The World Cup Draw

The excitement starts now… 17.00 BST sees the draw made for the groups in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. England could end up with New Zealand, Algeria, and Greece – or we could get Australia, Ivory Coast, and Portugal…

Weekend Preview

Chelsea look to continue their formidable start to the 2009/10 Premier League season as they travel to Wigan Athletic, while bottom-of-the-table Portsmouth host Everton on a weekend of nine top-flight fixtures.

World Cup Qualification: How it Stands

world cup qualification, qualification tables, highest second place world cup qualifier

Chelsea Banned from Signing Players

Chelsea have been banned from signing any new players for two years after a FIFA investigation. Full story here.

Chelsea have been banned from signing any new players until 2011, after Fifa accused them of illegally inducing a French youth-team player to join the club in 2007.

Fifa’s dispute resolution chamber today released a statement fining Gaël Kakuta €780,000 following a complaint from FC Lens and finding Chelsea “jointly and severely liable”.

“A restriction of four months on his eligibility to play in official matches is imposed on the player Gaël Kakuta while the club FC Chelsea is banned from registering any new players, either nationally or internationally, for the two next entire and consecutive registration periods following the notification of the present decision,” the DRC statement said. “Furthermore, the club, FC Chelsea, has to pay to RC Lens training compensation in the amount of €130,000.”

The 18-year-old was voted the scholar of the year by Chelsea’s academy staff in 2008, ending the season as top scorer after playing out wide or as an attacking midfielder.

But his season was cut short last year by injury, with a broken ankle and hamstring problems restricting him to just five appearances.

He had just been named in Chelsea’s Champions League squad.

Champions League Draw

Group A: Bayern Munich, Juventus, Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa
Group B: MANCHESTER UNITED, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, Wolfsburg
Group C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Marseille, FC Zurich
Group D: CHELSEA, FC Porto, Atletico Madrid, APOEL
Group E: LIVERPOOL, Lyon, Fiorentina, Debrecen
Group F: FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, Dinamo Kiev, FC Rubin Kazan
Group G: Sevilla, RANGERS, Stuttgart, Unirea
Group H: ARSENAL, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos, Standard

The Game – Times Podcast

We are constantly luading the Guardian Football Weekly podcast – and rightly so – but don’t forget about the Times’ one, either. Although Phil Jupitus is an insipid host the excellent Patrick Barclay provides consistently insightful contributions, and although a bit of a nob Gabriel Marcotti also makes the occasional good point. Certainly worth a listen.

King Kev joins the ESPN Dream Team

As seen on Sunday and reported here, Kevin Keegan will be ESPN’s lead analyst on their Premier League coverage this season. He joins Ray Stubbs and Guus Hiddink for the American network’s virginal attempt at English football coverage.

I would love it if he is good.

White v Black

Considering the picture at the top and the copy within (e.g. ‘Ones like Nani) we’re pretty sure this is tongue in cheek…

http://whitevblack.wordpress.com

Where’s the Match? (On TV)

This week there are a raft of Champions League, Premier League, and Football League game on TV. A great site to keep track of where they are all being shown is Where’s the Match – not only for football either, you can track live games in all sports, and never miss one again. Although your girlfriend will probably be pretty pissed off.