i’ve been slammed lately, and i’m sorry about my lack of posting. there’s so much going on my head is spinning: i start a new real world job next week, i’ve been doing some wedding planning to earn brownie points with my future wife, and i’ve finally replaced my non-functioning old phone with a new tricked-out smart phone… not to mention there have been champions league, premiership and f.a. cup games to provide feed my ADD with ample distractions.

all the while, there have been multitudes of stories that have sparked my writers mind. right now, i’ve got about four posts cooking in the oven. will they all see the light of day? i don’t know yet; some are garbage as they currently stand. so i’ll keep pumping away, and i’ll try to get you all something worth reading.

so in the spirit of being mildly lazy, let’s do another round up!

bonuses at stake for world cup players – washingtonpost.com
there is no disputing the honor and distinction that a player feels when he’s selected to represent his country at a world cup. but let’s be honest: as with everything else in life, what it all boils down to is the coin. being part of the national team set-up can be a major financial boost for most players, especially when you’re on a paltry MLS salary that barely covers your rent, bills and milk and bread expenses. get called in to a national team camp: get a decent salary and your expenses covered. make a game roster: get a bonus. come on for just a minute as a substitute: get a bigger bonus. start a match: big pay day.

so you’re probably wondering, are you in store for any even bigger payout if you’re named to a world cup roster? well, you would be wondering correctly. according to the washington post’s the any US players named to the squad are going to need to upgrade to a bigger bank vault. and depending on well the team does (ex: get $ for each point earned) and how far they progress, an even bigger lottery awaits. it’s nice to know our boys are rewarded (or punished) for their performances at the finals. if they weren’t, how else could we expect demarcus beasley to finance his collection of bling.

six red card player admits defeat – bbc.co.uk
early in my playing career, i had penchant for being that annoying player that berated the referee for any decisions i felt were inappropriate. in high school, i probably averaged a yellow card per game for dissent (thankfully, the state hadn’t instituted the accrued yellow card ban at the time). seeing as how i’m a defender with the occasional need for a professional foul, it was a nasty habit that could have easily earned me a second yellow and put my team down a man. by some sort of miracle, i managed to go my entire career without doing so. it still blows my mind.

however, it appears an amateur player in scotland does not share my luck. the 39-year-old picked up his second yellow for dissent in a november saturday league game, but apparently wasn’t satisfied with just a single red card. after raining down hellfire on the referee following his dismissal, the scot received a further five red cards. unsurprisingly, the scottish f.a. have handed him a two year ban from playing in organized games for his tirade. the player seems content with the ruling, as he didn’t appeal, and responded to reporters by saying, “i will just have to go with the flow, accept things and find something else to do on a saturday.” smart move buddy.

david moyes says everton can keep hold of jack rodwell – telegraph.co.uk
as a club, the main focus of building your squad is to develop players through your academy system, developing the local lads into first team stars. this, of course, is to be supplemented by limited strategic acquisitions in the transfer market. this is how it works for 95% of the clubs out there. the remaining 5% are clubs that utilize the academies of other competing clubs to build their squads through transfers, often selling off their own youth team products who couldn’t make the grade. you would have be dense to not realize that manchester united (or chelsea/liverpool/real madrid) falls into the later category, while clubs like everton (and just about every single lower division side) fits into the former.

united have picked off the ripe fruits of other clubs to build their current roster, and his most prized asset was a prodigy hailing from the blue side of liverpool: wayne rooney. everton faced off against their former wunderkid last weekend, holding rooney silent while being buoyed by goals from mooted 18-year-old united target jack rodwell and 20-year-old dan gosling to win 3-1. one would be tempted to believe that it’s just a matter of time before the allure of big money and spotlight will rob everton of their two brightest prospects. however, everton manager moyes believes that his experience with dealing rooney’s departure, coupled with the growth of everton’s prestige in recent years, means that starlets such as rodwell and gosling will be more willing to stay at goodison park. i just want to say to david, i hope your willing to put your money where your mouth is: loyalty is one thing, but a £80,000 a week contract is another.

chivas usa is dead (sorta) – theoffside.com
trademarks are a funny thing. if you don’t own the rights to a word mark, nickname, or word, it turns out that you can’t use it for any sort of marketing purposes. chivas usa’s mexican parent club, c.d. de guadalajara, have for years gone by their common nickname “chivas” (goats in spanish), hence the name for the MLS franchise. one would think that such a prominent nickname would be trademarked by the club; turns out that the club are run by an incompetent group of morons.a recent mexican court rulling, backed by a recent move by the US copyright office, has awarded the chivas trademark to the club supporters group, asociación civil.

this means that neither guadalajara nor can use the wordmark chivas any longer in any sort of advertising, including in the name of it’s offspring club in the states. talk about poor planning. word is that with just under a month until the MLS season kicks off, the american arm of the club is undergoing a massive rebranding project. normally i would call shennanigans on this, but with the recent mega-sale on all things chivas usa in the mlsgear.com webstore, i’ll be tempted to believe. so, what will the club emerge from darkness as? it’s anyones guess at this point, but i’m pulling for the L.A. goats.

fifa seeks to tame billion-dollar transfer market – si.com
after years of luxury and swimming through the sea of golden coins in their giant bank vault like scrooge mcduck, it appears that bigwigs at fifa have begun to realize that the transfer market is seriously out control. clubs are spending themselves into their graves, particularly in england, and money laundering between clubs in the form of fake player sales have become common practices in recent years. fifa had turned a blind eye to these affairs, content to continue collecting their “small” share of each transfer. but with the recent plight affecting clubs across europe, fifa deemed late action would be better than no action at all.

the world’s governing body has rolled out a new web-based player tracking system, that requires buying and selling clubs to register all of their players (including youth players) in order to confirm each transfer and the money changing hands in the process. in particular, this is supposed to end the money laundering that is prevalent in eastern european circles. however small of a first step, this move will allow fifa to keep better tabs on the transfer affairs and eventually aim to reel in the outrageous prices in today’s market. my guess: too little too late. let’s hope i’m wrong.

you call that a scandal – studs-up.com
it’s no secret (anymore) that chelsea has had some of it’s players bring a bit of shame to the club in the last few weeks. what with john terry and ashley cole apparently busy trying to shag every whore in england. and while manager carlo ancelotti is trying to remind his players to behave themselves, everyone’s favorite football comic reminds the blues that it could be way worse: