Football and politics generally don't really mix, but there's always the odd exception. Dutch minnows TOP Oss are following the Barcelona model with representation by the "socios" or fans.

Barcelona socios are eligible to vote on a new chairman, and several other matters, when they are season ticket holders over 18, who have held their ticket for at least a year.

Dutch Jupiler League side TOP Oss are looking to duplicate this system by selling certificates to the fans. Such a certificate allows a fan to speak his mind on several club affairs.

If you're willing to pay 75 euros a year, you'll become a certified TOP-supporter. By logging on to the website http://www.mijntop-oss.nl/ you can vote on matters involving club policy.

The general idea is to not only allow the fans to speak their mind but even generate some extra income. The club is aiming for 10,000 fans to buy such a certificate, which would generate about 750,000 euros.

The computer game series "Football Manager" is considered by many fans to be one of the most realistic football-management simulations ever. The in-game database includes the data of over 370,000 players scattered all over the world.

Most of the data is gathered by local fans who send their findings to a main researcher for a specific area. He filters out the unrealistic entries before mailing his research to London to the headquarters of the developing firm Sports Interactive Games.

Over the past decade or so, Football Manager (FM), its predecessor Championship Manager, and developing firm Sports Interactive Games (SI Games) have built up an excellent reputation for scouting talent at a very early age.

Many talents that have exploded onto the world stage were recognised by gamers world-wide as FM talents two or three years ago.

Just to give you an example, a player like Javier Saviola moved to Europe in 2001, but he's been a big hit with FM fanatics ever since the 1999 version of the game where he was one of the biggest young talents in the game. The same applies to players like Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristian Ronaldo, and many others.

As some of you may or may not have noticed; Real Madrid purchased Ajax forward, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar last week for around twenty million euros. I firmly believe Huntelaar or KJH as he is also called will be a great success at Real Madrid. I will analyse his style of play in an effort to back this claim up.

Huntelaar is not very reliant on his physique. If I were to give him marks out of ten for the various physical attributes a modern-day strikers should possess, he wouldn't score over 7/10. Not for his pace, neither for his jumping, nor for his strength and stamina. He's about a 6/10 or 7/10 in all aspects. It's not his physique that makes Klaas-Jan the lethal striker he is.

People see him scoring goals with either head or feet, standing all alone, and therefore deduce he must be very fast or very strong in the air to get the amount of space he has, but it's really not down to physique.

It's also not his technique. Even though every professional player possesses a fair share of technical ability, some excel in this area and have superb technical skills. KJH is not one of these players. Again, I'd rate his technical abilities as 7/10.

His first touch is good and he's got a powerful and accurate shot, but he's not the kind of player who skips past three defenders and scores miraculous dribbling-goals.

We have all heard of Dirk Kuyt, the Dutch forward/winger, currently active for Liverpool FC. Fortuna Sittard, my favourite club-side, have a player whose style is similar to that of Kuyt's.

His name is Ruud Boymans and because of his impending transfer to rivals VVV-Venlo, I decided to write an article to express my feelings regarding this poor man's Kuyt.

In an effort to explain why Boymans means so much to me, I will first break down Kuyt's style of play. Dirk is known neither for his technical skills nor his goalscoring record, but for his superb work ethos and excellent stamina.

In a way, he reminds me of a dockworker. Not a modern day dockworker, but one from the 1900's, way before there were unions. Working all day long, never complaining, always getting the job done. That's what Dirk Kuyt is about, for me anyway.

Currently, Ruud Boymans is playing for one of the worst teams in Dutch professional football. This means he has quite a few defensive duties as well. Playing all-out attacking football in which the attackers don't have to defend is a luxury teams near the bottom cannot permit themselves.

Reigning World Champions Manchester United have approached Dutch Eredivisie-side SC Heerenveen with an offer for cooperation, according to Frysian/Dutch newspaper Leeuwarder Courant.

Heerenveen-director Yme Kuiper declared in this article that "although the club is honoured to receive such an offer, they would like to continue alone down the path they have chosen."

The Frysians haven't slammed the door shut though, as Kuiper also stated that "contacts between the two clubs are good, and this may or may not lead to any form of cooperation in the near future."

I can understand both the offer the Red Devils have made and Heerenveen's reluctance to accept it. There are always two sides to a story.

Manchester is looking for partners on the European mainland because British work permit rules are hindering the club in signing players from certain countries, particularly South American countries.

Ajax sold their star-striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to Real Madrid for 20 million euros a few weeks ago. The Galacticos are no doubt pleased, but in Amsterdam, trouble is brewing as it is unclear who will fill Huntelaar's boots upfront.

The Amsterdam-based club are now linked to several strikers, but apparently Marcus Berg is at the top of the Ajax-shortlist. The Swedish FC Groningen striker has scored 13 goals in 15 appearances this season, after bagging 15 goals in 25 appearances last season.

He would most likely cost Ajax around 10 million euros, which is an utter waste of money if you ask me.

Ajax signed Huntelaar's replacement last summer. During the summer, they paid Argentine side Banfield six-and-a-half million euros to sign the top goal-scorer of the Argentine league, Argentine-Croatian forward Darío Cvitanich.

The South American forward was meant to act as a stand-in for Huntelaar and didn't get a lot of playing time this season. When he did play, he was unconvincing and the fans had already written him off as yet another failure.