Manchester City, third-highest salary payers in world sports.

• According to a study conducted by sportingintelligence.com, Barcelona is the best paid team in global sport, with Real Madrid in second place but Manchester City have stormed into the top three and continue to close the gap on the Spanish giant.
• This study is based on measuring by average first-team wages.
• The report said Manchester City paid an average of 86,280 pounds per man per week, or 4.5 million pounds per year, the highest salaries ever paid in the English Premier League, which is also the world's richest football league.

Manchester City, third-highest salary payers in world sports.

BBC Panorama exposes 3 top senior FIFA officials in bribery scandal.

In programme broadcast by BBC on Monday evening, Panorama reported that three senior Fifa officials who will vote on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids took bribes in the 1990s.

Ricardo Teixeira, Issa Hayatou and Nicolas Leoz took the money from a sport marketing firm awarded lucrative World Cup rights, the programme alleges.

BBC Panorama exposes 3 top senior FIFA officials in bribery scandal.

Premier League Club Bans Vuvuzela from stadiums.

Although the Premier League has not made any ruling on the vuvuzela covering its 20 teams, Tottenham banned the South African instrument late Monday.

Arsenal, Birmingham, Everton, Fulham, Liverpool, West Ham and Sunderland followed Tuesday, with most citing concern that the distinctive blaring of the vuvuzelas could prevent spectators at matches from hearing safety announcements such as evacuation instructions.

''Following discussions with the police and representatives from the local licensing authorities, the club will not be permitting vuvuzelas or similar instruments into White Hart Lane on match days,'' Tottenham said. ''We are concerned that the presence of the instruments within the stadium pose unnecessary risks to public safety.''

Vuvuzelas at the recently concluded World Cup annoyed plenty of television viewers around the world by drowning out television commentary and other crowd noise.

But many enjoyed the local flavor they added to the monthlong tournament. The trumpets were a common souvenir for visiting supporters to take home from the World Cup, but with Arsenal following its north London neighbor in imposing a ban, half of last season's top four clubs have ordered fans to leave them at home.

Premier League Club Bans Vuvuzela from stadiums.

Loew to stay as Germany Coach.

FRANKFURT, Germany(AP) The German football federation has called a news conference later Tuesday amid reports that national coach Joachim Loew has agreed to extend his contract by two years.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported Loew will stay through the 2012 European Championship in Poland and Ukraine.

Loew led Germany's young team to a third-place finish at the World Cup in South Africa this month.

He has been out of contract since the end of the tournament. Earlier talks on an extension stalled over several issues, including remuneration.

Loew to stay as Germany Coach.

World Cup final ball auctioned off for $74,000 brought by Spanish Fan

First Time WC winner have another chance to rejoice as one of the Spanish fans have bought a ball used in Spain's World Cup final win over Holland for £48,200 ($74,000) in an online charity auction.

Proceeds from the sale on eBay are due to go to 46664, Nelson Mandela's campaign to prevent HIV/Aids.

The company said 133 bids had been placed from 55 international bidders.

World Cup final ball auctioned off for $74,000 brought by Spanish Fan

Sepp Blatter apologises to England, Mexico for Referee Mistakes.

(AP) With pressure for video replay mounting after two blatant missed calls at the World Cup, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said soccer's governing body will reopen the issue after the tournament.

Blatter said Tuesday that FIFA deplores ``when you see the evidence of refereeing mistakes.'' It would be ``a nonsense'' not to consider changes, he said.

The referee at England's second-round match with Germany on Sunday missed a clear English goal that would have tied the score 2-2. Germany went on to win 4-1. Hours later, a referee awarded a goal to Argentina on a play in which goal-scorer Carlos Tevez was obviously offside. Argentina went on to beat Mexico 3-1.

Sepp Blatter apologises to England, Mexico for Referee Mistakes.

Lets know the History of FIFA World Cup Balls.

