28 February 2018

Player suspended due to serious offence

Last Thursday morning a court in Valencia send Ruben Semedo to prison for attempted murder after being charged with possession of illegal weapons and robbery. The 23 year old, together with two other people, went to collect a debt and in that process the footballer tied up a man and beat him in his own house. While the Portuguese has been caught, accused, being thrown in jail and has no right on bail, the other two fled from the crime scene. Twenty four hours later after hearing this terrible news, Villarreal immediately suspended the defender without possibility on salary until this matter is resolved.

27 February 2018

Corner flag as attacking tool

Unbelievable scene happened last Wednesday night in South America. The result is not important, players who are fighting even less, but there was one (little) detail that has made significant difference. Whether this move was creative or not, it certainly deserves harsh punishment.
Youth 20 categories from Copa Libertadores, semifinal duel between Independiente del Valle (Ecuador) and River Plate (Uruguay). Game like any other plus you can see brawl between footballers in any match. However, at the end (after the final whistle), home defender Angelo Preciado was surrounded by several Uruguayan players. He run to the corner flag, pull it out and used it as a spear to attack the guests.
This is also a short introduction of how you can have an assaulting tool hidden in a football field. Do not try to pull this of, as consequences may be severe afterwards, like here...

26 February 2018

One same club is punished for two cases

Anderlecht made a serious violation for tickets against Bayern Munich, when they met in the group stages of Champions league 22 November 2017. Tickets from 70, the home team has raised the price for the away supporters to 100 euros. Due to this increase many of them did not travel to see the match. The European football organization have announced that it will punish Anderlecht on 02 February, however it was delayed again and the penalty was issued last Monday. Belgian champions was ordered to pay the difference (30 euros) to all German fans who were present on Constant van den Stock stadium that night.
Over at the Europa league where one club is going to be punished twice for two different duels. Here Crvena Zvezda is the guilty team, where in the first case have to give away 56.000 euros, but also will receive a certain amount. The disputable match is against Koln played for group stages 07 December 2017, where both supporters threw fireworks and various objects on the pitch. However, visiting fans did go one step further, when they caused damage in the stadium. Due to poor organization for this duel the home club need to close sections of their venue for their next European match, while the visitors have to contact their opponents to pay for the damages. In a most recent match against CSKA Moscow the Serbian club is penalized again. Their supporters threw fireworks and were blocking their own stadium by sitting on the ground. Also, visitors will pay the price as well for fireworks and objects throwing from their fans. Final verdict for this case is going to be known next month.

25 February 2018

Violent scenes which took a life

This Thursday, before Europa league match Athletic Bilbao and Spartak Moscow, there was a fierce clash between supporters from both teams. There was reports that hooligans were aiming fireworks at each other, from which nine of them are arrested: five fans from the home team, three radical Russian supporters and one Polish spectator. Unfortunately, in that fight, an ertzaina officer (police force of the Basque country) suffered a heart attack. The 51 year old Inocencio Arias Garcia collapsed on the street during police intervention in front of San Mames stadium.

23 February 2018

Draw for second knockout phase

After the excitement from yesterday night Europa league continue today, and we are playing with the little balls like small kids. Mixing and turning around in the bowl they will decide who will play who in last 16 of the event. The following 8 matches are going to be played on second and third Thursdays in March.

Lazio - Dynamo Kyiv.

RasenBallsport Leipzig - Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Atletico Madrid - Lokomotiv Moscow.

CSKA Moscow - Olympique Lyon.

Olympique Marseille - Athletic Bilbao.

Sporting Clube de Portugal - Viktoria Plzen.

Borussia Dortmund - Red Bull Salzburg.

Milan - Arsenal.

