Tottenham Hotspur have released an artist's impression of their desired new 60,000-seat home on the site of London's Olympic Stadium . After it was initially thought Spurs were merely seeking leverage to persuade Haringey Council to approve their White Hart Lane redevelopment, the picture leaves no doubt that Stratford is their intended destination in 2012. Chairman Daniel Levy is talking of East London as their one and only option right now as the postponed decision on the preferred bidder is due within a week. West Ham have the support of most of the athletics community, including the IOC and 2012 chief Sebastian Coe, as well as the majority of Londoners polled, but Spurs' greater financial clout seems to be edging ahead as the Legacy Committee pore over the economic promises. The call for more time to decide must be ominous for the Hammers - on paper they should have been crowned winners already because unlike Tottenham they had pledged to retain the running track. While West Ham's Vice Chairman Karren Brady invokes the Queen's name and speaks of a "corporate crime" should Spurs triumph, she is equally aware that Spurs have stolen a march on the issue of athletics legacy: They are promising to develop Crystal Palace athletics stadium into a 25,000-seater open all year when West Ham will only leave the larger Olympic Stadium open for track and field for 20 days. It is impossible to miss the Canary Wharf skyline lurking strategically above the stadium in the artist's impression, a symbol of the big money Tottenham are hoping will carry them across the finish line. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

Football and the Olympics does matter after all. By the end of this week either Tottenham Hotspur or West Ham United will be in pole position to take over London's Olympic Stadium once the flame goes out on the 12th of August 2012. The battle for Stratford has turned into a fire-fight between two capital clubs with all manner of voices wading in, from politicians to Pelé . But whichever club wins the right to move house next year, the decision will al so r ecord for posterity just what is driving the soul of British sport at this moment. It is price versus value and by the end we will see just how much money can buy. Olympic stadia are beautiful, but what is to be done with them once the party is over? Athletics just does not pay, however popular it will appear for a month at the games. Next year, the track events will as ever be the blue riband of the games, sports am ateur in tradition if not in practice anymore. Although Baron de Coubertin's Corinthian ideals may now be a quaint memory, the fact Britain does not possess a single venue able to ho st a maj or track championship is painful proof of just how far athletics lags behind the professional team sports in money-making. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the UK team finished fourth in the medals table, beaten only by superpowers China, Russia and the United States, yet a closer inspection reveals only four of Britain's 47 medals were won inside the main arena. The velodrome by contrast yielded sixteen. The 2012 stadium cost t he British taxpayer half a billion pounds and the odd athletics mee t alone will not pay for its future upkeep. Enter football, riding to the rescue. Tottenham are thriving on this financial uncertainty, and are wielding the buying power of their fans - 36,000 season-ticket holders and 40,000 on a waiting list, as their battering ram on the doors of the Olympic Park Legacy Company , the body who will pick the winne r. Sold out Spurs matches and the rest of the site under the aegis of AEG, who transformed the Millennium Dome from a ridicul ed white elephant into the hugely successful O2 Arena, can surely reduce the tax bill faster than West Ham can and reassure the anxious politicians in this age of austerity. And if there were any doubt about which tenant would be the more lucrative, Spurs' Champions League adventure this season stands in sharp contrast to the Hammers' relegation fight. Both clubs are ogling a new stadium for free and the proceeds from auctioning off their own real estate, although the Hammers need the money more. West Ham are playing what they know are less tangible but more respectable cards - those of trust, altruism and tribalism: They are hoping the promise of an athletics legacy for the nation at the time of bidding is an oath of honour, that the OPLC will feel that track and field, however unprofitable, deserves at least one big arena when football already has so many, and the fact that the locality is far more claret and blue than white and navy territory. A club crossing town after a century in Haringey does go against the natural order of the sport, whose roots lie in brawls between medieval parishes, but the game has come a long way since those Shrovetide tussles. In only the last ten years the Premier League has metamorphosed into an international division based in England while London, an economic hot-spot conveniently located halfway between the financial hotspots of Asia and East Coast America, has also been transformed by a globalised influx which has left its old face a folktale. Franchise moves are common in American sports where many areas of population lack professional sports teams but less so in England, where a wealthy investor need only pluck a struggling club and whisk it through the divisions towards the big time. The Olympic environs are virgin territory anyway, as is much of East London's growth corridor and the monied business district of Canary Wharf, whose cityscape resembles North America, not England. