European Football Thread

[Adam]

15 minutes ago, Liam Mk2 said:

Messi and Ronaldo are reportedly not on the final three-man shortlist for the Ballon d’or. 

Salah, Mbappe, Neymar?

I wouldn't even put Neymar on there, but I'm struggling to think who else it could be. Kane is surely not in the Top 3.

[Szumi]

Modric

[GoN_]

The rumour is Modric, Mbappé and... Varane. 

[Colly]

Decent shout if so. 

[Adam]

Don't know how I forgot Modric to be fair.

[Baddar]

I heard Modric had received a high percentage of the votes and was leading, but that was before all of them were counted. I hope he wins.

[FLiam]

Mbappé winning it would be funny to see how mad Neymar would get.

[FLiam]

Latest leak from Der Spiegel’s investigations around European football is that Sergio Ramos failed a doping test on the day of the 2017 Champion’s League final and UEFA covered it up.

Wouldn’t shock me in the slightest if this was entirely accurate.

Liverpool fans will be well chuffed.

[hugobomb]

Speaking of Real, they just lost 3-0 At Eibar! 😄

[TCO]

Mick McCarthy is the new Ireland manager on a two year deal.

Stephen Kenny will be the u21 manager, oversee all the underage levels and will take over from Mick McCarthy in 2020.

That's actually surprisingly ideal. 😮 Even if McCarthy is shite, we have an exciting replacement who'll get a chance to control the whole system for the next two years. Plus Mick will bring the bants during the press conferences at a bare minimum.

Dundalk are so fucked now too, which is a lovely bonus!

[Hobo]

Roy Keane to Dundalk

[TCO]

A LOI stint for Keane probably wouldn't be the worst call for his career. He's clearly fucking mental and finds it hard to handle players. He'd instantly have everyone's respect in Ireland.

He's still basically a god in Cork too so if he ever wants the City job then he'd essentially be infallible.

[MDK]

If Roy Keane wasn't a footballer I'm sure he'd be in nick for assault in a pub.

[Hobo]

On 25/11/2018 at 13:57, TCO said:

A LOI stint for Keane probably wouldn't be the worst call for his career. He's clearly fucking mental and finds it hard to handle players. He'd instantly have everyone's respect in Ireland.

He's still basically a god in Cork too so if he ever wants the City job then he'd essentially be infallible.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is apparently interested!

 

[TCO]

33 minutes ago, Hobo said:

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is apparently interested!

That'd be funny just to see a millionaire former footballer have to live in Dundalk. He'd probably commute from Dublin but that's not a good trip with traffic!

It's funny how average the Dublin teams are now and the most dominant team in a long time plays on astroturf in a shitheap of a stadium in Co. Louth!

[Hobo]

1 hour ago, TCO said:

That'd be funny just to see a millionaire former footballer have to live in Dundalk.

 

he ends up buying a house in the wrong Blackrock

[Hobo]

Robbie Keane has retired to join Mick McCarthy's ROI staff.

I had always kinda hoped he'd go the Damien Duff route and play briefly in the LOI for a bit.

[TCO]

17 hours ago, Hobo said:

Robbie Keane has retired to join Mick McCarthy's ROI staff.

I had always kinda hoped he'd go the Damien Duff route and play briefly in the LOI for a bit.

Duff was shite enough for Rovers though. Technical ability is a bit lost in the LOI sometime. Damian Delaney has been awful since he signed for Cork City.

I'm hopeful that Stephen Kenny can sort out the underage. It's ridiculous. Ryan Nolan was captain of Inter against Spurs in the UEFA Youth League last night and he's never been capped at any age. Some of the selection policy has been dire for too long.

[Lineker]

Quote

There will be a third European club competition from 2021, Uefa has announced. President Aleksander Ceferin said a “widespread demand” for participation at European level had led to the formation of the new tournament, which will sit under the Champions and Europa Leagues.

With a working title of ‘UEL2’, the 32-team competition will start at the beginning of the new Uefa cycle, which runs from 2021-2024. Eight groups of four will be whittled down to a round of 16, following a play-off between the second-placed teams and those who finish third in the Europa League. Quarter-finals and semi-finals will then follow, before a 141st game, the final.

“The new Uefa club competition makes Uefa’s club competitions more inclusive than ever before,” Ceferin said.

“There will be more matches for more clubs, with more associations represented in the group stages. This competition was borne out of ongoing dialogue with clubs through the European Club Association (ECA).

“There was a widespread demand by all clubs to increase their chances of participating more regularly in European competition. This has been achieved with a strategic approach, and in accordance with Uefa’s objective of having both more quality and more inclusivity in our club competitions.”

The winner of the new tournament will then earn a place in the Europa League. Uefa added that the fixtures will be played on a Thursday, the same day as the Europa League, with some games in a new time slot of 1530 GMT.

The governing body will leave it to individual associations to decide the criteria for earning a place, be it through league placing or cup.

ECA chairman Andrea Agnelli welcomed the news, saying: “I am delighted that the Uefa Executive Committee has agreed to the changes ECA member clubs have been calling for.

“We believe that this outcome ensures that the Uefa club competitions continue to develop in a manner which is fair and balanced, meeting the demands and requirements necessary to ensure that football remains the number one sport globally.

“I would like to add that this whole process is testimony to the strong collaborative efforts of both ECA and Uefaat all levels.”

[Adam]

Overkill.