In an embarrassing move, France captain Thierry Henry used his hand to control the ball, and won the game against Ireland during the World Cup playoff. He has admitted he used his hands, and agrees that the fair thing to do, is replay the game.
The ruling angered the Football Association of Ireland, who requested a rematch. The FIFA will not agree to the requests and have simply stated that, “the result of the match cannot be changed and the match cannot be replayed”.
Henry has commented that he feels bad that his team has gone on to play in South Africa, but he can do nothing more about it. The coach for the France team agrees it should have been called, but it wasn’t so it is not his place to say sorry. The referee’s decision is final according to the laws of the game. There is plenty of debate about the situation even among the government leaders at the summit in Brussels.
Former Irish captain, Roy Keane has sided with the FIFA in the matter. He states that Ireland has benefited from poor referee calls in the past, and now it is their turn.
Talks are still going on to resolve issues surrounding 18 year old runner Caster Semenyas future. The IAAF is working behind the scenes to resolve issues about the runner’s gender identity and the runners future career.
Nick Davies a spokesman for the IAAFD said that the parties are in the process of ending complex negotiations, they are “almost there”. Davies said all questions would not be resolved though during a meeting of IAAF’s ruling council in Monaco, which began on Friday.
“We are not in the position at the moment to confirm 100 per cent, what was announced yesterday by the South Africans,” said Nick Davies in an interview Reuters.
“We are still discussing and hopefully we will have a resolution soon.”
It is still up in the air about any decision on whether or not IAAF will allow Caster Semenya to keep the 800 meter world title and prize money ($60,000 US dollars from Berlin) that she won back in August and maintaining privacy over gender testing results.
She is still eligible at tis time to keep the title and the prize money. The issue that is being resolved said Nick Davies is whether there is anything that will hinder her competing in races in the future.
The Buffalo Bills have fired their head coach, Dick Jauron, after a terrible start to this season. The Bills are at a 3-6 win-loss for the season. The most recent loss was against the Tennessee Titans, with an embarrassing 41-17.
Jauron has not had a great run with the Bills. His last three seasons have been dismal at best with a 24-33 record. It was inevitable he would get the ax with that kind of performance. Bills owner, Ralph Wilson, says he made the decision in the best interest for the team. Perry Fewell will be stepping in as the head coach of the team.
Fewell had been the defensive coordinator for the team. The team knows him and has shown plenty of confidence in his leadership abilities, explains Wilson. Fewell is the first black coach for the team, and has only 7 games left to prove his stuff. He is the 5th coach in nine years for the struggling team.
The addition of Terrell Owens, who is statistically a great wide receiver, will hopefully give the team a chance at winning. Fewell’s first chance as head coach will come this Sunday when the Bills travel to Jacksonville.
Bills Coach Fired
Yesterday, the Buffalo Bills fired Coach Dick Jauron, and named their defensive coordinator Perry Fewell to replace him on an interim basis.
The team has started the year 3-6, and two days ago, they suffered a devastating 41-17 defeat against the Tennessee Titans. In over 3 seasons, Jauron only managed a 24-33 record, and in recent games it’s been getting worse instead of better. The fans were becoming more critical, and calls for a change were becoming louder as time went by. Many fans were expecting him to be fired at the end of last season, and the abysmal performance by the team this season hadn’t changed many minds.
“Perry Fewell will be our Interim Head Coach,” said owner Ralph Wilson in a team statement. “Perry has done a great job with our defense and has demonstrated excellent leadership skills as Defensive Coordinator. Our players and staff have a lot of confidence in him and that is important as we look forward to these next seven games.”
Fewell will become the first African American coach in the team’s history. He’s been in the NFL for 12 years, and this is his 4th season with Buffalo. His first game as head coach will be against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is suffering from an illness which my end his career.
Lesnar is suffering from a bacterial infection in his intestinal tract. The severity of the infection could prevent Lesnar from ever fighting again. UFC president Dana White announced Monday that the intestinal disorder has left Lesnar “very, very sick.”
Today the MMA champion had “minor” surgery, which according to white, went well.
“Leaving Bismarck, N.D. right now,” White stated via Twitter. “Brock had minor surgery and is feeling better.”
