Blatter Bigotry blasted as EU votes against foreign quotas

The European parliament dealt a blow to the misguided rants of Fifa president Sepp Blatter who planned plans to curb the number of "foreigners" at clubs.

MEPs overwhelmingly rejected by 518 votes to 49 Blatter's "6+5 rule", which tried to restrict a club to no more than five foreign players to start a match.

The European parliment resolution said "The parliament calls on the member states and sports associations not to introduce new rules that create direct discrimination based on nationality, such as Fifa's 6+5".

"It calls on the Commission to recognise the legality of measures favouring the promotion of players who have come through training schemes, such as a minimum number of locally trained players, irrespective of their nationality."

Ivo Belet, the Belgian MEP and author of the parliament's report on the future of professional football, told the assembly: "Unfortunately the 6+5 rule is not compatible with the free movement of persons in the EU. The European Treaty is very clear on this point - discrimination on the basis of nationality is not allowed and this also counts for football."

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AC Milan 4-2 Boca Juniors

Milan win FIFA World Club Championship

Finally we had a football game worth talking about at the "World Club Championships" as an aging Milan team overcame an out-of-season Boca Juniors side in the "final".

Filippo Inzaghi scored twice as AC Milan beat Boca Juniors to win the Club World Cup in Japan. Inzaghi struck after a Kaka pass on 21 minutes but Boca equalised a minute later through Rodrigo Palacio's header.

Alessandro Nesta's volley, Kaka's solo run and finish and Inzaghi's second - all in the space of 10 minutes - settled the match in Milan's favour.

Kakha Kaladze saw red, as did Boca's Pablo Ledesma, while Milan's Massimo Ambrosini scored an own goal.

So well done and congratulations to AC Milan - who learned that Paulo Maldini will be retiring at the end of the season.

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GOONER BEER RANT :

But frankly the preliminary games are a bit of a farce - and even if an upset did happen so that we did not get a Europe v South America final all it would mean is another imbalanced game in the final.

This is one FIFA turkey that will not fly - no matter how much they dress it up. Either bring over a couple more top sides for the "tournament" or stop pretending that it's anything more than a one-game title.

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2010 World Cup : Asian Seeds

The AFC have announced the seeds for the third stage of 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification.

The seeding is based on results at the finals and qualifying stages of the 2006 FIFA World Cup and will be drawn in Durban, South Africa on Sunday.

(1) Australia, (2) Korea Republic, (3) Iran, (4) Japan, (5) Saudi Arabia,
Bahrain, Uzbekistan, Kuwait, DPR Korea, China
Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Oman, UAE
Qatar, Syria, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Singapore

These 20 teams will be drawn into five groups of four with the top two sides in each group advancing to the next qualification round.

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Kaka to be FIFA World Player of the Year ?

The bookmakers have been swamped with bets on Kaka to be named Fifa World Player of the Year.

Kaka was named FIFPro world player of the year last Friday in an award voted for by 45,000 members of the players' union, and is likely to make it a double.

But if you're thinking of having a punt then you'll find that you've missed the boat as Kaka is now at an almost unbackable 2/5 (1.40) at best.

Kaka started at 7/4 but the Brazilian player is still the only player customers want to back with the only other serious contender is Cristiano Ronaldo, who is priced at 11/2, but the Manchester United star would be the first ever Premier League player to win the award.

The men's list is dominated by players who play in Europe's four biggest leagues: England, Italy, Spain and Germany. Juninho, who plays for French champion Lyon, is the only exception.

The list is currently 30-strong but the names of the three finalists will be announced in early December and the FIFA award winners will be chosen from those finalists and presented with the awards at the Zurich Opera House on Dec. 17.

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