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Almost every football fan is awaiting the FIFA 2010 World Cup scheduled to begin in June next year. Ever since the end of the qualifications, there have been many premonitions as to who would win the world cup? Of course it is not just the fans who are awaiting this event. Betters too are expecting some good winning chances in the 2010 World Cup Betting. It can be said without a doubt that football still remains a favorite betting medium for most betters, and yet it is important to have a significant knowledge of the game so that you do not end up betting against the odds. This is because winners can never be predicted accurately in a game and it is not always the best side that wins. However, if you are really keen on football betting you can always find your way online. The internet is the best source for all information on world cup betting and even the 2010 World Cup winner odds.

Tony Smith, the England coach, has a series of tricky calls to make over who to play at centre during the forthcoming Gillette Four Nations, including whether to respond to Keith Senior’s readiness to come out of international retirement.

The 33-year-old Leeds Rhinos centre said that he was prepared to answer his country’s call, although he has heard nothing from Smith, who dispensed with any sentiment on Tuesday in omitting Martin Gleeson, Senior’s England and Great Britain centre partner for most of the past seven years.

Smith has added two other Wigan Warriors players to his training squad, Sam Tomkins, 20, the engage Super League young player of the year, and Sean O’Loughlin, the Wigan captain, who missed the 2008 World Cup through injury. However, the England coach looks to have brought an end to Gleeson’s international career after 26 appearances.

The available choices at centre, nonetheless, represent meagre pickings. Whether Smith turns once again to Senior, who made his Britain debut in 1996 and announced his representative retirement after the disappointing World Cup campaign, will be known when he confirms his final squad selection on Monday, taking into account the Leeds and St Helens players involved in Saturday’s Grand Final at Old Trafford.

Leeds Rhinos and St Helens, who play in Saturday’s engage Grand Final, were snubbed in terms of the significant Super League honours at last night’s awards ceremony in Manchester.

Brett Hodgson, the Huddersfield Giants full back, was named the 2009 Man of Steel and became only the fourth Australian winner of the game’s highest individual accolade, after Gavin Miller (1986), Adrian Vowles (1999) and Jamie Lyon (2005), since the award was instigated in 1977.

It is the fourth time that a player not involved in the Grand Final has won the prize for the player deemed to have made the biggest impact on the season by his Super League peers.

Huddersfield finished the regular season behind Leeds and St Helens, who meet for a third successive year at Old Trafford, but the Giants were the evening’s big winners. Nathan Brown, like Hodgson a new arrival from the NRL this season, was named coach of the year and the Giants the Super League club of the year for their investment in coaching and talent development.

Had Sean Long not bundled Joel Tomkins into touch, as Wigan Warriors threatened to score the try that would have extended the second qualifying semi-final into extra time at the very least, St Helens would possibly not be anticipating their “threepeat” meeting with Leeds Rhinos in the engage Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford on Saturday.

St Helens have been beaten in the past two finals by Leeds, but the Long factor is a significant one. The 33-year-old scrum half is anxious to end a glittering 12-year career with Saints, before he joins Hull next year, with a fifth Super League winner’s gold ring, despite not knowing “just how many rings I’ve won and where they even are”.

His dreadlocks flew everywhere as he denied Wigan and primed the St Helens attack during a thunderous derby showdown. As for worries about Long sustaining writer’s cramp due to him signing copies of his new autobiography before the match, his trigger finger was responsible for the second of Francis Meli’s tries, while his slicing through the cover and reaching out for the line in the first half was vintage Long.

Wigan’s physicality and persistence were immense in the second half and Pat Richards’s effort in gathering his own kick and rolling over to score set up an incredibly tense last ten minutes.

Barrow ended a 26-year cup drought in beating Halifax 26-18 in the Co-operative Championship Grand Final in Warrington last night, although the result was clouded in controversy after Lee Paterson was cynically put off in missing a crucial conversion for Halifax.

Paterson was attempting to convert a 70th-minute try by Mick Govin that would have levelled the score at 20-20 and possibly forced the game into extra time. Television replays proved that a Barrow player illegally ran from behind the line in an effort to distract Paterson, who was distraught afterwards at missing four of five place-kicks.

For the Cumbrian side, it was their first triumph since lifting the Lancashire Cup in 1983. It marked a remarkable turnaround for the club after their promotion from National League Two last year, although Halifax pushed them all the way in a dramatic final.

Barrow retrieved a 10-0 deficit by the break, before Ben Black’s try edged Halifax back in front. Jamie Rooney’s conversion of a try by Dave Allen after 62 minutes gave Barrow the lead for the first time and a quickfire brace of tries by Andreas Bauer proved conclusive.

