Even Pele gets robbed in Brazil

Pele, the soccer legend himself, was robbed by an armed gang earlier this month. Pele was the passenger in a car that was stuck in traffic when a gang of 10 armed men surrounded his vehicle. The men took his gold necklace, a mobile phone and a watch.

His driver was also robbed, however when the gang recognized Pele, they returned items to the driver but not to the super star.

"Pele, who is said to have remained calm during the robbery, apparently believed the men were high on drugs."

Police say these types of robberies are common in Brazil, which I'm sure is not what FIFA wants to hear ahead of the 2014 World Cup.

Pele - Beckham in US handled 'very, very bad', likes England for World Cup 2018

Pele believes that the way David Beckham was introduced to the US audience was 'very, very bad' because he was introduced as 'a scorer of goals.'

But Beckham is not the only problem he sees for MLS as he also believes that the current salary cap is hurting the game.

Pele believes MLS players' salaries need to be raised to the level of American football or baseball players. He also wants the lifting of restrictions on player movements, which are designed to stop wealthy teams from amassing the best players.

"This was one of the mistakes. They have to give freedom to the owners of the teams to buy the players and (chose) which players they want to put (out)," Pele said. "The big mistake in the league now is to control the level of the teams. If they opened this up, it would be much better.

The biggest problem with this move, of coarse, is that it is basically what NASL did back in the 70's, and that didn't end up so well.

Still, he is correct that if the league ever wants to see the attendance numbers of the Cosmos (50-60,000 per match), they will need to have more money to spend to attract top talent. However, at this point the league is not looking for such numbers, instead, they want to build a strong foundation for later improvements. Yet it is hard to argue that raising the salary cap a few million dollars per team is a bad idea.

In other Pele news, he thinks England is well suited to hold the 2018 finals. He sited stadiums as the main reason the country should get the Cup. He then went on to talk about his own country hosting the 2014 World Cup.

'It is fantastic. The Brazilians love football, they live football.
'When Brazil was nominated to get the World Cup it was fantastic.
'Of course there is a lot of controversy about the situation and people ask if Brazil is ready to host the World Cup.
'If you look now, no-one is able to play in the World Cup. If FIFA was there now they would say no, but seven years from now Brazil will be in shape to host the World Cup.'

Brazil and Germany to host World Cups

The country that inspired the colors used on the World Cup trophy will indeed host the finals in 2014. Fifa made official what people have known for years when they voted today to award the South American giants the honor of having the games.

Brazil has a little less than seven years to renovate/build stadiums and improve transportation issues, hopefully not at the cost of social programs for their people.

But Brazil was not the only country to earn a World Cup, as 2006 World Cup hosts Germany will again take on the role for the 2011 Women's World Cup. The decision came down to Canada (host of the 2007 U-20 World Cup) and Germany, but really, it was Germany's all along. This should give the German women an even greater chance of a three-pete.

Congratulations to Brazil and Germany.

World Cup rotation dead - Fifa spits on Concacaf - Why is Jack Warner still in charge?

Fifa made it official today, the rotational system will die after the 2014 Brazil finals, meaning everyone except for little Oceania and Concacaf got a piece of the World Cup pie.

This comes as no surprise as Fifa boss Sepp Blatter has been hinting at this for some time now but still, one has to wonder why Concacaf President and Blatter's BFF Jack Warner was not able to bring his confederation the finals as he promised. Since it was Concacaf's to lose and Warner lost it, hopefully all the FAs will realize that Warner is not the great strength he portrays himself to be.

So 2018 now becomes an open bidding tournament much like, as Blatter points out, the Olympics. I guess that means 2018 process will be a lot like those for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Blatter listed China, Australia, Mexico, the United States, England and one combined offer from the Netherlands and Belgium as countries already showing interest in the finals. However, seeing that those in Europe pushed this moved, it is pretty safe to say that most of them are already unofficially out. I'm sure Fifa will keep as many countries 'in the game' as they can so as to milk as much out of it as possible, but in the end, 2018 is now England's World Cup to lose.

