One of the world’s most famous teams, the UK-based Liverpool FC has broken ties with German sportswear manufacturer Adidas, the club confirmed Wednesday.

Adidas may have missed the fine print on the aborted contract which implies a very impressive track record. Liverpool FC have claimed 18 league titles, 5 European Cup titles and have an unconfirmed global supporter base of at least half a billion fans.

Adidas claims it had “walked away” after negotiations failed to renew their supplier agreement had stalled. Sources close to Liverpool revealed that Adidas was “unhappy with performance” by Liverpool, claiming that such a historically successful team had not performed “good enough” in the season. Some skeptics however claim that because Liverpool FC’s ownership is rather a patriotic North American one, they had always wanted their investment to have a US and not German-owned supplier and as the merchandising agreement was about to expire and as a result Adidas pulled a stunt announcing that it would pull out of the agreement. “Adidas knew that Liverpool had not performed as it should have for some 20-years, so why did they sign a six-year deal earlier,” said 49-year-old Paul Smith, who claims to be one of Liverpool’s most avid supporters.

The club says they signed the outgoing agreement in 2006 but millions of fans worldwide would be indifferent to whether Adidas was the supplier or not as the brand “Liverpool” is what they have devoted their time, energy and money to and not the German paraphernalia manufacturer.

In a press statement Adidas’ CEO Herbert Hainer claimed that his company had walked out on the British club sponsorship agreement due to an “imbalance” in performance numbers on the field.

A source at the US-based John W. Henry’s Fenway Sports Group (which acquired Liverpool FC in the year of the last FIFA World Cup) said that the club had been going through a dry spell, but hoped that as one of the most successful European clubs the tide would turn in the new season. However, they have not won the English league for more than two decades and have recently been eclipsed by north-west rivals Manchester United, who also have American owners in the shape of the Glazer family.

But the owners believe that Liverpool’s partnership would only benefit under a new 6-year deal with the US Boston-based supplier Warrior Sports (established in 1992, better known for their ice-hockey paraphernalia, but relatively unknown to the soccer world as yet).

This may be Warrior Sports’ big break into the multi-billion dollar sport and the springboard of their activities in European soccer. Fans and club executives are said to unanimously agree that Adidas will suffer a major loss by chickening out of their sponsorship with Liverpool, despite the fact that the English team has not won a home league for more than 20 years. Nevertheless the new American connection (soccer fans in the US are allegedly increasing 10-fold per year) could be Liverpool’s biggest stunt to win exposure on the 300-million strong US market and further boost Liverpool’s global awareness.

In a press statement Richard Wright, General Manager of Warrior Sports said that his company is about to rock the world of football by piggy-back riding on of the world’s most loved and most successful soccer clubs. No matter who comes and goes in the world of merchandising one thing for sure, fans will always continue to chant that their club will “never walk alone.”

Ironically Adidas is currently in a legal dispute in Budapest, where Hungarian inventor Laszlo Oroszi has sued the German giant for their infringement of his patent. Oroszi claims that he had shown and offered to sell a special patented idea to Adidas’s Netherlands-based development chief Herbert Galoke (who has since retired). Although Adidas had “rejected” Oroszi’s idea, they built it into their predator soccer shoe range, making millions (during and after the Asian world cup).

Police in the Republic of South Africa are investigating the alleged robbery of the world’s most celebrated marathon twins – Russian sisters Olesya and Elena Nurgalieva (see courtesy picture). The team vehicle of the sisiters were reportedly robbed of their possesions (purses, cameras, etc) and running gear at one of the watering points on the day of the marathon on Sunday.

On Sunday (on May 29, 2011) the pair won the the women’s race of the Comrades Marathon – the world’s oldest ultra-marathon.

The race was launched on May 24, 1921 (then known as Empire Day) and has arguably grown to become the world’s greatest. The 56-mile (90km) race is run every year between Durban and Pietermaritzburg in South Africa’s eastern province known as KwaZulu Natal. The idea of this ultra marathon was hatched by a certain Vic Clapham, who after World war One wanted to commemorate his fallen comrades.

