World Cup Corner

MSN has signed 5 world-class footballers, including Michael Owen and FIFA World Player of the Year Ronaldinho, to provide exclusive content for MSN users throughout the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany.

Along side with Owen and Ronaldinho, other exclusive content providers will be Gianluigi Buffon, Xabi Alonso and Edgar Davids. MSN added that it intends to sign more big-names from the world of football in the near future.

Newcastle and England striker, Michael Owen, said:

Working with MSN UK is going to be great as it’s something new and exciting for me and the other players involved. We’ll be able to provide fun and interesting insights into the world of football to loads of people world-wide throughout the tournament.

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On Monday FIFA started the biggest disciplinary inquiry in its history. The investigation will be about the violence at the end of the Turkey-Switzerland World Cup play-off. The second game in Istanbul ended in chaos after the Swiss qualified for the finals.

FIFA spokesman said:

In terms of scope it is the most voluminous disciplinary investigation in our history. We have begun the enquiry in Zurich which will involve interviewing more than 20 people. These include the two national coaches, players, officials and technical staff from both countries. Because of the scale of the inquiry and the possible sanctions we have to ensure that legally everything is done exactly right.

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The 65-year-old Edson Arantes do Nascimento - Pele was asked to draw comparisons between the current jewel in Brazil’s team - Ronaldinho and Argentina’s favourite all time player - Maradona.

There’s no point in comparing Ronaldinho and Maradona. I think Ronaldinho is better than Maradona.

If there’s a player who I love to watch, that’s Ronaldinho. He is different. I’m sure the national team will need a lot from him in Germany in 2006.

said Pele at the opening of Sao Vicente de Paula School in Niteroi city.

On December 22, Real Madrid players Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane will each captain a team with some of the world’s best players to play the third charity match “Game against Poverty”. Ronaldo and Zidane are goodwill ambassadors for the United Nations Development Programme.

This years game will be held in German city of Dusseldorf and all the funds collected from the it will go to anti-poverty projects around the world.

The match referee will be Pierluigi Collina who will come out of retirement just to officiate the this charity game.

The last round off qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany as well as last friendly matches have caused a few ripples in the November FIFA Coca-Cola World Ranking just before the final draws in Leipzig.

Czech Republic are back in second place after Brazil which is still in front of everybody. Australia’s second qualification for a World Cup final competition brought them into the top 50 teams (49th).

Exept Trinidad and Tobago (51st), Togo (56th) and Angola (62nd), all 32 World Cup Finalists are in the top 50.

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The Final Draw for the 2006 FIFA World Cup will be placed on evening of 9 December in German city Leipzig. The 32 qualified teams will be drawn into eight groups of four.

• Broadcast to a total of 145 countries with 850 national and international journalists covering the event,
• global audience of 320 million expected to witness the event,
• all 32 participating national team coaches should be there,
• the biggest names from politics and sport will take part in the draw,
• Heidi Klum will help present the event,
• Colombian pop star Juanes will provide entertainment.

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If you are looking for sport blogs than you should check out Sports Cartel - The Sports Blog Network.

By the time of writing this post there is no soccer/football blog involved in the network.

FIFA World Cup qualifications are over and all teams are already in the waiting room for the final group stage draw. The group stage draw will be held in Leipzig on December 9, 2005.

African Zone:
Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Ghana, Tunisia

Asian Zone:
Japan, Iran, Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia

European Zone:
Germany, Ukraine, Netherlands, Poland, England, Croatia, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Serbia and Montenegro, France, Switzerland, Spain, Czech Republic

South American Zone:
Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay

North, Central American and Caribbean Zone:
USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago

Oceanian Zone:
Australia

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Turkey - Switzerland 4:2
Czech Republic - Norway 1:0
Slovakia - Spain 1:1

After Australia and Trinidad and Tobago the last FIFA World Cup finalsts are Switzerland, Spain and Czech Republic. The starting line-up for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany is now complete.

See you in Germany!

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Bahrain - Trinidat and Tobago 0:1

After 1:0 victory in Bahrain, Trinidad and Tobago qualified to the FIFA World Cup 2006 Finals for the first time in their history.

The first leg ended 1:1 which was not enough for Bahrain infront of their home crowd.

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