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy sees relocation as part of a bigger picture for this part of the capital and doubtless salivates over the shining new transport links to Stratford w hile his club's fans struggle to reach White Hart Lane, a nice ground in an otherwise grotty urban neighbourhood. And Spurs fans mostly do not come from Tottenham these days, any more than West Ham's hail from the Bangladeshi area around Upton Park, so talk of tribal land rights can sound odd in the mobile London of 2011. West Ham have the moral case if there is one, based on the promises London's bidding team used to convince the International Olympic Committee to pick them ahead of Paris in the first place. The IOC and world athletics' governing body have rushed to their aid in the final days of the campaign. The IAAF chief Lamine Diack did not mince his words, speaking of London's "big li e" were it to choose Spurs, adding for good measure, "And after that it is a betrayal...You can consider yourself dead. You are finished." Sebastian Coe, the public face of London 2012 was unambiguous: "We have a moral obligation." Tottenham have brushed aside claims they are arrogantly ignoring Olympic promises by pledging instead to redevelop Crystal Palace athletics stadium to 25,000, the initial planned capacity of the Olympic stadium after the games. With the hours counting down until D-Day, Spurs wheeled out Pelé, Jimmy Greaves and their coach Harry Redknapp to stress how football and athletics do not mix happily in the same arena, a fact which is hard to deny. But West Ham landed a counter-punch from an unlikely angle. Out of the blue last week, Crystal Palace F.C. announced they intend to develop the nearby athletics venue into a new football stadium, returning to their ancestral home where they started in 1905. The Eagles' territorial claim on that site is pre-eminent, their financial backing as yet invisible. Palace could yet even strike a deal with Spurs and end up with views across an eight-lane running track. Sliding stands as in the Stade de France would have solved the sight lines problem, but the Olympics were won in the heady days of New Labour's noughties boom before the spectre of financial crash appeared around construction time. The discount re-design which emerged after recalculations neatly encapsulated the new age of western austerity after Beijing's tour-de-force 'Birds N est' of 2008. What once seemed like a shoe-in for Leyton Orient, the closest club to the Olympics site, has now become a spat between two Premier League sides that is starting to turn ugly. A gazumping by Spurs would deal a near-fatal blow to Britain's hopes of ever hosting a major athletics tournament again, whilst confirming the great god of football rules unchallenged, making up the rules as he goes along. But while the rising anger from the athletics world at Tottenham's interloping could swing it for West Ham, the race for gold and silver still looks too tight to call. The Hammers have a more wholesome claim, which chimes with the Olympic spirit in which the stadium was created in the first place, but let us not be fooled. It is purely money, or the lack of it in their instance, which motivates any football club to subject its supporters to a dreaded running track. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

Tottenham Hotspur are riding some wave. A point off the top four in England, the Londoners have set the UEFA Champions League on fire in their inaugural season on the biggest stage, playing some dazzling attacking football. And after years of its fans craving glory the club is swiftly h aving to adjust to its new-found success. A novice in the conti nent's top class, North London's other giant has qualified for the knock-out stages of the Champions League in 2011, and currently sits atop of a group containing reigning champions Internazionale, whom they swatted aside 3-1 at White Hart Lane. Spurs also downed Werder Bremen 3-0 and Twente Enschede 4-1 at home, drew 2-2 away in Germany and netted three at San Siro, despite going down 4-3 to Inter in the end. While their domestic form is struggling to keep up, Tottenham are poised to break into the Champions League places again and their supporters are still wallowing from their most prized scalp - a 3-2 win at neighbours Arsenal. The immediate plaudits for this unexpectedly sterling season must go to mercurial manager Harry Redknapp . The son of an East End docker, Redknapp might have a questionable record in the transfer market and speak like a cockney gaffer plucked via a time warp from the 1970s, but he has proved more than capable of drawing the best out of cultured continentals such as Luka Modric , Roman Pavlyuchenko and Rafael Van der Vaar t . In addition he has proved to Fabio Capello how Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe and Aaron Lennon, bit-part players in the national team, can be employed to devastating effect. A club renowned for favouring style over substance, Spurs' expansive football has been a joy to behold his season, and more than a few beady eyes have been cast in the direction of their Welsh wing wizard Gareth Bale , whose left-sided marauding cut Javier Zanetti and the rest of Inter's seasoned backline to shreds. Starting at left-back, Bale bagged a hat-trick in Italy with near-identical charges up the flank followed by finishes driven into the far corner, a firework display that had the whole Italian press cooing with admiration and relieved at Inter having scored enough to win. A rich blend of diverse talents and an attack-minded manager has brewed up a Tottenham tipple that has forced the UEFA powers-that-be to take notice. Bale's power surges on the left are complemented by Lennon's waggle-dancing on the right flank; Defoe's sprints and clinical finishes up the middle are mixed with Crouch's air superiority and Pavlyuchenko's clever runs and deadly ground strokes. With a strong back four marshalled by French veteran William Gallas in order to shield an at-times erratic goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, the strings are pulled in the centre by the underrated Cameroon international Benoit Assou-Ekotto, the assured Jermaine Jenas, a classy distributor whom England will surely turn to again, while the ensemble is completed by the maestro in the middle, the Croatian conductor Modric. The addition of a Dutch master at the end of the transfer window might have upset the balance, but Van der Vaart has landed with aplomb, scoring and creating in a free