Image posted by the great Benit in the OleOle graphics forum. I thought I'd share it to those of you who are non-graphics forum browsers. It's hilarious, and a bit harsh for Michael Ballack. But hey, the truth hurts.

I don't like to brag about the massive press that I get [sarcasm] because it comes too often [/sarcasm], but this blog has been talked about in this article in the Los Angeles Times. Here's the quote:

"No-name bloggers not listed above also contribute to the site. Some endow the games with a little humor, such as this Romanian blogger who updated fans on the Sweden-Russia game with such tidbits as “Kolodin shoots from far away. I think he's still hung over from the vodka last night. Why would any defender want to shoot from that far out?”  and “Another shot Russia! I can't type his name fast enough so I won't, but great job once again by him.”

Well... it's not really glamorous, but since I am a no-name blogger, I'm slightly excited. They didn't quote Arseblog did they? Well... the article is about OleOle anyways, it's a good read. I only posted it because it's a good example of what kind of people are watching you here on OleOle. But Alana Semuels, if you would have asked, I would have told you my name... seriously. 

omg. I'm famous. omg. I'm gona go buy some Gucci so I look good for the paparazi tommorow. 

Thanks to Niran for showing me this.

<3, Horia

Roberto Calderoli, the minister of reforms in the Italian Government was asked in an interview on La Stampa if the game tomorrow between Italy and Romania has political implications. The hostile and slightly inhumane treatement of romanian "gypsies" being paid back by a Romanian victory. 

Calderoli responded ironically: "if we'll lose against Romania, we'll pas a decree by which their win will be canceled morally."

What an absolute wanker.

Once more, FIFA manage to annoy me. This time dealing with Romanian player Adrian Mutu. Apparently, FIFA want Mutu to pay Chelsea 12 million euros as compensation for the cocaine incident. This is possible only with the Premier League ruling that said that following Mutu's failed drug test, he unilaterally voided the contract with Chelsea. But that ruling only happened because Chelsea wanted the contracted voided in the first place. 

Chelsea didn't have to let Mutu go. Manchester United didn't let Ferdinand go free of contract when he missed his drug test and received one month MORE than mutu in suspension and a similar fee. Chelsea said they don't condone this kind of behavior and therefore can't allow Adrian to be part of the Chelsea organization any longer. So they did everything possible to place the blame on Mutu for their release at the time.

Now FIFA expect him to pay 12 million euros for something that he didn't want to do - leave Chelsea. He was forced out instead of waiting a 7 month suspension and playing again or being sold, and now they want compensation. It's total crap and another reason to hate Chelsea. And FIFA ruling in favor of Chelsea on this case is even more annoying. They have their own interests, and not the interests of the players in mind. Crap umbrella organization. 

I hope he gets a better lawyer and keeps fighting this. It would be a shame if not.

It's always a pleasure to add new talent to the big OleOle Exclusive Designer Team, and today a great one joins us!

I'd like to announce the addition of ACM22 to the team. His real name is Jordan and he lives somewhere in New York. He's been designing for almost two years, and has been administrator of the footiearts community in the process. We've always loved his work, and it's great to have Jordan on our team.

Here are some of his wallpapers:

You can see more of his work, and work by other artists in the OleOle football wallpapers gallery. 

So maybe there is no such thing as a "profile-ee" award in the real world, but now there is a made up award by yours truly that goes to the person with the sickest profile design of the month from now on. You'll find it on my blog here on OleOle.

Sadly, you don't win anything if you win the award, but if you do win it, then you know that I think you have a really well designed profile. It's seriously really really prestigious and I'll send your gift bags by mail... but they "might" get lost. 

Anyways, I'll get right to business. The winner of the "profile-ee" award for the month of May is: Benit

Awesome profile design from the OleOle member Benit. The concept is fairly simple - it emphasizes and uses the nike tiempo boot for the design and the curves of the page. Simple idea, brilliant execution. As you'll see on his profile, Benit is also a member of the OleOle football wallpaper team.  So check out his work too, it's on his profile as well. Send me a message if you spot some awesome profile designs, I'll continue to be on the lookout too. 

This profile is a perfect example of what you can do to your OleOle profile. Everything is customizable on OleOle, you just need some imagination!

I don't usually write reviews on boots, but that's because I haven't had a new pair in quite some time. My old Nike boots started to wear down, so I figured it's about time to go for something new. I was browsing online to find something a football boot that was comfortable, light, and that looked pretty awesome. After looking around for some time, I decided that it's time to invest in a pair of the new Nike Mercurial Vapor IV red and gold boots. So here's what I thought of them, for everyone who is interested in getting some new boots and is considering this specific model.

