End for Pep Guardiola

After Barcelona's exit of the UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE semi-final. Manager PEP GUARDIOLA announced that he will not renew his rolling contract for next season

© Reuters/Albert Gea

Very sad day for players and fans alike when Pep announced that he will see out his contract of the 2011/2012 season but will not renew the contract for next season as he feels that he has done his job. Pep feels his time has come and that he needs to walk away. He also feels that being a manager for the club takes allot of stress. He said  "I am drained and need to fill up, The demand has been very high and a manager must be strong".
 The former Barca midfielder took over the role of manager in 2008 and since then won 13 trophies for the club, an impressive record for any manager will take a retirement out of football for a year.

 The question on hand is with Pep leaving Barcelona will teams all over the globe make a bid to get hold of the best manager of this century and by what cost. To follow up on this question will Old Trafford come knocking on his door when Sir Alex Ferguson retires in two years. What better manager to replace the legend of Old Trafford than Pep himself

Tito Vilanova will be the man to take over the reigns of Pep. Will this be the end of the best team in the world or can Tito follow in Pep's footstep and lead the club to Victory in almost all competitions Barca playes in. Like all things in life all good thing have to come to an end and we could possibly see the end of the Barca era paving way for Real Madrid and other teams to step into that spot.

From a Public Relations Point of view on how Pep announced his leaving of the club and the time in which he did it in the season is probably not the best way in the sense that it only leaves a few months to find a replacement even though Vilanova will get the job. Bu if he had announced it earlier would Barca have performed better or worse, no one will know. Pep went the right way by announcing to his players first that he will retire shows the respect he has for his team than he announced it to the world, this shows allot of character on his part truly a good coach

Will the world of FOOTBALL ever see the likes of Pep after he retires... ONLY TIME WILL TELL
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RED CARD for REFEREES

When football games change due to the bad calls REFEREES make

This was the case in the 2012 FA Cup semi-final between Chelsea and Tottenham when referee Martin Atkinson's decision to allow Chelsea's second goal which arguably changed the fate of the game. Martin's decision to allow the goal was declared shocking to fans around the world when he allowed Matta's goal, but what makes it worst is that the position Martin was in he failed to call. http://footytu.be/v2g43

• John Terry foul on two people  (when he took out keeper Friedel and defender Assou-Eketto)
• Matta's goal that never crossed the line
• Chelsea keeper Peter Cech taking out Emmanuel Adebayor

These are just to name a few errors Martin made. There are many issues following this game like what are the extra empires there for if they are not to be used regarding the ball that never crossed the line, the touch line ref that never lifted his flag when Terry took out the two Spurs players and one of the key indications not giving Peter Cech a red card after he clearly took Adebayor out.

FIFA's Laws of the Game, Law 12, Article 78 If a player denies an obvious goal-scoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the player's goal by an offense punishable by free kick (direct or in direct) or penalty kick and this player must be given Red card. This is clearly not what the ref did.

Take a dive: Adebayor sent flying after keeper Peter Cech tackled him
photo by:Clive Rose/Getty Images

The season of 2011/2012 season has seen many bad calls from refs and these calls have changed the outcome of many games. Should Martin be indicted. Many fans would say yes. The issue is that Refs have become invincible and make bad decisions on a constant basis and Fifa and Co do nothing about it. These institutions need to step in make and example of these refs, the FA board needs to step in on these refs because the Premier League has become the laughing stock due to the bad refs that make these calls.

The image these refs sent out is bad for the FA and the Premier League.There needs to be message sent that if you make bad calls you will be punished after all the Image of the Premier League and the FA is at stake.

From a PR point of View the FA needs to handle this more effectively because issues like this you cannot ignore because it will simply not go away. One needs to approach this head on.

SA has a lot to learn

How South Africa's PSL fairs up against the European League

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Soccer in South Africa has been around since the 19th century, having said this why is it then that Soccer in South Africa is not of the high quality of that of the European Leagues? Anyone that watches the PSL as well as any European soccer can easily compare the quality and class between the two. SA has also failed to establish high quality class of football despite showing promising talents. like European stars like

• Gary Bailey
• Benni Mcarthy 
• Steven Pienaar

These are just to name a few. However SA has failed to produce stars like Drogba, Essien, Toure and Eto just to name a few, Benny Mcarthy was one of those stars and one would think that after him many would follow, not saying that Pienaar is not good but he is not the quality of other African stars. So where has SA gone wrong and who is to blame for not developing quality like Drogba, Eto and Cisse. Not so long ago I watched Pirates and Chiefs, South Africa's Biggest Derby. I could see straight away that SA has the class and quality but its RAW. These skills and talents have not been developed properly and these players have not been guided. The youth of SA watches the likes of Messi and Ronaldo and they want to be like them and when they soon make it onto the scene they lose sight of the hard work they have put in and the fame and fortune goes to the head. The thing is our players want to copy and do what these stars are doing instead of focusing on their own style. SA soccer has its own style and the sooner we realise that the sooner we can compete European level. Brazil does not play in any European leagues and their soccer league is pretty much like ours, but they focus on their own strengths and skills and develop these skills thus paving the ground for their players to make a big impact on international level. SA has got a unique style of playing soccer and personally I believe that if you focus on these strengths one can dominate on the international scene, but somewhere in the system something is wrong and it will take many years until that is fixed

The PSL has some good soccer and recently one can see that the quality of the players and the games today is easily a 100% better that it was just before the FIFA world cup. But i fear it may still take a few years before we see players like Drogba, Essien and Eto come from South African soil

Champions League EL CLASICO

PEP vs JOSE. MESSI vs RONALDO. BARCELONA vs REAL MADRID

This will be the scene if BARCA and MADRID make it to the final of the UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE, and there will be no better way to end all speculations to who is the best team, who has the best coach and who is better MESSI or RONALDO. This surely is also the best way to end PEP and JOSE's mini rivalry when these sides meet at the biggest stage of the football calender.

This would be the scene as one could see it or will the two sides from England and Germany have something to say about it. CHELSEA who has had more of a mediocre season in the premier league have managed to overcome all odds and make it to the semi-final of the CHAMPIONS LEAGUE to face BARCA, without a permanent coach after they sacked Andres Villas Boas. Whilst MUNICH always a good team has had more of an easy ride facing less of higher class opponents. 

Many will automatically agree that the final will host the two spanish sides but the fans of both CHELSEA and MUNICH will think otherwise as they put all their faith behind there teams come semi final day 17 and 18th of April in the 1st of 2 legs

This will truly be one of the greatest semi-finals in years and certainly a must see. Will the two SPANISH giants have it easy as they clearly have the class and skill to do so or will CHELSEA and MUNICH just surprise us and show the world that they should not be written off so quickly because at the end of the day when a team makes it to the final the whole world is watching and what better way to show off your club and get that world known publicity than that of the stage of the 

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL

It's a must see...