I am hoping to write a few blogs in the next coming weeks. As the English Premier League draws to a close, I thought I would share my team of the year.

 

Goal Keeper:

I was going to go for Hart but in fact I am going to go for Vorn from Swansea. Hart has established himself as a top keeper over the last few seasons and it was nice to see somebody knew impress everybody so quickly, especially with amazing penalty saves!

Defenders:

Baines, Kompany, Coloccini, Kyle Walker. All of these have impressed over the whole season.

Midfielders:

Valencia, Dempsey, Yaya Toure, Silva. The only real person here that could cause debate is the inclusion of Valencia. I think his pace and crossing has been extremely underrated this season.

Attackers:

Van Persie, Cisse. Who else would be upfront? The top scorer in the league and the goal of the season candidate? Both have made extremely different impacts this season.

 

Honourable Mentions or “Substitute Bench”:

Hart, Johnny Evans, Scott Parker, Jelavic, Ashley Cole, Alex Oxlade-Chamberland, Holt.

 

 

 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

Who actually cares about the community shield? Why not make the opening fixture of the Premier League an exhibition match? An All Star football team match? Vote for the players from last season and the top 2 from each club qualify? Or they give a list of players and we vote for them? Enough for 2 teams with plenty of subs?

Just a thought ... 

What defines an era?

What defines a player of a generation?

 

This season we have witnessed the brilliancy of Ronaldo VS Messi, a fantastic Manchester race for the Premier League title and so many different styles of football (Swansea players having a higher pass completion ration than Barcelona players!)

It had me thinking, whose generation is this? After speaking to several 16 year olds about past teams of recent greatness, AC Milan, Chelsea, Valencia, Lyon and Greece, I asked them if they knew of the great legend of Italian defending, total Dutch football, the glory days of Liverpool and the exciting full backs of Brazil (Cafu and Roberto Carlos). All of them looked back at me with a confused face but could recall the terminology.

Is our football brain actual that of an actual professional football players life span? That our attention and knowledge of football starts at 16 and eventually when we reach our mid 30’s we classify this as the end of an era?

A professional football player has a life of 20 years (From 16 to 36), does this work the same in our community and environment?

Would you classify the Arsenal invincible team this generation or the generation before this seasons Barcelona’s team?

 

 

I am interested in knowing what you think and please do not hesitate in letting me know.

 

As said in all previous blogs

This Court is dismissed .............. Judge K .................!

1.     You either recently read the Facebook/Twitter update about a blog in the making.

2.     You have read the blog on the Shia Sports Notice board and wanted to read more.

After reading the banter open on Facebook between A Manchester United fan and a diehard AC Milan supporter, they both suggested something that we haven’t discussed before, Muslims in the Modern game of Football.

So I started digging deeper and went through some articles. I want to keep this brief as there is a lot of articles and stories out there. I will just “open the gates” for everybody and they can further investigate and share their thoughts.

I want to highlight four stories that I found brilliant to read and want to share them with you =)

Frederick (Oumar) Kanoute

French born Malian Kanoute, who plays for Seville and the Mali national team as a striker, has been practising Islam since the age of 20 (he is now 32). He refused to wear the Seville shirt whilst it was sponsored by gambling website 888.com, and therefore wore a brand free version. Kanoute has also purchased a Mosque in Seville for $700k after its lease had expired.

It is the amazing thought and respect that we should all admire here. Refusing to wear a top as it advertises gambling. From there the story of him buying a mosque as the lease has expired. That story is just great!

Read the link below, where there is an entire story on ALL Spanish Muslim Footballers and how they deal with Ramadhan.

http://www.kickitout.org/952.php

Demba Ba

Demba Ba had not played in the whole of August apart from several substitute appearances. When I told my English work colleague about the story, we were both amazed at the dedication to Islam. The story going round was the when needed, only then would Pardew as him to come onto the pitch!

The Senegalese forward grabbed a hat-trick in a victory over Blackburn but has been restricted to mostly substitute appearances this season because of a lack of fitness.

Speaking after the game, Pardew said: “He’s [Demba Ba] had a slow start here because of mainly him fasting and playing in Ramadan in my view. He had a couple of substitute appearances where he just started to show a little bit of sharpness but I thought he was terrific at Aston Villa and made us control the midfield without actually threatening the goal.

Kolo (Habib) Toure

Next time Kolo Habib Toure steps onto the pitch, pause it, rewind it and then watch in slow motion.

He enters saying “in the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful”

FACT!

OTHER SPORTS STARS

Mo Farah and Amir Khan

Another thing I found on the Internet -

Team GB 2012 distance runner and current Commonwealth Gold Medallist, Mo Farah is getting creative with the Islamic calendar to help him secure a medal at the World Championships in Daegu.

Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, started on August 1 and lasts until August 29. Farah would ordinarily fast during daylight throughout Ramadan. But this year he will do some additional fasting after Ramadan is over for most Muslims to compensate for eating and drinking during the day in the run-up to the championships, which start on August 27.

He said: “I’m going to fast as soon as I finish my season. When I finish Daegu I will take my break and the days I’ve missed I will catch up then. It’s important that you stay hydrated and eat well – I don’t want to change anything, even have a shave!”

Another brief story on the Internet -

Amir Khan - Professional boxer Amir Khan fasts even throughout his training.

"Fasting makes you feel weak," he said last year. "You have to wake up at four or five in the morning to eat, but you're knackered and you don't feel like food, you have to force it down. I wouldn't fast on the day of a fight though."

 

It shows that there are Muslims in sports out there! It also shows that the media has picked up on their stories and it makes us Muslims proud that they are trying their hardest to help themselves and others in Islam.

It does pose a thought though, where are they when the media attacks Muslims? Sure they cannot be political or make statements involving world peace but when in British Media, surely they can give a little bit of support to us normal, honest Muslims and speak out against the Terrorists that are ruining our faith. Just a thought eh?

Still give them credit for what they have achieved and all of these stories show that they still are humble to Allah.

I have enjoyed this blog and hopefully next time we could do an interactive discussion!

As said in all previous blogs

This Court is dismissed .............. Judge K .................!

 

 

 

 

So I have been on this train journey now for about 2 hours. Another 3 hours or so to go and that leaves me with a time of plenty to write but more importantly, to think!

As the holy month of Ramadhaan approaches us and the sunset is now on this years MAMT,  we can look forward to many sporting things over the next year that shall slightly keep us entertained. So let me just get on with it ...

Here we go with my top 12 sporting things to look forward to in 2012 ....

1.     The Premiership! Who wins? Who goes down? Who can qualify for Champions League? Man Utd to retain the title without the experience of old but the new fresh youngsters? Chelsea under new management can they do it? The millions of Man City finally pay off? Liverpool as the new powerhouse with the lavish spending over the summer? Arsenal – well it is all about if they can actually win anything now and if it is with their superstars or if they are gone? Even Tottenham can do something special if they can defend right?

2.     Boxing – Fresh of the toe injury scandal and let down of a massive fight, we have heard rumours of Khan vs Mayweather. I don’t need to say any more than that. Any boxing fun has several amazing fights in the coming year!

3.     Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand – Imagine a WHOLE stadium doing the hakkah? Even if you don’t like rugby, just catch the atmosphere right then and appreciate traditions that us Khoja’s seem to be forgetting!

4.     I hate cricket but here we go – Cricket – Match Fixing – Lincoln Road either rammed or completely dead – some record breakers and something about controversy in being robbed of a victory by umpire decisions! Wait! Isn’t this every year?

5.     The magic of the FA Cup – Hopefully some big team comes and goes, the smaller lower teams beat the goliaths but in the end the fairytale story that is messed up on ITV commentary actually has a good journey.

6.     The hype to the Olympics – whether you like it or you don’t, you will end up hearing a lot and I mean A LOT of hype about the Olympics. Brace yourself it hasn’t even begun yet!

7.     Some huge sporting scandal – mark my words! Cricket has had it, football currently has it, so just wait and see that some huge (Rupert Murdoch style) thing will happen

8.     F1 – Shame Vettel has it in the bag but it is always funny how people still think Hamilton has a chance! Just been a good year  for driving though!

9.     WrestleMania – The Rock VS John Cena! ..... And Breathe!

10.  Euro 2012 – The build up from Media of England chances and them being the best team only to flop badly in the quarters, the farce about some person not included in the squad, some Capello media garbage and after all of that we can all sit back and watch Spain lift the trophy in Poland at the end of it all.

11.  The Olympics – London and UK will actually be buzzing! I am not going to say much as the British Media will do all the hyping for me in the next 12 months!

12.  MAMT 2012 – The return of the 3 day tournament in August, the thoughts of staying in Stanmore for 2 nights, the hype and hassle of entries and membership (that is not a good thing by the way) but most of the crowning moment when any of us can lift a trophy!

A decent year of sport right? 

We open with a thought that should encourage all to play sports!! Diabetes and High Blood Pressure, now that the casual average Asian illness has been covered and everybody has thought for that split second to become healthy, we can swiftly move on! 

I want to keep this short and sweet as the last Blog got reviews of it being long and boring! I can understand the criticism. 

