New Year Wishes

1/ Philadelphia Eagles or Arizona Cardinals to win the Superbowl (or at least get through the first round of the play-offs)
2/ France to win the FIFA World Cup (further devaluing an already tarnished competition)
3/ Mayweather and Pacquiao to stop bickering and have the damn fight (which Mayweather would win easy)
4/ David Haye to fight (and beat) one of the Klitschko brothers
5/ Phil ‘the Power’ Taylor to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year

The day football died

Make no mistake, football didn't die because it's too corupt, because there are too many cheats playing the game. It died because nobody in authority is prepared to do anything about it. Henry would not have been able to get away with such a blatant breach of the rules if he'd been playing 'American' football - there are multiple officials on the field, and even when they fail to spot an obvious infringement, video replays are used. Players are also punnished retrospectively after the completion of games. So that's it for me - until the world footballing authorities decide to act, I'm sticking to watching the NFL.

Simply Super

The current NFL season (that’s American football to the uninitiated) culminates this weekend, with Superbowl XLIII. And what a season it has been - full of great games and plenty of upsets. There can’t be anyone on the planet who would have believed when it started back in September that the Arizona Cardinals would make it all the way to the showpiece event – indeed, despite winning their division, few pundits thought they’d even make it through the first week of the playoffs. This unpredictability is what makes the NFL so great – and provides such a refreshing change from the monotony of Premiership football, where the same teams continue to dominate year after year. Let’s hope Sunday’s game provides a fitting finale to a wonderful season – and my fear that the Cardinals could get blown away by the Pittsburgh Steelers proves unfounded.