28 February 2019

Youth violation

Until the end of January 2020 Chelsea will play with the same players. Five days ago the world football organization punished the club from London who broke the rules in 29 cases in the player transfers below 18 years of age. Apart from this ban, the team also have to pay 600.000 Swiss francs (528.445 euros), and also 90 days were given as a deadline, to regulate this situation with the minor footballers. On the other hand, the English association is penalized as well with 510.000 Swiss francs (449.179 euros) and have to set the rules of under 18 players within 6 months.

27 February 2019

Journalists died in accident

The youth African Cup of nations for the players until 20 years of age in Niger is over, but unfortunately two lives were lost after that. Mali has been crowned with the title, and two of its journalists have passed away on the road. Abdoul Aziz Haidara and Souleymane Sangho died in car accident on their return home last Thursday.

26 February 2019

Suspended punishment

We all remember the ugly scenes from the end of last November where AEK and Ajax played their duel at the Champions league. The violence began before the match, was shifted into the stadium where the home supporters threw flares (and a petrol bomb) inside the sector of the visiting fans which some were left with bloody faces, however no arrests was made at the end by the police. From that moment on it was clear and expected that the club will pay a dearly price for these incidents and that was proved last Friday from the European football organization. The verdict for fireworks, throwing objects, crowd disturbances, inappropriate banner, field invasion and poor organization are: 80.000 euros plus for the next two European matches the Greek side must completely close its venue. Also, the club was presented two years suspended penalty probationary period for both European competitions.

25 February 2019

Big change of a final Cup format

Under his leadership, the Spanish Super Cup was changed when the final was played in only one game on neutral ground instead of two (home and away duels). Last Tuesday the president of the Spanish football federation Luis Rubiales has announced another drastic shift of the event for this year: four teams will be involved in the final which is going to be played in a foreign country, who said that "the next Super Cup will be played outside of Spain with a 'Final 4' format". Apart from the two Copa del Rey finalists, the idea is to involve as well the top two teams from the LaLiga championship.

24 February 2019

Quadruple hospitality

Being host to only one country at any official competition, then things are going to be easy to access on every field. The problem comes if the same event are staging in couple of nations, and now we will go even further than that.
If we want more complications, then why from 2 is not possible for 4 countries to be hosts for the World Cup? At the end of July 2017 Argentina and Uruguay have expressed their desire to welcome the 48 (number is based on expansion rumor, 32 are current) best teams on the planet. One month later Paraguay joined this duo, while last Friday Chile has announced that is also interested to enter hospitality at the worldwide watchable event in 11 years time from now. This decision was confirmed on social media by the president of the country Sebastian Pinera. In 2030 the South American continent hopes that after 100 years the World Cup will return back home where it all began.

23 February 2019

Pairs of Europa league second knockout round determined

After all the excitement of yesterday night matches at the Europa league, the European football organization on Friday performed the draw for the second knockout stage in this competition. Sixteen best clubs are left at the event, and everybody will kick the next stage next month. In a space of 7 nights, these teams are going to meet their opponent twice, dates of play are 7 and 14 March, while the 8 thrilling duels are the following:

Chelsea - Dynamo Kyiv.

Eintracht Frankfurt - Inter.

Dinamo Zagreb - Benfica.

Napoli - Red Bull Salzburg.

Valencia - Krasnodar.

Sevilla - Slavia Prague.

Arsenal - Stade Rennais (later in the day, this original pair has been switched, thus first 90 minutes will be in Rennes).

Zenit Saint Petersburg - Villarreal.

22 February 2019

Remaining 15 clubs who went through to next phase

Dinamo Zagreb - Viktoria Plzen 3:0

Scorers: 1:0 14 (14.18) Mislav Orsic
              2:0 33 (32.56) Emir Dilaver
              3:0 72 (72.07) Bruno Petkovic

- David Limbersky (Viktoria Plzen) at 86 (85.36) had to leave the game early due to two yellow cards.

