Wednesday's B*l**x

[Chinners]

THE BOLLOX

Manchester United, Man City and Chelsea offered up to £175m EACH to play in new 24-team summer tournament... in Qatar
Qatar plans Gulf 'dream league' - Top clubs to get £175m each every two years - Four English clubs targeted - Tournament to be held very two years, starting in summer of 2015
The biggest clubs in the world are to be offered massive financial packages to compete in a 24-team tournament in Qatar every two years.
The Times report that the Qatari royal family will release plans next month to set up a 'Dream Football League' (DFL) involving clubs such as Manchester United and Barcelona in a direct threat to Champions League.
Qatar, who will host the 2022 World Cup, are aiming to become a major power in world football and are reported to be willing to offer each club £175million just for taking part.
To put that in perspective, Chelsea were awarded £47.3m for winning last season's Champions League.
The total prize money given out by Europe's leading club competition is £595m - that figured would be dwarfed by the money given by the DFL to just four of its 24 proposed participants.
The DFL would take place every two years starting from the summer of 2015. It would be played in Qatar and its neighbouring gulf states.
The aim is to have 16 permanent DFL members, among which four are thought to be English clubs, with United certainly on the radar and Chelsea and Manchester City also likely to be targeted.
A further eight clubs from around the world would be invited to compete in the tournament.
The project is thought to already having backing from Europe in Paris, where Paris Saint-Germain are owned by Qatar Sports Investement (QSI).

Manchester City's Carlos Tevez hires 'Merlin the Magician' in driving case
• 'Merlin' has successful record defending club employees
• Has previously defended Joey Barton and Danny Mills

Carlos Tevez will be represented in his driving case by a solicitor who claims Manchester City call him "Merlin the Magician" because of his successful record of defending club employees from alleged road offences.
The Premier League champions have given Gwyn Lewis the nickname, according to the website of the Manchester-based law firm Burton Copeland, because "he has made many worrying cases disappear".
Joey Barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Danny Mills, all former City players, are among those who give testimonials on drivingoffence.com – Burton Copeland's specialist website.
The company describes Lewis as someone who "in the past 20 years has concentrated on his passion for defending motorists" and has "a track record of unrivalled success, ranging from minor speeding, traffic light and mobile phone infringements to the most serious cases of drink driving and death by dangerous driving".
It adds: "Countless motorists have benefited from what the Chambers and Partners guide to the legal profession describe as his 'resolute and resourceful' approach. In an area of law where detail is paramount, 'Merlin the Magician', as he is called by personnel at Manchester City Football Club for whom he regularly acts, has made many worrying cases disappear."
Tevez is waiting to discover whether he will be charged after being arrested last week for allegedly being caught behind the wheel on the outskirts of Macclesfield, seven weeks after being banned from driving for six months. The Argentinian faces a possible jail sentence if convicted, the maximum sentence being six months.
Tevez, who scored a hat-trick in City's 5-0 defeat of Barnsley in the FA Cup on Saturday, had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to supply information over incidents in which his car was clocked speeding.
As well as being banned for six months, he was ordered to pay fines and costs of £1,540. Lewis, who also represented him on that case, had told Manchester magistrates court his client did not understand the word "constabulary" on official letters from the police.

Well, he's got the scarf... Manchester City's Roberto Mancini is wanted to boss Zenit St Petersburg

Russians are unhappy with what Luciano Spalletti's delivered after spending £64m last summer and are set to pounce if the axe falls at the Eastlands
Zenit see Manchester City manager Mancini as the man to replace Luciano Spalletti under whom the club are third behind CSKA Moscow in the Russian League.
Defiant Mancini has ­repeatedly insisted he has no fears about his future as cross-town rivals Manchester United edge ever close to dethroning his Premier League champions.
Mancini, who signed a five-year deal last summer, remains popular with City fans, who see him as the man to take them forward.
But he has seen a number of rival bosses linked with his job in recent weeks.
And Zenit believe that, despite Mancini’s contract extension, City could still part company with him this summer.
Zenit chiefs are ­disappointed with Spalletti’s results, having splashed out a staggering £64million last summer to sign Brazil striker Hulk and Belgium midfielder Axel Witsel.