We have the annual MAMT coming in only a few weeks, the crowds are gathering and the entries are rolling in. All the sports clubs are gathering “troops” in order to win as many trophies as possible, from the coveted football trophy taken by the Swedes to the Volleyball trophy that crescendo’s the closing curtain on every MAMT. 

Shia Sports hasn’t had an annual internal tournament in recent times. Volleyball people have a competition every year and this year the “Rising Stars” lifted that prestigious trophy but what about the footballers?

How about if we created a fantasy football league system in Peterborough, where we had to purchase players? Every person has a price and every manager has a budget? 

Perhaps this can be done? Perhaps we can have a competition like old times organised by many and attended by even more! 

Great job to all those that helped with Fun Day and good luck to all of you who are participating in the MAMT!! Let us try and beat Stanmore and actually take that giant trophy home this year =)

This Judge is off to Express .... 

Court Dismissed 

The next court session has begun, the lights are dimmed and everybody in attendance is eagerly anticipating Judge K to address the audience. With a hush silence filling the room, the Judge starts passing his sentence ---

“It all has started and everything is causing reactions. According to folk lore after a world cup teams play better, just look at the recent victory of England vs. Bulgaria (note the sarcasm) but did anybody see France lose 1-0 to Belarus? Did anybody see Portugal draw 4-4 with Cyprus? The path to Euro 2012 has actually started and the tales are extremely interesting so far.

The champions League and Europa Cup has started and the teams are the same and apparently this transfer window was the lowest in 5years with only spending of £250million pounds. Apart from Man City the biggest names that have moved to pastures anew are Van Der Fart (Google that in YouTube) and Joe Cole. All the others are just peripheral players that won’t actually make any difference to how the top 7 of the premier league will finish. Birmingham finished eighth and that was the biggest surprise to only Liverpool finishing seventh. Fulham had a remarkable journey and the relegated teams cannot even be named now. Ah yes Pompy, Hull and Burnley (that actually took research!!) So in a few months we shall be watching Man City trying to qualify for a spot in the Champions League and if Arsenal’s youth team can keep up with the big boys of the premier league. As they say the rest is history BUT what happens if it was all changed? Richard Scudamore is the current Premier Chief Executive, this guy has apparently caused controversy with all things he suggests. For example, do you remember the whole malarkey of playing a game 39 abroad? Do you remember who is expressing a strong desire to follow the rest of Europe in having a winter break? It was his recent idea that got me thinking. As a person who has viewed a few NBA (Basketball) matches and watched the layout of their championship (which is similar to a knock out style) everything he suggested started to make sense and actually had me interested. Confused? Follow the steps carefully and then think about the idea. Ready?

        ·        Scrap the Premiership and the Championship and introduce a new 32 team football league (32 teams? Just follow!)

        ·       The other teams in the lower leagues can continue doing their business and I really don’t care much for them. I am going to use a few though.

        ·       Just have a little look at the MAP below and look at it for a few moments focusing on your football team and the area they are in. Please ignore                         any problems and Geographical inaccuracies but this is just rough:

 

	North West	North East	South West	South East
1	Man Utd	Rangers	Aston Villa	Chelsea
2	Man City	Celtic	Birmingham	Arsenal
3	Liverpool	Newcastle	Leicester	Tottenham
4	Everton	Sunderland	Plymouth	West Ham
5	Blackburn	Sheffield Utd	Southampton	Norwich
6	Bolton	Nottingham Forest	Cardiff	Ipswich
7	Stoke	Derby	Bristol City	Fulham
8	Preston North End	Leeds	Portsmouth	Milton Keynes

So here we have 4 mini-leagues and if we work on a North/South playoff system, imagine the change in modern football. Still working on a basketball theory, Each league play each other in their league, so let us take Tottenham as an example. We play all the league teams in the country. It is like a normal league. Those teams that finish in the top four of every group qualify for the knock out stages. A south knock out stage and a north knock out stage. Tottenham will lose to Chelsea and Arsenal but beat the rest, putting south together means I roughly finish 3^rd in my table.

1^st versus 8^th, 2^nd versus 7^th, 3^rd versus 6^th and 4^th versus 5^th. Using this, the playoff system actually gets better and towards the end (after a home and away fixture) will result in a southern champion and northern champion and thus a grand anticipated playoff home and away game between the Northern Champions versus the Southern Champions.

Think about how cool it would be for teams to actually have greater TV Revenue and more of these teams would be closer to equal than far apart. So using Spurs as the same team, I received £100 million from TV Revenue and paid £40million in transfer fees and the same in wages, I am left with £20million to get a new player for next season BUT Milton Keynes have the same amount of money as revenue and LOADS of salary and transfer fees available. Sooner or later players moving for money would go to MK rather than Spurs and thus a change in the balance of winning teams every four or five years. This is the same principle as a salary cap and makes football in the short term and long term that much more exciting.

