tagged w/ Chelsea FC
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If you scripted it, nobody would believe you. It was Rocky. It was 300. It was Braveheart. I have honestly never seen anything like it, with the possible exception of the aforementioned US hockey victory over the mighty Soviets in 1980. The Villanova and NC State NCAA hoops championships, which most Americans are familiar with, don’t come close. Kurt Gibson’s pinch-hit jack against Dennis Eckersley? Multiply that minute of adrenaline by 90.If you scripted it, nobody would believe you. It was Rocky. It was 300. It was... more
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Electronic Arts and the Premier League today announced that EA SPORTS has become the Official Sports Technology Partner of the Premier League. Under the partnership, EA SPORTS will expand its current relationship with fans of the Barclays Premier League with exclusive enhanced experiences and even greater authenticity inside of EA SPORTS Football products. EA SPORTS branding will be featured on all live on-screen broadcasts of Barclays Premier League fixtures, and EA SPORTS will work with broadcasters to develop enhancements for match day broadcast analysis and increased fan interaction. EA SPORTS will also sponsor the Player Performance Index and will explore new ways to utilize more in depth Barclays Premier League statistics than ever before in future iterations of EA SPORTS Football products.Electronic Arts and the Premier League today announced that EA SPORTS has become the... more
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MrKLM
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Before Dider Drogba was named 2009's African Footballer of the Year, he was a 5-year-old living in Paris with his uncle, Michel Goba. In this Vanguard extra, correspondent Mariana van Zeller talks with Goba about Foot Solidaire, an organization that helps young players who have been abandoned by agents.
"Vanguard," airing weekly on Current TV Wednesdays at 10/9c, is a no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Kaj Larsen, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.
For more, go to http://current.com/vanguard.Before Dider Drogba was named 2009's African Footballer of the Year, he was a... more
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In this scene from Vanguard's "Soccer's Lost Boys," correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to a prestigious -- and unconventional -- academy for young African footballers. Founder Tom Vernon explains how for the 40 boys currently attending Right to Dream in Ghana, an emphasis on both athletics and academics empowers students to plan for their future.
Learn more about Right to Dream: http://www.righttodream.com/
"Vanguard," airing weekly on Current TV Wednesdays at 10/9c, is a no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Kaj Larsen, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.
For more, go to http://current.com/vanguard.In this scene from Vanguard's "Soccer's Lost Boys," correspondent... more
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As the world turns its attention to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, the focus will be on many of the brightest stars in soccer like Chelsea players Didier Drogba (first) and Michael Essien and Inter Milan's Samuel Eto'o. In this episode of Vanguard, Mariana van Zeller explores the dark side to the sport's global popularity; what has been called "the new slave trade."
As more and more money flows into professional European soccer leagues, the demand for young West African players has skyrocketed - and so has the number of unlicensed agents, illegitimate soccer academies, and shady middlemen looking to exploit these players. For a very small percentage of these West African youngsters, their dreams of playing professionally in Europe come true. The rest face a litany of horrors: deadly Mediterranean crossings, broken promises, vanishing agents, brutal living conditions, and families torn apart. It's estimated that 20,000 young African soccer players are now stranded in Europe. Many more never even make it that far and remain stuck in transit, in port towns across Africa.
Mariana retraces the journey that these West African players often take in their quest to make it big in Europe. On the dirt fields of Ghana, she spends a week with a youth coach hungry to sell his players. In the slums of Morocco, she meets a growing community of West African players abandoned by agents who promised them professional contracts with European teams. And in Paris she witnesses how these trafficked players get forced underground, living illegally and putting their last hopes in shady, black market games where the best players compete for the attention of the agents and managers in attendance. The journey is full of heartbreak but along the way Mariana also meets a handful of individuals fighting for change, most notably the director of a soccer academy in rural Ghana called Right to Dream.As the world turns its attention to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, the focus... more
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Mariana van Zeller is a correspondent for Vanguard.
Every four years, I look forward to the World Cup. It's the one time where my small country, Portugal, commands a little respect on the world stage. But this World Cup is different...I know too much.
Over the last six months, I've been investigating a particularly heartbreaking scandal for a Current TV documentary called "Soccer's Lost Boys," airing next Wednesday. The story took me from the dirt soccer pitches of Ghana to the migrant ghettos of Morocco and finally, to black market soccer games in Paris.
It's estimated that 20,000 young West African players are currently stranded throughout Europe--trafficked there by predatory agents who snatch them off the fields of Ghana and Senegal and Cameroon promising contracts with big European teams and then abandon them when those tryouts either don't materialize or don't go well.
