Play it again, West Ham!

Canadians may think that hockey is the be all and the end all in sport, but in England it’s football, and with the end of the Premiership season just wrapped up on the weekend, controversy has reared its head or is that a foot.

Tottenham Hotspur' played their final game on Sunday a match that if they had won would have propelled them to the lucrative European Champions League circuit, (the top four Premier League teams get berths in the Champions League).

The only problem on the way to fame, glory and riches for the Spurs, was a sudden and violent case of food poisoning traced back to some pre game lasagna from their hotel. The foul pasta dish left the team decimated and those that could play were shall we say, in a much weakened state.

With a roster of the sick and infirm the Spurs went on to lose to their hosts West Ham by a score of 2-1. Arch rival Arsenal in the meantime, managed to grab a win in their final match of the year and thus claimed the fourth and final spot for the Champions League season next year. A berth that promises millions of dollars in extra revenues with many of the top European clubs now scheduling Arsenal on their dance card for the next season.

The fact that Arsenal benefited from the stricken state of Tottenham has led to no shortage of conspiracy theories from Tottenham supporters regarding the tainted pasta dish and its effect on the Spurs football club. The conspiracy theories are wild in their range, from the obvious benefactors of Arsenal, to the British betting syndicates and European TV networks anxious to keep Arsenal available with it's talented roster, no theory seems to have been tossed aside in the case of troubled tummies.

In fact, things are so serious that the British police have apparently tested the lasagna dish forensically in search of clues regarding tampering or other possible wrongdoing, just in case a criminal investigation is launched later on.

While the Bobbies go about their business, the Spurs have been attempting to have the Premiership nullify Sundays result and schedule a rematch with a much healthier Spurs squad ready to do battle.

At last report, the option of a replay was given little chance of success, with the Premiership deciding a result is a result and the seedings shall stay as they exist upon the final day.

That result will send Tottenham supporters to the barricades, the history of acrimony between them and Arsenal supporters is legendary in British football. This latest episode in that already colourful chapter will surely set the stage next year for some intense matches when the two sides meet up.

To give you an idea of the intensity between the two clubs, it would be like the Oilers and Flames going to war as they have in the past in Alberta, though to our knowledge there have been neither sabotaged steaks nor pancake breakfasts in the history of the NHL.

Sometimes soccer has been described as a tad boring on the field as the action slows to a crawl and the offense stagnates on the pitch. Turns out we’ve been looking in the wrong direction, perhaps some of the real action is nowhere near the field but back in the dark corners of a hotel room kitchen, that’s where championships are won or lost it seems!