th minute strike handed the trophy to Germany. Laurent Blanc sent France through to the last eight of the 1998 World Cup with a golden goal in Lens, while at Euro 2000 the French were again the beneficiaries with a Zinedine Zidane penalty in the semi-final and a David Trezeguet winner in the final. Three years later on home soil, Thierry Henry bagged another golden goal to win the Confederations Cup. The evidence of golden goal improving the contest as a whole was inconclusive. In fact, the spectacles of both the Euro '96 and Euro 2000 finals seemed to have been terminated prematurely by the rule, when it was the maximizing of entertainment which had lain behind its imposition in the first place. Its penultimate hurrah came in the 2002 World Cup, when Senegal and South Korea advanced to the last eight and Turkey to the last four on golden goals. When it was quietly abolished by FIFA's International Board (IFAB) in 2004, there were few mourners and since then there has been no clamour whatsoever to revive it. Nor has UEFA's short-lived silver goal of Euro 2004 (whoever leads after 15 minutes of extra-time wins) been sorely missed by anyone. No, if improving the spectacle is the aim, an already-failed experiment is not the means again. Blatter must be feeling the strain of South Africa to have plucked this comedy rabbit out of the hat so soon after the finals. Some time in the Swiss Alps or some R&R beside Lake Zurich might be just the ticket in order for him to regain his composure. As a German journalist immortally commented to Brian Glanville - "That man (Blatter) has 50 ideas a day, and 51 of them are bad." (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters World Cup football

The World Cup is over; tonight's international friendlies began a new era and prepared teams and fans for the first slew of new tournament qualifiers in early September. International Friendlies - selected scores; 2010 World Cup qualifiers in bold Tues 10th Aug 2010 Italy 0:1 Ivory Coast (London) Weds 11th Aug 2010 Mexico 1:1 Spain USA 0:2 Brazil South Korea 2:1 Nigeria Russia 1:0 Bulgaria Finland 1:0 Belgium England 2:1 Hungary Armenia 1:3 Iran Ukraine 1:1 Netherlands Sweden 3:0 Scotland Czech Rep 4:1 Latvia Slovakia 1:1 Croatia Turkey 2:0 Romania Serbia 0:1 Greece Denmark 2:2 Germany Austria 0:1 Switzerland Poland 0:3 Cameroon South Africa 1:0 Ghana Eire 0:1 Argentina Slovenia 2:0 Australia Norway 2:1 France Angola 0:2 Uruguay (Lisbon) Thu 12th Aug Paraguay v Costa Rica Panama v Venezuela Bolivia v Colombia - Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters World Cup football