Grant Wahl: Soccer should create own equivalent of NFL Red Zone channel

Another NFL season is upon us, and so is one of the greatest inventions known to man: the NFL Red Zone channel, which whips around from city to city, allowing you to see live look-ins, real-time highlights and all the scoring plays from every NFL game on any given Sunday.

Not long ago it hit me: Why couldn't FIFA do the same thing with the 824 World Cup qualifiers that take place on action-filled matchdays around the world? I'd pay for that channel, and so would millions of soccer fans all over the planet.

England: Premier League Weekend Previews & Predictions

Surely the Gunners hit their nadir against Manchester United last time out? Well, anything less than a home victory against Swansea would see them sink further into the mire. Elsewhere, United go to Bolton, Tottenham have the opportunity for their first points at Wolves, Manchester City host Wigan and Chelsea travel to Sunderland.

Preview

Bolton vs. Manchester United: Preview

Premier League Spotlight

Lawro's Predictions

Paul Merson's Predictions

Spain: La Liga Weekend Preview & Eduardo Alvarez's Quiniela

Barcelona full-back Dani Alves has fired his side up for Saturday's La Liga trip to Real Sociedad. The defending champions go into their second game of the season on the back of a 5-0 win over Villarreal, but that result was bettered by Real Madrid's 6-0 thrashing of Real Zaragoza.Madrid will look to keep hold of top spot when they host capital rivals Getafe on Saturday. Jose Mourinho could hand a home league debut to forward Jose Callejon, the summer signing from Espanyol.Elsewhere on Saturday, Villarreal will look to bounce back from their humbling by Barca with an improved performance at home to Sevilla. On Sunday, two sides who enjoyed opening-day wins, Real Betis and Real Mallorca, go head to head.

Preview

Eduardo Alvarez's Quiniela

Germany: Bundesliga Weekend Preview

Wolfsburg coach Felix Magath has been given a vote of confidence ahead of their meeting with his former club Schalke this weekend. The Wolves have made a dismal start to the season with three straight defeats leaving them in the wrong half of the table, but Wolfsburg chairman Francisco Garcia Sanz believes Magath will put things right eventually. League leaders Bayern host Freiburg on Saturday afternoon while Werder Bremen, who are below Schalke only on goals scored, host northern Germany rivals Hamburg on Saturday evening.

Preview

Italy: Serie A Weekend Previews

AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic believes his team will still be the side to beat in Serie A this season. The Rossoneri open the 2011-12 campaign on Friday night at home to Lazio. Gianpiero Gasperini's Inter travel to La Favorita to face Palermo on Sunday evening. Juventus entertain Parma in Turin on Sunday hoping to prove their worth to new coach Antonio Conte.

Preview

Transfer Window Verdict

Season Preview

Euro 2012: Here We Go Again

While the fight goes on for England (surely), the Republic of Ireland (possibly), Northern Ireland and Scotland (it could still happen) to qualify for Euro 2012, four of the continent's leading football nations can already start to prepare properly having sealed their places in Poland and Ukraine.

In the latest round of games, Italy joined defending European and World champions Spain in celebrating qualification, and the Dutch are definitely there too as they are guaranteed to be best runner-up at least. All, though, were beaten to the honour of being 'first past the post' by a very impressive Germany.

Manchester City Chief Executive Cook Quits

Manchester City chief executive Garry Cook has resigned over claims he emailed defender Nedum Onuoha's cancer-suffering mother mocking her illness.

Cook offered his resignation after an investigation by City found "there is foundation" to the allegations.

Richard Williams: Juventus open doors to new home with Notts County as starstruck guests

They could have invited Barcelona, Real Madrid or Manchester United to inaugurate their fine new stadium. Instead a great Italian institution summoned the club standing 12th in the third tier of English football to join Thursday's opening ceremony and, if there has been a more elegant gesture in the history of football, it would be good to hear of it.

For it was Notts County, in 1903, who answered the call of a Juventus member, an Englishman named John Savage, to send a set of the club's black and white striped shirts to replace the pink numbers worn by the players of the Italian club since their founding by a group of students six years earlier. Thus did Notts, who were then midway through a spell in the old First Division, save Juventus from a century of being confused with pink-shirted Palermo.