Eintracht Frankfurt - Shakhtar Donetsk 4:1

Scorers: 1:0 23 (22.21) Luka Jovic
              2:0 26-pen (26.06) Sebastien Haller
              2:1 63 (62.48) Junior Moraes
              3:1 80 (79.46) Sebastien Haller
              4:1 88 (87.32) Ante Rebic

Napoli - Zurich 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 43 (42.33) Simone Verdi
              2:0 75 (74.56) Adam Ounas

Red Bull Salzburg - Club Brugge 4:0

Scorers: 1:0 16 (16.05) Xavier Schlager

              2:0 29 (28.24) Patson Daka
              3:0 43 (42.37) Patson Daka
              4:0 90+4 (93.46) Moanes Dabour

- Ethan Horvath (Club Brugge) perfectly saved a penalty from Moanes Dabour (Red Bull Salzburg) on 11 (10.44).

Zenit Saint Petersburg - Fenerbahce 3:1

Scorers: 1:0 03 (03.08) Magomed Ozdoev
              2:0 37 (36.28) Sardar Azmoun
              2:1 43 (42.34) Mehmet Topal
              3:1 75 (75.05) Sardar Azmoun

Villarreal - Sporting Clube de Portugal 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 45+1 (45.37) Bruno Fernandes

              1:1 80 (79.26) Pablo Fornals

- Sporting Clube de Portugal finished the game with 10 men, as two yellow cards received Jefferson Nascimento (simply known as Jefferson) at 50 (49.27).

Valencia - Celtic 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 70 (69.36) Kevin Gameiro

- The visitors finished the game with 10 players because Jeremy Toljan was sent off for two yellow cards at 36 (36.13).

Arsenal - BATE Borisov 3:0

Scorers: 1:0 04-own goal (03.27) Zakhar Volkov
              2:0 39 (38.30) Shkodran Mustafi
              3:0 60 (59.47) Sokratis Papastathopoulos (or simply Sokratis)

Bayer 04 Leverkusen - Krasnodar 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 84 (83.46) Magomed-Shapi Suleymanov
              1:1 86 (86.04) Charles Aranguiz

Inter - Rapid Vienna 4:0

Scorers: 1:0 11 (10.33) Matias Vecino
              2:0 18 (17.54) Andrea Ranocchia
              3:0 80 (79.35) Ivan Perisic
              4:0 86 (86.07) Matteo Politano

Genk - Slavia Prague 1:4

Scorers: 1:0 10 (09.41) Leandro Trossard
              1:1 23 (22.20) Vladimir Coufal
              1:2 53 (52.59) Ibrahim Benjamin Traore
              1:3 64 (63.31) Milan Skoda
              1:4 68 (67.55) Milan Skoda

Real Betis - Stade Rennes 1:3

Scorers: 0:1 21 (21.03) Ramy Bansebaini
              0:2 29 (29.04) Adrien Hunou
              1:2 40 (40.12) Giovani lo Celso
              1:3 90+4 (93.40) M'Baye Niang

Benfica - Galatasaray 0:0

Chelsea - Malmo 3:0

Scorers: 1:0 54 (54.19) Olivier Giroud
              2:0 74 (73.40) Ross Barkley
              3:0 84 (83.22) Callum Hudson-Odoi

- On 73 (72.38) Rasmus Bengtsson (Malmo) collected his second yellow card.

Dynamo Kyiv - Olympiacos 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 32 (31.50) Fran Sol

Additional information: Beginning from March we are going to see the following clubs 16 clubs into the second knockout round: Dinamo Zagreb, Eintracht Frankfurt, Napoli, Red Bull Salzburg, Zenit Saint Petersburg, Villarreal, Valencia, Arsenal, Krasnodar, Inter, Slavia Prague, Stade Rennes, Benfica, Chelsea and Dynamo Kyiv together with the first Europa league qualifier from two nights ago - Sevilla.