Jean Claude Mbvoumin, one of the few advocates trying to help these kids through his small Paris-based organization Foot Solidaire, told me that 70 percent of the tryouts that took place in France last year were "uninvited," meaning that--like door-to-door salesmen--these agents just show up with a player--or three or 10--from parts unknown, hoping to get them in front of coaches. Not surprisingly, this approach leads far more often to heartbreak and suffering than to the fame and fortune promised these youngsters.
If you're reading this in the US, you may not be aware of what big industry soccer has become. Money on par with the salaries in the NFL, NBA and MLB are being paid to players from around the globe to play for teams in the UK, France, Italy, Spain. Soccer, or "football" as the rest of the world knows it, is the most global of sports and these days, there's perhaps no bigger market for promising new players than Africa.
Over the last decade there's been a surge in the number of Africans playing at big European clubs. To take the top English league for example, in 1989 it had only four players from Africa, all of them white Africans. In 2009, the league had 60 African-born players, nearly all of them blacks from West Africa. A handful, like Didier Drogba from the Ivory Coast or Michael Essien from Ghana, have risen to become global super stars and fabulously wealthy in the process. These rags-to-riches stories now serve as inspiration for thousands of young African boys who see soccer as their way out.
But the same desperation that drives many young Africans to pile 70 people in a fishing boat meant for seven to make the dangerous sea crossing to Europe, also makes them easy targets for unscrupulous agents, conmen and other unsavory characters. At the embassy of the Ivory Coast in Rabat, Morocco, the consular general pulled out a thick blue book--like an accountant's ledger--filled with the names and faces of young footballers who had been scammed and abandoned in Morocco. I stood in shock as page after page of young African faces stared back at me. My initial worries that we might be stretching some isolated, anecdotal cases of player trafficking into something bigger vanished on the spot. This problem was real--and real nasty.
I like to think of this story as an African Hoop Dreams, although a similar story could be told from South America or even Eastern Europe. Anywhere in the world where a passion of football is paired with the desperation of poverty, the conditions are ripe for the exploitation of young talent. As South Africa hosts the World Cup--the first African nation to do so--it's important that people realize that the growing popularity of European leagues around the globe has come at a cost.
The reason that FIFA, the governing body of the sport, has decided to hold the World Cup in Africa for the first time has nothing to do with the beauty of safari Africa--featured so prominently in ESPN's promo package--with its epic vistas and silhouetted giraffes. The passion for soccer in Africa lives in less picturesque places, like the war-torn Ivory Coast and the coastal slums of Accra. The World Cup is being held in Africa because the future of soccer is very much entwined with the future of the developing world.
The trafficking of young African players may be news to soccer's many millions of fans, but it's an open secret among those who oversee the sport. A few years ago, Sepp Blatter, FIFA's president, even accused top European clubs of "social and economic rape" in their search for new talent in Africa. But despite those harsh words, little has actually been done.
Now that FIFA is raking in billions of dollars in TV rights and sponsorships from the Cup in Africa, perhaps it's time to give a little back. The most popular sport in the world shouldn't be turning its back on thousands of its own.
"Soccer's Lost Boys" premieres on Current TV Wednesday, June 16 at 10/9c. Watch the episode trailer after the jump.
Mariana van Zeller is a correspondent for Vanguard.
Every four years, I look... more
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The new cover story in The New York Times Magazine, “How a Soccer Star is Made,” is a long and detailed article about the intense training that has grown up around youth soccer academies in Europe and what American soccer organizations can learn from their way of doing what has become very big business.
[Dutch soccer team] Ajax puts young players into a competitive caldron, a culture of constant improvement in which they either survive and advance or are discarded. It is not what most would regard as a child-friendly environment, but it is one that sorts out the real prodigies — those capable of playing at an elite international level — from the merely gifted.
From a very early age — sometimes even before a boy has even started school — these players’ careers are contracted, licensed and traded — or in the typical parlance of the sport, bought and sold.
As the New York Times reports:
No one pretends that its business is other than what it is. “We sold Wesley Sneijder for a ridiculous amount of money,” [trainer Olav] Versloot said. “We can go on for years based on what he was sold for.”
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[British team] Fulham, like Ajax, is often a seller of talent. It recently sold a 20-year-old to Manchester United for seven million pounds, or more than $10 million. “It’s a little ugly talking about the financial terms,” [Coach Huw] Jennings said. “I don’t like to do it. It feels not too far off from the slave trade.”
With an estimated 10,000 boys being trained by clubs in England alone, the demand for young players — in quantity, at least — may be greater than the number of interested UK youth.