Peter Spencer talks about Manchester City and we find out who he bumps into when out doing his big shop at a leading high street supermarket.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... an-1739467

[spoiler][/spoiler]
Monaco's billionaire owner Dmitry Rybolovlev is ready to mark their imminent promotion to the French top flight with a bid for Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney, 27. Daily Star

Cristiano Ronaldo has been told by his agent Jorge Mendes to stay at Real Madrid for another season - even though Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain want the 28-year-old forward. DSSC

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers wants to add 'three or four players' to his squad this summer as part of his next phase of rebuilding. But Rodgers' transfer kitty is again likely to be around the £20m mark unless he raises more from selling players.

Thibaut Courtois has yet to make his senior competitive debut for Chelsea despite being bought from Genk in June 2011 Daily Telegraph

Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, 20, wants to stay a third season on loan at Atletico Madrid rather than return to Stamford Bridge to sit on the substitutes' bench. Daily Mirror

West Bromwich Albion manager Steve Clarke has travelled to the Netherlands to watch 19-year-old Chelsea defender Tomas Kalas, who is on loan at Vitesse. DSSC

Birmingham City will look to offload striker Nikola Zigic, 32, in the summer as his wages are due to increase from £55,000-a-week to £62,000-a-week. Daily Mirror

The Qatari royal family is backing a plan to set up a new club tournament in the Gulf, designed to feature the world's top clubs and rival the Champions League. Times

Brighton manager Gus Poyet, 45, has emerged as a contender for the vacant job at Reading following Brian McDermott's departure as boss. DSSC

Former Southampton boss Nigel Adkins, 48, is taking the club to a Premier League managers' arbitration tribunal in a final attempt to resolve his feud with Saints executive chairman Nicola Cortese. Daily Telegraph

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger fears Jack Wilshere, 21, is at risk of another long-term injury breakdown after admitting he may have overplayed the England midfielder. Daily Express

Striker Olivier Giroud, 26, says the Gunners need to "correct bad defensive behaviour" if they are to have any chance of overturning a 3-1 first leg Champions League deficit against Bayern Munich in Germany on Wednesday. Daily Telegraph

But Gunners boss Wenger faces an angry backlash from fans as the Frenchman will field a weakened team in Munich to prioritise a top-four Premier League finish over Champions League progression. DSSC

And the Arsenal squad is in disarray ahead of the Munich clash after Wenger publicly questioned the mental state of goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, 22. Independent

Ryan Giggs, 39, wants to replace Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United boss, according to former Old Trafford team-mate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Daily Mirror

Former England midfielder Danny Murphy, 35, looks to have played his last game for Blackburn after being stripped of the club captaincy. Sun

Schalke 04 have revealed that a number of Galatasaray fans were caught attempting to dig a tunnel under a fence around the Veltins Arena to watch their club in last night's Champions League match. Die Welt

Brazilian playmaker Neymar, 21, has said that he would like to play in Italy, but will remain in his home country "for the moment". The Santos star said: "Will I play in Italy? Do not rule it out." Tuttosport

Bayern Munich will be without the injured Franck Ribery, as well as the suspended Bastian Schweisteiger and Jerome Boateng, when they host Arsenal in the Champions League tonight. Die Welt

Former England international Paul Gascoigne, 45, wants to appear on jungle-based TV game show I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here to help his recovery after a spell in a United States rehab clinic. Sun

Two fans of Swiss club Grasshoppers enjoyed the ultimate match-day experience when they had a close-up view of the action against St Gallen sat in a pitch-side hot tub, drinking beer and high-fiving the goalscorer. DSSC

