Five People Who Give Football a Bad Name

It breaks my heart to have to put Joey on here.

I'm an absolute admirer of Joey on the field and around the Press Box. For England, Newcastle and City he always gives the same; energy-fulled performances with a never say die attitude that is just so great on the field.

He was also one of the very few who had the guts to speak up about the silently observed mess that Gerrard and Lampard made after WC 2006 (basically 'we went to the world cup, we played terribly, buy our book), which is something no one else, not even the 'pundits' in the media wanted to admit.

Unfortunately, that's not the Joey that the nation or the world sees. As we all now know, in 2007 Barton ventured out on an ill-fated night out which saw him caught on CCTV punching a man more than 20 times and leaving another teenager with broken teeth.

After this incident, many called for Barton to be forced into resigning from football, others still thought his six-month sentence had been lightened because of his career path.

Joey is a fantastic footballer. But there is no doubt he has brought the game into disrepute and so sadly I must put him on this list.

I was in very split minds about whether to include Perez in this.

On the one hand, he seems to be a passionate Real Madrid fan; he wants the best players at the club and he wants them to go far.

But I don't think this is his main motivation; and I don't think most of the world is convinced either.

Perez's tactics reek of pure business motivation to the outside looker-in. He spends massive amounts of money on players in order to ensure that Real Madrid stays the most high-profile club in the world and his business plan revolves around the PR money that these players bring in (questionable if that will work this time round; the new galacticos cost a lot more, and let's face it none of them are David Beckham).

His repeated calls for a European Super-League are also disappointing. Perez's idea would take football even further away from the fans by placing the biggest (sorry, did I say biggest? I meant RICHEST) clubs in a cross-continental tournament that would surely destroy national leagues whilst making it hard for fans to watch their team.

Perez has stated several times that he doesn't like the Champions league because he doesn't make enough money off of it.

I haven't made my mind up about him. But he makes football out to be all about money and doesn't seem to understand passionate fan motivation, so he gets his spot on this list.

I seem to have it in for Newcastle don't I?

Mike Ashley is a life-long Newcastle fan, so who can blame him for buying the club with his millions?

The place that Mike Ashley went wrong was to take too much control away from the manager. Buying/selling players without even consulting Keegan was never going to end well.

He further messed up with failing to appoint a temporary manager at Newcastle; something he has still failed to do, leaving Hughton there on a temporary basis until he can sell the club.

Altogether, Ashley's intentions were probably always good, and at least he had the courage to admit to his mistakes, but despite good advice pouring in on him from all over he failed to act and that has earned him a hated reputation within football.

Some of you may not have heard of Peter Cavanagh, so I shall fill you in.

Peter Cavanagh is (was) the captain of Accrington Stanley during their momentous rise from non-professional football to the league two.

Amongst our quiet little town our football club was celebrated emphatically as despite Mark Laurenson's usual awful remarks about them (purely because he thinks any team that aren't champions league winners aren't worth his time) they gained some National recognition with an FA cup run that saw them into the fourth round and two promotions when they were expected to be relegated in a crazy six years.

Then, at the end of 07-08 season, allegations came out about players betting against their own team, and Cavanagh was one of the accused.

Things worsened when all the players were found guilty. Cavanagh, the captain of the club, was suspended and fined for betting against his own club of so long, with which he had achieved so much.

So much for loyalty. Chairman Eric Whalley has since sacked Cavanagh, and to be honest, good on him for doing so.

Sepp Blatter (more commonly known as 'Septic Bladder' and 'Oh no not that idiot again') is (somehow) the head of FIFA.

Now I could write a 20 page article about this man and not succinctly outline why he is a complete disgrace. When Blatter opens his mouth, the footballing world apologises in advance.

Some of Blatter's more famous incidents have included offending women footballers everywhere by suggesting that their brand of sport wasn't as popular because it lacked sex appeal; his solution would be 'tighter shorts'.

Blatter is also determined to push through his 6+5 rule, were 6 of the starting line up of a team must be of the same nationality as the club. Blatter has been told in no uncertain terms by the EU that this is illegal and any european club who enforces it will face legal action; Blatter laughed at them and simply said 'laws can be changed'.

Perhaps the most controversial saga of Blatter was when he likened Cristiano Ronaldo to a slave. I don't need to to explain why this insulted every man, woman and child in the world except Ronaldo himself (who agreed - 100 percent).

Other moments of Blatter magic include bigger goals (it would make the game more exciting!), deciding draws by a penalty shootout (after all, every game needs a winner!), and his proposals about changing the timing of the African cup of Nations which would ultimately have meant that African players never got a week away from football. It's a good thing no one takes him seriously anymore.

Blatter is also one of the most opnely biased people on the planet. He is a known member of the Real Madrid supporter's club and has time and time again tried to undermine the English game.

When Spanish and Italian clubs dominated Europe, Blatter said nothing—yet as soon as England have three good seasons—they're far too powerful! When Real Madrid spend gazillions it is fine as it 'levels out Europe' (somehow) but when any team from England spends more than £1m the Premier League is destroying football!

When presented with a very strong bid by England for WC 2010, Blatter makes an off-hand remark about how it will never happen because 'the fans are all hooligans'.

The only good thing I can say about Blatter is that he will be dead soon.