WORLD SPORTS

Football

2009-09-01T04:15:00.000-07:00

Football (soccer) is one of the most popular games in the world. Football ignites passion and excitement amongst millions of fans across the globe who follow the sport and its skilled players.

Football is played between two teams of 11 players each. The aim of the game is to put the ball into the opponent's goal by kicking or heading it in. Only goalkeepers can use their hands to handle or block the ball.

A regular game lasts for 90 minutes, divided into two halves of 45 minutes each with an interval of 15 minutes at the half time. The team that scores the most goals wins the match.

History

The origins of football are vague. The Greeks played a game which loosely resembles its modern counterpart, as did the Romans. There are also indications that a game similar to football was played in China during the reign of Huang-Ti, the "Yellow Emperor".

The first non-university football club was founded in Sheffield in 1857 and by 1863, football leaders came together to form the Football Association in London.

Partick, Scotland was the venue for the first international football match in 1872, where Scotland drew 0-0 with England. By the first Olympic Games in 1896, football had made an impression in enough countries to be included as a demonstration sport.

Today's football governing body, the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded in Paris in 1904. Four years later, football became an official Olympic sport at the London games in 1908. Football's next big milestone was the inaugural World Cup, which first took place in Uruguay in 1930. Football made another leap when women's football was included in the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

Football has been on every Asian Games programme since the first Games in New Delhi, India, in 1951.

Rules

The 15th Asian Games will use Olympic competition rules for the men's game, which means only players under the age of 23 are allowed to compete. However, a maximum of three players who are older than that may also be included in the official squad.

The only age restriction for women's teams is that players must be 16 years or older.

In the group rounds, three points are awarded for a win, one point for a draw and zero points for a loss. Extra time consisting of two periods of 15 minutes will be used to find a winner if matches finish in draws in the final and quarter-finals. If it is still a draw after 120 minutes of play, penalty kicks will decide the winner.

Dimension

Football in Pakistan

The history of football in Pakistan is as old as the country itself. With the establishment of Pakistan in 1947, the Pakistan Football Federation came into existence on the 5th December, 1947. Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, father of the nation, was graciously pleased to become its Patron-in-Chief and the Pakistan Football Federation was recognised by the International Football Association (i.e. FIFA) in early 1948.

The Pakistan Football Federation had a chequered career to start with and in 1950, - the general meeting of the Council the Federation was recognised and put on proper footing with Alhaj Khawaja Shahabuddm. as its President. Wing Commander Soofi was unanimously elected as the Honorary Secretary.

The game was organised with the National Championship being held annually. Pakistan for the first time in 1950 sent a national team to Iran and Iraq to gain experience at the international level. In 1954 Pakistan participated in Asian Games at Manila and also toured the Far East. In 1958, Pakistan again took part in the Tokyo Asian Games. Pakistan also had been taking part in the annual Asian Quadrangular Tournament.

In Pakistan, the game has not been able to develop as smoothly as it should have developed. Pakistan's participation in international competitions has not been regular. Football has soared to new heights in the world, especially in the European and Latin American Countries. Many changes have been made in its technique. Today, a football match between two balanced sides is considered to be the most exciting spectacle on a sports field. Professionalism has given football new dimensions. But in Pakistan, the standard of football has gone downwards rather than moving up-wards.

The standard which had been achieved in the 50s, could not be maintained. Football Could not be organised on modern lines. To make the game professional in Pakistan seems a far cry. Groupism among the organisers has seriously hindered its smooth progress in Pakistan. To put the game on right path earnest efforts are the need of the hour.

Pakistan to consult sports psychologist

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he Pakistan team, following its Test and ODI series defeats in Sri Lanka, will hold counselling sessions with a sports psychologist in preparation of the ICC Champions Trophy in September. Maqbool Bari had worked with the team ahead of the ICC World Twenty20, which Pakistan went on to win, and captain Younis Khan was hopeful the time spent with a psychologist will help them achieve a similar result in the Champions Trophy.

"There is no doubt that the sessions with the psychologist helped improve the self belief and focus of the players before the T20 World Cup," Younis told Reuters. "Those sessions were one of the reasons for us showing great fighting spirit to win the T20 World Cup."

Though Pakistan ended their Sri Lankan tour on a high, winning two ODIs and a Twenty20 international in succession, their performance, when it mattered, was poor. They collapsed thrice in the first two Tests, squandering dominant positions and losing the series 2-0, and went on to lose the first three ODIs as well. The counselling sessions, Younis believed, will help his team handle pressure situations with greater ease. He has requested the PCB to arrange a schedule with a sports psychologist during a short conditioning camp to be held ahead of the Champions Trophy.

"We will have two proper counselling sessions because there is a problem with us that we tend to suffer from a mental block when it comes to handling pressure or finishing off matches," Younis said.

Pakistan's problems with their batting during the Sri Lankan tour had prompted the PCB to go on the lookout for a batting coach. Saeed Anwar has been tipped to take over that role, though the board has currently hired Javed Miandad as the team's batting adviser. Younis added that the presence of former captains Anwar and Waqar Younis at the conditioning camp would also be highly beneficial for the players. "I think our players can gain a lot by seeking advice from these former greats and a psychologist," he said. "We need these things to do well in the Champions trophy which is a mega event.

Sports Facilities

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Bird Eye View of Pakistan Sports Complex

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Prospective View of Pakistan Sports Complex

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Jinnah Stadium

Facility

Covered Area-45000 sqm.
Height-60 to 80 feets
16 Number of Enclosure
Capacity in each Enclosure-3400 approximately
Accommodation -26 bed rooms for 175 sportsmen
Reception Office
Meeting and Rest Room
TV/Radio/Telex facilities
Changing rooms

Electronic Installation

Light Control Room
Video Display and Electronic Score Board
Sound Amplification System
Supplied with 139 speakers
Area-25
Around Stadium-30
Gallery-17
Score Board-03
First Floor -58
VIP -06

Arena

Athletic Field
Synthetic Track
Football and Hockey Field

Seating Capacity

VIP - 500 seats
For General Public 48200 seats

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Liaquat Gymnasium

Facility

Covered Area-21,500 sqm.
Weight of Truss-1300 Ton

Arena

Arena-a)Size 40.50 x 25.50 M
Area 1033 SQM

Practicing Hall-a)Size 32.50 x 13.00 M
Area 442 SQM

Other Facilities

Offices, Rest and Changing Room, Cafeteria, Refreshment Rooms, Radio/TV,

Meeting Rooms, Electronic Score Boards, Centrally Air Conditioned.

Seating Capacity

VVIP - 162 seats
VIP - 512 seats
For General Public 9,549 seats

Indoor Games

Badminton, Basketball, Boxing, Gymnastic, Judo, Karate, Table Tennis, Volleyball, Weightlifting & Wrestling

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Roshan Khan Squash Complex

Facility

One Squash Court with 3 Glass Wall of International Standard
One Squash Court with Glass Wall
Two Squash Courts with Glass Wall each for Practicing purposes
Administrative Block

Seating Capacity

1500 seats
300 seats

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Hamidi Hall

	Size of Hall	32 x 24 M
	Height of Main Hall	11.65 M
	Built Up Area	2800 Sqm
	Seating Capacity for VIP	34 Seats
	Seating Capacity for General Public	245 Seats
	Total Seating Capacity	279 Seats
	Purpose of the Hall	For competitions/practicing all indoor games
	Sound Facility	Sound Amplification System with eight speakers

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Rodham Hall

	Size of Hall	32 x 24 M
	Height of Main Hall	12.00 M
	Built Up Area	2800 Sqm
	Seating Capacity of VIP and General Public	300 Seats
	Purpose of the Hall	For competitions/practicing all indoor games
	Ground Floor	Office, Conference room with attached bath, Record room, Registration room, toilets, changing rooms, lockers (2 sets)
	First Floor	Offices (two numbers), Kitchen, Gyser room (two numbers), Terrace, Commentator both
	2nd Floor	Overhead water tank 1500 Gln.

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Jinnah Fitness Centre

One Fitness Centre is available equipped with the latest fitness machines.

Outer Tartan Track

Six lanes athletics standard tartan track with international specifications. In addition two jumping pits shot put/discuss throwing facilities are also available. Washrooms and changing rooms facilities is operational near the track.

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Outer Football Ground

Outer Football Ground with spectators and other facilities are available.

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Sand Volleyball Court

One Sand Volleyball Court is available.

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Snooker Hall

One Snooker Hall is available.

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Basketball Courts

4 cemented Basketball Courts are available.

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Tennis Courts

Four Tennis Courts with Spectators stands and allied facilities are available.

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Naseer Bunda Hockey Stadium

The stadium has a main pavilion and is equipped with one office room and two changing rooms.

Each changing room has a number of cupboards and separate attached bathrooms/toilets. One public toilet for organizers, players and spectators is also available.

There are steps inside the stadium for about 2000 spectators in addition to Jury Stand and Team Stands.

The stadium has also multi entrance gates.

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Swimming Pool

Competition Pool

An RCC Structure 50 metre long and 21 metre wide with the provision of 8 Swimming Lanes and for Water Polo and other water events competitions. Starting Blocks are provided on either side of the pool. Electronic timing equipment procured from OMEGA Switzerland has been installed for recording the computerized timing of swimmers. Maximum depth is 3.5 m.

Diving Pool

An RCC Structure 25 metre long and 21 metre wide having a water depth of 5.0 to 5.5 metre with a diving tower and diving platforms at height of 1 metre, (2 Nos) 5 metre, 7.5 metre and 10 metre. Air nozzles have been fixed at the bottom for wave making.

Water Treatment and Power Distribution Block

This building houses the water filtration, sterilization, re-circulation, heating and power distribution of facilities, heating and power distribution of facilities of the complex. Heading of pool water is done by 3 heaters and the temperature of water is kept between 24C - 27C according to International standards. Independent system for Chlorination filtration, overflow, circulation backwash is provided for each pool. A panel board, control deck and transformer are also available.

Facilities for Swimmers

The facilities are Change Rooms, Rest Rooms, Showers, First-aids, Registry and Inquiry Room etc. These facilities are used by the swimmers while practicing and selection for National/International events.

Practicing Pool

An RCC Structure 50 metre long and 21 metre wide having 8 lanes. This is being used for practice and warm up during competitions and has been commercialized for General Public.

The Practice Pool was converted into a covered pool. Two major requirements for the provision of pardah for lady swimmers and to control temperature during cold season has been achieved

Children Pools

Three small pool for children of following sizes are completed:-

• 12m x 12m x 0.5m
• 6m x 6m x 0.3 m
• 5m dia metre x 0.3m

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Allama Iqbal Hostel

Facility

90 Residential Rooms, Offices, Recreation Rooms, Dinning Hall, Lobbies etc. all centrally heated and has built in system of telephone.

Ground Floor

Offices, Reception Rooms, Bed Rooms, Meeting Rooms, Stores, Lavatory, Bath Rooms, Dining Hall, Kitchen, Switch Room, Transformer Room, Drinking Room, Telephone and Boiler House etc.

First, Second and Third Floor

Each floor 28 rooms with attached bath and stores.

For Practicing All Indoor Games

Size of Hall-32 x 24 M
Height of Main Hall-11.65 M
Bungalow Portion
Offices, Rest and Changing Rooms, Steam Bath Room, Head Exchange Room
Conference Room
Ancillary Building
Water Tower- 45,000 Gallons
Under Ground Water Tanks- 4.35 lacs Gallons
Cooling Tower, Refrigeration Plant House, Boiler House etc.

Accommodation

Residential accommodation for 200 sportsmen

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Fatima Jinnah Hostel

Facility

20 - Double Bed and 20 - Four Bed Dormitories with attached bath and 6 VIP Rooms with attached bath, Recreation Room, Large Lobby/Circulation, a Dinning Hall with Self Service Counter, Kitchen, Stores, Staff Residences and allied facilities.

Ground Floor

Offices, Visitors Lounge, Stores, Dinning Hall, Lobby, Kitchen, Pantry, Washing Room, 6 VIP Rooms with attached baths, 24 Bed Dormitories with attached bath, Corridor and Lounge etc.

