Unsurprisingly these futile explanations rear their head all too often in the world of football. Rather than graciously admit defeat players and managers alike will frantically search for an ulterior motive, which can involve anything from fashion to food supplements. Whilst ultimately hilarious, it can all become rather bizarre as these ten examples will prove.

Click on Alan Hansen below to reveal The Top 10 Worst Excuses For Failure In Football

Follow me on Twitter @theunusedsub where I’ll will freely admit that I once missed a penalty because the sun was in my eyes. 

The game ended in a 1-0 win for the North American team, with the Italian media slamming their side; however Prandelli has revealed his reasons for excluding Balotelli.

“There are rules and they must be respected,” Prandelli is quoted as saying in Mirror Football.

“When Balotelli begins to behave well he will get a call-up. He has been handed eight games in suspensions so far in England, which is a lot.

“A great player must be able to face provocation and should not react. He can still have an extraordinary career, but there is no justification for certain types of behaviour,” he explained.

Reports in Italy are stating that Prandelli wants Balotelli to phone him to assure that his behaviour will improve, something that the attacker’s agent feels is preposterous.

“Mario has been crucified by an entirely undeserved suspension,” Mino Raiola stated.

“He has not been called up and now we read the statements of Prandelli.

“If a player is not called up, it should be up to the coach to pick up the phone and explain the reason – it has always been that way. Instead Prandelli wants Balotelli to call him. For what? To cry and complain about being left out?

“If Prandelli does not want to take Balotelli to the European Championships he must say it now,” the representative concluded.

By Gareth McKnight

Fabio Capello’s side will face former European Champions France in a repeat of their clash in the opening stages of the 2004 tournament in Greece that ended in such dramatic circumstances. They’ll also have to take on co-hosts Ukraine in Group D and then Sweden who beat 1-0 at Wembley last month.

The Republic of Ireland, on the other hand, were handed an impossible task with Giovani Trapattoni’s men placed in Group C with current World and European Champions Spain and will also have to pit their wits against tournament veterans Italy and Ukraine.

Group A: Poland, Greece, Russia, Czech Republic.

Group B: Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Portugal.

Group C: Spain, Italy, Republic of Ireland, Croatia.

Group D: Ukraine, Sweden, France, England.

The likes of Ronaldo, Robinho, David Silva, Carlos Tevez and Fernando Torres have graced the Premier League in recent years and that has turned the English game into the best in the world. Here is a list of players in Europe that are targets for Premier League clubs and could be seen here in the near future. Who would you like at your club?

Click on Ricardo Montolivo to unveil the top 10

Of course not all career defining moments are good ones and it is just as likely-despite all you may have achieved within the game-that you will be remembered for one of your more infamous moments. These incidents don’t make them any less of a player, or their achievements any less amazing, it is just that that it is the moment that will always be imprinted on people’s minds and will perhaps overshadow everything else they have achieved in the game.

There have been so many memorable career defining moments but click on Gazza below to view the top 10:

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The former Inter Milan frontman has had an up and down career, with controversies away from the game blighting his ability to perform on the pitch.

Reports indicate that national manager Cesare Prandelli was not impressed with the 21-year-old’s preparations for the game, and his clear lack of respect for the Azzurri’s opponent.

Despite this, team manager Gigi Riva has stated that there is not a rift between player and coach.

“Balotelli’s situation is nothing to worry about. These are small things that happen in every team. He only played a few minutes against the Faroe Islands so he couldn’t do much,” Riva is reported to have said in The Daily Mail.

“But in training Mario gives his best. Prandelli did not watch Balotelli’s warm-up because he was watching the game. Let’s not create a problem where there is none,” he concluded.

Italy can assure qualification to next year’s tournament in Ukraine and Poland as they take on Slovenia in Florence on Tuesday night, with Balotelli again expected to start from the sidelines.

The feat achieved by Ceni – the third-choice goalkeeper for Brazil during their successful World Cup campaign in 2002 – got me thinking about other extraordinary footballing milestones. Below is an account of ten of the most remarkable accomplishments the beautiful game has ever seen to date.

Click on the Invincibles below to see the Top TEN

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“Some people think football is a matter of life or death… I can assure them, it is much more serious than that.”

For many, Bill Shankly’s sentiments have permeated almost every facet of their lives, from John Westwood, who legally inserted ‘Portsmouth Football Club’ between his first and surname in addition to his 60+ Pompey-related tattoos (including the PFC engraved in his teeth), to more than 35 divorce cases which have cited the Football Manager video game series as a significant factor in relationship disintegration.

That any individual can commit themself to a computer game to such an extent is a point which barely requires consideration, but the fact that Portsmouth have assiduously flirted with extinction over the past 18 months illustrates a broader concern for football fans, whose dedication to the sport is critically disproportionate to what they receive in return. Following a team usually proves to be an expensive undertaking, with season tickets/match-day entrance an account-destroying alternative to forking out for a Sky subscription on top of the costly merchandise and travel expenditure required to be considered a ‘true fan.’

In various scenarios that repeatedly emerge in each and every football calendar, a fans’ firmly held opinions alter and allegiances shift. For example, one fan may opine that their supported club is better than others within its country of origin based on several criteria, then later suggest that the entire league of that country is better than others that exist within the continent, and then support their national side which will almost always contain players from rival clubs that they spend 90% of the year criticising, and 10% selling their car to afford the fee to watch play.

