UK SPORTS They spent only £15 million and lost their star player Estaban Cambiasso - it’s Leicester City who avoided relegation last season by the skin of their teeth, sacked their manager following unruly player behaviour on their pre-season tour of Thailand (what a surprise!!) but then recruited Claudio Ranieri, once of Chelsea, as their new manager. And where are Chelsea, last season’s champions, we hear you ask? Well, believe it or not, they are 17th, one place above the relegation zone and with three defeats and one draw in the locker. What has happened to their manager, the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’, Jose Mourinho? Has he upset his players? Well, he did have a very public spat with his medical team and failed to buy two main targets, Paul Pogba from Juventus and John Stones from Everton. Is his magnetic attraction failing? We will have to wait and see. Having said all that, Chelsea were the only team to win their opening Group stage match in the European Champions Cup beating Maccabi Tel-Aviv 4-0 at home. Manchester City lost 1-2 at home to Juventus, Manchester United lost 1-2 away to PSV Eindhoven and Arsenal, who rested their new star goalkeeper (who had played five league games!!) lost 1-2 to Dinamo Zagreb. So what does that all say about the transfer action? In the European Champions League, Manchester United have a tough Group with PSV, CSKA Moscow and Wolfsburg. Manchester
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City also have hard opposition with Juventus, Sevilla and Borussia Monchengladbach. Arsenal have been drawn with old enemies Bayern Munich and Olympiacos and Zagreb. Chelsea have the easiest Group with Maccabi, FC Porto and Dynamo Kiev. In the Europa Cup, Liverpool have drawn Rubin Kazan, Bordeaux and Sion. Tottenham Hotspur will play Anderlecht, Monaco and Qarabag – we have never heard of the last team and have no idea which country they come from but the other two will be difficult opponents. With two matches to play, England have already qualified for next summer’s European Championship finals, winning all their qualifying games to date. This has kept the England manager, Roy Hodgson, in his job for a bit longer so well done Roy and the team. To confuse players, managers, officials and fans even more, the International Football Association has once again changed the offside rules. A goal can now be disallowed and a player penalised even he has not touched the ball. Interference with play has been the primary cause of this rule change. Our own governing body, the Football Association, has also introduced new rules governing simulation and the touch line behaviour of managers. A three match ban could be imposed if video evidence shows a player deliberately feigning injury and deceiving the referee – about time; but when will the FA act to penalise foul language and
disrespectful gestures made to match officials? Long overdue!
Rugby Union World Cup The much anticipated Rugby World Cup is upon us. England will be playing Australia, Wales, Fiji and Uruguay in their Group and it is a tough one. Stuart Lancaster was appointed coach after our dreadful world cup in 2011 and England have improved under his leadership but will they be good enough to beat teams like Australia, New Zealand (the holders), South Africa, France or even our own Wales and Ireland. It is going to be very tough but hopefully home advantage and support will be worth a few extra points in each game. England won the world cup in 2003 in Australia against the home nation in the final with Jonny Wilkinson’s amazing drop goal in the last minutes of extra time. Do we have another star in the current squad? Possibly in Jonathon Joseph, whose pace and agility at Centre make England look a special side. If he plays as well as he did in the Six Nations championship he could well be a match winner. So, good luck to captain Chris Robshaw and the team. So, a great and successful summer for Britain over a number of different sports. In our winter issue we will review the Rugby World Cup and progress in soccer. Have a great Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.
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