role, with only the high-octane pace of an attritional North London derby a game too far for him. We should not begudge Tottenham their place in the sun as their trophy cabine t has a cobweb or two. Considered along with Everton one of the 'Big Five' in the 1980s, their last big trophy was 1984's UEFA Cup, while you have to go as far back as 1961 for the last time Spurs were champions of England. After years of suffering as the nearly men, Redknapp's remedy is working a treat. In his apparently simple tactical plan and motivational instincts there is even something of the Brian Clough about him, although do not be fooled by the bravado: Redknapp drives from Dorset to North London every day with assistant coach Kevin Bond beside him, discussing in depth their tactical options. Redknapp is one of the last of the truly English managers, breezily bypassing foreign additives in his recipe book: Tottenham pioneered the use of a Director of Football in England in 1998 with David Pleat but Redknapp eschews such continental sophistication, taking the word 'manager' he grew up with literally - he is the man who runs the club at the end of the day. And with the exception of the former Scotland striker Joe Jordan, the entire coaching staff is English, at a time when 15 of the 20 Premier League coaches come from outside England and seven from beyond the British Isles. If Spurs have an Achilles heel it is surely in their inexperience. Their open and attacking style could well be found out by the stronger, wiser teams to be found in the knock-out stages, clubs battle-hardened by the yearly Champions League competition Spurs have yet to know intimately. The warning signs are there: After only 20 minutes of play in their top-level European exodus, Spurs found themselves trailing Young Boys 3-0 in Berne, before pulling two back in Switzerland and thrashing them 4-0 in the return leg. Ditto in Italy, where Inter sailed into a 4-0 advantage over Spurs with only 35 minutes gone, slicing the Londoners' defence open from all angles in a footballing bloodbath, leaving Tottenham looking desperately out of their depth befo re Bale pulled the trigger and fired in three goals. A quick glance at the company they will be keeping in the last sixteen should make them draw breath - Bayern, Inter, Milan, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United and Chelsea have all made it through along with tricky customers like Lyon, Schalke and Valencia. In other words, we will surely find out what Spurs are made of before long. The metamorphosis from a bridesmaid club has been so rapid and heady the fans will be wondering if it can last. And two possible obstacles are already visible on the horizon - the loss of Redknapp to the England job in 2012 and a move to a new stadium . Redknapp has been explicit about his desire for the top job in English football, and with Capello's Three Lions mumbling rather than roaring, the Londoner is surely next up for the impossible job, if, as expected, the Italian's megabucks contract is not renewed after the European Championship in Poland & Ukraine. The Football Association have already said they will hire English next time, which presumably means a choice between Redknapp and Roy Hodgson. When Redknapp left Portsmouth and West Ham in recent seasons, both clubs ended up relegated within a couple of years, an omen for Tottenham with only a year and a half to go until the England job is up for grabs again. The other upheaval on the cards concerns a move away from White Hart Lane - home to the club since 1899. The Lane has a double problem - its famous inaccessibility and relatively low capacity. In a city blessed with the world's largest underground railway and a vast network of train and bus services, Spurs' stadium for some reason remains frustratingly hard to reach. The closest London Underground station is a good half hour's walk while the Toy town trains arriving intermittently at Tottenham Hale are a wholly inadequate service for a large arena. 36,000 seats also puts Spurs at a financial disadvantage compared to Manchester City (48,000), Arsenal (60,000) and Man Utd (76,000), a stunted revenue stream year after year. Expansion to 56,000 seats on the existing site entails demolishing a slew of nearby buildings and planning permission for a multi-use shopping, hotel and sporting complex. Planning permission has been granted by the local council and the Mayor of London, leaving a refusal by the Secretary of State the last possible hurdle. Yet Spurs have also applied to take over the Olympic Stadium across town in Stratford after the games finish in 2012, placing them in direct competition with the more local West Ham United and with British Athletics, whose demand for a running track would also conflict with Spurs' plans. What at first seemed to be an obvious leverage tactic to force Haringey Council's hand now appears a frightening possibility for die-hards, who are aghast at the prospect of Tottenham leaving their home patch. Spurs have AEG's millions on board, as well as the potential backing of billionaire Joe Lewis. In addition, London 2012's vice-chairman is a club director. In March 2011 we will know for sure, but within a month more will be clear. Although the Haringey option appears the better of the two, Chairman Daniel Levy is believed to be genuinely excited about his club moving for free into an iconic stadium, which unlike White Hart Lane will have excellent transport links and proximity to the financial hub of Canary Wharf and London's expanding eastern corridor. The spruce surroundings of the Olympic Park are a world away from Tottenham High Road, one of the most impoverished and unappealing parts of London. Whatever happens on and off the field, the next two years will surely be some of the most historic in the history of this 138 year-old team, and certainly the most exciting for decades. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile Tags World Cup Pens World Cup Posters Euro 2012 football

Soccerphile writer Andy Greeves fulfills a boyhood ambition of scoring for Spurs .