First Floor

16 Bed Dormitories with attached bath, Card Room, Indoor Games Hall, Lobby, Library and Open Terrace.

Accommodation

Residential accommodation for 120 sportswomen

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Membership charges of Sports Facilities

Badminton, Basketball, Jogging, Squash,
Tennis and Comprehensive

Fee structure

1	Comprehensive	Pakistan Foreigner	Rs. 7,500/- Rs. 10, 000/-	Rs. 800/- Rs. 1,000/-
2	Tennis	Pakistan Foreigner	Rs. 3,000/- Rs. 4,000/-	Rs. 300/- Rs. 450/-
3	Squash	Pakistan Foreigner	Rs. 5,000/- Rs. 7,000/-	Rs. 700/- Rs. 1,000/-
4	Badminton	Pakistan Foreigner	Rs. 2,000/- Rs. 5,000/-	Rs. 500/- Rs. 800/-
5	Table Tennis	Pakistan Foreigner	Rs. 1,000/- Rs. 2,000/-	Rs. 400/- Rs. 600/-
6	Jogging	Pakistan Foreigner	Rs. 500/- Rs. 500/-	Rs. 250/- Rs. 250/-
7	Basketball	Pakistan Foreigner	Rs. 500/- Rs. 1,000/-	Rs. 300/- Rs. 500/-
Team Membership		Pakistan Foreigner	Rs. 1,000/- Rs. 2,000/-	Rs. 800/- Rs. 1,500/

General Instructions
1.	Monthly fee will be paid member before 5 nth of every month.
2.	The administration will not be responsible for loss of valuables.
3.	Misbehavior in the PSB premises will lead to immediate termination of membership.
4.	Pakistan Sports Board will not be held responsible for any mishap during the use of its premises.
5.	Membership can be cancelled if monthly fee is not paid more then three months.
6.	Member will ensure timing for various facilities as announced by PSB from time to time.
7.	One or all the Facilities will be closed on requirement of the Board at a short notice.
8.	The members inside the venues will use proper kit / dress.
9.	Nobody is allowed to bring any type of firearm inside the PSB premises. The Membership shall stand canceled in case of violation.
10.	The administration has the rights of cancel the membership without assigning any reason.

Membership Form

	Download a form of membership of Comprehensive

Swimming Pool

Fee structure

1.	ENTRANCE FEE (NON REFUNDABLE )
	a)	Pakistani (Single)/(Family)	Rs.06,000.00	Yearly
	b)	Foreigner	Rs.10,000.00	-do-

2.	MONTHLY FEE (FOR ADULTS)
	a)	Summer Season (Pakistani)	Rs.500.00
	b)	Summer Season (Foreigner)	Rs.900.00
	c)	Winter Season (Pakistani)	Rs.600.00
	d)	Winter Season (Foreigner)	Rs.1100.00

3.	MONTHLY FEE FOR CHILDERN
	a)	5-8 years (Summer Seaason)

	i)	Pakistani	Rs.300.00
	ii)	Foreigner	Rs.350.00

	b)	8-12 years

	i)	Summer Season (Pakistani)	Rs.400.00
	ii)	Summer Season (Foreigner)	Rs.450.00
	iii)	Winter Season (Pakistani)	Rs.400.00
	iv)	Winter Season (Foreigner)	Rs.650.00

4.	LOCKER'S MONTHLY FEE		Rs.100.00
5.	DUPLICATE CARD FEE in case of original card is lost/damaged.		Rs.200.00

6.	Monthly fee is payable by the 5 th of each month in advance.

7.	Members shall have to pay monthly fee in any case whether the facility is used by them or not.

8.	Membership will stand cancelled automatically if the monthly fee is not paid for three consecutive months. The member will have to get membership afresh by paying Entry Fee as above or otherwise sanctioned by competent authority. No exemption in monthly fee is allowed under any circumstances.

General Instructions

9.	Members are requested to use 'SHOWERS' before entering the swimming pool/after use.

10.	There is one year concessional package of Rs.12000/- for adults and Rs.9500/- for child aged 8-12 years.

11.	The administration will NOT be responsible for any loss of valuables and other personal affects/Veh.etc.

12.	Misbehaviour in the Swimming Pool Complex premises will head to immediate termination of membership.

13.	The Membership of the Swimming Pool Complex entitles the members of the use of Practice Swimming Pool only, and in case, where admissible, Children's Pool. The main Competition and the Diving Pools are out of bound for all the members. Children upto age of 8 years are not allowed in the main Pools.

14.	The institute will not be responsible for any mishap during use of the Pools.

15.	Concessional rates will be offered for re-registration (active members only).

16.	Daughters over 25 years ans sons over 18 years will not be registered under family membership.

17.	Children upto 5 years age will not be registered.

18.	Timings and other instructions are often notified on notice boards hanged outside the Pools from time to time.

19.	DG/PSB is competent to change fee structure and pool timings at any time.

Membership Form

	Download a form of membership of Swimming Pools

SPORTS CALENDAR 2009

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	Athletics Federation of Pakistan
		Pakistan Badminton Federation
		Pakistan Amateur Basketball Federation
		Pakistan Federation Baseball
		Pakistan Billiards & Snooker Association
		Pakistan Bodybuilding Federation
		Pakistan Boxing Federation
		Pakistan Bridge Federation
		Chess Federation of Pakistan
		Pakistan Cycling Federation
		Equestrian Federation of Pakistan
		Pakistan Football Federation
		Pakistan Golf Federation
		Pakistan Gymnastic Federation
		Pakistan Amateur Handball Federation
		Higher Education Commission
		Pakistan Hockey Federation
		Inter Board Committee of Chairman
		Pakistan Judo Federation
		Pakistan Kabaddi Federation
		Pakistan Karate Federation
		Pakistan Polo Federation
		Pakistan Rugby Union
		Pakistan Sailing Federation
		Services Sports Control Board
		Ski Federation of Pakistan
		Pakistan Squash Federation
		Pakistan Swimming Federation
		Pakistan Table Tennis Federation
		Pakistan Taekwondo Federation
		Pakistan Tennis Federation
		Pakistan Volleyball Federation
		Pakistan Weightlifting Federation
		Pakistan Wrestling Federation
		Pakistan Wushu (Kung Fu) Federation

History of National Games

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The father of the Nation Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had a great love for sports and fully released the vital role it played in the development of Nations and inculcation of discipline among the masses. In a meeting with the Organizing Committee of the First Pakistan Olympic Games held at Karachi the Quaid-i-Azam said to the first President of Pakistan Olympic Association Mr. Ahmed E.H. Jaffar :
	"Dedicate yourself to sports promotion, for when you and I are gone, leadership will go into the hands of Youth, and Youth is our wealth, a raw material, that must be hammered into shape, into burnished steel to strive and smite in defence - the defence of the integrity and solidarity of Pakistan - the defence of the ideology of Pakistan."

Quaid-i-Azam with the members of the First Pakistan Olympic Association 1948
The first National Games were held at Polo Ground, Karachi from 23rd to 25th April, 1948. Sportsmen and officials from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and all the integrated Provincial units of West Pakistan took part in these Games. The total number of athletes was 140. No competitors were, however, invited from any foreign country. Competitions were held in Track and Field, Basketball, Boxing, Cycling, Volleyball, Weightlifting and Wrestling. On April 23, 1948 our beloved Father of the Nation drove - in - state, to declare the Games open. Quaid-i-Azam gave the following message on the occasion:-
Quaid-i-Azam declares the 1st Pakistan National Games open		"For sound minds we should have sound bodies and that is why nations the world over attach so much importance to bodybuilding and physical culture, The Pakistan Olympic Games should set an incentive to all Pakistan Nationals to emulate the Olympic Motto "CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS" i.e. "FASTER, HIGHER AND STRONGER". I wish the organizers of the Games and all competitors of the Games and all competitors the best luck, Build up Pakistan Higher, Firmer and Strong".

The overall championship was won by the Punjab contingent. The Quaid-i-Azam donated a "Challenge Shield" from his private funds which bears his illustrious name.
	Quaid-i-Azam Trophy
Quaid-i-Azam's philosophy about Pakistan Youth, is expressed most forcefully in a letter he sent to the late Mr. M. A. Khaliq, the Organizing Secretary of the First Pakistan Olympic Games in May, 1948.
	"Well, we have crossed hurdles and breasted the tape at the 'Wining Post', this the people say in smugness. I maintain that we have only run the first lap of marathon relay race. I have passed the baton to others to dash on from lap to lap, determined and dedicated, United and Disciplined, with faith in themselves and God".
Your race to destiny, shall be calculatingly cluttered wit obstacles, and if you have Unity, Faith and Discipline, nothing will ever stop you from becoming sturdy and strong. Strength alone is an effective deterrent to aggression. Build leadership on the play fields, and try to become good followers. Remember no one can ever command, who does not learn how to obey. Be a builder. Build for others. Pakistan National Games are the most prestigious event of our National Sports Calendar which are organized under the aegis of Pakistan Olympic Association biennually in rotation in collaboration with the respective Provincial Olympic Associations and Provincial Governments. In these Games all the affiliated units of Pakistan Olympic Association take part.

Olympic Games

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Introduction

On 6 April 1896 at Athens, King George I of Greece opened the Ist Olympic Games of modern times. An audience of over 60,000 had gathered in the city's newly refurbished Panathinaiko Stadium to witness the opening ceremony. The Games had been reintroduced, after a gap of 1503 years, on a much larger scale this time, inviting the whole world.

Panathinaiko Stadium

This time, 14 nationalities participated in 43 events. A total of 241 athletes (all male) participated. Jim Connolly (USA) won the triple jump and thus became the Ist Olympic Champion in modern history. 108 years later, Games were again organized in Athens. 202 NOC's participated in 28 sports, 37 disciplines and 301 events. A total of 10,975 athletes besides officials participated in the games.

Jim Connlly

Ever since their renaissance over 100 years ago, Olympic Games have become the greatest sports event in the world. No matter how many world or continental championship wins an athlete may gain, to compete in the Olympic Games will remain his or her supreme ambition and a lifetime dream.

Ancient Olympics

The Heritage of the Games

A few Arcadian deserters came in - men who had nothing to live on and wanted employment; they were taken to Xerxes and questioned about what the Greeks were doing. There was one Persian in particular who put the question, and he was told in reply that the Greeks were celebrating the Olympic festival, where they were watching athletic contests and chariot-races. When he asked what the prize was for which they contended, the Arcadians mentioned the wreath of olive-leaves which it is our custom to give. This drew from Tritanaechmes, the son of Artabanus, a remark which proved his true nobility of character-though it made Xerxes call him a coward; for when he learned that the prize was not money but a wreath, he could not help crying out in front of everybody, God heavens, Mardonius, what kind of men are these that you have brought us to fight against-men who compete with one another for no material reward, but only for honour !

Herodotus

Battle of Marathon

And these men of honour confront the Persian Army (for Greece and Persia were the two super powers to the then known world) and in the 'Battle of Marathon' Greek forces attained a victory in 490 B.C. Phadaphides (the messenger) runs 26 miles (42.195 Km) carrying the message of victory to the King at the court in Athens. "We have won", he delivers the message, drops and dies.'Marathon race' is being run by almost all nationalities World over today. It is being run over centuries now, following the footprints of Phadaphides , distance remaining the same. During 28 Olympic Games, Marathon race was run on its actual course, the course followed by Phadaphides 2495 years ago. Message of victory run was converted into an Athletic event. Such was the relationship between Athletics and the Greek culture.

Concept

Athletics, as a vehicle of the Greek ideal and not just a physical exertion of the body is rooted in ancient Greece. Athletics is part of the concept and goal of upbringing and education. The Olympic Games not only promoted the Greek type of body, but also cultivated competition, elevated Greek art and bonded Greek people together.

Classical Greece provided the model for the perfect and ideal man in its search for morality and physical perfection. This is the notion of the Greek ideal of Kalokagathia (Benevolence) , a classic humanistic ideal, inherent in the Olympic Games. The broad range of varied athletic events included in the ancient Olympics lasted for more than a thousand years and was the epitome of the ancient Greek way of life.

Olympia's ancient past holds eternal elements of a lasting worth and to evaluate them is to acquire a deeper knowledge of modern man. These symbolic ideals stemming out of the sacred place of antiquity, and the institution of the ancient Olympic Games are something the modern world looks to even today.

Greek classical tradition considered athletics an inextricable part of social and religious life. Today, the Olympic Games are a multi-faceted cosmopolitan event. The legendary name "Olympics", however, is still a reference to the origins of the Games despite the fact that the modern day Olympics are a far cry from their ancient forerunner. In the mind of the reviver of the modern Olympic Games, Pierre De Coubertin , and the supporters of the Olympic movement, Olympia was the place they always returned to in search of the humanistic ideals underlying the concept.

Pierre De Coubertin

After establishing the torch-bearing race in 1936 , every four years the eyes of the contemporary world turns to Olympia since this is where the flame of the winter and summer Olympic Games is kept burning, thus reminding us of the concepts on which the modern games are founded.

The Olympic Games target young and old alike while billions of viewers worldwide tune in to the televised games. The five circles of the Olympics emblem is one of the mostly widely recognized the world over while the ancient custom of truce during the Olympic Games is a lesson we can learn from and claim for our times. "I walk among the ancient ruins of the Games" , wrote Coubertin in 1927 during one of his visits to ancient Olympia. "They seem like dead giants, lying in the place where they battled and struggled, with the will to survive drawn upon their faces. I can almost hear the buzz of the Olympic Games coming from the banks of the Cladeus river, the notes from the trumpets and lyres still suspended in the air. I can just see the men and the women, the riverbanks swarming with animals and people, their colourful robes shimmering in the brilliant sun".

