The likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool were quick to voice their dissatisfaction over the suggestion. Other teams in the top half were considerate enough to give it a thought with Martin O’Neill describing it as “interesting” and one that “people might go for”.

Any change in the current format would have needed the approval of 14 of the 20 Premier League clubs. With the television deal in place for the next three years, any change would have reflected only after the current deal expired.

Also, the general consensus at the meeting was that the team finishing in fourth position after a gruelling season deserved to play in the Champions League. The congestion in the English football calendar did not help the change at all. Premier League bosses feared that this change would reduce the significance of the FA’s other tournaments especially the FA Cup. Why mend something that ain’t broken?

Unlike City, both Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa booked their place in the next round with wins over Bolton and Crystal Palace respectively. Tottenham cruised to a 4-0 win against the Trotters. Roman Pavlyuchenko continued his resurgence and scored twice. Own goals from Jaaskelainen and O’Brien also contributed to Bolton’s downfall.

Aston Villa secured a battling 3-1 win over Crystal Palace. John Carew scored two late penalties for the Villians. Agbonlahor had given Villa the lead late in the first half. But Darren Ambrose equalised from the spot for Palace before Carew took the game away from the Championship side.
In another closely contested replay, Reading progressed to the sixth round with a 3-2 win over a strong West Bromwich Albion side.

Vertonghen had spells with VK Tielrode and Geerminal Beerschot in his native Belgium before joining Ajax as a 16 year old in 2003. He was sent out on loan to RKC Waalwijk to garner valuable first team experience in 2006. He was a rare starter in the 2007-08 season but made his mark the following season after the departure of Johnny Heitinga.

Vertonghen is currently contracted to Ajax till June 2013. A versatile player, Vertonghen plays in midfield while donning the colours of the Belgian national team.

Real are also tracking the progress of Vertonghen’s team mate Christian Eriksen. The Danish youngster is widely hailed as one of the future stars of the Eredivisie. He made his senior debut last month against NAC Breda and has also attracted the attention of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Eriksen’s contract with Ajax is due to expire next summer but the club are working towards giving him a new deal. Head coach Martin Jol has already expressed his desire to keep Eriksen at the Amsterdam Arena for as long as possible.

Eriksen joined Ajax from OB in 2008 for a reported €1m fee. The 18 year old has already represented Denmark at U-17, U-18 and U-19 levels.

But comments made by Cesc’s father have added to the confusion. Fabregas Sr. admitted that his son would be open to a move to Camp Nou at the end of the season. Arsene Wenger though has been caught in the crossfire. He came out trying his best to douse the fire by saying ‘nothing plus nothing is nothing’.

Cesc Fabregas was a part of the Barcelona youth system and scored at an alarming rate for a midfielder. He moved to Arsenal in September 2003 sensing that his participation at Barcelona would be limited. With the emotional attachment towards the Catalan club, a move to the Nou Camp can never be ruled out.

The meeting with England boss Fabio Capello lasted only for ten minutes during which the decision to strip John Terry of the captaincy was made. A statement from Fabio Capello read, “After much thought, I have made the decision that it will be best for me to take the captaincy away from John Terry. As a captain with the team, John Terry has displayed extremely positive behaviour. However, I have to take into account other considerations and what is best for all of the England squad. What is best for all of the England team has inspired my choice.” John Terry has also graciously accepted Capello’s decision.

The world collapsed for Terry when news about his four month fling with Wayne Bridge’s ex-girlfriend Vanessa Perroncel was made public by a British newspaper. Carlo Ancelloti has pitched his support for the Chelsea captain. On the other hand, Roberto Mancini has also spoken of the trauma Wayne Bridge had to undergo due to the scandal. The Manchester City star is believed to have coped well with the situation.

Mariga had the option of signing for Italian League leaders Inter Milan but chose to come to the lucrative Barclays Premier League with Manchester City. City agreed personal terms with the player and he passed the medical at Eastlands only to have his work-permit application rejected.

After having his dream move to City blown to smithereens, he didn’t waste any time in talking to officials at Inter Milan. The move to Inter which was secondary when City were in the fray suddenly gained huge importance with the clock ticking towards the transfer deadline. With Inter having sold Mancini to their cross town rivals AC Milan, Mariga was seen as an apt replacement. Mariga signed a four and a half year contract with Jose Mourinho’s side.

Under this backdrop, his decision to choose City over Inter could have been financially motivated. That he did not choose to wait for six months at Parma to try and join City in the summer tempts one to think if he really wanted to further his career prospects in England. But Inter nonetheless are a big club and Mariga’s star will rise if he performs consistently for the Bianconeri.

The 22 year old who has 26 caps for Kenya against his name also generated interest from Italian champions Inter Milan. But City swooped quickly to sign him ahead of Jose Mourinho. Parma wanted the permanent signing of Valeri Bojinov as part of the Mariga deal. The Bulgarian striker is currently on loan at Parma from Manchester City. But City are reluctant to let go of Bojinov. Mariga will become Mancini’s second signing for City after Patrick Vieira.

Manchester City are also stepping up the chase for Boro winger Adam Johnson. City’s £5m offer was turned down by the Riverside club and Johnson was refused permission to speak to City. The authorities at the Championship club believe that the club would get a higher fee from the tribunal’s decision when Johnson leaves on a free at the end of the current season when his contract expires.