“ Switch and Spurs, switch and spurs; or I'll cry a match ”, Romeo & Juliet II, iv Tottenham’s travails go on after they fell 2-0 away at Udinese in the UEFA Cup. Winless so far, despite a summer spending spree which dwarfed all rivals, Spurs remain rock-bottom of the Premier League with only two points from eight games. He-he. Never have the triangle jokes (three points) lasted this long into the season. Spurs’ utter uselessness this season however is a mystery for rationalists: Their coach has a good record, they won the League Cup against Chelsea in February and grabbed some real talent over the close season in Luka Modric, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Giovanni Dos Santos and David Bentley. For mystics, psychics and assorted fruitcakes however, the explanation for the North Londoners’ malaise is simple: They have a hex on them. Tottenham would not be the first. The annals of sporting history are replete with supernatural intervention. Just think of the Curse of the Bambino in baseball and myriad others from the US' Big Four sports. In England, the home of the beautiful game, plenty of clubs have been alleged victims of gypsy curses. The most famously hexed team was Derby County, who ascribed their failure to win trophies to the fact they had expelled some Romany folk from the land where they built their old stadium, the Baseball Ground. After paying off some of the gypsies’ descendants in 1946, the Rams duly won the FA Cup for the first time. More recently, Birmingham City were widely supposed to have been victims of a hundred-year spell which expired in 2006. The Blues took it so seriously that former coach Barry Fry, an ebullient old-school manager not averse a curse or two himself, urinated in the four corners of the field after a psychic (or a charlatan having a laugh) told him it would exorcise the demons. Leeds also had a run-in with Romany folk when Elland Road was under construction. Their great coach Don Revie employed a gypsy to spiritually cleanse the place in 1971 but unfortunately, having led the First Division for most of that season, they then ended up losing it. Manchester City is another gullible sap, although on paper the most unsuccessful big club in England had to look to the stars for hope. Gypsies were rumored to have cursed the land on which stood Maine Road, City’s stadium from 1923 to 2003, a good reason for moving to the City of Manchester Stadium. While coach at Maine Road, Kevin Keegan once said, "I haven't been able to believe how bad our luck has been this season - especially at home. I don't know whether I've run over one black cat or 10 of them." If they thought they had rid themselves of evil, then what were City doing selling the club to a now-convicted Thai torturer in 2007? Middlesbrough also evicted some travelling folk in 1901 when they built Ayresome Park and as the caravans were shunted away, ancient curses filled the Boro air. Over in Wales, Swansea City took it all a bit too seriously when they employed Kenyan tribal dancers to perform a voodoo ceremony at their old Vetch Field ground, after the notorious Uri Geller had claimed there were evil spirits lurking there. Geller himself, famous psychic and former best pal of Wacko Jacko, has used his magic powers on a number of English clubs, most famously Exeter City, where he became joint chairman in 2002…a year before they dropped out of the Football League. Geller, a former Israeli paratrooper who forged an inernational career in spoon-bending, placed magic crystals behind one of Exeter’s goals before a crucial play-off game in 1997….which they lost 5-1. More recently, Oxford United were reported in classic tabloid fashion to have used an exorcist at their new Kassam Stadium. In fact it was nothing more sinister than a blessing from the local Bishop. And there’s more. When Southampton moved to St Mary’s, some pre-Christian tombs were excavated, leading to rumors the Portsmouth-supporting spirits would have their revenge. I recall seeing some Roman artefacts displayed there, an unusual sight in any football stadium, so who knows? The club took their miserable start at their new home seriously enough to employ a white witch to rid the ground of malevolence, though it didn't stop Joey popping by later. Overseas, the football fruitcakes are in full cry: Fenerbahce players in Turkey have sheep’s blood smeared on their cleats when they debut while fans of Romania's Arges Pitesti once staged a cat's funeral and roasted a chicken on the field for good fortune. Dracula’s homeland seems replete with superstition: Romanian teams wearing underwear inside-out, placing herbs in their shoes and not reversing the team bus for good luck, I could go on…Do you remember Anghel Iordanescu, their national team's coach at USA '94, brandishing his crucifix and kissing his book of Romanian saints during the game? So, if Tottenham are suffering from some ingrained evil, it could be because their training ground was once occupied by …yep, it’s as if English soccer teams only have themselves to blame for buying land on the cheap from those funny-looking folk in their trailers, who utter curses as they are shunted away. I’m not a fan of the invisible. In football it is just too convenient to blame a five-goal thrashing on some odd-looking tea-leaves or birds in the sky instead of what happens with the ball on the grass. While England is a very secular country its soccer is still full of superstition, inevitably perhaps given the millions of people expending such emotion on it each week. Former National Team coach Glenn Hoddle employed a faith healer to widespread derision during the 1998 World Cup before resigning after some ill-judged comments on reincarnation while forerunner Bobby Robson memorably once said of a forthcoming England game, “It argues well” (sic). Is it just me, or is not it obvious these highly-paid professional clubs paying assorted soothsayers and con-artists were wasting their time. Again and again, football clubs seem to prove GK Chesterton’s quip that people who deny God won’t believe in nothing – they will believe in anything. Spurs have more prosaic reasons than superstitious hearsay why they are doing so badly: It is something to do with an over-enthusiastic and ill-thought out transfer policy, a coach and Director of Football not quite in tandem and the fact they sold their best two strikers. It’s not rocket science, but it’s not tarot cards or gypsy curses either. (c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile

World soccer news for the week of September 25th Guti targeted by a hard-fisted stalker Real Madrid's José María Gutiérrez, better known as Guti, must have been shocked when a former boxer came at him before his team was getting ready to head for a league game in Santander. Guti had been stalked for some time by the individual, whose name has not been revealed by the Spanish police, but no close confrontation occurred before last Saturday. The stalker noticed Guti as he arrived at the parking lot in Ciudad Deportiva, Real's training camp, and headed toward him in his vehicle. In the process, the man broke the security ramp and damaged a couple of parked cars before stopping. The guards called the police and tried to intervene themselves, but the boxer punched one of them in the face with his fist. However, other guards managed to control the individual and kept him at bay before the police arrived. Guti filed charges against the stalker for stalking and harrasment, while the guards also presented their own charges for assault and trespassing. The investigation is likely to reveal the motive the man could have for shadowing the Madrid midfielder. Palermo's boss denies ties to the mafia Italian soccer club Palermo has no links to the mafia, said their chairman Maurizio Zamparini, denying any contact with the criminal organization, hinted at by some Italian media. It has been claimed that the mobsters have some influence in the construction of Palermo's new ground and the shopping mall which is planned to be opened within the stadium. "Mafia has no ties to the club," said Zamparini. "I hope everybody sees that my associates and me are doing our jobs professionally. Although the mafia was created in this city, it does not mean they rule everything that exists here, or that they are related to me in any way." Two years ago, the former Palermo sporting director received a goat's head in the mail, which is the mafia's way of warning of an upcoming execution. "If anything similar had happened to me, I would have left. I am clean, and so is this club," concluded Zamparini. Roman still speechless in London Russian and other Slavic languages are notoriously tough for English speakers. However, the Slavs usually find it easy to learn a syntactically simpler language like English. Tottenham's new signing Roman Pavlyuchenko may be an exception to the rule, as he has not yet managed to master English well enough to maintain meaningful conversations with his teammates at White Hart Lane. According to the Russian newspaper Tvoy Dan (Your Day), the Spurs were wise to include a clause in their contract with Pavlyuchenko, stipulating a fine unless he learned English well enough within his first weeks at the club. The period has passed and the former Spartak striker still has to use an interpreter to understand Juande Ramos' instructions. Since the Spaniard himself is hardly a great connoisseur of English, the communcation of the two must look hilarious. Still, the Spurs' bosses are certainly not amused, as the team sits at the bottom of the Premiership table after five matches. Did Haim Revivo escape to the US because of a mob threat? Haim Revivo, the former Israeli international, has emigrated to the United States after receiving mafia threats, according to the Israeli media. The one-time forward for Celta Vigo, Fenerbahce and Galatasaray said he and his family moved because his rabbi had advised him to do so. It may be true, but for all we know, the advice may have been, "save your skin." The Yedioth Ahronoth daily published a different story, claiming that Revivo had to leave because the local mafia had threatened to kill him because he had an affair with a mob kingpin's wife. According to Yedioth , the mafia imposed on Revivo a two-year exile as a way of redeeming himself. One of the leading players in Israel's history, Revivo played 67 games and scored 15 goals for the national team, including the winner in his country's only win over Argentina in 1998. Welcome to the Boca Juniors Hotel The Argentinian club Boca Juniors are very special in many respects. Until recently, they were the only soccer club to have a graveyard exclusively for their fans (in the meantime Germany's Hamburger SV have joined the select group of cemetery-owning soccer clubs). Within two years, they should also have a hotel carrying their name. The construction works is due to start next month, and should be finished in mid-2010. The luxury hotel will have 17 floors with 89 rooms, some of which will bear names of Boca's celebrities like Diego Maradona, Alfredo Rojas or Ubaldo Rattin. The building, designed by the Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott, will also boast swimming pools, restaurants and other commercial and entertainment facilities. The hotel and the graveyard are not the the only two distinctions that set Boca apart; the blue and yellows have also started their own taxi service in Buenos Aires. We bet there are not many River Plate fans among their customers. In their 103 years of existence, Boca have won a record 18 international trophies, tying AC Milan, and 22 Argentinian titles. Copyright Soccerphile/Ozren Podnar Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

Lee Young-pyo is one of football’s true gentlemen. The versatile defender is leaving Tottenham Hotspur for Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund after three good years at White Hart Lane and all who knew him, as well as those who benefitted from some of his unreported good deeds he did off the pitch in London, will wish him well at the former European champions. He wasn’t bad on the pitch too, making 93 appearances for Spurs since his move to the Lane from PSV Eindhoven in August 2005. Then, Martin Jol called him ‘the best left-back in Holland, and one of the best left-backs in Europe.’ Lee didn’t quite prove to be that but his hard-working performances on an undermanned left side for Tottenham should be remembered fondly by fans at the Lane. Unlike Park Ji-sung, Lee actually started out in the K-League with the now-defunct Anyang Cheetahs. The Gyeonggi team lifted the 2000 Korean championship but Lee, who can play on either side of defence or midfield, had already made his first appearance for the national team in 1999 against Mexico in Seoul. It was at the 2002 World Cup where Lee came to prominence though he missed the first two matches of that magical run to the semi-finals. He soon made up for that and was energetic and inventive after coming into the team in the final group match against Portugal. If nothing else, he will be remembered for the cross that was headed in by Ahn Jung-hwan to eliminate Italy in the second round – a golden goal that still hurts in Italy but not so much as to prevent Roma trying their utmost to sign the player in August 2006. But we are getting ahead of ourselves... The committed Christian was confident, calm and composed in Korea and was always a likely candidate for a move west. There was little surprise then when Guus Hiddink took him to PSV Eindhoven at the end of 2002. It took Lee a little while to settle ( the words of then team-mate Marc Von Bommel have passed into Asian football folklore. The Dutchman said of the new recruits: “They are here, but that is all you can say about them. They have not made any progress. When you say something about some mistake they make, they smile and then continue making them. That is quite frustrating.”) though the addition of Park helped. Like Park, Lee soon demonstrated that he was not part of some marketing exercise and like Park, Lee shone in PSV’s run to the 2005 Champions League semi-finals,giving AC Milan’s Cafu a torrid time. As often happens in Holland, success brings the boys from the big leagues and soon Park was Manchester-bound. Lee was also eyeing a move across the North Sea and ended up in North London despite the best efforts of PSV and Hiddink to keep him. The first season was a good –though ultimately frustrating –one. Lee adapted quickly to life in Europe’s biggest city and the Premier League. Spurs spent much of the season in the top four before being squeezed out of a Champions League spot on the final day. Over that summer, Spurs were busy in the transfer market signing Benoit Assou-Ekotto. The Cameroonian started ahead of Lee and as the August transfer window started to shut, Roma came in for the player. Lee travelled to the Italian capital and looked likely to sign. He had, however, a last-minute change of heart. He has never explained the reasons for the u-turn, beyond saying that it was not about money, leading to a rash of rumours in his homeland that it was about religion. It was soon forgotten as Lee was back in the team and playing well but the arrival of Gareth Bale in the summer of 2007 was another competitor and with the departure of Martin Jol, Lee, like all players, had to wait to see how the expected Juande Ramos-revolution would play out. Lee kept his place in the team till the turn of the year but has featured little since. The expected return to PSV Eindhoven didn’t materialise and despite numerous reports in the Seoul media that the player was heading for a reunion with Jol at Hamburg, Lee surprised everyone by signing a one-year deal with Borussia Dortmund. The 1997 European champions were in the market for a left-back following the serious injury sustained by Brazilian star Dede in the recent 3-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen. Playing time shouldn’t be a problem at the club looking to return to the upper echelons of the Bundesliga after a number of, by Dortmund’s high standards, mediocre seasons Time on the pitch is paramount. Lee’s inaction put his place in the national team under threat for the first time in years. At the age of 31, the 2010 World Cup will be Lee’s last and the likes of Kim Chi-woo have already demonstrated that they have the talent and energy to take over the left side for the Taeguk Warriors. It is a little ironic then that Lee was omitted from the squad for next month’s World Cup qualifier against North Korea as the national team coach wanted to give him time to settle into his new team and new environment. It is all new and that is why the news is welcome. With Korean stars increasingly focused on England, it is refreshing to see Lee head for Germany. It is a step out of his comfort zone and into one of the best stadiums and best leagues in the world and perhaps back into the national team. Copyright: John Duerden & Soccerphile.com 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 06/13 European Championships: What does a good start mean? What's a thousand lawyers chained at the bottom of the sea? A good start, says a joke. At the Euros, a good start is essential for the ultimate win, says the history. The Netherlands, Spain and Portugal shone in their initial games, beating Italy, Russia and Turkey by an aggregate 9-1. Before 1980, only four teams played in the final stage under the cup system, so the champions necessarily had to win in the semifinals to reach the finals at all. Starting with Italy 1980, we notice that five out of seven champions won their first games, whereas only the Dutch lost 20 years ago and still went on to collect the ultimate prize. Germany and France on two occasions each plus Greece at the last Championship all won on their debut and kept the good form until the final moment. The Netherlands had a hard time qualifying for the semifinals after an initial loss to the Soviet Union in 1988, but two weeks later defeated the same rival in the finals to win their only big gold medal to date. Of all the winners, only Denmark achieved a draw in their first match in 1992. That was a goalless draw against England when no-one alive dreamt that the Danes could go all the way. Well, they did and that was the year of the Danish Dinamite. How the winners started 2004. GREECE vs Portugal 2-1 2000. FRANCE vs Denmark 3-0 1996. GERMANY vs Czechia 2-0 1992. DENMARK vs England 0-0 1988. NETHERLANDS vs USSR 0-1 1984. FRANCE vs DENMARK 1-0 1980. (W) GERMANY vs Czechoslovakia 1-0 Ian Wright duly slams greedy Ronaldo Former Arsenal's superstar Ian Wright was a speedy, cool finisher. And in his column for The Sun , he clinically finished off Cristiano Ronaldo over his irreverence showed towards Manchester United fans, teammates and coaches. "As a player, there’s no doubt what you’re capable of. As a man, you’re not showing any class whatsoever," Wrightie told the spoiled Ronaldo, who is still toying with the nerves of Alex Ferguson and United's millions of fans. The ex-Gunner reminds the Portuguese that Ferguson stuck with him in the first three seasons when he did not always play so amazingly, with all the diving and selfish dribbling instead of passing to an open team-mate: "I understand if it’s your dream to play for Real but you owe it to United to be patient — and that’s why you should