Luis Figo - For Football

With the elections for FIFA President quickly approaching, Luis Figo released his manifesto entitled, 'For Football' in order to win over some last gasp votes. Pit against the current President, Sepp Blatter, as well as a Jordanian Prince, Figo's manifesto could win over potential voters, with his unique ideas.

When I first opened his manifesto, I noticed the title #ForFootball. Seeing that hashtag made me die a little inside. Now I'm no politician or political enthusiast, but I'm pretty sure hashtags aren't supposed to be contained inside serious document, (some of those who have read it may think that it is anything but serious.) Yes it gets people involved on social media and I admire his effort for doing this, but there's a time and a place Luis, a time and a place.

With that minor hiccup out of the way, his presentation is eye catching, slick and easy to use. There is an emotive sound bite to the right of a big serious bust of the man himself with a look of "I'm going to hunt you down if you don't vote for me" on his face. We get a detailed version of an impressive CV and also tells us his marital status. What this has got to do with running for President, I have no idea. In short, it's a nice looking PDF file, that doesn't beat about the bush and gets straight to the point. I like it.

#1. Change and Development.

Figo's main priority is to develop football throughout the world by increasing participation of all ages and genders in grassroots football. Aiming for at least a 10% growth in 4 years is ambitious, and if the model of the current FIFA continues, I scream 'no hope' in his face. With football easily being the most popular sport in the world, I think he means getting more people playing at a higher level. So far so good. In addition to this he wants to improve the infrastructure of football by dishing out equipment across the globe. He believes that at least 50% of the solidarity funds given to the Member Associations should be used to dish out kit and equipment. Let's hope the FA take note.

#2. Change and Solidarity.

Figo outlines his objective of distributing 50% of FIFA's revenues, $2.5b, to the Member Associations over a period of 4 years. A part of this also details giving a larger some to nations with the most need, whether that goes on lifestyle or not, I'm not too sure. It seems a solid proposal as with the amount of money other nations could become more competitive and in turn making international competitions more exciting. This is all well and good, but will the Member Associations spend this money correctly, rather than squandering it away? I hope he will dish out instructions as to what the money should be spent on. The most shocking thing about the next point is that FIFA have $1.5b in reserves. As Figo correctly states, there is no need for a sum this large and he will spread it among several projects that he will be running. I don't think anyone can argue with this proposal.

#3. Change and the World Cup

This is perhaps where things start to go downhill, depending on your opinion. It seems like he wants to increase the number of teams to 40 with the addition of several extra days to accommodate this increase. I have no real problem with this, after all it'll give Northern Ireland and extra chance of qualifying. Others will say that the competition will 'lose it's gloss' and I can see where they are coming from. His second proposal includes two 24 team competitions played on 2 continents with a final knock-out stage taking place in one country. Looking at the positives, it will split the amount of money required to fund the competition in three ways while giving several countries the 'World Cup experience.' Negatively, I don't like the weighting against the European nations for the additional teams for obvious reasons, and I think it would ruin involvement for nations when the matches are split over a larger area. I'm all in favour of the first proposal, but not so keen on the second. 

#4. Change and the Laws of the Game

It's great to see that Luis Figo is all in favour of goal line technology as our game needs to move with the advancing times. He also wants to abolish 'triple punishments' as well as testing the 'sin bin' disciplinary policy and reverting to the old offside rule. On triple punishments, this is probably a good idea, as many games are over as a contest once a player ends up in the dressing rooms. However, will this not just lead to more penalties? I covered this in an article around this time last year when Wojciech Sczezcsny was sent off against Bayern Munich. I'd like to see the sin bin option given a trial run as it would certainly cut down on the amount of cards dished out during the game. However the rule book will also have to be changed as bookings will not be able to be used for every single minor offence. Also, the 'football purists' will see this as a copy of rugby and may not be appealed by this proposal. There is certainly potential in some of these ideas.