Supporter standards aside, perhaps the most damaging cost to all lovers of the beautiful game is the absence of organised competition which regularly exhibits the globe’s finest talents. In reality, there are roughly between 100 and 150 exceptional footballers on the planet, and although certain players’ statuses are elevated due to completing poignant landmarks for their clubs, – such as loyalty in terms of appearances or scoring a goal which provided the difference between survival and relegation, winning a trophy and being a runner-up etc. – in every generation only a select few can legitimately be regarded as exemplary athletes within their field.

The UEFA Champions League is generally interpreted as the most esteemed stage a footballer can perform on (other than the FIFA World Cup), and its seeding process dictates a top category of eight teams who qualify based on their European performances over the previous five seasons. If we take that each squad contains about 10 world-class players at most, and that a small number of teams containing world-class players will always be just outside the top 8 seeds every year, then we are left with the 100-150 players I referred to earlier. For example, Manchester United – finalists in three out of the past four competitions – have the quality of Nemanja Vidic, Wayne Rooney and Patrice Evra, but also the capable, but far from world-class standard, individuals such as John O’Shea, Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick.

The same could be said for every team: Arsenal – Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie/Denilson, Abou Diaby and Laurent Koscielny; Bayern Munich – Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery and Bastian Schweinsteiger/Mario Gomez, Holger Badstuber and Daniel van Buyten; Chelsea – Didier Drogba, Fernando Torres and John Terry/Paolo Ferreira, Salomon Kalou and John Obi Mikel; AC Milan – Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alexandre Pato and Antonio Cassano/Kevin Prince-Boateng, Mathieu Flamini and Ignazio Abate. The list goes on, but you get the picture.

It seems unfair, despite the multifarious reasons such as insurance, employment contacts and sponsorship arrangements, that in every generation of great footballers we are denied the opportunity to see the best in the sport compete with each other, devoid of unequalled influences. The unremitting universal media coverage prior to the recent European Cup Final between Manchester United and Barcelona implied that the globe’s best two teams were battling for the club game’s most prestigious honour. But the hidden rhetoric suggested that the fixture was merely the closest we could get this year to seeing the best players on the same pitch at the same time, an emphasis that was arguably more relaxed than the reportage before each of the five Barcelona v Real Madrid Clasicos last term.

Although the Catalans succeeded emphatically at the expense of their rivals – disregarding Madrid’s narrow extra-time triumph in the Copa del Rey – they also possessed the highest concentration of world-class talent. In no way am I arguing that great players make a great team, as numerous Bernabeu Galactico projects evince in addition to Liverpool’s sub-standard 2005 Champions League winning side, but that a regularly held competition with only the very best participants represented by only the very best management would provide football lovers with an unrivalled spectacle that transcends club-based supporter enmity.

Surely I’m not the only one curious about how Cristiano Ronaldo AND Lionel Messi would perform in the same team, much like a team with Zinedine Zidane and Francesco Totti at their peaks would be like, or Diego Maradona and Michael Laudrup, Pele and George Best, Paolo Maldini and Carles Puyol etc. etc. The merits of the club game are unquestionable; the transfer auctions, local derbies, league and cup honours and fan devotion, but what if every two years we could enjoy a summer tournament of purely exceptional quality without supporter bias, where the audience attended for the sake of enjoyment rather than enduring customary stress and inevitable heartache?

Continued on Page TWO

Click on Carlos Alberto and Bobby Moore to find out the top ten…

Which captains have I missed out? Have your say on Twitter –   and Facebook

He is probably best remembered for being the referee during the infamous World Cup game between Italy and Chile in 1962 which was dubbed ‘The Battle of Santiago’ because of the large degree of violence and brawls during the game and credit to Aston for keeping the game playable for 90 minutes.

But Aston was more than just a top referee at that time, he was the man who invented the red and yellow card system after some confusion during a game between England and Argentina at the 1966 World Cup. England’s Jack Charlton had called the press office after the game after reading he had been cautioned by the German referee, baring this in mind Aston came up with the idea of a yellow (steady) and red (stop) card system after stopping at traffic lights. His idea meant that the cards could be universally used in games and break down language barriers. It was first used in the 1970 World Cup.

His involvement in the game did not stop there as he was the first referee to use the black with white trim as a uniform which became standard attire for match officials. Previously, in 1947 he introduced bright yellow flags for linesman to use having previously used the colours of the home team.

He also introduced the idea of a substitute referee in 1966 in case the match official couldn’t continue. Other inventions were the number boards to announce substitutions and he proposed that the pressure of the football to be written into the laws of the game.

Ken Aston, who was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Indian Army during World War II, was FIFA’s Head of World Cup Referees for the 1966, 1970 and 1974 tournaments. His legacy lives on today, where the red and yellow card system is still used as an important part of keeping order in the game whilst keeping everyone informed about key decisions.

But, for those who’ve not seen any footage of that infamous ‘Battle of Santiago’ game, then check it out on the video clip below for some astonishing scenes during a World Cup game. And if you’re watching it with other people, you can inform them of how important the referee Ken Aston was to football.

One quote from Aston which I love was what he admitted after this game : “I wasn’t reffing a football match, I was acting as an umpire in military maneuvers.”

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

For more lessons of Football History, follow me on Twitter @verbal_football