Let the snow stop and the games begin (Sporting Chic, in the Sunday Guardian, December 26 2010)

I've been a bit late in posting this (blame wedding season in India) but the snow gods have finally listened to us! Here goes my column for the week. Santa and his Merry Elf-Helpers (Alex Song, Theo Walcott, Cesc Fabregas) heard our prayers as well. Arsenal 3 - Chelsea 1. We love you Arsenal, we do!

It's been a slow week in Europe, with only the snow to blame. From snowed in airports, highways and train tracks to snowed out football pitches, life has almost come to a standstill.  Especially for us football fans, an entire weekend with over ten games cancelled is particularly rare. Perhaps it's time that leagues across Europe mimic the Champions League and go on a winter break, instead of postponing games. The world is truly a global village, when snow over 4000 miles away affects my life sitting in India (delayed flights, friends and Christmas care packages apart), almost an entire weekend of matches being postponed makes most fans rather cranky.  Perhaps we can all thank global warming and support Al Gore and his 'inconvenient truth'.

Chelsea and Man U were supposed to play each other last weekend, and all plans for Super Sunday football were postponed because of the weather. Most football fans haven't gone this long without football, since last summer when there was no European Championship or World Cup to keep us occupied. I'm jonesing for a football game, so much so that even a Tottenham game would make me happy. Santa, all we want for Christmas is some football and no fresh snow! And a great result on Monday when Arsenal takes on Chelsea.

Balotelli's pretty confident for a 20 year old who transferred to Man City from Inter Milan for £24 million pounds and is yet to score more than a brace of goals in the EPL.

A young footballer shooting his mouth off is never unusual in football circles, however, when the football player in question is a Golden Boy award winner and has yet to prove his worth in the English Premier League. Welcome to the world of Mario Balotelli. While accepting his award for being the best young talent in the sport, he made sure everyone knew what he thought of his competition. He didn't know who they were, but still offered to show them his award. Neither was he worried about the greats of the game, Wayne Rooney or Cesc Fabregas. The only player he said he paled in comparison to was Lionel Messi. Pretty confident for a 20 year old who transferred to Manchester City from Inter Milan for £24 million pounds and is yet to score more than a brace of goals in the Premier League.  As a new arrival in the Premier League, he has shown glimpses of brilliance but failed to make any significant impact on his team. Big budget Manchester City spent a fairly obscene budget on acquiring new talent this summer; however, Roberto Mancini and his team are yet to emerge as a real threat at the top of the Premier League.

The other trend that seems to be picking up pace (unlike the state of English football this week) is players threatening to leave clubs to help themselves land bigger and better contracts, either with their existing clubs or with a new club. A tactic that worked for Rooney, if you remember his public announcement of wanting to leave Manchester United, only to take a complete u-turn and eventually renew his contract with the club. Perhaps he should have patented it, because in the past week, his Manchester City rival Carlos Tevez claimed he wanted to return to his family in South America and leave cold England behind. After nine days of intense speculation and transfer rumours, his club announced that Tevez's contract remained unchanged and he still had over three years with the side. Only till the next transfer window, of course. Fans the world over are unimpressed with these tactics, that test their loyalty to their team and players, and Roberto Mancini was right in expecting an apology from Tevez to their fans.

The only real highlight over the past week, especially for us desperate for some football, was the Real Madrid versus Levante result in the Copa Del Rey. Eight goals separated the two teams, with hatricks from Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema and goals from Mesut Ozil and Pedro Leon. The match only momentarily helped my addiction, now I'm just counting down the days till Monday. Ronaldo's been a good boy this year, twenty-five goals from twenty-four matches. I guess he can expect a very big present this Christmas.

The week in football: Football fans run riot in Russia, World Player of the Year, Mazembe Mazembe!

'Moscow fan riots couldn't have come at a worse time' for Sporting Chic in the Sunday Guardian, December 20, 2010

If there was ever an unholy alliance, this is it. Russian football fans and ultranationalists ran riot in the centre of Moscow earlier this week, when a demonstration against the death of a football fan descended into violence and chaos.  Over 5000 fans and members of far Right groups joined hands, forces and whatever else they could find to use as weapons to face off against anti-riot forces. While the initial rally was to protest against the shooting of a Spartak Moscow fan, allegedly by a group of men from the Russian Caucasus region, it quickly turned into a race riot, with hooded protestors chanting racist slogans and targeting people from the Russian Caucasus region, an area that has traditionally had a large Muslim population as well as people from Central Asia, Moscow's largest migrant working population. What started in the capital soon turned into the purposeful targeting of marginal groups in Russian society and rapidly spread to other cities.

