European Football Thread

[Baddar]

Despite not explicitly stating it, the deal could well run all season. The press release is a little confusing.

Either way, the full rights still haven't been picked up yet. How will I watch Mallorca v Eibar now?

[Baddar]

Jadon Sancho has signed a new Dortmund deal worth 190k per week, plus bonuses.

His next contract is gonna be a hefty one.

[Baddar]

Vincent Kompany has stepped down as Anderlecht manager... on matchdays only, where the Head Coach will be in charge during games. 

[Adam]

What a strange arrangement, surely that isn't going to work?

If he isn't managing the team for games, surely he shouldn't be the head coach in the week as well? Might as well just make him a player/coach and have the other guy as manager full-time.

[Baddar]

They're making the change after he got 2pts from the opening 4 matches. 

[Gazz]

So this is basically like my adult team, where I do all the training in the week and set them up to play a 4-3-3 and then on Saturday, the manager decides that he wants to play a 3-4-1-2 because nothing can ever be simple and the left back has picked up a Saturday afternoon shift at the Dog and Duck.

[Szumi]

So I already had this conversation with friends on FB so I'm just kind of leaving it to the barest, most simple talking points but: despite my fondness for him, Ibra is probably the most overrated player of his generation. Spent most of his career playing in Italy when they were at their weakest because of the match fixing scandal, obviously not counting those first two years with Juve, then France and their farmers league. Never won the Champions League, and Inter and Barca actually won the seasons after he left. In his 8 seasons in Spain and Italy, only two golden boots. He was incredibly talented, but he lacked the ability to make others around him better because it was always all about him. He was an excellent Serie A striker, but he could've been such a better player than what he was, which in itself is a scary thought.

[Lineker]

Quote

The Ligue 1 game between Nice and Marseille was suspended for 10 minutes on Wednesday night after supporters unfurled banners displaying homophobic messages in the stands. Offensive chants were also heard on a hugely embarrassing night for the home club, whose takeover by the billionaire Jim Ratcliffe went through on Tuesday.

Ratcliffe’s brother, Bob, was present to see the match held up in the 28th minute by the referee, Clément Turpin, after the stadium announcer inside the Allianz Riviera had twice asked fans to stop making anti-gay chants, which were directed at the French league and began around the 17th minute.

One of the accompanying banners criticised the league for approving more fenced-off sections in stands. Its meaning translated as: “More fans in the stands means a more gay stadium.” The other banner referred to the takeover by Ratcliffe, who owns the Team Ineos cycling team. In French the term “pedale” means to pedal but is also used as a derogatory term to describe gay people.

“Welcome to the Ineos group: at Nice we also love to pedal,” that banner read, and Turpin acted after the supporters showed no sign of desisting. He spoke to both captains, Dante of Nice and Steve Mandanda of Marseille, the former leading his teammates to remonstrate with the offenders. They had little success and the teams returned to the dressing room while Turpin met the managers, Patrick Vieira and André Villas-Boas.

The players returned but there was a delay later when Marseille’s Dimitri Payet became the target of missiles as he went to take a corner. Nice’s Wylan Cyprien told Canal Plus he disagreed with the decision to halt the game. “We’re not going to stop the game each time some morons do something,” he said. “I’m against all forms of discrimination, [whether it’s] homophobia or racism, but you shouldn’t stop the match for so little. It’s ridiculous.”

Marseille won the match 2-1, Dario Benedetto opening the scoring shortly after play had resumed and Payet scoring a penalty after Cyprien had equalised from the spot. But the focus will rest on what appears to be a disturbing trend in French football. On 16 August a Ligue 2 match between Nancy and Le Mans was briefly stopped amid homophobic chanting and there were also incidents in last weekend’s Brest v Reims and Monaco v Nîmes fixtures.

[Lineker]

Romelu Lukaku has already been racially abused.

[Gazz]

It's time to start hitting teams with behind closed doors orders at the very least. Every time there's an incident, the subsequent ban gets longer.

[Lineker]

Inter fans tell Romelu Lukaku monkey chants in Italy are not racist

 

[Lineker]

Quote

The man regarded as the mastermind behind the rise of the Swedish team Östersund has appeared in court at the start of a trial in which he is accused of serious financial crimes.

