The upcoming 2018 World Cup is being filled with doubts and questions concerning if Russia is the appropriate nation to host one of the most viewed sporting events in the world but there are also concerns in relation to the 2022 World Cup which was selected as the nation to host the event.

There has been however, a number of controversies surrounding Qatar and if the nation is appropriately suitable of hosting the event. There are allegations of corruption which state that Qatar was allowed to ‘’buy’’ the World Cup and not only that but there can also be a potential climatic problem with Qatar and the president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter even saying later on that awarding the World Cup to Qatar was a mistake due to the extreme heat which may cause the date to be switched from summer to winter.

During the usual summer of Qatar, temperatures are scaling around 40 degrees Celsius between June and July and there are concerns that these climatic conditions can harm players as well as fans and now the possibility of the date being changed to winter is being taken into consideration.
Greg Dyke is the chairman of the Football Association (FA) and he revealed details concerning Sepp Blatter and a trip that the president of FIFA made to Qatar in July.

“Mr Blatter had flown to Qatar straight after the World Cup in Brazil so he was there in July and I think he just realized how unbelievably hot it is. His view is that we can’t possibly hold it in the summer. There seems to be some going back on that now, that we could hold it in the summer after all’’ Greg Dyke said.

There are a number of alternatives which are being taken into consideration in order to avoid the extreme heat of Qatar in the June and July and one of the alternatives that is being favored or likened by Sepp Blatter is switching the event to November and December when there will be a much more cooler climate and favorable for football but this can create issues with a number of domestic leagues around the world as there would be a clash between the schedule of leagues and matches of the 2022 World Cup

Talking about the battle for the Premier League, Rooney commented that it hurts more than ever to see Liverpool, their bitter rival fight out in the title race, where as Manchester United are considered as an afterthought for Premier League. Brendan Rodgers’s side, currently second placed after the champions Chelsea by seven points, are travelling to Old Trafford on Sunday to face the Red Devils for a match off.

Manchester United is a distant eighteen points away from the champions and are at the moment coping with the major disappointment of actually failing to qualify for the upcoming Champion’s League Season. The lowest position the Red Devils were ready to accept was the fourth spot, at the moment occupied by Manchester City and 9 points in front of their neighbors. Right now, team United has 2 games in their hand, however Rooney confesses that seeing their rivals fight out for the title and bag the Premier League such is anything but pleasurable.

Rooney added that seeing Manchester City perform well, and especially Liverpool, is extremely difficult for him, while United is not making the mark. It becomes more unfortunate when the team is definitely capable of performing better, but somehow they are not showcasing what is expected from them. However this is the time when they have to step their game up and get right back out there, as the feeling of faltering in the season one after another is definitely not a good feeling to have. They have to keep on progressing, improving their game and end this season on a much stronger note.

Old Trafford boss Moyes, has sure taken a lot of criticism for the poor season of Manchester United, which also adds to the tough challenge of progressing steadily to the Champions League.

Manchester city recently welcome Sergio Aguero back to first-team after the striker has been missing the last few weeks due to injury. The Argentine is regarded one of the finest strikers in the world, but he has finally realised the potential this campaign by playing a key role in Manchester city’s title challenge.

He is the club’s top scorer this campaign with 21 goals, while he has formed a formidable partnership with Alvaro Negredo. City feared that their title challenge may suffer due to the lack of Aguero, but they have been able to cope due to their incredible squad strength.

His international compatriot Pablo Zabaleta has said that Aguero is the best striker in the world right now. He also states that city are very lucky to have him at the club. The Premier league outfit managed to overcome the competition from the likes of Barcelona and Chelsea in order to secure his signature. He was brought to the club for £ 38 million, which was a record back then. He helped the club win the Premier league title in his first season by scoring the crucial goal just minutes from the final whistle against QPR.

He has been a major force behind city’s scoring spree this campaign, as the club already have 63 goals to their name.
“I’m really happy to see him back. He needs to get back to his best in a physical way because he’s been out for a month, but he took 50 seconds to score a goal when he came back against Blackburn and, on Saturday, 20 minutes. It’s so easy for him. Every time we talk about good strikers, Sergio is one of the best in the world. Sergio is one of the best and we are very lucky to have him in the team,” said Zabaleta.

