The Dunfermline Supporters Trust has launched an appeal in support of bringing "safe standing" areas to Scottish (and possibly all of British) football.

As Tom Dunmore discussed, we're approaching twenty years since the Hillsborough Disaster claimed the lives of 96 fans during an FA Cup semifinal pitting Liverpool against Nottingham Forest.

There are many arguments for a return to standing areas, chief among them are atmosphere and cost. Indeed, all-seater stadiums have priced many working class fans out of the game and furthermore, many clubs out of competition as they simply can't afford to build new stands. This played a large role in the demise of Gretna FC. Unable to play at home due to stadium regulations Gretna found themselves without access to their most valuable asset, tiny Raydale Park. Despite plans to refurbish the ground prices from traveling to every match eventually took a great toll on Gretna and the club folded last June.

The main argument against standing is safety. While this is still a legitimate argument many will point to the success of "safe standing" areas found throughout Germany.

It will be interesting to keep an eye on this issue as it has been, and will surely continue to be a strong point of contention.

The UEFA Champions League is the unquestioned, undisputed standard bearer of world football. The second best club competition, which is actually the UEFA Cup, but for parody's sake lets say the Copa Libertadores doesn't compare in terms of pomp, circumstance, and most importantly, money. This puts into perspective the size of the mountain the Asian Football Confederation faces as it attempts to catch, and yes, one day pass, UEFA as football's colossus.

The Guardian's sports blog recently explained the length's the AFC has gone to in an effort to improve it's continental competitions, the Asian Champions League and it the secondary AFC Cup. A new ratings system (possibly modeled on, but not at all like UEFA's complicated coefficient system) has been brought into place to govern the allocation of spots given out. Unsurprising to anyone, Japan tops the list. The land of the rising sun was given four spots, with Korea Republic, Saudi Arabia, China PR, Iran, and the UAE receiving the same amount (although the Emirates have to qualify one of their four teams). Other spots were given to Australia, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, and Qatar (two each). Teams from Singapore, India, Thailand, and Vietnam get a chance in the qualifying round.

Quietly there have been small steps toward this goal on national fronts as well. Japan's J. League has been an incredible success while Korea's K-League (starting to see a trend here?) has benefited from World Cup stadiums and fresh investment. This year will see the first ever fully professional league in the UAE. Progress in China and Australia has also been very encouraging, and perhaps more notably, India continues to work out the kinks as the game continues to improve there.

There is money in Asian football, a lot of it. From a gas-powered Uzbek club rife with controversy, to a team pushed forward by the global dynamo that is Samsung, to the obvious oil money flowing through the middle east. The problem will be attracting big names without breaking the clubs. Ibraki isn't Madrid, and Jeddah can't compare with Milan. The solution may be in the grassroots, and I've often questioned how much of that money is put back into the game itself. Japan has mandated that all J1 clubs have fully functioning youth teams, this wouldn't be a bad idea for all of Asia to follow.

Time will tell as to whether or not Asia can mount a serious challenge to Europe's domination of the game, but no one can say they don't dream big, and they're surely planning to try.

And if you have a moment, please check out my friend's video. She worked very hard on it, and it's worth a look. :) Hi, Janey.

There's a story in the Guardian today by Kevin O'Flynn detailing the rise of Uzbek League champions Bunyodkor.

Bunyodkor exploded onto the world football scene last summer following an audacious bid for Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o. The contract offered to Eto'o was worth a reported $25,000,000 over three months, or roughly $8,300,000 per month. You can't blame Eto'o for entertaining the offer, you couldn't blame anyone for entertaining the offer. But in a country where the average yearly wage is $2,389 the offer was nothing short of pornographic. After Eto'o, who is no stranger to crazy offers, turned down the deal Bunyodkor successfully moved for Rivaldo, who signed a two-year, $10,800,000 contract.

We know that Manchester City's money comes from oil, no secret is made of that, but as the Guardian article explores, finding the source of Bunyodkor's money isn't quite as easy.

Aside from insane spending, there was a report that players from city (and title) rivals Pakhtakor found themselves threatened with a gun after equalizing against Bunyodkor.

While people will bemoan City's status as a billionaire's plaything, despite City currently sitting in 10th, it's worth noting that in Central Asia there is a club being used by billionaires for sinister reasons

More disturbing is the fact that Barcelona have a relationship with Bunyodkor. For Barca, a club which proudly carries the UNICEF logo on it's shirt in lieu of a sponsor this is nothing short of shameful.

Tom Dunmore has also put together a nice piece on this subject today.

Oops.

This is going to be big. One of the players detained once turned out for Atletico Madrid.

