A statement from the FA read: “The index ratings had not been seen or approved by Mr Capello, were published without his knowledge and that his representatives have taken immediate steps to have the material taken down.”

England’s miserable campaign came to a shuddering halt in the second round when they were humbled 4-1 by Germany to suffer their worst-ever World Cup defeat.

Goalkeeper Robert Green was the lowest ranked player in the Index, scoring 51.67 out of 100 following his blunder in the opening game against USA which saw him dropped for the remainder of the tournament.

Out-of-form striker Wayne Rooney scored 58.87 for his efforts over the four games, with Emile Heskey managing 60.15 and Jermain Defoe – who scored the winner against Slovenia – managing 62.47.

Shaun Wright-Phillips was regarded as England’s best midfielder with a tally of 61.09 while captain Steven Gerrard scored 60.98 and Frank Lampard 58.58.

The leading player in the Capello Index was Uruguay forward Diego Forlan, who scored 65.77.

Clearly Fabio Capello is probably wishing he never got involved with this web venture and one wonders the legality of the use of his name after the England boss has made it abundantly clear he is in no way responsible for the ratings on the site.

That said, the ratings seem about right although naming Robert Green as the worst player in the entire tournament is a bit of stretch, especially when you take into account all the French and Italian players who partook in the South African adventure.

Will Fabio stay in charge of the england team after this shocking revelation, the football odds seem to think so, what about you?

On Sunday a new name will be engraved on the football world cup, as Netherlands are set to take on the European Champions Spain make sure you don’t miss the Live football as over 1 billion people will be watching. Neither side has ever won the most prestigous award and for spain it is their first ever Wolrd Cup Final. Netherlands have twice reached the final only to be beaten by west Germany and Italy but this time around they will be hoping its third time lucky. Spain went into the the tournament as favourites to lift the cup but with them known as the perenial under achievers not many peeople actually thought they would do it, but here they are in the final and with it they go in red hot favourites to end the Dutch 22 match unbeaten run and claim the World Cup. For Holland to overcome the Spanish machine they will need to play smartly and play more to spains weaknesses than their own strengths.

If both teams play there own style of the beautiful game there will be only one winner, Spain haven’t let any of the teams they have played against have a kick of the ball for the majority of the match and they will do to Holland what they have done to Portugal, Paraguay and Germany on their way to the final and pass them into submission, by just wearing them down over the course of the 90 minutes using their famous tippy-tappa style of play.

Key Battles

Ramos/Capevilla v Robben
Arjen Robben is possibly the most effective player on the football pitch at the moment and it will be down ot either Capedvilla or Sergio Ramos to stop the flying Dutchman. In the last game Uruguay played their right back at left back and their left back on the left wing to try and stop Robben but he still managed to cause havok. Spain will surely be weiry of the 24 year old, but if they can keep the ball from getting to Robbe they should have no problems. On the other hand when Spain have the ball (which will be most of the match) one of the full backs should be free as Robben doesn’t like defending.

Xavi v Sneijder
Possibly the 2 best midfielders will go head to head in Sundays final, Wesley Sneijder has had a fantstic season with Inter picking up the treble and being tipped to be the World Player of the Year, but what will he cope like without much of the ball, no doubt he will have to defend more than attack. Xavi on the other hand will probably be the player to see the majority of the ball and it will be down to himself, Iniesta and Xavi Alonso to open up the Dutch defence.

Villa v Mathijsen

What mre can be said about David Villa, he performs on the biggest of stages as well as at club level, he is currently joint top scorer at this years competition with Seijder who both have 5 goals. Villa has scored 3 of the the last 4 Spanish goals which ahve got them through to this final, if he get a sniff of a goal you can bet the Barcelona striker will take it and with it the world cup. Mathijsen is possibly the weakest player in the dutch team and he will dred facing the inform spaniard, no doubt having nightmares of the problems he gave him in the Europa League earlier in the season.

Good Luck to both teams and i hope they put on a great Spetical for the football fans across the world.