Police in Durban said they could not comment on the case under investigation, but promised that they will do all they can to catch the thieves. South Africa’s National Police Commissioner General Beki Cele has reportedly said his police service (SAPS) is preparing to increase its crack-down on even the smallest petty crimes, after it was revealed on May 27 that on average there are seven policemen killed each month in South Africa. He has on several occassions defended his force who have been criticized on several occassions for the alleged police brutality and unquestioningly carrying out his “shoot to kill” orders.

The announcement was made by the Malaysian-based Lotus sportscar manufacturing group, who sponsors the Renault stable. Reports say that Kubica has been ordered to rest for at least three months, following a short coma at the Santa Corona hospital after his near fatal accident on Feb 6 during the Ronde di Andora auto rally, near Genoa in Italy.

Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) has reportedly drawn up plans for a successful run in the 2012 London Olympics, members said. At the previous London Summer Olympics in 1908 Hungary achieved 3 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze medals (9 in total) and in the summer Olympics in London in 1948 it achieved 10 gold, 5 silver and 13 bronze (28 in total). This time MOB would like to achieve at least 30 medals in total.

“Hungary has been very successful in the past 24 summer Olympic Games and we want to be well represented in London,” a source told Budapest report. Based on per capita achievements Hungary is probably the world’s most successful Olympic games participant, he said adding that modern athletes are following the legacy of the very first Olympic swimming champion and Hungary’s first modern Olympic champion Alfred Hajos (pictured, in Athens in 1896). In the summer Olympic Games Hungary is currently ranked 8th, while in both the winter and summer rankings places Hungary in 10th place overall. Based on Olympic statistics Hungarian athletes have since 1896 achieved 465 Olympic medals in total.

Of these there were 159 gold, 141 silver and 159 bronze medals. Since the winter Olympics were introduced Hungary also achieved 2 silver and 4 bronze medals. Hungary’s strongest disciplines have so far been fencing, boxing and the various water sports. Most of Hungary’s ailing sports facilities are under-funded by the government despite the fact that a 1990 sports law obliges the state to provide suitable funding and conditions for its athletes and educational institutions.

Hungarian achievements in Summer Olympic (1896-2008)

Discipline Gold Silver Bronze Total
Boxing 10 2 8 20
Equestrian - – 1 1
Fencing 34 22 26 82
Gymnastics 14 11 14 39
Judo 1 2 4 7
Kayak & Canoe 19 27 25 71
Pentathlon 9 8 4 21
Rowing – 1 2 3
Shooting 7 3 7 17
Soccer 3 1 1 5
Sport Art 1 2 1 4
Swimming 23 23 17 63
Handball - 1 2 3
Tennis - – 1 1
Track & Field 9 12 17 38
Water Polo 9 3 3 15
Weightlifting 2 9 9 20
Wrestling 19 15 17 51
Yachting – – 1 1 .
Total 160 142 160 462

Ethiopian marathon-man Herkolo Ashenafi won the ’25th Spar International Budapest Marathon and Running Festival’ in the men’s category with a time of 2:23:13 on Sept 26, 2010. The reportedly 42.2 kilometre annual marathon this year took place in rainy weather, in Budapest.

Ashenafi was flanked by Hungarians Tamas Toth (2:24:36) and Zsolt Zsoder (2:24:55). To add to the spectacular Slovak Foreign Minister Mikulas Dzurinda finished in 3:39:20. Prime Minister State Secretary Mihaly Varga and the Government Spokesman Peter Szijjarto, had allegedly finished in 10th place in what has been dubbed as the marathon relay. World champion boxers Dariusz Michalczewski, Zsolt ” Madar” Erdei and Istvan ” Koko” Kovacs and also ran in the relay.

Organisers said that at least 14,000 participants enjoyed the run. In the women’s category Hungary’s Simona Staicu set a new record (2:37:47). She was followed by Hungarians Judit Nagy (2:52:23) and Mariann Oth (2:56:55). Hungarian President Pal Schmitt fired the starting shot.

It was not mentioned whether the payments would include the national bank interest rate, on policemen’s delayed money used by the government. But it was mentioned that the state had to cough up some ZAR 650 million to satisfy payments. The SAPS’s feeble excuse was that the processing of the pay-outs was a “ logistical nightmare. ” Hundreds of non-police personnel, who were temporarily employed as security personnel at various stadiums throughout South Africa during the football matches, are reportedly also still waiting for their unpaid wages.

