Romanian player sold for a chunk of meat

A new transfer record was set in Romania back in 2010 - for the most expensive footballer sold in return for pork.
Defender Marius Cioara was sold to Regal Hornia for 15kg of sausages. He retired a day later after 24 hours of taunts. Regal Hornia demanded a refund, and Cioara went to work on a farm.

Highest Scoring Football Game: AS Adema 149–0 SO l'Emyrne

AS Adema 149–0 SO l'Emyrne is the world record for the highest scoreline in association football, recognised by The Guinness Book of Records, set on 31 October 2002. AS Adema, of Antananarivo, in Madagascar, beat their arch-rivals Stade Olympique de l'Emyrne (SOE) as the result of a pre-determined protest by SOE over refereeing decisions that had gone against them during a four-team playoff tournament. The match surpassed the previous record for the highest scoreline of 36–0, set in 1885.

FOOTBALLER who left the PITCH to answer the CALL OF NATURE

JASON PUNCHEON is getting a bum deal at Southampton after becoming the butt of his team-mates’ jokes.
The Saints midfielder had to dash off the pitch at St Mary’s during the second half of their 0-0 draw with Everton on Monday to answer the call of nature.

The 26-year-old then sheepishly returned in the 70th minute — and got a ribbing from his own fans. Now his team-mates have started teasing him.

Fellow midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin said: “All the players have given him some stick about it — but he said it was better he did it in the changing room than out on the pitch!

“It is the first time I have ever seen that and I am sure not many other players have seen that before.

“But he has taken it well. He loves giving the banter and he has a great personality.”

New Saints boss Mauricio Pochettino joked: “When there is a new manager, the players want to impress and sometimes nerves get the better of them!”

Referee dishes out five red cards in dressing room

LONDON (Reuters) - A referee sent off five players in the dressing rooms after a post-match brawl at an English League Two (fourth tier) game between Bradford City and promotion-chasing Crawley Town.

"I can't believe this has happened," Bradford manager Phil Parkinson, who had three players shown red cards after the 2-1 home defeat on Tuesday night, told the BBC.

"I have never been in a situation before where a ref has come into the dressing room, pulled players on one side and sent them off. He wouldn't allow me in there."

Six Crawley players and one from Bradford were booked during the match with Bradford's Andrew Davies, who was sent off, now set for a five-match ban after being shown red cards twice previously this season.

Wigan Players Refund Tickets After 9-1 Loss

Wigan's humiliated players are to personally refund every supporter who bought a ticket for Sunday's game at Tottenham, where they were thrashed 9-1 by Spurs.

It was the second worst defeat in Premier League history as the Latics let in eight goals in the second half at White Hart Lane.

Defender Mario Melchiot admitted the result was embarrassing.

He and the rest of his Wigan team-mates will now reimburse the club's fans the cost of their tickets.

Melchiot told the club's website: "We feel that as a group of players we badly let down our supporters yesterday, and this is a gesture we have to make and pay them back for their tremendous loyalty.

"There is not a lot else to say, just that as a group of professionals we were embarrassed by the way we performed, we feel it was below our standards and this is something we feel we owe to the fans.

"Now we have to draw a line under the game, focus completely on training this week and bounce back on Saturday.

"We are professionals, we will take it on the chin and move on but it's important that we do not take our supporters for granted."

Wigan return to action when they host Sunderland this weekend and the club's owner, Dave Whelan, has insisted manager Roberto Martinez's job is safe, despite the humiliation at Spurs.

Whelan said: "9-1 is a serious, serious defeat and we have got to get our heads up.

"And I am sure Roberto will be working on the lads now to get them going again and get their heads back in the air and get some pride back in Wigan Athletic.

"He is Wigan's manager and I have complete faith in him and I know the supporters have.

"I am absolutely 100% behind Roberto, he's a great manager and he will pull this team around."

The club says every supporter who bought a ticket for the game from the DW Stadium ticket office should contact the office.

They should go there in person or by calling 0871 33 66 552 and a full refund will be posted to their home address hopefully within 14 days.

Refunds must be claimed on or before Friday 4 December 2009.

Inter Milan's Materazzi: I shouldn't be villain in Zidane row

Inter Milan defender Marco Materazzi has again spoken of his clash with Zinedine Zidane in the 2006 World Cup final.

Despite Zidane's headbutt and red card, Materazzi has been cast as the villain.

“Everywhere I go, in every continent, people tell me it was my fault or even that I was the one to give the headbutt,” said an incredulous Materazzi on Sky Italia.

“This tells you what a distorted message that public opinion wanted to send out about what happened. They wanted to make it seem as if I was the one who made the mistake, forgetting this wasn’t the first time Zidane headbutted someone. It was maybe the fourth or fifth.”

The pair were marking each other on a corner and then walking back to their positions when the incident unfolded.

“If you watch the footage from straight after the corner, I was almost apologising because I was scared of his potential header, just as he had 10 minutes earlier with [Gigi] Buffon’s save. When I made a gesture of apology, he looked at me from head to toe with an air of superficiality and superiority.

“It irritated me and I replied in a very Italian way. His response was probably not very French.”

Materazzi had already revealed the verbal exchange between the two men. Zidane suggested ‘If you want my shirt so badly I can give it to you after the match,’ to which the defender sniped: ‘I’d rather get the shirt from your sister.’

This is a classic Italian response to more or less any insult, the peninsula version of the American ‘Yo mama.’

“Maybe it was my destiny to become more famous for the headbutt than the goals, but that doesn’t change the fact in the Final I scored twice and Zidane only once,” smiled the Inter star.

“In that too I feel I beat Zidane, just like Italy beat France. That was the main objective. If public opinion wants to make it seem like something it wasn’t, that’s their prerogative, but it doesn’t change the result on the field.

“The French have that image of Zidane walking past the World Cup, whereas I put the Italy cap on top of it. I have a giant blow-up of that image in my house, it’s our symbol of the tournament.”