Those are my opinions on the majority of Figo's proposals noted in his manifesto. The full compliment can be found at http://forfootball.org/. The former Portuguese international certainly looks good on paper, but I'm sure most of these proposals are easier said than done. With the elections on May 29th, I somehow suspect that Blatter won't be in for a fifth term. As always I'd like to hear your opinions on the topic at hand, and whether Luis Figo would excel as FIFA President.

10 Transfers That Caught Everyone off Guard

I nearly fell off my seat when I read on various sports sites that Manchester United had accepted a loan offer from Real Madrid for the little Mexican, Javier Hernandez. In light of Real Madrid's recent acquisition of Chicharito, what other transfers caught everyone off guard?

Luis Figo features on this list not because of his lack of talent (he had plenty of it!) but because of the clubs involved in his transfer. As all of you are aware, Barcelona and Real Madrid are fierce rivals, so to transfer from one to another during the peak of your career is seen as homocide. In 2000, he sentenced himself to a life time of abuse every time he visited the Nou Camp with Los Blancos. Everyone can remember his first El Clasico at the Nou Camp since his arrival in Madrid. The words "Judas", "Traitor" and "Scum" were ringing in Barcelona that night and was also mixed with the clatter of missiles aimed at the Portuguese international. It was safe to say that the Figo and Madrid were overwhelmed as they collapsed to a 2-0 defeat. 

Julien Faubert - remember him? Somehow the former West Ham wing-back managed to secure a loan deal to Real Madrid from the Hammers for a suspected fee of £1.5m with an option to buy at the end of the loan. I would like to know what Juande Ramos was smoking when he decided to sign Faubert, as he failed to score a goal in 27 appearances and only registered 3 assists, not very inspiring form to warrant a transfer to arguably the most famous club in the world. It was safe to say that the Frenchman flopped at Madrid, as he only made 2 appearances and his off field antics did not help him make his name at Madrid. He was once pictured sleeping on the bench as a substitute and even at his unveiling, Alfredo di Stefano seemed a bit bewildered.

                        

There was no way that this list would ever be complete without the Legend of Ali Dia appearing on it. I'm sure everyone knows the story but for those who don't let me refresh your memory. In 1996, Graeme Souness was convinced that the Senegalese footballer was the cousin of FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon D'Or winner, George Weah. Astonishingly, Souness, with an admitted lack of scouting, offered Dia a one month contract at the Saints. After making a single appearance at St Mary's, it was evident that Dia's footballing talent was not half as good as his persuasive skills and his contract was teminated 14 days later. It's a fact that you cannot buy a player without scouting and another fact that this remains the greatest football blag to date. All hail Ali.

A special mention has to go to the 2007 transfer scandal that involved Argentine's Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. European heavyweights such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus were interested in acquiring these pair and I am sure the money that was on the table was pretty healthy too. Everyone dreams of playing for the top European sides and when it was announced that they would be turning out in a West Ham shirt for the 2006/2007 season, it left everyone scratching their heads. It seemed too good to be true. Eventually the FA investigated, spotted the foul play and slapped a world record fine of £5.5m onto London club for their misdemeanours. Their time in London came to a swift end with Tevez venturing onto Manchester United and Mascherano rocking up north to Anfield.

Sol Campbell

As with Luis Figo it was the clubs involved that earned him a place on this list. Moving from Spurs to Arsenal is like a Russian defecting to the USA, only worse. There was once a day where he announced to magazine Spurs Monthly that he would never play for Arsenal. Oh how things changed. In the Summer of 2001 he left under the Bosman ruling and crossed the street to Highbury. What really rubs the salt into the wounds of Tottenham fans was that we enjoyed immediate success at the Gunners. In his first season with Arsenal (2001-2002) he achieved the league and FA Cup double. Could it get any worse for Spurs? Yes it could, in the iconic invincible season for Arsenal, they won the league at White Hart Lane. Ouch. At Arsenal he won 4 medals as well as an appearance in the 2006 Champions League Final. It's easy to see where Spurs fans come from, I would be pretty miffed if a top player moved from Manchester United to Manchester City... *Cough* Tevez *Cough*.