Jennings said that his scouts, in response to the “unsuitability of the indigenous population of Britain” — children who are too sedentary and spend their time with video games — were increasingly focused “on the inner city of London, among Africans, Eastern Europeans and Caribbeans.”
But the outreach extends beyond the immigrant communities of inner city London. European clubs have long been scouring the globe looking for the best talent. Six of the last ten FIFA World Players of the Year Awards, for instance, have gone to European club players who hail from either Argentina or Brazil. But increasingly, the sport’s fastest rising stars are coming from Africa.
Recently, I returned from the continent where a generation of kids drawing inspiration from the rags to riches stories of players like Didier Drogba, who was born in Ivory Coast but has since become an international superstar while playing for Chelsea in England.
Even Drogba’s injury, which may keep him out of the World Cup, won’t stop poor boys who grew up playing soccer in dirt fields from wanting to be like him.
For an upcoming episode of Vanguard, “Soccer’s Lost Boys," I travelled to Africa and Europe to examine the dark side of this growing network of recruitment, and to track down the ambitious young African players whose dreams make them an easy target for shady scouts. Unlike European academies where players pay very little to train, these kids’ families are bilked of their meager savings with promises that their boys could be the next Drogba.
What happens after that—boys abandoned along the way, often without any money, papers, or ability to return home to their families—is the tragic, ugly underbelly of the beautiful game.
Watch the trailer for “Soccer’s Lost Boys,” premiering on Current TV on Wednesday, June 16, at 10/9c, after the jump:
The new cover story in The New York Times Magazine, “How a Soccer Star is... more
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As South Africa hosts the 2010 World Cup, the focus will be on many of the continent's brightest stars in soccer, including Chelsea's Didier Drogba and Inter Milan's Samuel Eto'o. In "Soccer's Lost Boys," correspondent Mariana van Zeller explores the dark side to the sport's global popularity, what has been called "the new slave trade."
The demand for young West African players in professional European soccer leagues has skyrocketed--and so has the number of unlicensed agents, illegitimate soccer academies, and shady middlemen looking to exploit these players. For a very small percentage of these West African youngsters, their dreams of playing professionally in Europe come true. The rest face a litany of horrors: deadly Mediterranean crossings, broken promises, vanishing agents, brutal living conditions, and families torn apart. It's estimated that 20,000 young African soccer players are now stranded in Europe. Many more never even make it that far and remain stuck in transit in port towns across Africa.
"Soccer's Lost Boys" airs Wednesday, June 16 at 10/9c. For more, go to http://current.com/vanguard.
"Vanguard," airing weekly on Current TV Wednesdays at 10/9c, is a no-limits documentary series whose award-winning correspondents put themselves in extraordinary situations to immerse viewers in global issues that have a large social significance. Unlike sound-bite driven reporting, the show's correspondents, Adam Yamaguchi, Kaj Larsen, Christof Putzel and Mariana van Zeller, serve as trusted guides who take viewers on in-depth real life adventures in pursuit of some of the world's most important stories.As South Africa hosts the 2010 World Cup, the focus will be on many of the... more
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Chelsea FC has won the 2009/2010 English Premier League title.
At the match, they beat 10-man Wigan 8-0, Chelsea, (along with Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspurs) qualify for the Chanpions League qualifiers while Manchester City and Aston Villa books their places for the Europa League qualifiers.
Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/football/05/09/chelsea.win.english.premier.league/?hpt=T2Chelsea FC has won the 2009/2010 English Premier League title.
At the match, they... more
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Chelsea are in the UEFA Champions League semi final after beating Liverpool 7-5 on aggregate (score on the night: 4-4)
Chelsea will play Barcelona as they also won on aggregate (Bayern Munich 1-1 Barcelona [AGG 1-5])Chelsea are in the UEFA Champions League semi final after beating Liverpool 7-5 on... more
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Chelsea managed to beat third place Aston Villa with a goal from Frenchman Nicolas Anelka.
New Dutch coach Guus Hiddink said "It was good to get away with the points."Chelsea managed to beat third place Aston Villa with a goal from Frenchman Nicolas... more
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SW2
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4 years ago
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Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich may have saved the hopes of a footballing nation. The Russia National Team have feared that coach Guus Hiddink may walk away from the job. Guus is reported to be worry that his salary will not be paid. Roman has stepped in and will pay Hiddink's salary if the football union fail to do so.
This is not the first time that Mr Abramovich has invested in Russian Football. In major tournaments such as the Euro 2008 Qualifiers, large sums of money have been offered to each player based on qualification and performance. Abramovich also put up a Multi-Million Dollar prize for the Israeli Channel 1 Cup which saw CSKA Moscow claim the prize in a final against Maccabi Haifa.
http://www.russiatoday.com/sports/news/33606Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich may have saved the hopes of a footballing nation.... more
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A little Chelsea FC may soon exist in Croatia.
