Top 10 Crazy World Football Stories of the Week

Upsets, Apologies, Contracts, Call-ups and Administration.

Those five words sum up what has been a crazy week of football, both on and off the pitch. 

We saw two major upsets in the Champions League, an apology from a certain Argentinian striker, major contract developments with two of the hottest transfer targets of the summer, a rather bizarre England international call-up and two major football clubs entered administration.

And that's not even all that has gone down this week.

Read ahead to get the full scoop on the craziest headlines of this week of football.

Portsmouth and Glasgow Rangers Enter Administration

Technically speaking, both of these teams actually entered administration last week. But they've both been dealing with the fallout since then.

I won't go into the details of why each club entered administration here, but for those interested in learning about the reasons for Portsmouth's second entrance into administration in three years, check this link.

(Spoiler Alert: If you're familiar with why Portsmouth entered administration the first time around, you'll find that the reasons for them entering administration again are surprisingly similar.)

From the same website, we get an explanation of why Rangers entered administration.

Of the two administrations, Rangers is considerably more worrying. Portsmouth's administration mostly came down to Portsmouth putting its trust into another unreliable owner and getting bitten bad when he turned out to be a criminal.

For Rangers, things are much more complex, and the consequences much more severe.

Everyone, especially Celtic fans, keeps acting like everything will be fine regardless of what happens to Rangers; they act as if if the Scottish Premier League will not be affected, and Celtic will be able to continue just fine, whether or not Rangers recover effectively from their crippling debt.

It's hard to project the outcome of Rangers entrance into administration now, but if matters are not improved quickly and swiftly, the legitimacy of the SPL and the financial security of Celtic could be significantly undermined.

Fraizer Campbell Called Up to England?!

Yes, you read right, Fraizer Campbell of Sunderland has been called up to the England squad.

Stuart Pearce, England's interim manager, has decided to mix it up for England's upcoming friendly with the Netherlands, leaving established internationals like Joleon Lescott, Frank Lampard and Rio Ferdinand out of the squad in favor of younger, untested English players.

That sounds all fine and dandy to me; it's good to see guys like Micah Richards and Tom Cleverley get a chance after being out of the picture for the England squad over the last year due to managerial preferences and injuries, respectively.

But Fraizer Campbell getting called up after playing his first month of football since recovering from a major knee operation? A bit much.

In the end, though, it probably won't matter. Daniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck have both been called up in addition to Wayne Rooney and Darren Bent, and I can't see how Campbell is going to get playing time against the Netherlands ahead of these four.

Carlo Ancelotti: I Wouldn't Have Let Andrea Pirlo Go

Andrea Pirlo has undergone a massive resurgence in form this season, and has been instrumental in Juventus' quest to win the league title from current holders AC Milan.

In a very informative interview with Mediaset Premium, Carlo Ancelotti revealed that, were he still the manager at AC Milan, he would've never let Pirlo leave, and definitely not a title rival in Serie A.

Makes sense to me.

AC Milan's midfield hasn't really missed Pirlo's influence too much. However, were he not controlling Juve's midfield, Juve would be much farther behind Milan than they presently are. 

Juve's best player (arguably) in the title race has been a player they got from their title rivals for free. Talk about a cruel twist of fate for AC Milan.

Robin Van Persie Won't Be Sold, According to Arsenal

In response to the eruption of transfer rumors on Van Persie's future and the many players who've encouraged RVP to leave Arsenal, it has been reported that Ivan Gazidis has told RVP to forget about moving away from Arsenal before his contract expires.

This has (allegedly) left RVP in a precarious situation as he will be 30 when his contract expires and no longer of interest to either Real Madrid or Barcelona.

We haven't heard from Arsenal or RVP on the matter, so it's impossible to confirm if this meeting has actually gone down or not.

What we do know is that the RVP transfer saga will likely continue to boil on until either party comes out and initiates talks on a new contract (and the other party agrees to begin talks as well).

Until then, the transfer rumors will continue to perpetuate themselves, more and more.

Luka Modric Delays New Contract Signing

It appears Tottenham are close to securing the signature of one of their three big-contract players. 

Goal.com reports that Luka Modric has agreed personal terms on his new salary but is yet to put pen to paper on a new contract.

Why, you ask? Is it because he still wants to leave the club?

According to Goal.com, that isn't Modric's reasoning. Modric apparently wants to wait and see what the future of Harry Redknapp is before committing his future to the club.

