karlpejera: What we want for 2012: 'Make Mario Balotelli Manchester City captain'

From modernising MOTD to Liverpool ditching their persecution complex, Guardian writers offer their new year wishlist

Richard Williams

Capital cities seldom win the European Cup: Madrid, Amsterdam and, long ago, Lisbon and Belgrade are the exceptions in the history of a tournament that has brought no joy to Rome, Paris, Berlin or, of course, London. Non?capital cities such as Munich, Liverpool, Milan, Barcelona, Manchester, Turin, Marseille, Glasgow, Nottingham, Rotterdam, Dortmund, Eindhoven, Porto and Birmingham traditionally enjoy better fortune. Most people expect Pep Guardiola and Jos� Mourinho to be fighting it out at the Allianz Arena in May, but for Arsenal and Chelsea, beaten finalists in 2006 and 2008 respectively, there is still a chance to provide an extra fillip to London's Olympic year.

Dominic Fifield

Clubs outside the elite being properly compensated if their youth-team prospects are lured away. There is understandable concern within productive academies outside the top flight that youngsters who have been nurtured from an early age could now be lost for a pittance under the soon-to-be-applied Elite Player Performance Plan. If the previous tribunal system for settling fees was admittedly deemed erratic and unpredictable, then the worry now at many clubs who place an emphasis on player development is that any compensation they do receive under the new plan will hardly reflect the time and effort put into their youth set-up. They could be denied their lifeblood, with so many outside the Premier League reliant upon player sales to survive.

David Hytner

Holland v Germany. Spain v Italy. England v France. And these are merely group?stage appetisers. There is no mucking around at this tournament and there is no doubt that it holds the edge over the World Cup in terms of distilled quality and difficulty rating. Enjoy it while you can. Uefa, in its wisdom, has decided to include 24 nations from the 2016 finals.

Jamie Jackson

Mario Balotelli to be Manchester City captain. At last the Premier League has a character, a figure in the lineage of Eric Cantona and Roy Keane, who were fine captains. Leaders are chosen to send a particular message, so to have the firework enthusiast taking Manchester City into battle would give the title pretenders the final prerequisite of all great teams: personality. It might also calm him down. A little.

Stuart James

Bring Match of the Day into the 21st century. We might then start watching it as it goes out, rather than feel the need to press record, so we can fast forward through the lazy analysis and tired format that leads to pundits treating the so?called"smaller clubs" with disdain, routinely lambasting officials with no appreciation of the difficulty of their job and cosying up to the managers and players they bump into on the golf course.

Amy Lawrence

Sepp Blatter deposed. I know it's asking for a miracle, but we can always live in hope. The removal of the blatherer would give football a better chance of a more transparent and modern, and less odious, governing body. The knock?on effect would hopefully help football to embrace technology to assist referees and stop lovers of the game the world over from tearing their hair out quite so much.

Sid Lowe

For someone other than Real Madrid or Barcelona to win something in Spain. It would be good for everyone ? including Real Madrid and Barcelona, who are in danger of eating themselves. Trouble is, if someone else won a trophy, the big two would take that as proof that everything is fine, see? We see and it's not.

Kevin McCarra

The return of Jack Wilshere from an ankle injury would be uplifting, particularly if the Arsenal player then makes the sort of swift progress that is possible in a youngster who is 20 on New Year's Day. His club are doing well without him but England badly need a midfielder with youth and talent to enhance the side at Euro 2012.

Ewan Murray

Experiments with cheap ticketing at Scottish Premier League grounds over the festive season proved a success. There should now be a drive to offer cut-price tickets ? subsidised if need be by the league ? in an attempt to bring people back to matches. Scotland remains a football-obsessed country but one in which too many people prefer to talk about than attend games. Chronic overpricing plays a key part in that; the recognition of such a problem and moves to do something about it would represent progress. An end to the chronic, tiresome, opposition obsession which consumes too many supporters of the Old Firm clubs would also be a boost. That, unfortunately, is hardly likely.

Daniel Taylor

Roberto Mancini reckons that once Mario Balotelli gets his priorities right he can be as good as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. It's some statement and, at 21, this is probably the time Balotelli started to show he can play grown-up football every week. Just don't bet your mortgage on it. When it comes to Mario, even Mancini has given up trying to predict what will happen next.

Louise Taylor

I would like to see Middlesbrough win promotion to the Premier League. This is for assorted reasons. They include the pledge made by Tony Mowbray, Boro's manager, to restore every member of the club's behind?the?scenes staff who lost jobs in a round of cost cutting last summer. Then there is Mowbray's dedication to an uplifting purist passing game ? and his integrity, something far too often lacking among certain managerial peers.

Paul Wilson

I suppose Liverpool growing up and ditching the persecution complex would be too much to hope for. It was a bit rich to accuse the Football Association of prejudging the Luis Su�rez investigation when the club have been unable to keep quiet on the matter from the outset. Bill Shankly used to be a one?man public relations industry on behalf of Liverpool FC, before the term had been properly recognised. The present crass campaign lacks his magic touch.