FA Cup highlights

Portsmouth win's FA Cup

Harry Redknapp's Portsmouth won the FA Cup in a 1-0 victory over Cardiff City at Wembley. The lone goal came from Nwankwo Kanu at the thirty-seventh minute in a tight defensive affair. Cardiff has had few chances although the play of seventeen year-old Welsh international, Aaron Ramsey has firmly established his extraordinary promise.

FA Cup final

In just under two hours Portsmouth and Cardiff City meet for a historic FA Cup final at Wembley.

It has been a stunning year for athletics in Wales and the Bluebirds look to continue this with their first FA Cup victory since 1927. Cardiff is naturally the underdog but hopefully will have the Robbie Fowler back for the match.

Harry Redknapp, the man who should be the head coach of England, will be without Jermain Defoe but will have David James and Sol Campbell back. This should be the crowning of Harry Redknapp as he leads Portsmouth to glory. For Cardiff to pull off an epic upset they will need to play a pack the midfield, a murderous challenge given the size of the Wembley pitch and counter-attack upon weakness. Hopefully, should Portsmouth raise the trophy, England will begin to realize they have their new leader and shockingly he hails from England.

FA Cup

Don't miss the FA Cup. Historical situation with three of the surviving clubs from the Championship League and will obviously make the season for whatever squad (as well as assist the clubs operations with financial windfall).

Saturday morning
Portsmouth - West Brom
The defensive woes of West Brom will leave them highly suspect against the speedy Portsmouth attack. All eyes will be on Kevin Phillips to raise the hopes of West Brom up. However Portsmouth should see this through to the finals.

on Sunday
Cardiff City - Barnsley F.C.
A peculiar match as the once giant-killer Barnsley is limping into this match perilously close to relegation. Cardiff on the other hand has been in fine form and still have a glint of hope for a playoff spot. This is essence a Championship League match and the advantage is to the Welsh squad to continue the dream into the FA Cup finals.

...let me know if you're heading to the finals

just another manic Monday, part 1

Northern Rock nationalisation
BBC
The Financial Times Jane Croft and Chris Giles
Bloomberg Gonzalo Vina and Loveday Morris

Credit Suisse shares accumulated
Bloomberg Janine Zacharia

FA Cup
quarter-finals draws (matches March 8 & 9)

Sheffield United or Middlesbrough - Cardiff City
Manchester United - Portsmouth
Bristol Rovers - West Brom
Barnsley - Chelsea

oh...I need Barnsley and Portsmouth kit's fast

The media coverage of the Russian Premier League is nothing short of horrible even though it is one of the world's fastest growing powers in Football and possibly one of the most entertaining leagues. Equally stated with present showing in competitions, the Rosgosstrakh is about to take a major step forward in rankings and be awarded another spot in the Champions League. For this reason I thought it prudent to post the recent table with links for your interest.

For those considering international play, Russia is presently ranked 22nd in the world by FIFA and as I noted previously a unified Russia (comprising of nations within the former Soviet Union) would be one of top teams in the world immediately. It is safe to say that within the next two World Cups you can expect Russia to return to its top six to eight ranking worldwide with a threat to bring home trophies at anytime.

	GP	Wins	Draws	Losses	Goals	Against	Total
FC Zenit St Petersburg	30	18	7	5	55	31	61
FC Spartak Moscow	30	17	8	5	50	30	59
PFC CSKA Moscow	30	14	11	5	43	24	53
FC Moscow	30	15	7	8	39	33	52
FC Saturn Moscow Ramenskoje	30	11	12	7	34	28	45
FC Dynamo Moscow	30	11	8	11	37	35	41
FC Lokomotiv Moscow	30	11	8	11	39	42	41
FK Amkar Perm'	30	10	11	9	30	27	41
FC Khimki	30	9	10	11	32	33	37
FC Rubin Kazan	30	10	5	15	31	39	35
FC Tom Tomsk	30	8	11	11	37	35	35
PFC Spartak Nalchik	30	8	9	13	29	38	33
FC Kryliya Sovetov Samara	30	8	8	14	35	46	32
FC Luch-Energiya Vladivostok	30	8	8	14	26	39	32
FC Kuban Krasnodar	30	7	11	12	27	38	32
FC Rostov	30	2	12	16	18	44	18

