Administrative body dishing out cash for no particular reason
In a move that will only aid the top English clubs in their quest to widen the gap between themselves and the rest of the league, UEFA have decided to compensate teams for the use of their players in Euro 2008:
The bill comes to around £32million, with UEFA paying roughly £3,200 per player for every day they are involved in the event.
Yes, you read that correctly, Europe’s footballing body will pay £3,200 for the privilege of keeping players match fit, instead of letting them go and guzzle cocktails in the sun for a few weeks. This means cash-strapped Liverpool will bag around £280,000 from the tournament, while Arsenal stand to make £90,000 from allowing Senderos and Dijourou to serve their country.
Even more ridiculously, the compensation will be shared with any clubs who have employed the players over the last two years, meaning Atletico Madrid will make a tidy packet from Fernando Torres’
Poland haven’t forgotten about that thing you did, Germany
One of the more interesting games this weekend is likely to be Sunday’s Group B clash between Poland and Germany, thanks in part to the media storm whipped up by brilliant-sounding Polish newspaper Super Express.
In an antagonistic article published this week, Poland gaffer Leo Beenhakker was instructed to “bring us their heads” by the national publication. To bring the aggressive point home, they pictured the manager clasping the bloodied heads of Michael Ballack and Joachim Loew. After the coach branded the feature “sick”, UEFA limply responded in the manner of a teacher who sees two kids fighting but carries on sitting in his chair because he can’t be bothered to go and break it up (thanks a lot, Mr Mills):
FIFA boss claims foreigners in the Prem have harmed the national side
Sepp Blatter - a man whose comments are always informative, cutting edge and universally welcomed among the football community - has claimed the influx of foreign players in the Premier League has weakened the English national side:
“In the strong Premier League teams the best players are not always English.
“These teams are preparing national players for England’s opponents.
It’s always a bit embarrassing when your plan to bribe high powered officials with beautifully tanned prostitutes is found out - especially if you’re FC Porto, and the underhand referee sex exchange took place back in 2003/2004, when everything was going just swimmingly.
They won the Champions League that year, but only now, many moons later, have the high priests from UEFA decided to dish out their punishment
During a congress held at the home of football, Sydney, Australia, FIFA delegates have overwhelmingly voted in favour of Sepp Blatter’s ‘six-plus-five’ plan, which would could limit the amount of foreign players in a team to five. The BBC sez:
Blatter wants to restrict the number of foreign players in teams by the start in the 2010/11 season, with a minimum of four home-grown players.
He added he expects it to grow to six, with a maximum of five foreigners, by 2012/13 - and claims the plan has the backing of key European delegates.
In contrast, the “home-grown players” rule, which is set to be expanded from next season, has received EU backing. That means four players in a Champions League or Uefa Cup squad must have been developed by the club, with another four having been produced by clubs from the same federation.
The rule is discriminatory and contradicts European law, and seems to be going down about as well as Blatter’s suggestion that women footballers should wear tighter shorts. But what do you think? Would a shake-up like this be good for the game? Would it encourage the big teams to invest more in their youth training structures? Votes and comments below, please.
Blues fans not keen on witnessing the biggest game in their history
Thinking of trotting off to the Luzhniki Stadium next week for the Champions league final? You may want to give it a few days, as the ticket prices are likely to tumble right down to face value.
A Spoiler informant bought tickets for the final through official UEFA channels before the semi-finals were decided. As a Liverpool fan, said informant no longer wanted to trek all the way behind the Iron Curtain, so yesterday he rang a ticket agency to try to sell the tickets on. He was told that he would only get face value (around £100) for them, as Chelsea had returned 5,000 tickets on Monday morning and demand was pretty low.
I rang a few ticket agencies this morning, and the best offer
UEFA organisational genii leaves ‘Scouse’ kids traumatised
An under-15s side from Skelmersdale couldn’t believe their luck when they were awarded free tickets to last week’s Champions League clash between Arsenal and Liverpool at the Emirates by UEFA. The naive youngsters, however, failed to notice they were not sitting with the away fans, and when they celebrated Dirk Kuyt’s equaliser, all heck broke loose.
Ray Radford, the brilliantly-named manager and chaperone of the Arriva Youth side, said:
“We were having a great day until Liverpool scored. We were seated smack bang in the lion’s den and were abused by grown men - men in suits.
“These weren’t louts. They started shouting at the lads as soon as they realised we were Scousers.
“They started shouting about Michael Shields and Heysel - it was pandemonium.
Racist model celebrates her hometown by contributing nothing to it
There’s plenty of reason for Liverpool to crowned the European Capital of Culture 2008 – for one, it’s the most successful footballing city in the UK. Between them, Liverpool and Everton have won