Greece's hosting of the 2004 Olympic Games gave thousands of visitors the opportunity to visit the sacred site of ancient Olympia. And if some restless souls could hear to the footfalls of the athletes still racing around the ancient stadium, then they could very well perceive the dream of the romantic reviver of the Olympics, who may also seem just a bit 'ancient' in the eyes of modern day viewers watching the Olympics in the comfort of their homes.

History

A great universal event, such as the Olympic Games, could not have been created in just one era. The first Olympic Games were born of myths but also sprang from tangible realities and hard work of years. According to legend, the first to compete at ancient Olympia, Greece were the Gods of Mt.Olympus.

Zeus

'Zeus' fought with 'Cronus' for the throne of the Gods and commemorated his win by creating the Games during which 'Apollo' beat 'Hermes' in stadium running, and 'Ares' in Boxing. Another legend has it that the first of Iliads 'Aethios' founded the first games in the area, lending his name to the World Athletes.

According to another myth, the demi-god 'Hercules' founded the Games. And there are so many other myths.

Hercules

According to the earliest written records, the ancient Olympic Games date back to 776 BC. The ancient plains of Olympia, famous as the location of magnificent temples dedicated to the god Zeus and the goddess Hera , served as the Games' permanent site. For nearly 12 centuries, the Games were staged every four years, until the Roman Emperor Theodosius prohibited their continuation, believing them to be a "pagan" ritual attracting excessive public attention on athletic and spiritual affairs.

The fact that the ancient Games were dedicated to the Greek gods made he competition a strongly religious event, combining spiritual aspects of various theological rituals with the trials of sport.

Programme of Events

As the Games developed, so did a framework of procedures that remained largely unchanged throughout the duration of the
ancient Games: -

Day one The oath, the animal sacrifices.

Second day , Sprint, Wrestling, Boxing, Pangratio.

Day three Chariot races, the Long Jump, Discus Throw, Javelin Throw, Sprints.

Day four Hecatomb, Sprints, Diavlos, Long distance race, Wrestling, Boxing, Pangratio, Footrace in armour.

Fifth day winners enter the temple of Zeus. Award ceremony.

Ancient Contests

Athletics Take Shape . The athletic contests in ancient Greece were part of the religious rituals. Their aim was two-fold: to honour the heroes and gods and to educate young men and prepare them for battle. The contests were modeled on survival and defence techniques.

Foot racing . Running, was a vital need and that is why it was the first and only contest in the first thirteen Olympiads. The distance run by the athletes was 600 feet long or one stadium (192.27 meters). This unit of measurement, the stadium, also lent its name to the place in which the games were held. The next two games to appear in the early Olympiads were the Diavlos (two stadiums in length) and Dolichos (twenty stadiums) included during 524 BC and 520 BC respectively.

Much later, we have the introduction of the hoplite footrace in which the athletes competed in full army regalia (helmet, shield and shin guards) running two to four stadiums, thus transferring military exercises to athletics, which in fact was also considered to be true of other events as well.

Pentathlon . Was introduced during the 18 th Olympiad (708 BC) and it included five separate contests: foot racing, javelin and discus throwing, jumping and wrestling. This combination of contests aimed at the balanced development of physical skills, one of the highest ideals in athletics, the javelin and discus throwing and wrestling are very similar to what they are today. Jumping, however, is different now a days from what it was in antiquity. They jumped carrying weights to give the athletes momentum while their attempts were accompanied by flute playing.

Boxing . The forerunner of modern-day boxing, the hands were wrapped in straps of leather and later in Roman Times, the athletes wore special boxing gloves reinforced with iron and lead. Boxing was introduced during 688 BC.

Wrestling . Included during 632 BC.

Pankratio . Was a dangerous sport, a cross between Wrestling and Boxing and was the harshest of all the events. All holds were allowed, while only the use of teeth and nails was forbidden. The event was introduced during 648 BC.

Horse Racing and Chariot Racing . Introduced after the 25 th Olympiad. These were particularly popular contests with a long tradition, and were considered aristocratic since the upkeep of horses was a costly affair. Championships for heralds and trumpeters were added during the 96 th Olympiad and they demonstrated the significance the ancients placed on music.

There were eventually a total of 23 different events included in the programme throughout the entire history of the ancient games. However, all of them were never held at one time.

Participation more important than Victory . The concept of amateurism was very much alive in classical Greece, but in a different guise than it is today. Champions were not allowed to profit at the ancient Games, but there was an expectation that they would benefit upon a "heroic" return to their own city-states. At the ancient Olympic Games, the ultimate prize was the awarding of an olive wreath (kotinos ). 'Kotinos' is a universal symbol, indicating freedom, hope and simplicity. Indeed, such was the level of acclaim given to victors that three-time winners often had statues of themselves erected. Winners also received various gifts and honours, including exemption from taxation. With the displacement of the amateur ideal by professional athletes competing for monetary rewards, the Games fell into decline.

Women's Games . Married women were not allowed to participate in or to watch the ancient Olympic Games. However, maidens could indeed attend the competition, and the Priestess of Demeter , goddess of fertility, was given the honoured seating next to the Stadium altar. Although the ancient Olympic Games did not allow for female participation, the Herea Games, staged every four years to honour Hera, wife of Zeus , gave female athletes the chance to compete.

The Ancient Olympic Games Discontinued . The four year cycle of the ancient Olympic Games continued unbroken (with over 290 Games being held) well into the period of Roman conquest, but the Games finally met their demise with the Christian Emperor Theodosius, who decreed in 393 AD that all such 'pagan cults' be banned. The games came to an end after a life span of 1170 years.

Prominent Olympians . Few prominent Olympians of the ancient Olympics were:-

Koroibos of Elis , the winner of stadion during 776 BC.

Leonidas of Rodes finished first in three of the running events in four successive games from 164 -152 BC.

Hermogenes of Xanthos, won 8 crowns in three successive games 81-89 AD.

Polites won three running events during one day in AD 69 and was called 'traistes or tripler'.

Milon of Kroton won six successive men's titles in wrestling between 540-516 BC.

Revival . Although the person credited with re-introducing the Olympic Games to the modern world is the French Baron Pierre de Coubertin , classical Greek archaeology may have provided a stimulus of its own. The ancient site of Olympia, buried under river-silt until its rediscovery in 1766, was no significant site for explorations and excavations until the 1870's. Under the leadership of the German archaeologist, Ernst Curtius , the site revealed many treasures, including a splendid sculpture of Hermes retrieved from the temple of Hera. Some historians contend that Curtius , inspired by his marvelous findings at Olympia, made the initial suggestion to revive the ancient Olympic games - an idea brought to fruition by Coubertin .

Whatever the source of his inspiration, it was Baron Pierre de Coubertin who was ultimately responsible for reviving the Games. His enthusiasm for the Games derived from its similarities to the French education system in combining games with moral and social education . It was Coubertin who established the modern Olympic Games as a marriage of sportsmanship and Hellenic classicism. Following two international meetings of the "Union des Societes Francaises de Sports Athletiques" (USFSA) at Sorbonne in 1892 and 1894,where Coubertin first tabled, and later refined and enlarged upon his proposals, the movement of Olympic revival was born.

The International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Movement . On 23 June 1894, Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC), an international non-governmental, non-profit organisation charged with the responsibility of supervising and organizing the Olympic Games. Coubertin then founded the Olympic Movement, which currently consists of the IOC, the International Sports Federations, the National Olympic Committees, the Organising Committees for the Olympic Games, the National Sports Associations and other clubs, and, of course, the athletes themselves.

THE FIRST OLYMPIC GAMES

On 6 April 1896, an estimated crowd of 60,000 gathered to watch the Games-quite possible one of the largest peaceful public gatherings of its time. The first modern Olympic Games featured over 40 events in ten sports. Some records suggest that while 14 nations were represented, over two thirds of the competing athletes were Greek. Most of the sporting events were made up of individual competitions, the only team event being gymnastics. Although the running, wrestling, long jump and discus throwing events survived from the ancient Games, many of the other competitions, such as fencing, cycling and shooting were new to the modern Games.

Ever since 1896, the Games have become a regular feature, putting together the most handsome, the smartest, the best in the world. They invite the athletes, the officials, the organisers, the engineers, the doctors, the media men and people from all walks of life. It is a call to humanity, irrespective of cast, creed and culture. It is a call for educating minds, it is a call for unification, for wherein, the religions, casts and cultures divide, sports unite.

For wherein, Athens Olympics is numbered as 28 th ,in fact it is 25 th in the series, for 6 th , 12th and 13 th could not be organized because of the world wars.

THE FLAG, MOTTO, ANTHEM & OATH

The Olympic Flag . It was Pierre de Coubertin who conceived the idea of the Olympic flag (five coloured interlocking rings on a white background). Almost a century after the flag's creation, the six colours, those of the rings (blue, yellow, black, green, red) and that of the background, still maintain their symbolism as they are found on all the flags of the world. The Olympic symbol, the five interlocking rings, represents the union of the five continents and the meeting of the athletes of the world at the Olympic Games.

The Olympic Games Motto . The Motto of the Olympic Games is Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger).

The Olympic Anthem . The Olympic hymn was written by the Greek national poet, Costis Palamas, with music composed by Spiros Samaras and was first sung at the 1896 Games. It was during the 1958 Olympic Games in Tokyo that the IOC adopted this hymn as the official Olympic anthem.

The Olympic Creed . The 1896 Games was also the birthplace of the Olympic creed. As stated by Pierre de Coubertin, the creed is as follows: " The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well ".

The Olympic Oath . At the Opening Ceremony of each Games one athlete from the host country gives the Olympic oath on behalf of all the competing athletes. This particular gesture of sportsmanship was introduced at the 1920 Games in Belgium. The words of the oath are:

"In the name of all the competitors, I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams".

A coach or team official takes a similar oath at each Opening Ceremony.

The Olympic Flame and Torch . The Olympic flame is one of the most visible symbols of the modern Games. Its tradition has survived from the Games of ancient Greece, where as sacred flame, ignited by the sun, burned continually on the altar of the goddess Hera. The modern Olympic flame was first lit in 1928 at the Amsterdam Olympic Games , where it burned throughout the Games. The flame embodies the ideals of purity, the endeavour for perfection, the struggle for victory, friendship and peace - all themes of the Olympic Games. The tradition of the Olympic torch began at the Berlin Games in 1936. As in ancient times, the torch is lit by the sun in ancient Olympia and then passed from runner to runner in a relay to the host city, where it is used to light the Olympic Stadium's flame during the Games Opening Ceremony. The flame then burns until it is extinguished at the Closing Ceremony. In August 2004 the Olympic torch was lit for the first time since the revival of the modern Olympic Games, in the country of their birth.

Olympic Truce . The Olympic Truce, or " Ekecheiria ", as it is called in Greek, has its origins in the ancient Olympic Games, where warring states would lay down their arms seven days prior to, during and seven days after the Games for the sake of peaceful competition. Greece, in cooperation with the IOC, had set up an Olympic Truce Foundation to promote this practice for the modern Games. Leading figures - including former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, ATHENS 2004. President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, Minister of Foreign Affairs George Papandreou, and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan joined together on 10 May 2001 to address the UN General Assembly on this noble initiative. The Torch Relay is closely connected to this effort. For the 2004 Olympic Games, the torch, a symbol of global unity, brotherhood and peace, traveled to all five continents, and for the first time in history visited the continents of Africa and Latin America.

Editions

1896 Olympic Games at Athens
1900 Olympic Games at Paris
1904 Olympic Games at St. Louis
1908 Olympic Games at London
1912 Olympic Games at Stockholm
1916 Olympic Games - Not held
1920 Olympic Games at Antwerp
1924 Olympic Games at Paris
1928 Olympic Games at Amsterdam
1932 Olympic Games at Los Angeles
1936 Olympic Games at Berlin
1940 Olympic Games - Not held
1944 Olympic Games - Not held
1948 Olympic Games at London
1952 Olympic Games at Helsinki
1956 Olympic Games at Melbourne
1960 Olympic Games at Rome
1964 Olympic Games at Tokyo
1968 Olympic Games at Mexico
1972 Olympic Games at Munich
1976 Olympic Games at Montreal
1980 Olympic Games at Moscow
1984 Olympic Games at Los Angeles
1988 Olympic Games at Seoul
1992 Olympic Games at Barcelona
1996 Olympic Games at Atlanta
2000 Olympic Games at Sydney
2004 Olympic Games at Athens
2008 Olympic Games at China

Introduction to Pakistan Sports Board

2009-09-01T03:57:00.001-07:00

Pakistan Sports Board was established under the Ministry of Education through the Sports (Development and Control) Ordinance, 1962 as a corporate body for the purposes of promoting and developing uniform standards of competition in sports in Pakistan comparable to the standards prevailing internationally, and regulating and controlling sports in Pakistan on a national basis.

