Birmingham will stroll onto the hallowed Wembley turf this Sunday (27th of February, KO 4pm) for their first Cup Final appearance at Wembley in 48 years (for all you Statto’s out there, the 2001 League Cup Final between Liverpool and Birmingham City was payed at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff). Desperate for some silverware success the Blues will need to be at their best to overcome an Arsenal side playing some of its best football in years.

While Alex McLeish and Arsene Wenger ponder the selection of their 18 man squad ahead of the Carling Cup Final, attention has turned to that hallowed turf at Wembley with questions being asked if the pitch will come up to scratch. Criticism has been levied at the people from Wembley Stadium Ltd that the playing surface is a cause for concern – however, the suits that run Wembley have stated that they are confident the pitch will be in pristine condition for the Carling Cup Final on Sunday.

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I’m not too sure if you’re aware of the 1968 horror masterpiece, ‘Night of the Living Dead‘ but it seems the perfect analogy to describe the zombified state that Chelsea find themselves in at the moment. Chelsea manager, Carlo Ancelotti has been described by some in the UK media as a ‘Dead Man Walking‘ as he watches on from the sidelines as this Chelsea team stumble from one match to the next.

Tonight, Chelsea take on FC Copenhagen in the 1st leg of their Last 16 Champions League match. The first leg is played at Copenhagen which is probably better for Chelsea because their home form has been somewhat rotten this season. Normally, Stamford Bridge would be oozing with confidence, yet recently the atmosphere in the ground resembles that of a disowned graveyard. The Blues supporters have been spoon fed success over the last few years, yet watched on in horror as The Londoners were knocked out of the FA Cup on Saturday past.

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The world’s oldest football knockout competition enters a critical stage this weekend as the FA Cup 5th Round gets underway. OK, the ties aren’t solely restricted to the weekend with some FA Cup 5th Round games spilling in to the middle of next week, thanks to TV scheduling and some fixture congestion.

With Premier League teams playing in every tie, we could see a dominance of the English top flight come the FA Cup Quarter-Final stage. However, let’s hope the romance of the Cup holds true and at least one of the lower league teams manages to get through.

Here, we look at the current FA Cup 2011 betting odds and the chances of progression for each team involved.

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It’s prize giving time again. Over the last month or so, we have seen celebrities of all variety parade down the red carpets and take their VIP seats at The Golden Globes, The BAFTA’s and more recently The Brits. However, their is one award ceremony that eclipses ALL award events. It is none other than the Daddy of award shows – The 83rd Annual Academy Awards – or The Oscars 2011, to you and me.

Below are our personal predictions on who will win The Oscars 2011. We have focussed our attention on the main category awards up for grabs and they are as follows : Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and finally Best Supporting Actress. To get the latest Oscars betting odds then check out our dedicated page – Oscars Betting 2011.

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After a two year absence, Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, will once again host the Millenium Magic Weekend. All seven games of the 2011 Super League opening fixtures will take place over Saturday and Sunday under the closed roof of the Millennium Stadium. It is sure to be an exciting start to the season for all 14 Super League betting teams.

It’s been seen as a positive step to move the Magic Weekend back to Cardiff and this has been highlighted by the incresed demand for ticket sales.

The fixtures for Super League XVI weekend’s action under the Millennium Stadium roof are as follows :

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In just over a week’s time, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 will take place. This is the tenth ICC Cricket World Cup and it is the first time the competition will be tri-nation hosted event. India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have been selected to honour the much anticipated one-day international cricket world cup.

Canadian pop icon, Bryan Adams, will open the The 2011 Cricket World Cup and he’ll be hoping his name nation Canada wont be left as whipping boys in the Group Stages.

England have been drawn in Group B alongside : Bangladesh, India, Ireland, Netherlands, South Africa and finally The West Indies.

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The Carling Nations Cup is a throwback to the Home International games that was eventualy disbanded in the mid 80′s. The main differences this time around is that England have been replaced by the Republic of Ireland and that all the matches will take place at the rather splendid Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Sky Sports has won the TV Rights to cover all of the Carling Nations Cup games with the opening ties taking place between the Republic of Ireland v Wales (Tuesday the 8th of February @7.30pm) with Scotland v Northern Ireland the following night (Wednesday the 9th of February @7.30pm).

The Carling Nations Cup is a league based format with each team playing each other once and concludes at the end of May. It is bound to be an interesting tournament that allows International managers the opportunity to get some much needed match practice, instead of “needless” friendlies, ahead of the Euro 2012 qualifiers resuming.

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Yesterday, is known in the football world as ‘Transfer Deadline Day‘ or TDD, it’s a day known for frantic deals of getting players signed for clubs, normally with minutes to spare. It’s like Corrie or Eastenders for football fans as a day of drama unfurls. But yesterday, football finally began to eat itself, as the transfer market in the English Premier League exploded with over £200m spent in the January window.

Deals of the Month, have been without doubt …

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