Hello and welcome to another Week in Football podcast on OleOle.com

Up for discussion this week are:

• Cristiano Ronaldo and his decision to stay at United
• Freddie Ljungberg's massive payoff from West Ham
• Lionel Messi and the Olympics and the Olympics themselves
• Ranieri and Mourinho's war of words in Italy
• Scottish football with The Lord of the Wing

Plus we've got Luigi from Spain and details of the OleOle.com fantasy football game. We're running a Premier League mini-league which is open to anyone who wants to join. Just sign up for the game, pick your team then use the following details to join in:

League name: weekinfootballprem

Password: podcast

You can subscribe to The Week in Football using iTunes by clicking here, if you want to subscribe to the RSS feed itself the URL is here, you can download the podcast directly here or you can listen from this page:

Don't forget your comments and suggestions for the show are always welcome. Feel free to leave a comment here or email podcast@oleole.com.

I'm not a Man United fan, as you well know, but if I were I'd be most unhappy with the comments made by FIFA President Sepp Blatter. Talking about Cristiano Ronaldo he says:

In football there’s too much modern slavery. I’m always in favour of protecting the player. If he wants to leave, let him. 

What about contracts then? What about protecting the clubs who pay large transfer fees and extortionate wages to players? Imagine if the club said 'We don't feel like paying you', what kind of outcry would there be then? 

A player saying 'I don't want to play for you' is the same, except he still gets his wages every week, doesn't he?

Blatter, of all people, should be trying to create some stability in the game yet now more players will look at the head of FIFA saying this and think the way players act these days is acceptable. Not that anything Blatter says is susprising. Does he have friends at Real Madrid? Would that explain why he's so in favour of allowing Ronaldo to leave United?

And for him to say players are 'slaves' is absolutely reprehensible. How can somebody being paid what professional footballers are paid be a 'slave'? I'd happily be a slave for £40,000 a week or £20,000 a week for that matter. In a world where real slavery still exists it's an incredibly tasteless remark from an incredibly tasteless man.

The game is being ruined by money and sadly those in charge of football these days are driven by cash, not by what's good for the game. Blatter, once again, has shown himself up as a man with no great interest in the game, only in how much money can be siphoned from it.

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For those wondering about The Week in Football podcast our summer holidays, so to speak, are ongoing. Tom Thom(p)son is travelling around the upper-delta region of County Cork while I'm typing this from the Holiday Inn in San Jose. Or, from my house, whichever suits you best.

We'll be back next week to cover pre-season, Italy, Spain and all the usual bits and pieces. 

We're also going to make the blog more bloggy this season, with more comment, pictures, news etc etc so do bookmark.

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Morning all,

predictions. A difficult business, I'm sure you'll agree. Bakes predicted 3-2 for Germany but after extra time. Should we give him the kudos? Let the people decide. 

I'm really looking forward to tonight's game between Croatia and Turkey - not the most high profile of teams but it's often those that provide the most entertainment. My guess is:

Croatia 4-2 Turkey

A veritable goalfest. Come on! Your predictions in the comments please.

Right, in today's Eurocast we have some of your emails about the German win over Portugal, exclusive dressing room access so we can hear Cristiano Ronaldo's post-game reaction, we talk to Tom our German correspondent and there's a quick preview of tonight's game.

Remember, we are looking for your thoughts on the games, so please email or leave voicemail for the Eurocast. It's easy and it makes you more attractive to the opposite sex. Not doing so makes you poor and smelly. So you know what to do.

To contact us use the info below:

UK -  +44 20 7193 6971

SWISS - +41 44 586 62 08

But that's not all. If you have Skype you don't even have to pay for a phone call. Simply add 'oleole.com' as a contact then use Skype to call us. It'll go directly to the voicemail.

And if that's not enough we're happy to get your emails too - send them podcast@oleole.com

You can subscribe to the Eurocast using iTunes by clicking here, if you want to subscribe to the feed itself the feed URL is here, you can download directly here or you can listen from this page:

Have fun, till tomorrow.

Happy off-season to you all, no doubt you're all enjoying the no football there is at the moment. Euro 2008 is just around the corner though.

Still, the Week in Football is the podcast that never sleeps. Except when we sleep. We'll be with you right throughout the summer bringing you podcasty goodness every Thursday.

On this week's show:

• Luigi picks his team of the season from La Liga.
• Gabriele talks about the situation regarding Roberto Mancini at Inter and what appears to be the imminent arrival of Jose Mourinho.
• Carlos Quieroz goes a bit mad about Cristiano Ronaldo - we report on that
• Reaction to Hull City's promotion to the Championship and Leeds' playoff defeat
• And a round up of Premier League transfer rumours

You can subscribe to the week in football using iTunes by clicking here, you can download directly here or you can listen from this page:

Don't forget your comments and suggestions for the show are always welcome. Feel free to leave a comment here or email podcast@oleole.com.

Cheers!