Subsequently, in July, 1977 with the creation of Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the administrative control of the Pakistan Sports Board was transferred to it.

The Board has a General Body, with its Headquarters at Islamabad. The General Body consists of 35 members. It lays down the policy and 12 members Executive Committee implements this policy.

Pakistan Sports Board being the supreme body of sports monitors the activities/affairs of National Sports Federations affiliated to it and ensure proper utilization of annual and special grants given by the Board. The annual grants are released to the National Federations to meet their day to day expenses whereas special grants are meant for participation and holding of international sports events. These grants are allocated/approved by the Executive Committee of Pakistan Sports Board keeping in view the popularity of games, achievements of international level and activities of the Federations. At present, 40 National Sports Federations are affiliated with the Board. Each Federation is responsible for promotion and development of its respective game/sports.

Athletes and Sports Team - Join Team Blue

2009-09-01T03:53:00.000-07:00

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Aston Villa Atone for Midweek Glitch

2009-09-01T03:50:00.000-07:00

The pain that accompanied Aston Villa's exit from the Europa League will linger for a while longer but when Martin O'Neill recalls elimination at the hands of Rapid Vienna in months to come he might also remember the three victories that arrived in the space of seven days. This was the latest of the trio of wins and included the rare sight of Gabriel Agbonlahor scoring at Villa Park, the first time the forward has managed to do so this year.

Villa, in truth, could not have made a better start. There were less than three minutes on the clock when John Paintsil headed into his own net after Carlos Cuéllar flicked on Ashley Young's corner at the near post. It was a soft goal to concede and one that Fulham had good reason to lament, not least because possession had been so needlessly squandered in the lead-up to the corner, when Mark Schwarzer sliced Aaron Hughes's back-pass behind.

It should have been the platform for Villa to take control against a laboring Fulham side but the home team seemed reluctant to grab the game by the scruff of the neck. Steve Sidwell shot over in the seventh minute, when he ought to have forced Schwarzer into a save, and the debutant Ciaran Clark also missed the target with a free header. Later in the half, Dickson Etuhu was fortunate to see a downward header bounce over his own crossbar.

In that sense the warning signs were there for Fulham long before Agbonlahor added a second. Set up by James Milner, the striker picked the ball up midway inside his half before striding forward into the space that Fulham's defence afforded him and unleashing a powerful left-footed shot from 22 yards that fizzed inside Schwarzer's near post.

Rafael Nadal Returns Fit and Fresh for Flushing Meadows Challenge

2009-09-01T03:49:00.000-07:00

Any of Rafael Nadal's rivals who stole a peek at the Spaniard in practice at Flushing Meadows may have gone away muttering to themselves in annoyance. The former world No1 has raised his practice routine back to its pre-injury level and he has declared himself fully fit for an assault on the US Open crown, the only grand slam title he has yet to win.

Nadal has played just two events since missing Wimbledon because of tendinitis in both knees, and he admitted today that it will take him time to regain top form. But the knees are no longer giving him trouble and since he is fresh after his time off he is likely to be a big danger once more, not least to Andy Murray. The two are seeded to face each other in the semi-finals.

"When you come back after an injury, you start slow always," he said. "You have to be progressive, but I am like normal right now. [On Saturday] I practised for two hours and a half. [Today] I practiced two hours, so I am feeling really well."

In his absence, Roger Federer regained his world No1 ranking, but if there were any mental scars from Nadal's time away, resting in Mallorca while Federer won a record 15th grand slam title at Wimbledon, they have gone now. "Psychologically for me now, I am perfect," he said. "After an important stop, I came back with more energy than ever. Probably I need more time to be ready, to get the rhythm, to play your best tennis, but the energy and desire is 100%."

Nadal, whose semi-final showing last year was his best US Open effort, begins his title bid against Richard Gasquet of France either on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The Bloody Mess Rugby's in

2009-09-01T03:48:00.000-07:00

What on earth has happened to rugby union? The nation's preferred outdoor pastime for burly, personable men of vaguely military bearing kicked off its new season this weekend, if not exactly in crisis, then in a state of some distress. Usually rugby disappears altogether during its summer recess, a period of welcome respite during which it can untape its ears, remove the protective skullcap from its steaming crown and steel itself for the rigours of the autumn. Not so this year, during an extraordinary summer that has seen English rugby windmilling its way from crisis to black-eye to scarcely credible pantomime-cheating scandal.

Most obvious in all this was the incident now known as Bloodgate, the extraordinary saga of Harlequins winger Tom Williams and the vampire blood capsule. Last week Quins coach and former England great Dean Richards – lovable, ambling, mild-mannered Dean Richards – was banned from the sport for three years after it emerged he had overseen a regime of dastardly and opportunist manipulation of the rules on replacing players with "blood injuries". The Bloodgate investigation centred on a Heineken Cup match last April, during which Williams was ordered to bite on a blood capsule – bought in bulk from a joke shop in Clapham Junction by club physiotherapist Steph Brennan – in order to allow a potentially more effective replacement to enter the field. Williams duly chomped his capsule while he was buried at the bottom of a ruck (after initially dropping it in the mud) and left the field with suspiciously scarlet Halloween-style gore dribbling from his lip.

A Quins club doctor was then pressurized into cutting Williams's lip with a scalpel before the injury could be formally inspected. Four unnamed Harlequins players have since admitted getting up to similar tricks in other matches. And suddenly rugby – a sport that seemed to be populated until fairly recently by jolly decent-seeming chartered surveyors with cauliflower ears and policemen who liked a pint – has started to look a little suspect.

The early rush to understand not just how but why this could have happened has circled around the two explanations. The first paints the previously revered Richards as a blackguard and a tyrant, a chillingly bloodless despot, amoral, diabolical and smelling strongly of sulphur. Williams's evidence at his disciplinary hearing has been hungrily seized upon. "There was no doubt he was the boss . . . I do not think I have ever seen another player challenge Dean's authority." The notion of a sole satanic mastermind might be seductive, but it all seems a little too easy.

The second explanation suggests the corruption could be more widespread and is to do with money. The Heineken Cup is rugby's headline TV rights-fueled beano, its Champions League. The match against Leinster was a quarter final, and hugely important financially to a club skating on fine, albeit revenue-heavy margins. Mark Evans, Harlequins's chief executive, would later tell Williams's lawyer that dragging the fake gore incident out into the open could see the club lose £2m in revenue if it were to be expelled from the competition, leading directly to redundancies and relegation. This year will see the Heineken Cup enter its 15th season. Money came late to rugby. But money ruins everything. Perhaps money has already ruined rugby.

The truth is probably somewhere in between these two explanations. What emerges above all is a picture of a group of people not really in control of what they're doing. The capsule itself was a hare-brained piece of subterfuge: even as he left the field – openly winking at his replacement – opposition players were pointing out that Williams's blood was clearly fake. Player and club doctor then panicked: the attempt to cut Williams's lip was unplanned, and initially botched. Above all, the balance of risk and reward seems totally skewed. The potential gains of getting Williams off the pitch and another player on in his place were hardly worth the terrible consequences of discovery.

There are those who have been quick to dismiss the Harlequins affair as no more than an oddity and a one-off, but this would be to ignore the other distress signals currently swirling around a sport that the British have always loved quietly, rather than frenetically, like football, or with the brittle self-ironising of cricket. Last month three Bath players were also banned by the RFU, this time for refusing to take a drugs test after a calamitously self-destructive end-of-season club party. Another Bath player, Justin Harrison, had already admitted taking cocaine on the same ferocious team booze-up that began in notorious north London nightclub The Church and ended up, oddly, in a branch of The Pitcher and Piano. Mortified, Harrison has since offered a wretched apology and retired from the sport.

Add to this a late-season rash of on field gougings and resultant bans and it's tempting to wonder what exactly rugby thinks it's up to. Even the sport itself seems a little surprised at all this. Certainly nobody currently involved in rugby wants to talk about Bloodgate very much, and steps in the last few days to get a selection of current players – one of them an official spokesman for the players' union – to make a comment have met with a bull-necked wall of silence.

This is perhaps a mistake. As the Guardian's rugby correspondent Rob Kitson says: "Basically, this is all a huge shame. Rugby has made huge strides forward. It's unrecognisable as a sport from what it was 10 years ago. England has even got the 2015 World Cup. And just as we should be pushing on, we've hit this set of buffers. You could say it's the problem of intense competition. There are societal aspects, particularly with the drugs. Maybe it's a bit like banking. There's this culture that's there and it works for years and then suddenly it all gets flushed out into the open."

Things certainly have changed, not just in rugby, but around it. Perhaps what links Bloodgate and Cocainegate is the sense that this is an industry buckling into unusual shapes under the tectonic pressures of 15 years of increasingly fevered professionalism. In some ways this is still a young sport. And at this point in its helter-skelter evolution it feels as though no one really knows where it is heading.

Least of all the players, who even look different these days. Pressure to perform has created a new breed of skull-capped humungousaur, a gym-honed colossus more akin to the helmeted and shoulder-padded American footballer than the prancing whippets and lumbering weebles of the pre-modern game. Forwards are now almost a stone-and-a-half heavier than their counterparts a decade ago. Backs have gained more than a stone, all of it muscle. And the pressure to bulk up has created other problems. "I think we are reaching a level where the players have got too big," the British and Irish Lions team doctor James Robson mused after this summer's tour to South Africa in which four players ended up in hospital. A sport that has always been gladiatorial and unrelenting is now ferociously and irreversibly so.

Then, of course, there are the drugs. Right now nobody out there is saying rugby has a drug problem. But then nobody was saying rugby had a drug problem last January either, when another former Bath player, the England prop Matt Stevens, was banned for two years for testing positive, also for cocaine. Stevens is an Anglo-South African who became briefly famous in 2006 for his turn as an endearingly beefy and rumpled crooner on ITV's The X Factor: Battle of the Stars. After failing his drugs test he cried on TV and resigned from Bath before he was sacked.

"I do think there's a lot more pressure and media attention on rugby players," he says now, taking a break from his duties at the coffee bar, Jika Jika, that he opened in Bath city center after his ban. "People are starting to see that rugby players are in the limelight a lot more, like footballers and other kinds of entertainers. You have all the benefits of fame and wealth, but there are also some real pressures with that."

Stevens is right: rugby players do crop up in unexpected places. The England fly-half Danny Cipriani is a regular face in the party pages thanks to his relationship with tabloid darling Kelly Brook. In August, the wedding of "rugby star Iain Balshaw" made for an unlikely cover story in Hello! magazine, albeit driven by the presence of two of his guests, long-time team-mate Mike Tindall and his girlfriend Zara Phillips.

Still, it seems consistent with the lasting affection we retain for our rugby players – as opposed to that modern bogeyman, the footballing millionaire-upstart – that public opinion has yet to turn on the sport. If anything, there is a sense of bemusement, and of concern. Even after the revelations of the summer, the response to Stevens's problems with cocaine has remained sympathetic.

"It was quite humbling that people were willing to look past the fact I tested positive for a recreational drug," he says. "I've got a problem and it's something I'm dealing with, but people have on the whole been very understanding."

That cocaine should be the rugby player's drug of choice might seem a little surprising at first. This is a sport that in the past was content to sate itself on 14 pints of ale and a sing-song. Cocaine is the opposite of a performance-enhancing drug (as Stevens points out, "You'd have a heart attack in 10 minutes if you tried to take it and play a match"). But it is an aspirational drug and an upwardly mobile drug. It's a drug taken by rich people, tired people and people who go to certain kinds of spiffy night-club. It provides a dusting of egomaniacal privilege. It clears the mind of anything but cocaine. And rugby – or at least a high-profile selection of international rugby players – seems to have been in the mood for some of that of late.

There are of course generational changes in train here, and not just in the societal issue of well-heeled young men coming into contact with recreational drugs. Stevens and the protagonists of Bloodgate are part of the first era of players to have pursued their entire junior and senior careers amid the mechanisms of the streamlined professional game; and who find themselves, in the Guinness Premiership, part of the toughest rugby league in the world.

"People are bigger and stronger in rugby now," Stevens says of the sheer physical pain of playing a professional rugby match. "Your body takes an absolute battering most weeks of the year. It's all about dealing with that and with the recovery too. As a rugby player you spend your life in a cycle of pressure, trying to be the best you can be all the time. I do think rugby people and rugby clubs need to be more aware that as a player both your physical state and your mental state need to be looked at. It's really not a normal thing that rugby players are putting themselves through."

But are rugby people and rugby clubs really aware of this? Bill Beaumont, a familiar figure from his jocular, pastel-sweatered appearances on A Question of Sport, has been a member of the International Rugby Board since 1999. He takes a surprisingly unforgiving line on the pressures facing the modern player: "With the rewards comes the responsibility," Beaumont says, speaking just before the most recent Bloodgate revelations. "It's just a part of the game now. It was an amateur game and you were only ever in the public eye for a short spell. Well, that's changed and there is more pressure.

