Catania Players Go Naked To Score Goals

In the latest fashion statement out of Italy, soccer players are dropping their shorts to score goals.

Catania, a team in the country’s top division, unveiled the new look while taking a free kick. The players lined up in a wall and dropped their shorts in an effort to block the goalkeeper’s vision.

The Sicilian team carried out the maneuver to perfection Sunday. Three players dropped their shorts practically to their knees so Torino goalie Matteo Sereni couldn’t see the kick by Giuseppe Mascara, who scored during Catania’s 3-2 victory.

Catania is coached by Walter Zenga, a former goalkeper on Italy’s national team.

“This is a strategy that Zenga tries continually in training,” Pietro Lo Monaco, the club’s chief executive, told RAI state radio Monday.

Former referees coordinator Paolo Casarin called the move “unsportsmanlike and in bad taste.”

“It’s a trick that should not be tolerated anymore by the referees,” he said.

Lo Monaco replied: “A trick? I wouldn’t say so. It’s up to the referee to decide if it should be penalized, otherwise I don’t see where the problem is. … Good taste is relative.”

NFF and Amodu to blame as players refuse to show up for Columbia

The crisis of administration is in Nigerian Football Federation is about to bring us another national disgrace. There is the tendency to want to blame players when they refuse to honour National Call-ups for games especially when we are playing friendly matches. Then you wonder if John Terry or Lampard will give excuses just because England has a friendly game with Estonia or Belarus.

In all of this i still choose to blame the football officials in this country for failure to do what they need to do to instill discipline in the team. Amodu Shuabi is one coach in this country that has been recycled as Super Eagles coach more than any other and in all of these occasions has failed to show adequate grasp and control of his players. The choice of Amodu is wrong and will always be wrong. I have said that before on this blog and I am saying it again. Soon the honey moon period of playing teams below FIFA's Top 50 ranking will be over and we will begin to see the true team Amodu claims to be preparing to take us to 2010. He has failed many times in the past nothing so far shows he has improved.

Any discerning coach will make his players understand one thing, that football is a team game and if you do not work as a team on and off the pitch, there would be no place for such players in the team come the next qualifying game. But our quick fix attitude will never give way for proper planning and implementation of policies. It was due to refusal to honour national call-ups for friendlies like this that Nigeria lost for the first time in history to South Africa.

If we have a rule book, it should be adhered to. To this extent, nobody has to complain when players refuse to honour invitation for matches but punish offenders according to the rules. Where no exceptions are allowed, players will fall in line. Amodu does not have the guts to do that, neither does the NFF and so we will continue like this for a long time.

We should be ready to sacrifice whatever it takes to build a strong. I said this when we still had 4 years before 2010. But right, we have less that 2 years left. Do we really want to have an impact in 2010?