World Soccer News for week of November 14th Drogba investigated over coin throwing Chelsea's great run this season has come to a halt in the fourth round of the Carling Cup against Burnley. While the fans are likely to dismiss the penalty loss as a minor setback, Didier Drogba may find himself out of action should the FA find him guilty of unsportsmanlike conduct. Drogba is investigated for an incident when he threw a coin back at the crowd. The Ivory Coast forward was pelted with coins from the visiting fans' stand after scoring the (ultimately futile) opening goal. He must have thought the Burnley followers had spent too much money and he threw one coin back to the crowd, garnering it with an obscene gesture. Drogba received a yellow card and immediately apologized, saying "it was an incident in the heat of the moment (...) a mistake and nothing more". The apology should be enough for if indeed he is punished for the incident one has to wonder how much the players are expected to take from the hooligans who threaten them with injury by aiming solid objects at them. Ruud van Nistelrooy says adiós to the season Real Madrid's Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy will not be playing any more until next summer because of the surgery on his right knee proved to be more complex than expected. Operated in the United States, Van Nistelrooy suffered a partially torn meniscus in a recent game against Juventus in the Champions' League. Last year Spanish top scorer will be sorely missed by Real Madrid, who are now relying on the young gun Gonzalo Higuaín and captain Raúl to provide most of the goals. The Dutchman had already hurt that same knee in 2000 when he performed a clumsy move during a practice with PSV Eindhoven. He sustained an extensive ligament damage which ruled him out for ten months, but he returned in style and went on to enjoy a prosperous career with Manchester United. Antonio Cassano in a scoring spree At 26, Antonio Cassano is a true champion on the field, but under the sheets even more so. The controversial Italian international spoke openly of his eventful life to journalist Pierluigi Pardo, who penned Cassano's biography called "Dico tutto" (I Say It All). The book is bound to be a best-seller, since the Bari-born forward spoke of his turbulent childhood in the crime-ridden southern city and of his wonderful scoring streak since he became a professional footballer. Scoring with women, that is. Cassano admitted to having conquered between 600 and 700 girls, and we can forgive him for this approximation since it is must be hard to keep an accurate count after a while. The fans only wish he had been nearly as prolific in front of goal and the confession will hardly amuse his current girlfriend, the 17-year-old waterpolo player Carolina Marcialis. Antonio is also quoted as saying, "Sex and food – these are my two great passions, a perfect marriage." At least the second part of this statement clearly shows on the size of his butt. England to play in Spain next February The friendly fixture between Spain and England is on after all, in spite of last month's rumours emitted from the FA that the game would be cancelled due to Spain's worrying racism record. According to Marca daily, this week the Spanish FA (RFEF) received a conciliatory message from their English counterparts, confirming that a friendly would go on as planned on February 11th. In October the FA alleged the February date was not suitable for them, making the Spaniards suspect England wanted to ditch the game altogether because of a number of racially coloured incidents that took place in their country. Four years ago RFEF were fined by FIFA because of the infamous racist taunts against Ashley Cole, Wright-Phillips, Ferdinand, Jenas and Defoe. In the meantime, the former national team coach Luis Aragonés alluded at Thierry Henry as a "black shit" and the Lewis Hamilton's trips to Spain were also marred by insults. Still, the FA now said there was a simple misunderstanding regarding the date, and that the fixture was never in question. One of the major proponents of the friendly is Fabio Capello himself, who apparently lobbied with the FA leaders to go ahead with the game. The venue of the match is likely to be Valencia or Sevilla. Corinthians back to the top flight at first attempt Brazilian president's favourite team, Corinthians of Sao Paulo, made sure of their return to the Brazileirao after one year in the second division. With four matches remaining, Corinthians built a 13 points advantage over the second-placed Avai by beating Criciuma 2-0. The Paulistas went down last year amidst the chaos that erupted over discoveries of corruption, match-fixing and money laundering. Supported by a reported 13,2% of the Brazilian soccer fans, Corinthians won their last championship in 2005 thanks to Carlos Tévez and Javier Mascherano, whose signings were financed by the multinational investment fund MSI. The Brazilian Justice Department became interested in the MSI operations and issued an arrest warrant for the company's chairman Kia Joorabchian, but last August the arrest warrant was suspended. Real Madrid embarrassed in the Spanish Cup Real Unión from the third division upset their somewhat more famous namesakes from Madrid by kicking them out in the fourth round of the King's Cup. The Basque team from the city of Irún went through on away goals rule by winning 3-2 at home and losing 3-4 in the return leg at Santiago Bernabeu. The Spanish press has called the result the biggest disgrace in Real Madrid's history, but the nine-times European champions had already been involved in a couple of resounding slip-ups in the domestic cup competition. After winning their last Cup in 1993, Real lost to second and third division clubs on various occasions. In 1998, they were eliminated by Alavés, then in the Segunda División, also due to the away goals rule. Three years later, the surprise package was called Toledo, from the third division, who defeated Real by 1-0 in a single-leg tie of the the King's Cup's first round. The following lower-league club to stun Madrid in the Cup were Valladolid in 2004/05, again thanks to having scored more away goals (0-0 at home and 1-1 at Bernabeu). Valladolid is incidentally Real's next league rival and the word around Madrid is that coach Bernd Schuster may be sacked in case his team don't win at the Zorrilla stadium next Saturday. Copyright Ozren Podnar & Soccerphile Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