"Yes, the players are bigger and faster and stronger and we as an authority are trying to look after that. But it has always been a physical-contact game. The players are sportsmen and they have a finite shelf-life. They're well paid for what they do."

In truth, Beaumont and the Beaumont generation seemed to be engaged in an entirely different pursuit to what, from the outside, could easily look like an increasingly violent, drug-fringed and morally confused professional sport. What will trouble the guardians of rugby is that the cheating brought to light in the Bloodgate saga goes right to the heart of rugby's sense of self, its righteous and sustaining code of honor.

Take away that sense of fair play and officer-class self-regulation, and rugby starts to look a little odd, a little like men pushing each other for money. As the new season starts, this is a sport that faces fresh challenges. Not just the usual round of revenue-gathering, stadium revamps, but things such as remembering what it was all supposed to be about in the first place; not to mention finding out if that old, deep rugby soul is still intact.

David Moyes' Double Transfer Plan is Held Up

2009-09-01T03:47:00.001-07:00

David Moyes, the Everton manager, faces a fraught final day in the transfer window after his attempts to bring both Johnny Heitinga and Ever Banega to Goodison Park hit complications.

Everton have agreed a £5.7m fee with Atlético Madrid for Heitinga, the Holland international whose ability to operate at right-back and in central defence would answer Moyes's defensive needs following the departure of Joleon Lescott to Manchester City. Personal terms with the 25-year-old, however, have not been resolved despite negotiations opening between the respective parties on Friday, although Everton are hopeful of concluding a deal ahead of tomorrow's 5pm deadline.

Moyes's hopes of reinforcing Everton's central midfield with Banega, meanwhile, have been held up due to Valencia's reluctance to allow the Argentinian to leave on a season-long loan deal. Everton believed they had a deal in place for the 21-year-old last week only for the Spanish club to demand a permanent transfer for their £15m signing from Boca Juniors. Stuttgart are also interested in the combative midfielder and Moyes may be forced to look elsewhere at the 11th hour should Valencia's stance continue.

Liverpool Not Worried By Chelsea's 100% Start, Says Dirk Kuyt

2009-09-01T03:46:00.000-07:00

The Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt has insisted there is no alarm at Anfield over Chelsea's 100% start and is adamant that Rafael Benítez's side will soon close the gap on the Premier League leaders.

Liverpool trail Ancelotti's squad by six points after the first four matches of the season but secured a valuable victory at Bolton Wanderers on Saturday courtesy of Steven Gerrard's late winner. And Kuyt is confident that the recovery at The Reebok, coupled with increased competition at the top of the Premier League this season, will repair the damage of losing to Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa.

"At this stage it is not important to look at where Chelsea, Man United or Arsenal are because we've got to think about our own game and the win at Bolton was very important after our bad start," said the Holland international. "We will be up there soon and we want to show that we belong at the top of the Premier League.

"Chelsea are a top side, we knew that at the start of the season and we've seen that so far. But every team will struggle this season. Spurs have spent a lot of money and have had a really good start. Manchester City are up there as well and they will take points off teams. We just have to concentrate on ourselves, win our games and then see where we are in a couple of months."

The Liverpool goalkeeper Charles Itandje has joined the Greek club Kavala FC on a season-long loan deal. The Anfield club has been desperate to offload the Frenchman since his disrespectful behavior at the Hillsborough Memorial Service in April.

The agent of the defender Andrea Dossena, meanwhile, has insisted his client is unlikely to return to Italy before the transfer deadline. "It is difficult for an agreement to be reached now," said Roberto La Florio, following reported interest in the Italy international from Juventus and Napoli. "I really think it's too late."

Rob Andrew Urges Rugby to Tackle Challenges to Core Values

2009-09-01T03:45:00.000-07:00

It's not been a good summer," Rob Andrew sighed with wry understatement. The late August sunshine streamed into his neatly functional office at Twickenham but Andrew was compelled to concentrate on the ominous clouds that had settled over English rugby. Today marks the third anniversary of his appointment as the director of elite rugby at the Rugby Football Union but Andrew was still reeling from the fake blood and drug busts, the lying and the cheating.

He looked as crisp as ever, and spoke with habitual caution, but even Andrew's political skills could not veil the concern last Thursday. It was enough of a surprise to be confronted with another drug scandal at Bath but a far more desolate hole had then been blasted through the heart of rugby. The extent to which Harlequins tried to cover up their cheating in last season's Heineken Cup quarter-finals had become bleakly evident. And troubling new questions have since emerged with regard to the depth of corruption. It started with absurdity – as Tom Williams obeyed orders from his coach Dean Richards to use a blood capsule bought at a joke shop in Clapham Junction. That chicanery failed, as did Harlequins' alleged attempts to bribe Williams into accepting sole blame for their joint blood-plot. Richards expressed regret when resigning but admitted that he had used the trick several times and implied that other teams indulged in similarly dark methods.

Three days after this interview, fresh allegations were made. An internal review at Harlequins apparently implied that England had cheated during an unspecified Six Nations tournament – with the suggestion that Test players had been cut behind the ear and then re-stitched so that the wound could be reopened if there was need for a blood replacement. Yesterday, sparing Andrew, the RFU referred ensuing questions to Peter Thomas, its director of corporate communications.

And so it was understandable when Andrew, who played Test rugby alongside Richards for a decade, shifted uncomfortably when asked if he was shocked by the earlier revelations. "Absolutely," he said after a long pause. "Nobody really knew where this was going at first – and we still don't because we're awaiting some judgments. We need to see where this leads to from a disciplinary point of view.

"The Harlequins situation is still live with further judgments coming out this week. And it's not reflecting well on the game. It's ironic that our core values task group was set up 18 months ago because of some concerns we had over where the game was going. That was always going to be rolled out in September so it's not a knee-jerk reaction. It is a careful look at the core values of rugby."

Should the allegations escalate then Andrew's role in the task group will be compromised – even if Sunday's claims stressed he was not linked personally with any subterfuge. It has become a long and messy trial for the sport and it is instructive to remember that, 14 years ago, Andrew helped to instigate English professional rugby by making a lucrative move from Wasps to Newcastle. But he conceded on Thursday that the game has since become a corruptible business.

"Professional rugby was inevitable and the right way to go. But you begin to ask whether there was an element of self‑policing with regard to those values in the amateur game. Maybe we've got catching up to do in reminding people that, yes, there is a lot of money and a lot at stake. But we have got to make sure they don't hijack our values."

Did he suspect, as Richards implied, such cheating extends beyond Harlequins? "I've never seen a blood capsule before. I wouldn't know what it is. This is something Jeff Blackett, the RFU's disciplinary officer, will look into. But there are other areas we also need to address – such as uncontested scrums. Is a prop genuinely injured when he comes off?"

On a more personal level, the fact that Andrew's once revered former team‑mate is at the crooked heart of Bloodgate is especially dispiriting. "Having played with Dean for almost 10 years it's hard to believe. On the field he was somebody you could trust to deliver. That's why, again, we've got this huge surprise and shock."

Had he spoken to Richards recently? "No. At the moment it is not appropriate. We have to see the whole process through."

Andrew sidestepped queries as to whether or not the RFU is now likely to take action against Harlequins – or if the club will be banished from the Heineken Cup. "I'm not trying to avoid these questions but the first is very much in Jeff Blackett's hands and the second is an ERC [European Rugby Cup] matter."

He insisted that the game is much further down the track in confronting drug‑taking. "Again, I was very shocked at the revelations [last January] about Matt Stevens – but for the past 18 months we've looked at the road professional rugby takes you down and we held a successful illicit drugs conference. Issues of modern society have caught up with rugby – and now we have to catch up on how we regulate and educate our players. We're also introducing the stipulation that players have to provide one hour a day, every day of the year, when they guarantee where they will be so testers can knock on the door. That's a new challenge."

In simpler sporting terms Andrew believes Martin Johnson's slow resurgence of England will emerge more clearly this season. "He's making huge headway. We lobbed him a pretty difficult ball when we gave him the job but he's growing into it. Look how far we've come from this time last year when we'd finished our August camp. We're miles ahead now."

The threatened fallout with players who opted to pursue a career in France has also been temporarily blunted. Andrew and Johnson have visited the management at Stade Français and Brive to smooth the release of their England internationals for training camps. "Both clubs were very good – and Johnno is due to go to Toulon. They've obviously got Jonny [Wilkinson] and it helps that they're coached by Philippe Saint-André, who we dealt with at Sale. So we're pretty relaxed."

He smiled when asked if those clubs will remain as helpful once the ferociously competitive French championship bites. "There's a big difference between being relaxed in July and being relaxed in the mid-winter when you've lost three games in a row. So we're realistic. But we have made it clear to the players that if they are not here when we want them then we can't pick them. That's not hardline. It's just practical.

"But the Jonny situation at the August camp was interesting. He hadn't played for nearly a year and the August camp is important to us. The French season started on the Friday night – so he came here on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. He went back on Wednesday night to play for Toulon against Stade Français on the Friday. Martin, quite rightly, felt it was in both Toulon's and Jonny's interests – and therefore England's interests – for him to play. So he was released two days early."

Other England internationals are unlikely to benefit as easily. "They're taking a risk in going to France – from an England selection point of view. It's their choice but we have to protect the integrity of the team and Martin's program. We've spent a lot of time and money investing in this program to deliver the England players in better condition."

Andrew coached England's talismanic but often tortured fly-half for years and so, inevitably, he's thrilled by Wilkinson's rejuvenation in a new rugby culture. "Mentally and physically, Jonny's in a very good place. He's still driven and he still wants to be the best, but he's now got rugby in perspective. As long as his body stays intact I think he will be a better player." The chances of Danny Cipriani replacing Wilkinson currently seem remote – especially as the gifted young fly-half seems to have fallen out of favor with England. "Danny is no different to anyone," Andrew insisted. "For the last year he's known what his goals are on and off the field. No one is in any doubt what is expected of them and that cuts out all the confusion."

As Andrew left his office last Thursday he made a telling point – that professionalism does not always produce men as morally resolute as those who played the game before it became awash with money.In answer to a question as to whether it is taking young players a long time to absorb the demands of modern professionalism, Andrew opened up.

"It's a very good question. In my personal view some of the guys in the amateur era were far more professional than some pros today. I don't think there's any doubt. There is real money and kudos around today but, actually, that's not what top-level sport is about. At the very top, money is irrelevant. So in professional rugby we're now looking at players and asking what is his motivation for being in this sport? In the amateur game there was only one motivation and that was because you loved it. I often look at somebody and think, 'I wonder if he would've made a good amateur? It's a defining question. Jonny would have made a great amateur."

Elite rugby players, and coaches, have always operated on the edge of legality in their pursuit of victory. Men like Andrew and Richards were far too bent on winning as amateurs to have ever been saintly figures. But they did once play the game out of love. In the professional era, at least for Richards, that love twisted into an obsession with avoiding defeat and the loss of an accompanying windfall.

"In effect," Andrew said as he reflected on the lessons from this painful summer, "rugby needs to examine a new area. What does real professionalism mean? We must impress on everybody that our core values need to be upheld. They're not optional because the damage is long-term and potentially very damaging. These are very serious matters but, generally, the sport is not in crisis. It is growing at every level across the world and in this country. The numbers of players are up – as are attendances, TV interest, sponsor interest and families coming into the game. This is all hugely positive but it's been built on the back of what has always been seen as rugby's values. But the elements of this summer erode those values. And we cannot allow that to happen over any length of time. It has to stop."

Age is No Calamity for David James While Doubts Exist About His Rivals

2009-09-01T03:44:00.000-07:00

So long as his sore knee was not bothering him too much David James must have felt good about himself yesterday. A veteran is entitled to be proud of his achievement when Premier League clubs appear to be vying for the right to spend millions on him. Portsmouth, too, had to reckon the cost of living without him.

Fabio Capello, sensible enough to keep all options open, will no doubt explain that James, 39, can still be a candidate for the national team so long as he demonstrates his form and continuing fitness. The player's sheer persistence demands respect after an England career prone to interruption.

His 48 caps have come in a sporadic manner that would have caused most footballers a collapse in self-belief. After a mistake during a World Cup qualifier in Vienna that let Andreas Ivanschitz equalize for Austria in September 2004, James seemed to have been demoted permanently. Four years passed before he appeared again for his country in a competitive match.

There is a fixation with the position because of some hazy notion that this is an English speciality. Those who fail to live up to the myth can be dealt with harshly. The nickname of Calamity James was conveniently at hand when the goalkeeper made mistakes while with Liverpool when only in his 20s.