Unfortunately, it appears likely that this will become a trend with most of Tottenham's big-name stars. If Redknapp leaves, Modric will likely leave, and Gareth Bale and Emmanuel Adebayor will most likely follow him out the door as well, even if Bale is offered a better contract and Adebayor offered a lucrative permanent deal.

Here's hoping Redknapp can resist the temptation of being England manager, at least until all of Spurs' major stars are signed to new long-term contracts.

Manchester City Wallop FC Porto

It's safe to say that this season's FC Porto pales in comparison to last year's.

FC Porto failed to qualify out one of the easiest groups in the Champions League and were unlucky to be paired with Manchester City in the Europa League Round of 32.

FC Porto huffed and puffed, but ultimately they couldn't create good enough goal-scoring opportunities for themselves, despite stabilizing after Sergio Aguero's 19th-second opener.

The wheels came off in the 76th minute when Edin Dzeko scored and Rolando was sent off shortly after. David Silva and David Pizarro scored shortly after to dump FC Porto out of the Europa League, 6-1 on aggregate.

Manchester City face another, weaker Portuguese team in the next round in Sporting CP.

Manchester United Struggle, but Overcome Ajax on Aggregate

Having triumphed over Ajax 2-0 at the Amsterdam Arena, many expected Manchester United to easily overcome Ajax at home and secure a comfortable margin of victory.

And when Chicharito opened the scoring in the sixth minute, it looked like a rout was on the cards as Manchester United went up 3-0 on aggregate.

Surprisingly, however, Ajax came back, equalizing in the 37th minute and taking the lead in the 87th minute. One more goal would've seen Ajax triumph with a shocking upset over the Red Devils, but ultimately Sir Alex Ferguson and his troops managed to escape with an aggregate win.

Afterwards, Ferguson took the blame for fielding a very young side against Ajax, and claimed that he would learn from his mistake and make sure to field more experienced players in future Europa League games.

Even after 25 years of managing Manchester United, it seems Sir Alex Ferguson still manages to learn new things on the job from time to time.

Carlos Tevez Apologizes at Last

At long last, it seems the Carlos Tevez saga is finally over.

Carlos Tevez recently issued a full apology for his actions back in September, and Roberto Mancini has accepted his apology. 

Now it's only a matter of time before Carlos Tevez is lining up for Manchester City once again.

Already teammates seem to be welcoming Tevez back to the team, and Manchester City certainly seem a much scarier team with Tevez in their ranks.

It'll take a while for Tevez to get back in game shape, but once he does, we may start to see Tevez and Aguero lining up together for Manchester City.

If they're anywhere as effective together in real life as they are on FIFA 12, Premier League and Europa League defenses are going to be in serious trouble.

Basel Shocks Bayern Munich

Basel continued their fairy tale run the Champions League in excellent fashion by securing a 1-0 win at home over Bayern Munich, whom many thought were solid contenders for the Champions League title this season.

The game was truly wide open, as Ribery had two great chances kept out by Yann Sommer, while Basel managed to hit the post twice and miss a couple more good opportunities. Six to eight goals probably could've been scored were it not for the keepers.

In the end, Valentin Stocker managed to secure a priceless winning goal for the home side four minutes from time, off a well-played pass from fellow substitute Jacques Zoua.

Basel still have much to do at the Allianz Arena in Germany to secure their qualification to the next round, but qualification is a very real possibility on the back of this result.

Napoli Pile More Misery on Andre Villlas-Boas' Lackluster Chelsea

Chelsea controlled this game—for the first 38 minutes, anyway.

Actually, even that isn't true. The truth is that Chelsea's opener from Juan Mata came almost completely against the run of play, and Chelsea only looked composed for five or so minutes after Mata's goal.

Once Lavezzi equalized in the 39th minute, it was all Napoli. Edinson Cavani managed to score and assist one more goal on the night, and Napoli probably could've killed the tie off with a fourth goal late in the second half.

After the game, Roman Abramovich asked Andre Villas-Boas to provide an explanation for his team selection, showing that his patience is clearly running out with the young Portuguese tactician.

AVB can continue to feed the media stories about how great his relationship with Abramovich is, but the reality is that if Chelsea fail to overturn the massive deficit they face at home, AVB will most likely be out of a job. 

Chelsea are on course for arguably their worst season in the Abramovich era. Even if AVB is still trying to work the kinks out of his "project" with Chelsea, Abramovich won't sacrifice his minimum season goals just to give AVB time if he feels that no progress is being made.

Chelsea are in serious trouble right now, and it must be said that little is presently going right for the club.