For Russia, Sepp Blatter and FIFA, news of the violent protests could not have come at a more inopportune time. FIFA's decision to award Russia the winning bid for the World Cup in 2018 has already been the subject of much controversy, and football related protests that turn into violent race-hate and anti-immigration riots aren't going to do very much to silence the critics either.

In the large scheme of things, the incident exposes a troubling nexus between football supporters and Russian extremists. Despite the long-standing tradition of ultra groups within European clubs, it's a tradition that is often steeped in racism and violence. A trend amongst football fans that has been particularly prevalent in Spain and Italy, the more well known amongst them are the Real Madrid ultras, the Espanyol skinhead contingent and the ties between Lazio and right wing groups in Rome. Who can ever forget Lazio icon Paolo Di Canio and his controversial fascist salute to fans at some of their matches?

{ The riots in Moscow have exposed a troubling nexus between football supporters and Russian extremists

In a year that seems to be all about Barcelona, it comes as no surprise that the team was named Team of the Year and Xavi, midfielder for Barcelona and Spain was named World Soccer's Player of the Year. Through a vote by readers of the World Soccer magazine, Xavi received the largest number of votes, followed closely by Lionel Messi and finally, by popular vote, recognition for Wesley Sneijder in third place.  If you thought that winning their league was enough for the Catalan boys in 2010, you were wrong. They won the World Cup for Spain (there's no other way to call it. they may as well have had the Barcelona starting XI playing in Spain shirts), team of the year, player of the year. The club now await an assured a Ballon D'or accolade because the three finalists are Barca players Xavi, Messi and Andres Iniesta.

If you hadn't heard of Tout Puissant Mazembe till this week, don't worry. No one had. Not until Mazembe's incredible win over Internacional to become the first African side as well as the first team from outside Europe and South America to qualify for the finals of the FIFA Club World Cup. In what is being heralded as the greatest win by an African club in football history, the club from the Democratic Republic of Congo beat Internacional 2-0, after goals from new national heroes Mulota Kubangu and Dioko Kaluyituka. The star of the game for Mazembe was their heroic goalkeeper Muteba Kidiaba, who pulled off a series of point blank saves. He denied Internacional strikers several goals, between his skills in goal and his celeberatory dance moves, he most certainly will have a superb reception awaiting him in the Congo.

Mazembe play the final in Abu Dhabi against a struggling Inter Milan who will be looking to win the tournament, certainly, their only real chance at a trophy this season. The African champions may be far from favourites to win but they have the support of an entire continent behind them.

'All eyes are on the final sixteen' (for Sporting Chic in the Sunday Guardian, December 12 2010)

The final games in the UEFA Champions League group stage were played earlier this week, thereby concluding the group stages of the tournament. After a winter break, the teams that made it to the round of 16 will play a knockout stage as either one of eight sides that finished first in their group, like Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, or as one of eight sides who finished runners up in their respective groups, which includes Arsenal, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Roma and Valencia.

The fixtures for the round of 16 are decided by a random draw that will take place at the UEFA headquarters on December 17th. Group ranking is critical to a team's hope of European glory, as one group's winner plays against the unseeded runners up in another group. Country protection is in force during this round, which means that clubs from the same nation cannot be drawn against each other. This year, that would mean that the four English teams, the three teams each from Spain and Italy, the two French and two German teams will not draw their domestic league rivals in the next round. I wonder what the European Union has to say about UEFA's take on national protectionism! With the threat of playing the fiercest teams in Europe looming large, clubs placed second in their groups will await the results of the round of 16 draw with bated breath, as will a multitude of prayers. Most sides will hope to land lesser experienced clubs that finished first, like Shakhtar Donetsk or Schalke. However, both sides won five of their six games to qualify at the top of their groups and are currently having a dream run in the Champions League. This fact should sound the warning bells for most teams that neither will be a particularly easy draw.

In the normal European scheme of things, a tie against Tottenham would be one most teams in Europe would salivate over, since most of their familiarity with European football has been acquired as a result of playing in the Europa Cup. This year, as Inter and Gareth Bale fans will testify, all bets are off at White Hart Lane as the Spurs qualified for the round of sixteen as leaders of their group ahead of defending champions Inter Milan. It comes as little surprise that Milan qualified behind group leaders Real Madrid from what was widely called 'the group of death,' while Roma and Arsenal had to wait till their final matches in the group stages to cement their qualification for the round of 16. The remaining runners up from the group stages, include Marseille, Lyon or FC Copenhagen.

