Real Salt Lake that is (are there many Spanish speakers in Salt Lake City or Utah in general which would validate the “Real” Salt Lake name?) DC United are trying to keep the move sweet by thanking Freddy for his great contribution to their cause over the past few seasons but when we break down the young (or not so young depending on which rumours you believe) attacker’s stats, they aren’t all that impressive.

87 appearances with only 11 goals to show for it really isn’t the kind of return I would be expecting from a player described by his new coach at Salt Lake John Ellinger as “an exceptional talent”. In the less than competitive environment of the MLS I’d expect an “exceptional” young striker to be hitting at the very least a goal every two games and have no doubt that if truly exceptional attacking players like Ronaldo, Ronaldinho or even Wayne Rooney had been introduced to the same league at the same age as Adu they would have been scoring closer to a goal a game, even from withdrawn roles.

I can’t help but think that the whole “Freddy Adu Experience” is nothing more than Nike and MLS marketing hype to try and find a figurehead for young America to rally behind and really get into football in a way they haven’t before. A move to Salt Lake City, even if it is because he opposed his DC United coach’s ideas about where to play him, is a step backwards, regardless of whether Sir Alex Ferguson moves for him as an experiment in the summer or not.

This week’s second major topic of conversation in international football circles has centred around the calls for minor nations (wherever they may be deemed to be cut off in the FIFA rankings) to pre-qualify before they are given the privelige of competing against the major nations in qualification for major tournaments.

Forcing so-called “minor” nations to play a pre-qualifying tournament only serves to ease the fixture congestion on the big boys and in doing so further guarantees their place at the top of the footballing tree. We’ve seen how a similar system along with my pet hate of seedings has ruined the Champion’s League (sic) as a competition where real outsiders (and let’s be honest folks, a major club like FC Porto are not minnows or unfashionable underdogs) have no chance of progressing due to a virtually rigged system of pre-qualifying rounds, group stages and return legs.

If the small nations don’t play anyone but each other then where does the romanticism of taking on the big boys on your own patch and giving them a scare go? As a Northern Irishman I’m intensely proud of our country of only 1.5m people having qualified for three World Cups and given a fine showing at them all. Our recent victory over England at Windsor Park highlights the necessity for all countries to be treated equally when it comes to inclusion in qualifying groups, despite what the self elected big guns may say.
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Some football fans are never happy. During the summer I doubt there was a single football following Englishman who would have turned down nine goals in two games as their country strolled to two wins, one against the European Champions and the other in a competitive qualifier, but for some reason there have been more complaints than plaudits this week as the second emphatic victory result came in.

Of course we’ve got the usual media circus proclaiming Steve McLaren’s England side as the reborn heirs of Brazil 1970 and certain European Champions in 2008 just as a precursor to World Cup glory in South Africa in 2010 (when will they ever learn?) but beneath the gallant flag waving and hope raising there are two more serious issues coming up for discussion: should we have international breaks and should there be pre-qualifying for the qualifying for smaller teams. First up: international breaks.

I read an interesting letter on another (unnamed) football website’s letters page comparing the international break in football to county cricket which carries on regardless of it’s top players being called away on test match duty or not. Counties are made to fill the gaps in their squad wherever they may find players and, to keep disruption to a minimum, they are restricted to only two foreign players in their squad. I won’t get into the foreign player debate today but isn’t the Premiership’s problem, and one of the main reasons it has to shut down completely for internationals, because it is chock full of other nationalities who will also be away on international duty, leaving clubs first team squads decimated over this period.

I’m assuming in cricket that with an England test squad of around 15/16 players (feel free to correct this, I don’t follow cricket that closely) the loss to counties is much more spread out whereas if all internationals left the Premiership for their respective countries there wouldn’t be anyone left. Is the international break for two weeks at this time of the season purely to help the England squad prepare and compete better to qualify for major competitions or is it more grounded in the Premiership reality of no players left if they kept the games running? I know how the FA spin the subject but I want real answers. My breath, as usual, is not being held.

In a surprising announcement, Guus Hiddink has said that he is extremely close to signing a deal to take over as coach of the Russian national team after he leads Australia into the World Cup in the summer.

Hiddink will also leave his day job as manager of PSV Eindhoven following the World Cup after leading them to their 19th Eredivisie title last week, their sixth under his control over two spells as manager. Having also led Holland to the World Cup semi-finals in France in 1998 and South Korea to a similar position in 2002, Hiddink was widely tipped to be a forerunner to replace Sven Goran Eriksson as England head coach but has surprised the footballing world by turning his sights east to the burgeoning football power of Russia.

Hiddink told Holland Sport that the deal he was negotiating would allow him to continue to live in Amsterdam and only travel to Russia for a few days or weeks at a time when necessary, a situation very popular in international management these days and also employed by California based Germany coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

With Hiddink now off the “potentials” list, English football fans can sense a growing feeling of unease over who will actually finish up wearing the blazer with the three lions on it once Sven is gone.

World Cup 2010 chief executive Danny Jordaan believes that the only man who can save South Africa’s blushes and lead them out of the footballing wilderness as they prepare for hosting the 2010 World Cup is Sven Goran Eriksson.

