Of Football And Politics.

Euro 2008 are nearing the end,3 teams have qualified for the semi's,with one more team will be decided today between Spain and World Champions,Italy.The winner of this game will meet Russia,with Germany and Turkey contesting for a place in the finals.Heartbreak for Croatia who lost to Turkey on penalty shootout,and The Netherlands who play great attacking football in the group stage to beat Italy,France and Romania,only to lose to Russia,missing yet again another chance of winning a major tournament.Portugal,another tournament favourite have to bow out after losing to Germany 3-2 in the first of the 4 quarterfinals match.

Right after his team lost to Germany,Cristiano Ronaldo made another statement that suggest he wanted to move to Real Madrid for the new season from Manchester United,which does not goes down well with Man U boss,Sir Alex Ferguson,and Man U have made a statement saying that the winger is not for sale,and he still have 4 years more out of his 5 years contract with United.He is currently on a 120,000 pound a week wages,but with the reputation of scoring 42 goals for United in all game last season,plus winning the Barclays Premier League and The Champions League,he will surely want and increase to it,and Real are reported willing to pay United 50million euros or even up to 80million euros with a player or two going United way just to get this star player.Real are looking to start their "Galacticos" era again if they really insist on wanting Ronaldo.They started this trend when they bought the likes of Luis Figo and Zinedine Zidane with record breaking transfer fees but still fail in finding real success.We just have to wait and see in this coming weeks where Ronaldo will be next season.

When a team fails,the blame will fall upon the coach,like what happen to France,finalist in the last World Cup,but fail to win a single game in Euro,and only manage to score 1 goal in their 3 group games.All are calling for Raymond Domenech to be sacked,even players and former players are joining in by saying that he made some bad decision resulting in France failure.This is football,you win,people will heap all the praise on you,but when you lose,these same people will be the first to criticized,asking for your replacement.The political scene here in my country is not much different,when the Prime Minister first took office,and face his first election,the ruling party have a very good win,everybody says that he is a good Prime Minister,he has done a good job since taking over from the old one,yet,4 years later,on March 2008,the ruling party suffer one of their worst defeat in election,but still manage to rule this country,everybody is asking him to step down,even the former Prime Minister who pick him as his successor ask him to resign,saying he made a mistake in choosing him!Tomorrow there will be a no-confidence motion table against him in the Parliament,but I don't think it will materialized.It is just like football,the coach are the one to blame,in politics,since he is the party leader,he is the one they blame for the party failure.Football and politic require team effort,work as a team,and you will be strong,you will achieve your target,but if there is bickering within,one or two person with personal agenda,it will create unbalance in the team,making it weak,and fail to perform accordingly,because each team member have their own responsibility,and they have to support each other.

Blaming someone,forcing them to resign,is a stop gap measure,it won't solve the problem,and there is no guarantee that the new person can bring changes,or make the team perform.It is up to each person in the team to give full support to the leader,and the leader have to listen to what the members have to say,this will not create a perfect system,but at least it will create harmony,and all action taken is based upon collective ideas and agreement,not one made by one person.

Politics are like football,and football suffers when people start politicking it.

Manchester United - European Champion.

Manchester United became European Champions for the third time yesterday after beating Chelsea in the first ever all English club final through penalty shoot out after both team can only manage a 1-1 draw after extra time.The first time United won the European Cup was in 1968 under the guidance of the legendary Sir Matt Busby,the second time was in 1999 by beating Bayern Munich 2-1 in the final in which that year United also won the Premier League and The FA Cup,a unique treble for the club.The match was played in Moscow,the home soil for Chelsea owner,Roman Abramovich who will certainly feel frustrated with his team defeat.Chelsea certainly could win the game even during normal time but had hit the woodwork at least on three occasion,and during the shoot out after Cristiano Ronaldo saw his effort parried away by Petr Cech,John Terry could have won it for Chelsea,but with Edwin Van der Sar beaten,he sent his shot just wide.Sir Alex Ferguson hails his team of champions and said luck was certainly on their side.It is a fitting win for United because this year marked the 50Th anniversary of the Munich tragedy,where Sir Matt Busby lost more than half of his best players at that time after the plane they was on skidded on a snowy runaway and crashed.Sir Bobby Charlton,one of the club Director now,was one of the survivor and he led the United team in receiving their winners medal.Credit must be given to United senior players like Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes for guiding their younger team mates to prepare for such a big game as this.Scholes manage to bury the ghost of missing the 99 Finals through suspension by giving an outstanding performance,and it was his exchange of pass with Wes Brown that led to Brown crossing the ball for Ronaldo to give United the lead.Ryan Giggs mark his excellent career with United,by becoming the most capped player,beating even Sir Bobby to it,capturing his 759 club appearance when he was introduced to replace Scholes.He has won 2 European Champions Medal and 10 Premier League title with United,a great achievement for such a great player.There are rumors that Ronaldo will be leaving for Real Madrid next season,even if that is true,United still have great players in Rooney and Tevez to lead their attack and will be well supported by Giggs,Scholes,Carrick,Hargreaves,Anderson,Ji Sung Park and Nani in midfield.Sir Alex will certainly have a few players line up to buy for next season and he is known to be good in bringing quality players to United,just the way he brought Ronaldo to United.A great season for United and will certainly look forward to next season.They've beaten Chelsea here,and just pip them to the Premier League title on the last day,so next season will certainly be interesting to see them slug it out again,with Arsenal and Liverpool providing a fight,and who knows,maybe Newcastle,Spurs and Everton can spring some surprises.All the best to all the lads of double champions..Manchester United.