stay. Doesn’t the affection of United’s fans and your team-mates mean anything to you?" Wright also touches upon the role of the "advisors", the obscure selfish individuals who thrive on displacing players just so that they could collect the commission, and the FIFA's leniency towards the clubs who so blatantly disregard contracts and regulations. And Real Madrid fits the profile better than any other club in the world. "It seems Real have again shown they have a disregard for other clubs and the rules of football. But they’ll continue to act like this, as long as they’re allowed to get away with it," concluded Wright his dissection of the "cesspit" today's football has come to be. Eto'o: Tottenham not good enough for me The Cameroonian striker Samuel Eto'o, recently involved in an incident with hitting a journalist, pointed a finger at the core problem that cost Barcelona trophies over the past two years: lack of physical fitness. "Technically, we have been really strong, but physically only average. In today's football, whoever does not run is lost. We were not prepared to run and that's why we suffered so many defeats in the last two seasons," said Eto'o to the Cameroonian television station, CRTV. In the same interview, Eto'o spoke of his future and the offer received by Tottenham. "May the English forgive me, but Tottenham is a midtable team, while I need more. I have a contract with Barcelona until 2010 and I feel well at the club. I cannot rule out the option with Inter, but I insist that I'm a Barca player." Maybe Eto'o will change his mind if the Spurs, now led by Luka Modric, climb among the top four in the Premier League? River Plate champs four years later One of the most famous American clubs, River Plate of Buenos Aires, returned to the Argentinian throne by winning the Clausura 2008, one of the two six-month championships played in this country. The "Millonarios" made sure of the trophy by beating Olimpo 2-1 on the penultimate day of the competition thanks to two goals by Diego Buonanotte, one in each half. River featured the unfortunate Ariel Ortega, the Argentinian Gazza, who alternates good displays with visits to alcoholism clinics. The decisive match was played at the Monumental Stadion before 58,000 fans, who cheered their players and the coach Diego Simeone. The former 100-cap international, famous for provoking David Beckham into getting sent off at the 1998 World Cup, already has two titles at his name. Since retiring as a player 27 months ago, Simeone led Estudiantes to the Apertura 2006, before repeating the success at River. With 90 minutes to go, River are four points ahead of their perennial rivals, Boca Juniors. Pelé against playing at high altitudes During his recent visit to Chile, the legendary Pelé confirmed he was against FIFA's decision to again allow playing of soccer games above 2750 meters, which it had banned last year because of the possible threat it poses to players' health. The Brazilian hero claims that playing at such heights is a factor of inequality, because it favours only those who live high above sea level. "Considering the equality and protection of players, I believe that each country should organize the teams in places at lower altitudes. That is more favourable for players' health," said the three-time World Cup Winner. When FIFA initially introduced the high-altitude ban, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia raised their voices crying "discrimination", although all of these countries have stadia far below the danger zone. "Although I played in La Paz, I would much prefer Bolivia choosing other cities for staging games," concluded Pelé. 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 04/30 Eriksson to be sacked from Manchester City Manchester City plan to dismiss the Swede Sven-Göran Eriksson at the end of the season, according to the team's owner, the Thai businessman and politician Thaksin Shinawatra. According to the former Thai Prime minister, Eriksson is not the suitable individual to manage the expensive and ambitious City squad. The players are said to be disgruntled with Shinawatra's decision and some have already announced they are ready to follow the boss. The Asian tycoon is apparently unhappy with the ninth position City currently holds, and the home defeat to Fulham by 2-3 after being 2-0 up has been the last straw. "Sven reacted calmly, as is usual for him, but he was very surprised and disappointed. He does not want to leave the club and will not resign," an anonymous source close to the former England manager told the BBC. Tottenham snatches Modric from Newcastle Croatia may have defeated England twice in the recent qualifiers for Euro 2008, but four of their most distinguished internationals are now members of Premier League clubs. After Niko Kranjcar (Portsmouth), Eduardo da Silva (Arsenal) and Vedran Corluka (Manchester City), midfielder Luka Modric has become the fourth Croat in the Premiership as he signed for Tottenham Hotspurs from Dinamo Zagreb. The Spurs will reportedly pay the Croatian champions 21 million euros, and Modric will earn in the proximity of 50,000 pounds a week. Only last week the 22-year old offensive midfielder was alleged to be close to signing for Kevin Keegan's Newcastle United, but Dinamo's power broker Zdravko Mamic put the Magpies' offer on hold so that Tottenham could step in and better whatever Newcastle had offered. Modric said he was overjoyed with the transfer and admitted the Croatia manager, Slaven Bilic, had advised him to choose the Spurs over Newcastle. Liverpool and Barcelona were also rumoured to be interested in the youngster. Labelled the "Cruyff of the Balkans", Modric is a supremely dynamic player capable of covering all midfield roles and is known for setting up forwards just as easily as scoring himself. After joining Dinamo in February 2005, he led the team to three consecutive championships, an FA Cup and a Supercup win, with another FA Cup appearance against Hajduk Split just a week away. Luka may be the right man to revolutionize the Spurs' midfield, but if Juande Ramos now allows the superstar striker Dimitar Berbatov to leave, it will be just another season of mediocrity at White Hart Lane. Exemplary punishment: jail sentence for a leg fracture On the same day the Croatian player Mario Andricevic from Cibalia was banned for six months for breaking a Hajduk player's leg, the Dutch Supreme Court confirmed the six month suspended jail sentence