You’ll have heard the rumours: football is back.

It doesn’t feel like very long since the season ended. For Manchester United fans I’m sure the defeat at the hands of Barcelona is still providing a dull ache somewhere within, despite the FA Community Shield victory over Man City.

But the football league is definitely back, and it will surely provide the thrills and spills as well as plenty of other assorted clichés along the way.

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Two comments at the Blackcats list, admittedly posted after the awful defeat at Everton, raised some gloomy thoughts about the state of football, and our relationship, as supporters, with the game.

The exchange covered cheating, money, arrogance, role models and recent controversies concerning Ashley Cole and Wayne Rooney.

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Andy Gray can wait. First the good news: Salut! Sunderland has two free tickets for SAFC v Tottenham Hotspur on Feb 12 up for grabs. Who knows? It could be a game that enables us to rise above Spurs in the top six.

Now the better news: all you need to do to have a chance of winning them is to post a comment to Salut! Sunderland. Since I am about to remind readers of a fine initiative in which 16-25 year olds are encouraged to give up a small amount of their time in a good cause, I would prefer the tickets to go to younger readers. But that is not a condition of entry: I will award them to the writer of what I judge to be the best comment posted ON ANY SUBJECT, here or at the foot on another Salut! Sunderland article, between now and 9am GMT on Saturday Feb 5.

Just when everyone has knives out for Andy Gray, it is worth reminding ourselves that beyond this essentially pathetic little row, arguably less important a broadcasting issue than the lamentable BBC cuts, Gray is not an irredeemable monster.
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If you had the misfortune to be anywhere near Molineux as an away fan for our last game of the 2009-2010 season, you could be forgiven for hoping a blast of snow will force the postponement of Saturday’s match. Not only were we rubbish on the field; West Midlands police combined with the city’s licensed trade to make it a snarling, unwelcoming experience for anyone in red and white or sounding as if they might be shouting for Sunderland. The Wolves fans are different, though, and many sympathised (as well as suggesting the few pubs we could head for). We extend an unsnarling welcome back to Andy Nicholls*, from the Molineuxmix fan site. Andy, an award-winner in last season’s Who Are You? series, is a man with serious Mackem connections …

Salut! Sunderland: Too close to the bottom for comfort, I imagine. A long way to go but how disappointed are you with the start

In a word – very. However, I am a Wolves fan and nothing surprises me any more! Money was spent before the season started- most fans would have agreed that at the time all buys seemed like good ones but for what ever reason not all of them have worked out. Now be that MM panic buying or not and then not liking what he sees – I’m not sure but something has gone wrong and it’s time to put it right – I still believe that we can but it needs to be some sooner rather than later.

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Here is a chance for Salut! Sunderland readers to get themselves, or younger relatives/acquaintances, involved in an project that could see them coaching kids, running teams for youngsters with learning disabilities … and maybe getting free Premier tickets from a prize draw. The Sky Sports commentators Chris Kamara – seen in the clip – Martin Taylor and Andy Gray, along with football figures such as Kieran Gibbs, Stuart Pearce and David Seaman, have given their blessing to the idea. Read on …

Almost every week, Salut! Sunderland is asked to plug something. The list ranges from football-related social networking sites to betting organisations.

If there is clear mutual benefit, which often there is not, no objection is raised here.

And when charities and other good causes – the Billingham SAFC fans’ sponsored walks are a great example – come calling, we’re pretty much an open door provided there is some relevance to what this site is about.
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Salut! Sunderland readers produced a healthy response to my account of the French Football Federation’s individual punishments for four of the five players called before a disciplinary commission.

