Superinjunctions of Ryan Giggs and John Terry - did both have an affair with Imogen Thomas?

Listen to my new musical poem at http://soundcloud.com/stephen-wallis/superinjunctions or visit the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Imogen-Thomas-super-injunctions-John-Terry-as-well-as-Ryan-Giggs/223446364334360.

Superinjunctions are not just about tittle-tattle. The first (that I know of) was about a corporation called Trafigura causing deliberate (allegedly) pollution in Africa.

Champions League final

Just put all my winnings from my previous bets (about £34) on Manchester United to win the Champions League this evening (after extra time and penalties if necessary), with Ladbrokes.

I got odds of 13-8, with Barcelona at 1-2 (2-1 on). It's great supporting underdogs for a change, but I'm very confident that United will win!

Come on you reds!

Great day for FC United and Man U

I've just been watching FC United's epic performance at Brighton via myp2p.eu - and listening for the last 10 minutes at fcumradio.co.uk when the video failed. The penalty save at the end, to secure a 1-1 draw, sounded great - a shame I couldn't see it.

And the 7-1 victory of Man Utd over Blackburn, taking the other reds to the top of the Premier League table, with an incredible 5 goals by Dimitar Berbatov, certainly made my day!

So how did the Glazers raise the money to pay off a £220 million loan?

In today's Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/nov/17/the-glazer-family-loan-piks - it is reported that Manchester United's Florida-based owners have paid off a loan which was accruing 16.25% interest.

That article speculates as to how this could have happened. United fans, including the Manchester United Supporters Trust (www.joinmust.org), are demanding answers.

The MUST website says the following:

"Now is the time for the Glazers to finally come clean and tell the truth about what is going on at Manchester United and what their plans are. What have they got to hide? No more secrecy. No more spin. Just tell the fans the truth."

The website also says that MUST has prepared a series of questions that will be released following a presentation of financial results later today.

Woking nearly knock Brighton (League One leaders) out of FA Cup! FC United to play at Brighton in FA Cup second round

[Sorry for not contributing to this blog for a while; I feel guilty for neglecting to talk about FC United's tremendous FA Cup run!]

Woking play in the Conference South, three divisions below Brighton (who recently played in the Premier League and are currently top of League One), but nearly knocked them out in the replay last night after drawing 0-0 at Brighton's ground.

After the score was 1-1 at full-time, Woking scored first in extra time and for a couple of minutes a huge upset was on the cards until Brighton equalised. Brighton in the end got through on penalties.

FC United of Manchester, after knocking out fellow League One team Rochdale away in the first round, now face a long trip to the south coast to do what Woking came to close to achieving.

It would be an even bigger shock if FC United knock them out, since we are four divisions lower, but you never know! And the prize would be a place in the third round, potentially playing a Premier League team (perhaps even Man United or Man Shitty).

My new Facebook group: "Sack FIFA President Sepp Blatter! Goal line technology for football now!"

After the farce of Frank Lampard's disallowed goal for England, that so obviously crossed the line as everybody watching on TV and most people in the stadium realised, with the match finely balanced at 2-1 to Germany, and England's consequent defeat 4-1 (with England committing more players forward preceeding Germany's last two goals in search of an equaliser), I set up a group at Facebook to exert pressure for technology to be brought in that determines if a ball has crossed the line.

One of the pundits at half time on the BBC1 coverage of the match said everybody (probably not literally) agreed on bringing in such technology, except for FIFA president Sepp Blatter. He is responsible for this farce and should be sacked, particularly if he remains so obstinate afterwards.

Somebody on the group has suggested a video referee, which is also a good solution (that could have made a difference with Tevez's offside goal in the Argentina-Mexico match too). Come to the group and join the debate!

You can find the group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=133017933385075.

I decided to boycott the rest of the World Cup finals after this farce (although missing Ghana matches will be hard since I wanted an African team to do well from the start).

Bet on Diane Abbott to become Labour leader

My bets on the general election weren't terribly successful, but I didn't lose much compared to the couple of thousand pounds I could have made if they came off!

Rather more modestly, I put a bet yesterday with Ladbrokes on Diane Abbott becoming the next Labour leader (I think they said "permanent" Labour leader to distinguish the winner of the leadership election from an interim leader such as Harriet Harman) at 25/1. I bet a tenner so stand to make £250 if it comes off.

The odds in the Guardian and Mirror yesterday morning were 33/1, so presumably I wasn't the only person who thought that generous. Who knows what will happen between now and when the voting takes place (it's complicated since a third of votes come from trade unions, and it probably depends on individual TUs when/if they hold votes of their members, but Labour Party members are balloted in September according to http://www2.labour.org.uk/leadership-timetable) - a Greece-style revolt to the Tory/LibDem coalition's proposed cuts, the complete collapse of the Euro, or other events to radicalise the population, could happen in the meantime.

The voting takes place using Alternative Vote (practice for the next general election if the coalition gets this proposal passed), so you can specify transfers if your first choice drops out. On the one hand, this means that tactical voting is unnecessary - you can vote for Diane knowing that it won't cost a soft left candidate (if you believe any of the other four fills the criterion) anything; however, it tends to result in victories for politicians with lowest common denominator compromise politics which may favour the "grey men in grey suits".

I checked with Ladbrokes again today and the odds on Diane winning are still 25/1.

[For the benefit of those who think I shouldn't make money out of my political analysis, I have spent tens of thousands of pounds over the years on socialist causes (with my own initiatives and contributing to organisations such as the Militant Tendency/Socialist Party). I'm not selling out; I will continue to help the left.]