In six goals thriller at Jose Alvalade three were absolute beauty

Lokomotiv Moscow - Nice 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 29 Igor Denisov

Viktoria Plzen - Partizan 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 66 Michael Krmencik
              2:0 90+4 Ales Cermak

Sporting Clube de Portugal - Astana 3:3


Scorers: 1:0 02 Bas Dost

              1:1 37 Marin Tomasov
              2:1 53 Bruno Fernandes
              3:1 63 Bruno Fernandes
              3:2 80 Patrick Twumasi
              3:3 90+4 Dmitri Shomko


Atletico Madrid - FC Copenhagen 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 06 Kevin Gameiro

Villarreal - Olympique Lyon 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 85 Bertrand Traore

Zenit Saint Petersburg - Celtic 3:0

Scorers: 1:0 07 Branislav Ivanovic
              2:0 27 Daler Kuzyayev
              3:0 61 Aleksandr Kokorin

Dynamo Kyiv - AEK 0:0

Red Bull Salzburg - Real Sociedad 2:1

Scorers: 1:0 10 Munas Dabbur
              1:1 28 Raul Navas
              2:1 74-pen Valon Berisha

Arsenal - Ostersunds 1:2

Scorers: 0:1 22 Hosam Aiesh
              0:2 23 Ken Sema
              1:2 47 Sead Kolasinac

Milan - Ludogorets Razgrad 1:0

Scorers: 1:0 20 Fabio Borini

Athletic Bilbao - Spartak Moscow 1:2

Scorers: 0:1 43 Luiz Adriano
              1:1 57 Xabier Etxeita
              1:2 85 Lorenzo Melgarejo

Braga - Olympique Marseille 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 31 Ricardo Horta

21 February 2018

Ending of first leg

Sevilla - Manchester United 0:0

Shakhtar Donetsk - Roma 2:1

Scorers: 0:1 41 Cengiz Under
              1:1 51 Facundo Ferreyra
              2:1 70 Fred

Home team is first who goes into next stage

CSKA Moscow - Crvena Zvezda 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 45+1 Alan Dzagoev

20 February 2018

Seven goals enough for the night

Bayern Munich - Besiktas 5:0

Scorers: 1:0 43 Thomas Muller
              2:0 52 Kingsley Coman
              3:0 66 Thomas Muller
              4:0 79 Robert Lewandowski
              5:0 87 Robert Lewandowski

Chelsea - Barcelona 1:1

Scorers: 1:0 62 Willian
              1:1 75 Lionel Messi

Most expensive clubs

Despite giving a real fortune away for Neymar last summer, PSG is not the most expensive team. Eight days ago the international observatory centre for sport studies - CIES issued a list for the most cost clubs in history. With 878 million euros Mancheter City are leaders before the above mentioned French team who cost 805 million in second, while Mancester United players which are alltogether expensive 747 million euros is at third place. Next is Barcelona 725 million, Chelsea 592, Real Madrid with 497 million euros, Liverpool 461, Juventus 448, Bayern Munich 448, Arsenal 403, whilst Everton is closing top 10 with 365 million euros.

19 February 2018

New and old matches...but in reverse order

Next midweek 20 games are going to be played from the European competitions (EuroCups). The only catch is that we are going to be introduced to 8 teams for the first time this month, while the rest 32 will play in reverse order. While the first will still torture us (being slow like a turtle) with last 16, the other tournament is going to finish last 32. Like this week, next week also we are going to have 5 different kick-off times, and both competitions are going to be played on two days.

For this second part (in still the first leg) from Champions league, there are going to be two standard days and two matches at the same time. We will see 8 new clubs for the first time in the competition this year and they will round up the first 90 minutes out of 180 (from this first knockout stage).

Tuesday, 20 February at 20.45 CET: Bayern Munich - Besiktas.
Tuesday, 20 February at 20.45 CET: Chelsea - Barcelona.

Wednesday, 21 February at 20.45: Sevilla - Manchester United.
Wednesday, 21 February at 20.45: Shakhtar Donetsk - Roma.

