It should come as no surprise to any football fan with even a passing contempt for the game’s governing body that FIFA have yet again dropped a sizeable bollock, a bollock that stands a very good chance of ruining many innocent supporters’ lives.

News has broken this morning that a database containing the personal details of hundreds-of-thousands of football fans that purchased World Cup tickets through official FIFA-sanctioned outlets has been stolen and incrementally sold on.

The information has been passing hands for as much as £500,000, and is said to contain the passport details and birth dates of nearly 250,000 football fans that attended games at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

It is also thought that sensitive data regarding many of the participating country’s V.I.Ps, players and their respective entourages may have been purchased with the intention of extortion, fraud or identity theft.

The stolen database was compiled by FIFA before the 2006 tournament and should have been deleted shortly after in conjunction with inter­national laws which govern the exchange of sensitive information – laws to which FIFA apparently did not adhere.

The data contains details of more than 35,000 England fans, nearly 50,000 Scandinavian supporters (including the details of former Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson), nearly 20,000 Americans, 36,000 Swiss, 42,000 Portuguese, 36,000 Dutch fans and thousands more supporters from Poland, Italy, Germany, France, Spain and Croatia.

Supporters at the 2006 World Cup

Worldwide investigations have been launched to try and ascertain just who has been purchasing the information, amidst fears that it could have been purchased by organised criminal gangs or even terrorist groups.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data watchdog, has launched a parallel inquiry which also aims to determine whether fans who travelled to this summer’s World Cup in South Africa are at risk.

The Head of the ICO, Mick Gorill, released a statement yesterday to confirm the breadth of the situation;

“We have been made aware that the personal details of some 35,689 England fans have been unlawfully traded for profit. The information relates to fans who bought tickets for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

We have contacted FIFA regarding the allegations and will be liaising with the organisation further as we move forward with an investigation.

‘The unlawful trade in people’s personal information is a criminal offence under the Data Protection Act. We have launched a full investigation. As part of our investigation we will be working together with international data protection authorities.

We expect to be able to provide more details as our investigation develops, including advice for those who believe that their details may have been involved in this incident.”

FIFA have unsurprisingly declined to make a formal comment, only raising their heads above the parapet to confirm that they are ‘currently investigating the situation’.

It has been alleged that an employee of a ticketing agency may have been responsible for the data breach by putting the information up for sale on the ‘black market’.

After some in-depth enquiries with the relevant authorities, Soccerlens can confirm that former ITV pundit Robbie Earle is not being considered as a potential suspect.

Manchester United have completed their first month of the 2010/11 season, and even though they had a little hiccup against Fulham, it was a pretty successful August for the Reds.

In their four matches during August, United scored 11 goals with eight different players – as well as being the beneficiaries of an own goal – finding the scoresheet.

Dimitar Berbatov led the Reds with three goals in as many matches, which is a fourth of his scoring total from the entire 2009/10 season (12 goals in 29 matches).

While the Bulgarian has impressed with more enthusiastic performances, it has a been 35-year old midfielder that has been the most influential for United so far this season.

Player
Yet again, Paul Scholes is defying all odds and reeling back the years to produce performances that only a player of his ability can – and he has even managed to score his 150th goal for the club.

The goal was a typical Scholes’ special as he unleashed a long-range screamer that whistled a crowd of players and nestled into the bottom corner of the net.

Even though the goal he scored was a thing to marvel at, the nine-time league champion was more influential with his passing  – long and short – and when you couple that with his uncanny vision he has been ability to spring one of the United attackers clean through on goal on numerous occasions.

The ginger-haired midfielder has been in the press more this season than all of last season whether it was for his dazzling performances, the news of him denying Fabio Capello and England his services at the 2010 FIFA World Cup or Arsene Wenger saying that Scholes has a “dark side” to his game.

Matches
United started off August by capturing the FA Community Shield with a clinical display in the 3-1 win over Chelsea to earn the first piece of silverware the young season had to offer.

Antonio Valencia, Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez and Berbatov were all on target for United as they secured their record-extending 18th FA Community (Charity) Shield title.

After seeing off Chelsea, their Barclays Premier League season kicked off at Old Trafford with a visit of their born-again rival Newcastle United, and like they did prior to Magpies relegation, United cruised to a comfortable 3-0 victory.

Berbatov, Darren Fletcher and the ageless Ryan Giggs all found the back of the Toon net with three very clinical finishes.

Their next match, though, started off brightly, but ended on a sour note as they could only come out of Craven Cottage with a point following a 2-2 draw with Fulham.

Scholes gave United the early lead, but it was canceled out by Simon Davies shortly after half-time after the Reds failed to take advantage of some of great chances that they were presented.

Six minutes from time it looked like United stole all three points after Brede Hangeland unknowingly turned the ball into his own net following a Nani corner kick, and these two players would have the two biggest says to how the game ended.

A few moments after taking the lead, United were awarded a penalty after Damien Duff handled the ball in his own penalty area, but Nani’s spot kick was well-saved by young David Stockdale.

The momentum swung in Fulham’s favor and the big Norwegian defender made amends for his own goal gaffe, by expertly heading the ball in following Duff’s in-swinging corner kick to level the scores at two goals a piece, which is how the match would finish.

United needed a positive response in their next game against West Ham United, and they got just that, and their 34-goal talisman finally got on the score sheet this season.

Wayne Rooney opened the scoring after he took the spot kick responsibilities and he sent Robert Green and ended his personal goal scoring drought at 1,113 minutes.

United kept pressing, but were unable to breakdown the Hammers’ stern resistance, however, that all changed five minutes after half-time when Nani put his foot through the ball and blast the ball passed Green.

United’s third goal was something to admire, because Nani lofted a perfectly weighted pass to the far post for Berbatov to acrobatically hammer home.

With the match and points in the bag, United saw made wholesale changes and saw the game out comfortably.

Transfer
United were very quiet in the transfer market this summer, but they made some noise when they signed an unknown player from Portugal during the month of August.

Tiago Manuel Dias Correia, better known as Bébé, signed on 11th from Vitória de Guimarães after United paid his release clause of £7.4 million to bring him to Old Trafford.

Bébé came from a strong recommendation from Carlos Queiroz, and Sir Alex acted quickly before any other teams could snap up this unproven, raw 20-year old forward.

Results
08 – Chelsea (FA Community Shield) – Wembley Stadium W, 1-3 (A. Valencia, J. Hernandez, D. Berbatov)
16 – Newcastle United (Premier League) – Old Trafford – W, 3-0 (D. Berbatov, D. Fletcher, R. Giggs)
22 – Fulham (Premier League) – Craven Cottage – D, 2-2 (P. Scholes, Own Goal)
28 – West Ham United (Premier League) – Old Trafford – W, 3-0 (W. Rooney, Nani, D. Berbatov)

Record
GP 4 W 3 D 1 L 0 GF 11 GA 3 GD +8

Goal scorers
D. Berbatov – 3
D. Fletcher – 1
R. Giggs – 1
J. Hernandez – 1
Nani – 1
W. Rooney – 1
P. Scholes – 1
A. Valencia – 1
Own Goal – 1

Assists
W. Rooney – 3
P. Scholes – 2
Nani – 2
D. Berbatov – 1
A. Valencia – 1