Who’d have thought at the beginning of last season that come 29th July 2010, Liverpool would be the first English side to be kicking off the new season in the Europa League.

Of course soccer purists could have told you that the loss of Xabi Alonso, and no adequate replacement being sourced, would have dire consequences for the runners-up of the season before, but Rafa being Rafa wouldn’t listen.

Fast-forward to this summer and they welcome Woy Hodgson, who takes charge of his first competitive game tonight. Although from the outset, it seems like the first test at Trent Bridge would be much more his cup of tea than a Europa League qualifying tie in Macedonia for the right to be taking part in the tournament proper come the back end of August.

But what does the current season have in store for the storied club from Merseyside, and ultimately what do fans of the Merseysiders want besides their giro?

For a start, as Joe Cole was so quick to point out, there’s that magical atmosphere they possess up at Anfield. The same magic that has seen them pick up how many Premier League titles? As many as Scunthorpe. (for the uneducated observer that would be none) So besides the intimidation of that ground, what else could the fans possibly want?

Brings us to the next point of contention for Reds’ fans: the yankee doodle chairmen, George Gillett and Tom Hicks. Much like rivals Man Utd they’ve been saddled with mountains of debt and simply don’t have as much clout to clear it. Yes, they could sell Fernando Torres, but the losses in the long run would simply not be worth it. As much as David N’gog and Dirk Kuyt try, you can’t see them creating anything on the scale of El Nino. What can the fans do to oust the chairman besides peaceful protesting though?

How about, as they regularly attend games, the fans tar and feather them. Seen quite regularly on shows featuring Johnny Knoxville over in the states, I’m sure he’d come over and do it himself if the promise of publicity was there. It would be even funnier if you got nicer than nice Woy to have a go. If you can’t get tar into the ground, just pay some kids to steal their car stereos whilst the cars are parked up. The police aren’t likely to take much notice to be honest.

But where can the Liverpudlians expect to find their club languishing come the end of the season?

The top five does look well and truly out of the question. Chelsea, Man Utd, and Arsenal look safe as houses in the top four, Tottenham, however, look about as safe as a Liverpool star’s mansion, whilst they’re on a European away date. Some are saying that Man City could win the league, so the best the scousers can really hope for is sixth. It would only take Torres and Stevie G being fit for all 38 games for them to make a top four challenge though. They’re that good.

Although if Torres leaves, Gerrard gets injured, and Woy decides that Dickson Etuhu and Bobby Zamora might be the best solution to this they could be in for a long season. What are those relegation odds for Liverpool then?

Hold on to your hats, folks. It’s time for the gossipping to stop and the consolidation to begin. Bwin and PartyGaming have finally agreed to merge and create what will be largest listed egaming company in the world. The Austrian firm will own the lion’s share of the new company with 51.64% of the business, while PartyGaming will take up the remaining 48.36% of the behemoth. Read more.

Allelujah. Yesterday, the House Financial Services Committee approved Barney Frank’s HR2267 bill that would effectively legalise and regulate non-sports gambling, by 41 votes to 22 and overturn the UIGEA which merely drove web-based casinos offshore.

The bill is far from becoming law, but it suggests that Congress is waking up to the notion that they might as well tax and regulate an activity that is taking place whether they like it or not. Read more.

The 2009/10 season will go down in the sports history books after Inter Milan scooped an unprecedented league, cup and Champions League triple. Star coach Jose Mourinho may have left the ‘Nerrazzurri’ for Real Madrid, but the club is still confident of adding more silverware in the season to come. First and foremost it’s the Serie A title that the fans want, but the likes of city rival AC Milan, Juventus and AS Roma will be hoping to have a word or two to say about that…!

Most pre-season football friendlies are as dull as watching England. About 12 people turn up to watch, nobody cares about the result, and none of the players want to get hurt.

Weirdly, though, sometimes they do get hurt, like when a ding-dong breaks out between sides from neighbouring islands. In fact it’s amazing that three of the footballing fracas listed below were in friendly matches.

Top 10 football punch-ups

1. Great brawl of China (February 2007)
QPR assistant boss Richard Hill was banned from football for three months and the club fined £40,000 following this unfriendy with the China Olympic team. You get the feeling that the Chinese ended up worse off, though, and not just Zheng Tao, who was taken to hospital with a broken jaw. Seven players were sent home to do the walk of shame.

2. Dyer consequences (April 2005)
On-field football fights are not always just confined to the opposition, as highlighted here when the war of words between Kieron Dyer and Lee Bowyer escalated into fisticuffs over whose turn it was to get the drinks in.

3. Batty boy battle (November 1995)
Another embarrassing set-two between so-called team-mates took place after just four minutes of a Champions League match against Spartak Moscow, with Graeme Le Saux getting on the wrong side of David Batty over who was marking who. In the end I think it was Le Saux who marked Batty.

4. Inter-national incident (March 2007)
There was a time when Inter Milan couldn’t anywhere near the Champions League final, for love nor money, nor punch-up. In truth it was Valencia who most disgraced themselves at the end of this knockout match, although Inter’s inability to catch David Navarro gives a good indication as to why they lost the match.

5. The battle of Old Trafford (October 1990)
Often identified as the match where the intense rivalry between Manchester United and Arsenal originated, this 21-man brawl began after Arsenal’s Nigel Winterburn lunged at Denis Irwin, then everyone lunged at everyone else, apart from David Seaman, who remained in his penalty area stroking his moustache and looking bored. Manchester United lost one point, whilst Arsenal were docked two – but George Graham’s team still went on to win the title.