21 February 2019

First Europa league traveler for last 16

Europa league: last 32, leg 2

Sevilla - Lazio 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 20 (19.30) Wissam ben Yedder
              2:0 78 (77.50) Pablo Sarabia

- Two players from the opposing sides received red cards: due to 2 yellow Franco Vazquez (Sevilla) had to leave the pitch at 60 (59.43), while a nasty foul from Adam Marusic (Lazio) at 71 (70.27) was for direct red.

Additional information: Sevilla is the first club to qualify to the second knockout stage.

Champions league: last 16, leg 1

Atletico Madrid - Juventus 2:0

Scorers: 1:0 78 (77.41) Jose Maria Gimenez
              2:0 83 (82.37) Diego Godin

19 February 2019

Without goals in France

Olympique Lyon - Barcelona 0:0

Expanded club event

Seven days ago the North, Central America and Caribbean confederation has decided that the CONCACAF league will outspread for 6 more teams beginning from next season. One club will come from Canadian Premier league championship together with 5 teams joining from Central America. Due to the expansion from 16 to 22 teams, this event now is going to start with a preliminary round in July and also will serve to be a qualifying competition for the main club event of the region: the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions league.

18 February 2019

Twenty plays of the same leg

Next week the second 90 minutes (or maybe more) are scheduled for both European tournaments, where 20 matches are expected, while the majority are going to be played on the last night. For the first time in this knockout phase the 'best' competition will begin first, while two consecutive nights is still going on at the following events.

The last 8 teams from this round are going to be shown to us and they will demonstrate of how are well prepared for the Champions league continuation for the first time in 2019. All 4 games are going to start at the same time.

Tuesday, 19 February at 21.00 CET: Liverpool - Bayern Munich.
Tuesday, 19 February at 21.00 CET: Olympique Lyon - Barcelona.

Wednesday, 20 February at 21.00 CET: Atletico Madrid - Juventus.
Wednesday, 20 February at 21.00 CET: Schalke 04 - Manchester City.

Europa league novelty for this leg only: apart from the two standard kick-off times, one duel will introduce a new one. On the last European football night, 8 matches will start first while the remaining 7 are going to follow.

Wednesday, 20 February at 18.00 CET: Sevilla - Lazio.

Thursday, 21 February at 18.55 CET: Arsenal - BATE Borisov.
Thursday, 21 February at 18.55 CET: Dinamo Zagreb - Viktoria Plzen.
Thursday, 21 February at 18.55 CET: Eintracht Frankfurt - Shakhtar Donetsk.
Thursday, 21 February at 18.55 CET: Napoli - Zurich.
Thursday, 21 February at 18.55 CET: Red Bull Salzburg - Club Brugge.
Thursday, 21 February at 18.55 CET: Valencia - Celtic.
Thursday, 21 February at 18.55 CET: Villarreal - Sporting Clube de Portugal
Thursday, 21 February at 18.55 CET: Zenit Saint Petersburg - Fenerbahce.

Thursday, 21 February at 21.00 CET: Bayer 04 Leverkusen - Krasnodar. 
Thursday, 21 February at 21.00 CET: Benfica - Galatasaray.
Thursday, 21 February at 21.00 CET: Chelsea - Malmo.
Thursday, 21 February at 21.00 CET: Dynamo Kyiv - Olympiacos.
Thursday, 21 February at 21.00 CET: Genk - Slavia Prague.
Thursday, 21 February at 21.00 CET: Inter - Rapid Vienna.
Thursday, 21 February at 21.00 CET: Real Betis - Stade Rennes.

17 February 2019

Unusual sponsor who is very rare in this sport

Credit card, fashion, beverage and television companies, vehicle manufacturers and other types of businesses are often supporting some federations / confederations. However, last week a strange advertiser reached an agreement to be a fan of events on international level in one continent.
The well known bookmakers firm '1Xbet' became an official sponsor of all tournaments throughout the African region. Besides the three basic club competitions (Champions league, Confederations Cup, Super Cup) this new partner is going to promote itself on the Africa Cup of Nations as well. The confederation is in fact thrilled letting the betting company enter into the African football family, which the contract was signed past Wednesday. Now, for sure, matches are 'not' going to be known upfront anymore.