Incredible weekend of action within Ligue 1 with LeMans upset of Olympique Lyonnais, Bordeaux climbing within a single point of top of the table with the 6-0 destruction of Monaco and Olympique Marseille's remarkable week and steady move up with a great 2-1 victory over Paris Saint-Germain (Allez l'OM !).

	GP	Wins	Draws	Losses	Goals	Against	Total
Olympique Lyonnais	25	15	4	6	48	24	49
FC Girondins de Bordeaux	25	14	6	5	43	26	48
AS Nancy Lorraine	25	10	11	4	27	17	41
Olympique Marseille	25	10	8	7	35	27	38
OGC Nice-Côte d'Azur	25	9	11	5	23	18	38
Le Mans Union Club 72	25	11	4	10	30	33	37
FC Lorient Bretagne Sud	25	9	9	7	23	25	36
Valenciennes FC	25	10	5	10	31	25	35
AS Monaco FC	25	10	5	10	28	27	35
SM Caen	25	9	8	8	27	31	35
RC Strasbourg	25	8	8	9	26	25	32
AS Saint-Étienne Loire	25	9	5	11	27	27	32
AJ Auxerre	25	9	5	11	22	32	32
Lille O.S.C.	24	6	13	5	26	22	31
Racing Club de Lens	24	8	7	9	27	28	31
Paris Saint-Germain	25	7	9	9	23	23	30
Stade Rennais FC	25	8	6	11	25	33	30
Toulouse FC	25	6	9	10	23	30	27
FC Sochaux-Montbéliard	25	5	9	11	21	32	24
FC Metz	25	2	6	17	14	44	12

ahh..the Portuguese Liga - how can you miss any of these matches.

	GP	Wins	Draws	Losses	Goals	Against	Total
FC Porto	19	15	2	2	35	7	47
S.L. Benfica	19	10	7	2	31	10	37
Sporting Clube de Portugal	19	9	6	4	27	16	33
Vitória de Guimarães	18	9	4	5	22	22	31
Vitória de Setúbal	19	6	10	3	26	20	28
Club Sport Marítimo	19	8	2	9	22	20	26
Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses	18	6	8	4	17	16	26
Sporting Clube de Braga	19	6	7	6	22	24	25
Boavista Futebol Clube	19	5	8	6	23	30	23
Clube Desportivo Nacional	18	5	7	6	12	13	22
Leixões Sport Club	19	3	11	5	19	22	20
Associação Académica de Coimbra	19	4	8	7	19	28	20
Associação Naval 1º de Maio	19	5	4	10	14	29	19
Clube de Futebol Estrela da Amadora	19	3	9	7	19	23	18
Futebol Clube Paços de Ferreira	19	4	4	11	19	29	16
União Desportiva de Leiria	18	1	5	12	13	31	8

Serie A is looking to be quite a race for the coveted European spots in the Champions League and UEFA Cup.

	GP	Wins	Draws	Losses	Goals	Against	Total
F.C. Internazionale Milano	23	18	5	0	48	13	59
A.S. Roma	23	14	6	3	40	23	48
Juventus F.C.	23	13	8	2	43	19	47
ACF Fiorentina	23	11	8	4	36	22	41
A.C. Milan	23	10	8	5	34	17	38
Udinese Calcio	23	10	6	7	28	28	36
U.C. Sampdoria	23	10	4	9	30	26	34
Unione Sportiva Città di Palermo	23	8	7	8	31	38	31
Atalanta B.C.	23	7	9	7	34	35	30
Genoa C.F.C.	23	7	8	8	23	30	29
Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli	23	7	6	10	34	37	27
Società Sportiva Lazio	23	6	8	9	27	31	26
Torino F.C.	23	4	13	6	23	26	25
Catania Calcio	23	5	8	10	20	28	23
Associazione Sportiva Livorno Calcio	23	5	8	10	25	36	23
Empoli F.C.	23	5	7	11	19	30	22
A.C. Siena	23	4	9	10	25	32	21
Parma F.C.	23	4	9	10	25	33	21
Reggina Calcio	23	3	9	11	19	37	18
Cagliari Calcio	23	3	6	14	18	41	15

