The Lead

As the events involving the Canada v USA match devolve into biased hermeneutics, distortion and historical revisionism (on both sides it should be noted, although now we’re to believe Erin McLeod was warned by Sepp Blatter over her time-wasting sometime in 2009 and Melissa Tancredi meant to kill several US players and their puppies), FIFA have once more hogged the spotlight for all the, well, reasons.

First, by cleverly sweeping Christine Pedersen into the dust-bin of history by not awarding her either the gold or bronze medal matches.

Second, by ranking England third in the world in their little list, behind Spain and Germany. This has caused all manner of uproar in various English publications because, well, England are clearly shit, at least according to their performances in major tournaments. Here for example is the Guardian’s take on why the rankings suck:

Since the 2010 World Cup, England’s record reads a respectable won 13, drawn five and lost three. But their inability to progress in the knockout stages of tournaments, where they have consistently fallen short against quality opponents, undermine the value of the rankings.

Except the FIFA rankings do take into account quality opponents, and they do give a greater weight to performances in major tournaments. These aren’t secret formulas. Even the major alternative ranking system—the World Football Elo ratings, which uses the same opponent weights as employed in world chess rankings—ranks England in 5th place in the world.

As I’ve written on this subject previously, the world already has a perfectly good method of determining the relative rank of countries in international tournaments—the tournaments themselves. We’ll know England is truly great in international tournaments when they, you know, win one of them.

FIFA’s ranking has practical use only insofar as seeding for group selection in World Cups. Which is of course important, but still doesn’t grant any team a special bye. Nor should a team that has proved itself in friendlies and qualifiers against opponents of considerable quality be forced to pay a penalty based on popular perception and cultural bias. There’s no point knocking the ranking, which is as good—and ultimately as meaningless—as any other. We all have our own rankings in our head; that’s good enough without whingeing about FIFA’s, which is empirically-based.

Canada

Canada awaits FIFA’s decision.

Montreal and Portland swap goalkeepers.

England

Liverpool set to let Daniel Agger go.

Stoke City defender Robert Huth undergoing tests for meningitis.

Brendan Rodgers confirms Craig Bellamy likely to return home.

Not so fast. Wolverhampton denies accepting Fletcher bid.

Wenger prepares Nuri Sahin bid, ready to sell Alex Song.

Stoke City confirms Michael Kightly signing.

The Glazer family predicts massive enterprise value for Manchester United’s IPO.

Roberto Mancini’s “Plan B” if Agger bid rejected.

According to Mathieu Flamini Robin Van Persie has a tough decision to make.

PSG strikes again. United reportedly loses out on Lucas Moura.

Ben Arfa happy at St. James’ Park.

Scott Sinclair likely to stay at Swansea.

Last chance for Luka Modric.

Stoke City close to adding Itay Shechter on season-long loan.

Italy

Antonio Conte to resign?

No Putin for you! Gazprom denies AC Milan link.

Francesco Totti visits ankle specialist after injury scare.

NBA star Kevin Garnett barred from AS Roma minority share.

No RVP no problem. Juventus turns to Fernando Llorente.

Bits and bobs

Usain Bolt gets his trial.

Rupert Murdoch acquires Dutch soccer rights.

Standard Chartered Bank, what you need to know.

Manchester United – Barcelona preview.

Chinese Super League wonder goal.

A sneak-peek of Usain Bolt’s football skills.

Today’s rumor roundup.

Cheers to Michael Tomasone for the links.