“Not 100 percent sure he is out of the woods, but feeling better,” White stated.
Lesnar was diagnosed with mononucleosis earlier this month, and collapsed last week at his vacation home in Canada.
White said, “There’s a possibility Lesnar will never fight again.” Lesnar was scheduled to defend his heavyweight belt against Shane Carwin, but that match has been rescheduled. On Saturday, White said, “He’s got mono and he’s got something else wrong with him. I know what’s wrong with him, but he doesn’t want me talking about it. He doesn’t have cancer or AIDS or anything like this, but he’s got some problems, man”.
Is Sammy Sosa Sick?
Sammy Sosa has appeared in public looking a little pale. The once naturally bronzed baseball legend has shocked his fans with his new lighter look. I think we have seen another famous guy go through this very same skin whitening phase.
Sosa claims the white skin is caused by a night cream he has been using. He claims between the lighting and the bleaching skin cream, it made him appear very pale. He is not suffering any illnesses, and is actually in talks with the skin cream company to do some marketing for it. The bleaching is supposedly a side effect and was not the purpose of the cream.
His skin is definitely lighter, but on a native man from the Dominican Republic, it does not look natural. His rep claims he started using the product to make his sun damaged skin softer. The light skin makes the man look like he is in very poor health, or has been hidden in a cave for years. He has not said what the name of the cream is, only that it is European.
Over the last several years the UFC has become a popular sport throughout the world, with it adding that overall thrill that so many seek in sports. One of the stars of the sport, Brock Lesnar, has become sick with an intestinal illness that is threatening his career.
What happened was UFC President Dana White told TMZ that the 32 year old has an intestinal disorder that will require major surgery. White said that they were working with Lesnar to get him to the Mayo Clinic for the treatment that he needs.
This follows a series of reports that he was sick with the H1N1 virus earlier in the year. As his defense of the heavyweight title against Shane Carwin was abruptly canceled and rescheduled.
This is indeed sad news for Lesnar who had overcome numerous obstacles before rising in the UFC. The South Dakota native, who was the NCAA wrestling champion in 2000, had tried and failed to peruse careers in professional wrestling as well as with the Minnesota Vikings.
While it appears as if Lesnar’s career could be over, only time will tell if he will be able to defend the title that he struggled to for so long to win.
What seems like a sure victory is no such thing when playing against Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. The New England Patriots were in control for most of the game Sunday. However the only score that counts is the final score.
New England took a commanding 24 – 14 lead to halftime and came out in the second half strong as well. Leading 31 – 14 into the fourth quarter it looked all but over. With just a few minutes left the Colts scored and got the score to within 34 – 28. New England just needed to get a first down and run out the clock.
Facing a 4th and 2 from their own 28 Belichick decided to go for it. The receiver bobbled the ball and was marked short of the first down. The Belichick costly decision will be second guessed for quite some time. The Colts took over on the 29 yard line and ran down the field just shy of the end zone. Then Manning found Wayne for the go ahead score. The stadium erupted in joy for the amazing comeback victory.
Manny Pacquiao, and Miguel Cotto squared off Saturday night in the most hotly anticipated boxing match of the year.
The pre-fight guess-work had been about even, with some experts believing that the Filipino bombshell, Pacquiao, was unbeatable, while others thought that Cotto was too big. Cotto has had a tough time in recent fights, and that also played into the speculation.
For the first couple of rounds it was quite competitive, with both fighters trading vicious combination’s, but in the 3rd, Pacquiao dropped Cotto, and then he did it again in the 4th. After that, the fight slowly became a beating, with Pacquiao stalking Cotto around the ring, cutting him, and eventually forcing referee Kenny Bayless to stop the proceedings in the 12th round, to protect Cotto from further punishment.
The fight not only cemented Pacquaio at the top of most pound for pound lists, but it also made him a lot of money. His share of the purse was about 13 million, and he’s expected to earn much more from the estimated 1.5 million PPV buys. The overall success of this bout is good news for the sport of boxing, which has had a tough time competing with mixed martial arts tournaments for PPV buys and mind-share. Pacquiao looks like the kind of superstar that the sport needs going into the future.