By Eric Beard, writing from Boston
According to the BBC, Barcelona’s debt is 442 million euros (£369.5m) after a loss of more than 77m euros (£64.36m) last season. The club’s costs in the 2009-10 season rose to £400m, with their income at £341.7m.
Operating costs of £400m? To run a football club? As they say, Barcelona is Més Que Un Club, or more than club. But even so, this appears to be more than your average debt.
It seems absurd to say that it has not been a good year for Fernando Torres, as there is no greater moment in a footballer’s career those hoisting the World Cup. But it really hasn’t. Sure, he had moments of brilliance with Liverpool such as injury time game-winner vs. Aston Villa, but let’s all be honest, the real Fernando Torres has not been with us in months. Maybe it was a nagging injury or maybe it was Rafa’s rotation policy, but either way the Spanish striker now has supposedly decided that Liverpool isn’t the right place for him anymore, and there doesn’t seem to be anything Roy Hodgson can do about it.
According to Italian Newspaper “La Gazzetta dello Sport”; with the exception of one player, AC Milan has been running 2 a days for the last two weeks.
That one player not practicing with the team is no one other than Ronaldinho, according to the paper, Ronaldinho has been training by himself on a “personalized schedule” in hopes of catching up to the fitness of the rest of the team.
Okay, let see, should we look at the upside or the downside?
By Ulysse Pasquier, writing from Paris
Thierry Henry announced on Thursday to the American press that he was putting an end to his international career and that the loss against South Africa was his last game with “l’Équipe de France”. We had expected the 32-year-old to make this move after a excruciating season highlighted by controversy, injuries and bench-warming for the former Barcelona striker, who just signed a 4-and-a-half-year contract with the New York Red Bulls. Although they were only half-surprising, both news came as a shock to me as it marks the end of a generation. The Arsenal legend was the last survivor of the French team who won the World Cup back in 1998 and I feel this is the sad ending to a wonderful career for one of the best strikers we have ever had the pleasure to watch.
By Eric Beard
In 2006, Marco Materazzi stood out to many as a villain for his unbecoming words that caused Zinedine Zidane to lose his cool, sparking the infamous headbutt. However, this time around, there are all sorts of villains. From the FIFA administration’s reluctance to provide referees with the tools to make correct decisions to absolutely atrocious calls made to handballs to cursed celebrities, South Africa has been the home to a whole lot of controversy. Here’s my list of 2010’s villains that were present in Africa.
Sepp Blatter and FIFA
Always happy to be the centre of attention, Blatter and his stubborn, old-school ideas have made neutrals and supporters of the likes of the United States, England, and Mexico outraged. Goal-line technology, in some form, is needed in football. At least when the stakes are this high. But Blatter, in his dictator-esque role, is no stranger to stubborn, illogical thought. Conservative in his ways, the winners of matches have been placed in jeopardy because of his reluctance to use some sort of video replay at the game’s biggest stage. Sepp, this is a disgrace to football.
The Referees
From Jorge Larrionda (Germany-England) to Koman Coulibaly (United States-Slovenia) to Carlos Batres (Spain-Paraguay), blown calls have never been in such abundance in a World Cup. Sure, they’re only human and they’re not getting too much help from FIFA as there could be extra officials on the touchlines or even instant replay, but some of these mistakes have been unforgivable. It’s a hard job to be the man in the middle, but to many, these men are nothing but villains who don’t have to explain themselves.
By Dominic Vieira, Writing from Portugal
It wasn’t easy selecting the best XI from the World Cup, especially because many players performed at such a high level. This squad plays under the 4-3-3 formation, the winning tactic used by the Spanish national team and its not a surprise that the team is dominated by them.
By Alison Dennehy, writing from Reading, England
64 games in 31 days is a lot of football. I normally manage 1 or maybe 2 a week. This should show how much “growing up” is to be done over a month for a football fan. At the age of 6, I went to my first game, and I have been going ever since, but as a kid then it’s more about your team winning and the atmosphere. As I get older experience starts to kick in. You know which starting XI to play, who are the fitter players, whose passes are awkward and what position to play them in. The simple things that maybe when you were 6 years old didn’t really matter to you.