Non-League Lewes have turned to art to get more fans through the turnstiles. The Ryman Premier League strugglers have designed a series of eye-catching posters advertising games in an attempt to attract supporters. 606 Newsletter

Notts County FC grow grass with seized cannabis lamps
Police said criminal gangs can invest as much as £20,000 in growing equipment

Heat lamps confiscated in raids on cannabis farms in Nottinghamshire are being used to help the grass grow at a football league club.
Notts County FC is using equipment seized by police to make lighting rigs for use on the Meadow Lane pitch.
University students are also involved in a project to design and build the rigs, with wheels for them being donated by a local golf club.
Supt Mark Holland said it was a "win, win" situation for all involved.
Greener grass
"This property would normally be crushed, so it is important it gets reused and a lot of people are getting the benefit from it," he said.
Stadium manager Greg Smith said it was "a massive saving for the club".
He said: "Normally to buy one rig you are looking at between £10,000 and £15,000.
"We have both sports at the club, football and rugby, and we've got a main stand that doesn't allow the light in during the winter.
"So, we can have them from the start of October through to the end of February, hopefully growing grass for us."
The grow lights will be used to heat up the soil and replicate warmer conditions.
The club has made a donation to a local charity supported by Nottinghamshire Police as a thank you for the lamps.

[john@staustell]

I think City and Chelsea getting money from a Qatari tournament would be unfair 'FFP'. OK for United though.

[Alex Sapphire]

Those two Grasshopper fans.
Now that's the way top watch football

[Socrates]

Qatar tournament would be good for City, bad for football...

Good for us because eases ffp worries, increases gap from top 4 to the rest hugely and may help us close the money gap on the rags as their owners are more likely to skim some of the money as profit.

Bad for football as would cement the chosen 4 at the top for an eternity and further kill the ambitions of clubs to close the gap, even beyond what the Champs league and ffp will be doing already.

[Goaters 103]

Qatar tournament would be good for City, bad for football...

Good for us because eases ffp worries, increases gap from top 4 to the rest hugely and may help us close the money gap on the rags as their owners are more likely to skim some of the money as profit.

Bad for football as would cement the chosen 4 at the top for an eternity and further kill the ambitions of clubs to close the gap, even beyond what the Champs league and ffp will be doing already.

We didnt vote for Financial Fair Play though, many others did. The Qatar "tournament," if it does come to pass and at that daft price, means we would be hanging other teams by the rope they provided themselves. Hardly our fault.

I still remain stunned that teams like Everton and Spurs voted for a Fair Play ruling. Insanity.

[City64]

Its too hot in Qatar ..... fuck em ! ;)

[Socrates]

Its too hot in Qatar ..... fuck em ! ;)

Think maybe they are looking for a further use for the indoor air conditioned stadiums they are building for the World Cup?

[Socrates]

Qatar tournament would be good for City, bad for football...

Good for us because eases ffp worries, increases gap from top 4 to the rest hugely and may help us close the money gap on the rags as their owners are more likely to skim some of the money as profit.

Bad for football as would cement the chosen 4 at the top for an eternity and further kill the ambitions of clubs to close the gap, even beyond what the Champs league and ffp will be doing already.

We didnt vote for Financial Fair Play though, many others did. The Qatar "tournament," if it does come to pass and at that daft price, means we would be hanging other teams by the rope they provided themselves. Hardly our fault.

I still remain stunned that teams like Everton and Spurs voted for a Fair Play ruling. Insanity.

Certainly didn't say we should be against it, FFP will already have almost killed off any real competition but will make the gap unbridgeable for whoever is left out of this. Sad but, as you say, not our fault!

[DoomMerchant]

Think maybe they are looking for a further use for the indoor air conditioned stadiums they are building for the World Cup?

They cant possibly build them by 2015 tho can they?

[leomcfc]

Before they all voted ffp my opinion was every football fan deserves a day like we had when we won the cup, then the league. But after that, fuck them all. It's about time people paid for believing media lies and arse licking the rags etc. Let's make the gap so big that clubs rot. And in the end we can say," sorry , but we voted against, united and arsenal pushed for it, and you all lay down and took it". They have all just signed their own death warrant , blinded by bitterness of us.