Mate Peros, the president of Croatian football club Hajduk Split, confirmed on Sunday evening that the club had helds talks with former Chelsea manager Avram Grant about his taking a position with the club.A little Chelsea FC may soon exist in Croatia.
Mate Peros, the president of... more
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Premier League leaders Chelsea suffered a humiliating 3-1 defeat to AS Roma who revived their Champions League qualifying hopes with the emphatic victory in the Stadio Olimpico on Tuesday night.
Roma went into the Group A game off the back of a 2-0 defeat at Juventus which left them one place above the Serie A relegation zone and with coach Luciano Spalletti under heavy pressure.
But their indifferent form counted for little as a first half strike from Christian Panucci and a superb double after the break from Mirko Vucinic sunk Luiz Felipe Scolari's men.
Chelsea had made the better start as they looked for the win which would have all but sealed qualification for the knockout stages.
Roma goalkeeper Alexander Doni pulled off good saves from Deco and Frank Lampard before Panucci put the home side ahead in the 33rd minute.
He strode in unmarked to tap in a Cicinho cross from close range after the Chelsea defense fatally hesitated.
The second half was only three minutes old when Vucinic rifled home a shot from outside the penalty area which left Petr Cech clutching at fresh air.
Chelsea pushed forward, but were caught out again in the 58th minute as Jon Obi Mikel was robbed by Vucinic who stole forward to beat Cech with a low shot. It was his eighth goal in 18 Champions League appearances.
Chelsea pulled one back on 75 minutes as Deco's shot was only parried out to captain John Terry, who tapped in from close range with Roma appealing for handball.
But they never looked capable of getting back on even terms as Roma held on for a famous victory, made easier by the sending off on 80 minutes of Deco, who was sent off for a second yellow card.
With Bordeaux winning 2-1 at Romanian minnows CFR Cluj, the situation in the group remains tight.
Chelsea still lead on seven points from four games, closely trailed by Roma and Bordeaux on six points and Cluj on four.
Premier League leaders Chelsea suffered a humiliating 3-1 defeat to AS Roma who... more
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CSKA Moscow youngster Alan Dzagoev has played down speculation linking him with a move to Real Madrid, claiming he would be more interested in Chelsea.
The 18-year-old came to the attention of the Madrid club after his man-of-the- match performance in CSKA's 3-0 Uefa Cup win over Deportivo La Coruna last week and reports from Spain over the weekend said the club have identified the Russian attacking midfielder as a transfer target.
But interviewed in Sport Express, Dzagoev poured cold water on talk of a transfer to the Spanish capital.
"I'm sure it isn't serious," he said of the rumours. "In any case, I expect to remain at CSKA for a bit longer."
But Dzagoev, who made his debut for Guus Hiddink's Russia last month, admitted that should he move abroad, he would prefer a transfer to Chelsea.
"Basically I like Chelsea more. I have supported the team for four years already," he stated.
Asked why, Dzagoev replied: "The squad rotation, for example. There are about 22 players in the squad, but each is as important as the other and they all play regularly."
For the time being, however, Dzagoev restated his intent to remain in Russia.
"There are many examples to be seen of players who have gone abroad at a young age and then quickly returned. I don't think it's worth leaving Russia early."
CSKA Moscow youngster Alan Dzagoev has played down speculation linking him with a move... more
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Chelsea star Michael Ballack backs down in Germany row "I'm sorry Low... I made a mistake"
Germany captain Michael Ballack has sensationally backed down in his war of words with manager Joachim Low after being threatened with being thrown out of the national team.
The row started after Chelsea star Ballack (32) criticised the coach about his handling of Germany star Torsten Frings in a interview with the 'Frankfurter Allgemeine' newspaper. Ballack slammed Low by saying: “If someone doesn’t want someone anymore, they should be honest about it”.
The public feud continued after the German manager retorted to BILD: “It disappoints me that he is playing people politics in this manner.”
In a bid to calm the situation and rescue his place in the side, Ballack made a full apology. But whether it will be enough to save his captain’s armband, remains to be seen.
Here is Michael Ballack's apology in full:
“I spoke to Jogi Low on the phone today and told him that it was never my aim to criticise his work as manager, but that I just wanted to protect and support my fellow players in any difficult situations they may find themselves in.
I hold Jogi Low in high regard both personally as a human being and as a manager.
My interview was based on situations and not on people. I didn’t want to attack anyone personally, but just openly and critically discuss things that are in my heart as captain. I don’t want to further discuss the content of the interview.
