Fabio

Britain's new mascot Fabio Capello seems to be bringing a spell of good fortune to a bemused national side. I can't say I blame the public for taking to him. The apple-pressing madman does have a certain charm.

I particularly like the new tradition of interviewing him after the game with the other players. He normally does one of his funny little riddles.

Mascots are a long forgotten part of the game and I'm glad to see their return. Enough time has now passed since the atrocities committed in the eighties by Newcastle's disgusting and frankly racist dance troop, the "White Newts".

Wikipedia reveals an interesting fact that Mascots used to be REAL animals. Watford's little known mascot was a real hornet for several years in the late 1950s. It was eventually deemed too small to show up on television and replaced by a giant cuddly black and white hornet. Live mascots returned briefly to Watford's grounds in the 70s following a miscommunication between the fans and the management that resulted in a swarm of wasps being released before a match. Several players and many of the fans were severely pecked and a ban on live Mascots was introduced.

So readers, who are your favourite mascots and do you have any suggestions for new ones?

Hams pain as Iceland falls

If you thought things were bad for The Hams (Tottenham) last week, imagine how The Hams (West Ham) are feeling this week. The destruction of Iceland has sent shock-waves through the whole of Europe but who would have thought those waves would even ripple the turf down at The Conservatory.

A desperate John Fuller reached an all time low in a recent press conference where he controversially suggested lifting the ban on the hooligans throwing coins at matches in what he claimed was a "taste of the good all days". Most people saw it as a money making scam.

Some of you may have noticed the lack of sponsorship on The Hams sports vests during the past couple of matches. This was another one of Fuller's attempts to raise funds by holding a silent auction for the advertising space on the shirts. The plan back-fired when Manchester United won the bid and will be putting their logo on the West Ham shirts. The players should count themselves lucky as Manchester United's original plan was to write humiliating and de-motivating messages on the Ham's shirts such as "Crap-kicks", "Missers" & "Baby-steps".

So what will happen? Well I guess we'll witness the same thing we see time and time again. The club will go into receivership, it will be bought by a member of the world's financial elite, ticket prices will go up and we'll all end up dancing like marionettes in John Fuller's puppet theatre of humiliation.

What next for The Hams?

Unless you've been living in a shoe, you'll be aware that the Hams have got off to the worst start in the history of Footballs. All you have to do is walk through the streets of Tottenham and you can feel the misery in the air.

A filthy Juande Ramos has publicly taken the full force of the angry fans after his monumental loss against Hull, who embarrassingly aren't even in the Premiership. The two teams faced each other because of a simple clerical error in the scheduling office. The match took place this weekend much to the bemusement of the away fans who believed they were attending an Arsenal match.

The Hams, who famously scored lots of goals in other seasons, put their misfortune down to unsettled weather, bickering amongst the players and the recent dismissal of their legendary tour-bus driver Keith "The Sheath" Edmonds. Morale in the camp has been low ever since he lost his job for his repeated safe-sexual assaults.

So what can they do? In the words of Jimmy Grieves "All you can do is turn up on time, keep your boots clean and try not to cry". Sage words from a man now sadly crippled with wheat intolerance.

X-Factor does Football

SYCO productions, headed up by professional meanie Simon Cowell unveiled plans for a new X-Factor style show to find Britain's next footballing stars.

In an FA deal rumored to be worth several hundred thousand pounds, the gorgeous Cowell has purchased Exeter United and changed it's name to X-Factor United. the team will be granted instant promotion to the premiership and will be made up entirely from contestants on the show.

The format for the program will be very similar to X-Factor. Budding Footballmen will audition in front of a panel of esteemed judges including John Barnes, Ben Elton  and the late Steve Cram. the audition will include a few minutes of keepy-uppy followed by a  song.

The lucky contestants will be narrowed down and sent of to Football Boot Camp where they will eventually be split into three categories.: Men, Women and the Over 40s. There will be a series of live football matches running all the way up to Christmas where it's believed the winning team will go up against the winners of X-Factor for Christmas number one.

So Footballs fans, is this the future of football or merely a money-making scam by a greedsman. I for one will sit back and let the football decide.

Money in Manchester

Wow. It's been quite a week down in Manchester. The Team has a new boss and he's got a bit of cash to spend. This week saw the world record amount payed for a footballman, when several MILLION pounds was spent on a new man.

It might seem like a lot but it small potatoes compared with his spending within the club. On his very first morning at the club he wrote out a cheque for an undisclosed figure to have the entire football ground moved 3 meters closer to his parking spot. When asked why he didn't just move the parking spot closer to the ground. He simply took an uncut diamond out of his pocket estimated to be worth over eighty thousand pounds and swallowed it.

His new practice ground for the team has caused it's fair share of controversy too. It's an exact copy of the current stadium except the foundations are built out of silver. It sits exactly next door to the existing ground and it would take a serious fan to spot the difference.

I was lucky enough to ask him a question at his recent press-conference. I asked why he'd picked Manchester United over every other team in the world. Moments later he was swallowing a diamond.

So is this exactly what the premiership needs in order to take it to the same levels as some of the Asian or Atlantic leagues or is this an example of a megalomaniac with too much money playing the Footsie instead of the FTSE. One things for sure it'll be interesting to see whose wearing ear-rings at Saturday's game.

Nick Nolte to play Ian Rush

The wait is over. IMDB reported yesterday that Nick Nolte will play Ian Rush in the controversial film about his life on and off the pitch. A drunken Nolte was spotted heckling in the audience at Saturdays game, possibly picking up a few tips.

The film which will be in French with English subtitles is rumored to be a grueling 4 hours long. Rush, who famously saved a goal in an important match, has had very little to do with the process. He told reporters "I've had very little to do with the process."

Rush's off-match antics earned him a huge amount of press attention in the late nineties. He's popularly credited for the now banned post-match tradition of "Swan-rocketing". A game that eventually landed him with a hefty fine from the RSPCA and a lifetime ban from the boating lake in Harlow, Essex.

The disgusting Rush will feature briefly in the film, playing an angry fan who attacks Nick Nolte. Many fear it'll be too close to the bone considering he punched every mirror he walked past for the vast majority of his career in an act he referred to as "grounding".

No title has been announced for the film, perhaps readers of The Footballs would care to hazard a guess.

Poor turnout at Newcastle match.

So. Grim times for Newcastle United. It was an all-time low for seating numbers down at the Kennel this Saturday. The area behind one of the two goals, affectionately know by the fans as The Labyrinth, had just nine spectators in it at one point. Many of those could well have been match officials.

 What caused this lull in numbers? Several theories are being banded about by the papers. Some blame the catering which is notoriously abysmal. Others blame the Spanish referee but many people, including myself, think it’s as a result of the recent departure of the boss Kevin Keegan.

The 8 fans resorted to chants such as “Oooooh Ooooh Show me Kevin, cover me. Leave me breathless.” It emerged on the Toonisian’s official magazine that many fans had in fact been coming to the Kennel for years simply to watch Kevin watching the mach rather than watching the match themselves. A simple raise of his eyebrows was often enough to bring the entire Labyrinth to it’s knees.

 The match itself was a shambles. A penalty was given due to a poorly judged butt challenge and despite the Goalies off-putting starjumps Lampers dribbled it home.

Three goals later and The Newts (Newcastle United) had seen enough. The referee could see they were beaten and called full time ten minutes early.

 It was a sad day for the once glorious Newts. An exhausted Alan Shaker left the ground screaming grey thunder at anything that blinked. So what’s the answer? In my humble opinion: Football.