Man U could draw either of the three Italian clubs, the two French sides or FC Copenhagen. There are no prizes for guessing whom Sir Alex Ferguson and United fans are hoping they draw; a trip to Denmark would be the least challenging fixture they could land. Interestingly enough, Real and Barca could face any of the same teams with the added bonus of freezing in North London to play Arsenal. I'd like to think that Arsene Wenger is excited about the possibility of the Catalan side calling at the Emirates to hand out fitting punishment for trying to wrangle his captain.  In reality, I'm sure Arsene can hold off on retribution for future acts of player-poaching and is hopeful that Santa can help the Gunners land either of the German teams to clinch their spot in the quarter finals. Inter, Roma or Milan may also play Barcelona, Chelsea, Man U or Schalke (Inter and Roma could land Real, Milan could face Tottenham). If I were supporting either of these Italian sides, I'd ready myself for some disappointment in the New Year.

And as for the clubs with the most unexpected campaigns in Champions League football in 2010, I wouldn't be half surprised if Schalke, Shakhtar Donetsk or Harry Redknapp's Tottenham side pull an upset like Liverpool circa 2005 and win the tournament this season!

Title race heats up across Europe (Sporting Chic in the Sunday Guardian, December 5 2010)

With Christmas just over a fortnight away, clubs and leagues across Europe are starting to take stock of the first four months in the race for title dominance. The title fight at the top of domestic leagues are emerging as closer then ever before and the January transfer window offers club managers the opportunity to fortify their squads and gear up for the 2011 title race. Across Europe, domestic leagues are growing increasingly more competitive. Only a few points separate the leaders in the Spanish La Liga and English Premier League from second place and third place.

Real Madrid took a battering in the first El Clasico of the season at the Nou Camp and a 4-0 victory for Barcelona ensured they went top of their league with 34 points in 13 games. Real Madrid trail the Catalan side by 2 points and Villarreal are third with 27 points. With Espanyol beating Athletico Madrid over the weekend, it’s clear that November is the month for the Catalan teams.

At the time of writing, the Italian league is emerging as the most closely contested league in Europe. AC Milan and Lazio at 30 points are tied for first spot in the Serie A, while Milan have a game in hand. Juventus and Napoli are tied for third and fourth place with 24 points while Palermo and Inter Milan follow at 23 points and Roma at 22. Eight points separate the top seven teams in Italy.

Manchester United top the English Premier League by a mere 2 points after Dimitar Berbatov’s single-handed demolition of Blackburn over the weekend. Chelsea take second place with 29 points because of goal difference, despite being tied with Arsenal on points. The surprising performance in the 2010-2011 season has been newly promoted and consistently mid-table placed Newcastle, who have already won against Arsenal at the Emirates in November.

In Eredivisie League, PSV Eindhoven lead the league on goal difference over FC Twente, and both team are tied at 34 points. FC Gronigen are in third place while Ajax trail in fourth place by a point. The Dutch league was given a much-needed boost after the Netherlands finished as runners up at the FIFA World Cup. Despite many of their players playing in leagues outside of Holland, the Dutch league

The Bundesliga is the only league in Europe at the moment where the front-runners for the title have a clear advantage over their closest competitors. Borussia Dortmund is leading with 37 points and FZ Mainz is in second place with 30 points. Bayern Munich is in fifth place in the German league with 23 points, a surprisingly dismal performance from a side that were Champions League semi-finalists last season.

While trying to understand the trend this season, the one distinct factor in 2010 that stands out when compared with the last three years was the World Cup in South Africa. A World Cup or European Champion has an impact for all team managers, a summer where all the best players from all the best clubs and leagues across the world are handed extra weeks of football and training. From the point of view of club management, this takes a far greater toll on the more successful clubs. Players injured in international duty rarely recover in time for league kickoffs in August. A successful club has far more quality in their squad and it usually these players who make it to their national teams. A victory at the World Club and the ensuing boost in confidence aside, still may have dire implications for teams in their domestic leagues. Just ask Pepe Guardiola and his Barcelona side, after all, it was the Catalan side (or rather seven of their players) that won the World Cup for Spain in South Africa. Boost of confidence and the El Clasico result aside, Barcelona is just about leading the La Liga. Germany were semi-finalists and over half the national side were Bayern Munich teammates. As they trail their league by over 14 points, it will be interesting to see whether national glory has helped this domestic side