16 February 2019

Youth football tragedy

Seven days ago Brazil has hit one of the worst and horrible tragedy. Last Friday morning after 05.00 local time the Ninho de Urubu complex of the Flamengo football club youth training center has burned down. At that time, many of the kids were sleeping in the building where it was renovated two months ago. Local media has reported that at least 10 boys have died, 3 injured, while one is in critical condition, and all were at the age between 14 and 17 years old.

15 February 2019

Belarusian sensation

Stade Rennes - Real Betis 3:3

Scorers: 1:0 02 (01.30) Adrien Hunou
              2:0 09-own goal (08.48) Javi Garcia
              2:1 32 (31.30) Giovani lo Celso
              3:1 45+3-pen (47.43) Hatem ben Arfa
              3:2 62 (61.44) Sidnei Rechel simply known as Sidnei)
              3:3 90 (89.45) Diego Lainez

Rapid Vienna - Inter 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 39-pen (38.39) Lautaro Martinez

Galatasaray - Benfica 1:2


Scorers: 0:1 27-pen (26.56) Eduardo Salvio

              1:1 54 (53.38) Christian Luyindama
              1:2 64 (63.34) Haris Seferovic


Slavia Prague - Genk 0:0


BATE Borisov - Arsenal 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 44 (44.10) Stanislaw Drahun

- For using an elbow, Alexandre Lacazette (Arsenal) on 85 (84.29) received a direct red card.

Lazio - Sevilla 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 21 (21.04) Wissam ben Yedder

Olympiacos - Dynamo Kyiv 2:2


Scorers: 1:0 09 (08.57) Ahmed Hassan

              1:1 27 (26.57) Vitaliy Buyaliskyi
              2:1 40 (39.56) Gil Bastiao Dias
              2:2 89 (88.54) Benjamin Verbic


Krasnodar - Bayer 04 Leverkusen 0:0

Viktoria Plzen - Dinamo Zagreb 2:1

Scorers: 0:1 40 (40.07) Dani Olmo
              1:1 53 (53.17) Ludek Pernica
              2:1 82 (82.14) Ludek Pernica

Celtic - Valencia 0:2

Scorers: 0:1 41 (41.13) Denis Cheryshev
              0:2 48 (48.12) Ruben Sobrino

Zurich - Napoli 1:3

Scorers: 0:1 11 (11.00) Lorenzo Insigne
              0:2 21 (20.50) Jose Callejon
              0:3 76 (76.05) Piotr Zielinski
              1:3 82-pen (82.10) Benjamin Kololli

Club Brugge - Red Bull Salzburg 2:1

Scorers: 0:1 17 (16.48) Zlatko Junuzovic
              1:1 64 (63.49) Stefano Denswil
              2:1 80 (80.18) Wesley Moraes (simply known as Wesley)

Malmo - Chelsea 1:2

Scorers: 0:1 30 (29.20) Ross Barkley
              0:2 58 (57.49) Olivier Giroud
              1:2 79 (79.02) Anders Christiansen

Sporting Clube de Portugal - Villarreal 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 03 (02.38) Alfonso Pedraza

- On 76 (76.01) Marcos Acuna (Sporting Clube de Portugal) received his second yellow card.

Shakhtar Donetsk - Eintracht Frankfurt 2:2

Scorers: 0:1 07 (06.40) Martin Hinteregger
              1:1 09-pen (09.00) Marlos Romero (simply known as Marlos)
              1:2 50 (49.27) Filip Kostic
              2:2 67 (66.30) Taison Barcellos (simply known as Taison)

- Taras Stepanenko (Shakhtar Donetsk) left his colleagues early due to direct red card at 10 (10.03).

