World Football: Ranking The 15 Most Shocking Stories Of 2010

2010 was full of football news. It was the year that saw Spain lift their debut Wold Cup, Inter win a rare treble, Chelsea win the domestic double as well as the rise of numerous youngsters.

But 2010 also witnessed various shocking news and revelations. News that rocked the footballing world. In the following slides we will look into such 15 most shocking football stories of 2010.

Since the list is exhaustive it might happen that not everyone's criteria will be fulfilled. So suggestions are appreciated. Hope everyone enjoys the slide.

After Newcastle were relegated in the 2008-09 season manager Chris Hughton brought the team back to the top division after a single season.

The Magpies made a strong comeback into the top level of English football and were doing impressively under their "Manager Fantastic" Hughton. But the Toon's chairman made some other plans and sacked Newcastle's successful manager in a rather shocking manner. The sacking resulted in fan protests and also a dip in form for Newcastle.

The need for an experienced manager was cited as the reason but it remains a far from convincing excuse as to the shocking sacking of Newcastle's successful manager.

Liverpool were reeling form a poor form and all pressure was on Rafa to succeed.

But any progress was not possible as the club owners were in huge debts and it was looking that their debts might eat up into the club's finances and cause a financial crisis much similar to Portsmouth. RBS, to whom the Liverpool owners owed money started looking for new owners. But Hicks and Gilletts seemed least interested. Their reluctance in selling the club drew severe protests from fans and also many players.

With the deadline for repayment of debts nearing, tension was growing as everyone waited with bated breath to see whether the club could avoid going to administration. But hopefully new owners were found but the owners were still reluctant. In the last day of the deal, Hicks and Gillett revealed they had got a stay order on the sale much to the shock of everyone. If the fact had been true Liverpool would have gone into administration and been penalised nine points.

But the stay order was not held and the sale eventually took over.

No sooner had his English and Chelsea colleague John Terry been involved in a scandal, did another Chelsea and English defender Ashley Cole too got entangled in a sex scandal.

The news was leaked on the first week of February which stated that Cole had cheated on his wife Cheryl Cole multiple times. The scandal resulted in Cheryl leaving Ashely Cole and also filing for divorce. It also earned Ashley a lot of flak from football fans all over the world.

The Ashley Cole scandal was the most followed football story in the past year.

When under-age prostitute Zahia Dehar was arrested following a raid in Paris she confessed to having sex with French international and Bayern Munich's star Frank Ribery and Karim Benzema.

The revelations caused a shock in the footballing world as Ribery was seen as a decent chap along with his other team-mates. Following the revelations, Ribery was charged and indicted of "solicitation of minor prostitution."

Though he was preliminarily banned from participating in the 2010 FIFA World Cup yet he played at last. But France were knocked out in the first round.

One of the biggest stories of 2010 was Pompey going bankrupt.

One of the oldest clubs of England were reeling near the relegation zone after a poor start to the season and amid growing speculation that Pompey were getting further in debts. The club started to sell players in order to repay back some of their debts but that was not sufficient. Fan protests became common as the club was asked to open up regarding their financial condition.

The club was looking for new owners but failed to find any new owner and hence were put into administration. The process saw Pompey getting nine points deducted and that guaranteed their relegation much to the chagrin of the fans of the club as well as the country.

Amid so much crisis the club still made it to the FA Cup finals where they lost to Chelsea. The manner in which one of England's most successful club went down was shocking for all football fans across the world. The bankruptcy of Portsmouth resulted in strict financial regulations being enforced by the governing bodies in order to prevent any such happenings in the future.

It has been only 18 months since his arrival from cross-town rivals United to Manchester City and Carlos Tevez is already the spine of Mancini's multi-million dollars mega squad.

The Argentine has been the prime reason for City's impressive performance. But the man who has courted controversy all his career also got unsettled after spending only a minor part of his contract.

It may have been because of a tiff with his manager or due to his homesickness which he always complains of, but when it was revealed that Tevez had handed out a transfer request it came as a shocker to everyone. The fiery Argentine had in the earlier week stated his desire to help City win their first EPL title.

Many believed that Tevez was adoing this to land himself a better deal or because of any genuine reason. But then similar to Rooney's flip Tevez too reversed his intentions and agreed to stay at City.

After Anelka was suspended by the FFF (French Football Federation) it was the French team that followed his path.

