PRESSMANIA

Many football fans across the world wonder which footballers in the top European Leagues are Muslim.  it doesn’t hurt to know which of the world's famous soccer players are Muslim.

Like when Sepp Blatter and his cronies re-imagined women's soccer as a sport where tighter shorts and low cut shirts could help sell the game.

But old world elitism isn't just the domain of the board rooms.

On the field, just eight countries have ever won FIFA's World Cup. That's over 80 years of competition. Only another four countries have even made it as far as runners-up.

It's not like it's a small sample size either. FIFA has more recognized entities than the United Nations, with tiny Gibraltar being the latest to join the ranks of 209 national football associations.

Still, if you happen to live in a country outside of Europe or South America, you've never seen your country host the Jules Rimet Trophy or its successor.

Maybe some of you are saying that's a good thing. It's the ugliest trophy in global sport anyway.

But I'm assuming you stay up some nights like I do, longingly knowing your country will not hoist that golden ugliness in your lifetime, for all the planet to see.

For those who don't live in Canada (currently ranked 114th by FIFA) you may still dare to dream, and after Friday's World Cup draw, your dream has taken on a clearer path... even if that path is likely short and headed over a cliff.


Here are my top three best bets to become the ninth member of the World Cup winners club.. more news

City's steamroller, an unsymmetrical approach and a deserved penalty. Daniel Storey has some conclusions on Spurs v City...

1) Away Doubts Extinguished
It's a compliment to Arsenal that in beating Spurs on Wednesday night, Manchester City went top of the Premier League for the first time since mid-August. Having got there, it would be brave (or potentially stupid) to suggest that they will finish in any other position.

The evident reservation about City before Wednesday's match was the nagging doubt regarding their form away from the Etihad, where they have been disgustingly ruthless. Six victories in seven away games was obviously more than acceptable, but Leicester, Fulham, Swansea, West Ham and Blackburn were five of those opponents.

Those doubts were effectively extinguished during an opening half-hour in which the visitors were phenomenally dominant. Twelve shots in 30 minutes included a 14th goal in 13 games for Sergio Aguero, and both the Argentinean and his strike partner Edin Dzeko both had chances to extend City's lead. The penalty/red card double whammy effectively ended the game as a contest, but this was still a City side in almost complete control for 80 minutes.

The statistics are verging on obscene. 115 goals in all competitions before the end of January; this is a side scoring in record-breaking fashion. There have been eight occasions this season on which a team has scored more than five goals or more in a Premier League match - City are responsible for 50% of those.

You don't have to like City, but it's pretty difficult not to sit back and admire them. Sorry Spurs fans.


2) Rash challenge. Penalty

The decision from Andre Marriner five minutes into the second half will be much-debated, but was correct. Danny Rose's naivety to fly into a challenge from behind deserved nothing better, and slow-motion replays clearly showed him catching Dzeko's heel before making connection with the ball. Touching the ball does not mean that a foul has not been committed.
 more news to.

Manchester City used another rampant scoring display to replace Arsenal at the top of the Premier League with a 5-1 win at Tottenham on Wednesday, while Chelsea lost ground in the title race with a 0-0 draw against West Ham.

After beating Spurs 6-0 at the Etihad Stadium, Manuel Pellegrini's side was unstoppable at White Hart Lane as well and extended its unbeaten run to 20 matches, in which time they have scored 69 goals.

City received a decisive boost when Danny Rose was sent off in the 50th minute for tripping Edin Dzeko. Yaya Toure converted the penalty before Dzeko made it 3-0. Etienne Capoue's pulled one back but Stevan Jovetic and Vincent Kompany added gloss to victory.

City now leads Arsenal by one point, with Chelsea lagging three points behind. Elsewhere, Sunderland beat Stoke 1-0 and Aston Villa defeated West Bromwich Albion 4-3 in a derby that saw six goals scored in the first half.

Since the thrashing at City and the subsequent sacking of coach Andre Villas-Boas, Tim Sherwood had overseen an upturn in fortunes at White Hart Lane, with Spurs undefeated under their new manager and having won their last four Premier League matches.

Pellegrini's team was therefore expecting a tougher test at White Hart Lane.

