European Football Thread

[Colly]

Lol, Kum.

[gunnar hendershow]

Decent result for Ajax but they have to address some concerns after missing the extra point attempt after the 2nd touchdown.

[METALMAN]

what

Spoiler

next time an NFL game finishes 2-1 or something I'll go and post something really lame in your thread : /

 

[Szumi]

Bartomeu has resigned at Barca, pretty much to avoid being forced out on a vote of no confidence

[Baddar]

He's now said Barca's board have started proceedings to join the European Super League that's been mentioned recently.

[gunnar hendershow]

Elegant? No. Zlatan defying Father Time yet again? Yes.

 

[Cymbols]

Angelino is so so good guys.

 

[Szumi]

Kimmich may have just had his ACL done in

[Baddar]

Not a bad goal, this.

 

[Gazz]

Steve Bruce taught him that last season.

[Colly]

It's depressing to think there was actually no chance of him doing that for us simply because attacking midfielders under Bruce arent allowed in the final third, let alone the penalty area.

Not solely a Bruce issue of course, every pundit on Sevilla's run in Europe last year referred to De Jong's poor season with us, with literally no awareness that he essentially played as a number 10, with no number 9, or any other players within 40 yards of him. I think he had about one 35 yard strike every 2 games.

[Szumi]

He was always likely to be gone at the end of the season, but Lucien Favre has been sacked by Dortmund. Their league firm hasn't been great, especially with Haaland out, and losing 5-1 home to newly promoted Stuttgart yesterday was the final straw.

[Lineker]

Messi has equalled Pele's record of 643 goals for one single club.

[Lineker]

Quote

Kieran Trippier has been suspended from all football-related activity for 10 weeks and fined £70,000 after being found guilty of breaches of the Football Association’s betting regulations. The announcement of the sanction follows a lengthy investigation sparked by irregular betting patterns relating to the England defender’s move from Tottenham to Atlético Madrid in July last year.

The FA charged Trippier with seven alleged breaches of the rule that forbids anyone inside the game to pass on information which is not publicly available to be used by others for betting. The 30-year-old denied all the allegations and has said that he did not place any bets himself or profit from bets made by other people.

Trippier requested a personal hearing, which the FA scheduled close to England’s Nations League tie at home to Denmark in October, meaning that he missed out on being selected. An independent commission, appointed to hear the case, found him guilty of four of the alleged breaches. It dismissed the other three.

Trippier’s punishment follows that of Daniel Sturridge, the former Liverpool and England striker, also for betting irregularities. Sturridge was initially given a six-week ban – with the final four weeks suspended – after being found guilty of providing inside information to family and friends relating to his move from Liverpool in 2018. But the FA successfully appealed against the findings of the independent commission and Sturridge was given a four-month ban in March.

The FA will study the full written reasons for Trippier’s sanction when they are released in the coming days but it is not expected to push for a more severe sentence. Trippier has the right of appeal, too.

The suspension runs up to and including 28 February, meaning that Trippier stands to miss 11 La Liga games plus at least one in the Copa del Rey and the first leg of the Champions League last-16 tie at home to Chelsea. He has not missed a single minute for Atlético in the league or Champions League this season and his absence will hit them hard.

The Spanish league leaders are unhappy to be losing Trippier and also at an apparent breakdown in communications with the FA. They said on Wednesday that the governing body had not directly informed them about the ban.

Trippier said during the November international break that he had tried to put the case to the back of his mind, however difficult that might have been. “I’m just concentrating on my football and trying to give my all like I’ve done throughout my whole career,” he said. “My love’s always been there [for the game] and it always will be. I love coming away with England at every opportunity so my thought is just enjoying my football.”

 

[DFF]

7 minutes ago, Lineklaus said:

 

**Insert 'Dad's Army "You stupid boy" GIF' here**

[DavidMarrio]

Tuchel has been sacked by PSG. I think Poch may have found his next job

 

 

 

 

[gunnar hendershow]

That will probably speed up the Dele Alli transfer process as well.

[Lineker]

Quote

The Brazil footballer Neymar has been accused of dancing on the graves of coronavirus victims after throwing a week-long New Year’s Eve party for scores of celebrity guests despite a surge in Covid-19 infections and deaths.

Brazilian media reports claimed that the “Neymarpalooza” festivities kicked off on Saturday at a seafront mansion in Mangaratiba, a beach town in Rio de Janeiro state.

“From what CNN understands, it’s going to last five days. That’s practically a rave!” complained the channel’s news presenter, Diego Sarza.

Rio is among the Brazilian regions grappling with a resurgence in the epidemic, which has killed at least 191,146 people in the country, the second highest death toll in the world.

Authorities have cancelled Copacabana beach’s New Year’s Eve celebrations and health experts are imploring residents to stay at home with hospitals and intensive care units reaching capacity. On Sunday Brazil’s vice-president, Hamilton Mourão, became the 16th senior member of Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right administration to test positive for Covid.

But Neymar, 28, has reportedly spurned calls for caution and sparked outrage with his decision to hold the beachside blowout.

Juca Kfouri, one of Brazil’s best-known football writers, captured the public anger in a column denouncing the Paris Saint-Germain forward’s “macabre party”.

“Organising such a party is … the most abhorrent insult, it’s an affront to 190,000 grieving families, it’s to dance funk music on the corpses all the way to the grave, it’s to sneer at the health professionals working in hazardous conditions to control Covid-19,” Kfouri fumed.

Luis Augusto Símon, another prominent sports writer, called the party “completely irresponsible”.

Pedro Opará, a Brazilian doctor and activist, accused Neymar of showing “utter contempt towards the lives of others”.

Neymar’s representatives initially denied the event’s existence, telling one radio station that talk of a mansion party was “fake”. But CNN Brasil said it had confirmed the event was taking place with one of the samba groups hired to perform.

The party’s organisers, Agência Fábrica, also appeared to confirm the event, claiming it was following “all health guidelines established by government entities”. The group, whose website promises “inexplicable experiences and unforgettable encounters”, claimed the party would involve approximately 150 guests, not the 500 cited in media reports.

A local government source told CNN Brasil that officials considered the party “utter stupidity”.

Neymar has reportedly banned smartphones from his ball for fear of being attacked by online critics. Kfouri predicted that the footballer would be “summarily cancelled” anyway, “because he will himself have already cancelled Brazil, and our situation of panic and penury”.

Bolsonaro, who has downplayed Covid and flouted containment measures, has faced international criticism for what one newspaper recently called his “homicidally negligent” response.

Neymar has emerged as one of Bolsonaro’s most famous supporters, making several public appearances with the rightwing president.

 

[Baddar]

What a fucking weapon.

[Szumi]

Schalke finally won a game! 1 away from tying the record for winless steak, it was another American Soccerball teenager who came through. Matthew Hoppe had the first ever hat trick for an American in the Bundesliga en route to a 4-0 win over Hoffenheim.