Earlier this year Sergio Aguero split from his wife Giannina who actually is Maradona’s daughter and even though they enjoyed 4 years of marriage and a son named: Benjamin, the Manchester City player had other things in mind.

In October, Diego Maradona turned 53 years old and in the day of his birthday he took a hit out on his former son-in-law.

“He’s a wimp, who I don’t even want to name,” Maradona told Argentine radio.

“I spoke to Benjamin on Skype two days ago and he said to me: ‘Grandpa if I don’t see you, happy birthday’. I began to cry.”

Despite having problems in his personal life, Sergio Aguero continues being one of the more influential players for Manchester City as he is their main goal scoring player.

His success with City has led to him being awarded with the Barclays Player of the Month in October. He started the month in a great fashion by scoring a goal against Everton and the following week scoring 2 goals and creating the assist for David Silva’s goal as Manchester City battled against West Ham.

He concluded the month by netting against Chelsea despite losing 2-1. All of those feats helped the Argentine earn the Barclays award and does not show any signs of slowing down or stopping in any way.

His partnership with Alvaro Negredo and David Silva make the team become one the most efficient not only in the Premier League but in Europe as they hope to make a challenge for the Champions League.

There is no doubt that the move that Manchester City made for the former Athletic Madrid was one of their best signings ever.

Despite winning the league and the FA Cup in the last three years, Manchester city have been very poor in the Champions league. They have been knocked out at the group stages in the last two seasons, which have also been the first time they have been in this competition.

As a result of their poor performance in Europe, manager Roberto Mancini lost his job at the end of last season. He has been replaced by South American Manuel Pellegrini, who has a reputation for doing well in Europe. He has managed to guide relatively unknown teams like Villarreal and Malaga to the latter stages of the competition.

In Mancini’s defence, City had one of the toughest groups in the last two seasons. This time around, it is no different because they will be in the group along with the holders of the competition – Bayern Munich. CSKA Moscow and Viktoria Plzen are the other teams in the competition. City will be beginning their campaign with an away match against Viktoria Plzen, who are making their debut in the Champions league. Striker Sergio Aguero thinks that the team will be able to finally do well in this competition because of the signings they have made in the summer.

“The Champions League sometimes allows semi-surprises. Dortmund were finalists last year and Chelsea in 2012 – they were good teams and tactically well-organised but were certainly not considered the best at the beginning. We have Bayern again, but we also play CSKA and Viktoria. Get past the first stage and, with luck, you can get to the final,” said Aguero. City have spent close to £ 100 million in strengthening the team after the departures of Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli in the last six months.
However, they have started their league campaign with indifferent form.

Manchester City only recently managed to get star striker Sergio Aguero to sign a one-year extension to his already existing contract. As a result, the Argentine still has two years left on his deal with the Premier league outfit.

However, City could be set for a bid from Real Madrid, who have held a long-standing interest in the player from his days at its rivals Atletico Madrid. Real were unable to sign him back in those days due to the 24-year-old playing for Atletico Madrid. Now, they will be able to bring him to the Santiago Bernabeu without facing any backlash from the fans.

City have already lost two major strikers in the form of Mario Balotelli and Carlos Tevez over the course of six months to AC Milan and Juventus respectively. It will be interesting to see if they will entertain any bid from the Spanish club that would see them be extremely vulnerable up front. Even now, they have only two major strikers in the form of Edin Dzeko and Aguero. They have been linked with the likes of Radamel Falcao and Edinson Cavani, but failed to get both of them. Most recently, they are believed to have been looking at Sevilla striker Negredo.

If Real Madrid lose Argentine ace Gonzalo Higuain before the end of this transfer window, then it could see the Spanish club making an official offer for Aguero. Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti only has two major strikers in his squad – Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain.

Ancelotti, though, can resort to using Cristiano Ronaldo as the main striker. Yet, they were very much interested in signing a new striker if they lose Higuain. Arsenal, Juventus, and Napoli are interested in the services of the 25-year-old, who could cost around £ 25 million and is widely expected to leave the Santiago Bernebeu out.