It is with great joy and emotion that I inform I have recently become father to a baby boy. As agreed with the baby’s mother, who prefers to have her identity kept confidential, my son will be under my exclusive guardianship. No further information will be provided on this subject and I request everyone to fully respect my right to privacy (and that of the child) at least on issues as personal as these are.

So that’s that. C-Ron’s a Daddy, and that’s all he’s going to say on it. I’m the third-farthest person from a Cristiano Ronaldo fan in all of football, but I have to give him credit. He announced what sounds like a somewhat … complicated arrangement in a fairly simple anti-Paparazzi way. And with Portugal out and a bit over a month until La Liga starts up for his Real Madrid side, he can hopefully take a few weeks and get some quality time with Winker Jr.

The questions are (because I personally don’t care who the mama is), 1) is he sincere about wanting to keep the kid out of the spotlight? and 2) can he do it?

We don’t know the babys name but after Ronaldo’s Portugal are out of the world cup he can set his sights on looking after the little tot beforehe gets back to playing in La Liga, here are the early football odds for the winning of the la liga title.

Bloemfontein, South Africa – Frank Lampard’s First half goal in Sunday’s 4-1 loss to Germany, not given in spite of the ball bouncing around half a meter over the goal line, recalled Geoff Hurst’s notoriously questionable strike when the two countries met in the 1966 World Cup final.

In a strange twist, Hurst’s extra time shot, which like Lampard’s effort came off the cross-bar, instead seemed not to have crossed the line. It was, nevertheless, adjudged a goal and it paved the way for England’s ultimate 4-2 win in Wembley.

Sunday’s event in Bloemfontein came 44-years afterwards and amid increasing calls for the use of goal line technology, including sensors, to guide referees and their assistants. However, world football’s governing body FIFA has steadfastly refused to install the technology.

‘We want to keep football as a game of the people with a human face, so we don’t want technology on the field of play because we want to maintain the spontaneity of football – played, administered and controlled by human beings,’ FIFA President Sepp Blatter said before the start of the 2010 World Cup.

The world football supremo additionally said he thought the ‘tremendous preparations programmes’ that World Cup referees had endured in the run-up to the tournament would avoid big errors being made.

Yet the Bloemfontein error by Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda and his assistants may now serve to hasten the introduction of sensors as well as other technology-assisted measures.

These could include instant video replays allowing referees to review incidents during the course of a match.

It may help that Larrionda’s mistake instantly reverberated around the world media.

‘Scandal of the World Cup,’ said Spanish sports daily Marca’s website – a sentiment echoed, using the same phrase, by Italian daily La Repubblica.

Even the Germans could do nothing but confess the Uruguayan match official’s mistake.

‘The referee’s assistant should have seen it, it was clearly a goal,’ said former team boss Franz Beckenbauer on German television.

In the World Cup final 44 years ago, Hurst scored for England with the ball bouncing out having come down on the goal line but Azerbaijani linesman Tofik Bakhramov said the ball crossed the line and granted the goal.

Fortune favoured England in 1966 but this time the luck was against them with Der Spiegel saying: ‘Wembley is back, only the reverse of 1966.’

Despite his talk of accepting human imperfection, Blatter has not closed the door entirely to the use of technology.

‘Technology on the field of play is put on ice. It is not out forever,’ Blatter said.

The World Cup Bets have neen changing dramtically since England have  been knocked out, with Germany shooting up the list of favourites.

Jamie Carragher has offered one reason for England’s World Cup woe – his own return from international exile.

The Liverpool veteran had last played for England in June 2007 but was lured out of international retirement by Fabio Capello amid injury concerns in defence.

Carragher replaced Ledley King at half-time in the Group C opener against the USA, when the Three Lions had to settle for a 1-1 draw before turning in a dismal display against Algeria.

A 0-0 draw on Friday means England, among the pre-tournament favourites, must now beat Slovenia to be sure of just reaching the second round.

Carragher is suspended for the game having picked up a second booking against Algeria, but the 32-year-old joked that could be a blessing following England’s stuttering start.

“It’s very difficult to put your finger on,” he said.

“We did really well in qualifying so I think maybe I’m the problem coming back!

“They seemed to be fine when I was watching the qualifying. It’s just not happening at the moment.

