European Big Boys ready themselves for battle.
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FIFA F**ks up again!
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New guidelines could strangle the life out of the north London club.
Our latest contributor to COS, Mr Rant, can get a little carried away so if there are any small children reading this, we apologise.
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Yet Another Long Term Injury at Arsenal!
FIFA have announced their final list of candidates for the 2007-08 FIFA World XI. Who do you think should be on the final squad?
The final World XI and the FIFPro World Player of the Year will be announced on October 27.
Goalkeepers: Boruc, Buffon, Casillas, Cech, van der Sar.
Defenders: Alves, Bosingwa, Cannavaro, Carvalho, Clichy, A Cole, Evra, Ferdinand, Nesta, Lahm, Lucio, Maldini, Pepe, Puyol, Ramos, Terry, Vidic, Zambrotta, Zanetti, Zhirkov.
Midfielders: Deco, Ballack, Essien, Gattuso, Fabregas, Gerrard, Iniesta, Kaka, Lampard, Mascherano, Pirlo, Ribery, Senna, Sneijder, Xavi.
Forwards: Arshavin, Berbatov, Drogba, Eto’o, Henry, Ibrahimovic, Messi, van Nistelrooy, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez, Toni, Torres, Villa.
The list is filled with big name Premier League players, but only eleven can make the squad. Take a look at the name and let us know who’s worthy of the honour!
Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez isn’t the only manager dealing with massive injuries prior to his weekend match. But unlike most, those managers don’t have to deal with the loss of their star striker for the next 10-15 days. After venting his frustration yesterday, Benitez came back this time with a level-head and a plan. He’s hoping the footballing world considers his idea to change the international schedule. [Read the rest of this entry »]
The news coming out about the Premier League’s debt has been bad; no actually it’s been really, REALLY bad. England’s clubs could be more than £3 billion in debt, and from the looks of things, it doesn’t appear that it will get better anytime soon. UEFA president Michel Platini, on the other hand, believes that within this dark cloud could be a silver lining. For all the greed going on in football, Platini believes that the best way to make the biggest hit on the issue is to institute a salary cap for every team. [Read the rest of this entry »]
It appears that the club have made a decision over who to appoint as their next manager. [Read the rest of this entry »]
And to be fair, he does have a point. Michel Platini was a great player in his day and he doesn’t hold back when it comes to speaking out over the issues that are currently blighting the game of football. One of these happens to be certain English clubs who get themselves into a ridiculous amount of debt in order to sign the world’s best players and pay them extraordinary salaries. The Daily Mail reports that the Frenchman wants to stop the likes of Man United and Chelsea ‘cheating’ the system.
Platini has also started a crusade to rid the Premier League of debt-ridden clubs, branding the Chelsea v Manchester United Champions League Final as a battle of the “cheats”.
He said: “Look at the deficits of Chelsea and Manchester United. FIFA and UEFA are going to have to combat that because, today, it is the ones who cheat who win.
“We are starting to work on this. It’s a race for money. The passion in England is exceptional and hooliganism has been fought but, as for the rest, we are going to have to find something.”
Indeed, that’s what makes a club such as Arsenal more likeable – their attempt to balance the books at every turn, even if it means losing players due to having a salary structure in place. While some clubs are always going to be bigger than others, this foreign investment that Chelsea and United are enjoying widens the gap between themselves and the rest of the teams in Premier League and Champions League.
Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez might still be working feverishly to figure out how to conquer the Premiership, but one thing is for certain when it comes to the ‘goateed-one’: He sure doesn’t have a problem winning on Europe’s biggest stage
The Liverpool ECHO is reporting that Rafa’s hard work won’t go unnoticed next year, as UEFA prepare to hand Liverpool the title of best team in Europe based on their current success abroad over the past five years.
Having won the competition in 2005, been runners up to AC Milan in 2007 and made it through to the semi-finals this year, Rafa Benitez’s team has accrued more ranking points than any other club in Europe. (Liverpool ECHO)
Liverpool top the rankings table with 104.284 points, giving them a one point lead over Italian giants AC Milan. (Liverpool ECHO)
From Gerrard’s heroics against Olympiakos during the 2004/05 season, to the memorable victories against Barcelona (2007) and Inter (2008), Liverpool have found every possible way over the years to silence the critics when everything else around them seemed to be going up in flames.