This is just an opinion and a vision that I was hoping to pass through, let us hope I did.

Remember in the last column about a player to lead the strikers line ...? Let me explain the following to you –

He has played for Brazil in 97 international matches, amassing 62 goals. He was a part of the Brazilian squad that won the 1994, and 2002 World Cups. During the 2006 World Cup, he became the highest goalscorer in the history of the World Cup with his fifteenth goal, surpassing Gerd Müller's previous record of 14.

Honours

Cruzeiro - Campeonato Mineiro: 1994 - Copa do Brasil: 1993

PSV - KNVB Cup: 1996

Barcelona - Copa del Rey: 1997 - UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1997 - Supercopa de España: 1996

Internazionale - UEFA Cup: 1998

Real Madrid- La Liga: 2003, 2007 - Intercontinental Cup: 2002 - UEFA Super Cup: 2002 -    Supercopa de España: 2003

Corinthians - Campeonato Paulista: 2009 - Copa do Brasil: 2009

 

National team

FIFA World Cup: 1994, 2002

Copa América: 1997, 1999

FIFA Confederations Cup: 1997

 

Individual

 

Supercopa Libertadores Top Scorer: 1993-94

Eredivisie Top Scorer: 1994-95

La Liga Top Scorer: 1996-97,2003–2004

European Golden Boot: 1996-97

UEFA Most Valuable Player: 1997-98

Serie A Footballer of the Year: 1997-98

Serie A Foreign Footballer of the Year: 1997-98

FIFA World Cup Golden Ball: 1998

Copa América Top Scorer: 1999

Copa América All-Star Team: 1997, 1999

FIFA World Player of the Year: 1996, 1997, 2002

Ballon D'or: 1997, 2002

World Soccer Magazine World Player of The Year: 1996,1997.2002

FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1998, 2002

FIFA World Cup Final Most Valuable Player: 2002

FIFA World Cup Top Scorer: 2002

Intercontinental Cup Most Valuable Player: 2002

UEFA Team of The Year: 2002

Laureus Comeback of the Year: 2002

Strogaldo De Legendary Award 2002

BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality: 2002

La Liga South American Player of the Year: 1996-97, 2002–03

Golden Foot: 2006

Brazilian National Hall of Fame inducated: Class of 2006

Serie A Player of the Decade: 1997-2007

France Football Magazine: Starting eleven of all-time: 2007

FIFA World Cup All-Time Scoring Leader

Goal.com : Player of a decade: Winner 2000-2010

 

So who is it?

 

Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʁoˈnaɫdu luˈiz naˈzaɾiu dʒi ˈlimɐ]; born 22 September 1976), commonly known as Ronaldo

 

That’s who!

 

I am the Judge and this Court is dismissed!!”

 

 

Welcome to the Shia Sports Blog!

Written by Judge K

 

There have been many moments in sporting history that will remain with us forever. There have been moments that most of us will forget, but with the decade now just a number in the shadow that is the past, we can appreciate just some of the beauty that it has bought us.

There has been a super bowl that had just under 100 million viewers, we had a man who crushed both 100m and 200m using his name to ensure that this phenomenon was seen around the world (Bolt – Lighting?), we have seen an invincible team survive a whole season while playing it beautifully to ensure that we know that sometimes beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder, Argentina then went and did just this on the grandest stage of them all by scoring a great passing team goal and we have seen many underdogs take the sporting world by storm (Greece, FC Porto and the fairy tale story that was Ivanisovic)

The New Year brings with it new sporting celebrations. From the ice of the Winter Olympics to the dance and sound that is the World Cup in South Africa.  For good measure and to keep the peace there is the ashes and a premiership title race that consists of more personal headlines than for the reasons that is the premiership trophy!

This could be a simple introduction to what will hopefully be a different blog which has no space for politics, personal feuds and silly remarks but a blog for all those appreciating that in this world which is sometimes crumbling before our eyes; it is mostly sports that unite us all!

So what better way to start this innovative and different blog by causing controversy in society? Will there be a tabloid carrying my picture with a disgraced headline title under it? Hopefully not! Will there be a revelation or sporting gossip here that will take the sport of curling by storm? One can only wish! Instead we are going to have a debate that will make sure every footballing fan appreciates everybody’s taste and that in this world there are better or greater players/teams than the one you are currently thinking! Think not? Then don’t read below but for all you normal people....