One, presumably Irish reader still hadn’t forgotten the Hand of Henry; someone else considered it a mark of arrogance to have a point of view at all. And two Sunderland fans in Canada – both regular contributors to these pages – described events in terms suggesting a struggle between downtrodden labour and ruthless capitalism.
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The shameful conduct of the French World Cup squad in South Africa has tarnished the reputation of the overpaid, brattish players concerned, and French football in general. Now, leaving aside the meaningless exclusion from a friendly, comes the reckoning. Colin Randall reports …

One of my regular newsagents had sold out of L’Equipe. It was first item on the French TF1 news last night. The French Football Federation has sent five players to a disciplinary commission for their part in the “billionaires’ strike”, as one French magazine called it.
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The competition has begun, with a late Mexico equaliser spoiling a dream start for South Africa, and France failing to overcome Uruguay. I think I predicted two draws on the opening day, elsewhere if not here, so was not surprised. And both were, as Bill Taylor has pointed out here, quite entertaining games. England play tonight and, of course, Salut! Sunderland wants even a Bent-free Capello side to win (though we’re also the highly unofficial site for the Paraguay squad – thanks for the flag, Pete!).

Steve Bruce has said the heart wants England, the head says Argentina; Lorik Cana favours Brazil. But in quiet periods between games, you can browse the outstanding pieces in which the same Pete who procured my Paraguay flag – Pete Sixsmith – reflects with startling recall of detail on all World Cups between 1966 and 2006. Here is a second instalment of the highlights (one of them from an intruder), each article reached by clicking the location or year …

See the first round-up of extracts by clicking here, or scroll down each individual tournament, clickable from the sidebar column to your left

1994, USA

Football and the USA is like Cheryl Cole and Rugby League, Nick Clegg and sticking to your principles and Mike Ashley and sensible managerial appointments – they just do not go together. They like games that they can be World Champions at because nobody else plays them. I like Baseball, but calling the play off the World Series… do me a favour.

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So, they kick off today: South Africa v Mexico with Nelson Mandela, sadly, absent following the death of his 13-year-old great granddaughter in an accident after last night’s concert, and France v Uruguay tonight. And tomorrow Fabio Capello’s finest, minus Darren Bent, open the Group C campaign against the United States of America, the country from which we gratefully accepted Claudio Reyna at Sunderland. From the US fans’ site Sam’s Army, the highly knowledgeable Mark Spacone* looks forward to the game through American eyes, with American spelling and terminology …

Salut! Sunderland: What are your feelings about the composition of Group C and how do you rate your chances of progressing?

When the first ball came out of the pot and it was England, I threw up and once I cleaned up and regained some composure, I thought the world was against us and the pots were stacked to ensure we Yanks would be in the group of death and eliminated in the first round just to show the world we don’t know the difference between a football and, well, a football! As the draw continued, it became clear the American dollar is still worth something in Sepp’s pocket because he drew us in with Algeria and Slovenia. Wait, I forgot, the draw is random! On this side of the pond, we think the US and England will advance into the second round (any order will do for us). Slovenia, however, may be the wedding crasher! Many are hoping the U.S. comes out of the England game without any injury regardless of the result, but the hopeful are looking for a draw, and the plain down right crazy who want to give others the ultimate “I told you so” are looking for a win. I wonder if Landon Donovan scores the winner if Everton supporters will chant “USA” again should he return there and perform as well as he did on loan this past season!

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Thanks to people of the calibre of Niall Quinn and Darren Bent, and many more than we could hope to mention, Sunderland AFC have played a commendable role, through such campaigns as Show Racism the Red Card, in combating racial prejudice and discrimination in football. The opening of the World Cup in South Africa – sadly, after all, in Nelson Mandela’s absence following the death of his 13-year-old great granddaughter in an accident after last night’s concert – sends out a powerful message of its own today. But with thanks to Jeremy Robson, whose exchanges with me here a week ago inspired these thoughts in today’s edition of The National, Abu Dhabi, only so much progress has been made …

Image: from Frerieke‘s Flickr pages. The posting is repeated at my main Salut! site

After the French football team defeated the much-fancied Brazilians in the 1998 World Cup final, two snappy phrases became part of the legacy of a swashbuckling victory: un-deux-trois-zéro to describe the impressive scoreline and blanc-black-beur acclaiming the multiracial composition of the team.
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