31 January 2020

Highest amount of football transfers

Nine days ago the world football association released a report on transfers with some stunning numbers.
Last year clubs from all over the world brought reinforcements which resulted biggest spending than 2018. Just in 2019 teams have spent 6.7 billion euros or 5.8 percent more than the year before. Also there was another record accomplished: 18.042 international transfers were realized where 15.463 players was involved from 178 nationalities.

30 January 2020

List of best local championships from around the globe

Nine days ago the International federation of football history and statistics has published a list of the strongest leagues in the world.
According to this organization the English Premier league is the best for 2019. Brazilian Serie A is in second place, while the Spanish LaLiga have dropped to third spot although this league for nine years in a row was at the top. Number four in the list is Italian Serie A, Primera A of Colombia is fifth. Out of 100 leagues around the world at position six is the Portuguese Primeira liga...
The same association also has declared which are the best leagues by confederations: at Africa Tunisian Ligue professionelle 1 is the strongest ; K league 1 of South Korea is best throughout whole Asia ; Mexican Liga MX is powerful in North, Central America and Caribbean region ; Super ligue of New Caledonia is the best on the Oceania part while from the overall look of the above list it is easy to guess whose championship rules Europe and South America.

29 January 2020

Troubled region

Unfortunately, in People's Republic of China cannot be played international matches at the moment due to the well known situation with the mysterious (deadly) virus thus they are going to be shifted in other, safe countries. As this is very serious, last week the Asian football organization took precautionary steps. The women qualifying football tournament for the Olympic games this summer, which supposed to be played in Wuhan, later Nanjing, is completely moved to Sydney. After Australia has been confirmed as a host six days ago, dates for this competition stayed the same (03 - 09 February).
Completely different kind of situation was in Islamic Republic of Iran. Preliminary duels for Champions league in the continent are already underway, so two clubs had to play their games elsewhere. Rising war tensions in that part of the region has prompted several governments to issue security warnings to its citizens not to travel to the Persian state. Neutral venue was chosen for Shahr Khodro - Riffa and Esteghlal - Kuwait, and these duels who were scheduled for past Tuesday finally played four days ago in United Arab Emirates.

28 January 2020

Good timing of changing a traditional kit

Yesterday Nantes has played with an unusual outfit in their championship duel against Bordeaux. Instead of green and yellow combination of which the club is famous for, the kit was replaced with blue and white. The real reason why the home team played in special Albiceleste (white and sky blue) equipment is that the Canaries paid tribute to their striker Emiliano Sala who tragically died in helicopter crash last year, while the whole income went as an aid to football school in his home country Argentina.


27 January 2020

Wealthiest teams of the world

Last Tuesday, one of the biggest consulting firm in the world Deloitte has published a list of 20 worlds richest clubs in football, where all positions were dominated by European teams. The study was made based upon: selling on television rights, revenues from tickets and licensed souvenirs sale.
For 2018-19 season Barcelona is at the top with 840.8 million euros, Real Madrid is second having 757.3 million, while Manchester united is third with 711.5 million euros. These trio of clubs is in the list for the third consecutive time where only they are changing positions in this period.
At number four is Bayern Munich with 660.1 million euros, 635.9 million collected PSG, Manchester city gathered 610.6 million euros...

26 January 2020

Drawings on a ball

Winners of the European Champions and Europa league are going to clash in Porto (Portugal) on 12 August at the estadio do Dragao. On the ball in this single duel will be integrated the drawings of 18 children. Last Wednesday it was announced that the selection was made by the president Aleksander Ceferin, where the entrants were 10 organizations in Europe who are partners with the UEFA Foundation for children.

25 January 2020

Void permit suddenly became...valid

Last Wednesday there was a rumor (news) that the new Hertha trainer, Jurgen Klinsmann, had an expired license which he received 20 years ago, without being renewed from 2012. This meant that the 55-year-old manager could not lead his new team at the resumption of the Bundesliga past weekend, and also could be penalized for breaching the permit regulations. However (in these kind of situations there is always a happy ending) this was probably a big fuss over nothing, because (just) one day before the start of the championship duel the German football association confirmed his coaching permit is valid after all.

24 January 2020

Playing games with an official event

From winter time, to summer and now back to winter...but for how long? This is not a story of some bears who hibernates in their holes at cold days / nights who wants to walk and enjoy without any interruption in the hot weather, however, this is a true tale from a football competition.
Many times the Africa Cup of Nations was held in the first 2 months on every two years, in 2019 it was moved to a new season in June / July, while two years later the tournament is going to be played to its recognizable schedule. Last Wednesday it is officially confirmed (with the request of the host country) that this event is going to be shifted again to the original layout from 09 January until 06 February 2021 because of the unfavorable rainy conditions in Cameroon at summer time.

23 January 2020

Suspension on all leagues

Last Friday morning in Larnaca there was an improvised device was plant in front of the car of Andreas Constantinou. The bomb exploded in the garage where the vehicle was parked causing a severe damage. In previous games on couple of occasions most clubs showed complaints for the refereeing decisions of the 33-year-old.
An 'terrorist act' was described this newest situation by the Cyprus football association while referees across the country was targeted numerous times in the past. Because of this incident from five days ago all football leagues on the island are suspended indefinitely.