14 February 2019

Four goals given - one disallowed

Ajax - Real Madrid 1:2

Scorers: 0:1 59 (59.02) Karim Benzema
             1:1 75 (74.39) Hakim Ziyech
             1:2 87 (86.38) Marco Asensio

- Obviously a pure valid goal from Nicolas Tagliafico (Ajax) on 37 (36.49) was in question at the first real test, when the 'little monitors from above' gave the main referee a hint that it was not going to be allowed due to 'few millimeters of offside'.

13 February 2019

Kick-off of the first knockout round, night one

Europa league, last 32:

Fenerbahce - Zenit Saint Petersburg 1:0

Scorer: 1:0 20 (20.08) Islam Slimani

- On 44 (43.39) Harun Tekin (Fenerbahce) perfectly saved a penalty kick from Robert Mak (Zenit Saint Petersburg).

Champions league, last 16:

Roma - Porto 2:1

Scorers: 1:0 69 (69.07) Nicolo Zaniolo
             2:0 76 (75.38) Nicolo Zaniolo
             2:1 78 (78.15) Adrian Lopez

12 February 2019

Manager that likes to cheat

Jose Mourinho is the latest trainer who is accused of tax evasion. While he was a coach at Real Madrid, the 56-year-old gained illegal profits on his image rights, without declaring them to the authorities in 2011 and 2012. Due to these forgotten payments, last Tuesday the Spanish court sentenced the Portuguese to 12 months in prison which, at the end will not serve. In the agreement with the tax and prosecutor offices the jail term was substituted with 182.500 euros plus has to deliver 2 million euros fine.

11 February 2019

Comeback of the European Cups

After nearly two months of absence both European Cup competitions are returning for the third and last part next week: the knock out stages. Qualifications and group phase duels are over, and now there is no room for mistakes. In the beginning of this year both tournaments are going to start with different rounds and unusually, first will start the second and most desirable one to watch.

Last 16 teams remained at the Champions league. Until all is over, this round is going to torture us over a month, thus we are only going to be familiar with the first 4 matches who are going to start at the same time, over two nights from the first 90 minutes of play.

Tuesday, 12 February at 21.00 CET: Manchester United - PSG.
Tuesday, 12 February at 21.00 CET: Roma - Porto.

Wednesday, 13 February at 21.00 CET: Ajax - Real Madrid.
Wednesday, 13 February at 21.00 CET: Tottenham - Borussia Dortmund.

According to the kick-off time, and to a big surprise, the following event is going to start first in 2019. Europa league games are also going to play over two days, and this time in question are the best and last 32 clubs of the competition.

Tuesday, 12 February at 18.55 CET: Fenerbahce - Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Thursday, 14 February at 18.55 CET: BATE Borisov - Arsenal.
Thursday, 14 February at 18.55 CET: Galatasaray - Benfica.
Thursday, 14 February at 18.55 CET: Krasnodar - Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
Thursday, 14 February at 18.55 CET: Lazio - Sevilla.
Thursday, 14 February at 18.55 CET: Olympiacos - Dynamo Kyiv.
Thursday, 14 February at 18.55 CET: Rapid Vienna - Inter.
Thursday, 14 February at 18.55 CET: Rennes - Real Betis.
Thursday, 14 February at 18.55 CET: Slavia Prague - Genk.

Thursday, 14 February at 21.00 CET: Celtic - Valencia.
Thursday, 14 February at 21.00 CET: Club Brugge - Red Bull Salzburg.
Thursday, 14 February at 21.00 CET: Malmo - Chelsea.
Thursday, 14 February at 21.00 CET: Shakhtar Donetsk - Eintracht Frankfurt.
Thursday, 14 February at 21.00 CET: Sporting Clube de Portugal - Villarreal.
Thursday, 14 February at 21.00 CET: Viktoria Plzen - Dinamo Zagreb.
Thursday, 14 February at 21.00 CET: Zurich - Napoli.