Temp workers claim that they had been offered far more than what the managements had wanted to pay out to them. They added that they were told they would receive less only after they had finished their assignments.

Just recently the police trade unions were banned from participating in strike actions during the nationwide public servant strike that lasted some three weeks, and is now in a stale-mate after the government declined to give teachers an 8.5% wage hike and ZAR 1,000/month housing allowance. The government went as far as to offer trade union leaders 7.5% and some ZAR 750/month housing allowance.

England coach Fabio Capello is said to need a win for this match to polish up his team’s tarnished performance during the 2010 South Africa World Cup, where the team saw an early exit despite having some of the world’s best players. Also this match will be England’s first international since the World Cup. Capello’s criticsare now monitoring his performances since England have pledged to do better than ever during the 2012 European Championship and the 2014 Brazilian World Cup. The match against Hungary is sure to be the barometer of England’s preparations as they soon take on Bulgaria, Montenegro, Switzerland and Whales in qualifying for Euro 2012.

Hungary will have a tough sauna session during its matches against Finland, The Netherlands (or Holland) and Sweden during its cauliflower for Euro 2012. Hungary had earlier been opponents for two of the top European teams in friendly practice runs for the South African World Cup. But the new Hungarian coach has now reportedly prepared the national team physically and psychologically to face the English, allegedly constantly reminding them of Hungary’s historic 6-3 win (also known as the Match of the 20th Century) over England at Wembley in November 1953 and 7-1 (England’s worst ever loss to Hungary) in Budapest’s National Stadium in May 1954.

World Sport betting has allegedly given 8 to 1 odds for Hungary’s win, 3 to 1 for England’s win and a 4 to 1 for a possible draw. England has been predicted to win the match 1-0. The two teams play on the same evening when South African team Bafana, Bafana (The Boys) plays Ghana (which has been dubbed Baghana, Baghana, by localSouth Africans who supported Ghana in the World Cup) at Soccer City in Johannesburg.

McGilvray says she has been riding 15 years since she first took her children to a BMX junior race. McGilvray started amateur racing with a borrowed bike in her late 30’s and will this year be turning 51. She claims that she still feels as though she is 18 and will most probably also die feeling 18 as she loves competing in the BMX series.

The sports was first introduced to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and South Africa is fast becoming one of the leading BMX racing regions after the US and Europe.

Guests near a rest camp reportedly saw a young male elephant playing soccer with a flattened beer can that one of the tourists had allegedly thrown out of their car windows.

The elephant was said to have taken the empty can in its trunk, thrown it into the air and allowing it to fall on its head, and then let it hit the ground before attempting to kick it, like a football player practicing tricks with a soccer ball on the field. The elephant was reported to have repeated this several times.

It continued to kick the can about for some 20 minutes before it eventually gave up and moved on. Animal care workers at the Pretoria and Johannesburg zoos claim that many animals in South Africa were given balls to play with during the football spectacle and allegedly the popular video website Youtube is full of clips showing how the various monkeys, zebras and other wild animals can adopt the soccer fever just like humans.

Spain’s Real Madrid midfielder was allegedly under the surgeons’ knife in Belgian clinic on August 5, 2010. Medics claim there were no complications. His managers believe that the soccer star will most likely recover from his operation within three months, while he will need at last another three months to return to his top form.

The Brazilian was acquired by Real Madrid for some EUR 65-mil from Italy’s AC Milan in 2009. In the last season Kaka reportedly scored eight goals for Real Madrid in 25 league matches.

But football officials allegedly believe that it is the communist leadership in Beijing who, under the auspices of the China Investment Corporation (CIC), are commissioning Huang to acquire the prestigious brand for them. So far reportedly three bids have arrived to buy the club (an American and Kuwaiti investment group and Huang’s Chinese offer), but Huang is said to have tried his hand at acquiring the reds during the past two years.

By the way it was not clear whether Her Majesty has mobilized secret agent 007 to get to the bottom of the deal. Perhaps the ordeal will inspire the next Ian Flemming-style James Bond paperback or Hollywood film.

The Hungarian Government recently announced that it would like to bid for hosting a FIFA World Cup tournament in the foreseeable future. Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban had made mention of this when he visited South Africa and watched the final match on July 11, 2010.

