Price hike on play off flights to Paris shock

Ronaldo is trying to resurrect his Brazil career with some not so subtle brown nosing of coach Dunga. The PR department of the South African Association of Pie Manufacturers went into meltdown at the news.

Whether you dream of recreating the famous Cruyff turn from the 1974 finals or see yourself as Gerry Armstrong scoring against Spain in 1982, now you have the chance to do both in your own back garden. It’s called the Official Historical World Cup Soccer Ball Set of 10, otherwise known as the perfect way to show off when your mates come round.

C’est la guerre. French manager Raymond Domenech has annoyed Irish journalists by referring to the Republic’s team as “the England Bs”. He also does a good line in Gallic shrugs, apparently.

Maybe these journos are enjoying cut price flights to Paris, which could explain why they aren’t yet moaning about this.

Santana - pushed or did he jump?

Can France cope with 30,000 Irish fans humming La Marseillaise? That’s the prospect facing them again after yesterday’s draw. Of course boss Giovanni Trapattoni has weightier strategic issues on his mind after admitting his team must raised their game once more to overcome the 2006 finalists.

You have to take your hat off to the people at Football Rankings. They spend ages working out complicated formulas which mere mortals such as you and I might pretend to understand but actually don’t. Here they are on the possibilities for the World Cup finals draw in December.

And there is some confusion over the manner of Joel Santana’s departure as South African coach. Africa Times News says he was sacked, as does bloomberg.com, the AFP news agency and Reuters. The blog world says Santana jumped before he was pushed, knowing he was on borrowed time. In all likelihood, both sides agreed enough was enough, but “amicable split” isn’t much of a headline. Hence the sacked and fired stories. Former coach Carlos Alberto Parreira heads the list of candidates to take over.

More on the World Cup play offs draw

Asked who he would prefer prior to the draw FAI chief executive John Delaney said “We do better against the bigger teams. We did that against Italy over two legs, we were very good. People differ on whether France are still a top team, or whether Domenech is a top manager or not, but whoever we get, we'll give them a run for their money.”

Fair enough; now we’ll find out the truth about the French, and whether the Irish are worthy of a finals place or not. Tony Cascarino thinks he knows the answer. “What a difficult draw... for France” is how his Times column begins this afternoon.

Aside from who plays at home first, there really isn’t much more you need to know about the Russia - Slovenia play off games. That’s a view you won’t find the official Slovenian Press Agency agreeing with. They have more information – and they want you to pay for it! Let’s hope subscribers can learn how the two play off games between the sides will “determine the remaining four European national football teams to play in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.” Teams contesting the other play off ties will presumably want to know why their games are meaningless.

And you just know the Russians are paying lip service to the “no mugs in this competition” ethos with comments like this.