Daily News Roundup: 28 March 2007

Mar

2007

Daily News Roundup: 28 March 2007

A look at today’s headlines, plus a summary of all of today’s Soccerlens news:

1. Michel Platini might have gotten it right this time. UEFA announced a new ‘zero-tolerance’ policy towards violence, which essentially translates into UEFA requesting member institutions to be very strict with violence on the pitch and in the stands.

It comes on the heels of a handful of serious incidents in the last year or so (team brawls, walkouts, pitch invasions, in-stadium brawling, even deaths), and hopefully this will reduce violence in football.

2. Manchester United fans will be happy to hear that Rossi expects to be at Manchester United for several years to come. Coupled with his footballing education at Newcastle United and Parma this season, that points to Rossi being used more regularly next season by Alex Ferguson.

3. Manchester City’s Micah Richards might require surgery for his calf problem, but given his England commitments and the fact that Manchester City still have a season to salvage, he may not get a ‘break’ till the end of the season.

That’s a bummer, because at 18 he shouldn’t be forced to play through injury (if it really is a serious problem).

4. Michael Owen has started training again with his Newcastle teammates, but don’t expect him returning to England any time soon.

5. Cristiano’s Ronaldo’s heel injury (suffered in training) may not be serious and considering that Portugal are playing to secure Euro 2008 qualification he will probably still be played against Serbia today.

Let’s hope he doesn’t aggravate that injury.

6. Alan Pardew has done the maths and thinks that 4 wins out of the remaining 8 games of the season will be enough to secure Premiership status for Charlton. If Pardew pulls it off, it will be the most ironic thing to happen this season, what with the Magnusson-Curbishley experiment failing miserably at West Ham.

7. Roy Keane keeps sticking the knife in Ireland, this time saying that Shay Given is after 100 or 200 caps and that he (Given) should give other keepers a chance in friendlies.

8. Chelsea ban 3 celery throwers (and a fourth for pitch invasion), Tottenham ban the 18-year fan who attacked Lampard for life from White Hart Lane while he gets a 3-year ban from all football grounds. Looking for Chelsea’s bum-tickling celery rhyme?

9. The FA has handed Arsenal and Chelsea 100,000 pound fines each for the League Cup final brawl. Apart from the fact that Henry and Shevchenko could donate one week’s pay each to pay the fines (its an absurdly low fine), this quote from the FA disciplinary report is precious:

“It found that Arsenal players had been marginally more involved in the Carling Cup Final incident, but that Chelsea FC had past proven cases in recent years regarding the general behaviour of their players where warnings had been issued.”