[Chinners]

Think maybe they are looking for a further use for the indoor air conditioned stadiums they are building for the World Cup?

They cant possibly build them by 2015 tho can they?

They can afford to build them by next month if they wanted to I reckon

[ashton287]

FFP was a way of the money men in football, thus far mainly Europeans and Americans, closing the door on the new money coming in from the east.

This Qatari tournament is a "ROFLMAO WAHHHH give a shit you pussies" message to every one of them.

If this goes ahead then the cunts who have ruined the game over the last 20 years milking it for every penny they could get their grubby hands on are about to get a taste of their own medicine from some bigger boys and it will be the beginning of the end for most of them. Fuck the lot of them. Cunts.

[blues-clues]

I was looking forward to reading about how David Silva was going to represent Carlos Tevez in court over his motoring misdemeanours.

[Peter Doherty (AGAIG)]

The Qatar tournament thingy is a hoax.

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

I was looking forward to reading about how David Silva was going to represent Carlos Tevez in court over his motoring misdemeanours.

My thoughts too. Is there no end to Big Dave's talents?

[Piccsnumberoneblue]

The Qatar tournament thingy is a hoax.

These things are often little messages and frighteners sent to the football powers by the clubs, usually a prelude to demanding more cash.

[freshie]

Lovely WAG

[Nigels Tackle]

The Qatar tournament thingy is a hoax.

These things are often little messages and frighteners sent to the football powers by the clubs, usually a prelude to demanding more cash.

share the story with any l'pool, spuds, arsenal fans you know asking why their teams won't be involved and await their responses.

proved to be a rich seam of enjoyment for me this am!

[JamieMCFC]

Qatari 'Dream League' an elaborate hoax?

An incredible 24-team tournament was mooted involving the biggest teams in Europe, backed by the Qatari Royal Family, and offering clubs as much as £175m each just to take part.

Oliver Kay's story was spread across three pages, and was quickly picked up around the world - including in a report on this website - with the world of football assuming that the Times's sources must have been impeccable to justify such a large report.

Yet as Eurosport investigated further it quickly became apparent that the story's inspiration appeared to lie in a spoof French article by website Les Cahiers du Football, with almost all the details in The Times found within their story of March 10.

Jerome Latta, who wrote the article for Cahiers du Football, subsequently explained to French online publication Rue89 that he believed the story had been spread because it had an air of plausibility.

"I swear it's come entirely out of my imagination," Latta said. "I don't have a source.

"I don't know whether the project is plausible, because fans and governments might block it from happening. But in any case you can imagine it.

"The football industry has evolved so much in these last few years and as it comes in the context of a European financial crisis (as my made-up Qatari source says in the article), it seemed possible."

Amongst the details common to both stories were that the organisers aim to begin the tournament in 2015, and stage it every two years. It would be held in the summer at six cities across the Gulf.

Kay took to Twitter to defend his scoop, saying Cahiers du Football "was 100% not the source of my story, as I suspect Cahiers (with their 'DFL' imagery) know."

But in response, Cahiers du Football said: "What do you 'suspect'? We made it all up, including the picture... We know nothing about your source, if it exists."

The DFL would have featured 16 permanent members of Europe’s elite in the competition, with a further eight places to be designated by invitation, and the hope was that the tournament would come to have the same kind of prestige as the Champions League - or perhaps even exceed it.

Eurosport France's Benoit Vittek dismissed the story as nothing more than make-believe.

"Everything in this article screams: 'This is fantasy", Vittek said.

"It seems like The Times totally misinterpreted it and then tried to claim those fake news were theirs. Terrible. The details we read from English websites match the ones in Cahiers du Football."

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/foot ... 26288.html

[City64]

Proper absolute bollox today then.

Tits aint too bad though ;)