Indonesian National team

When it comes to football, it is widely known - at least for those football enthusiasts out there - that a referee is the highest leader of the game. This means that whatever decisions a referee makes taking into consideration what happens during a football game, his decisions are absolute and cannot be protested in any way by either the players of both teams or by the spectators as well as any other officials that do not hold the rights to do so.

However, things did not seem to go that way for referee Jimmy Napitupulu while he was leading Indonesia Cup football game final today between Sriwijaya FC and Arema which was held at Solo. Today, on Sunday, 1st August 2010, a lot of his decisions during the first half were protested by the spectators who fully crowded Stadium Manahan at Solo, the stadium where the final game was held.

However, the climax took place when Jimmy Napitupulu made a decision to show a red card to one of Arema's players, Noh Alam Shah, on the first half, leaving Arema to play with only ten men. The referee showed the player a red card for lifting his leg too high in the air and kicking Precious Emuejeraye, playing for Sriwijaya FC, on the face.

Unfortunately for the referee, this caused the spectators - Arema's fans, needless to say - to go mad. At this final game, Arema's fans were not hard to find here and there since they crowded the stadium heavily. Following this incident, Regional Head Police Officer of Mid Java, Inspector General Alex Bambang Riatmodjo, requested at the end of the first half - which ended 0-0 - that officials substitute the referee. He also said that if this could not be granted, he would dismiss the Indonesia Cup football final game.

According to him, the reason was to prevent riots from happening due to Arema's fans madness. However, as a matter of fact, there were unlikely any signs of riots at the given time. When asked by one of the reporters on site reporting about the final game, this head police officer mentioned that it was no problem for PSSI officials to go home and that security issue was police business.

The thing is that he might not know that Jimmy Napitupulu is a FIFA-certified referee and has a good reputation for leading lots of football games in Indonesia. With FIFA certifying the referee, it means that the referee has what it takes to lead a football game as how he is supposed to. A FIFA certification also means that the referee knows the rules of football games in details, what to do if players commit fouls and when to show yellow and red cards. Needless to say, FIFA only certifies a referee whom the world's leading football federation can trust.

Nevertheless, after the first half had ended, the game officials had to focus their attention on this rare problem. This had also caused the second half to be suspended for more than an hour. There were also rumors that a solution of twin champions might be in effect due to this particular problem.

However, this was very funny. Even the Dutch coach of Arema himself, Robert Rene Alberts, didn't even mind the referee's decisions. So, why should have Inspector General Alex Bambang Riatmodjo even bothered substituting the referee at all? Arema's coach was even willing to continue the game with only ten men on his team. The coach said that it was a pity such an incident as this had to take place as Indonesia was a beautiful country with very good people. Thus, he added that Indonesian people should try to get more professional when it comes to football. Meanwhile, the coach of Sriwijaya FC, Rahmad Darmawan, indicated that it didn't really matter whether they won or lost the final game. What really matters instead was whether players of both team played fairly or not. This coach also said that in case Arema won the game after all, he would gladly congratulate Arema's players and coach. So, once again, a fair play was a lot more important than a winning.

Of course, this incident is very bizarre and is one of a kind. As a matter of fact, there are neither such things as referee substitution nor twin champions in a football game all over the world. At least, that's the way a football game is supposed to be. But Indonesia seems to be an exception. There were also rumors that sometime around 70s, such an incident as this did took place as well during one of Indonesia's football games. At that time, the final solution taken was to have twin champions. Then, twin champions also emerged during the last PON which took place recently before this particular final game of Indonesia Cup was held.

Unfortunately, if things like this keep on happening at Indonesia, chances are FIFA may ban this country from independently holding its own football game. Of course, this is not quite likely something a country will want to have to go through. With that being said, PSSI - which stands for Persatuan Sepakbola Seluruh Indonesia - and the rest of the football officials in charge in Indonesia will have to work hard and make this their top priority homework so that things like what happened during Indonesia Cup football final today will not take place anymore in the future. One more thing, if you don't really know what PSSI is, it is the top federation that is in charge of football in Indonesia.

Germany National Football Team

Goalkeepers:

Sepp Maier & Oliver Kahn are the 2 candidates for the job. I would pick Maier because he was a part of the all-conquering German & Bayern Munich team of the 1970s. Kahn would make it to the bench though.