In my eyes, this World Cup I have gone back to being 6 years old again. I had no clue which games to watch or what players to look out for. I had no real experience of the teams. I tended to stick to the English football league rather than International football, and I expect many readers do the same. That is, watch local rather than worldwide. It has opened my eyes to how much football is actually being played.
By Dominic Vieira and Eric Beard
The 
World Cup has come and gone, so it’s time to give credit to those who deserve it. All behold AFR’s 2010 World Cup awards!
The Zidane Aggression Title: De Jong (Netherlands)
Top Team: New Zealand… they didn’t lose a match did they?
Best Pitch Invasion: (tie) Jimmy Jump trying to put a hat on the World Cup and Mario Ferri telling Marcello Lippi that he should have brought Cassano to South Africa.
Top Goalkeeper: Luis Suarez (Uruguay)
Star of the World Cup: Paul the Octopus
World Cup Circus Clown: Raymond Domenech
Anti-Football Trophy: The Vuvuzela
Most Solid Defence: England
Best Haircut: Tshabalala
Expected to be Player of the Tournament: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
Greatest Disappointment: If Argentina won the World Cup, Maradona promised to run through the streets of Buenos Aires naked. If only…
By Darshan Joshi
We learn plenty over the course of a World Cup, don’t we? We realise the unimportant things, like the ability Germany have without Michael Ballack, like the fact that we’ll have a new World Cup winner this summer, like the fact that we’re all now going to have vuvuzelas line our attics, and like the fact that once and for all, we now know that the England national team are made up of a rubbish bunch of overpaid princesses.
Of course, none of that matters. We’re done with the World Cup, and it’s time to look back at seven of the brilliant events that have overshadowed this summer’s extravaganza.
Nike doesn’t write the future, Paul the Octopus does (and Mani the Parakeet!)
We’ve covered the curse of Nike’s wastefully overdone advertisement, but where one fails, another (two) succeed. Step up, Paul and Mani. They hail from opposing poles of the World but have pretty much one thing in common: they’re challenging the Lord. They may still be Gods of the animal kingdom, but to mess with humans like this? No way, we won’t stand for this.
Paul, the more mainstream of the two, is the story of the World Cup. He is the symbol of South Africa 2010. He correctly predicted all of Germany’s matches in the tournament, and also predicted Spain’s triumph over the Netherlands. Ladies and gentlemen, Paul the Octopus.
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
As the Spain team partied in front of 200,000 ecstatic fans in Madrid, it was impossible not to feel happy for the lucky guys. In fact, a giant smile spread across my face as I watched videos on the news of the team travelling through endless red swathes of party people. As an England fan, I can only imagine what that sense of widespread, shared elation must feel like. However, the heady mix of joy and celebration was sullied ever so slightly by a tincture of stupidity.
Pictures can be deceiving. Though Gerard Pique, Carles Puyol, and Pepe Reina forced a Barcelona kit onto Spain’s assisting hero Cesc Fabregas, the Arsenal captain immediately took it off. Part professionalism, part loyalty. But Cesc’s ability to laugh off a joke from his Catalan teammates showed where his heart his. And it’s not Barcelona.
After Spain’s 1-0 victory over Netherlands on Sunday, Fabregas said: “All I can say is that this World Cup victory is for all the Arsenal players and fans. They are a world-class club.
“I had a text message of congratulations from Arsene Wenger. He said I deserve it. I just think this is for everyone at Arsenal who helped me get to where I am now. I am an Arsenal player and proud to be.”
By Dominic Vieira, writing from Portugal
The world has been painted red and yellow! Andres Iniesta made history last night scoring the winning goal in the grand final against the Netherlands in front of 94,000 at Soccer City, Johannesburg. The 26-year-old majestically controlled a sublime Fabregas pass in the 116th before blasting the ball in the back of Stekelenburg’s goal. It was a very close battle between two strong, organised, and collective European sides.
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