If you ask a Liverpudlian what makes them so special when it comes to European Nights, you’re bound to get a number of answers, from the Kop, to Benitez’s tactics. But regardless of what type of answer you get, there is no doubting that a special electricity exists in Anfield that makes even the best and brightest in Europe look like also-rans when they step on the pitch.
So what is it that makes Liverpool so prolific in Europe? Are Liverpool just a team that seems to always have lady luck on their side, or is there something more to their success that makes them so unbeatable when it comes to European competition?
As I excitedly await the UEFA Cup final tonight, I am saddened by the fact that the most interesting story I can think to write about has nothing to do with the football.
Yesterday the Zenit manager, Dick Advocaat, was quoted as saying that he would not be able to sign a black player as the Zenit fans would not like it.
I would be happy to sign anyone, but the fans don’t like black players. Quite honestly, I do not understand how they could pay so much attention to skin colour. Frankly, the only players who can make Zenit stronger are dark skinned. But for us it would be impossible. (Telegraph)
UEFA of course, have a zero-tolerance approach to racism and are actively promoting the “kick racism out of football” campaign, so Zenit will surely be dealt with for this openly discriminating signing policy, right? Wrong! UEFA appear to have done nothing but sweep the whole issue under the carpet.
Rangers have done so much over the last year or so to stamp out their own bigotry problems and have themselves faced disciplinary action from UEFA. Why is nothing being done about a team where there is obviously a concern? This is a team who are playing in the final of a major European competition and may well be representing Russia in the biggest club trophy of them all next season – the Champions League.
Surely UEFA need to take action?
After the debacle for many Liverpool fans in Athens last season, it appeared as though more of the same could have been on the cards for supporters of Manchester United and Chelsea who are making the trip to Russia to see their team play in the Champions League final. There had been talk of fans needing a visa in order to gain access to the country, which could have been an administrative nightmare.
However, the BBC report that the Russian authorities have backed down over their requirements and stated that, as long as fans have a match ticket, along with passport and immigration forms, they wll not have to bother with a visa after all. This could also serve the dual purpose of making sure that fans without tickets don’t bother travelling to Moscow.
“This is great news for football fans travelling to watch this year’s UEFA Champions League final in Moscow,” said Platini.
“Our job is to make sure that they are able to get to and from Moscow as easily as possible.
“I am therefore extremely pleased that at my request, all fans travelling with a valid match ticket can use this to enter Russian territory.
“For this I must thank wholeheartedly the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, the Russian government, the city of Moscow and the Football Union of Russia for this exceptional and unprecedented gesture.”
In predictable fashion, each club have only received 21,000 tickets each for the encounter, with the remaining 27,500 being dished out to corporate sponsors and the like.
When Nacho Novo converted Rangers’ fifth penalty kick he did more than seal their place in the UEFA Cup final, he sealed this Rangers side’s place as legends. Win or lose in Manchester every Rangers fan will be rightly proud of the achievement of this group of underdogs for years to come.
It may not have been the prettiest game of football, but Walter Smith’s men again showed that what they may lack in technical ability they more than make up for with grit, determination and passion.
Fiorentina coach Ceare Prandelli does not seem to share my enthusiasm for the Rangers performance however. He is quoted on bbc.co.uk as saying:
“Rangers came here just to stop us playing our best football and got the result they wanted.
The game would have been more entertaining if we were facing a team ready to play a bit more.”
Hmm, perhaps I am wrong but was it not the Italians who invented defensive football? Rangers played to their strengths, who can criticise them for that? In yet another David versus Goliath encounter Walter Smith ensured his team did what was needed and I congratulate the whole team.
The only disappointment was Daniel Cousin’s stupidity. While I don’t think for a second he hurt Liverani with his ‘head-butt’, everyone with even a passing interest in football knows you are going to see red if you put your head into another player the way Cousin did. Rangers will now be without the big striker in the final which stacks the odds further in the favour of the excellent St. Petersburg side. But then that’s the way Rangers like it…
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has long been a proponent of a European Super League and even after the dismantling of the G-14 group, of which the London club was a vital member, the Frenchman is not at all convinced that a breakway Super League wouldn’t be formed by the richest clubs in Europe.
