Tim Worstall

Long piece here. But as has been pointed out about car seat belts: if we really want people to drive safely then ban seat belts and put a dagger on the steering wheel, aimed at the heart of the driver. The solution to repeated concussion in football players leading to their being punch drunk is [...]

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The 2011 Tour de France, which flirted with madness last week, lost the plot altogether yesterday when an official French television car smashed into Sky’s Juan Antonio Flecha just as he and Johnny Hoogerland launched an attack off the front of a five-man break 35km from the finish. Talking about the Tour de France and [...]

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But Ferguson, a long-time critic of the academy system, insists that the changes cannot come quickly enough for English teams. “We are only allowed to coach [schoolboys] for an hour and a half [each week]. An hour and a half each week? Academy regulations state that young players can receive no more than 3,760 ‘contact [...]

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I know, I know, we’re not really supposed to mention these things, are we? It’s just about acceptable to point out that those of West African descent have a higher liklihood of sickle cell anaemia but carry on and point out that almost all modern sprinters share such ancestry and almost no modern competitive swimmers [...]

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As Happy As A Cardiff Pizzeria

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Italy 22 France 21 Tee hee.

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Saturday’s soccer match between Manchester United and Manchester City of the English Premier League, a game known as the “Manchester Derby,” is likely to be played in the sort of bleak and drizzly weather conditions one might expect. But this won’t be just another regularly-scheduled whistle stop on the British soccer calendar. It will be [...]

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Not sure whether I can get all that outraged about this: The third is Nicole Minetti, a 25-year-old former showgirl and dancer turned dental hygienist who helped treat the prime minister after a mentally ill assailant smashed a statue into his face. Earlier this year Mr Berlusconi put her up for election to the Lombard [...]

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Sir Alex Ferguson has alluded to Wayne Rooney’s contract stand-off being driven by the player’s advisers after claiming that agents, rather than players, are the root cause of difficulties in negotiations. This seems logical. You are, after all, a highly successful and experienced manager and businessman, you employ a number other of such. The players, [...]

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No, it isn’t, as Jim White tells us, simply an outbreak or manifestation of greed. Nor is it that some chav is getting above himself, not knowing his place in the scheme of things (recall, we used to have maximum wages in football, to make sure such a shocking thing never happened). It’s a simple [...]

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Fun thought: The new president at the Nou Camp, Sandro Rosell, has said there is a need to restructure the club’s debt and even borrowed more money to pay the players’ wages. Silly man. What, restructure the finances, win La Liga and the Champions League, increase income and expect to get out of the financial [...]

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This little bit of celebrity gossip intrigues: Cristiano Ronaldo just announced that he’s the proud father of a son! The 25-year-old Portuguese soccer star shared via Facebook and Twitter: “It is with great joy and emotion that I inform I have recently become father to a baby boy. As agreed with the baby’s mother, who [...]

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Grenada went into the match with a superior goal difference, meaning that Barbados needed to win by two goals to progress to the finals. The trouble was caused by two things. First, unlike most group stages in football competitions, the organizers had deemed that all games must have a winner. All games drawn over 90 [...]

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Ok, yes, it’s all very early. But. umm… Has anyone, ever, once won the World Cup as either player or captain…..and then won it again as coach? Modern period I mean?

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Someone working for the Great Beast of retail tells me that the word’s gone out for people who fancy a bit of overtime to come in early Wednesday evening and take all the tat and bunting down: every bit of it, from deely boppers to vuvuzelas, though I suppose all those crappy t-shirts will be [...]

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Didn’t the boys do well! Mmm, what? No, no, the important game, this one.

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I’ve only just realised that both N and S Korea qualified. At what point could they actually end up playing each other?

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WIGAN v Leeds is the hottest Super League ticket in town next Friday – and you and your family could be there for FREE. Your rugby league-crazy News of the World has teamed up with The Co-operative, official partner of the RFL, to give away 50 family passes. Second prize is two family passes…..

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