Uruguay and Argentina want to host the World Cup

Back in 1930, Uruguay hosted the first ever World Cup and they want to do it again 100 years later. However, they realize that the current version of the finals is a bit too big for them to do it alone, so they have joined with neighbors Argentina for the right to host the 2030 World Cup.

AFA president Julio Grondona expressed his desire to help Uruguay host the event through a formally written letter that was sent to the AUF headquarters in Montevideo earlier on in the week.

“Working for this goal together will bring the relationship between both nations closer than ever. The sporting authorities, and both governments, must work together so that we can reach our objective by 2030,” he stated.

Grondona (76) feels that both nations have a lot of work to do, and they will only send in their proposal once they have a detailed outline of the whole project.

So these two have joined together to host an event that is still 23 years away.

But there might be a problem with this desire. FIFA is expected to soon pass a rule that will end the World Cup rotation after 2014 and that will open up future finals to all continents except for the last two that have hosted World Cups. Because of these changes (and other things coming out of FIFA), it is very much speculated that Europe will again play host in 2018. So here is the way future cups look:
2010 - South Africa
2014 - Brazil
2018 - Europe (most likely England)
2022 - Asia or North America
2026 - Asia or North America
2030 - ?

Knowing that Europe doesn't like going more then two finals without playing host, it would be hard to imagine them not pressing for the 2030 cup.

This is still along way from anything happening and who knows what shape the world will be in 20-years from now (or what rules FIFA will have changed), but the way things are looking from here, it might be a choice between celebrating the history of the game or letting Europe have another one.

World Cup 2014 - FIFA inspecting Brazil, Germany will wear Adidas

The FIFA 2014 World Cup inspection tour of Brazil is underway. Representatives will visit five candidate cities during their nine-day trip while 13 other cities will make their presentations in Rio de Janeiro.

Although Brazil is the only country up for consideration to host the finals, they are not guaranteed to win them. FIFA will want to know how the country plans to update their stadiums and transportation options before they award them the 2014 cup.

If Brazil is not granted the finals, the bidding could open up to anyone.

FIFA will make their final decision on October 30, however if the finals are not heading to the land of the samba, changes are we will know about it before then.

In other World Cup news, no matter where 2014 is played, Germany will be wearing Adidas gear. The German FA has voted to reject a $680 million, 8-year deal with Nike and will stay with German based Adidas instead.

The Bundesliga was in favor of a move to Nike, which would have seen them received $68 million more over the eight years. Adidas will pay the FA $27 million per year for the first 4 years and then $34 million per year for the final four years.

2014 World Cup - Brazil gets ready to make their pitch

As the only nation in the running to get the 2014 World Cup, chances are very good that Brazil will bring it home on Tuesday when they showcase their bid (the final FIFA announcement is not till Oct 30). However, as exciting as this is, they still need to address a number of issues such as the poor state of the stadiums and even poorer transportation facilities.

The poor state of Brazil's major stadiums could still be a major stumbling-block - but that appears to be the least of the country's problems at present.

'Brazilian Football Confederation' (CBF) president Ricardo Teixeira will make the presentation with his nation's air transport system reeling from two major crashes in the last 10 months.

The last two weeks have seen hundreds of delays and cancellations as the recriminations continue following the July 17 crash of a TAM Linhas Aereas flight, which killed around 200 people at Sao Paulo's main domestic airport.

With many major roads in an appalling state and railways suitable only for freight transport, it remains a mystery how players, officials and tens of thousands of fans will be ferried around the vast country.

As if these issues were not big enough, they also have to deal with urban violence in their major cities.

This is a lot to get past however Brazil can take heart in knowing that the ongoing Panamerican Games in Rio de Janeiro have been a very big success. Although Rio is just one city, it is still a starting block from which they can build.