General Football Thread

[Johnny Latino Heat]

7 hours ago, GoN_ said:

A group of teams from Brazil's First Division (so far I've read  Sao Paulo, Corinthians, Santos and Palmeiras as being the subscribers) have agreed to:

1) loan players to Chapecoense for the next season, for free

2) request that for the next 3 years the FA protects Chapecoense from being relegated to give them time to rebuild. That would mean that if they finished in the bottom 4, it would be the 5th from the bottom that would be relegated.

 

Apparently Benfica also has offered to loan players for free. 

[FestiveJack]

In terms of events that wipe out entire teams, it's usually been air crashes like Munich, Superga in 1949 before that (where Torino's entire team of absolute world beaters perished) and more recently Alianza Lima of Chile in 1987 (they, like United in 58, were leading the league at the time of the crash but lost due to the crash. It would take a decade for them to recover) and Zambia in 1993.

This is the first one in ages though. Really hope they can bounce back.

[MalaCloudy Black]

The number's up to 11 Brazilian clubs that have asked to keep them in Serie A, as well as offering to loan them players next year. 

[Rafael]

CONMEBOL president said that although giving Chapecoense the Copa Sul-Americana title would be commendable, it still needs evalution from the CONMEBOL council. It is very likely that Chapecoense will be declared champions.

[Gazz]

[TCO]

I was looking at the squad list and was horrified to see Arthur Maia there.

He was one of my favourite FM players ever. Signed him with Toronto in FM2012 at 19 and he went on to be my captain and best player. He stayed so long he got citizenship, then played for and captained Canada under me. 

It's bizarre but that just makes it hit home harder. This is just terrible and it's bizarre but Arthur Maia has and will always stick in my memory.

Edited November 30, 2016 by TCO

[MDK]

In more uplifting news a South African teams 'keeper scored a last minute overhead kick to equalise the game. An overhead kick. And the bit that gets me is that he had a celebration rehearsed. Now that is confidence. 

[Lineker]

16 minutes ago, MDK said:

In more uplifting news a South African teams 'keeper scored a last minute overhead kick to equalise the game. An overhead kick. And the bit that gets me is that he had a celebration rehearsed. Now that is confidence. 

 

 

[MDK]

1 minute ago, Lineker said:

 

Some say he is still dancing...

[MalaCloudy Black]

Quote

 

Seventeen different police forces are investigating sex abuse allegations in English youth soccer, with at least 350 people having come forward to allege crimes, reports The Guardian. As just one example, the Greater Manchester police say they have received reports from 35 alleged victims, and have identified 10 suspects. In the week since launching a helpline dedicated to child sex abuse in soccer, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has received 860 calls.

Andy Woodward, a former player for fourth-tier Crewe Alexandria, first told The Guardian about being abused by convicted sex offender Barry Bennell two weeks ago. Since then, a number of other former players have detailed to the press how they were abused by youth coaches, and each day brings new horrifying revelations.

Given the scale of allegations, the sexual abuse of youth soccer players clearly wasn’t limited to just one club, or one perpetrator. Former Southampton players Dean Radford and Jamie Webb are the latest alleged victims to come forward, telling the BBC South about being sexually abused by a former Southampton employee, with the BBC also writing that “a number of other players have also come forward saying they were abused at the club.” 

 

http://deadspin.com/english-police-are-investigating-hundreds-of-claims-of-1789598127

[DavidMarrio]

On 01/12/2016 at 10:25, MDK said:

In more uplifting news a South African teams 'keeper scored a last minute overhead kick to equalise the game. An overhead kick. And the bit that gets me is that he had a celebration rehearsed. Now that is confidence. 

Bet he couldn't do it during an indoor 6 a side match

[MDK]

29 minutes ago, Davidmarrio said:

Bet he couldn't do it during an indoor 6 a side match

Hold my pint

[MDK]

Well, the whole Chapecoense might have just got a lot worse. I copy and pasted from Reddit so take it with a pinch of salt but to be honest I wouldn't be surprised. 

Quote

The death of the players extremely sad. But the revelations that have come out over the past 2 days have been even more scary.

LaMia; a Venezuelan based company that flew out of Bolivia, has been implicated in a major scandal that is growing by the minute and involves the flights of several major football teams.

Venezuelan based LaMia; not only regularly chartered long haul international flights for Chapecoense but also clubs like Atletico Nacional, Santa Fe, and national teams like the Argentine national team, the Bolivian national Team, and the Peruvian national team (that we know of so far).

Several times they flew flights that were just within the flight range of the plane. Several of the flights. In one case when it transported the Argentine National Team from Argentina to Brazil it had only 15 minutes of extra fuel on board. In another case it made an unannounced stop at the Brasilia airport while transporting the Bolivian National Team to refuel.

The fact that this low-cost airline was repeatedly used by very well-off teams; and cut corners while doing so is fueling theories that the airline was being used by high up officials in the CONMEBOL, the AFA, and several other organizations to embezzle funds. Chapecoense was told by the CONMEBOL for example that they couldn't take a commercial flight to the Sudamericana Final.

This fear is furthered by the connection of the airline to Venezuela; a key trading partner of Argentina and a figure in several corruption scandals that rocked the Kirchner administration.

It is theorized that the airline did not stop to refuel because it used subsidized fuel from Venezuela and the cost to refuel would cut heavily into the airlines margins.

 

[Lineker]

Loads of players have offered to play for them. Ronaldinho, Riquelme, Gudjohnson... 

Elsewhere: Forever Pure: Football and Racism in Jerusalem review – makes the north London derby look like a love-in

[Lineker]

Chape have been awarded the Copa Sudamericana. Their opponents, Atletico Nacional, have been given a Fair Play award.

[MalaCloudy Black]

The CEO of LaMia was arrested last night. 

http://deadspin.com/ceo-of-airline-involved-in-chapecoense-plane-crash-arre-1789781830

Quote

 

Not only did the plane barely have enough fuel to make the trip safely in the best of circumstances, but the pilot also reportedly decided against making a scheduled refueling stop somewhere mid-flight.

It doesn’t end there. The pilot of the crashed plane, Miguel Quiroga, was also one of the owners of the airline. This has led those paying attention to this case to wonder if the choices he and LaMia made—to fly in a straight shot even though it violated aviation regulations, to shrug off the planned refueling stop, even Quiroga’s failure to adequately impress upon the air traffic controller the severity of the situation until the very last minute—arose because of financial concerns and the desire not to arouse any unwanted attention.

 

 

[Gazz]

Explosion reported at Besiktas' stadium.

[MDK]

One of the survivors from the Chapecoense plane asked what happened to him in the match that left him in hospital. The medical staff are holding off telling him until he has recovered some more. That is really horrible.

[Jimmy]

[Gazz]

Due to his reputation for scoring extremely late goals in injury time, Real Madrid fans chant 'Ramos scores a goal' as Madrid prepare to take a 95th minute corner in a 2-2 game with Deportivo.

https://mobile.twitter.com/RMSport_es/status/807711320648904704