Welcome to another World Sport Report:



Football
If I have to read or watch just one more sports bulletin that moans about our loss in the World Cup bidding process, I think I'll… I'll…



Despite FIFA remaining as crooked as they come, last week's selection of Qatar to host the tournament in 2022 is hardly the injustice or the death to football that has been described by most for the past week. Their credentials prior to the win were fairly solid - including the fact that Qatar looks comfortably prepped to host a successful 2011 Asian Cup next month, (I don't recall anyone complaining when they were awarded that important event) - and they brought a consistently football-centric approach to the bid process that left our ridiculous cartoon kangaroo looking blatantly naive and misinformed. We weren't unfairly outbid, we were immeasurably outclassed:



Now, let us never speak of it again.

The shortlist for the 2010 Ballon D'or (FIFA's annual award for the world's player of year) has just been announced, with the exclusively Barcelona trio of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi poised to battle it out. All three have had a brilliant 2010 for the club - together winning Barca's 20th La Liga championship back in May - but only Iniesta and Xavi can also boast a couple of World Cup winners' medals with Spain this year, too. And that's likely to put one of the two ahead when a final winner is chosen early next month.

Basketball
The NBA has swooped in and bought the New Orleans Hornets this week after it became clear that previous owner, George Shinn, had racked up US$111M debt for the club, and with no future signs of it heading anywhere other than further south. The league are in no mad rush to find a new owner and insist that the long-term priority is in finding a viable someone who will also keep the team in NOLA. Despite long-running boardroom murmurs and, now, the subsequent shake up, on the court the Hornets have been solid, standing at 13-7 behind only the Spurs, Mavs, Jazz and Lakers in the Western Conference.

Just when you were starting to believe in tax-payer funding of academic research, a couple of Brigham Young University professors have completed a "study" concluding that white NBA refs award fouls against white players four percent less than they do against black players. According to them, the opposite is also true regarding black refs and black players. I was immediately inclined to disagree with the story until I saw this:



Hmmmm.

NFL
Two first place, battle royales went down at the start of the week between the Patriots and the Jets, and the Steelers and the Ravens. Tom Brady shone and led the Patriots to a 45-3 victory, and his 26th straight home win - a new NFL record for a quarterback. In Baltimore, the Steelers snatched a thrilling 13-10 win over the Ravens, inspired by a stunning safety blitz from Troy Polamalu in the dying minutes, and the resilience of QB Ben Roethlisberger who played through the game despite a seriously broken nose sustained early on:



Meet future NFL superstar, Cam Newton: starting college quarterback for the Auburn Tigers, better than Tennessee Titans' Vince Young, odds-on favourite to win this year's Heisman Trophy and the inventor of "Cammy-Cam Juice" - made popular/infamous during last weekend's SEC Championship game. Honestly, I don't know WTF anyone in this segment was thinking:



MLB
The year-long soap opera that surrounds Frank and Jamie McCourt's divorce settlement - and the 300 million dollar question of who of them really owns the LA Dodgers - continues. This week a judge threw out copies of a post-nuptial agreement the two had signed following their purchase of the Dodgers from Rupert Murdoch for $355M in 2004. One version of the agreement suggested that Frank McCourt was granted full ownership, whilst an alternative version did not. His (former?) lawyer has since admitted stuffing up the paperwork back then. The saga is set to continue until mid-January when a judge will decide who wins once and for all. It's more thrilling than the World Series.

Boxing
After much awkward and inarticulate pre-bout banter, The Contender reality-show winner, Garth Woods, versus Anthony Mundine took place at Acer Arena in Sydney last night. After a scrappy first four rounds, 'The Man' quickly became 'the boy' when Woods delivered a viscous left hook that KO'd Mundine - ending the fight early in the fifth:



Kostya Tszyu has this week been voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame along with fellow greats of the sport, Mike Tyson and Julio Cesar Chavez. The highly deserved recognition might have lost a little of its shine however, with knowledge that Sylvester Stallone - a once make-believe boxer - was also on this year's list of inductees. Surely a split decision.

Union
At 37 years of age, former Wallabies captain, George Gregan, has announced he'll be retiring from the game and the end of this season. Currently playing for Suntory Sungoliath in the fledgling Japanese competition, Gregan had previously earned 139 caps for Australia - the most international appearances for any rugby player in the world.

Tennis
Serbia defeated France in a thrilling Davis Cup final series (3-2) last Sunday. The first time Serbia had ever won the tournament, the team immediately lived up to pre-match promises of shaving their heads on the court and pretty much all of Belgrade went mental for the next 24 hours.

F1 and Freeride
Mark Webber has revealed in his new autobiography that he drove the last four races of the Formula One season with a fractured shoulder, sustained whilst mountain biking. He needed pain-killing injections to compete in the crucial Japanese and Korean rounds, but ultimately ended up losing the title to teammate Sebastian Vettel in the final round in Abu Dhabi. In a fairly tenuous link, that leads me to show you a stunning, newly released film from German freeride pro, Andi Wittmann and Isenseven director, Felix Urbauer. A broken shoulder has never looked so worthwhile:



For more things sport, check out the latest US Sports Wrap from Kinna and the Aussie Sports Wrap from Friday Experts.