Manchester City have managed to convince Sergio Aguero to extend his contract with the former Premier league champions amidst reported interest from Spanish club Real Madrid.

Aguero has been on the transfer targets of Real Madrid for a long time, but they have not made a move for the 24-year-old due to his connections with Atletico Madrid. However, he has spent the last two seasons at Manchester City and Real Madrid reckon that it is a good time to sign the striker.

The striker has been a huge success at the Etihad stadium since his £ 38 million move from Atletico Madrid. His biggest contribution for the team came at the end of the 2011-12 season when his injury time goal helped Manchester City win the league title for the first time in 44 years. The 24-year-old signed a five-year contract when he originally arrived from Atletico Madrid. Now, he has signed a one-year extension to the existing deal. Hence, he will remain at the club until 2017.

Aguero has said that he is extremely delighted to sign the contract extension because he is extremely happy at the club. He is hoping that there are several more moments like the league victory and FA Cup success to come in the future.
“I’m very happy at City and I feel very appreciated. It’s been barely two years since I’ve arrived and sometimes I feel like I’ve been here for all my life. I have a fantastic relationship with the fans. That always reminds me of our title and that goal against QPR. Now I am looking forward to next season and pushing hard to win the title again,” said Aguero on the official website of the club. The striker has 47 goals in the 88 matches as he has played for City.

The Brighton manager Gus Poyet has revealed that he has reasons to be cautious ahead of the match with Crystal Palace in the championship.

Brighton will be taking on Crystal Palace knowing that they need to be at their best in order to maintain the push for the play-offs positions. The team are just one place below the play-off position, but there are several teams involved in the fight for the promotion. Brighton managed to put together a great run of form only a few weeks ago. However, they come into the Crystal Palace match without a victory in the last three.

This includes two back-to-back defeats at the hands of Bolton and Barnsley. Crystal Palace are one of the most attacking teams in the league. This has been pointed out by the Brighton manager, who has said that his opponent Ian Holloway is someone who likes playing attacking football. He also prefers utilising a lot of forwards in his team. Hence, the defenders need to be extremely alert in order to get three points from this home fixture. Crystal Palace managed a thumping 3-0 win over Brighton when the two sides met each other earlier in the season. Poyet has also said that he tried his best to bring a striker on loan during the January transfer window.

“Ian Holloway likes to play many, many forwards. You need to manage that situation and take advantage of their weaknesses. You need to be smart, organised and take your chances. They have been winning games in the last two or three weeks and not totally deserving to win. Their keeper [Julian] Speroni has been outstanding and has been one of their key players, and we know Glenn Murray has been scoring for fun,” said Poyet ahead of the match with Crystal Palace.

Football-themed slots need to offer something really out of the ordinary if they are to get noticed, because there are just so many of them.

This is because slots themselves are the most popular form of online casino gaming, while football is the most popular sport in many parts of the world – making games that combine the two a natural option for developers. One football slot that has succeeded thanks to its quirkiness, amongst other things, is Soccer Safari. So just what do lovers of football and gaming get from this particular slot?

Well to start with, it is a non-progressive five-reel video slot with 30 pay lines, and it offers fans of online casino gaming a pretty decent maximum cash jackpot of $8000 equivalent. It also includes most of the other features that online casino fans have come to expect from modern slots, like wild and scatter symbols and a free spins feature that can increase their payout, but the actual premise behind Soccer Safari is quite unlike virtually any other slot.

It is an amusing idea that centres on a goofy group of animals competing in a World Cup-style tournament deep in the African jungle, and the video graphics offered by the slot really bring this premise to life.

This is enhanced by the screen display of a huge football arena, and the character of the elephant performs the role of commentator on the football action. Download here to also find a great football-based bonus game, that requires the player to take shots from different angles, continuing until you either score three times, one of the shots is saved by the lion in goal or you miss the target completely.

This all makes it great for football fans who want to combine their love of the game with a laugh and the chance to win a bit of money, and together this makes it a guaranteed winner. Furthermore, the idea behind it is so funny and unusual that, even if you aren’t much of a football fan, you are still likely to find playing Soccer Safari a lot of fun.