Leeds Rhinos qualified last night for a record-equalling sixth engage Grand Final a week today and were installed as favourites to win an unprecedented third consecutive championship in the Super League era. In their path stand St Helens or Wigan Warriors, who meet in today’s second qualifying semi-final at Knowsley Road.

The passage to Old Trafford was hardly a smooth one against a ruggedly uncompromising Catalans Dragons side, whom Leeds had chosen to play under the “ClubCall” system, but who have belied their eighth-place finish in the regular season and fought with a dogged spirit and self-belief to the end of their play-offs adventure.

Those qualities, though, were never quite sufficient against opponents of Leeds’ calibre on an evening when they invoked the spirit of John Holmes, arguably the club’s greatest player, who died from cancer last Saturday, aged 57. Holmes would not have failed to be impressed by the daring and sublime skills that characterised three of their five tries in a pivotal quickfire spell before the break.

“Boy that was tough, physically and mentally,” Brian McClennan, the Leeds coach, said. “They dominated us for long spells and we’re rapped to get the win. It’s the hit out we probably needed, if we’re going to win the premiership again.”

Bradford Bulls confirmed yesterday that Sam Burgess, the 20-year-old England forward, has been released from his contract at Odsal to take up a four-year deal in the NRL with South Sydney Rabbitohs, whose celebrated co-owner, Russell Crowe, intervened personally to ensure the signing.

Crowe spelt out his vision for South Sydney and admiration for Burgess in a face-to-face meeting, winning the race with several other Australian clubs for his signature. The Rabbitohs have agreed to pay compensation to Bradford, understood to be about £200,000.

Burgess had a clause in his contract enabling him to leave for Australia in 2010. As part of the agreement to release him early, the Bulls said that he had given a legally binding obligation, whereby Bradford have the option to re-sign him should he decide to resume his career in England.

He will join up with South Sydney after the forthcoming Gillette Four Nations. “While I am excited about the prospect of playing in Australia, it has been a tough decision,” Burgess said. “I’ve been at Bradford since I was 14, but playing in Australia has been an ambition and I’m delighted that Souths have given me the opportunity to open a new chapter in my life.”

Castleford Tigers have appealed against a £40,000 fine for crowd trouble. The RFL had found the club guilty of conduct prejudicial to the sport’s interests, after angry supporters laid siege to the match officials’ dressing room in the wake of a home defeat.

Bottles were thrown when Castleford were beaten 22-20 by Catalans Dragons on June 27. The actions were described as “completely unacceptable” at a tribunal this month.

“As a club we take the safety of all our visitors very seriously and, whilst we accept that there were some problems at that match, we are disappointed with the findings and particularly the severity of the sentence,” a Castleford statement said yesterday.

Catalans have abandoned the idea of taking another engage Super League game to Barcelona next season on the ground of cost, but are hopeful of repeating this season’s experiment in 2011. However, the French club intend to switch one game from their Perpignan home to Montpellier.

The Rugby League International Federation is expected to rule in favour this week on the eligibility of Adam Mogg, Clint Greenshields and Casey McGuire, the Australians, to play for France in the Gillette Four Nations, which starts next month.

Bernard Guasch, the Catalans president, is worried that with up to 18 Dragons players involved with France, it could have consequences for the club in terms of burnout and injuries.

Catalans Dragons’ play-offs odyssey from a position of eighth in the engage Super League continued on Friday night with the scalp of Huddersfield Giants, who had beaten them twice in the regular season but were no match for the grit and ingenuity of the French team this time.

Remarkably, Catalans are now within 80 minutes of a first Grand Final appearance in two weeks’ time. The Dragons lost more games than they won over the 27 rounds, but they have the chance away to Leeds Rhinos or St Helens next weekend — depending on who Leeds pick tomorrow as their semi-final opponents — to match the earlier feat of Parramatta Eels in reaching the NRL final from eighth on the league ladder.

After beating St Helens to scrape into the top eight, then Wakefield Wildcats in the first of the elimination play-offs, Catalans won their third successive match on their travels in giving Huddersfield, who finished third but have not looked the same since losing the Carnegie Challenge Cup final to Warrington Wolves last month, some basic lessons in patience and obduracy.

Their third and final try by Olivier Elima, after a clever build-up, was a delicious example of skill in a bruising confrontation, during which the fire went out of Huddersfield in the last quarter. It has been a rewarding season in many respects for a team who have prided themselves on their physical application. Nonetheless, this was a disappointing way to bow out.