Not that I ever play favorites...noooo. I'd just thought I'd post the table of one of the truly brilliant Football leagues that is representative of the great people of the nation. And yes, plan your visit to Scotland....

Scottish Premier League

	GP	Wins	Draws	Losses	Goals	Against	Total
Rangers F.C.	24	19	2	3	56	17	59
Celtic F.C.	24	17	4	3	61	18	55
Motherwell F.C.	23	13	2	8	35	29	41
Dundee United F.C.	26	12	4	10	39	33	40
Hibernian F.C.	25	9	8	8	37	33	35
Falkirk F.C.	26	10	5	11	38	40	35
Inverness CT F.C.	25	10	3	12	33	38	33
Aberdeen F.C.	26	9	6	11	30	41	33
Hearts F.C.	26	8	6	12	36	43	30
St. Mirren F.C.	24	7	5	12	17	41	26
Kilmarnock F.C.	26	5	7	14	24	38	22
Gretna F.C.	25	3	4	18	22	57	13

fyi the present Eredivisie tables

	GP	Wins	Draws	Losses	Goals	Against	Total
PSV Eindhoven	25	17	5	3	52	18	56
Ajax Amsterdam	25	13	8	4	67	35	47
Feyenoord Rotterdam	25	14	5	6	45	24	47
NAC Breda	25	14	5	6	31	26	47
Heerenveen	25	13	6	6	66	31	45
FC Groningen	25	13	5	7	42	39	44
FC Twente '65	25	11	7	7	44	38	40
Roda JC Kerkrade	25	10	9	6	38	27	39
FC Utrecht	25	10	5	10	47	43	35
Vitesse Arnhem	25	10	5	10	32	39	35
AZ Alkmaar	25	8	5	12	38	45	29
De Graafschap	25	7	5	13	27	46	26
NEC Nijmegen	25	6	6	13	28	42	24
VVV Venlo	25	5	8	12	30	53	23
SC Heracles Almelo	25	6	5	14	25	49	23
Excelsior	25	6	4	15	28	57	22
Sparta Rotterdam	25	5	6	14	35	57	21
Willem II Tilburg	25	5	5	15	27	34	20

it's really quite simple

Many things in life are quite "simple" to me but within a world gone mad, the obvious is no longer obvious. I know for many the "bottom-line" is their financial balance sheet and throughout my life I have run into more characters who've gleamed what they could of my work and made off like bandits in the night or still others with their slimy legalese simply steal from me. Yet what they couldn't take from me was that the "bottom line" isn't about golden trinkets and precious baubles to me but what I leave behind and the message of my life.

Now right now, I know a few of my business advisors are reading this, rolling their eyes hoping that I don't start into some rambling noir anecdote of the frail nature of life or how all glory is fleeting. No instead I'll maintain a chip, chip, chipper approach and attempt to deflect this wandering yarn to another direction.


Many of my business products that are for sale have been in-fact developed to assist in more important issues and quite simply if it wasn't for their underlying philanthropic effort, I wouldn't be bothered and would just disappear into the sunset. As an example the yoga DVD series, "Pink", is certainly a great product but quite honestly my true motive of offering it, is that 50% of all unit profits are donated to breast cancer initiatives. That might not get a lot of publicity and we certainly don't take out massive advertising on it (nor charge back the charity for such expenses) or sit around for any charming photo ops but it is our attempt at helping an important issue.