10 February 2019

Tennis Davis Cup sponsor

We all know that the tennis Davis Cup format is going to go through drastic changes from this year. At the end of January the Spanish LaLiga has agreed to be sponsor of the newly formed tournament in the next 4 years. The sponsorship have signed the leaders of the international tennis federation and Kosmos group which in this project agreed to invest 2.62 billion euros in 25 years time.

09 February 2019

Re-elected president

Aleksander Ceferin was elected again as president of the European football organization. As there was no other candidate, yesterday the 51-year-old Slovenian won his second term at the forty-third congress in Rome and will rule in the next four years. The new / old UEFA president is strictly opposing FIFA for the two new future football competitions: the worldwide Nations league and the Club World Cup expansion to 24 teams. By saying this: he is absolutely right to be against it!

08 February 2019

Fighting against extradition

At 2012 Hakeem al-Araibi, was arrested and later tortured, allegedly for his brother who was actively in politics during the Arab spring 2011. Two years later he fled the country whilst was accused of demolishing a police station, the authorities sentenced the absent footballer to 10 years in prison, while the 25-year-old rejected all that by saying that he was participated in a football game which was shown live on television. After hearing that sentence, he went to Australia who gave him political asylum 2017 as a refugee. On 27 November 2018 the footballer was arrested in Bangkok which together with his wife arrived for their honeymoon. It is reported that the Thailand authorities have acted on a 'Red Notice' from Interpol issued from Bahrain. Now, for the former player of the Bahrain national team, every football institution and human rights organizations are trying to help the defender which may be returned to his native born country (Bahrain). This Monday the judge denied him bail and will stay in Thailand prison until 22 April, when the trial date is going to be confirmed. Yesterday the Australian football organization gave 10.000 dollars (6.271 euros) for his immediate release.

07 February 2019

Arrest without a cause

A British supporter was arrested in United Arab Emirates for wearing a Qatar shirt. On 22 January Ali Issa Ahmad purchased an Asian Cup ticket for the last 16 game to watch his favorite team and Iraq. During the duel, the 26-year-old was detained by security officials and later beaten. Now, the unfortunate fan may face up to 15 years in prison just for promoting their greatest 'enemy' Qatar.
This news was reported yesterday in the media, by saying that the recent Asian Cup hosts and the title winners have cut their diplomatic relations due to disagreement in politics. If this stupid cause is indeed the case, then how come all 23 players wore their shirts freely for almost a month throughout the United Arab Emirates venues or this rule (advertising their country) cannot be applied to them?

06 February 2019

Unharmed in a car accident

On Monday morning the Juventus striker Douglas Costa was involved in a car accident on the highway at Santhia area, the province of Vercelli in northern Italy. Thankfully, the 28-year-old Brazilian player was not hurt in his Jeep Cherokee which, on the other way, was badly damaged. The Fiat Punto vehicle belonged to a 47-year-old man, who with injuries, was transferred to an local hospital.

05 February 2019

Trouble with liquidity

Seven days ago CF Reus Deportiu was being kicked out from the Segunda (second) division in Spain due to a huge debt. Local media reported that the obligation towards their players have surpassed 7 million euros, although the ex-owner Joan Oliver, convinced the public that he was in search of investors and future of the club is stable. After being thrown out from professional football on three years, the Catalan team also has to pay 250.000 euros fine.

04 February 2019

Spectators who 'forgot' to leave the World Cup country

The World Cup last year was a very successful event, but now the hosts are facing many problems with the fans who 'refuse' to leave Russia. Six months after the tournament some 12.000 foreigners illegally stayed in the country, however later this number was reduced to 5.500. The figure was announced last Saturday from the leader of migration department of the Interior Ministry Andrei Kayushin. They took advantage of the fan identification cards who expired at the end of 2018, and the total number of permits was 650.000 which were issued for the tournament.

