My thoughts on the Neymar Situation

He is easily one of the most recognisable players in football. At age 20, he has already won the South American player of the year for 2011 and has even been nominated for the Ballon d'Or. One would logically expect that a player of his calibre would be plying his trade at the best clubs in the world. Is he at Barcelona? Is he at Real Madrid? How about Bayern Munich? Well the truth is, the player who has been rated the 'next Leo Messi' plays at Santos; a good club in Brazil but not at the world stage.

Its not that Neymar has not been linked with a move to Europe's best. Infact I am not sure which major European club he has not been linked with (maybe Arsenal). Despite all the interest though, Neymar has remained in Brazil. There are a number of factors responsible the most notable of which is Pele. I recall reading several interviews from Brazil's football icon asking Neymar to turn down the lucrative offers from Europe and instead stay at Santos. Initially it made sense. A young player should first build his name before making one of them big money moves. Pele was probably also concerned about Neymar's maturity at that time and felt he needed more games before he could make a mark on European football. But now, I feel his comments are quite ridiculous. Neymar is now 20 and that is age when gifted players start performing on the big stage. Having scored 117 goals for santos and 25 for the Brazilian national team, it's safe to say that Neymar is ready for a bigger challenge. Preventing a move now would only impede his development.

Having said that though, Neymar should make sure he transfers to a club where he will get enough game time. Many bright prospects move to a big club but finally end up glued to the substitutes bench.I feel he should consider a club that has a strong attacking mentality but do not have many players in attacking positions.

Neymar's got the talent, he has got the publicity and he has got the flair to be one of the best. But to truly reach his potential, he needs a bigger challenge; a challenge that can only be found in Europe. If Neymar plays his cards right, we could witness the birth of another Brazilian footballing great.

European Clubs plan to form Super League

Fifa and Uefa have long been known for corruption and bad decisions and its no surprise that major clubs are getting frustrated with them. Now there is a concern among the clubs that Uefa is becoming politically and financially more powerful. Uefa intends to sell nations' broadcasting and marketing revenues on a collective basis which would hugely increase its financial and political clout. Amid these fears, top European clubs such as Barcelona, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester United, AC Milan, Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Manchester City have threatened to form a new 'super league' of their own. The strained relationship between clubs and football's governing bodies was seen in Bayern Munich's president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge's comments which went like: Sepp Blatter is saying he is cleaning up the game, but the fact that no-one believes him, tells you everything you need to know. I'm not optimistic because they believe the system is working perfectly as it is. It is a money-machine.

It is a nice game but it is decided by people who are corrupt. I am not ready to accept the system as it is and I am not alone.

He also added that since their memorandum of understanding with UEFA ends in 2014, he will not be obliged to accept Uefa regulations after this ends.

The main reason for the breakway is terrible administration and corruption but there is another reason which according to me is the reason why Manchester City is mentioned as a part of this group and that is the Uefa Financial Fair Play. The Financial Fair Play was initiated by Michel Platini the President of Uefa and it essentially means that a club's spending will be limited to 60% of its turnover and any club who does not heed to this will not be eligible to play in Europe's premier competions such as the Champions League and Europa League. It is aimed at forcing equality among the teams and ending an era of reckless spending. This measure will not be liked by Manchester City's owners and this was clearly seen as they were forced into accepting a deal from Etihad to rename their stadium in order to be eligible to take part in the Uefa Champions League.

Now, its all a matter of when the 'super league' will be formed since at the moment it doesn't look good for football's elite governing bodies.