United have dropped the appeal of the 4 game ban for Patrice Evra for what happened after a Chelsea match a while back. The FA (Football Association) show once again they are just rubbish. I may be biased but the banning for 4 games (and a £15,000 fine) is ridiculous. Some players get shorter bans for terrible “tackles” or throwing things into the crowd.

Evra has categorically denied hitting anyone but it looks like The FA have decided to make some sort of example of Evra and United. The ban starts on 22nd December so Evra will miss the league game against Stoke and Middlesbrough, the FA Cup tie against Southampton and the Carling Cup semi-final first leg against Derby. On paper these are not big games but he is an important player for United and without him we miss his attacking forward runs down the left side. (He will be back and available to play Chelsea on 11th January).

Or can you (more of that in a bit).

Last week I went to a Christmas do which was hosted by the recruitment agency MacPeople. It was held in the bar Tribeca and like I mentioned in the title there was free food and drink (beer and wine). The only beer available was Becks but that was no problem!! One of my favourite beers

The food was not bad either with the usual buffet finger food things such as mini pizza, filo prawn things, and other various finger food.

Since I didnt know anyone there I was wondering how it would go. I had only met one person from the recruitment agency but had spoken to a couple more over the phone. It was a good evening!

However ….. the next day I had a bit of a dodgy stomach. It could be un-related …… anyway……

Tonight was the annual Sports Personality of the year award and it was won by Olympic legend Chris Hoy. It was abit of a surprise – I think most people thought Lewis Hamilton would win. In the end Hamilton was 2nd and the brilliant Rebecca Adlington was 3rd. I think Chris Hoy deserved it. Lewis and Rebecca will have other chances. Also winning the Formula 1 World Championship and getting 2 Gold medals is better than a BBC Sports Personality award!!

Watching the awards it showed what a brilliant year it was for British sport and sport in general with so many amazing, emotional moments.

The main event of the year was the Olympics and in both the Olympics and Paralympics Team GB did amazingly well especially in cycling, rowing and sailing. In fact the British Olympic Cycling team won the Team of the year award.

The Olympics in Beijing gave us some amazing moments and outside Team GB, the main two was Michael Phelps and his amazing 8 golds and the truly brilliant Usain Bolt. Fantastic stuff!! Usain Bolt won the Overseas award.

In tennis, we had properly the best grand slam final ever in the match between Federer and Nadal. It had some of the best tennis ever, amazing shots, comebacks, the drama of the lack of light. People thought it couldnt get better after a great match involving Andy Murray earlier on in the tournament. Its looking good for the future of British tennis with someone finally right up at the top in Andy Murray (currently world no. 4) and Laura Robson winning the Junior Wimbledon championship.

In Formula 1 we have the youngest World Champion who happens to be British which is a good thing. Some people may think hes abit arrogant (which I do abit) and many of his fellow drivers apparently dont like him (or certainly his driving “style”) but hes done really well this year. Formula 1 gave us another dramatic moment in sport with that final race and pretty much the final turn when Hamilton overtook Timo Glock to get that vital 5th place. So dramatic it was that at the end both the McLaren and Ferrari team were celebrating and we saw that great TV moment when the Ferrari team suddenly realise they hadnt won it.

For once, Football didnt dominate the sport headlines with the England team doing rubbish. However in club football Manchester United won the double. The Champions League final in Moscow against Chelsea was another nail-biting event going into extra time and penalties. Its was tense stuff. Just to add to it was the fact that when the match finally finishes it was about 1.30am local time! Just to show it wasnt a good year for footballers is the complete lack of footballers in the top 10 contenders for the award. The only footballer to get an award was Sir Bobby Charlton who got the lifetime achievement award and he got a standing ovation and was very long applause.

All these great, exciting, emotional moments is why I love sport!

Its official now and Manchester has voted No on the proposal for the congestion charge (or for its proper name the Transport Inovation Fund TIF).

Almost 2 million people could have voted. In the end about 53% of people voted and the result was 4 to 1 to the No!! I am surprised not more people voted!

It now looks like the plans for congestion charges in other cities will be scraped now. A good example of a congestion charge is the one in London which hasnt really worked. The “congestion” levels are back to the levels before the charge came into effect as is the air quality.

I have already said before (many a time) why I voted No so wont rant again!! LOL.

Related links:

Stop the charge

If you want to read a great article about the world’s problems with climate control and energy supply I recommend checking out this article on the Independent web site.

If you like it, vote for it

The global economic crisis has started to effect the expensive world of Formula 1 with Honda pulling out of F1. It is planning to sell the team. They now need to find a buyer January.

This means that Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello’s future is uncertain. It was thought that Rubens Barrichello was going to lose his seat with Honda trying out a few different drivers including nephew of F1 legend Ayrton Senna, Bruno Senna.

Fingers crossed that some private investor can buy Honda F1. 2009 looked like it could have been a good season with the first season with Ross Brawn having “control” of the car etc. I feel sorry for Jenson Button. There are only a few seats available now for next season and I think if he had a competitive car he would be right up there with the likes of Hamilton.

I missed X Factor this weekend as I was out but watched a repeat. It was Britney/American Classic week. Ruth was voted out which was a surprise as I thought she was good. Diana was abit better but still not as good as she was in the auditions. She seemed to do her hand claw thing abit less. Alexandra was amazing!! JLS and “Eggnog” werent that good. The main special guest was Britney Spears. However, she was rubbish with some terrible miming!! Also in the interview she didnt really answer the questions. Miley Cyrus was on and sang live and showed Britney how it should be done!! James Cordon was on Xtra Factor on ITV2 and had a go at her miming. Here is the clip (Youtube):

Here is Britney and her miming (and rubbish interview with Dermot:

Here is Miley Cyrus:

Over the weekend, the 2 main games was Chelsea v Arsenal and the Manchester derby. United and City played early on at about 1.30pm and the game ended 1-0 to United. Rooney scored – finally scoring his 100th goal in the league. United finished with 10 men after Ronaldo was sent off after handling the ball. It was actually his 2nd yellow card. His first was a tackle on SWP. I think he got the ball but did get the player too – personally should have been just a foul. His 2nd yellow was from a corner – he thought he heard the whistle go and knocked the ball away – which was heading towards his face. Arguably by the letter of the law he should have got another yellow card but he was not getting an advantage and he could of headed the ball himself with an effort on goal.

He will now miss a game (or 2 – not sure what it is for 2 yellow cards). Heard that he may get an additional game ban because he didnt go off pitch straight away. Here are some brief highlights:

In the other main game on Sunday, Chelsea played Arsenal and Chelsea’s bad home form continues. The game ended 2-1 to Arsenal. One of Arsenal goals was offside but they deserved it with the way they played. In the post match interview Scolari was moaning about the referee. It was not the ref but the linesman he should be having a go at!! Also, he should worry about his own players. John Terry, the thug that he is, should have got a red card after a wild 2 legged lunge!! If it was another player, the media would have had a field day but because John Terry was “the brave captain of England” no mention in post match analysis on MOTD or on BBC Sport web site.