6. Mary Poppins in-step in time (April 1998)
For some reason Alan Shearer was known as Mary Poppins by Newcastle’s directors but I don’t ever remember Julie Andrews kicking anyone in the face while they were lying on the ground defenceless. Had he been sent off, Shearer would have been suspended FA Cup final but somehow he got away with it. Maybe he cast a spell on the referee and the Football Association. Oh, so that’s why they called him Mary Poppins.

7. Freddie and Olof’s lover’s tiff (June 2002)
Ljungberg and Mellberg were two of the best-looking players in the game; unfortunately, though they weren’t the best of friends. Perhaps jealous of Freddie’s gay following, Mellberg took out the Arsenal player (not in that sense) during a World Cup training session and Ljungberg reacted. To be honest, I think they quite enjoyed the Greco-Roman man-grappling.

8. Not so Keane on Haaland (April 2001)
Anyone who was in any doubt about Roy Keane’s volcanic temperament were soon put right after this incident. Unfortunately, Haaland’s knee wasn’t. The Irishman had been stewing about Haaland’s reaction to Keane’s injury in a previous Manchester derby, when he wrongly accused him of diving while he was writhing around on the ground. Keane not only exacted retribution with a horrendous career-ending knee-capping on the City midfielder, but then rubbed the salt in afterwards. ‘I’d waited long enough,’ he wrote in his book. ‘I fucking hit him hard. The ball was there (I think). “Take that you cunt. And don’t ever stand over me sneering about fake injuries”.’ Nice chap.

9. Kung-Fu Cantona (January 1995)
Cantona was cut from the same cloth as Keane. Not quite as consistently violent but capable nonetheless of snapping if the wrong buttons were pressed, as one Crystal Palace yob discovered to his cost by screaming abuse at the red-carded Frenchman. Cue Kung-Fu Cantona, an eight-month ban and a speech about seagulls and trawlers.

10. Craig Bellamy and John Aarne Riise (February, 2007)
On a pre-season training camp in Portugal, Aarne Riise irked his Liverpool team-mate by refusing to take the stage during a karaoke night. Bellamy did what any other right-minded team-mate would do and burst into his hotel room to attack him with a golf-club. In fairness, though, the bonding worked – at least it did for Bellamy – who scored in the next game against Barcelona and celebrated with a golf swing celebration.

It’s nice to see that the powers that be within football’s club hierarchy are paying heed to their learned friends at Calvinayre.com.

After tipping Roy Hodgson to take over from Liverpool before the end of last season, Dan Taylor called it right again a week ago, when tipping Mark Hughes for the Bodog-sponsored Fulham job.

Not only will this appointment, when confirmed, make Fulham fans happy, but anyone who followed the advice by backing him at 10/1 will be feeling pretty flush right now too. Read more.

“In the past, North Korean athletes and coaches who performed badly were sent to prison camps. Considering the high hopes North Koreans had for the World Cup, the regime could have done worse things to the team than just reprimand them for their ideological shortcomings.”


The comments from a South Korean intelligence source, following the three-hour public dressing down the North Korean soccer team received following their return from the World Cup, in South Africa. North Korea’s two Japanese born players were exempt from the display at the People’s Palace of Culture on July 2nd, which included ideological criticisms, but at least now it seems the born leader really did show the actual games. Although with the apparent nuclear testing going on in the country, what’s the betting on seeing some of the players looking like they’re from The Hills Have Eyes in the country’s next international? Read more.

A mobile gaming solutions provider is set to send the lottery world into a spin after announcing a new interactive system for mobile and online called LottoSpin. The company developing the software, Spin 3, is mainly targeting the US market, and head of Spin 3, Matty Zinder, said: “We think one of the first areas where egaming will be regulated in the US will be the state lotteries. The ability to provide this on a mobile phone is very exciting for us and exciting for the people in the state government we are talking to as well.”

There’s more spin here than an speech written by Alastair Campbell. Might need a sit down after that. Read more.

It looks like Europe found out that Dracula might be allowed to have a flutter, and they didn’t like the sound of it one bit. Or maybe it’s the two years in jail that’s being offered to illicit online gamblers, you decide?

If it does sound a little bit harsh, that’s because…well…it is. It would be akin to downloading a few songs and then get slapped with a multi-thousand dollar fine. Oh that actually happened didn’t it…

Back to the Romanians, and the draft law on gambling that isn’t getting love from anywhere, and it’s expected the European Commission will reject it by October 4th due to the harsh and ambiguous nature of it. Going to have to wait a little longer to tap into those millions. Read more.

Former Imperial Tobacco chief executive Gareth Davies has resurfaced as the new chairman of bookmaker William Hill. “We are delighted that Gareth has agreed to join the board as chairman of William Hill,” said the company’s chief executive, Ralph Topping, hurriedly throwing his jacket over the pile of 100-pack cigarettes in the back seat of his car. Read more.

If you thought the Sicilians were bad-tempered, you don’t want to mess with their fellow islanders from Sardinia either. Or their cousins from Corsica come to think of it. Everything was going smoothly enough as Italian side Cagliari took a 3-0 lead over Bastia, but then things turned a bit nasty. Looks like there just ain’t enough room in the Med for the both of them in the light of this pre-season “friendly”. Great for team bonding, though. Watch here.