Unlike previous event there is absolutely no rest for the 32 teams from Europa league. In a space of 7 days (in one match 8) these old opponents will meet again. Everything remains the same here: this is the tournament with most kick off times, matches will be played over two days plus 16 pairs will entertain us, but the only thing is that all clubs will change hospitality. Nevertheless, this tournament is never boring, it had lots of goals this week and we are expecting the same to happen also next week. On top of that, some games might need additional minutes or even penalties and if this applies for last matches in the list, we (football) lovers are going to enjoy excitements from the afternoon and will go deep into the night.

Wednesday, 21 February at 18.00 CET: CSKA Moscow - Crvena Zvezda.

Thursday, 22 February at 17.00 CET: Lokomotiv Moscow - Nice.

Thursday, 22 February at 19.00 CET: Atletico Madrid - FC Copenhagen.
Thursday, 22 February at 19.00 CET: Dynamo Kyiv - AEK.
Thursday, 22 February at 19.00 CET: Lazio - Steaua.
Thursday, 22 February at 19.00 CET: RasenBallsport Leipzig - Napoli.
Thursday, 22 February at 19.00 CET: Sporting Clube de Portugal - Astana.
Thursday, 22 February at 19.00 CET: Viktoria Plzen - Partizan.
Thursday, 22 February at 19.00 CET: Villarreal - Olympique Lyon.
Thursday, 22 February at 19.00 CET: Zenit Saint Petersburg - Celtic.

Thursday, 22 February at 21.05 CET: Atalanta - Borussia Dortmund.
Thursday, 22 February at 21.05 CET: Athletic Bilbao - Spartak Moscow.
Thursday, 22 February at 21.05 CET: Arsenal - Ostersunds.
Thursday, 22 February at 21.05 CET: Braga - Olympique Marseille.
Thursday, 22 February at 21.05 CET: Milan - Ludogorets Razgrad.
Thursday, 22 February at 21.05 CET: Red Bull Salzburg - Real Sociedad.

18 February 2018

Drastically reduced punishment

The court of arbitration for sport has reduced sentence of Chung Mong-Joon on 15 months. Initially, an former FIFA vice president was banned from this sport on six years for inappropriate lobbying for his country to get the World Cup in 2022. After winning the appeal in June 2016 this punishment was reduced for one year, but because of insufficient evidence and previously clean record, the tribunal last weekend finally has decided to remove him for 1 year and three months. As the ban started 07 October 2015 and ended on January 2017, the South Korean billionaire can return to everyday football activities. The 66 year old was a presidential candidate for FIFA, however was suspended due to this accusation.

17 February 2018

Impressive list of sponsors

So far we have dairy products, electronic manufacturers, technology company, entertainment business, and to this list latest is added two wheel electric producer. However, what is more interesting all these firms are coming from only one Asian country. After Mengniu group, Hisense, Vivo and Wanda group, FIFA welcomes completely new member who will advertise at the World Cup this summer: Yadea. Last Thursday the largest maker of electric bikes, motorcycles and trycicles became the fifth Chinese sponsor at the ceremony in Shanghai. As the other four, this one also will take advantage of promoting its name everywhere where the games are held, tickets, television...
Although their national team did not qualify for the event, it looks like Chinese companies will be a big hit from June throughout Russia.

16 February 2018

First hat-trick at knockout stage comes from Nice

Astana - Sporting Clube de Portugal 1:3

Scorers: 1:0 07 Marin Tomasov
              1:1 47-pen Bruno Fernandes
              1:2 49 Gelson Martins
              1:3 55 Seydou Doumbia

Real Sociedad - Red Bull Salzburg 2:2

Scorers: 0:1 26-own goal Mikel Oyarzabal
              1:1 57 Alvaro Odriozola
              2:1 80 Adnan Januzaj
              2:2 90+3 Takumi Minamino

Ludogorets Razgrad - Milan 0:3

Scorers: 0:1 44 Patrick Cutrone
              0:2 63-pen Ricardo Rodriguez
              0:3 90+1 Fabio Borini