Defenders:

Germany boasts of the greatest defender ever, Franz Beckenbauer, as their greatest player. Berti Vogts would play alongside him, complementing him perfectly. Vogts was one of the greatest man-markers in the history of the game. Andy Brehme would play as the right-back & Paul Breitner would play as the left-back. Both have been world cup winners & were great set-piece experts. Juergen Kohler would make the bench.

Midfielders:

The versatile & influential would cup winning captain Lothar Matthaus would play in the centre of the midfield leaving 2 flanks open for Gunter Netzer & Wolfgang Overath, both very creative players.

Forwards:

Fritz Walter, the 1954 World cup winning German captain would start as the forward playing behind the 2 strikers who would be Gerd Muller & Uwe Seeler. Walter playing in the hole would create opportunities for those two lethal marksmen both of whom had a wonderful goal-scoring record. Muller's 68 goals for his national team in 62 matches was simply amazing.

The Ukraine National Football Team

Ukraine soccer has gone a long way since their independence due to the split of the USSR. The sport was one of the favorite sports in the country. It was being played as early as 1936 when it was still part of USSR.

The Ukraine National Football Team is the representative of Ukraine as an independent state. The team's first official tournament as an independent state was on April 29, 1992 with Hungary as the opposing team.

Since the national team's independence, the performance of the players has improved a lot and was able to produce good players like Andriy Shevchenko, Anatoliy Tymoschuk and Serhiy Rebrov. Unfortunately, the Ukrainians was not able to qualify to any international tournament. They were unsuccessful in the qualifying rounds to enter with the FIFA World Cup for 1998 till 2002.

But in spite of these failures, the national team did not lose hope that they will soon qualify for the FIFA World Cup. With this in mind, the Ukraine team hired Oleg Blokhin to serve as the official team's head coach. Since then, the Ukraine soccer team was able to reach their first FIFA World Cup on September 3, 2005.

The major success of Ukraine's national team was during the 2006 FIFA World Cup when they were able to beat Saudi Arabia and Tunisia.

In an effort to prosper and support the national team, the Football Federation of Ukraine was established which serves as the governing body for the sport in Ukraine. The federation aims to develop its members to become internationally competitive.

France National Football Team

France made their entry into the international field of Football in 1903. The team, associated with the French Football Federation, goes under the nickname "Les Bleus" (The Blues) in France. Today, France's football team offers a high level of competition in matches - but believe it or not, the team used to be very modest, one that some would consider an "easy game". Their first international match was versus Belgium, and was a tie game. In 1930, France's national team was one of the four initial teams from Europe that participated in the inaugural World Cup. Nonetheless, at that time, France's team was still looked down upon as an easy defeat. In the mid 1950's, France did see some mild success, for once not being at the bottom of the standings.

Their first true experience at being a huge success came at the end of 1984. From December of 1984 to April of 1985, France was ranked number one in the Elo ranking categorization of football teams. This success was held out fairly well, and met another high point from May of 2001 to May of 2002, when the team from France sustained a FIFA ranking of number one; today, this number one FIFA ranking means more worldwide, as FIFA is an internationally recognizable organization.

Perhaps most memorable for many people is France's win of the FIFA World Cup in 1998. Thirty two different teams, from five different confederations, competed through 64 matches. France won nearly every match that they competed in, and ended up taking the championship upon beating Brazil 0 to 3. Other awards given to the French football team during the 1998 FIFA World Cup include "Most Entertaining Team", and the "FIFA Fair Play" Trophy. The Stadium that the French Football team usually plays at is the "Stade de France", which was built in 1995 and opened during 1998. The construction of the stadium cost over 285 Million Euros. In fact, the stadium was built for the purpose of the 1998 FIFA world cup - it's both ironic and fitting that France would win the world cup at their own stadium the year that it opened. After the World Cup, the Stade de France has continuously been used for various football events, although for the majority of the year, the stadium is empty. The majority of events that France's team participates in at the Stade de France are won by the French team, partially owing to the home team advantage of having more frequent access to that field, as well as higher morale and support from the crowd.

France's team may still not be the most reputable team around, but from their humble beginnings they were able to rise into a team that is recognizable in many places around the world, and were even able to claim the glorious title of World Champions.

The Italian National Soccer Team

Italy are second only to Brazil when it comes to success in the FIFA World Cup, and the current side secured qualification to the 2010 tournament in South Africa on October 10th 2009 with a draw against the Irish Republic. They will be defending the crown they won in Germany in 2006.