for the former Sparta player Rachid Bouaouzan for a similar infraction. Now at Wigan, four years ago the Morroccan broke a rival's leg with a brutal tackle during a Dutch league game. The first court ruling was appealed by Bouaouzan's lawyers, but the Supreme Court reasserted the initial sentence by explaining that the injury was caused by a reckless tackle that "flagrantly violated the regulations of the sport." Birmingham's Martin Taylor should indeed consider himself lucky since he received just a three game suspension for breaking Arsenal's Eduardo da Silva's leg on February 23th. Ronaldo in a shemale's clutches Ronaldo Nazario Lima, the Brazilian "Phenomenon", stands to lose a nine figure contract with Nike plus his girlfriend as a consequence of a scandal he was involved in after watching a Flamengo vs Botafogo game in Rio. The Milan striker, receiving treatment for a recent knee surgery in his homeland, apparently came across three female-looking persons in the street and suggested they all went to a motel to have a spot of fun. Once there, it became obvious to Ronaldo that the "girls" had certain features not entirely typical of the female sex, so he called off the party and left the scene. Lest his companions should feel betrayed, he offered them 400 euros apiece, but one of them, a certain Andre/Andreia refused and asked Ronaldo for much more unless he wanted the story to leak to the press. The footballer refused and Andre(ia) went to the police claiming Ronaldo had offered him money for the purchase of drugs. The athlete then presented himself at a police precinct denying the drug accusations. Still, Andre(ia) presented evidence Ronaldo had hooked up with him and his pals for "entertainment" purposes, which alone may cost the player much of his reputation in the eyes of sponsors and media alike. For now, his girlfriend Maria Beatriz has already dumped him and moved from Rio back to her parents in Brasilia, while Nike is considering unilaterally terminating a 100 million dollar endorsement contract on account the scandal could hurt their image. The funniest penalties: Robert Pires tops the chart Cristiano Ronaldo's non-fatal miss in the first leg of the Champions League semifinals inspired The Mirror to choose the ten worst penalty scenes in soccer's history. The United player certainly did not deserve a place in the top ten, having simply shot past the Barcelona keeper's post, but the authors had to justify somehow their sudden interest in the world of penalty taking. The top spot deservedly went to Arsenal's Robert Pires and Thierry Henry, who performed a breathtaking play in 2005 against Manchester City. Apparently the duo agreed they would repeat the exhibition invented in 1982 by Johan Cruyff and Jesper Olsen in Ajax. The play started by Cruyff passing the ball from the spot for the incoming Olsen. The Dane then took a few steps forward and passed back to Cruyff, who easily scored past the goalkeeper, who had already headed towards Olsen. However, in attempting to flick the ball towards Henry, Pires missed it altogether and stopped in confusion, while the City players rushed in and carried the ball away. The not entirely serious ranking includes the singer Diana Ross (!), who missed the open goal from about eight meters during the 1994 World Cup inauguration ceremony and the even funnier scene from a 2004 Olympic tournament game between Tunisia and Serbia. The Haitian referee Edwards ordered the Tunisian penalty to be taken six times, due to the Tunisian players trespassing into the area. Finally, the sixth shot, which ended in a goal, stood. The worst penalties 1. Robert Pires (Arsenal, Premier League) 2. Peter Devine (Lancaster, England lower leagues) 3. Roberto Baggio (Italy, World Cup) 4. David Beckham (England, Euro) 5. Stuart Pearce (England, World Cup) 6. Chris Waddle (England, World Cup) 7. Diana Ross (singer, World Cup) 8. William (Botafogo, Copa Sudamericana) 9. various Tunisians (Tunisia-Serbia, Olympics) 10. Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester Utd., Champions League) Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

UEFA Cup Tottenham and Everton go out with a drama The English contingent in the UEFA Cup put up a good fight but still went out, albeit in the most dramatic fashion. Penalties, the disease that usually afflicts the national team, were fatal for Tottenham and Everton, who bravely equalized the aggregate score against PSV Eindhoven and Fiorentina in the return leg before it came to spot kicks. Bolton came tantalizingly close against the 2005 finalists Sporting Lisbon, but it will be the Portuguese who will take on Rangers, the last British representatives in the quarterfinals. Rangers, who have had a dream season so far, are chasing four trophies but the strain could prove too much in the final stage of the campaign against Sporting, who are now fully concentrated on the European stage. The last time that a Scottish club made a continental finals was in 2003 when Celtic lost to Porto by 2-3 in Seville. Elsewhere, Bayern will try and confirm their status of the team to beat when they face the Spanish surprise package in Getafe. In the previous round, the Bavarians got rid of Anderlecht in a bizarre replica of their 1987 encounter in the European Cup. On that occasion, Bayern beat the Belgians 5-0 at home and drew 2-2 in Brussels in a game which Anderlecht were winning by 2-1 until the 90th minute. This time, Bayern ran riot in the first leg in Belgium scoring an amazing 5-0 win but suffered a 1-2 defeat at home. Round of thirty two 1st 2nd Zenit vs Villarreal 1-0 1-2 Marseille vs Spartak 3-0 0-2 Galatasaray vs Bayer 0-0 1-5 AEK vs Getafe 1-1 0-3 Bordeaux vs Anderlecht 1-1 1-2 PSV vs Helsingborgs 2-0 2-1 Rangers vs Panathinaikos 0-0 1-1 Brann vs Everton 0-2 1-6 Werder vs Sporting Braga 3-0 1-0 Sporting Lisabon vs Basel 2-0 3-0 Aberdeen vs Bayern 2-2 1-5 Zürich vs Hamburger SV 1-3 0-0 Rosenborg vs Fiorentina 0-1 1-2 Bolton vs Atletico Madrid 1-0 0-0 Slavia vs Tottenham 1-2 1-1 Benfica vs Nürnberg 1-0 2-2 Round of sixteen 1st 2nd Anderlecht vs Bayern 0-5 2-1 Fiorentina vs Everton 2-0 0-2 (4-2 pen) Benfica vs Getafe 1-2 0-1 Rangers vs Werder 2-0 0-1 Bolton vs Sporting L. 1-1 0-1 Bayer vs Hamburger SV 1-0 2-3 Tottenham vs PSV 0-1 1-0 (5-6 pen) Marseille vs Zenit 3-1 0-2 Quarterfinals (3rd and 10th of April) Bayer vs Zenit Rangers vs Sporting (L) Bayern vs Getafe Fiorentina vs PSV 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