Watch Liverpool

Posts Tagged ‘fifa’

• Liverpool issue statement supporting Luis Suárez
• Club say striker is anxious to clear his name

Liverpool’s manager Kenny Dalglish refused to enter into the debate on racism in football in the wake of the Fifa president Sepp Blatter’s comments despite the striker Luis Suárez being charged with such an offence by the Football Association.

“I never saw it,” said Dalglish when asked what he thought of Blatter’s outspoken views. “I’ll read it before I comment and I’ve not read it.”

Liverpool have issued a statement offering their full support to Suárez, who will plead not guilty to the FA charge which arose out of their 1-1 draw with Manchester United a month ago. “I think the statement says everything and our position has not changed,” added Dalglish. “That is all we’ve got to say.”

Liverpool’s statement said: “The club this afternoon received notification from the Football Association of their decision to charge Luis Suárez and will take time to properly review the documentation which has been sent to us.

“We will discuss the matter fully with him when he returns from international duty, but he will plead not guilty to the charge and we expect him to request a personal hearing. Luis remains determined to clear his name of the allegation made against him by Patrice Evra. The club remain fully supportive of Luis in this matter.”

LiverpoolKenny Dalglishguardian.co.uk

Click here to have the Fiver sent to your inbox every weekday at 5pm, or if your usual copy has stopped arriving

PASS AND RUN

A mere 24 hours on from the most exciting very boring thing ever to happen in the long history of things only Scousers have any business feeling excited about (other contenders: bulk-buy polyester leisure suit discounts, the complete solo works of Ringo Starr; and being inconsolably offended in a way that multiplies unnecessarily whatever negligible initial slight may have been intended) the Fiver is still digesting the ramifications of Fernando Torres’s hour-long debut mooch-about at Stamford Bridge. Several competing theories have emerged in the rush to explain exactly how King Kenny Dalglish managed to pull off the greatest sporting feat in the history of narrowly winning a football match against another team who didn’t play that well. The main ones seem to be: Dalglish’s extreme tactical genius, in particular the revolutionary 5-5-0 formation, also known as Total Running About Lot. Others point to the ineffectiveness of the Chelsea attacking “diamond”, a misleading term suggesting a glittering, many-sided object with a razor edge, rather than some men standing and pointing and shrugging.

Help may be at hand though. Having failed to score, or run around very much, or even look like somebody who might actually take an interest in football, or follow the game in some minor way, Torres has today announced his own verdict, in the form of some slightly whiny comments on Chelsea TV, official news source of a few hundred tattooed men in Surrey. “I think the fair result was the draw, it was unfair to lose that game,” Torres explained, rotating his baseball cap through 180 degrees and sticking out his bottom lip in the kind of mildly amusing style that apparently merits a lifelong sketch show sinecure at the BBC. “But now we are looking forwards to the next game and will keep fighting until the end,” he added, adopting a 1970s disco kung-fu stance.

Unfairness on one side, then. And the touchline-leaping tactical genius of Dalglish on the other. If only there was way of choosing between the two. Thank heavens, in the Fiver’s hour of need, for eminent soccerball tactician and the man who first noticed Andy Carroll was worth £35m, John W Henry. “The philosophy we were playing under didn’t seem to suit the club,” Henry said. “We wanted to move to a much more positive pass and move philosophy,” he added, definitely saying exactly what he thinks and not just reading it off his shirt cuff.

So, there you are then. A new philosophy: Dalglish’s new world of pass and move football, a phrase that, in the past has irritated the Fiver to the extent that it feels like grabbing a fistful of complacently chuntering pundit collar and shouting “what other kind of football is there, eh? Don’t pass and don’t move football?” At which point, as the image of the now-departed non-moving, non-passing, non-ball-controlling Torres swims into view again, maybe things do start to make a little more sense after all.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Couple required, £750-£775 per week + long-term bonus plus two-bedroomed self-contained flat, plus sole use of own car. I like my house to be run like and look like a five-star hotel – but in an informal way” – David Sullivan’s advertisement in The Lady magazine reveals he has no trouble digging into his pocket to make sure his Essex mansion is in better condition than the football club he co-owns.

BLATTER, HONEST

Top Gear presenters upsetting Mexicans, Mrs Speaker upsetting Daily Mail readers, Christina Aguilera upsetting Americans … with so many major controversies raging around the world, the Fiver hasn’t time to get stressed over frivolities like World Cup 2022. After all, we’re unlikely to be there, what with meeting our untimely demise in a freak accident involving a drunken jet-packer plummeting from the sky and landing on top of us as we hover-board our way down to the shops for a jar of Turkey and Ham With All The Trimmings capsules for Christmas dinner 2021.

But while we might be unconcerned about the World Cup after the next World Cup after the next World Cup, that doesn’t mean everyone is, with the main source of anxiety among those with too much time on their hands pertaining to whether it’ll be staged in winter or summer, rather than the more worrying state of affairs that, whatever time of year it goes ahead, it’ll still be staged in the skin-crackling furnace that is Qatar.