While Charlotte, North Carolina has grown by leaps and bounds over the last two decades, anyone who drove through Charlotte's east side, or "Eastland", for the first time could hardly tell.

As a native Eastlander it pains me to say that the stories of violence, decay and neglect are mostly true. Businesses are evaporating, homes and businesses sit abandoned and in an extra insult, the area was hit especially hard by the recent recession.

Soccer is somewhat popular in East Charlotte, probably moreso than the majority of Charlotte which largly favors basketball (and Eastland is no exception). On a trip through Eastland one will notice tennis courts which have been converted for futsal use, and public soccer fields which are often in use.

Those reasons are why it came as no surprise to me that Concrete2Green, a company founded by Akbar Majeed specializing in transforming abandoned urban areas into soccer pitches, recently chose Eastland Mall's seldom used ice hockey rink as the location for their newest project, an indoor soccer court.

I sincerly hope the project is successful and will allow the people at C2G to continue their work elsewhere, as their hearts are in the right place.

Despite being stereotyped in a America as an expensive suburban summer sport, soccer is the people's game, and the more people who have opportunies to play it the better.

Gosh, I haven't blogged here in ages. I'm a personal assistant, and anyone with experience in that line of work knows of the time it takes. I don't mind though, I'm quite fond of my job.

At the moment my chronic insomnia is driving me insane and I felt a strange urge to write about Indian football. I'm not sure why, I'm not Indian nor do I have any connection to India, but I am intrigued by the state of football outside of it's traditional bastions of power.

Despite it's status as the world's second most populous nation, India is rarely ever considered a sporting powerhouse. In many ways this statement is unfair, as India is one of cricket's foremost powers and has been an historical power in field hockey. However, despite successes in other sports, India has never fared well in the arena of football.

Indian football suffers largely from a lack of funds and infrastructure. Many Indian football supporters will say that they feel football is largely ignored by authorities in favor of cricket, and occasionally field hockey. These criticisms are not without merit when one compares India's publicly owned cricket venues to their football counterparts, outwith Salt Lake Stadium the difference is almost night and day. Because of this it appears that Indian football will not be able to depend upon governmental assistance and therefore the vital changes to the game must come from within. And slowly, they are...

In 2007 the All India Football Federation (or AIFF) announced the formation of the I-League. The idea behind the I-League is to make football a truly professional sport in India, while many of the top clubs in the old National Football League did pay players, the lower clubs were rather questionable, the introduction of the I-League was meant to remedy this.

As with anything, the I-League has not been without it's detractors. That said, these voiced seem to have been drowned out by those in support of the new league, including sponsors willing to inject much needed sums of money into the game.

While the game is improving with the introduction of the I-League, it still suffers from a lack of reach at the highest level. Despite being India's 4th smallest state in terms of population, and smallest in terms of area, Goa supplies four of the I-League First Division's twelve clubs. India's two largest cities, Mumbai and Kolkata together account for a further seven, while only one other city (Phagwara, Punjab) boasts a top level club. That said, Kolkata is the heart of Indian football, and Goa the soul, so these areas are obviously going to have more clubs than others. But in order to grow the sport the AIFF must help develop it all through-out the nation and foster interest in new areas, but at the same time, they mustn't lose their soul

In conclusion, while they're some way off from challenging the likes of Germany and Brazil, or even Korea or Japan, India is no longer in football's dark ages. Recently India was award a qualifying spot in the AFC Champions League,  on Feb. 25 Goa's Dempo will face off with Sharjah from the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is actually a minor club power in Asian football, so it will be a real test of Dempo, and India's mettle.

Many people (the majority of them Manchester United supporters) have quickly come to the assumption that Manchester City's takeover by the mega-rich Abu Dhabi United Group will lead to the "death" of competition in football.

It won't.

While City have already tabled and been successful in audatious bids for certain players, chief among them Brazilian star Robinho from Real Madrid, it is going to prove difficult for City to attract star players, and even more difficult to make those star players act as a cohesive unit as Real Madrid and Chelsea have found out in the past.

If Mark Hughes is intelligent he'll encourge the new owners to invest in City's recently effective youth scheme, which has produced players such as Micah Richards, Michael Johnson, Kasper Schmeichel, Ched Evans, and Nedum Onuoha. A strong youth system is what has helped Manchester United to dominate the Premier League.

City will certainly become competitive in the league now, which is good for football, not bad for it. In the 90's and early 00's the Premiership was very much a two horse race out with Blackburn's blaze of glory funded by the late Jack Walker's millions. With Chelsea and Liverpool finding recent success it has become more of a competition, adding City to the mix will only make that more interesting.