Ostersunds - Arsenal 0:3

Scorers: 0:1 12 Nacho Monreal
              0:2 23-own goal Sotiris Papagiannopoulos
              0:3 58 Mesut Ozil

Olympique Marseille - Braga 3:0

Scorers: 1:0 04 Valere Germain
              2:0 69 Valere Germain
              3:0 74 Florian Thauvin

Spartak Moscow - Athletic Bilbao 1:3

Scorers: 0:1 21 Aritz Aduriz
              0:2 39 Aritz Aduriz
              0:3 45-own goal Ilya Kutepov
              1:3 60 Luiz Adriano

Nice - Lokomotiv Moscow 2:3

Scorers: 1:0 03 Mario Baloteli
              2:0 28-pen Mario Baloteli
              2:1 44-pen Manuel Fernandes
              2:2 68 Manuel Fernandes
              2:3 77 Manuel Fernandes

Partizan - Viktoria Plzen 1:1

Scorers: 1:0 57 Leandre Tawamba Kana
              1:1 81 Radim Reznik

AEK - Dynamo Kyiv 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 19 Viktor Tsygankov
              1:1 79 Astrit Ajdarevic

FC Copenhagen - Atletico Madrid 1:4

Scorers: 1:0 15 Viktor Fischer
              1:1 21 Saul Niguez
              1:2 36 Kevin Gameiro
              1:3 70 Antoine Griezmann
              1:4 77 Victor Vitolo

Olympique Lyon - Villarreal 3:1

Scorers: 1:0 46 Tanguy Ndombele
              2:0 49 Nabil Fekir
              2:1 63 Pablo Fornals
              3:1 82 Memphis Depay

Celtic - Zenit Saint Petersburg 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 78 Callum McGregor

14 February 2018

Divided wins within both games

Porto - Liverpool 0:5

Scorers: 0:1 25 Sadio Mane
              0:2 29 Mohamed Salah
              0:3 53 Sadio Mane
              0:4 69 Roberto Firmino
              0:5 85 Sadio Mane

Real Madrid - PSG 3:1

Scorers: 0:1 33 Adrien Rabiot
              1:1 45-pen Cristiano Ronaldo
              2:1 83 Cristiano Ronaldo
              3:1 86 Marcelo Vieira

13 February 2018

Visiting advantage decided in nine minutes

Basel - Manchester City 0:4

Scorers: 0:1 14 Ilkay Gundogan
              0:2 18 Bernardo Silva
              0:3 23 Sergio Aguero
              0:4 53 Ilkay Gundogan

Without goals at the start of knockout phase

Crvena Zvezda - CSKA Moscow 0:0

Not paying on image rights means jail

An old story with a new player. Alexis Sanchez hid his earnings from Spain, which was handed prison time of 16 months. Six days ago he admitted that did not pay taxes when playing for Barcelona in 2012 and 2013 for which the striker unlawfully collected 983.443 euros on image rights. As the punishment is less than 2 years, the 29 year old has escaped staying in prison. Now the Chilean international has agreed to pay jail sentence together with the stolen money plus interest.

12 February 2018

Returning of midweek football

Winter sports lovers waited for four long years for their Olympic games competition which started at Pyeongchang (Asia) this Friday, and on the other hand football lovers will be pleased to hear that after two months their (our) favourite tournaments will resume throughout the European continent next week. From the second full midweek this month European Cups are going to begin with first knock-out matches in 2018. Both events for this third and final part will start playing on two days, plus we are going to have five different kick-off times in total.

For better and easiest view of all last 16 games, this first knockout stage of the first leg in Champions league is going to be played over two weeks. Equally, two matches will be played on two days.

Tuesday, 13 February at 20.45 CET: Basel - Manchester City.
Tuesday, 13 February at 20.45 CETJuventus - Tottenham.

Wednesday, 14 February at 20.45 CET: Porto - Liverpool.
Wednesday, 14 February at 20.45 CETReal Madrid - PSG.

