Diego Maradona has named his first 20 man Euro-based provisional roster ahead of Argentina’s November 19th friendly at Hampden Park against George Burley’s Scotland.

With the previous agreement between Argentina and Barcelona President Joan Laporta that Leonel Messi would be left out of Friendlies due to his involvement with Argentina’s Gold Medal winning 2008 Beijing Olympics in effect, Maradona’s quartet of Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero, Lisandro Lopez and German Denis will look to carry the load up front.

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Spanish Glasgow Rangers star Nacho Novo has reiterated his desire to play for his adopted homeland after revealing that he could be eligible for Scottish Citizenship after spending 8 year in Scotland playing for Raith Rovers (2001 - 02), Dundee (2002 - 04) and Rangers (2004 - present).

Once gaining Citizenship, it would be up to the SFA and Manage George Burley to decide if Novo would be the first “foreigner” to don the Scottish Kit.

Via DailyRecord

“I was asked a simple question about playing for Scotland and I gave an honest answer. When I was young my dream was to play for Spain but that hasn’t happened.

“I have been in Scotland for many years now. My family is Scottish as well. It would be an honour for me to pull on a Scotland jersey.”

Marco Senna anyone?

image via TheSun

This miss by Wolverhampton Wolves striker Chris Iwelumo at the weekend against Norway cost Scotland a vital three points and sparked the end of Glasgow Ranger’s forward Kris Boyd’s International Career under Scotland manager George Burley.

With Burley electing to go with Iwelumo instead of Boyd, who’s had a tough time this season getting consistent games in Walter Smith’s side, the snub of being left on the bench was too much for Boyd who made it very clear after the match that he would never put the Scotland kit back on as long as Burley was at the helm.

That decision by Boyd didn’t sit too well with Scotland boss Burley.

Reminds me of the Nwankwo Kanu’s miss when he was with West Brom miss a couple of years back.

To all my Scots…you might need to scoop a pair of these sneaks. Resistance got together with Spring Court to work on a couple pairs of kicks for their Fall / Winter collection. The Spring Court is a heritage tennis shoe with a vulcanized self cooling sole unit and four ventilation holes. The removable insole is peppermint scented to reduce odors and is machine washable. Forego the kilt and rock these instead for Scotland’s next World Cup Qualifier.

[HighSnob]

Despite the fact that Scottish gaffer Sir Alex Ferguson looks set to boss a Great Britain Olympic soccer team at London 2012, Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond isn’t impressed. “The whole concept’s ridiculous and only could be put forward by somebody who’s seriously out of touch with Scotland. Who on earth would really want to jeopardize or sacrifice the future of Scotland as an international football country so we could have a couple of players in an under-23 team in four years’ time?”

This story seems to be getting bigger, and everyone is chiming in with an opinion, from PM Gordon Brown (pro), to David Beckham (pro) to Sir Sean Connery (against) and Sepp Blatter (changes daily).

Image via CTV

Setanta Sports has dropped 125 Million Pounds for the rights to broadcast 60 matches a season around the UK and Ireland for the next four season, more than doubling it’s current 54.5 Million Pound deal that was set to expire in 2010, but now will run through the 2013/14 season.

What does this mean for clubs?  More money to spend on players which means more opportunity for the big two (Celtic and Rangers) to have better chances to compete at the Uefa and Champions League level more consistently, while the smaller clubs will be given a larger kitty to spend on players, thus making the league more competetive.

And don’t forget that the SPL already has a deal with the BBC that runs through  2012 which shows match highlights and online content.

image via Wikimedia

Jan Vennegoor scored in the 72nd minute against Dundee at Parkhead to lead Glasgow Celtic to their 3rd Clydesdale Bank Premier League Title in a row as Glasgow Rangers lost 2-nil at Aberdeen.

With Rangers losing their final two matches away on the season (on top of losing the Uefa Cup Final to Zenit the previous week), Celtic was able to come raring back to win the title under Gordon Strachan after being written off just three weeks ago.

The Title will taste even better after being dedicated to the memory of Assistant Coach Tommy Burns, who had passed away from Skin Cancer on the 16th of May.

image via Poparturk