They had the better start as the in-form Sergio Aguero went close in the fourth minute with a shot from an angle that hit the post.

Aguero looked unstoppable during the first half and put his team in front in the 15th minute, scoring for the eighth successive game when he slipped the ball past goalkeeper Hugo Lloris from David Silva's assist.

The Argentina striker's header then forced Lloris to a beautiful one-handed save. Unfortunately for City, Aguero picked up an apparent hamstring injury while sprinting for the ball and was replaced by Stevan Jovetic.. more news

With the group stage matches now defined, ticket sales for the 2014 FIFA World Cup will reopen at 12:00 CET/09:00 Brasilia time on Sunday 8 December 2013. Applications can be made on the FIFA ticketing website until 12:00 CET on 30 January 2014. For almost two months, fans will have the chance to apply for tickets for 62 out of the 64 matches (the exceptions are the opening game in São Paulo and the final in Rio de Janeiro).

As for the first sales period, in the case where there are more requests than the total number of seats available, a random selection draw will define those who will purchase the tickets. As such, there is no need to rush, as all applicants will have the same chance whether they apply this Sunday or late January.

At the same time, the participating team (PMA) ticket sales will commence. For every match, 16% of the tickets will be reserved for fans from both teams (8% per team per match). This includes tickets for all matches including tickets for Brazilian and Croatian fans for the Opening Match on 12 June 2014 at Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo.

Only residents of the country or nationals from the respective teams playing, no matter where they reside, can apply for PMA tickets. In this quota, only tickets from categories 1-3 are available. Again fans have plenty of time to apply during this phase which will end on 7 February 2014 as these tickets will also be subject to random selection draw. These PMA tickets will be sold via a special link accessible either from FIFA.com/tickets or from the respective team page in the FIFA World Cup section on FIFA.com. It is important to note that each PMA can decide to only allow their fan club members to get access to these specific supporter tickets. This will be the case for England, for example.

Furthermore, fans are reminded that at the time of purchase they can choose whether they prefer to personally collect their tickets or to receive them via a payable delivery service. For more details please visit the FIFA ticketing website. It is important to mention that fans who purchased tickets in the first random selection sales phase and are interested in getting their tickets conveniently delivered to their homes need to order this service at FIFA.com/tickets before 30 January 2014.

Following the draw, the kick-off times for all matches have been reconfirmed, please click here for the final match schedule.

The first batch of close to 1.1 million tickets for the 2014 FIFA World CupTM have been allocated. Following the success of the first “Random Draw” period, with nearly 890,000 tickets allocated, the remaining tickets available in the First Come First Served period were sold out only seven hours after the window opened. Tickets were made available for purchase by fans around the world via FIFA.com. About 62% went to Brazilians and 38% to international buyers. The top five nations were Brazil followed by the USA, Australia, England and Argentina.

In general, about 55% of the successful ticket holders requested for their tickets to be delivered by courier service whereas in Brazil this figure was 45%. The remaining ticket holders preferred the option of personally picking them up at one of the collection points in the twelve host cities.

“As expected, the level of interest was impressive, in fact four times greater than during the first sales window. The high number of applicants lead to some waiting time but overall the system worked well. It was great to see that both internationals and Brazilians were aiming to grab the remaining tickets from the first batch of tickets made available. This clearly shows the huge appeal of attending the FIFA World Cup live in Brazil,” explained FIFA’s Marketing Director Thierry Weil, who is responsible for ticketing. Due to the huge demand with 3.6 million page views, ticket applicants had to wait an average of 45 minutes in the waiting room until they were processed in the order of access of the site to ensure fair access to the ticketing tool. However, the system operated without any problems during the sales process.

Fans looking to attend next year’s flagship football event will have further chances. Further tickets for all 64 matches will be made available after the Final Draw as soon as the second sales phase kicks off on 8 December 2013, once the final match schedule for the group stage matches is known. This will also include the 8% which are reserved exclusively for the fans of each one of the participating teams for each of their matches – in total 16 % of the stadium capacity is reserved per match for the fans of the two teams playing. To keep abreast of developments, simply log on to FIFA.com/tickets.