But how? Wenger underlines the new Premier League proposals of playing an international round of Premiership matches in venues spread across the world. Although most of the major football figures are against the move with even FIFA and UEFA Cup chiefs declining to back the move, there is still a dim possibility that the proposals would be accepted after much modifications.
This is how Wenger believes the Premier League propoals would construct the foundation for a European Super League:
When the idea of the 39th game came out it created a lot of resistance domestically, but it also created a lot of resistance from the official organisers of the big competitions. They want to continue to master the international competitions themselves and to protect their own competitions. I believe if a real threat would come out from a domestic league for international competitions, then certainly they would get a response from Uefa or Fifa to organise themselves.
For example, let us accept now that England organise a 39th game. Then tomorrow, Italy will organise one, France will organise one, Spain maybe as well because they can go to the Latin countries. It looked like it could happen when we had the second [Champions League] group stage, but the television did not want to buy it anymore.
What Wenger says does make sense yet you are not entirely convinced by his arguments. First of all, the majority of the Spanish and Italian clubs in the top flight do not care a rat’s ass about promoting themselves shameless like most of the Premiership clubs, even those battling relegation, do. That is one chief reason why the Spanish and Italian leagues are not as popular worldwide as the Premiership is although they provide a better spectacle of football(at least, La Liga does).
And if indeed a European Super League is created, then that would imply an end to the football as we know it. The gap between the rich and the poor clubs will only increase and the television market will be solely taken over by these football clubs, apparently the cream of the crop. And that will signal the start of the end of football.
Morbid and kind of ludicrious, I know, but that is a distinct possibility nonetheless.
Football Streaming Video on Sportingo.com, the Leading Sports site.
The Mirror reports that Bolton Wanderers are planning to launch a formal complaint with UEFA about Atletico Madrid after their travel arrangements including hotel rooms were leaked by the Spanish giants ahead of the two clubs’ UEFA Cup, last 32, second leg tie at the Vicente Calderon.
Bolton complain that the Atletico’s official website deliberately leaked the details of the visit of the Premiership strugglers to the Spanish capital after details of their flight timings and hotel name were revealed on the site to the public. So much so that the players’ hotel room numbers also appeared on other internet sites, implying official exposure of strictly confidential data.
Bolton manager Gary Megson spits out his venom at the behaviour of Atletico by saying:
This is strange behaviour for a club of Atletico Madrid’s size and status. It raises some serious security issues.
Actually, this is a method employed by Atletico to wind up their opponents. Bolton beat the Spaniards 1-0 in the first leg last week at the Reebok Stadium and the spit-spat between the two clubs stretched forward from then. But the unprofessional behaviour of the Atletico officials is truly detestable and UEFA needs to investigate the matter and met out strict punishment to Atletico Madrid.
The English FA have now decided to intervene into the Premier League-international venues circus and that is not going to help the Premier League’s ambition to make the top flight clubs in England play Premiership matches abroad. While most of the top football figures including FIFA president Sepp Blatter and UEFA head Michel Platini have rubbished the idea of this 39th fixture, the Football Association too is towing the line.
A statement released by the FA reads as:
The Football Association has listened carefully to the comments made by Fifa president Sepp Blatter regarding the Premier League’s proposal for an international round of fixtures.
This proposal has generated a high level of debate both domestically and with the international football family.
While the Football Association has given full consideration to views expressed by all parties, we must make our own position on this subject clear.
We can confirm that the Football Association did speak to Fifa general secretary Jerome Valcke about this matter yesterday.
We explained that while we had received a verbal summary on the subject, at this time we are not in possession of any detailed proposals from the Premier League to pass on to Fifa.
It was also made clear to Fifa that the Football Association has some serious reservations about the proposal.
We have the responsibility to the whole of English football and we have to consider any wider consequences and implications that this proposal may create.
On Friday, Blatter said that the proposal could prove detrimental to England’s bid to host the 2018 World Cup and the FA certainly do not want to jeopardize that particular chance.
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