The squad refused to train and left the ground protesting for Anelka's exclusion from the World Cup. There actions drew severe flak from all over the world and also shocked many. The squad returned to train the next day but they had already made the 2010 FIFA World Cup a memorable experience. People would remember the 2010 World Cup for their winners and also for the French squad's refusal to train.

This incident was not only a shock for the footballing world but also became a blot in the history of football.

The beautiful game had so far been unharmed by any acts of violence and it was propagated as a game to spread love all over the world and unite every human being. But terrorists targeted football to spread terror.

On January 9th, 2010 the Togo national team was attacked by armed gunmen while on their way to participating in the African Nations Cup. The attack resulted in the death of three and injuring a few more. 

Togo withdrew from the tournament citing mourning of the dead. But to add salt to their wound the African Nation's Cup Organising Committee disqualified the national team from the tournament.

France had entered the 2010 FIFA World Cup amid controversy after striker Henry scored the winner against Ireland by a handball.

Controversy continued to dog the French team even during the World Cup. The whole footballing nation was shocked after the mild-mannered French striker Nicolas Anelka was thrown out of the squad as a punishment for insulting national coach Raymond Domenech.

The bust up happened during France's match against Mexico. After playing a stale draw against Uruguay in their opening match the French looked lackluster in their second outing too. After a dismal first half coach Domenech severely criticised his players performances and especially Anelka who looked off colour. 

Anelka reverted back using shouting foul words at the coach and that lead to the Chelsea player being substituted during the second-half. If that was not shocking then Anelka made it as he refused to make an apology to the coach later on after the French Football Federation asked him to do so. He also did not attend the disciplinary meeting which resulted in a 18 game ban. Anelka announced his retirement.

The takeover of Rovers' by Indian firm Venky's resulted in increased expectations from the fans. The new owners promised plenty of funds for new owners and a greater achievements.

Blackburn's impressive performance after the takeover brought joy to the fans. But the happiness was short-lived as the new owners suddenly sacked "Big Sam" Allardyce citing greater plans as the reason. The sensational manner in which Rover's successful manager was given the sack notice made it all the more shocking. The Rovers has since then struggled to maintain their early season form.

The England striker who publicized himself as a role model was caught having sex with a prostitute in a car parked within a 100 yards from children.

The Tottenham striker has been in a image-cleansing job and was doing good. He was seen as humble and soft-spoken person. But this act smudged dirt all over his character and image. It was reported that he parked the car in a posh locality under a street lamp and just a few yards from where children were playing.

Numerous people witnessed him and the prostitute inside the car doing a sex act. But the two were oblivious of people staring at them and only came back to their senses when the cameras started flashing. The act was rather shocking as there were young kids playing near their car and Defoe was doing all this in full public view.

The world football circuit was shocked when the lead was blown out on the case involving Chelsea and then England captain John Terry and his ex-Chelsea and English teammate Wayne Bridge.

In the last part of January 2010, it was made public that the Chelsea captain had been involved with his teammate's ex-girlfriend, Vanessa Perroncel. It was further revealed that after Vanessa got pregnant she had to do an abortion.

The scandal tarnished Terry's image severely and also resulted in him losing his England captaincy during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Everyone thought Wayne Rooney had learnt well from his earlier sex scandal during his time at Everton.

But Rooney proved everyone wrong when the revelation was made of his alleged sex romp with a prostitute named Jennifer Thompson while his wife Colleen was pregnant with their child. The revelation shocked the football world and drew severe criticism for the infidel Rooney. His form slumped and he has failed to recover until now.

The past year's biggest shock came when United star Wayne Rooney publicly fell out with his manager Sir Alex Ferguson and made public his intentions of leaving Old Trafford at the earliest.

After days of denial the United manager finally accepted that Rooney wanted to move out. This resulted in generating speculations about a possible move to Real Madrid, Manchester City or Chelsea and also interests from top clubs.

But then came the most shocking thing. Within 48 hours of him making public his intentions to leave Old Trafford, Rooney made a flip and agreed to a new contract. No one will ever know what resulted in Rooney making intentions to leave United and more importantly made him stay at United.

Perhaps the biggest shock of 2010 was when FIFA chief Sepp Blatter declared Qatar as the venue for the 2022 World Cup.

Russia, England, Australia and USA were seen as the leaders to win the spots for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups'. But though Russia got their right to hold the 2022 World Cup the others missed the bus as Qatar were awarded the 2022 World Cup much to the anger of many officials.

The decision has since then been criticised heavily by many as temperature, popularity as well as feasibility of the World Cup has been questioned.