Italy has won the World Cup four times and has given the entire soccer world some of the finest moments international soccer has ever seen.

Under the leadership of legendary manager Vittorio Pozzo the Italian national side won the first two World Cup competitions in which they competed, 1934 and 1938, so it is not unheard of for a side to successfully defend their World Cup title as the current side hopes to. They also won the tournament in 1982.

The most capped player in the history of the Italian national team is still a member of the current team. Fabio Cannavaro of Juventus will be almost 37 years old in June 2010, and has received a record 132 caps since making his debut on an international level in 1997. He was the captain of the victorious 2006 squad.

In fact many of the players from the victorious 2006 side are expected to return to World Cup action in 2010. The average age for the current Italian team members is higher than many other nations, with just 4 of the 22 players who are regular team members under the age of 25.

After the 2006 World Cup, manager Marcello Lippi decided not to renew his contract and retire from soccer management. However, under the management of his replacement, Roberto Donadini, the side faltered, failing to make it out of the quarterfinals at the 2008 European Championships. After that disappointing result, Donadini was fired and Lippi coaxed out of retirement to rebuild team morale in time for 2010, a feat he seems to have achieved rather well if their qualifying campaign is any result.

For the 2010 Cup, Italy was drawn into Group F with Paraguay, New Zealand and Slovakia. This particular group shapes up to be one of the easiest groups of the eight first-round groups, and Italy clearly has to be the favorite to finish in the top two and advance to the second round.

Manchester United Football Club Facts

Manchester United Football Club is an English football club which plays at Old Trafford located in Greater Manchester. They currently play in the top division in football being the Premier League. The club was formed in 1878 as Newton Heath. They joined the Football League in 1892 and they have played in the top division of English football since 1938. The average attendance at the club has been higher than any other team in English football. The club is one of the most successful in the history of English football and has won over 20 major honours since Sir Alex Ferguson became manager. Since the 1990's United have been one of the richest clubs in the world with the highest revenue of any football club.

The United club crest has been changed on a few occasions, but the main form remains similar. The badge has been designed around the crest of the city of Manchester. The red devil on the clubs badge is part of the design due to the club's nickname The Red Devils, which was taken on in the early 1960's.

United's magnificent stadium 'The Theatre of Dreams' was bought in 1909 for around £60,000 with a total construction cost of £90,000. The capacity of this stadium in total is 76,212 fans all seated.

The sponsors who are currently with Manchester United are AIG who are the main sponsors of Man United, and as part of the sponsorship deal their logo is displayed on the front of the club's shirts and is also on other merchandise. The AIG deal was announced by Manchester United in 2006 and is worth a British record £56.5 million.

The owner of this amazing football club is Malcolm Glazer who is there to make sure the club runs smoothly and doesn't go bankrupt. Also along with Malcolm Glazer are the co-chairmen being Joel and Avram Glazer. Together they run a successful business in keeping Manchester United in the top financial condition so the team is able to win important matches and please fans.

St Kilda Football Club - A Business Promoting Entity

Football is quite a popular game. For some it is passion and for some it is business too. Games are generally organised by the government of the country. They invest a huge amount of money on such games only. Few private sectors also keep their interest in these games. The ultimate thing is business. The fun and enjoyment is for the audience only. St. Kilda football club serves best to it's city as far as business is concerned.

This inner city suburb of Melbourne is densely populated. And when it owns it's own football club, then obviously it provides a complete business. For making one's own football team,obviously one needs efficient players, a well trained coach. But this is not it. The best quality balls, play ground, soccer kits, comfortable clothes, shoes many things are required. That promote business for those industries who manufacture these items. Health department take advantage through taking care of fitness of the players. This game also attracts the attention of the different sponsors to earn their own business. Furniture industries earn their profit by taking the charge of the stadium. And the maximum bugs are gained by selling tickets. As St. Kilda is a densely populated place and has its own club, therefore it attracts the attention of maximum people. People go for boosting up their own team against the other. This city also organises the matches at its own place. So the other country's team who are arriving as competitors stay at the hotels of the city. The hotels provide best services to their guest and earn handsome profit. The television forecasting of the game is another benefit in account of the government.

