By AP
December 18th 2009 @ 4:02am
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FIFA president Blatter says no to TV replays
Sepp Blatter is adamant that TV replays will not be used to review decisions as long as he is the president of FIFA. There has been renewed pressure to use video technology after a handball by Thierry Henry in the lead-up to the goal that allowed France to reach the World Cup at the expense [...]
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![Football is increasingly becoming more and more defensive. The distance between lines has been shortened, space is becoming more and more squeezed, and 4-2-4 has become 4-5-1.
At the 1954 World Cup, an average of 5.38 goals were scored per match. Fifty-two years later at Germany 2006, that had dropped to 2.31.
The financial imbalance [...] Davidde Corran: Football isn’t a red card game](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/rename-epl-gpl-patrice-evra-th.jpg)
![Gary Player clinked a longish shot on to the eighteenth green at Augusta, about 25 feet from the cup. He then meticulously three-putted, and to a fervent standing ovation from the huge crowd, made his slow way off the course and into the forever green memory of the game.
That long hit to the green was [...] Spiro Zavos: Farewell to the the players’ Player](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/farewell-players-gary-player-th.jpg)
![The irony wasn’t lost on me. Less than a week after writing about some immediate points for resolution in the world of Test Cricket, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) made an announcement that will undoubtedly have a major impact on the future of … one-day cricket.
Did I say Test cricket last week? Surely [...] Brett McKay: ECB forces One-Day cricket rethink](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ecb-forces-one-day-cricket-james-hopes-th.jpg)
![On Saturday, La Gazzetta dello Sport declared it the greatest derby in the world and the game hadn’t even happened yet. The pink sport daily had “analysed” all of Europe’s other derbies and decided none had as many titles between them, as big attendances or successful teams as the Derby Della Madonnina.
La Gazzetta’s liberal criteria [...] Davidde Corran: Is this the greatest derby in world sports?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/serie-a-th.jpg)
![With the inaugural NRL All Stars set to kick off this weekend, perhaps just one thing is left to be discussed before we focus on the action on the field: can, or will, the concept ever become bigger than Origin?
It might sound crazy at first, but as the weeks have gone by, I’ve become unsure [...] Steve Kaless: Can the All Stars game ever be bigger than Origin?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/nrl-all-stars-wendell-sailor-th.jpg)
![It’s been a week of extremes for the A-League, from the invisibility of a week off to the thrilling finals matches in Wellington and Sydney.
The week just past has been a fascinating microcosm of how the promising developments for the wider Australian football community are sometimes the same factors that impede the growth of the [...] Adrian Musolino: The Catch-22s that continue to impede the A-League](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/five-reasons-a-league-th.jpg)
![The dominant image of the official ceremony for the 2011 Rugby World Cup draw was a photo of a confident Richie McCaw, who is robed in a cloak of a Maori chief, striding into New Zealand’s Giant Rugby Ball facility in the heart of London, with a clocked Maori female dignitary on one side and [...] Spiro Zavos: Let the mind games for the 2011 RWC begin](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/rwc2011.jpg)
![Brownlow Medallist Gary Ablett Jnr has copped some criticism this week after he was spotted at a Broadbeach apartment complex prior to a ‘secret’ meeting with Gold Coast officials.
The Geelong on-baller and his manager Liam Pickering were randomly spotted chatting with Gold Coast officials by Port Adelaide players who were coincidently staying at the same [...] Ben Somerford: Was Gary Ablett out of line meeting with Gold Coast?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/gary-ablett-th.jpg)
![In wake of Geelong’s Matthew Stokes’ alleged possession and trafficking of cocaine, the AFL has again been forced to defend its illicit drugs policy, which was introduced in 2005 with the assistance of the AFL Players’ Association.
Stokes is facing criminal charges and there is no proof, at this stage, that he has actually taken any [...] Luke D'Anello: Forget the criticism, AFL’s drug testing not a soft hand](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/is-there-place-bump-ben-cousins-th.jpg)
![What to make of another tumultuous round of A-League action? There’ll be plenty of column inches devoted to dwindling attendance figures, while the thorny of issue of refereeing has once again hit the headlines.
It seems we can’t go long in the A-League without refereeing standards coming into question.
Last season’s Grand Final was marred by an [...] Mike Tuckerman: A-League referees are only human](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/a-league-referees-only-human-th.jpg)
![As we wait on edge to see what the Socceroos will achieve in South Africa, the only guarantee we have is that they won’t look good doing it. That’s the overwhelming consensus following the release of the away kit the Socceroos will wear at the World Cup and beyond that has left many Australian fans [...] Adrian Musolino: Socceroos to be the ugly ducklings at World Cup](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/vince-grella-socceroos-shirt-th.jpg)
![The tide of public opinion seems to be turning against Fox Sports. With A-League crowds dipping, the fact the league’s reach is limited by that of Foxtel’s is not lost on those who are searching for answers to explain the disinterest.
Even its presenters, such as the likes of Mark Bosnich, aren’t spared from the [...] Adrian Musolino: Are A-League fans right to criticise Fox Sports?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/central-coast-mariners-player-drain-th.jpg)



