They are the ones that you look to for inspiration – on and off the park. Men that are born leaders, that will fight for the team, lift heads when they are down and think second place is for wimps. They are the football captains who carry the dreams and glory of thousands upon their shoulders.

We’re delighted to pick our favourite Top 10 great football captains for all our football betting readers. I’m sure you’ll feel that we have missed someone out so please use the comments to let us know who you feel should be in our Top 10 great football captains list.

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Another critical test match for England starts at Edgbaston today and once again the familiar sensation of doom pervades our expectations, while any amount of pondering struggles to find an answer to the recurring question ‘what is wrong with the England cricket team?’. Cricket betting enthusiasts will be weary with the almost permanent sensation that absolutely nothing seems to be working.

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If there was one thing down the years that we British have been good at it its running. We have produced some wonderful track and field stars from Seb Coe to Linford Christie and a whole host of others in-between to come back home with Olympic medals. Today, however, I’m struggling to recognise our athletic talent never mind pin any hope on Olympic Gold.

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Rafael Nadal has won the Toronto Masters and most sports betting fans will agree that his march towards the number one slot in men’s tennis now looks certain to succeed. Andy Murray was fulsome in his praise of the Spaniard after their meet in the semi-final and observes that Nadal is now doing right all that he once did wrong, he has adjusted his control on the hard courts and produces a faster ball while coming in more from behind the baseline to play a closer, tighter match.

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The first test between Sri Lanka and India got underway last Wednesday, heralding, for the first time, the opportunity for each team to make three challenges against the decisions of the umpires. Television replays are then used to determine the accuracy, or otherwise, of the umpire’s decision. If the TV reveals that the umpire was wrong in dismissing a player, then that player is permitted to remain at the crease.

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Sir Alex Ferguson has spoken and when SAF speaks, football listens, and this time is no exception. He says he doesn’t rate Chelsea’s chances next season because the team is old, unchanged and already running at peak. He can’t see what Scolari can bring to that situation. Premiership betting fans, mulling over these musings, will be balancing the Scolari effect at Chelsea against SAF’s approach to juggling Wayne Rooney with either Dimitar Berbatov or Roque Santa Cruz, depending who he gets, for the role of sole striker in their successful 4-1-4-1 and 4-5-1 formats of last season. He can’t exclude Wayne yet he doesn’t want to disturb a winning formula.

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The 2008 Open Championship has come to a close with Padraig Harrington retaining his title for a second year and with one of the grand old men of golf, Greg Norman, coming a close third at the age of 53. At the close of play, the eighteenth green hosted scenes of back-slapping bonhomie between winner and runners up and it was clear to all golf betting fans we were witnessing a demonstration of pure sportsmanship and a celebration of the sheer joy each player had experienced just by being a part of this great sporting occasion.

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With the countdown to the new season getting ever closer we thought it best to wet the appetites of all the regular football betting readers who tune into the Free Bets Blog with a selection of some of the finest football goal celebrations down the years.

Each celebration holds its own tale and in the shadows of the new 08 / 09 premiership betting season we hope it gives some inspiration to the world class talent on display on how best and best not to celebrate a goal.

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Day1 of the famous British Open Golf championship tees off today in what many golf betting fans are claiming to be the most open competition in recent years with over 40 players having a real chance of winning. The weather will undoubtedly play its part as the first day of action has seen wet and windy condition that has seen some of the best in the business struggle to break par.

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A recent injection of rumour in the close-season transfer market has at last sparked some movement in which has been a very quiet affair – Roanldo of Man Unt and Lampard of Chelsea aside. Perhaps it’s the current economic climate that is playing its part but for your average football betting punter scanning the back pages of the newspaper or online sports channels looking for some transfer gossip has been hard work as of late.

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