In terms of comfort, the Vapor IVs feel surprisingly awesome. They're really light weight, they mould around your foot perfectly, and they feel ridiculously comfortable. I was a bit shocked when I put them on because I was expecting random horrible pains and discomfort. But that wasn't the case.
Initial Comfort: 9/10

The touch was also very comfortable, I felt like I could control the ball better because it felt like my foot was touching the ball, not some fat piece of leather. Gheorghe Hagi - the best player to ever live - said that he was able to control the ball so well because he played barefoot all the time when he was young. These Vapors are the closest thing you can get to feeling like you can touch the ball with your foot, and that's really important in my opinion.
Touch: 10/10

The one problem that I had with them is that after I played for about an hour, I started to get some blisters on the back of my ankle. So you need to play with a thick sock, or put some tape on your ankle. It's a problem that happens because of the lack of padding in the back of the shoe. Nike sacrificed padding for weight, but it's not a problem that can't be avoided. It's been getting better and better each time I've played with them, so don't let this keep you from buying them if you want a good light shoe.
Comfort over time: 4/10

I got my Vapors IV from my local shop Soccer Pro. They're nice guys and have great prices, and you can check out their online store at soccerpro.com. They have the Vapors I bought, and the other colors of Mercurial Vapors if you don't like red.

They didn't make me play quite like Ronaldo, but I did feel a bit more free while playing, so that's always good. So go get yourself some new boots for the summer as well!

New Cesc Fabregas Arsenal Wallpaper I made.

So I haven't made a post about the new  football wallpaper gallery on OleOle yet, so here is my introduction to how things will work for everyone who is interested. The OleOle team have been working hard to develop the best wallpaper gallery possible in terms of ease of use, functionality etc. and it has turned out amazing!

We will feature wallpapers that are relevant to current events in football, and they will change every day. For example, for the Champions League final, we featured our best wallpapers of Manchester United and Chelsea, and then just Manchester United once they won it. For now, the featured wallpapers are just new wallpapers created by the OleOle Graphic Artist team, but we will feature Euro 2008 wallpapers once it starts. 

Always go and check out what is new, what is featured, and if you make wallpapers, just upload your own!

For more updates on wallpapers and the graphic community, you can always check out Niran's blog. We'll both be updating everyone on what is happening until we put together a page just for wallpaper updates! 

Also in the wallpaper gallery you can see a disco deco, a robo ramos, champions with horns, and the country that brought you numa numa. 

Enjoy.

I was about to go to sleep and then read in interesting blog article here on OleOle. And frankly it got me thinking a tiny bit and then made me write this post.

So money in football, good or bad? That's the main question. The aforementioned blogger things it's ruined football, and I think it's done quite the opposite.

When you think about football you have to think of it as an economy -the football economy - driven by the football business enterprise.  Being the sport with by far the largest audience (2 billion people roughly), there is a lot of money involved and a lot of development. Everything is about money... war, religion, welfare programs, and even charity - because either you pay money to charity or volunteer your time (which means you can afford to take time off from working.. I mean.. do you see the mine workers in Africa volunteering at their local food bank?).

So understanding that everything is about money is essential. Then comes what ideas you have about how economies work and what the best approach would be. The way it's working right now is through sort of a trickle down - free market system. And I'll go into why I think that's working in a bit.

I never like the arguments that certain clubs have monopolized football. If there really was one true monopoly in the football industry, then we'd have only one champion every year of everything, and football would get really boring. The fact that teams fluctuate so much eliminates the possibility of even considering that any one team has an absolute monopoly. Then comes the argument that the top clubs have some kid of cartel formed, where they just dominate. But that doesn't explain how come every season there is the surprise team breaking through, and they haven't spent more money than a team they place above in the league. 

Big clubs with big bank accounts help smaller clubs more than they hurt them by "dominating". It's no coincidence that there are by far more professional footballers now than there were 50 years ago. Money that has been pumped into big teams has been spent towards transfers, stadiums, youth systems, academies, tournaments. Teams are making their living and growing because big clubs pay them money for talent they grow. The money they get, they invest in better facilities, higher paychecks, more youth, etc. For some teams it pays off, for others it does not. 

Manchester United spent the money they won from Champions League revenue and the money they got for winning the league on all their transfers. The money they spent was earned through performance, and they received so much money because WE watch their games and see the advertisements, WE go to their stadiums for the matches, and WE buy their merch. Once clubs mature and profit like United has, they invest only money they win. And that's all they need to invest to maintain or add some youth. They don't spend 100 million extra to buy one super expensive player that they don't really need.

