UEFA Champions League Real Madrid’s offensive woes will not be aided when they travel to the Stade de l’Abbé Deschamps on Tuesday and face an Auxerre squad who gave up the fewest goals in Ligue 1 last season with a … Continue reading
La Liga clubs spent a week on vacation after the opening round of fixtures because of the international FIFA date, although for Real Madrid and Barcelona, many of their players were on international duty. In particular, ten players from Barcelona … Continue reading
It probably doesn’t matter that Clint Dempsey’s now-famous daisy-cutter turned poor, hapless Robert Green into the best football punchline since Titus Bramble. See, even in the wake of the U.S.’s 1-1 draw vs. England at the 2010 World Cup, one … Continue reading
While I do not always agree with UEFA President Michel Platini, like his proposals for wage caps and vendetta against the big-spending Premier League, the Frenchman has been spot on in implementing more referee assistants on the pitch. Platini was … Continue reading
So you may now recognise him as the head of U.E.F.A. and the man that moved the Champions League from a Wednesday night to a Saturday night. What you may not know is that Platini, for 3 or 4 years, … Continue reading
My memories of how I learned about the news regarding the Hillsborough Disaster and the Bradford Fire Disaster are a lot more vivid than what happened 25 years ago today in the Heysel Stadium Disaster. Part of the reason was … Continue reading
A dispiriting final matchday left Mallorca forty seconds away from qualifying for the Champions League. Sevilla manager Antonio Álvarez took a huge gamble late in that match by sending Sevilla youth product Rios Lozano Rodri into the match instead of … Continue reading
Depending on the results of the final round in La Liga this upcoming weekend, Atlético Madrid can finish as high as ninth and as low as eleventh in Spain. Fulham completed their 2009-10 in the Barclays Premier League in twelfth … Continue reading
Everyone off the Coach, It’s Time for a Kick About Not one of the four clubs competing in a European semi this week could manage an away win. Fulham came closest away to Hamburg as they set themselves up with a … Continue reading
After yesterday’s final games in the Champions League round of 16, we now know which teams will be in the hat tomorrow morning to decide who will play who in the quarter-finals. But before tomorrow’s draw, I thought it’d be … Continue reading
Most of the headlines focus around Group G, the consensus “Group of Death” with Brazil, Portugal, Côte d’Ivoire, and North Korea, and the pairing of England and the United States in Group C. For Spain and manager Vicente del Bosque, … Continue reading
Well, you can’t blame them for trying, two weeks after that hand ball incident and FIFA and UEFA being as patronising as possible, the Football Association of Ireland have asked to be included in the World Cup draw on Friday … Continue reading
UEFA has confirmed that it plans to investigate 40 cases of suspected match-fixing in the Champions League and UEFA Cup. Most of the cases were from Eastern Europe and involved games in the early qualifying rounds of the tournaments, according … Continue reading
Athletic Bilbao would have no problems with the proposed UEFA plan of mandating eight homegrown players in the squad of eighteen for every match or the theoretical 6 + 5 rule, where six players of the starting eleven would have … Continue reading