World soccer news for week of March 5 Five games for Cassano for the latest "cassanata" Cassanata. This is the newly-coined Italian word that signifies "a type of bad, infantile behaviour typical of Antonio Cassano". He is a supremely talented 25-year old forward currently playing for Sampdoria on loan from Real Madrid. And he performed a new cassanata on Sunday against Torino. First he scored a wonderful goal saving a point for Sampdoria, earning himself a yellow card for antics like shirt stripping. Then, with two minutes to go, he committed a minor foul against Natali, for which the referee Pierpaoli unjustly sent him off. Not one to take an injustice lightly, Cassano burst into insults and threats, taking off his shirt (again) and throwing it against Pierpaoli. The disciplinary committee sanctioned him with a five-match ban and a 15,000 euro fine. More importantly, this could be the end of Cassano's hopes to be called up for the European Championship, because of the fears he would be too much of a liability. A gun-wielding Romanian fan threatens a player A 30-year old soccer fan from Buzau, Romania, entered Politechnica Iasi dressing room after the game against the local Gloria team had ended in a 1-1 draw. "A guy in a leather jacket came in brandishing a gun and threatened our player Cristea," said the visitors' coach Ionut Popa. It was even worse outside, on the pitch. "I had never witnessed anything like it. All players joined in fighting, even the reserves. Our masseur was attacked and I had stones, lighters and bottles thrown at me. I think I might quit soccer," added Popa. The armed fan, a Gloria fan, was identified thanks to the video cameras and was swiftly fined and banned for life from approaching the stadium in Buzau, said the local police spokesman Ciprian Ene. Next week Gloria will be in for some more controversy because they play away at leaders Cluj. Steaua chairman Gigi Becali has promised each Gloria player 5000 euros if they can snatch a point or three off Cluj, who are eight points ahead of the Bucharest team. Uche's goal "silliest" in Spain, Neville's own goal tops world competition Getafe's goal which condemned Real Madrid to a 0-1 defeat last week was voted the silliest in Spanish soccer history in a poll organized by Marca daily. The readers gave 40% of the vote to the goal by Uche, who took advantage of Real players' celebration of a goal which had been disallowed. While the home players were hugging near the touchline, unaware that the linesman's flag had gone up, Getafe staged a fast break culminated by the Nigerian. Incidentally, the second most-voted goal was also conceded by Real Madrid. Back in 2001, Valladolid's Colombian Harold Lozano whistled and froze Real's defense, who must have believed that the whistle had come from the referee. Then Lozano passed the ball to Fernando, who easily scored past the petrified keeper. In international competition, the most votes went to Gary Neville who scored an own goal in the Croatia vs England game (2-0), beating the goalkeeper Paul Robinson with the help of a divot, which changed the trajectory of the ball. Arrest warrant issued for Serb FA president Serb police have issued an arrest warrant for FA president Zvezdan Terzic, over suspicion of embezzling 1.1 million Deutchmarks from the transfer of Vanja Grubac to Hamburger SV of Germany. The suspected crime took place in 1998 while Terzic was OFK Beograd's director. "It has been determined that Terzic misappropriated 1.1 million DEM relative to the transfer of a soccer player," announced the police spokesman, according to Tanjug agency. Terzic, who is allegedly in the United States, immediately reacted in an interview to Belgrade Sport daily, denying any wrongdoing. Even the player in question stepped up in Terzic's defence claiming that, as far as he knew, the official did not take any money in the deal. This year Serb soccer came under an offensive from the legal authorities, who detained several high-profile officials, including the current FA director Dragan Dzajic, one of the biggest soccer legends in the whole of the Balkan peninsula. The accusations are always the same: misappropriation of funds from soccer transfers and tax evasion. Boca's people decided: Riquelme more important than Maradona Midfielder Juan Román Riquelme has been voted the biggest idol in the history of Boca Juniors in a survey conducted on the club's web page. Out of 65,200 voting supporters, 33.7% gave their vote to Riquelme, while the former crowd favourite Maradona collected 26.42%. Third place went to Guillermo Barros Schelotto of Columbus Crew with 21.36%, while Manchester United's Carlos Tévez won just 4.5% votes, behind Martín Palermo in fifth place. The popular choice should not be too surprising since Riquelme did much more for Boca than Maradona in his two relatively brief spells. "I'm happy Boca's people loves me, but this club is over 100 years old and there are far more idols than those mentioned in the poll. Some of them are not among us any more. The fans must have remembered more easily those who are still here," said Riquelme with commendable modesty. The international midfielder helped Boca win three Argentinian championships, three Libertadores Cups and an Intercontinental Cup. Symbolically, he was the player who substituted Maradona during his farewell game in 1997 and in 2002 he transferred from Boca to Barcelona, just like El Diego 21 years earlier. In Europe, he was best remembered for missing a penalty in the 2006 Champions League semifinals for Villarreal against Arsenal. Fraud uncovered: Franco's propaganda doctored famous Marcelino's goal The Spanish national team won the European Championship in 1964 beating the Soviet Union 2-1 with goals from Pereda and Marcelino. Up until now, the average Spaniard believed that it was Real Madrid's Amaro Amancio who provided the cross for the decisive Marcelino goal. That was, in fact, what the tv footage showed. However, Spanish national tv has now revealed the swindle: dictator Franco's news and propaganda agency had edited the footage to hide the real maker of the cross: Barcelona's Jesús Pereda! It seemed to the generalísimo's assistants that it would be inappropriate for no Real Madrid players to have participated in the decisive plays so they decided that it was Amancio rather than Pereda who passed the ball to Marcelino. At least they did not change the scorers themselves. 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