This football team is efficient enough to win number of games. Because if the team is not efficient then it looses its charm for both investors and audience. So it actually provides international business to the city, and in fact to Australia. This team has proved its worth by winning number of games. This club is a complete package, as it provides thrill, and fun to audience, and international business to both private and government sector, and brings cup for the nation.

World Cup Coaches Who Did NOT Play Football

2010 South Africa FIFA World Cup is fast approaching. Football fans all over the world are no doubt looking forward to the big event that only comes about once every four years. This summer, from 11 June to the final in July, the world will be taken by storm with 32 teams competing and billions watching. 2010 FIFA World Cup is the first ever World Cup Tournament that will take place in Africa. The continent will host the World Cup and will take center stage for a month. So will the 32 teams who will be competing there to win the world cup and declare themselves the ruler of the soccer world.

Football is played on the pitch for 90 minutes but never starts or ends there. The preparations takes months and forming a good, functioning and effective team does not only depend on players but the also on the coach managing the team. The effect of the coaches on the team and the game is usually a curious discussion point. Some say that the game is played on the pitch and the coach effect is never more than ten percent. Others argue that the coach and his tactics are the maker or the breaker for the team. This will be a never resolving issue. What is true however is that the coaches are the first to blame whenever there is failure.

There are 32 countries participating in the world cup and they will go to South Africa after many qualification games that they have played to eliminate the rest of the world to reach the finals. Each country made their best effort to come to South Africa and when starting the campaign for qualifications, they chose the best coach they think is fit for the job. When you look at the list of coaches of the teams attending the tournament this summer, there is a striking domination of ex football players who are now in charge of the teams. Of the 32 teams, 30 coaches have actually played professional football in their day.

There are of course more famous ones like Diego Maradona, the Argentinian coach, or Carlos Dunga, the Brazilian. There are also less known or local ones like the Honduras coach Rueda or Ricki Herbert the New Zealand coach. But they all kicked the ball in the professional sense. The question that comes to mind is 'Do you have to be an ex player to be a good coach?' or rather 'Are all players also good coaches?' Looking at the list of coaches of the 32 teams, you have to say yes.

However, let's look at the 2 coaches that have always been coaches and not ex players. Namely, the United States coach Bob Bradley and Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira coaching the hosts South Africa. Bob Bradley is 52 years old and have been coaching soccer since 1981, almost 30 years. Which also means that he started coaching when he was 22. His first post was Ohio University. After coaching at the university level until 1997, he started his Major League Soccer career. Until 2006, when he took over as the coach of the United States, he had successful seasons with Chicago Fire, Metro Stars and Chivas USA. Bradley was only named as the interim coach to be the future national manager perhaps for the 2014 finals. When the first candidate, Jurgen Klinsmann talks fell through he was named as the interim coach. Although many saw Bradley as a second choice, he quickly went about building a strong foundation for the team, introducing younger players to the squad and approaching the job as though he already was, or would soon become, the permanent manager.

In 2009, Bradley led the U.S. team to a 2nd place finish in the 2009 Confederations Cup, including a 2-0 victory over the world's number one ranked team and European champions Spain, ending their 35 game unbeaten streak and 15 game winning streak.

The second coach at the world cup who is not an ex football player is Carlos Alberto Parreira. Parreira was born in 1943 and started his coaching career when he was 24. He was only 25 years old when he took charge of the Ghana team. He managed many teams since then and actually participated in 5 World Cups so far. In 1982, he coached Kuwait and lost two games and drew 1-1 with Checkoslovakia. In 1990, he was leading United Arab Emirates and lost all three games. Four years later, he was holding up the world cup proudly with Brazil. 1998 saw Parreira coaching Saudi Arabia without any notable success. At the last World Cup in 2006, he was back in charge of Brazil but could not put its mark to the tournament. Brazil lost to France and could not reach the final of the tournament.

Now, Parreira is back with South Africa, the hosts. They are playing a fluent game and no doubt they will be raising some eyebrows when June comes. Both Parreira and Bradley did not play football professionally but both are successful coaches and have impressive careers and much more to promise. We will see and follow them both to find out their performance agains the other 30 coaches, all ex football players. The world cup is the scene to decide on the discussion point, we will know if you really need to be a football player to be a top coach.

World Cup 2010 participant teams

World Cup 2010 participant teams Argentina

World Cup 2010 participant teams England

World Cup 2010 participant teams Mexico

World Cup 2010 participant teams Italia