I consciously chose this point in time to give the interview because the team is playing well and winning and the manager is, in my opinion, in a strong and untouchable position. It would have been a weak move to give the interview if we had successively lost two games.
I did think that I would come under criticism for discussing my views, but I never thought that it would be to such an extent. Therefore I must admit that it was a failure to have done it in the manner I chose.
I will sit down with Joachim Low as soon as my health allows, and apologise for my conduct. One thing is clear: my absolute priority is the success of the team." Chelsea star Michael Ballack backs down in Germany row "I'm sorry Low...... more
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Luiz Felipe Scolari sounded an ominous warning to Chelsea’s Barclays Premier League rivals yesterday by claiming that his players have the potential to develop into the perfect team. The Chelsea manager even raised the prospect of emulating Arsène Wenger’s so-called “Invincibles” by going through the league campaign without losing a game – a feat achieved by Arsenal four years ago.
Chelsea are unbeaten in 12 matches in all competitions this season with tomorrow’s top-of-the table clash against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge looming, although Scolari believes that the best is yet to come from his side. The Brazilian led his country to their fifth World Cup triumph in 2002 and has won two Copa Libertadores titles – the South American equivalent of the Champions League – with Grêmio and Palmeiras, but is adamant that this Chelsea team is the equal of any that he has managed before.
“We’re unbeaten so far and have the potential to become the perfect team,” Scolari said. “I’ve worked with lots of great teams over the years and it’s difficult to say which is better, but this team I’m coaching now is the team that in training give me more happiness than I’ve ever experienced in my life. I’ve seen in this team passion and professionalism.
“I think it’s one of the best teams I’ve worked with in my life. Passion and professionalism are so important. Sometimes you need to give more to the team because you love this team. Sometimes professionalism is more important. In the future, I think I’ll have more of both and it’s possible to go through the league season undefeated. In some games maybe we could play better than we’ve played up to now. It’s possible to play better, but I’m satisfied with what I’ve seen so far. We’re training every day for this. Every day we correct things that are wrong. Maybe after a month, a week or a year, the players will be better.” Luiz Felipe Scolari sounded an ominous warning to Chelsea’s Barclays Premier... more
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Coach Jogi Low threatens to ban Chelsea star Will Michael Ballack be booted off Germany team?
Michael Ballack’s Germany future has been left hanging in the balance after Joachim Low threatened to give his captain the boot.
The row started after Chelsea star Ballack (32) criticised the coach about his handling of Germany star Torsten Frings in a interview with the 'Frankfurter Allgemeine' newspaper. Ballack slammed Low by saying: “If someone doesn’t want someone anymore, they should be honest about it”. He went on to compare Fring’s fate to that of Oliver Kahn: “It was portrayed as a competitive battle with Jens Lehmann, that in my eyes he could never have won.”
Ballack also spoke out about Schalke star Kevin Kuranyi, who was booted out of the national team after he left the stadium at half time during an international match recently: “I can understand Kevin’s frustration”, said Ballack.
The public feud continued after the German manager retorted to BILD: “It disappoints me that he is playing people politics in this manner.”
In a statement issued through the German Football Association Low added more fuel to the fire: “We could never be accused of not respecting each other as a team. But obviously the idea has got around in our ranks that respect is automatically connected to a guaranteed place in the side. But the personal things and the tactics are two different things that the manager has to take into account before making a decision. No player, not even the captain, has the right to discuss the team line-up or to criticise the choices the manager has made about team members. Especially not to voice his opinion against the coach’s team in public.”
To see more photos of Ballack in action go to BILD.com Coach Jogi Low threatens to ban Chelsea star Will Michael Ballack be booted off... more
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Thursday's edition of my three times a week talk show.Watch the show here on CURRENT TV on Tues, Thurs & Sats.
In today's show :
The supermarket on Sunday.
Ebay.
Sharing the showers.
A plane without a pilot.
More and more carrier bags.
Ladies and their trolleys.
No free pen.
Carry around baskets.
A survey.
Stars need support.
Me nephew supports Chelsea.
Katilyn celebrates an anniversary.
A nice young fit man.
Bananas & Milk.
Billie Piper.
Learning to fly.
Making people smile.
The gadget show.
Too expensive.
We will rock you.
Bob from Iceland still won't give the money back.
Where is my soldier ?
I havn't sinned.
Nothing from the hot food counter.
A duet.
Allergic to sunlight..
How to get more food for nothing.
chris@unitedkingdomtalk.co.uk
WWW.UNITEDKINGDOMTALK.CO.UKThursday's edition of my three times a week talk show.Watch the show here on... more
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