General Football Thread

[Lineker]

Holy shit, Joey Barton apologises.

[Adam]

Good. He was a royal prick over that whole thing. Glad he had the stones to apologise.

[Lineker]

Apparently Didi was threatening to sue.

[Rafael]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9Gxf7seCAc

He definitely improved since Blackburn.

[Rafael]

Del Piero has had probably the best exhibition of his career as he netted 4 goals and gave 2 assists in Sydney's 7-1 win over Wellington Phoenix.

[Monkey D. Lars]

Today it's Ajax vs Feyenoord. GO FEYENOORD!

[Monkey D. Lars]

Aaargh

[Colly]

First goal finally scored in the ACON, decent team goal from Ghana. Of course with Lualua and Calvin Zola playing for Doctor Congo I'm hoping for a comeback.

[Colly]

Tiote not starting for Ivory Coast, grrr.

In stranger news, Didier Zokora will apparently have 'Maestro' on the back of his shirt as its supposedly his nickname. If I were playing I'd have my own nickname 'Fly Emirates' on there.

[Benji]

Seeing Suarez and Sturridge at Liverpool, and Nugent and Wood at Leicester makes me pine for a major ressurgence of the classic two man strike partnership.

[Lineker]

The Daily Mail reports that there could be a new Beckham in the Premier League sooner rather than later after David and Victoria's eldest son Brooklyn had a trial for Chelsea at their Cobham training ground on Tuesday. The 14-year-old was also on the Under-14 roster at the LA Galaxy academy while his dad played in California.

[Benji]

Jeez, the kid is 14 already? Good luck to him, here's to hoping he's as good as his old man.

[Gazz]

He'll be manager by the time he's 19...

[Lineker]

Real Madrid has topped Deloitte's football rich list for the eighth year in a row, with revenues breaking 500m euros (£420m) for the first time.

Barcelona, Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Chelsea make up the rest of the top five spots, based on data for the 2011/12 season.

Chelsea's revenues were boosted significantly by winning both the Uefa Champions League and the FA Cup.

Manchester City was joint top riser, jumping from twelfth to seventh spot.

The club's revenues rose to 286m euros from 170m euros the previous season, thanks to winning the Premier League and a controversial sponsorship deal.

The club has signed a 10-year deal with Etihad Airways worth a reported 480m euros.

Etihad is the flag-carrier of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and is based in Abu Dhabi. Manchester City is owned by Sheikh Mansour, a member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, which is one of the emirates that makes up the UAE.

Critics have argued the deal is designed to circumvent Uefa's financial fair play rules, designed to stop clubs spending more than they earn. The club has refuted the claims.

Arsenal dropped one place to sixth due to Chelsea's success on the pitch, but recorded a 40m-euro jump in revenues.

Liverpool held on to ninth spot, with revenues growing by 30m euros despite a disappointing season in the Premier League and a lack of European football for the first time since 1999/2000. This was due in part to two domestic cup final appearances and the new owners focusing on increasing commercial revenues.

Italian giants AC Milan and Juventus, which won Serie A, took the other places in the top 10 list.

With total revenues of 513m euros, Real Madrid equalled Manchester United's record of topping the list for eight consecutive seasons.

"Real have led the way in the phenomenal level of revenue growth enjoyed by the sport's top clubs over the past two decades," Deloitte said.

"The Spanish club's revenue growth has been remarkable. In 1996/97, the first season for which we published our Money League analysis, Real generated revenues of 85m euros, one sixth of the revenues they generated in 2011/12."

Deloitte also highlighted the fact that the club enjoys a balanced revenue stream, with 25% coming from match days, 39% from broadcasting and 36% from commercial sales.

Borussia Dortmund took 11th place thanks to a successful season on the pitch, while Inter Milan fell out of the top 10 for the first time in a decade.

Tottenham Hotspur fell two places to 13th after revenues dropped slightly, while Schalke 04 dropped four places to 14th as revenues fell by 25m euros after the club was unable to repeat the success of its 2010/11 Champions League campaign, when it reached the semi-finals.

Outside the so-called big five European leagues, Dutch club Ajax were placed 24th with revenues of 104.1m euros, while Turkish giants Galatasaray were 30th, with revenues of 95.1m euros.

Outside Europe, Brazilian club Corinthians, which won this year's Club World Cup, beating Chelsea in the final, were next after Galatasaray on the list, with revenues of 94.1m euros.

In the coming years, Deloitte said a bumper new TV deal for the Premier League worth more than 3.5bn euros for the three-year period from 2013/14 was likely to see more English clubs break into the top 20.

[Lineker]

Manchester United footballer Paul Scholes has had his car stolen after he left its engine running while defrosting the windscreen.

Police said the grey Chevrolet estate had been taken from the drive of his house in Greenfield, Oldham at around 08:00 GMT on Monday.

A police spokesman said "inquiries to locate the car are ongoing".

Scholes is understood to have the car as part of the motor company's sponsorship of the Premier League club.

The spokesman added that Greater Manchester Police had issued warnings about "ice bandits - offenders who target vehicles left outside houses, early in the morning, with the engine running while the owner returns to the house".

"Motorists may be tempted to leave their vehicle with the engine running while they go inside to stay in the warm - however, it only takes a few seconds to steal a car when keys have been left in the ignition," he said.

[Lineker]

A Champions League tie played in England is one of 380 matches across Europe investigators say was fixed.

European police did not reveal the identity of the match they believe was corrupt in England.

But Europol did say that they had uncovered an organised crime syndicate based in Asia that was co-ordinating the operation.

Some 425 match officials, club officials, players and criminals are suspected of being involved.

Europol, which has been investigating for 18 months, said suspected matches included World Cup and European Championship qualifiers, two Champions League ties and "several top football matches in European leagues".

Criminals wagered 16m euros on rigged matches and made eight million Euros in profits, Europol say.

Payments of two million Euros are thought to have been paid to those involved. The biggest payment to an individual was 140,000 Euros, according to investigators.

Europol believes a crime syndicate based in Asia was liaising with criminal networks throughout Europe. It believes match-fixing has taken place in 15 countries and 50 people have so far been arrested.

Officials said they feared this was the "tip of the iceberg".

Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, said: " This is the work of a suspected organised crime syndicate based in Asia and operated with criminal networks around Europe.

"It is clear to us this is the biggest-ever investigation into suspected match-fixing in Europe. It has yielded major results which we think have uncovered a big problem for the integrity of football in Europe.

"We have uncovered an extensive criminal network."

Europol gave the details on Monday at a news conference in The Hague, Netherlands.

[cmb211087]

Guarentee Blackburn are somehow involved in the "several top football matches in European leagues" part of this. Just way too much weird shit has happened in the past two years.

[Lineker]

Guarentee Blackburn are somehow involved in the "several top football matches in European leagues" part of this. Just way too much weird shit has happened in the past two years.

There is such an obvious joke to be made but I value my ongoing membership as part of this message board so I shall refrain.

[Jimmy]

Pussy :/

all hail Blackburn

[cmb211087]

Guarentee Blackburn are somehow involved in the "several top football matches in European leagues" part of this. Just way too much weird shit has happened in the past two years.

There is such an obvious joke to be made but I value my ongoing membership as part of this message board so I shall refrain.

I shall then, Blackburn, top football matches, ha!

The match against your lot last season springs to mind, not one shot, on or off target. First time it ever happened in the Premier League.