He is imprudent enough to say what is on his mind. When others would merely have kept a low profile, James speculated in 1997 that playing computer games to excess might have been sapping his concentration. Such candor is unwise, but it has its appeal when most comments by sportsmen are formulaic.

With the passage of time, James has had less need of explanations or excuses. Capello immediately identified him as his first-choice goalkeeper. Should that status be lost it will be because the aches and injuries are taking their toll. The England manager, though, will not jump to conclusions about age.

Dino Zoff famously won the World Cup with Italy as a 40-year-old in 1982. Longevity is to be expected in a position where there is no call to go haring around the pitch, but the veterans are also retained because they are so exasperatingly difficult to replace.

Effective goalkeepers enjoy scarcity value. All of eight years ago, Juventus came up with £32m to prise Gianluigi Buffon away from Parma and as the seasons go by they must feel they got a bargain. Managers obliged to make a change are in torment.

United's ascendancy in the past few seasons has come, in part, because the issue was resolved by the arrival of Edwin van der Sar in 2005. Over the previous six years, a host of people had been tried following the departure of Peter Schmeichel and none, despite their gifts, had maintained the necessary form for long.

Although Ferguson had identified Van der Sar as the immediate replacement for Schmeichel, the Dutchman was already committed to signing for Juventus in the summer of 1999. Belatedly, Van der Sar did bring his calmness and know-how to Old Trafford, but it now looks as if age could bear him away. He turns 39 next month.

Surgery has so far kept him out of action this season and attention has fallen on the only English goalkeeper who can anticipate high-profile fixtures in the Champions League.

The focus on Ben Foster is largely an act of faith. It is true that he pulled off a marvelous save on Saturday to stop Arsenal going 2-0 ahead, but he seemed rocky at other moments in United's win.

Foster is at an advantage because managers, at domestic and international level, have a craving to believe in him. Robert Green is a 29-year-old approaching his peak with a Premier League club, but it will nag at Capello that he cannot acquire the European experience with West Ham that could be available to Foster.

James still cannot be discounted wholly when there are doubts about the alternatives. Should he get back to work in a solid Premier League side, he may yet illustrate that his level of performance is no different from the standard that had made him an automatic choice for England.

Although Capello's first team has substance, the remainder of the squad can look nebulous. The goalkeeping possibilities are restricted and, if there is to be no Indian summer for James, the manager will have to hope that a trust in Foster's potential is rewarded.

Sulaiman Al-fahim's Pompey Era Kicked Off With One Glaring Error

2009-09-01T03:43:00.002-07:00

Portsmouth's Sulaiman al-Fahim era began with a glaring error of fact in an official filing to Companies House, an inaccuracy that Pompey fans must hope is not repeated during Fahim's "Ten-year plan" for the club. The document, a 288a form for new company directors, related to Fahim's appointment as Fratton Park chairman in July. In the entry for "Style/Title", someone has mistakenly penned the letters Dr.

It is a remarkable error given that only a month before the filing, Fahim's own official spokesman informed journalists in June that "Dr" is not a title he goes by. "He does not have the title of doctor," Ivo Ilic Gabara said. "He does not call himself a doctor, no. Others may have misconstrued his dual MBA into a doctor's title. But not him."

It is all the more remarkable given that alongside the signature of Tanya Robins, Portsmouth's company secretary, is that of Fahim himself, as viewers of his Hydra Executives show will recall (Fahim's signing of a contract formed the basis of the opening sequence).

What may be more intriguing still is the entry under "Honours etc", where the letters "H.E." (for "His Excellency") appear. Then, under "Business Occupation" comes the highfalutin term "Goodwill Ambassador". These apparently relate to Fahim's donor's role with IIMSAM, a campaign for algae to be used to combat malnutrition, which unilaterally confers the "ambassador" title to several of those with whom it is associated.

Apart from Portsmouth, perhaps this was the only occupation Fahim had left after being replaced as Hydra Properties' chief executive and the axing of his Apprentice-style television show.

Kenyon's future dilemma

Peter Kenyon has dismissed the notion of a European super league, saying on Sunday: "The only person I've heard speak about a [breakaway] super league is [Arsène] Wenger and I don't know where he got it from." For one who sits on Uefa's highest authority, the strategic council, Kenyon clearly does not keep his ear very close to the ground.

First there was Florentino Pérez, who said on his return as Real Madrid president in June: "We have to agree a new European super league which guarantees that the best always play the best – something that does not happen in the Champions League." Barcelona's president, Joan Laporta, said of the Champions League: "I think it is the best system. But in the future, who knows?"

Who indeed? But there are clues.If Uefa is serious about the austerity plans it set out last week, clubs who do not break even within three years will be expelled from the Champions League – and Chelsea's most recent accounts showed that 81% of group turnover is spent on salaries. And if Chelsea face the prospect of being expelled, Kenyon might start speaking about a breakaway league himself.

Owen's unrequited love

When Michael Owen left the pitch after England's defeat in France 18 months ago, he said: "In terms of what he is trying to do, you'd best ask the manager." He later explained that his comments had been "misconstrued", adding: "I have nothing but positive things to say about the manager."

By now, perhaps, he might just have the feeling that Fabio Capello sees things differently. Having again been omitted from the squad to face Slovenia and Croatia, at least 15 matches will have passed before he next has a chance.

Pundit Poll hit in pocket

The collapse of Setanta's UK operations has left a litany of minor creditors. There are the studio anchors such as Tim Sherwood (owed £19,167) and Steve McManaman (£14,375), as well as pundits such as Alan Curbishley (£5,068) and Terry Venables (£4,600). There are Jason McAteer (£2,588), Paul Parker (£1,706), Frank Stapleton and Ossie Ardiles (£1,000 each) and there is £400 owed to Graeme Sharp, Lawrie Sanchez and Neville Southall among many more. Yet since the subsidiary that dealt with contributor payments alone owes £258.9m in debts secured by floating charges, such unsecured creditors are unlikely to receive a penny. So fans might find some schadenfreude in the fact that one former football-match participant owed £3,643 is a certain Graham Poll.

Oxx Eyes Arc Bid for Sea the Stars If Rain Rules Out Irish Champion Run

2009-09-01T03:43:00.001-07:00

John Oxx, the trainer of Sea The Stars, conceded yesterday that the weather forecast "is not in our favor" as he prepares to saddle the Derby winner in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on Saturday.

Oxx saw little but rain from the window of his yard in County Kildare yesterday, and is increasingly concerned that the ground at the south Dublin track this weekend will be too soft to allow Sea The Stars to take his chance.

"It has been raining here all morning and the forecast for the rest of the week is not in our favor," Oxx said. "It was supposed to be wet this morning and then clear away, but there is no sign of that.

"We just have to hope that Leopardstown misses the rain that is forecast for the area as a whole. It is a free-draining track, but it will need to be. If we miss the weekend we will prepare him for the Arc [in early October] and see what the ground is like there."

Oxx's pessimistic assessment prompted Paddy Power to offer odds of 4-7 that Sea The Stars will not appear at Leopardstown, which was expected to be his final career start in Ireland.

However, Tom Burke, Leopardstown's general manager, remains hopeful that the track will be spared the worst of the rain this week.

"There is sunshine and showers forecast, with heavier rain on Wednesday, but it won't be anything like it has been today," Burke said. "The rain will have pushed us back to good to yielding."

Aidan O'Brien, the trainer of Rip Van Winkle, said yesterday that the Sussex Stakes winner may miss his next intended target in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot later this month.

"He's back in full work but he's not 100 per cent," O'Brien said. "He just has this trouble with his feet. Some days he's good, some days he's not very good. He's not by any means a definite runner at Ascot."

After finishing behind Sea The Stars on three occasions this year Rip Van Winkle returned to winning ways at Goodwood, a victory that surprised O'Brien, who describes the colt as "the most brilliant horse we ever had".

"I still can't believe he managed to run, let alone win the race," O'Brien said. "If you'd seen him the night before, you'd have thought he couldn't possibly do it. It was an incredible performance."

Rob Andrew Blames Professional Era for Rugby's Ills

2009-09-01T03:42:00.001-07:00

Rob Andrew, the Rugby Football Union's director of elite rugby, has suggested that many of the serious problems engulfing the sport have been caused by the difficult transition to professionalism. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Andrew reacted to the furore that has developed over the ongoing Bloodgate crisis by drawing clear links between the flood of money that has come into the sport since 1995 and the erosion of rugby's core values.

"Professional rugby was inevitable and the right way to go. But you begin to ask whether there was an element of self-policing with regard to those values in the amateur game," he said. "Maybe we've got catching up to do in reminding people that, yes, there is a lot of money and a lot at stake in winning World Cups and Heineken Cups. Those pressures weren't there in the old days. But we've got to make sure they don't hijack our values.

"There is a bottom line because there is a lot of investment from people in the game and this brings new challenges – and we're now seeing some people fall in the face of those challenges."

Andrew's former England team‑mate Dean Richards is the most obvious high‑profile figure to have fallen in recent weeks after he ordered one of his players at Harlequins, Tom Williams, to use a blood capsule so that he could be replaced by a goal-kicker in a Heineken Cup match last season. The attempt of Richards and others at Harlequins to initially cover their cheating and then to reportedly persuade Williams to assume all the blame has rocked English rugby.

The allegations have now spread, and details of Harlequins' internal review apparently implied that England had also cheated. An unsubstantiated claim has been made that England players had been cut behind the ear and then had their wound stitched so that it could easily be reopened if the team wanted to benefit from a blood replacement. Yesterday, the RFU diverted attention from Andrew, who has not been linked personally with any subterfuge.

Speaking before that claim surfaced, Andrew said: "I've never seen a blood capsule before. I wouldn't know what it is. This is something Jeff Blackett, the RFU's disciplinary officer, will look into." But he conceded that professionalism has helped to turn rugby from a sport with a positive reputation into a business that is susceptible to corruption.

Andrew added: "Some of the guys in the amateur era were far more professional than some pros today. There is real money and kudos around today but, actually, that's not what top-level sport is about. At the very top, money is irrelevant. So we're now looking at players and asking what is his motivation for being in this sport? In the amateur game there was only one motivation and that was because you loved it. No one was paying you to train on Tuesday or give up your weekend."

Ironically, Andrew's own lucrative move from the then amateur Wasps to Sir John Hall's Newcastle in 1995 helped to instigate the onset of professional rugby in England. But, marking the third anniversary of his current job at Twickenham today, Andrew said that "rugby now needs to examine a new area".

"What does real professionalism mean? We must impress on everybody that our core values need to be upheld. They're not optional because the damage is long-term and potentially very damaging.

"These are very serious matters but, generally, the sport is not in crisis. It is growing at every level across the world and in this country. This is hugely positive but it's been built on the back of what has always been seen as rugby's values. But the elements of this summer erode those values. And we cannot allow that to happen over any length of time."

Power in Football is Drifting Away From English Shores

2009-09-01T03:32:00.000-07:00

If Michel Platini's ambition, despite his repeated denials, really is to cut the Premier League down to size through subjecting foreign players to a quota system and throwing clubs who get themselves into massive debt out of major competitions, then the president of European football's governing body can probably save himself a great deal of time and trouble. On the evidence of last weekend, the balance of power is already shifting, driven by forces over which he has no control.

Even the order in which Europe's major leagues opened for business seemed to make a statement. La Liga's first matches took place on Saturday, a week after Serie A, two weeks after the Premier League and three weeks after the German and French first divisions. There was little doubt who were the support acts and who was topping the bill.

The opening match at the Bernabéu, in which the new crop of superstars representing Real Madrid beat Deportivo la Coruña 3-2, attracted interest throughout the continent. In a way it was reassuring as well as entertaining to see the remodeled Real conforming to the old stereotype: champagne attacking, soda-pop defending.

Kaká, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Raúl, playing their first competitive match together, whirled and darted in a forward-line symphony that produced plenty of discords but will surely become better synchronized as the season goes on. Behind them, Xabi Alonso and Lassana Diarra looked capable of a partnership as effective as the one Alonso enjoyed at Liverpool with Javier Mascherano. And behind those two, well ... one of the attractions of even Real Madrid's best sides is that their defenders always invite the opposition to feel that they are in with a chance. Eintracht Frankfurt, it will be remembered, scored first before ending up on the wrong side of a 7-3 scoreline in the 1960 European Cup final.

There is much to applaud in Platini's desire to persuade clubs to nurture home-grown talent and to prevent them taking out massive loans in order to pay inflated transfer fees. A better world would undoubtedly be one in which Lyon, Bayern Munich, Atlético Madrid, Fiorentina and Fenerbahce felt they had a genuine chance of winning the continent's top competition. But I can't help thinking that extravagant assemblies of talent, however much they distort competition and offend natural decency, are what has made the highest level of European football so compelling over the past 60 years, whether we are talking about the Madrid of Di Stefano and Puskas, the Milan of Gullit, Van Basten and Rijkaard or the Barcelona of Messi, Henry and Eto'o.

New players are a symbol of status and ambition at any level of football, and the failure of England's top four clubs to land a single one of the summer's top transfer targets has not gone unnoticed. Thanks to the pound's loss of value against the euro and the top tax rate of 50%, which are making it virtually impossible for them to outbid their Spanish and Italian rivals, they have started the season with line-ups strikingly similar to those on view last year, only the pledge of steady organic growth in Arsenal's case and the galvanising effect of a new manager on Chelsea to indicate the possibility of significant progress. Manchester United are struggling to adjust to the loss of Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez, while the departure of Xabi Alonso was blamed for Liverpool's rocky start. Already we are hearing fewer players claiming that it was always their dream to play in the Premier League.

Perhaps even more ominously for English clubs with designs on the Champions League, there was another new aggregation on show on Saturday. Internazionale's 4-0 victory in the Milan derby suggested that the addition of Lucio, Wesley Sneijder and Samuel Eto'o might just have given José Mourinho the means to repeat his triumph with Porto five years ago – something he never did at Chelsea. Now that really would be hard for the Premier League to stomach.Syer's team-building theories a lasting legacy

John Syer, a pioneer of sports psychology, died this month, aged 72. One of the first people to recognise the value of his work was Keith Burkinshaw, the Tottenham Hotspur manager who signed Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa in 1978. You might not necessarily have expected Burkinshaw, a slightly dour Yorkshireman, to be the type to embrace the sort of theories eventually set down in the book Sporting Body, Sporting Mind, written by Syer and his colleague Christopher Connolly, but they were an important factor in the performance of the Spurs side that won the FA Cup in 1981 and 1982.

Syer's influence spread beyond football. He was behind the scenes when Chris Boardman won an Olympic gold medal in the Barcelona velodrome in 1992, and at the 1996 and 2000 Games he helped the Dutch to win gold in field hockey, his own first love. His theories on team building found applications in industry and politics. In a discipline that has its share of charlatans, he was a quiet, thoughtful man of profound wisdom, who made converts in even the most skeptical dressing room.

Burnley's 'beast' recalls a time when pigs could fly

Brian "The Beast" Jensen, Burnley's larger-than-life goalkeeper, may have been on the wrong end of a 3-0 scoreline at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, but his status as a Premier League folk hero is already secure.

His approach to shot-stopping reminds me of Tommy Lawrence, the Scottish goalkeeper in Bill Shankly's great Liverpool team, who was known to the Kop as the Flying Pig and who specialized in frustrating opposing strikers by making saves with his feet while diving in the opposite direction.

RFU's task force must know name of the game

The Image of the Game Task Force is the name given by English rugby union's governing body to the 13-man panel charged with sorting out the mess that has been left by the Harlequins and Bath scandals. Like the composition of the group, which consists entirely of such high-level rugby administrators and insiders as Rob Andrew and Lawrence Dallaglio, the title betrays a misconception of the job that needs to be carried out. It's not the image of the game that is the problem. It's the reality.

Womens National Basketball Association (WNBA)

2009-07-14T10:00:00.002-07:00

The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a women’s professional basketball league in the United States. A league corresponding to the NBA, the WNBA is the longest running team women’s league in U.S. history. It was founded in 1996 with the first full season taking place in 1997. The first two players to be officially signed into the league were Sheryl Swoopes and Rebecca Lobo on October 23, 1996. Upon conception, the WNBA consisted of 8 teams but has since grown to 14. A single season lasts 34 games from May to August with a break near the middle for the All-Star Game, and the playoffs taking place from late August to September.

The WNBA is split into to two conferences: the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. Teams play the majority of their games against inter-conference foes (22) but also compete 12 times with teams from the other conference. As was mentioned earlier, the league takes a break from regular season play for an All-Star game. Taking place in July, the All-Star game is actually only one part of an entire weekend-long event. The best players from each conference compete against each other in the All-Star Game, with the players being voted onto their respective teams by the fans.

Following each regular season is the postseason or playoffs. Teams participating in the playoffs are the top four with the best record from each conference. There are two rounds played before the Finals. In the first round of each conference the team with the best record plays the fourth place team and the second place team plays the third place team. The playoffs then progress to the conference finals with the winners of each one playing each other in the WNBA Finals. The first two rounds are best-of-three series and the Finals is a best-of-five series.

The rules governing the WNBA are very similar to those used in the NBA with only a few exceptions. The WNBA utilizes a shorter three-point arc, a smaller ball, and 10-minute quarters instead of 12. Many of the current rules were put in place in 2006, shifting the WNBA from a college basketball style to a style more similar to the NBA.

Many WNBA teams have NBA counterparts that are based in the same city and play in the same venue. The Connecticut Sun is the only team without an NBA counterpart, while the Chicago Sky is the only team to play in a venue different from that of their NBA counterpart.

The WNBA is divided into two conferences. As of 2007, six teams comprise the Eastern Conference and seven teams comprise the Western Conference. Each team plays a 34 game regular reason schedule. The four teams with the winningest records for the seasons participate in the WNBA playoffs during September.

NBA | National Basketball Association

2009-07-14T10:00:00.001-07:00

The premier professional men’s basketball league is called the National Basketball Association (NBA). The NBA was founded in 1946 with 11 teams. Through expansions, reductions, and relocations, the number grew to its current 30. The NBA divides the teams into two conferences, an eastern and a western conference. Each conference has three divisions, and each division has five teams. This organizational structure is relatively new, having been introduced during the 2004-2005 season.

Each team plays 82 games, 41 at home and 41 away. The regular season begins in November and ends in April. Playoffs begin and the final playoff round is a best-of-seven series. The NBA Finals series is held in June.

Cricket

2009-07-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

Cricket is a ball and bat sport played between two teams, generally each composed of eleven players. Cricket is played on an oval patch of grass in the center of which is a flat strip of ground called a cricket pitch. A wooden wicket is placed at each end of the pitch.

To play cricket, a member of the fielding team known as a bowler throws a hard ball from near one wicket towards the other wicket. The batsman from the opposing team defends the wicket by playing the ball with a cricket bat. The fielding team's other players are positioned around the cricket field and must field the ball to keep the batter from scoring, or to get the batter out. The batsman may run between the wickets, exchanging ends with a second batsman (the non-striker). Each change of ends between the non-striker and the batter constitutes one run. The game is won by the team with the most runs at the end of play.

Cricket enjoys immense popularity, particularly in commonwealth nations. By some measures, it is the second most popular sport in the world, second only to football (soccer) in its global reach and appeal. Cricket matches between rival nations frequently take on an added political dimension.

Wrestling

2009-07-14T09:56:00.000-07:00

Professional wrestling is the sport of wrestling that is most often performed as a way of entertainment, not competition. There are forms of professional wrestling that exist as legitimate competitive sports (such as in Japan) but the most common form in the United States is a sport of entertainment. The legitimacy of professional wrestling as a sport may be controversial but its popularity as an entertainment medium is undeniable.

As a form of entertainment, the wrestlers in professional wrestling are actors as well as athletes. The vast majority of all events, as well as outcomes of matches, are rehearsed and predetermined. The wrestlers go into a match knowing who will win the end, but not always what moves will be used throughout the match.

One of the major components of professional wrestling is the use of storylines; in fact, some even believe that the storylines are more interesting than the actual wrestling. The storylines are scripted and add the drama to the sport which in turn leads too much of its appeal. Storylines portray the wrestlers forming alliances as well enemies and feuds and also encourages the fans to support particular wrestlers.

Two other aspects that work with storylines to give professional wrestling the feeling of a dramatic TV show are the characters and ring entrances. Many of the wrestlers adopt characters that take the place of their real identity. A wrestler’s character defines the way that they act in and out of the ring and how they are viewed by the fans. Popular past and present characters include: Hollywood Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, Kane, Sting, Triple H, and The Rock. Ring entrances are nearly as much a part of a wrestler as their character. Some common aspects of entrances include personalized music, some type of trademark behavior, pyrotechnics, smoke, and the use of lights; some have even used the occasional motorcycle or car.

The rules that govern professional wrestling are drastically different than those of traditional wrestling. A match is governed by a referee who controls the match, intervenes when necessary, and supposedly determines the winner (although it is now known that matches are predetermined). However, the rules and referee can be disregarded if it the need is determined to exist. A wrestler wins by either pinning his opponent’s shoulders to the mat for three seconds (pinfall), submission, count-out, or disqualification.

Tennis

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Tennis is a sport that first originated in Europe during the 19th century. Since then it has gained wide popularity and is played worldwide. The game is played between either two people or two sets of people. A match is split into games and sets, with a player winning a match by being victorious in either two out of three or three out five sets and a set is won by winning six games with a lead of at least two games. Scoring for games start out at love (zero) then progress to 15, 30, 40, and then game. If the score becomes tied after three points the game is at “deuce” and a player must win by two points.

A player scores points by using a racket to hit rubber ball with a fuzzy outer layer over a net that splits the court into two sides. The court measures 78 feet long by 27 feet wide (35.99 for doubles) with the net stretching the full width of the court. There are three main types of court playing surfaces used: clay, hard, and grass.

A game is started out by one player hitting (serving) the ball to the opposing player on the opposite side of the net (the receiver). The ball is then volleyed back and forth until one player either hits the ball outside the marked boundary lines or into the net and a point is scored. A match is governed on the court by an umpire who presides over the match from a raised sideline chair. The umpire is usually assisted by line judges that help determine if a ball has landed in or out of bounds. Also, there is a referee that remains off-court who acts as the ultimate authority on any official tennis rules. In 2006 and 2007 certain events and tournaments started using challenges similar to what is used in the NFL.

Bowling

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Bowling is a sport that is played in which players attempt to knock down pins by rolling a ball into them. There are various types of bowling that exist throughout the world but the most popular is doubtless the style referred to as ten-pin bowling. The earliest forms of bowling are believed to have existed in Egypt as early as 3200 B.C. with the Dutch first introducing the game to America during the 16th century.

There are two main forms of bowling: indoor and outdoor. Outdoor bowling takes place on a lawn with players rolling balls usually with the goal of getting the ball as close as possible to a certain point. This is drastically different from indoor bowling which is the form Americans are most familiar with.

An indoor bowling ball is made of a combination of rubber, plastic urethane, and reactive resin. The ball is extremely hard, varies in weight and color based on bowler preference, and typically contains three finger-holes (this is in ten-pin, balls for other types have no finger holes). In most types of bowling, the ball is thrown down a lane that is made of either wood or an imitation. A lane’s regulation length is 60 feet and has a width between 41 and 42 inches.

As was mentioned earlier, there are many different types of bowling played throughout the world. In addition to ten-pin, there exists Candlepin, Duckpin, five-pin, and nine-pin skittles; these are all types of indoor bowling. One major difference that sets the styles apart involves the pins used. Ten-pin uses pins that are 15 inches tall and have a diameter of approximately 4 ¾ inches (at the widest part), Candlepin uses “double-ended” pins that are exceptionally tall, and Duckpin uses small pins that are only just over 9 inches tall and just over 4 inches in diameter (at the widest part). It is also important to note that Duckpin bowlers use a ball that is significantly smaller than that used by ten-pin bowlers.

In ten-pin, a game lasts for ten rounds, which are called frames. A bowler receives two chances per frame to knock down as many pins as possible. If a bowler knocks down all the pins on the first try it is called a “strike”, if they knock them all down on the second try it is called a “spare”; if all the pins are not knocked down after two tries, the bowler receives a point (called a pin) for every pin knocked over. The tenth frame is unique in that each bowler can receive up to three chances instead of two. A perfect game (300 pins) is bowled when a bowler gets a strike on every frame.

NCAA Hockey

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NCAA (or college) hockey is American hockey played at the collegiate level in the United States. It is governed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and consists of three levels: Division I, Division II, and Division III. NCAA hockey closely resembles the NHL with the obvious difference that the players are required to be college students. There exists both women’s and men’s teams but they are separate entities; that is, the women’s and men’s teams do not play each other.

The three divisions of NCAA hockey are split up into various conferences, but some teams choose to play as independents. Division I is probably the most popular, containing such notable schools as Boston College, Maine, Michigan, Denver, North Dakota, Ohio State, and many more. As of 2007, Michigan is the all-time leader in national titles with nine.

Following the regular season, both the men and the women have a postseason called the NCAA Division I championship. Teams advance through the rounds in single-elimination play with the last two rounds of four teams being called the Frozen Four; the women’s Frozen Four was not established until the 2000-01 season.

Men’s Division I hockey awards the annual Hobey Baker Memorial Award to the top player in the division, while the women award the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award to the top player in Women’s Division I.