While rban was watching the match live, some 500, 000 Hungarians at home were also watching on television, reports said. A survey shows that at least 50% of Hungarian population was glued to their televisions during the match while about 2% of Hungarians watched the match repeated.

At the same time internet service providers claim that an increasing number of subscribers had watched the match on Internet television broadcasts, mostly because the Hungarian commentary was too somnolent at times. An unconfirmed estimated 100,000 Hungarians watched the game on their computers.

by Agencia Brasil

The 2010 South African World Cup’s North Korean national coach Kim Jong-Hun (53) has reportedly been reprimanded, abused and brain-washed by the communist leadership of North Korean tyrant Kim Jong-Il .

After having been forced to listen to hours of demoralizing blah-blah speeches of some 400 senior cadres of the dictator, Jong-Hun was sentenced to hard labor at a construction site where he allegedly works 14 hours a day.

His punishment came after his team was forced a premature return home after it was unable to win any matches in their pool matches at the soccer spectacle in South Africa. The dictator’s men allegedly felt humiliated by the 7-0 loss against Portugal, which was reportedly televised by Pyongyang’s national state broadcasting.

The team also lost 2-1 to Brazil and 3-0 to Ivory Coast. It was the first time since communist Korea qualified for the world cup since 1966. The 23.8 million population saw that communist Korea is not invincible contrary to all the crap they had been led to believe by their dictators.

All this despite the ongoing international propaganda that coach Jong-Hun was “ looking forward to the future ” , despite his team’s early exit from the 2010 World Cup.

The premier league (PSL) has welcomed and strongly supports the initiative of staging soccer matches more for excitement than for profit. In the first step four soccer teams have agreed to Cape Town’s 66,000-seat Green Point Stadium hosting what they call Double Header Fridays, when at least once a month two matches are played at the same venue giving fans and spectators the advantage and joy of receiving two for the price of one match.

The low-cost entry tickets are sure to boost turnout as matches are being played at 6 pm and 8.30 pm. Organizers say the first such spectacle will be on Aug 27, 2010 and plan to accommodate at least 40,000 people at Green Point. The PSL hope the initiative will spread like wildfire to all the other new stadiums in the country before the end of the year.

At the same time organizers plan to alternate Fridays for soccer and Saturdays for rugby matches at these stadiums.

Currently South Africa has 10 brand new or revamped stadiums. These are

SOCCER CITY STADIUM…………………………………….…(JOHANNESBURG)……88,000 SEATS
MOSES MABHIDA STADIUM………………………………..…(DURBAN)………….…70,000 SEATS
GREEN POINT STADIUM……………………………………….(CAPE TOWN)……..….66,000 SEATS
ELLIS PARK STADIUM……………………………………………………..(JOHANNESBURG)..…62,000 SEATS
LOFTUS VERSFELD STADIUM.………………………………..(PRETORIA)…………..49,000 SEATS
NELSON MANDELA BAY STADIUM………………………….(PORT ELIZABETH)…46,000 SEATS
FREE STATE STADIUM………………………………………….(BLOEMFONTEIN)..….45,000 SEATS
ROYAL BAFOKENG STADIUM………………………………..(RUSTENBURG)………44,000 SEATS
MBOMBELA STADIUM………………………………………….(NELSPRUIT)…………..43,000 SEATS
PETER MOKHABA STADIUM………………………………….(POLOKWANE)…….…43,000 SEATS

Although the European Union has 27 member states, the European Swimming Championship will host some 40 nations in Hungary. This year the 12-day tournament is being launched on Wednesday (Aug 4, 2010).

The swimming, diving and synchronic water dancing events are being held at Budapest’s Margaret Island and two open water heats are being held at the Lake Balaton town of Balatonfured. There will be 59 Hungarian contestants, who have among themselves promised to achieve at least five gold medals in total.

Hungary’s new President of the republic Pal Schmitt, one-time Olympic champion, is the chief patron of the event. Some 30 television broadcasting companies and radio stations will be airing the events live.

The event is under the auspices of the LEN governing body, which represents 51 European swimming federations. The first European Swimming Championships was reportedly held in 1926.