With 16 more teams from its predecessor Europa league will have unequal matches in two days. Nevertheless, this exciting tournament is going to start first, and also it will have more kick-offs from the two: four.

Tuesday, 13 February at 18.00 CET: Crvena Zvezda - CSKA Moscow.

Thursday, 15 February at 17.00 CET: Astana - Sporting Clube de Portugal.

Thursday, 15 February at 19.00 CET: Borussia Dortmund - Atalanta.
Thursday, 15 February at 19.00 CET: Ludogorets Razgrad - Milan.
Thursday, 15 February at 19.00 CET: Nice - Lokomotiv Moscow.
Thursday, 15 February at 19.00 CET: Olympique Marseille - Braga.
Thursday, 15 February at 19.00 CET: Ostersunds - Arsenal.
Thursday, 15 February at 19.00 CET: Real Sociedad - Red Bull Salzburg.
Thursday, 15 February at 19.00 CET: Spartak Moscow - Athletic Bilbao.

Thursday, 15 February at 21.05 CET: AEK - Dynamo Kyiv.
Thursday, 15 February at 21.05 CET: Celtic - Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Thursday, 15 February at 21.05 CET: FC Copenhagen - Atletico Madrid.
Thursday, 15 February at 21.05 CET: Napoli - RasenBallsport Leipzig.
Thursday, 15 February at 21.05 CET: Olympique Lyon - Villarreal.
Thursday, 15 February at 21.05 CET: Partizan - Viktoria Plzen.
Thursday, 15 February at 21.05 CET: Steaua - Lazio.

11 February 2018

Presentation of an award

At Wembley stadium there was a small presentation from the AFC confederation. Son Heung-min received an award for best Asian international player. The South Korea striker was crowned at the end of November last year, but was honoured today before Tottenham - Arsenal match. He was better than Aaron Mooy (Australia) and Shinji Kagawa (Japan) and this title is second for the 25 year old striker after he won the prize in 2015.

10 February 2018

Almost everything is known

After two hard years all qualifying games for the event were played plus the draw for the competition is finished. Now remains where every 32 teams will stay in the country, and that was confirmed today from FIFA. Throughout Russia every qualified team for the World Cup has picked their base together with the training ground. Next things we are looking are referees for the tournament, list of all players and the winner itself in July.

09 February 2018

Revengeful referee got suspended

If you think only players are being punished think again. Tony Chapron entered into football history books as first referee who is sanctioned from its own association. He wanted to take immediate revenge on Nantes defender Diego Carlos in the last minute of the game against PSG at the domestic championship. The Brazilian was returning to his half when unintentionally crashed on the referee, while 'opponent from the ground' tried to kick him off and later gave second yellow for no reason. Due to this terrible 'mistake', six days ago the 45 year old French 'man in blue' is banned for six months: for 90 days will not lead any match plus 90 days more is going to be activated if he repeat the same blunder. Maybe after hearing this news now the disgraced official will retire at the end of the season.

08 February 2018

Greedy league

In order to compete with the other European leagues, Italian Serie A began to dictate a very high price for selling domestic television rights 2018 - 2021 period. Local platforms, Sky and Mediaset were immediately rejected when they wanted to sign a contract at the end of January by offering 'only' 830 million euros. After that the league has set a minimum price of 1.05 billion euros (exact number: 1.050.000.000) and decided to wait a little bit longer. As no one can get these rights below this amount two days ago, a third party jumped in who offered a round figure: Spanish television platform MediaPro gave a new number which made everyone happy - 1.050.001.000 euros and with that became an exclusive owner in Italy. Now rumors are spreading that this multimedia group will open a new television channel on the market (in partnership with someone).
Nevertheless, the first two mentioned local broadcasters thinks that this is way too much for one season.

