FIFA Golden

Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery has criticised the FIFA Ballon d’Or award as a political affairs amidst unhappiness that he was not considered as a potential winner last year. Ribery came third in the rankings for last year’s award while his Bayern Munich teammate Manuel Neuer finished in the same position for this year’s title.

The 2014 FIFA Ballon d’Or is approaching and as it starts getting closer and closer, not surprisingly it seems to be that the main contenders on winning this prestigious individual award is being fought between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo but the Portuguese forward has the edge.

Despite everything that Manuel Neuer has accomplished in the past 12 months, it seems like the German goal-keeper is not one of the favorites on lifting the trophy as he performs in a position where it’s extremely difficult to get as much recognition in comparison to a midfielder or a forward.

The shortlist for the prestigious FIFA Ballon d’Or award has been announced with several names from the Premier League managing to make it into the shortlist. The first 30 man shortlist has just been announced.

It will be reduced to a three-man shortlist before naming the winner in December. Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is the overwhelming favourite to get this award after helping his team win the Champions League and also scoring more than 50 goals along the way. A number of players in the Premier League like Diego Costa and Eden Hazard have also been named in the list.

The subject of television replays being used to doing improve football has been intensely debated over the last decade. The growing importance of matches has seen refereeing errors take centre stage more often than not. This has in turn put more pressure on referees to deliver accurate results. Fifa, which governs key aspects of the game, has been under the regime of Sepp Blatter for several years. The 78-year-old has rejected the inclusion of technology into the game claiming that it would bring disparity across different levels of the game.

The new Premier League campaign coverage on BT sports starts with the match involving Manchester United and Swansea at Old Trafford. BT emerged as the major contender for Sky Sports in the UK sports television business. Sky Sports has been the number one channel when it came to watching Premier League action, but last season witnessed a major shift in power. BT secured access to most of the live games featuring top clubs in the second half of the campaign. This was primarily because Sky Sports decided to take up most of their allotted number of matches in the first half of the season.

For obvious reasons, Motorsports such as: NASCAR or F1 have always been one of the major division of branding that Carmakers have focused on but it is recently taking a turn as soccer is starting to turn into a market for major car manufacturers in the world for them to promote their products.

Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos has stated that he would be happy to lift the FIFA Ballon d’Or award one day. The defender was a crucial reason towards Real Madrid winning the 10th Champions League title in their history. He not only scored goals in the semifinals, but his goal in the Champions League final also helped Madrid take the game into extra time against Atletico Madrid. Madrid were on the verge of being defeated in the final, but Ramos scored with only seconds remaining on the clock.

Reigning FIFA Ballon d’Or award holder Cristiano Ronaldo has sensationally claimed that Barcelona striker Neymar could one day win the award. The former Santos striker moved to the Catalan club in the summer for around £ 80 million in total. He is also one of the best paid after the recent tax problems forced Barcelona into revealing the true details about his transfer from Brazilian club. In terms of performances on the pitch, it was a disappointing end to the season for the 21-year-old. He appeared brilliant in the first half of the season with several goals.

Reigning FIFA Ballon d’Or award holder Cristiano Ronaldo has sensationally claimed that Barcelona striker Neymar could one day win the award. The former Santos striker moved to the Catalan club in the summer for around £ 80 million in total. He is also one of the best paid after the recent tax problems forced Barcelona into revealing the true details about his transfer from Brazilian club. In terms of performances on the pitch, it was a disappointing end to the season for the 21-year-old. He appeared brilliant in the first half of the season with several goals.

Arsenal’s latest Premier League fixture saw them losing against Everton and this defeat has placed more strain on Arsene Wenger and his players as they want to finish the season on a top 4 spot but it will be extremely difficult according to Wenger.

"I’m 100 percent determined to fight for the top four but it will be difficult. We still have a fixture that is feasible but we have to first focus on the quality of our performances before we dream of places. Let’s get back to playing better’’.