3601: Football Violence: Contrasting

by : Andrew Rogers Zinedine Zidane, Ben Thatcher and Fiston Manuella have all been guilty of violent play in recent weeks - but does the punishment change based on your standing? Injustice comes in many shapes and forms, some occur in life and others in one of its greatest reflections, association...

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2971: Chelsea: Can Didier Drogba be

by : Simon Cole Rumours are circulating that Didier Drogba has insisted that if he continues to get insults and abuse from football fans – including his own supporters at Chelsea – he might leave. But the way to stop the abuse is simple – stop diving. It is difficult to feel sympathy towards a ma...

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2594: Whatever happened to: Marc Bos

by : Bill Urban December 15, 2005, the 10-year anniversary of the issuance of the Bosman Ruling. Whatever happened to the player whose legal challenge was behind arguably the most important ruling in relation to football to date? Left behind, left out, and not a little bitter about it... Jean-M...

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2576: Player behaviour towards the r

by : Olly Wright There aren’t too many aspects of the game where football could learn from rugby union, but one obvious area is the behaviour of players towards referees. Too often you see football players arguing vehemently with referees, just because they disagree with a decision that has gone a...

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2226: Premiership: For ?!&** sake -

by : Henry Knight Sam Allardyce threatened, albeit briefly, to take Bolton into the Champions League however he eventually settled for the clubs first ever qualification into Europe via the UEFA cup. This season the club could go stale with Allardyce being frustrated in the transfer market and the...

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2118: Rules: Replays and not penalti

by : Henry Knight The ludicrous moment when Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek was fully two yards off his line to make a save during the Champions League final showed why penalty shoot-outs are neither just nor fair. This may have been a mirror image of the movement shown by Milan’s keeper Dida two...

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1053: PREMIERSHIP: Under the cosh: P

by : Bill Urban The past weekend in the Premier League provided a feast for those dining at the Match Officials Are Crap table for thousands. Mark Halsey’s waffling, penalty-not a penalty fiasco during the Arsenal/Fulham match, Rob Styles’s refusal to award Chelsea a penalty for a foul on Drogba,...

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