03 February 2019

Plenty of numbers from the Asian Cup 2019

Unfortunately, the exciting edition number 17 from the Asian football championship is behind us. Apart from the scandal by the hosts on the very last day of the event, with its outstanding performance throughout the whole tournament Qatar deservedly lifted the first ever major trophy achieved in this sport. Now after all is over, it is time to look back at the statistics of this great competition.
- History will be remembered: Everybody knows by now that the title winners have an outstanding striker: Al Moaaz Ali Abdullah who scored most goals than any other player in these Asian Cup finals. The record came at the final match with an absolute beauty when the 22-year-old scored his ninth goal from just 7 games. After 609 minutes of play, the Qatar number 1 Saad al Sheeb saw the ball behind him for the first time, while the team finish with an impressive goal-difference of 19:1 in just under one month.
- Results: Four plays ended with the unpopular result (0:0), and 2 of them are finished in the third round. Apart from the knockout phase, only the second round did not had a single draw. In normal time there were 7 stalemates achieved plus 2 after 120 minutes.
- Goals and balls into its own net: In 90 minutes (plus stoppage time), from 51 duels is scored 128 goals, or 2.51 per match. However, if we add 2 more which were given in additional minutes, then from 130 goals 2.55 was scored per game. Players were in the mood to score more goals in the second half - 67, while in first 45 minutes 61 entered the list. At round number 2 in the group phase (12 games), the winning teams left their opponents without scoring a single goal. Same thing happened in the quarterfinal games (4 matches) and semifinal (2 duels). There were 3 own goals scored at the event and all those were given in the first round.
- Extra time, additional minutes with goals and lottery: Starting from the knockout round, to decide the winner of the match, 30 more minutes had to be played. Only 2 duels were played and both were in the last 16. In those consecutive games 2 goals were scored, both of them in the first 15 minutes: one of them was given from 11-metre punishment, while the other was scored on the stoppage time of the first extra. Also at the first knockout phase (last 16), 2 winners was decided after penalty shoot outs.
- Punishments and incredible saves: The 'men in black' were in the mood to give even 15 penalties. Most of them had been awarded to Japan - 4: 1 was in the second round, while in the knockout rounds the finalists scored 3 more punishments. Two penalties each, were given to United Arab Emirates and India. But, not all were converted: there was 2 fantastic saves by the goalkeepers.
- Bad boys: Like it or not, from all these matches there had to be a red card. In total we saw 5 red cards: 3 players were sent off for 2 yellow, whilst 2 footballers saw a direct red for very ugly challenges.
- Spectators: Nowadays the media plays a main role for those unlucky fans who can not travel around the world (in this case to United Arab Emirates). Together with television and social platforms, this event has attracted 836.6 million viewers glued to the devices.

02 February 2019

Qatar is the new football ruler of Asia!

Asian Cup 2019: match 51, day 21, final

Japan - Qatar 1:3


Scorers: 0:1 12 (11.22) Al Moaaz Ali Abdullah
              0:2 26 (26.10) Abdulaziz Hatim
              1:2 69 (68.39) Takumi Minamino
              1:3 82-pen (82.04) Akram Hassan Afif

Stoppage time played for both halves: 1.04 + 5.24.


With 9 goals Al Moaaz Ali Abdullah (Qatar) is the best scorer of all 17 editions of the Asian Cup competitions.
- For the first time Qatar is the champion of the confederation.

01 February 2019

Earning more than the yearly budget

This is an interesting story of how one club thinks how to make a pure profit in a years to come, and besides that is thinking of his rivals from the championship too. Probably the high-quality youth academy is the Ajax football school, who have set a perfect example for others and is showing why is the best in the world.
In 2015 Ajax have purchased Frenkie de Jong from Willem II for only 1 euro. Throughout the years this youngster had grown up into a promising player where every team was in the race to have him. It seems that Barcelona was the quickest, when eight days ago offered 75 million euros plus 11 million on bonuses. Together with this agreement, now the 21-year-old midfielder, has helped his first club as well. Besides from that 1 euro, Willem II is having high expectations from this move: 10 percent of the next transfer, or translated - 6.4 million euros. And this amount for the team from Tilburg is higher than their yearly budget.