World News for week of January 5th Tyrants not relinquishing rule in top leagues In three of the top European leagues the champions are on top, and in one they are a step behind. Inter, Lyon and Real Madrid have a solid lead at the start of the year, Manchester Utd. follow Arsenal from close-in and only Stuttgart are out of play at this stage. Spain: Real Madrid have seven points' advantage over Barcelona, whom they defeated by 1-0 at Camp Nou in the last match of the year. Real also have the best League's attack with 37 goals, 2,17 per game. France: Lyon had the worst start to the season in a decade with two defeats in the first three rounds, but at the start of the 2008 they are four points ahead of Nancy and six ahead of Bordeaux. And both closest rivals have yet to travel to Lyon. Italy: The unbeaten Inter lead Roma by seven points with two games to go until the end of the first half of the season. Since the nerazzurri have mathematically clinched the honorary winter title, the statisticians claim it is a good sign because on the previous 14 occasions they ended up champions they had also been top at the season's break (not counting the 2005/06 title stripped of Juventus and awarded to Inter by the FA). England: Manchester United briefly made it to the top on the Boxing Day, when Arsenal got stuck in Portsmouth. Still, just before the New Year, United got defeated to West Ham and allowed the Gunners to overtake them again. Germany: Stuttgart are the only champions to have abdicated at this early stage. With 11 points behind Bayern and Werder are impossible to overcome in any realistic scenario. It will take a record fee to snatch Berbatov from the Spurs Juande Ramos may have one of the least effective defenses in the Premiership, but at least he boasts one of the most coveted strikers in Dimitar Berbatov. Chelsea have been reported to have offered 26 million pounds to Tottenham and Manchester Unted are also considering a bid. According to the Spanish coach, the amount will not be enough to persuade the Spurs to sell the Bulgarian. "Some one would have to offer more than the 30 million pounds Chelsea paid to Milan for Andriy Shevchenko," said Juande Ramos. "It would be normal to require as much, since they are so few players of his class." Still, the former Sevilla coach recently threatened to replace the entire defense, after another disappointing display of the Spurs' back four. With the wealth they could obtain by selling Berbatov plus whatever they can get for the defenders they have, maybe Juande Ramos will have enough funds to build the defense of his dreams. Ronaldo voted the biggest flop in Italy Ony twelve months after returning to Italy, the unfortunate Brazilian Ronaldo collected another resounding prize: the trophy for last year's biggest flop in Italian soccer in a poll conducted by Corriere della Sera daily. The Phenomenon, as he was called by the Italians ten years ago when he joined Inter, won over the hearts and minds of the Roman paper readers by collecting 40% od the vote. The Emperor Adriano of Inter, currently on loan to Sao Paulo, had to settle for the the second spot with a decent 29% of the vote. Two other Brazilans made it to the top ten – Milan's Emerson and Roma's Cicinho. Ronaldo's return to action after recovering from a muscular injury is now set at January 20th. Ten Italian top-flops of 2007. 1. Ronaldo (Milan) - 40% 2. Adriano (Inter) - 29% 3. Tiago (Juventus) - 7,6% 4. Emerson (Milan) - 6,4% 5. Vieira (Inter) - 5,4% 6. Almiron (Juventus) - 3,2% 7. Muslera (Lazio) - 3,1% 8. Cicinho (Roma) - 2% 9. Diego Tristán (Livorno) - 2% 10. Recoba (Torino) - 1,3% O'Donnell: sixth tragedy in four months Phil O'Donnell's demise late last month raised to six the number of soccer-related deaths in a space of four months. Before Motherwell's captain, four players and one referee lost their lives after falling ill during a soccer game. Although the casualty figure amounts to a tiny fraction of the total number of athletes and officials who come on to the field each week, the new death must increase the concerns within the soccer institutions. Only a week before O'Donnell (35), the 18-year old Italian referee died after collapsing during a game of the Veneto region youth championship. The dark four months began on August 28th with the death of Sevilla's Antonio Puerta from a cardiac arrest after three days in the intensive care. Just a day after Puerta, Chashwe Nsofa (27) of Hapoel Beersheva suffered a fatal heart attack in a Israeli second division game. The terrible week ended on September 1th when Jairo Andres Nazareno (21) of the Ecuadoran third-division outfit Chimborazo felt chest pain during a match against Politécnica. As soon as he reached hospital, he was declared dead. Finally, on December 20th, 31-year old Brazilian Cleber from Bahia died after two months in coma because of a brain stroke. Di Stéfano: It used to be 40,000 harder to win the Champions Cup One of the most important soccer player of all time, Alfredo Di Stéfano, marked the early years of the European Champions Cup by leading Real Madrid to five consecutive titles, scoring at least once in each finals. Today's incarnation of the competition he did so much to popularize is not entirely to his taste. "They call it the Champions League. Champions of what? They should look it up in the dictionary. The press should know the meaning of the word," said the Hispano-argentinian to the Spanish daily El Mundo. "Maybe the current formula is more interesting because there are more teams and more possibilities, but if they had to expand the competition for financial reasons, let them change the name. Here it is: it is possible to finish fourth in the domestic League and then be crowned champions of Europe! In my time it was not possible." Asked whether it was more difficult to become European champions, the two-time Golden Ball winner replied emphatically. "You bet it was more difficult. Fourty thousand times more. It was a cup system back then and we were not eliminated in five consecutive seasons." 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 News for week of October 7th ManU's mighty artillery for 0,9 goals per game Do the names of Wayne Rooney, Louis Saha, Carlos Tévez, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nani, Anderson...tell you anything? These are the players with offensive duties in Manchester Utd. Still, with all that artillery United scored a mere 11 goals in their first 12 competitive games. It's fewer than one per game. Luckily for the Red Devils, their defence conceded just six goals in the same period thus keeping United near or on top in the Premiership and the Champions' League.