“Obviously we have a chance to put it right after two disappointing results and two disappointing performances. There’s still all to play for.”

England face Slovenia in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday and a point would be enough for the surprise group leaders to book their place in the last 16 having beaten Algeria 1-0 before drawing 2-2 with the USA.

Last night the host nation fo the world cup were delat a cruel blow, after drawing their first game against Mexico in a rather exciting game they took on Uruguay who also drew their first game of the tournament. Bafana Bafana (~SOuth Africa) went into the gmae full of confidence but they were soon humbled after Diego Forlans defelcted shot found the back of the net mid way through the first half. Urugua ended up running out 3-0 winners and were considerably better than the host nation. this means that South Africa will need to win the finally group game and rely on other results going their way to get through.

Here are the world cup odds after the 1st round of group matches

9-2 Brazil
5 Spain (from 7/2)
11-2 Argentina (from 6)
15-2 Germany
15-2 Netherlands
8 England
14 Italy
25 France
28 Portugal

Forget the USA-England rivalry; the real fight brewing at the World Cup is not over soccer, but the vuvuzela, the plastic horn that when blown correctly makes a very loud and drawn out sound.

Supporters say it’s an inspiring cacophony, but critics say it sounds like a swarm of bees, drowning out fans, commentators, national anthems and generally ruining the World Cup experience for everyone.

FIFA , the soccer-governing body in charge of the World Cup, is under pressure to ban the noise-maker. It said in a statement that for now it will only outlaw vuvuzelas if they become a physical hazard, such as if fans throw the horns on the field, but that it “continues to evaluate the use of vuvuzelas on an on-going basis.”

The football odds have the vuvuzelas to be banned at 4/1

England have released their official world cup song, and the man behind it is none other than the multi-millionaire music producer Simon Cowell. The song was performed by Dizzee Rascal and James Corden on Saturday’s final of Britain Got Talent, where over 8million people watched it. Here is the live performance

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCEXdv0sdBw&feature=related]

Dizzee and James will both be following the livescores throughout the world cup, as well as keeping track of their single in the charts.

England were favourites to win both friendly games this week, and they proved the football odds right with wins against Mexico and Japan. The games were used as run-outs for the players which Fabio Capello may take to the world cup. Here are the highlights of both games, you can make your own assumptions of the final 23 man squad which is to be announced later today.

England v Mexico (24/05/10)

Fast Tube by Casper

England v Japan (30/05/10)

Fast Tube by Casper

The countdown is on to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and sports enthusiasts around the globe are gearing up.  YouTube has been one of the epicenters of FIFA World Cup anticipation, with excitement building over the last couple of months as inspiring World Cup clips have been uploaded, one after the other.  We’ve compiled a few of the best World Cup 2010 clips, perfect for getting you pumped up for a summer of world class football.  Gooooooal!!

Nike Write The Future

Nike’s ‘Write The Future’ campaign is the epitome of World Cup 2010 clips.  With more than 7.6 million views on YouTube, this epic clip brings together the world’s best players and inspires sports fans to leave their woes behind.  After all, who cares about the state of the economy when we have football greats like Christiano Ronaldo, Fabio Cannavaro, Andres Iniesta, Didier Drogba, Wayne Rooney and Ronaldinho?

Fast Tube by Casper

Pepsi Commercial 2010

For me, this Pepsi ad takes the cake when it comes to brilliant World Cup commercials.  Pepsi released this clip, despite the fact that they are not an official sponsor of this year’s FIFA event.  The commercial features football stars Thierry Henry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba, Lionel Messi, Ricardo Kaka and Andrei Arshavin playing against local African kids in a less than ordinary football match.

Fast Tube by Casper

Coca Cola History of Celebration

This inspiring Coca Cola clip takes us back twenty years ago, to Cameroonian football player Roger Milla’s first celebratory dance after a goal.  Milla’s dance changed goal celebrations forever, with fans and players letting go—celebrating success with dance.  You can’t help but smile when watching this great clip.

Fast Tube by Casper

MAke sure you watch all the live football from each game of the world cup as it is bound to be a cracker