Daniel Kindberg is said to have helped funnel millions of kronor in taxpayers’ money into the club in a scheme that involved two other men and three companies, one being the Östersund municipality’s housing corporation, for which Kindberg was the chief executive.

Kindberg could be sentenced to a maximum of eight years. He denies the accusations. The trial, taking place in the town of Härnösand, is scheduled to run until 1 October.

When Kindberg was the club’s chairman, Östersund rose from the amateur ranks in 2011 to Sweden’s top league in 2015 and won the Swedish Cup in 2017. Östersund qualified for last season’s Europa League, where they advanced to the knockout stage before losing to Arsenal despite winning the second leg 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium.

Östersund could lose their place in the Swedish league if Kindberg is found guilty.

Former Germany defender Christoph Metzelder has stepped down as president from his boyhood club TuS Haltern am See after he was questioned by police as part of an investigation into distribution of child pornography, the club said in a statement.

Computer equipment was confiscated during two searches, Hamburg’s state prosecutor’s office said. “The accused is alleged to have sent to a (female) recipient in Hamburg pictures with child pornographic content through the communication platform WhatsApp,” Hamburg state prosecutor’s office said.

Metzelder could not be reached for comment but his club, who play in the fourth division, said in a statement: “Until everything is cleared up with the ongoing investigation the former international will leave all his posts at TuS Haltern am See.”

Metzelder, a Bundesliga champion with Borussia Dortmund, also played for Schalke 04 and Real Madrid. He was a World Cup runner-up in 2002 and won 47 caps for his country. He also played in the 2006 World Cup. He had been chairman at Haltern since 2014.

[Baddar]

La Liga has been picked up by Premier Sports in the UK.

A 3 year deal, which will include La Liga TV via the Premier player, and through Sky TV as a standalone channel from Jan 2020.

FreeSports will show a game per week from La Liga, starting this Friday night with Mallorca-Bilbao. This is fucking excellent news.

[Lineker]

Cagliari fined for fans throwing bottles but not racist abuse of Lukaku

[Adam]

Italy's racism issue is endemic, it's no surprise. They pretty much hand-wave every one of these incidents.

[Lineker]

Quote

LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - St Petersburg, Munich and Wembley Stadium in London will host the three Champions League finals from 2021, European football’s governing body UEFA said on Tuesday.

UEFA also announced that it would expand the size of the top divisions in the Nations League, while its new third tier club competition, due to start in 2021, would be known as the UEFA Europa Conference League.

Istanbul in Turkey is already scheduled as the host of this season’s Champions League final on May 30 at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium and UEFA has gone for tried and tested venues for the next three editions.

The 2021 final will be the second to be staged in Russia after Moscow hosted Manchester United’s penalty shootout win against Chelsea at the Luzhniki Stadium in 2008.

St Petersburg’s venue hosted World Cup games last year and is also a host for the Euro 2020 tournament.

Munich hosted Chelsea’s victory over home side Bayern in 2012 while Wembley will take charge of Europe’s premier club final for the eighth time.

Wembley will in 2023 celebrate the 100th year since the opening of the original stadium in London.

Spanish city Seville will host the 2021 UEFA Europa League final while Belfast in Northern Ireland will host that year’s Super Cup.

UEFA said its new Europa Conference League will be based on regional conferences and the first edition in 2021 would feature 32 clubs.

The aim of the league is to allow more countries and clubs to be involved in continental competition.

The second edition of the Nations League, due to start in September 2020, will see the top divisions expanded in size.

Instead of 12 teams playing in four groups of three, there will be 16 teams in Leagues A, B and C, playing in groups of four.

The teams are allocated to leagues based on their overall rankings, a move that is likely to save some of the teams who were facing relegation from their leagues after the 2018/19 competition.

More on the Nations League stuff

[The Lusophone]

Lots of mid tier countries losing access to the Europa League

[Arjen Robben]

Think we can all agree that there is no word in football more synonymous with quality than "Conference".

[Lineker]

 

[DFF]

On 25/09/2019 at 12:17, Mad Jack stans Wiccan said:

Lots of mid tier countries losing access to the Europa League

My word, the Europa League will only have team from 15 countries?!