07 February 2018

Original decision overturned

Just five days into this year, Crvena Zvezda (Red Star) was punished due to racist behavior and propaganda chants by 'glorifying a war criminal'. Original decision by the European football organization was that the Serbian club has to play on an empty stadium against CSKA Moscow next Tuesday on the first knockout stage, first leg at the Europa league. In the mean time, tickets were already sold fast and reached the number of more than 28.000 or more than half the venue in Belgrade. That is why the management lodged an appeal which partially yesterday is overturned: fans are allowed to cheer for the club, but if same incident is repeated then the stadium will be suspended probationary of two years. Also the financial fine is cut as well - from 50.000 to 30.000 euros.

06 February 2018

Unbelievable price

European competitions are going to be back next week, and already one match is drawing big attention mainly for two reasons. Real Madrid and PSG will face each other in the big derby game at the Champions league on 14 February and there is no doubt that Santiago Bernabeu is going to be full that night. In order to enter the venue to watch these big two clubs clashing together, everyone needs to have a ticket which have different costs from 75 to 274 euros. And in less than 37 minutes all are gone. However, on the black market (one of resale applications) the situation is much much different: last Friday value for this paper reached an incredible 24.080 euros.

05 February 2018

Disrespectful chants in front of an minister

It is widely known that Beitar Jerusalem have the most racist and radical fans in the world, however last Monday they went way too far with their hate songs. Against Bnei Sakhnin from the Israeli local championship (Ligat ha'Al) chanted 'Burn your village', and also 'I hate all Arabs' and 'Muhammad is dead' in front of an Governmental official. Among them was culture and sports minister Miri Regev when those words were spoken. The speaker has asked the crowd to stop with those songs, but they continued nevertheless. After this serious incident, the club management is going to shut down the section where these supporters are gathering.


04 February 2018

Problem with stickers

On the last Thursday in January, Lazio has been fined with 50.000 euros, and the main reason lies in stickers: they were glued on a shirt and on the section of their city rivals Roma. On them was a picture of one of the most famous Jewish victims of the Holocaust - Anne Frank. The club has said that 13 fans received a ban, while the federation are accusing of 'clear anti-Semitic intent, constituting discriminatory behavior'.

03 February 2018

Without language you are definitely out

Under bizarre circumstances Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2018 will be deprived with one 'man in black' from the UEFA list. Dragan Petrovic is an licensed referee and can lead matches from the European competitions. However, he failed the test by making several mistakes from English language. As no one will replace him, this country will have one official less on the list for the current year.
Together with Admir Sehovic, both had to replace Ognjen Valjic and Edin Jakupovic who retired.

02 February 2018

Ex-Italian manager dies

Coach Azeglio Vicini, who managed to put Italy to semi-finals at 1988 European championship and World Cup on home soil two years later, has passed away yesterday in his home in Brescia. Whole career worked on the Apennine peninsula: as midfielder debuted for Vicenza, then played for Sampdoria and Brescia, while later started training youth categories of the national team, as well as senior. He died at the age of 84, leaving wife Ines and three children. All Serie A games this weekend will begin with a minute silence.

01 February 2018

Ticket madness

We have reached the last day in January, and that means the second phase of World Cup tickets sales is now closed. Since 05 December 2017 the applications for that 'golden piece of paper' have reached nearly 5 million or exact number 4.905.169 demands. At this second part, purchasing tickets for the summer event is more interested the host country who collects 51 percent against demands from international fans which makes 49 percent. Translating this into figures, an online applications have made 2.503.957 Russian fans, while 'the rest of the world' top 10 looks like this: Germany 338.414 demands, Argentina 186.005, Mexico 154.611, Brazil 140.848, Poland 128.736, Spain 110.649, Peru 100.256, Colombia 87.786, United States of America 87.052, Netherlands 71.096 demands. After the first stage FIFA have announced that was sold 'only' 742.760 tickets.
For those who will be left out on the second part there is a third. But the next stage will be slightly different from the first two: tickets are going to be bought in real time starting from 13 March. This means that anyone who wants to attend this greatest sports competition on earth has to be quick.