Footballbits and pieces

On 17 July 1994, Italy lost the World Cup Final in a penalty shootout to Brazil when their top scorer of the tournament, Roberto Baggio, sent his attempt over the bar. Simply making it to the Final was a minor miracle for Italy, who opened their tournament campaign with a first-round loss to Ireland. And, [...]

A 53 Goal Season: An amazing feat but would it have been possible in any other League or if he was playing for any other team? During Real Madrid‘s 8-1 domination of Almeria on Saturday, Cristiano Ronaldo broke the record set for most goals in a Primera Division season set by Madrid player Hugo Sanchez [...]

FIFA’s decision to award the 2022 World Cup hosting rights to a tiny, Sheffield-sized, almost completely disinterested, sun-scorched, oil-rich desert atoll in the middle of the Persian Gulf was a sham – you know it, I know it, Sepp Blatter knows it. Since the Sunday Times brought to light that, shock horror, the Qatar bid team [...]

Déjà vu is never a nice thing to have first thing on a Monday morning. Roughly a calendar year after announcing his retirement the first time round, Brazilian legend Ronaldo has confirmed that he is now retiring from the game with immediate effect, after finally admitting defeat in his long-standing battle against dodgy knee ligaments, [...]

Miralem Sulejmani and an own goal from Rob Penders ensured Ajax retained their bite (pun intended) in the post-Suarez era. If, as the handbook of the World Cup commentator dictates, goals are the best way of measuring excitement then there have been few more thrilling sets of fixtures than those played out in this week’s [...]