The two finalists in the 2010 South African World Cup have reportedly received a belated penalty from the international football governing body, FIFA. Reports said that FIFA has decided to carry out the penalty and book Holland (actually the Netherlands, as Holland is merely a county in The Netherlands) and Spain for abusing the fair play rules of the world cup.

During the world cup trophy match on July 11, 2010 at Johannesburg’s Soccer Stadium, Holland collected 8 yellow cards and one red card, while Spain collected merely 5 (the most ever collected during the history of the world cup final, exceeding the 1986 Argentina-Germany world cup final where foul play caused the referee to dash out six yellow cards).

Nevertheless based on FIFA rules any Federation playing for an international that collects 5 or more yellow cards will be financially penalised. Holland will have to cough up lunch-money of some EUR 10,000 while Spain will have to do without tuck-money of some EUR 7,000.

At the same time the whole world is laughing at FIFA as many of the players can virtually get away with murder (like when Holland midfielder intentionally literally kung-fu kicked Spain’s Xabi Alonso and all he got was a yellow card warning) during the internationals as the fair play flag and clause of FIFA is more of a mock-tribunal than a deterring factor.

The international audience has sarcastically suggested that FIFA rename the game as an increasing number of hand goals are being scored and saved by non-goal keepers, while the perpetrators get away scot-free and actually praised as national heroes. Based on spectator votes FIFA ranked the Holland-Spanish final of 2010, the worst ever behaviour in a match in the history of the football tournament.

Are Liverpool FC fans about to consume more Chinese food? Perhaps, after their team is saved by Chinese entrepreneur Kenny Huang, who has been sniffing around for more than two years, sources said.

He has allegedly offered Liverpool’s current owners a price he can’t refuse in return for a controlling stake in Britain’s most successful Premier League football club.

Huang has reportedly already made his offer to the Royal Bank of Scotland (that was last year bailed out by the British Government) as a first step to securing the deal by paying for Liverpool’s debt of almost GBP 240 million.

Liverpool’s American owners started to sell the club in April this year.

Australia’s Red Bull pilot Mark Webber won the the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday (Aug 1, 2010) at the Hungaroring race track, 30km north of Budapest. With that he takes the championship lead from England’s Lewis Hamilton, who failed to finish the race. His result also helped place the Red Bull team to take the lead from McLaren. Webber was followed tightly by the Ferrari team’s Spainish driver Fernando Alonso, while Webber’s Red Bull German team mate took third place.

Hungarian captain Zoltan Gera (31) earlier this year resigned from Hungarian national football after he was dropped from various international matches. Gera had been totally ignored by former manager-coach Erwin Koeman (49) for the World Cup qualifier against Denmark in October 2009.

While Hungary didn’t even make it to the world cup, Gera and his team at Fulham went on to the Europa League final, where they were only denied glory by Atletico Madridand Uruguay’s Diego Forlan’s dramatic extra-time winning goal.

Not only was Gera not named in the starting 11 against Denmark, but he wasn’t even a bench substitute. This caused the Hungarian captain to announce his immediate resignation from his home 11 and continue to concentrate on his career at London’s Fulham FC, where he is the most popular player, winning player of the year.

The Hungarian striker is dubbed Hungary’s most successful player since the legendary striker Ferenc Puskas. Newnational manager-coach Sandor Egervari (60) has convinced the Hungarian Football Association (MLSz) to invite Gera back after MLSz recently fired Koeman.

Argentina soccer star and coach-manager Diego Maradona has been sacked from his post as manager of the Argentina national squad. The announcement was made shortly after the Argentinian Football Federation (AFA) decided, in a meeting, not to renew the former footballer’s contract due to sloppy performance in the 2010 South African Soccer World Cup.

AFA president Julio Grondona, allegedly said, Diego must go, after much criticisms of his coaching ethics and standards. AFA reportedly also requested the removal of the assistant manager and technical staff. Argentina’s infamous coach was considered the ultimate outsider at the beginning of the 2010 games.

Nevertheless they did manage to qualify, even if it was considered by many of his critics as ” unimpressive “. The biggest shock for AFA and the entire football world was Argentina’s quarter final thrashing of 4-0 by Germany on July 3, 2010. Corporate executives generally get dismissed with a golden hand-shake, while football managers seem to get dismissed with a “golden” boot.