However the biggest area of our charitable efforts is without question the Renegade Style apparel collection, which is in-fact a conduit to help those less fortunate as an enormous percentage of our apparel is donated to the homeless. With the estimates suggesting roughly 50% of homeless population being military veterans, this is one of the most important and direct ways we can help those who sacrificed for others. Given governments and elected officials refuse to deal with the situation unless their publicist can get one of those smiling photo op's that makes them look like such a hero in the press, "Renegade World" will assume the mantle of responsibility. If you allow me this one dark moment but if its the last breath I take, like hell I'm going to let someone who defended others with his or her life, die in the streets due to inclement weather. In-fact regardless of military service or not, no-one should die on the streets in a world with so much wealth.

It was a few weeks ago with the difficult cold snap, I canvassed members of Team Renegade members and the with the help of everyone including a very generous donation of USP Labs we were able to donate roughly $3,000 worth of apparel to the homeless. Again this isn't a very sexy donation, I don't have photo op's with someone holding a non-fat, soy latte for me while I hand over apparel and get the photo thrown over the newswires - I simply provide it to those who need it the most by-hand. On many times that has meant the oh-so glamorous trip to freeway underpasses, bus shelters and the city shooting galleries at the midnight hour with a box of t-shirts. Unfortunately there isn't a tax deduction slip or anything of the like - its just you and I working together to right the wrongs that an unjust society has allowed. Simply mes amis, I use my artistic work as fund-raising conduit to make the world a little better place. But like "Pink" if it is not for a greater good, it will disappear into the cold night.

And so the weather has turned cold once again and I have huddled my collection and made the conscious, if not financially suicidal decision, to make the entire line available for this new apparel drive. And quite honest with the recent economic downturn I feel that as many sit in-front of their plasma's debating over the Chablis or Bordeaux, while throwing another log onto the fire, they have forgotten about those shivering in the dead of night. Simply stated, not on my watch.

With this in mind, for every apparel purchase noted as a "donation" I will triple the donation, thereby donating three articles from your single purchase. I recognize this is an enormous gift for any person to make and will "up the ante" with each apparel purchase unmarked, we will not only ship your order to you but give an additional item to local homeless groups.

The choice is yours as together we make a difference!

The stunning news on the street is the announcement from France's second-largest bank Société Générale, that it had uncovered €7bn ($10.26bn) of losses from a trader (later identified as 31-year-old Jérome Kerviel in the Société Générale Paris headquarters) in European stock futures and US subprime mortgage write-downs. This forced the institution, known as one of the leaders in the derivative's leaders and risk managers in the world, into an emergency €5.5bn ($8.1bn) share issue. The issuance is to be underwritten by JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley and raises eyebrows of its risk management and internal control procedures. Coupled with additional losses, which include €2.05bn of writedowns on exposure to US mortgages and bond insurers, chief executive and chairman Daniel Bouton offered his resignation to the board. The offer was summarily rejected but will have a dramatic impact on the already shaky investor confidence.

Daniel Bouton message to clients
The Financial Times
BBC report
Bloomberg

Wall Street Journal

Société Générale press release (reprint from The Financial Times)

From Washington, the National Association of Realtors released today that single-family homes and condominiums sales in December dropped by 2.2 percent with annual sales of single-family homes down by 13 percent and the median price dropping 1.8 percent to $217,000. At the core of the economic stress is depreciating real estate values and in conjunction with a more stringent lending habits, further pressure on the Fed to maintain and lower interest rates will need to be considered.

National Association of Realtors (original report)

Bloomberg

Wall Street Journal

The Financial Times

Markets

DJIA* 12378.61 108.44 0.88% Nasdaq* 2360.92 44.51 1.92% S&P 500* 1352.07 13.47 1.01% Russell* 692.72 -0.71 -0.10% 10-YR Note 3.685% -22/32 -0.64% * at close Source: Dow Jones, Reuters

The classic tale of David and Golaith is rekindled with the best story-line in sport in a long-time this Saturday at Anfield in a magical 4th round FA Cup match. How can you not love the story of Havant & Waterlooville. Support the game at the core.