Spanish Defender Tweets Match Time Decision to Fans

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew had hoped that an injury sidelining defender Jose Enrique wouldn't be disclosed until right before Tuesday's Premier League game against Tottenham.

But more than four hours before kickoff, the Spanish defender wrote in broken English on Twitter: "Sorry lads i have a test this morning and we decide is better dont play. ... Im so hungry because this game is nice to play. ... My hamstring is so stiff today."

Pardew, whose team lost 2-0, now wants his his players to withhold such revelations from social networking accounts. He acknowledges, however, that "it's difficult to police" and he won't impose an outright ban.

"I got a text message that the press knew," Pardew said. "Did he tweet it, did he? It's something as a club we need to look at. Players can't be giving that sort of information out. ... We need to make it as a club policy that it has to stop."

Asked if Enrique would be ready for Sunday's match against West Ham, Pardew cracked: "I'll check his tweet."

He may have been a bit late. Enrique already provided an update for his more than 5,000 followers.

"Im sure is ok for sunday because is just stiff nothing worse," he tweeted. "Thanks everyone for your support."

Pardew's annoyance must have reached Enrique. The messages were subsequently deleted from his feed.

"Sorry i want to delete twetter just get me problems," he explained on his feed.

TOP 10 Reasons People Don’t Watch the WPS

Who can count the number of articles that have been written about the big black cloud that is looming over the Women’s Professional Soccer league in the United States?

With the Chicago Red Stars failing to secure reserve funding in order to participate in the 2011 season, sportswriters are pointing fingers and predicting future doom for the remaining clubs.

Initially, this article was going to have a similar bend. However, what good would that do? At this point, there needs to be some creative conversation on the matter because women’s sports, whether soccer, basketball, lacrosse and softball, would benefit from it.

For the longest time, I have had several, highly engaging conversations with people who could care less about women’s soccer, but (fortunately) enough about me to lend me their opinions. The conversation always begins with the following question: Why do you think people do not watch women’s soccer?

It was a question that I again posed a few weeks ago to many of my counterparts inside and outside of the global soccer community. Their responses have been compiled into our….

TOP 10 Reasons People Don’t Watch the WPS
(In no particular order)

1. Lack of media coverage
2. Not aware of women’s soccer
3. Pace of game is too slow
4. Less women’s matches on television
5. Not heavily promoted until international competitions
6. Huge disparity in the abilities of the players
7. No commercials showcasing women’s technical abilities
8. Women’s soccer is still considered a recreational sport
9. Women do not promote themselves or their games
10. Most of WPS coverage is negative.

Over the next few entries, I am going to tackle each of these challenges with the help of some “experts.” At this point, it’s not enough to talk about the problem. Let’s see if we can provide the remaining clubs with some creative solutions for their upcoming season.

Qatar Makes It Rain On FC Barcelona

Two weeks ago, the tiny nation of Qatar took the soccer world by storm with its host selection for the 2022 World Cup. The country’s proposal included financial investments in infrastructure that put its bidding committee in quite a class of its own.

Now the oil rich nation seems to be still hungry and on another soccer spending binge. This week a Qatar “foundation” was able to buy what many thought was the untouchable-the front of Barca’s shirt. The club was a lone outlier in not selling its most coveted piece of real estate. When other clubs took the cash, Barca went in the opposite direction and gave away cash to UNICEF for use of the organization’s name.

Barca had embodied it’s tag line of “more than just a club.” Now, the storied club may just become another impulse by for national investors that would to blow off steam, spend some cash and turn the global soccer community on its ear.

A Winter 2022 World Cup In Qatar? Beckenbaur Proposes Alternatives

According to Goal.com,"Franz Beckenbauer has confessed that he would like to see World Cup 2022, which has been awarded to Qatar, staged in January and February.

Concerns have been raised from several quarters about the intense summer heat of the Arab state, and the former Bayern Munich and Germany star has echoed those suggesting that one way around the problem would be to play the competition in the winter.

“We should think about a solution in January and February. There will be pleasant temperatures around 25°C,” the member of Fifa’s executive committee explained to Bild on Saturday morning. “Why would it not be? The calendars of the major European leagues should be changed in 2022. It would not have too great an impact and would represent an alternative to the enormous expense of providing cool spaces and stadiums for fans.”

Beckenbauer also expressed his surprise that Australia was eliminated in the first round of bidding for the competition, a sentiment he echoed with regard to England’s bid for the 2018 World Cup, which was ultimately handed to Russia."

In other Beckenbaur news, the German legend has announced that he will be stepping down from his FIFA Executive committee post in March. He cites personal reasons fo his departured. German football federation chief, Theo Zwanziger is going to run for the post.