footballcircus: Sparks Will Fly

At Football Circus you won't find us discussing the pros and cons of the Christmas Treeformation. Nor will you read articles that dissect the tactical nuances of Arsene Wenger and Jurgen Klopp. And if it's up to the minute transfer news you seek, jog on. If however, tales of fans starting fires in the stands, goalkeepers chopping their own fingers off and players wearing masks during inteviews are more up your alley, you've come to the right place.

Welcome, once again, to Football Circus.

Fans Flare Up in Belgrade Derby

When it comes to a match known as the 'Eternal Derby', fans are always likely to get a little feisty. But when Partizan and Red Star Belgrade faced off last Saturday, the derby got more heated off the field than usual.

The crowd chaos began after home side Red Star went 1-0 up. The travelling Partizan fans did not take well to seeing their team go behind, nor to the Red Star fans' celebrations for that matter. Cue lit flares being thrown by the Partizan fans onto the pitch.

Not satisfied with causing disruption on the pitch, the away fans felt the need to throw more lit flares...Not at opposition fans, but at each other. Surrounded by lit flares, they proceeded to throw rubbish atop the flames, causing sections of the away stand to glow with small fires.

Match officials stopped play as fire trucks moved to extinguish the fires. Ten minutes later normal service somehow resumed, albeit with seats removed from the away section as a safety precaution, and the referee allowed play to continue.

Further flares were thrown onto the pitch later in the game, but the full 90 minutes were played out and Red Star went onto defeat their city rivals.

Blatter to Meet Pope Francis

FIFA president Sepp Blatter might be 77 but he certainly gets around. Blatter was in London last week where he spoke at Oxford Union and landed himself in trouble for a video of the talk, where he mimicked Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo. Rightly or wrongly, Blatter suggested that Ronaldo had "more expenses for the hairdresser" than Lionel Messi, before doing a rather odd impression of the Portuguese forward.

Blatter clearly upset CR7 as Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, like an aggrieved parent, wrote a strongly worded letter to FIFA, labelling Blatter's comments as "unacceptable". In fact, the player himself took to Facebook ala a moody teenager to state:

"This video shows clearly the respect and consideration that FIFA has for me, for my club and my country. Much is explained now.

"I wish Mr Blatter health and a long life, with the certainty that he will continue to witness, as he deserves, the successes of his favourite teams and players".

Blatter duly proceeded to do what any good president of the governing body of association football would do. Launch a Twitter apology. Mr. Blatter tweeted:

"Dear @Cristiano. I apologise if you were upset by my light-hearted answer at private event on Friday. I never meant to offend you.

"I am an honorary “socio” at Real Madrid @cristiano & explained we’ve many talented players in world game, including you. Best wishes".

With the Ronaldo fracas seemingly put to bed, for now at least, it has now been announced that Blatter will have a private audience with the Pope in Rome on November 22nd.

Blatter wrote to Pope Francis when he was elected earlier this year, stating:

"We have learned that Your Holiness is a passionate follower of our sport and of a club nicknamed `The Holy Team' no less".

Perhaps Blatter will be seeking forgiveness for upsetting Ronaldo and Madrid.

Uruguayan Keeper Gets the Chop

OK, we've possibly just provided you with the most insensitive headline in Football Circus history right there...

There have been some rather odd off-field injuries suffered by footballers over the years. Goalkeepers in particular seem to have a knack for harming themselves - David Seaman once broke a bone reaching for a television remote; Kasey Keller knocked out his front teeth removing golf clubs from his car; and Santiago Canizares missed Spain's 2002 World Cup campaign after dropping a bottle of cologne on his foot and tearing a tendon. Juan Obelar however, may have just topped them though.

The 34 year old Uruguayan goalkeeper had not played since last season after leaving club side Fenix in his home country. He had harboured hopes of returning to the game in January. Those hopes were dashed however and his career ended, after the unfortunate keeper somehow chopped four of his fingers off while carrying out some DIY at home.

The man himself explained what happened on his Facebook page:

"I feel so awful, this is the most horrendous thing that has ever happened to me. It is a very painful moment.

"I was doing a few things for my house, putting wood through a plane and the next thing I know the machine ripped off four fingers.

"I was on my own, I didn’t have help from anyone and the only digit I had left was my thumb. They have already told me I am not going to recover a single finger, but they will try to rebuild me a bit. It’s painful, but God knows why these things happen".

What's Mad Mario doing this week?

Regular readers will be fully aware that Mario Balotelli's name features heavily on Football Circus. On a given week there's probably a 50% chance that there will be a Balotelli-related article. Why? Well his apparent borderline-insane mentality alone certainly gives rise to numerous stories. The fact that the media are seemingly obsessed with him helps as well.

So this week we're going to give a quick rundown of the headlines he has made in the past seven days.

For starters, he has featured in a video with French rapper Rohff, which has been dubbed 'A.C Milan 2.0'. It's a short and well, in our opinion, pointless video which shows Rohff hanging out with Balotelli with Rohff's music playing throughout the video. The video can be seen here.

Next, he was given something of a dressing down by Milan teammate Kaka who re-signed for the Rossoneiri this past summer. In a somewhat chastising tone, Kaka has been quoted:

"Mario is a great guy, but he must understand that in the world of football he has his responsibility. Both with Milan and the Italian national team.

He is a model for many people and must understand and better manage something that is so important".

Finally, Balo was dropped by Milan for their Champions League encounter with Barcelona at the Nou Camp. Before the match, Milan assistant Mauro Tassotti defended the decision, explaining:

"Mario is not in his best period of form and has suffered from a few problems recently since that injury on international duty".

And Frimpong?

Like Balotelli, Emmanuel Frimpong is another Football Circus regular. The stories in which he features in are rarely as exciting and usually involve him uploading images to Instagram. We have with little difficulty, concluded, that Frimpong's time is mainly spent photoshopping and creating memes as he has rarely appeared in the Arsenal lineup this season.

This week, the midfielder has been teasing his teammate Aaron Ramsey, who scored a wonder goal against Liverpool last weekend.

Italian Football Story of the Week

- Pirlo Interviewed whilst wearing a Mask

It's difficult not to like Andrea Pirlo. The World Cup winning Italian midfielder is a joy to watch play the sport. He scored one of the most audacious penalties in recent history. He also has a magnificent beard. He has now proven that he also quite the sense of humour.

Interviewed after Juventus' 4-0 win over Catania to give his provide post-match comments, in the spirit of Halloween, Pirlo emerged donning a scary mask...and a suit.

Pirlo answered all the interviewer's questions in a completely deadpan manner, giving no acknowledgement to the fact that he was dressed as some sort of suit wearing monster.

Further confirmation of Pirlo's funny side came this week in the form of a Gennaro Gattuso interview with Italy's RAI network, wherein Pirlo's former midfield partner claimed that Pirlo had offered his sister to AC Milan president Adriano Galliani and sporting director Ariedo Braida.

Gattuso quipped:

"You see him, the face of an angel but he is a son of a bitch, always makes jokes, always breaks the boxes, does not stand still.

"One day I was eating at Milanello, I had the bright idea to leave my phone on the table, and he sent a text message to Galliani and Braida offering them my sister".