International Hockey League Information Page

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The International Hockey League (IHL) is a professional hockey league based in the United States. The league has gone through many changes and tribulations over the years; in fact, the IHL that exists today only came into existence in 2007. The original IHL was founded in 1945 and lasted until 2001 when it folded due to two factors: conflict with the NHL and extreme strain due to swift expansion. The modern IHL was originally established as the Colonial Hockey League in 1991, it then became the United Hockey League before finally resurrecting the IHL in 2007.

As of the 2007-08 season, the IHL is made up of six teams: Bloomington Prairie Thunder, Flint Generals, Fort Wayne Komets, Kalamazoo Wings, Muskegon Fury, and the Port Huron IceHawks. The league is not split into the typical conferences and divisions because of the small amount of teams; essentially, the entire league is one division/conference with every team playing every other team.

Following the regular season every year is the IHL playoffs. The playoffs culminate in a championship game with the victors receiving the Turner Cup. The Turner Cup is the name of the championship trophy of the original IHL and the new IHL renamed their trophy the Turner Cup in 2007 as a tribute to the original league.

Major League Baseball is the top-tier level of professional North American Baseball. Major League Baseball refers to the organization which operates t

2009-07-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is a U.S. sports organization for professional female golfers. The worlds longest-running sports association for females (57 years), it is the premier women’s golfing association in the world. Unlike U.S. men’s professional golf where the PGA Tour runs the top professional tours and the PGA of America runs the club and teaching professionals, the LPGA runs both the LPGA Tour and the LPGA Teaching & Club Professional (T&CP). Similar to the PGA Tour, the LPGA also holds an annual Qualifying School that golfers enter to in an attempt to earn their tour card. The LPGA also operates the Futures Tour, a developmental league for golfers unable to earn a tour card. The top golfers at the end of each Futures Tour year earn the ability to play on the LPGA Tour the subsequent year.

The LPGA Tour season is split into two halves and consists of tournaments that take place from February to December every year. The Tour has four majors: the Kraft Nabisco Championship, McDonald’s LPGA Championship, U.S. Women’s Open, and the Ricoh Women’s British Open. The season consists of standard, winners, and unofficial tournaments. Standard tournaments earn the winner points toward the ADT Playoffs, winners earn the victor an automatic spot in the ADT Playoffs, and the unofficial tournaments are not official LPGA Tour events and have no bearing on the ADT Playoffs. The LPGA Playoffs at the ADT is a tournament of three rounds and a championship round taking place in November of each year. The top fifteen golfers are chosen at the end of each half to play for the ADT Championship with two golfers also qualifying as wild-cards. The winner of the ADT Championship receives $1 million dollars in prize money.

Major League Baseball

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Major League Baseball is the top-tier level of professional North American Baseball. Major League Baseball refers to the organization which operates the two professional baseball leagues of North America, the National League and the American League. Teams play a 162 game season and American League play differs from National League play in that American League teams have a designated hitter who bats for the pitcher. Neither the American League nor the National League are considered legal entities in their own rights, so Major League Baseball effectively acts as an umbrella organization for a single league.

Major League Baseball operates under the direction of a commissioner, and in this capacity it hires umpiring crews, negotiates media contracts, marketing, and labor. Major League Baseball has a broad administrative reach, and maintains a controlling relationship over most aspects of minor league baseball as well. Major League Baseball consolidates marketing efforts for both leagues and exerts control over all 30 individual team websites.

IRL | Indy Racing League

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The Indy Racing League (IRL) is the governing body of an American open-wheel racing series. The IRL contains two racing sub-series, the IndyCar Series and the Indy Pro Series. The IRL was formed in 1994 when Tony George decided to establish a league to compete with CART. Racing started in 1996 and the league got off to a slow start. However, the IRL began to grow and improve and eventually, in 2000, it began to pull teams away from CART. Later, in 2003, CART declared bankruptcy (it is now known as Champ Car) and this established the IRL as the premier open-wheel racing series in the United States.

The cars used in the IRL are open-wheel, which means that all four wheels and tires are completely exposed; they are not contained within the body of the car as are the cars used in NASCAR. At first, the IRL used only oval tracks in an attempt to distance itself from CART. However, this changed in 2005 when the IRL first incorporated road course races into the schedule. The most popular race on the schedule and maybe the cornerstone of the IRL is the Indianapolis 500. Sometimes referred to as “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing”, the Indy 500 is one of the oldest and most historic motor racing events in history.

As was mentioned above, the IRL consists of both the IndyCar Series and the Indy Pro Series. The IndyCar Series is the top level and is usually accepted as synonymous with the IRL. The Indy Pro Series was established in 2002 as a developmental league for the IndyCar Series; the series struggled upon conception but recently has seen increased participation and growth.

Ligue 1

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Ligue 1 is the premier level of the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), the professional football (soccer) league of France (there is one team from Monaco). The league was founded in 1932 and exists today as a well respected European league. The second level of the LFP is the Ligue 2 which has existed since 1933; 20 teams participate in both Ligue 1 and Ligue 2.

The Ligue 1 season consists of 38 games with each of the 20 teams playing each other twice. Teams receive three points for a victory, one point for a tie, and zero points for a loss. The team finishing the year with the most points is named league champion (in the event of a tie, tie-breakers based upon goals are used). The club Olympique Lyonnais is the six-time defending champion of Ligue 1 (as of the end of the 2006-07 season).

As is common in many European football leagues, teams occupying the premier league are not guaranteed to remain in the league; they must earn their inclusion. At the end of each season three teams from Ligue 1 and three teams from Ligue 2 swap positions. The bottom three teams in Ligue 1 are relegated to Ligue 2, while the top three teams from Ligue 2 are promoted to Ligue 1.

Bundesliga

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The Bundesliga is Germany’s top level of the country’s soccer (called football in Europe) league system. The league was established in 1962 (play commenced in 1963) which is very recent compared with other countries. It was decided that Germany needed a strong national league due to the country’s poor performances at the international level. The Bundesliga now incorporates the Second Bundesliga, the second level of the system, and the Third Bundesliga, the third level which will begin play in 2008-09.

The top three levels are all professional leagues, while the leagues below them, the Regionalligen, are amateur. Teams can fluctuate between the top three levels based on where they finish out a season. The top three clubs in the Second Bundesliga move up to the Bundesliga while the bottom three in the Bundesliga drop down.

The season lasts from August until May, with a six week break lasting from mid-December to the end of January. Games are primarily played on Saturdays and Sundays with one game played each Friday. Victories earn a team three points while ties and losses are worth zero points. The club with the most points at the end of the year is named Bundesliga champion.

Serie A

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Serie A is the premier league for professional football (soccer) in Italy. It is regarded as one of the best leagues in the world with its teams consistently performing well at the international level. The league contains the clubs Juventus, AC Milan, and Inter, some of the most popular clubs in the world. AC Milan is historically the most successful club in the world; the club has accumulated the most international titles in history.

A Serie A season is virtually the same as the seasons for the other major football leagues in Europe. The 20 clubs play a schedule of 38 games; two against all the other clubs in the league. The champion of Serie A is determined by a points system in which regular season victories, losses, and ties are worth determined point values. A victory earns a club three points, a tie has a value of one point, while a loss is worth zero points.

Based on their finishing place at the end of the season, clubs in Serie A can qualify for certain events or possibly be demoted to a lower league. The bottom three teams at the end of each season are demoted (relegated) to the Serie B, with the top three teams from Serie B replacing them. The clubs finishing first through fourth in Serie A qualify for the UEFA Champions League and the fifth and sixth place clubs make it to the UEFA Cup Tournament.

La Liga

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The La Liga is the top level of Spain’s professional soccer (football) league and is considered to be one of greatest professional leagues in the world. The La Liga is also known as the Primera División and the Primera Liga. The second level is known as the Segunda División A, while the lower amateur levels are Segunda División B and Tercera División. The La Liga encompasses all of the aforementioned leagues; however, La Liga is commonly used to refer to only the top level, the Primera División.

The La Liga’s season occurs from September to June with a champion being crowned at the end of the year. By far the most dominate team throughout the history of the La Liga has been Real Madrid with 30 championships including the 2007 title. FC Barcelona has also had a very successful history with 18 championships including the 2006 title. The top four teams in the La Liga qualify for the UEFA Champions League while both the fifth and sixth teams are invited to the UEFA Cup.

The bottom three teams at the end of the year are relegated (demoted) to Segunda División A. Therefore, the top three teams at the end of the year from Segunda División A are promoted to the La Liga.

Premier League

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The Premier League is the foremost football (soccer) league in England. In fact, it is the most watched sports league in the entire world. The Premier League (also known as The Premiership) first began play in 1992 when the top level of The Football League (FL), the Football League First Division, decided to separate itself from the FL. Since its beginning, The Premiership has been nearly completely dominated by four clubs: Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Blackburn Rovers.

The league is composed of 20 clubs with each club playing each other two times; one match at home and one match away for a total of 38 matches. As is typical in international leagues, victories are worth three points, ties one point, and losses zero points. The club with the most points at the end of the season is named league champion. Also typical of international leagues, The Premiership employs a system of relegation and promotion; the league swaps three clubs with the Football League Championship at the end of each season.

Compared with the MLS of the United States which employs various rules regarding players, The Premiership has very little restrictions when it comes to players. This includes the absence of a salary cap, no limit to number of players on a team, no age limitation, and no restrictions on foreign players.

Major League Soccer

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Major League Soccer (MLS) is the top professional soccer league in the United States. Founded in 1993, the MLS first began play in 1996 with ten teams. Since then, the MLS has expanded to 13 teams as of the 2007 season with the plan of expanding to 16 by 2010. The league has gone through times of popularity and times of struggle, but the league is currently showing signs of escalation due in a large part to the arrival of English superstar David Beckham.

An MLS season lasts from April to November with the MLS Cup Playoffs following the regular season; the victor is named MLS champion. As of the 2007 season, each team plays 30 regular season matches. Victories earn teams three points, a tie garners one point, while a loss is worth zero points.

An MLS team is allowed to carry a maximum of 18 players on their roster. Of the 18 available slots, 4 can be senior international players (25 years of age or older) and 3 can be youth international players (24 years of age or younger). Each team is also permitted to have a developmental roster of ten players. Each team is permitted only three substitutions per game.

The year 2005 saw the MLS begin a Reserve Division. This division allows teams to acquire invaluable experience for their non-starters. Each of the MLS’s teams receive twelve games for their reserve squad to play and the reserve division title is awarded to the team with the best record at the end of the twelve games; there is no playoff system. A reserve team is allowed a maximum of 20 players and each team is permitted to make six substitutions per game.

World Cup

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The FIFA World Cup is the most prestigious and well recognized football (soccer) competition in the world. The international competition consists exclusively of national teams from member countries of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). The World Cup has competitions for both men’s and women’s clubs and both take place every four years; the competition also rotates between different hosts every four years. The men’s competition has existed since 1930 while the women first began play in 1991. The World Cup is one of the most popular sporting events in the entire world with a consistently massive viewing audience; both at the games and on television. Some consider it to be the world’s greatest sporting event.

Each country does not automatically get a birth for their national club in the World Cup. Each club has to go through a qualification process (the qualification phase) that usually occurs in the three years leading up to the final phase, the World Cup Finals. Clubs qualify out of the six zones that FIFA has established: Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, and Europe. The Finals, as can be expected, is the final phase of the World Cup where the qualified teams compete for the title.

The World Cup Finals differs between the men and women competitions. For the men, the Finals take place for an entire month and features 32 clubs. However, the women’s Finals takes only three weeks and contains 16 clubs. Both competitions consist of a group stage that occurs in a round-robin format. Wins during the group stage earn a club three points, a tie one point, and a loss zero points. Based on points earned, 16 men’s clubs advance to the next stage while 8 clubs advance in the women’s. The next stage, the final stage, is single elimination with the World Cup champion being crowned at the end.

Sport

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Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the

sole or primary determinant of the outcome (winning or losing), but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports (a common name for some card games and board games with little to no element of chance) and motor sports where mental acuity or equipment quality are major factors. Sport is commonly defined as an organized, competitive and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play. Some view sports as differing from games based on the fact that there are usually higher levels of organization and profit (not always monetary) involved in sports. Accurate records are kept and updated for most sports at the highest levels, while failures and accomplishments are widely announced in sport news.

The term sports is sometimes extended to encompass all competitive activities in which offense and defense are played, regardless of the level of physical activity. Both games of skill and motor sport exhibit many of the characteristics of physical sports, such as skill, sportsmanship, and at the highest levels, even professional sponsorship associated with physical sports.

Sports that are subjectively judged are distinct from other judged activities such as beauty pageants and bodybuilding shows, because in the former the activity performed is the primary focus of evaluation, rather than the physical attributes of the contestant as in the latter (although "presentation" or "presence" may also be judged in both activities).

Sports are most often played just for fun or for the simple fact that people need exercise to stay in good physical condition.

Although they do not always succeed, sports participants are expected to display good sportsmanship, standards of conduct such as being respectful of opponents and officials, and congratulating the winner when losing.