Fifa World Cup was held in the following years 1970, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010. One thing is sure Adidas still holds the monopoly for making Official FIFA World Cup Ball. Upto now all the balls were manufactured by Adidas.

Telstar

Telstar was a design of association football made by Adidas. It was the official match ball of the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.

It was painted with black and white panels so it was more visible on black-and-white television. The name Telstar one of the first communications satellites, which was roughly spherical and dotted with solar panels, somewhat similar in appearance to the football.

Lets know the History of FIFA World Cup Balls.

Is Leader Kim Jong-il help coaching the North Korea Football Team??

The country's latest claim is a mysterious phone that allows Dear Leader Kim Jong-il help coach the team from afar.

North Korean manager Kim Jong-Hun reportedly gets coaching advice directly from the country's diminutive dictator via an invisible cell phone.

According to ESPN.com the coach has claimed he gets "regular tactical advice during matches" from Jong Il "using mobile phones that are not visible to the naked eye."

"Jong Il is said to have developed the technology himself," coach told ESPN.com.

Is Leader Kim Jong-il help coaching the North Korea Football Team??

World Cup related traffic can crash twitter.

Twitter, which has suffered a series of outages this week, has warned that there could be more problems amid heavy World Cup traffic.

Mr Jean-Paul Cozzatti, a Twitter engineer, said on the Twitter blog that the micro-blogging service's problems this week were due to an internal network being over-capacity.

Mr Cozzatti said Twitter was doubling capacity and re balancing traffic on the network to redistribute the load.

When Twitter goes down, a picture of a whale — known as the "fail whale" — appears on Twitter.com and Mr Cozzatti said his engineering team was hoping for fewer appearances by the creature.

"You may still see the whale when there are unprecedented spikes in traffic," he said on Friday.

World Cup related traffic can crash twitter.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter joins twitter for world cup.

Blatter's account, @seppblatter, went live on Thursday on the eve of the tournament's opening game and the 74-year-old Swiss had already amassed almost 3,000 followers by the early evening.

Blatter is more fortunate than many of the players at the tournament in being able to use the micro-blogging service.

Netherlands players have been banned from using Twitter during the World Cup after Eljero Elia sparked a racism row with comments on a live streaming video.

Src & Text: [reuters]

FIFA president Sepp Blatter joins twitter for world cup.

Crazy hairstyle by football superstars.

You might have seen most of them going bald or having a very fine hair cutting but here are some of the wildest yet craziest haircut by some of the football superstar.

This photo has been compiled by ibnlive.com

Photographer captures Mohamed Zidan's unique hair style during a match.

Axel Witsel checks his hair style during a team training session.

Crazy hairstyle by football superstars.

Hi-tech boots of the 2010 World Cup.

By comparison, Nike's new Mercurial Vapor Superfly II is the most expensive boot on the modern retail market, coming in at around $400.

Henry VIII's boots would have been sturdy models made from tough leather to cope with the violent, no-rules, all-in-brawl approach to the game of the 16th century, a far cry from the streamlined and lightweight shoes designed for today's game.
Gallery: World Cup football boots

"We have a revolutionary technology which has a stud that adapts to different pitch conditions," Nike design director Andy Caine told CNN.

"This will make the fastest player even faster whatever the pitch conditions might be. For a modern footballer who's really fast, this is really going to change his game."

Hi-tech boots of the 2010 World Cup.

Japan drops bid to host 2018 World Cup to aim for 2022

Article appeared on news.bbc.co.uk

The Japanese Football Association has pulled out of the bidding to host the 2018 World Cup - but remains in the running for the 2022 tournament.

Japan's exit leaves England as one of six bidders looking to host either tournament, with Fifa to name the hosts for both in December.

Australia, Russia, the United States, Belgium/Netherlands and Spain/Portugal are also in the hat for both.

Qatar and 2002 co-hosts South Korea are bidding solely for the 2022 event.

Japan drops bid to host 2018 World Cup to aim for 2022