Wenger: Panic Buys and Historical Truths in the Transfer Market

I went to the website Transfer League to look at Arsene Wenger’s recent transfers.

I was looking for a pattern for this oft-cited project. But you can’t find significant patterns on just dates and prices. And overall, it’s not that important. Yes, Wenger has been very effective and prosperous by spending a mere 11 million net in his 15 years at Arsenal (and that’s without amortization). But that is not the narrative I was looking for.

It took birth dates and age at purchase to provide the patterns I was seeking, and then I needed to expand it to his full time at Arsenal. If you start to look at Wenger’s purchasing history, there is a very different story to the one we hear about his genius at purchasing youth. It turns out that he is far from a genius and is rather pedestrian at scouting teenagers. But once a player hits 20, Wenger becomes the best assessor of talent on the planet. Unlike a Ferguson, Schaaf and Moyes (contemporaries by duration) who all buy duds on occasion of all ages, Wenger rarely buys a dud with players aged 20-26.

Tony Pulis confident Peter Crouch can ditch high life for Stoke

The player's wife, model and television presenter Abbey Clancy, is reportedly unhappy about the prospect of leaving London and there have been question marks raised as to how Crouch might adjust to being away from the high life with the Staffordshire club.



Welcome to Stoke, Abbey!

International Football: The Post-Euro 2000 Blues

Didier Deschamps knew instantly. As David Trezeguet thundered the ball into the roof of Italy's net to win Euro 2000, the French captain was struck by a feeling of finality. Amid the centre-circle celebrations, he told manager Roger Lemerre "it's never going to get any better than this". Deschamps was, of course, talking about a French dynasty that had just completed a double.

But he might well have been describing international football in general. In the decade since Trezeguet's moment of glory, it appears the standard has irrevocably declined. It is no longer anywhere near the very top level of the sport.

Friday MLS Forecast

The Forecast looks at Zac MacMath's first start for Philadelphia and previews the full weekend slate.

USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann willing to be patient with Bolton's Stuart Holden

Klinsmann watched Holden play for the Trotters' reserve side against Rochdale's second string and was impressed by what he saw.

"I thought Stuart did really well," Klinsmann told the club's official website after the game. "We've obviously been keeping a close eye on him since his injury because he's not only a fantastic player, but a great person. He's had a lot of attention from all of the staff at Bolton and he is without doubt in the best possible hands. They're treating him wonderfully well and doing all they can to get him back on track which is nice to see."

Eight Finals Before the Finals

A selection of eight games that really shouldn't have been wasted on the earlier rounds of the tournaments they took place in.

Editor's note: This is an extract from the Blizzard, a new quarterly magazine of football journalism edited by Jonathan Wilson. It's available in paper and digital formats from www.theblizzard.co.uk.

Qatar 2022 could cost £138bn

The cost of hosting the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is expected to reach £138 billion - with £28 billion alone spent on creating a new city which will host the opening match and the final.

England old guard 'tainted by failure of World Cup' face axe from Fabio Capello for Euro 2012

Fabio Capello will carry out a radical overhaul of the England squad once qualification for Euro 2012 is secured after deciding that too many senior players have failed to recover from the disappointment of last year's World Cup.

Manchester City's Mario Balotelli set to testify in Mafia investigation in Italy

The forward will be grilled on his links to Mario Iorio, a catering entrepreneur charged with money laundering in connection to an investigation into the Lo Russo clan of the city's Camorra.





The dangerous matriarch...

Sid Lowe in Spain

Spain's big two prosper while many of their league rivals do not even have a shirt sponsor.

Barcelona and Real in La Liga of their own with the rest nowhere.

Marina Hyde: Manchester City's Garry Cook – A man for football's crazy times

The blunder-prone chief executive at Eastlands is almost beyond parody, except that he is also the perfect embodiment of the Premier League.

Norman Hubbard: The Importance of Defensive Midfielders

The best in the business, at least in the Premier League, is Nigel de Jong. Ascribing City's unexpected transformation into entertainers to the Dutchman's absence since the opening hour of their campaign is harsh. Perhaps boldness has been forced upon Roberto Mancini, but it has reaped a reward.