A nation of Englishmen shake their heads in disbelief but Jordaan defends his idea by pointing to the role that Sven has played in bringing through a clutch of young players into the England setup and reducing their overreliance on established stars such as David Beckham and Paul Scholes.

In a statement worthy of Sven’s own PR guru he goes on to say that despite the Swede’s massive ?4m a year salary, the South Africans should fork out for him because they have to pay to get the best available coach.

Whether Sven Goran Eriksson is the man for the job as Mr. Jordaan thinks he is will be a matter for the South African FA but Sven’s record at the top table isn’t exactly top class and if the South Africans are really serious about getting a man who has been there and done it at the highest level then maybe they should be rivalling the FA and having a word with Luiz Felipe Scolari or Guus Hiddink instead. Pedigree is what matters and no amount of spin and PR smiles from Sven can hide the fact that he’s still some distance behind these two in terms of international football success.

FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has been found guilty of a conflict of interest over ticket sales for the 2006 Germany World Cup.

His family’s travel agency were given the rights to sell Trinidad and Tobago’s entire ticket allocation and Warner has now been judged to have violated Fifa’s code of ethics over his involvement with selling 2006 World Cup tickets.

After bringing the matter to the attention of Fifa himself, Warner may be suspended from the organisation at a meeting on 16-17 March.

Egyptian star Mido has offered an apology to national coach Hassan Shehata but has been given no indication if he will be allowed to play in the 2006 African Nations Cup final against the Ivory Coast.

Mido had been banned by the Egyptian football association for six months following his touchline row with Shehata after the coach substituted him in the semi-final win against Senegal. He then called the Egyptian coach, team and association “amateurs” before having a change of heart.

Mido, who is currently on loan at English Premiership side Tottenham Hotspur, attended Egypt’s training, apologised to Shehata and asked to be forgiven.

Shehata has accepted the apology but refused to be drawn on whether Mido would play any part in the final which he believes Egypt have every chance of winning for the fifth time,

“We are in outstanding form, and we are very focused and ready to win the final game,” he said. “However, this game is nothing like the first time we met Ivory Coast in this tournament when we won 3-1. This is a completely different story. Now we have no other choice but to win.”

Tottenham Hotspur’s outspoken Egyptian striker Mido has branded Egypt’s coach, team and football association “amateurs”.

He will now miss Egypt’s African Nations Cup final against Ivory Coast on Friday having been banned for six months by his country’s FA because of a furious touchline row with coach Hassan Shehata after being substituted 11 minutes from the end of Tuesday’s semi-final win over Senegal.

“In Egypt they are amateurs. The manager is an amateur, the team are amateurs, the association are amateurs,” Mido told the Daily Express.

“They think they know everything. People can call me an arrogant Premiership player. The fact is that I am a Premiership player and they are amateurs.

“I have not spoken to Shehata since the incident. I don’t care about him. He is a local guy. Before he was in charge of the national team, he managed a second division side.

“I want to play for Egypt again, of course. But I don’t regret what I did.

“I was disappointed by the decision to ban me. I don’t know why they took it. If they win now they can say they took a good disciplinary decision. They will be heroes.

“But if they lose it will be because of Mido, and the trouble he caused. That’s how things go.”

As a World Cup on homesoil looms for Germany and the expectation levels amongst fans reaches fever pitch, it is no surprise that national coach Jurgen Klinsmann has tried to steer attention away from problems with the chosen stadia and on-pitch concerns. What is surprising is that he is turning to the coach of the German national hockey team to help him prepare his side for the World Cup.

The DFB have been in talks with hockey coach Bernhard Peters over the newly created post of technical director in a move that has outraged many football traditionalists but has the full backing of head coach Klinsmann. ‘Peters could contribute a lot,’ Klinsmann said at a recent news conference, ‘He has a different way of thinking…There have been talks with the DFB and we’ve been convinced by his way of doing things’ .

While Klinsmann has been calling for some time for a technical director to be appointed, he was initially in favour of former Germany and Scotland coach Berti Vogts being given the role but Vogts ruled himself out of the running, saying he didn’t want to get involved in a power struggle between the German FA and Klinsmann himself.

Bernhard Peters, meanwhile, has been coach of the German men’s hockey team since 2001 and led them to victory at the World Cup in 2002 and to the bronze medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004.

Whether an appointment to the technical director post will be made before the World Cup kicks off in June is another matter as is the question of whether Jurgen Klinsmann himself will extend his contract beyond the end of the summer’s football showpiece.

Following the mutual decision between the English Football Association and Sven Goran Eriksson to prematurely end his contract after the 2006 World Cup, Sven has been putting feelers out about finding himself some alternative employment for after the summer.

He has made it clear that he wants either a club or country management role but only with sides that are capable of actually achieving some glory (which surely rules out Aston Villa and the News of the World’s fake sheikh). While he has in the past made it very clear that he would fancy the Real Madrid job, Eriksson has seemingly become very coy when talking about jobs which other managers currently occupy and has said that his agent has to wait on offers from clubs or national associations rather than touting himself about first. David O’Leary may say it’s a bit late for that but better late than never.

Eriksson has also said that if he finds another job before the World Cup then the FA will not have to pay him a compensation package. Whether this means he will be in a hurry to find another job is another matter as any payoff he would receive from his reported ?5m a year FA contract would be expected to be substantial.