From a thread on the Liverpool echo.
Rumour going around draw has been leaked….. this is no doubt rubbish but if Rumour is true it’s LFC - arsenal and Chelsea - fenerbache and manure v roma
No bookies will take bets on the draw either…….
This was posted at 10.28am. The draw for the Champions League took place at 12.10pm.
Lucky guess or something more sinister?
The news that Dida will be suspended for what can only be described as disfriggingraceful play acting is a good idea in my book. At last the Powers That Be are seen to be doing something; the only way that this sort of thing is going to be reduced (it’ll never be stamped out) is with retrospective bans; not fines, they’re bollocks. Why would a player on seventy grand a week give a monkey’s about forking out a few quid?
It will be interesting to see whether this continues, or whether the usual will happen and the buggers will chicken out.
The idea of domestic cup winners being given entry to the Champions League is the latest bullshit idea to come from the curly bonce of Michel Platini. It’s amazing how such a great player can have become such a complete twat with no regard for the history and traditions of the game. Granted, the domestic cup winners in England are generally one of the top 4 but from time to time you get surprises like Wimbledon and Coventry.
What about in countries like Spain where the domestic cup is not taken as seriously as the FA Cup in England and the winners can be mid to low table sides. What right do they have to play in the Champions League? Doesn’t it just devalue the competition further? We know it’s not all ‘champions’ these days but this is ridiculous.
He also wants to move to Champions League final to a weekend date rather than a Wednesday night on which it has always been held. ‘Boooo’, I say.
We’ve spoken before about how dangerous we think Platini is before and this is doing nothing to change our minds.
UEFA spokesman William Gaillard (yes, the one who said Liverpool were bindipping ruffians rampaging throughout Europe), says of the racist abuse suffered by two Rangers players during their game with FC Zeta:
We have decided to open an investigation as there were many witnesses who reported the problems.
Our policy is zero tolerance towards racism. We take this issue seriously.
Now, when you’ve stopped laughing at that last couple of lines you might consider the paltry fines handed out to big Spanish clubs for constant racist abuse and incidents like PSV being fined €16,500 after a game in which Arsenal players were roundly abused for being not white.
FC Zeta, giants of the Montenegrin league, will probably now be whacked with a massive fine, made play games behind closed doors, docked points and ultimately expelled from football. Then UEFA can say ‘Look how strict we are now’ which will deflect the criticisms next time the fans of a rich Spanish or Italian or Dutch team does the same and they get a slap on the wrist.
According to this article he wants the G14, who represent 18 (I know) of Europe’s top club, to disband and use a new body called the Professional Football Strategy Council.
He’s being very nice about it, saying:
Presidents and heads of the major clubs - let us profit from your great experience and your ideas. Tell us about your convictions. Uefa’s door is wide open - join us, and I promise you that you will not be disappointed.
Personally I wouldn’t trust Platini as far as I could throw him. I think some of the ideas he has are dangerous and not good for football and he is aligned far too closely with FIFA and Blatter for my liking.
What the G14 provides is at least some kind of opposition to UEFA trampling all over club football in Europe. I would never be in favour of a breakaway European super-league at the expense of domestic competition but without the G14 UEFA would have free reign to do what they wanted.
There are issues to be resolved, particularly that of compensation for players who are injured while on national duty and with the persistent background threat of quotas of ‘homegrown’ or native players per team then for the G14 to disband would be close to a disaster, in my opinion. Without them new rules could be brought in unopposed and ultimately what FIFA and UEFA want to do is to promote the international tournaments.
Recent disappointing World Cups and European Championships, in terms of the quality of football played when compared with the top club football, have made them determined to level the playing field. The only way they can do that is to lower the standard of club football, not to increase the standard of national teams.
For example, if English clubs had to play 6 players who were English (not ‘homegrown’, actually English) then there’s no question the quality of Premiership football would suffer. By comparison the English national team would look better. It’s a false fix but one they will try and enforce.
So, G14, you need to tell Platini where to go and where to put his untrustworthy call to arms, for the sake of football.
Michel Platini has been elected as President of UEFA.
Now, Lennart Johansson may not have been everyone’s cup of tea but his ideas about the game were not as dangerous as Platini’s.
Platini is a man who wanted a World Cup every two years and he has spoken openly about wanting to further diminish the amount of physical contact in the game. Shoulder charges are out, watch as he tries to outlaw sliding tackles, and any other part of football which involves strength and physicality.
His focus is entirely on International football. He sees club football as secondary. For 99.9% of fans club football is the bread and butter, the stuff we enjoy week in, week out. Platini will do his utmost to nobble the domestic leagues thus making international football seem a more attractive option.
His other ideas include having four linesmen - can you imagine the confusion when one puts his flag up for offisde and the other doesn’t? - introducing salary caps (a quite unworkable idea) and restricting the number of Champions League places for clubs from the ‘big’ nations, which obviously will not go down well with them, the sponsors of the tournament or the fans that are being charged increasingly high prices to watch the games.
Already, within hours of his appointment, Sir Alex Ferguson has warned the Frenchman not to tinker with the format of the competition.
The biggest problem of all though is the closeness of the relationship between Platini and Sepp Blatter, FIFA President. Until now UEFA has been powerful enough to resist some of his more ludicrous ideas but if Platini and Blatter agree on something then there’s no opposition any more.
Blatter and FIFA are motivated by greed, by money, and not the good of the game. For all his words today about football being more than a business you can rest assured that Platini’s UEFA will go the same way to make the game more sanitised, more TV friendly, more marketable. How long before we have bigger goals to make games more action packed for US audiences or similar?
What UEFA might find is that the domestic game dies out after the biggest clubs in each league, led by the G14, break away to form their own league with no requirement to provide players for national duty.
I hope things don’t go that far but this appointment really is a short-sighted one and dangerous for the game of football.
Says Sam Wallace in today’s Independent:
It would be hard to imagine Ruud van Nistelrooy missing a last-minute penalty.
I suppose ‘last-minute’ are the critical words here, because last night he missed his third penalty in five attempts.
Interesting story about Wisla Krakow defender Nikola Mijailovic being banned for 5 games for racially abusing Blackburn’s Benni McCarthy.
If he’s guilty of it then I’m happy that UEFA have acted quickly and firmly. There’s simply no place for this kind of thing in the game.
However, I’d be very interested to know on what evidence they convicted him. Mijailovic has denied the claims saying it was normal in-game banter. Did the referee hear something or was his report just based on what McCarthy told him?
I do hope they make this information available because without stone clad back-up from an official UEFA might have set a dangerous precedent here. Banning a player on the say so of an opponent could open a very serious can of worms in the future.