footballcircus

Do you like football? Do you like the circus? If you have answered yes to either of these questions, then the eleventh Football Circus is for you (maybe)! If you have answered no to both of these questions then bloody read it anyway. We promise it will enrich your life or your money back.

Flying Dentures and a Controversy-Stricken Chairman in Argentina

Over the years, we as football fans have seen many objects thrown onto football pitches. Coins. Pigs' heads. Paul McShane. But this week in Argentina we saw something perhaps even more unusual flung (or spit) in anger. As relegation-threatened Argentine side Argentinos Juniors hosted Belgrano, a 3-1 deficit saw their fans react angrily, resulting in a set of dentures being thrown at coach Ricardo Caruso Lombardi.

Argentinos will struggle to now maintain their status as a top flight side in Argentina and conspiracy theories suggest that president of the club Luis Segura, had in fact done a deal with the Argentine FA for his club to be relegated in order to save Independiente from the drop. Up until this week, Segura was vice-president of the AFA (Argentine FA). Independiente have never been relegated and prior to AFA president Julio Grondona taking up his current role, he presided over Independiente themselves.

The suggestions horrified Segura and have led him to resign from his position. "I'm not going to put up with being insulted and attacked. I presented my resignation as vice president of AFA and I think that answers those who doubted about a pact with Grondona," said Segura.

No word on weather the now toothless denture-throwing fan was identified however, though given the likely high cost of his dentist bill, he may not be not seen at any remaining fixtures this season.

Eboue Turns the Tables on Interviewer

Emmanuel Eboue has never been the most orthodox of footballers, neither on the pitch nor off it. So his post-match antics following Galatasary's recent league winning celebrations came as no surprise, although they were entertaining nonetheless.

As GSTV (Galatasary TV) reporter Murat Borlu attempted to get a few words from the Ivorian, Eboue decided to conduct an interview of his own, picking up Borlu, placing him on the ground and spooning him. Borlu then made a weak attempt to ask Eboue questions in Turkish, despite no longer holding the microphone, only for Eboue to insist on speaking English and asking Borlu some questions of his own

Eboue has previous for such shenanigans. Footage can be found of Borlu conducting interviews as Galatasary players participate in a training session, only for Eboue to arrange an impromptu kick-the-ball-at-the-reporter game. In another interview, Eboue gives Borlu a wet willy. At World Cup 2010, the defender was caught on camera listening in to a touchline conversation between the North Korea coach and one of his players, with Eboue nodding and pretending to take heed of the instructions being dished out by the opposition.

Eboue's latest playacting can be seen at the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd1kwwqle5s

Psychic Animals at Odds over Champions League Final Outcome

If you thought our new 'Magic 8 Ball Transfer Rumour Oracle' was a surefire way to make a small profit in the bookies, you may be of a mind to believe in ability of animals to correctly pick the outcome of football matches. You may therefore be torn ahead of this weekend's Champions League Final when you find out that a 'psychic' elephant and a 'psychic' polar bear have chosen different winners.

This is not the first time an animal (or sea creature) has been tasked with attempting to predict major football matches. What seems to be a distinctly German tradition began, as far as we can tell, in 2008 during Euro 2008. Many will remember Paul the Octopus who was broadcast from the Sealife Centre in Oberhausen. Paul would be presented with two containers of food, each marked with the flag of a competing team. The container which Paul would open first was judged to be his predicted winner of the game. During Euro 2008 he correctly predicted four of Germany's six matches. He came to prominence again during World Cup 2010 where he correctly predicted all seven of Germany's matches and then correctly predicted that Spain would defeat the Netherlands in the final.

Ahead of this year's Champions League final the Germans are it again. Nelly the elephant from the Serengeti wildlife park has chosen the Bavarians to be the new champions of Europe, while Antonia the pygmy polar bear in Gelsenkirchen has plumped for Dortmund.

Not ones to miss out on a trend, we have asked our Magic 8 Ball “Will Bayern beat Dortmund on Saturday?”. The answer? “Looking good”.

The Magic 8 Ball Transfer Rumour Oracle

For our second edition of this segment we're going to take a look at transfer rumour that has been doing the rounds for a number of years at this stage, a rumour that has certainly picked up steam over the past few weeks...

NEYMAR TO BARCELONA

(As reported here http://www.ibtimes.com/neymar-transfer-news-barcelona-verge-deal-real-madrid-chelsea-manchester-city-target-1275125)

Magic 8 Ball Says...

“OUTLOOK NOT SO GOOD”

Italian Football Story of the Week

- Milan into Champions League Spot thanks to Controversial Penalty

AC Milan this week secured the coveted third place in Serie A, thus gaining a place in the Champions League qualifying stage. With Juventus already crowned as champions and Napoli having second place wrapped up, Milan and Fiorentina went into the final round of this season's Serie A fixtures both vying for third spot.

Milan were in third position going into the final day, two points ahead of the Florence side. Milan traveled to Siena while Fiorentina were away to Pescara. Both ties were to some degree seen as formalities prior to kickoff, but the big question was whether the pressure would get to either the Rossoneri or the Viola.

Fiorentina ended up winning their match comfortably, running out 1-5 victors on the day. Milan were under pressure. They were 1-0 down at half time and on 69 minutes, captain Massimo Ambrosini was shown red. Disaster loomed. With just eight minutes of normal time remaining however, Balotelli went down easily in the box and Milan were awarded a rather dubious penalty. Balotelli stepped up, 1-1. Minutes later Mexes scored to make it 2-1 and that was all she wrote, third place was secured.

The outcome, specifically the penalty, sparked another furore in the Italian media with claims of "Scandal!" to be seen across the front and back pages. Were it not Silvio Berlusconi's team who had taken the spoils, the press may have put it down to poor refereeing. But Berlusconi's team did take the spoils and for that reason, we may not have heard the last of this story...