“I think for the time being this matter is on ice,” said Fifa despot Sepp Blatter, conjuring up images of England’s finest skidding around and falling flat on their backsides in much the same way as they did against Germany on a grass pitch. “We have just signed the final documents and the delegation from Qatar was here in Fifa house and everything is settled now, but it’s settled for summer and all the 64 matches in the territory of Qatar.”

While Blatter didn’t mention how much the “final documents” signed by Qatari officials were made out for, he did confirm what everyone has suspected since last September – that there was collusion between the Spanish-Portuguese 2018 and Qatari 2022 bid delegates ahead of December’s vote to see who’d get to host what. “I’ll be honest,” trumpeted Sepp in a welcome break with Fifa tradition. “There was a bundle of votes between Spain and Qatar, but it was a nonsense. It was there but it didn’t work, not for one side and not for the other side.” Possible translation: there really wasn’t any need for collusion in the run-up to the ballot, as the decision to award both World Cups to the richest bidders had already been made.

DOUBLE YOUR MONEY WITH BLUE SQUARE!

Open an account with online bookies Blue Square, placing a bet of at least £5 and they’ll give you a free £10 bet, win or lose! (Terms Apply) Register now.

FIVER LETTERS

“Re: Friday’s Fiver – Fernando Torres was uninterested when playing for Liverpool, not disinterested. The referee was disinterested. Unless he was Lee Mason, of course, in which case he was [snip - Fiver ed] – Andy Neill.

“Now we know why Torres said he would not celebrate against Chelsea – he knew he would not score. I do hope Nando doesn’t suffer the same fate as Michael Owen (ie leave Liverpool and win stuff all) and I am very grateful for the last three years, but he of all people should know why we all dream of a team of Carraghers. Oh and God bless the King” – John Stainton.

“Sorry, Tim Grey (Friday’s letters), but the Fiver got it more or less correct. While both Toffo and Texan Bar commercials did feature cowboy characters, it was Toffo’s who used the words ‘When a man’s gotta chew what a man’s gotta chew’; Texan’s man stated ‘Bite through the chocolate, and chew, real slow’. Notice how 70s ad producers were happy to derive cheap humour from stereotyping Mexicans long before Richard Hammond was even a twinkle in his parents’ eyes” – Matty Weir.

“Re: Friday’s Fiver. If the Fifa Rules Board have time they could look at Law 16 (goal kick) which does not say that the ball must be stationary. In refereeing circles, the controversy rages. Seriously” – Peter Jones.

Send your letters to the.boss@guardian.co.uk. And if you’ve nothing better to do you can also tweet the Fiver.

BITS AND BOBS

After dismissing Roberto Di Matteo as manager, West Brom say they don’t need to rush to replace him, and will probably wait until Big Sam stops hanging around the club car park waving his Record of Achievement folder around before they do.

Seb Coe has virtually ensured a GB football team at London 2012 will never happen by asking a proud Englishman, Sir Bobby Charlton, to get Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to agree to the idea.

The FA is unlikely to punish Jack Wilshere for saying “Inconsistent refereeing needs to stop. It’s killing the game” on Twitter, probably because it wasn’t as funny as Ryan Babel’s recent outburst and didn’t involve Photoshopping skills.

STILL WANT MORE?

Richard Williams reckons it took Fernando Torres two minutes to resemble Chris Sutton on his Chelsea debut.

You might think Craig Gordon’s cowardly goalkeeping was the reason Sunderland lost to Stoke, but Chalkboards guru Michael Cox can prove in 17 red dots why it wasn’t.

Raphael Honigstein hails Koln’s 3-2 comeback defeat of Bayern Munich while Sid Lowe sticks the boot into Atletico Madrid.

And if you want tickets to see City grind to a 1-0 win over United in this Saturday’s Manchester derby click here.

SIGN UP TO THE FIVER

Want your very own copy of our free tea-timely(ish) email sent direct to your inbox? Has your regular copy stopped arriving? Click here to sign up.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PENNYSepp BlatterFernando TorresLiverpoolBarry GlendenningBarney Ronayguardian.co.uk

It’s a packed pod today with John Ashdown, Paul Doyle, Sean Ingle and surprise guest David Conn joining James Richardson to chew over the action from the last few days.

Naturally we look at the midweek fixtures and, after Blackpool inflicted a second successive defeat on Kenny Dalglish, we ask: is it time a big club came in for Ian Holloway?

Elsewhere, we hail Ipswich for their thrilling Carling Cup semi-final win over Arsenal – and there’s also time for Paul Doyle to argue why English owners are just as bad as foreign owners and to get the nitty-gritty on Uefa’s fair play proposals.

Sid Lowe is in glorious technicolour via Skype from Madrid. We discuss the fallout from the Ballon d’Or and renewed interest in Copa del Rey. Meanwhile Ewan Murray runs us through the latest developments over the bullets sent in the post to SPL players and plans to cut the league to 10 teams.

We end by looking ahead to the weekend’s fixtures and ask: can Spurs finally end United’s unbeaten Premier League record?

James RichardsonDavid ConnSean IngleSid LoweJohn AshdownPaul DoyleEwan MurrayAndy Duckworth