Lionel Messi break the highest score since the inception of the award by scoring 473 points from a possible of 480 points. It meant that at least 89 of the journalists picked Lionel Messi as their first choice to win the award. The winning margin between winner L.Messi and runner-up C.Ronaldo is 240, the highest points gap aparts the top 2 place in history too. 2nd runner-up Xabi scored 170, 63 points behind C.Ronaldo.

On a years without World Cup and European Championships, the players from European Champion League winning club will have slight advantage ahead the rest. Just like the previous 2 years where the Ballon d’Or goes to the player from Champion League winning club, C.Ronaldo from Manchester United in 08/09 and Kaka from AC Milan in 07/08.

Other than winning European Champion League, Barcelona also completed a treble, by winning both Spanish La Liga and Copa del Rey. Barcelona became the first team in Spanish history to win three competitions in the same season. This see why3 players out of the top 4 came from Barcelona, with 4th place go to Andre Iniesta(149) and 5th place go to former Barcelona Striker Samuel Eto’o(75) who also part of the Champion League winning team, bagged 30 goals in Spanish La Liga for Barcelona last season before moving to Inter Milan as part of a trade of Ibrahimovic deal.

Lionel Messi is the first Argentinam to win the prestigious Ballon d’Or award. Messi, 22, is the sixth Barcelona player to take the award following Luis Suárez(1960), Johan Cruyff(1973, 1974), Hristo Stoichkov(1994), Rivaldo(1999) and Ronaldinho(2005) picked up the awards. Previously, Lionel Messi received second runner-up in 2007, then runner-up in 2008, and goes 1 better again this year to win the award.

Lionel Messi has improved tremendously after manager Josep Guardiola take charged in Nou Camp in the beginning of 08/09 season. A clear example will be Barcelona vs Man Utd in the Champion League semi-final in 07/08 season where Messi was completely being shut down and eventually Barcelona lost 1-0 to Man Utd. Last season, we saw a repeat of Barcelona vs Man Utd again, but its was the Champion League final this time round, and Messi went on to score the 2nd goal for Barcelona to win 2-0 against Man Utd.

Seeded Pots – South Africa, Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England
2nd Pots – Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Honduras, Mexico, USA and New Zealand
3rd Pots – Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay
4th Pots – Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland

South Africa, as host country  automatically being part of the seeded side and will be in Group A. Country from the rest of the pots will be praying hard to be in the same groups with them. Group of death will most likely be the group where Portugal and France in, unless South Africa is with either of the 2 country.

Chance of Draw
Lowest Fifa Ranking group – South Africa, North Korea, Paraguay and Slovakia
Highest Fifa Ranking group – Spain, USA, Cameroon and Portugal
Most Easy group - South Africa, New Zealand, Paraguay and Slovenia.
Group of Death – Spain, USA, Ivory Coast and France

Rule of Draw
No 2 nation from the same region will be in the same group other than Europe.
- Brazil and Argentina cannot be in same group with Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay
- South Africa cannot be in same group with Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria

Asia
Australia, Japan, North Korea and South Korea

Europe
Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland

North America
Honduras, Mexico and USA

Oceania
New Zealand

South America
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay

All the tickets for the country to South Africa World Cup 2010 has been finalise. Among all the nation, South Africa(86) has the lowest Fifa ranking in the World Cup which followed by North Korea(84) and New Zealand(77). As usual we got some strong nation being left out this time just like Holland missed World Cup 2006. Both Russia and Croatia was left out this time.

Let take a look of which Star Player shall missed out the chance to feature in the World Cup 2010

Peter Cech
Considering 1 of the best goalkeepers in the world along with Buffon and Casillas. Czech Republic manage to take part in World Cup 2006, but with a list of veteran players retire from international after the tournament, Czech Republic failed to qualify from the group stage with 4 win, 4 draw and 2 lost. Smicer, Koller, Jankulovski and Nedved has all been missed by the fans.

Ibrahimovic
The 08/09 ISA top scorer, who has so far impressed for his new club Barcelona has bagged 7 goals in the La Liga. His transfer to Barcelona have cost a windfall to Inter, consider Eto is as good as Ibrahimovic, his total transfer cost added up €69million which see him hold the record for the second highest transfer fee in football history, only behind C.Ronaldo. A 2 goalless draw with Portugal see Sweden out of the World Cup, which also saw Henrik Larrson bid farewell before hanging up his boots.

Arshavin
A magnificent performance in Euro 08 which lead Russia to semi-final make the world notice of him. Follow from his transfer to Arsenal, he make an impact such as scoring 4 goals against Liverpool in Anfield at club level. Hiddink has previously lead Holland, South Korea and Australia to World Cup. With Hiddink coaching the Russia side, and have Akinfeev and Zhirkov in the team, they remain confident in qualify for the World Cup despite needed to play the Playoff against Slovenia. A 2-2 on aggregate which see them lose due to away goal, leave them stunned.

Berbatov
The most expensive foreigner player in Manchester United history, didn’t manage to lead his country side into the World Cup. Bulgaria only manage to get 3 win, 5 draw and 2 lose in the group stage, which sit 3rd behind Italy and Ireland. Too bad, Bulgaria doesn’t have much star player to lead them through.

Adebayor
The Togo striker which leads his country to World Cup 2006, failed to do it again. They lost the spot to Cameroon in Africa Group A with 5 points. The Man City striker has so far impressed in this season for his new clubs. Its a pity that he shall be missed on the biggest stage in football tournament.