Think how much Tottenham have stimulated the football market in the past few years. They've paid high prices for crap players and they've won nothing (well some cup) and they're just abosulte shit. But the prices they paid helped other teams, and in turn that money helped other teams and so on. 

The money invested helps the global football business grow, expand, and frankly employ more people and raise standards. We have a faster game, more exciting, and with more attention than ever before. And we still don't have a monopoly!

I can tell you when I did see a monopoly in football - during communism in Romania, at the peak in 86. No one was allowed to invest in any clubs, they were run by government organizations. The organization with the biggest budget was the Military, and their team was Steaua. They won basically every season, league and cup. And one season they won the Champions League too, with no foreign players. But they completely monopolized football in Romania and there was no money invested to make any kind of difference, making our league pure crap after those years. And we're still recovering from that now. Finally through investment and good management, a small team broke through the ranks and won the league - CFR Cluj. They spent far less money than Steaua, they spent much less time match fixing and hiring referees, but then won the league. And that to me makes a big statement. 

When you have any kind of control and you don't allow the market to do it's job and allow a freedom of flow of money through the system you can't expect progress. You might have some for a short time, but then it all starts to snowball. Money makes people want to do things... like continue playing football, because it pays as well or better than working on a farm, cleaning shit off of toilets, or for a group of footballers, it pays better than managing a big company or being a doctor.

My last example is Arsenal, who spend very little money compared to other big teams in the Premiership, and continue to do well. They don't win the league every season, but they might be able to dominate for the next few years if they can keep their players - WITH MONEY! And with Hleb, Flamini etc. leaving, it's just another bit of proof that it's hard to monopolize football even if you have a completely created team and not a bunch of 50 million dollar superstars. Barcelona are suffering from the "too many superstar" syndrome. And they're changing their ways, selling players, promoting youth, etc. 

But in the end, football has benefited from influx of money over the years. The rise of Eastern European leagues for example is due to money being invested. You've seen Romanian and Bulgarian teams in the Champions League groups for the past few seasons (though they didn't do very well.. but still..) and they were there because  of money. The industries in these countries are growing in terms of football, and it will just give more and more young kids the opportunity to play an amazing game and maybe make a living out of it and entertain us. 

Football sales and industry in Brazil also represents the amount of GDP that it cost to switch from oil to ethanol as their fuel. Eliminate the money in football in Brazil, and you would not have an energy-independent nation. Think about that for an impact.

Plus, if there wasn't so much money in football, you wouldn't have places like OleOle... and that would be no fun. ;)

It's hard for me to get excited about a website these days because everything that seems to pop up is a carbon fiber copy of something that exists already on the internet. I experienced this in my time online as a website administrator when sites that I created were copied by other people to the minimal creative pixel I put into my creation. The only difference was that they were not unique, they were just mimics. When I browse the internet now I feel like I am watching a show of mimes, no character that has their unique voice, no character that displays a new vibrant color. The last time I got super excited while browsing the internet was when I discovered Virb.com - a completely amazing website that cleaned up social networking and gave us - the people - a unique product.

In the football world, it has been years since I've been excited about a new site. You have the same old big ogres looking and performing the same way they did years ago. Then you have a plethera of forums that were built to offer the exact same discussions, sections, and platform as every other forum that exists. Yes football discussion is fun, but we've evolved, and therefore, the way we discuss has to evolve as well.

Far too many football sites have been making profits while ignoring the investment in progressive technologies to take their platform to the next level. You have to visit one site to read news, then go to another to find pictures (and that God awful google image search), then you have to go to youtube or even worse, footytube to find videos (which are usually poor in quality), and then you have to go to one of many football forums to be able to discuss everything you gathered up from all of these different sources; finally you relize that your desktop is lonely so you have to find a site with decent wallpapers, and then you also realize that your ears are jelous of your desktop, so you have to search for hours for a good podcast of your favorite teams and leagues. 

Well, thankfully there exist people in this world that have a progressive mind, and know how to find resources, people and ideas from. These people have congregated at Ole Ole, and they've created a damn good product. Football fans are not ignored any longer by the uselessness of the big players, and the hard to find nature of the small players in the football world. We now have a platform to get all the information we could possibly need in one place - and best of all, we the people get to decide what goes where and what is good and what is bad. Everyone is an editor, everyone is a journalist, everyone is a photographer, a video producer, a graphic designer, and unlike George W. Bush thinks, we're all deciders. 

The internet was created to give a platform for people to create their own media and their own entertainment and netowrking. Football fans finally have a platform to express who they are, what their passion is and speak it in their native toungue. The world of football comes together, and football is evolving. Hopefully the progressive nature of Ole Ole will never cease to develop, and from now on, we'll never look at football the way we are looking at it now - because we get to paint the picture, and that's very important!