What was the greatest team of the decade? We can hopefully all remember when Jose M crossed the water and came to bridge, he bought with him techniques and tactics that revolutionised the modern game. With the use of wingers and a holding midfielder, he created space and movement that most teams envied but others called boring yet efficient. How is this relevant? A team’s tactic is key to whether or not they win the game. I found Jose M a revolutionary but like Cappello at Milan, his tactics will be long forgotten but his media antics will always be remembered! A 4-4-2 it is! So let us begin ... !!

GOALKEEPER – OLIVER KHAN

No Buffon? No Casillas? No Cech? No Scott Carson? In a game in which trophies is the peak of the game, who better than Oliver Khan? Go into your record books and see how many international, continental and domestic, awards, trophies and finals he has appeared in and then come back to me and complain for not giving Pepe Reina this place!

LEFT BACK – ROBERTO CARLOS

Who else? Are you still thinking a person who controlled the left of the pitch as confidently as RB? There you go then!  Perhaps the immortal Maldini or the petit frame of Lahm? Want me to put Winterburn or Evra in there? A man that never seemed to run out of steam and could perform in both sides of the pitch, he just pipped it from Maldini!

 

RIGHT BACK- LILLIAN THURAM

I dare you to go to him, laugh in his face about his name and then tell him that he is no longer in your team! This man now represents UNICEF and was the meanest looking defender of his generation (Ok Jaap Stam but he is no right back!) Lillian was able to maintain grace and elegance while being comfortable at being able to play at either right back or centre back. When your left back is galloping forward and there is only one holding midfielder perhaps the reliability of a World Cup winning, Euro Cup Winning, Champions League winning player brings confidence and security to the rest of the back line.

 

CENTRE BACKS – FABIO CANNAVARO & CARLOS PUYOL

I did want to put in So Solid Sol Campbell but he has not performed internationally bar one world cup (he was named in the team for that year!) Ask any football fan, ask any person who can appreciate defending, confidence, influence, positioning, tackling, marking, movement, and the ability to show that you don’t have to be a giant to be a centre back and you will see that these guys have won it all and are still winning it!

 

CENTRAL MIDFIELD – HOLDING ROLE – PATRICK VIERA

He was the captain of the only team in modern football to go a whole season without losing a match. Though now he is a former figure of his great reputation, Viera bossed and dictated the play at Arsenal before Cesc was shaving his moustache. I could have played Pirlo or Xavi Alonso, perhaps Nedved or Cambiasso but Viera bought the rough and tough side but also the grace and pace required to be a great player.

 

RIGHT MIDFIELD – LIONEL MESSI

Though he plays a little forward for both club and county, a person of his talents has to be put in there. Relatively young in this decade, no person has been able to keep the ball stuck to his feet as well as Messi. Sure there is Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Beckham but well know that in only what is a few short years away the world will remember and clap that is the name of Lionel Messi. Having already won all domestically and being a star in a great national team, he has Ronaldo beat and though Beckham/Ronaldinho/Figo have sold more shirts and cost more money, Messi makes football look like an art!

 

LEFT MIDFIELD – RYAN GIGGS

GIggs is better than Ronaldo? What? Open YouTube and stream his name! He was doing this while Viera was getting ready to shave his first moustache and Giggs is still doing it today! The most decorated player in premiership football and the only person who has appeared in every season of what is known now as the premiership, find a player with that record and then perhaps they can be his substitute!

 

CENTRAL MIDFIELD – ATTACKING MIDFIELDER – ZINADINE ZIDANE

Forget the head butt for a second! No other name deserves to be in this position! No Gerrard, no Scholes, no Van Persie, no Lamp-deflecteveryshot-pard. He was better than Kaka? He was better than the historic statistic that is Seedorf? No other whispers ZZ is hands down every single time!

 

STRIKERS/FORWARDS – THEIRRY HENRY & ...

Who has the most premiership goals in history? Who has scored over 100 goals for 2 teams? Both times its been Alan Shearer but even he does not deserve to be put into the this team. Henry was gracious, elegant (better than Viera! He had va va voom!) and scored goals that would make most strikers drool at the mouth. Henry was a magician with the greatest of touches and the fastest pace in the league. Who to partner him though? Di Canio and Zola were great creative players. Drogba/Rooney and Torres is the great debate right now! To make this team work perhaps we need a target man or a man who plays on the last shoulder like Owen/Inzaghi but this is my team right?!

 

Well like I said, this is just some fun but to cause a little controversy and a lot more conversation! It is all in good nature and is no way out there to harm or damage anybody. Let me know who you think it is and perhaps we can have a debate about it.

 

But remember I am the Judge and it is my decision when it is all said and done.

 

This court is dismissed!