Andy Carroll

It seems so long ago that Andy Carroll was turning out at St James' Park for Newcastle every week, and I'm sure if he had known that things were to pan out this way then he would have stayed there a bit longer. It all started when Fernando Torres rocked Liverpool Football Club with his transfer request and that sent Kenny Dalglish on a mission to replace the Spaniard. We were thinking that they would go for someone European as they did with Torres, so when Andy Carroll was announced as the replacement on dead line day, there was a sense of confusion in the air. Unfortunately for Carroll, he was unable to live up to the £35m price that Liverpool paid for him. Injury plagued his time on Merseyside and was only able to score 11 goals in 58 appearances fro the Redmen. Eventually Brendan Rodgers decided to cut his losses and shipped Carroll out to West Ham.

Edgar Davids

In his prime Edgar Davids was a superb ball winning midfielder and was not phased by anyone, so when he moved to lowly Barnet in, it caught everyone off guard. For the Bees it was a massive coup, it generated more revenue through shirt sales and attracted bigger crowds to their matches. For Davids, it was one last hurrah in the lower tiers of English football. Most people would have thought that with his international experience and years playing at the top level of football, he would have guided the Bees to higher heights. Instead, Barnet were relegated to the Conference at  the end of the 2012/2013 season and he received a staggering 5 red cards and 13 yellow cards in 2 seasons. His move to Barnet was definitely a step down from the glorious heights of European football he experienced at Juventus.

Bebe

At Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson was renowned for buying young players and developing them into superstars, So when he bought Portuguese winger Bebe from Vitória de Guimarães in 2010 for £7.5m, we thought it was another masterstroke from the Glaswegian and we had another Ronaldo story on our hands. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Similar to Souness, Ferguson admitted to have done minimal scouting on the winger and his performances certainly showed that. Bebe was regularly dispatched on loan and after several mediocre seasons, he was sold to Benfica for €3m during the summer. To get that sum of money who didn't impress in his 7 appearances for the Red Devils, was quite staggering, I would have been impressed if they had got €1m for him. Bebe certainly rates as a baffling transfer and one of Fergie's worst blunders.

Fernando Hierro

Usually we associate Fernando Hierro as a great leader of men for Real Madrid and his goal scoring record wasn't bad for a centre back/defensive midfielder either, so when he signed for Bolton Wanderers along side Ivan Campo, we were left flabbergasted. Of course it was nice to see a household name arrive in England for a club other than the 'Big 4', and he tried to make an impact on the Reebok faithful. He made 29 appearances for The Trotters and scored a solitary goal in a 3-2 defeat at Norwich City. I'm sure fans from Bolton enjoyed the experience of having a footballing legend playing for them, and it was evident that he was liked both inside and outside the dressing room, particularly as manager Sam Allardyce and team mates attempted to persuade the Spaniard to extend his contract to no avail. He hung up his boots at the end of the season.  

Massimo Taibi

When Peter Schmeichel left for pastures anew at the end of Manchester United's treble winning season, Sir Alex Ferguson attempted at replacing the Great Dane with Massimo Taibi. Similar to Bebe, this has to rank as one of Fergie's most famous blunders. Ferguson threw him in at the deep end with his debut match coming against fierce rivals Liverpool. The debut jitters obviously got to him as he flapped at a free kick and allowed Sami Hyppia to score. Taibi became synonymous for his goalkeeping gaffe against Southampton where he let a pea rolling shot from Le Tissier squirm through his legs and into the back of the net. His other games weren't too fruitful as he conceded 5 in a drubbing against Chelsea and another 1 in a draw against Wimbledon. Overall he conceded 11 goals in 4 matches and never made another appearance in a red shirt again.     

I'd love to hear your suggestions on whose boots were to big or if anyone paid way over the odds for a player! As always I will probably have missed some blantantly obvious candidates.