22 January 2020

Forty teams will fight to be among ten group winners

One of the difficult way to qualify for any World Cup are the teams from the African region. For the 2022 edition, tonight in Cairo was the draw for round two where 40 teams were divided in 10 groups who desperately want to be placed at number one spot, because only the group winners will go through to the final, third round.
In phase one there were 14 winners who are joined by 26 'privileged' top-seeded teams in this stage, and those was distributed as follows:

Group A: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Djibouti.

Group B: Tunisia, Zambia, Mauritania, Equatorial Guinea.

Group C: Nigeria, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Liberia.

Group D: Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Malawi.

Group E: Mali, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda.

Group F: Egypt, Gabon, Libya, Angola.

Group G: Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia.

Group H: Senegal, Congo, Namibia, Togo.

Group I: Morocco, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sudan.

Group J: Democratic Republic of Congo, Benin, Madagascar, Tanzania.

Ahead of us are 120 matches just from this phase, while the start had to begin from 23 March 2020 and last until 12 October 2021. However, the first 2 matchdays are rescheduled due to another qualifying cycle (African Cup of Nations), thus the official commencement has been moved for 05 October 2020.

21 January 2020

Exiled player doing different jobs

Once he was the greatest player in Turkish football, nowadays this hero lives in exile. The biggest mistake of Hakan Sukur is that he joined politics after retirement from football, was the biggest opposition of the current president of the state Recep Tayyip Erdogan and because of it he now lives as an outcast. Last Tuesday group of journalists from Germany found the 48-year-old how he is driving a taxi for Uber in Washington, selling books just to survive after the authorities from summer 2016 seized every property that the ex-striker had in his home country.

20 January 2020

Our 11 of last year

We (spectators) all around the world have selected 11 players of 2019. This list was announced this Wednesday by the European football organization in an unusual 4-2-4 formation. Fans who have submitted their own team at the official website of the association are now awaiting a fantastic prize through draw, while the number which have visited the page is over two million. End result says that we have picked seven newcomers for our team (who are here highlighted in bold): Alisson Becker - Trent Alexander-Arnold, Matthijs de Ligt, Virgil van Dijk, Andrew Robertson - Frenkie de Jong, Kevin de Bruyne - Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mane.

19 January 2020

Racism and insults on Apennine peninsula

Ten days ago Italian Serie A has issued penalties towards two clubs and one player.
Societa polisportiva ars et labor (Sports, art and labour society) or just SPAL had to pay 10.000 euros because its supporters sang insulting songs against referee Marco Guida when the club played with Verona. Double the amount had to deliver Lazio because of the well known discrimination case against Mario Balotelli.
Massimiliano Irrati have constantly been insulted by Domenico Berardi, thus the Sassuolo striker will have a 'forced' rest for the next two matches.

18 January 2020

Internationally accepted president

Eight days ago the International Olympic committee accepted three new members in Lausanne. These trio are all presidents in their field: of the international tennis federation David Haggerty, of the Japanese Olympic committee Yasuhiro Yamashita (which was also an Olympic winner at judo in 1984), together with the world football federation boss Gianni Infantino. From 79 committee members: 63 were for the 49-year-old, 13 against, while 3 votes was restrained.
In this sport the president of the world football federation is the first representative since 2015, where his predecessor Sepp Blatter had to resign over corruption charges.

17 January 2020

Dangerous road for some spectators who are using dumb words

Stadia across the world are 'perfect' place for shouting racist comment(s). Because of it three spectators have been punished for doing this stupidity throughout Europe.
Six days ago the Manchester court has punished Ian Baldry and his friend James McConnell. Both of them are Manchester city fans who yelled dumb racist comments towards Raheem Sterling in December 2018, thus the penalty is removal on attending any football matches of five years. Although the first man later apologized and was 'deeply saddened' of what happened, it was too little too late for forgiveness who also got 200 hours of community service, while his 'clever friend' received 250 hours. On top of that, this duo cannot watch anymore their favorite team in stadiums as the club have banned them for life.
Hardest fine received one 38-year-old Italian citizen also last Friday for the same reason. This 'smart guy' discriminated Mario Balotelli with monkey chants in November, and soon was in deep trouble with the following outcome: the local court decided that he cannot visit football stadiums throughout the whole European union for five years.

16 January 2020

Another country wants accuracy on its championship

Croatia is the latest country who will introduce video assistant referee technology in its championship. All matches are going to be covered with this system beginning with the second (spring) part from the last day of January. This decision was announced from the league leaders last Wednesday.

15 January 2020

Miraculous ambush escape

Last Tuesday evening, the former Serbia player Darko Kovacevic miraculously has escaped a (perfect planned) assassination. The killer waited before his home in Athens who shot at the 46-year-old. During this incident the footballer got minor injuries while trying to avoid the bullet and immediately went down on the ground misleading the assassin that he has done the job right, although first reports said that the ex-striker was shot in the leg. After the unfinished work the murderer fled the place, have burnt the vehicle 700 metres from the scene, while the Greek police allegedly found the gun.

14 January 2020

Winner at his third attempt

He got two consecutive second places (behind his teammate Mohamed Salah) at 2017 and 2018, but this time the 27-year-old striker is deservedly first: Sadio Mane finally is the best footballer for 2019 on the African continent. It is also the second time where Senegal had a winner in the most important category, after El Hadji Diouf succeed to win this prize in 2001.
Nine other types of awards were also given seven nights ago in Hurghada at this ceremony. Most interesting ones are that Asisat Oshoala (Nigeria) is the best female footballer, while the confederation mostly likes the 4-3-3 formation.

13 January 2020

Latest legends list published

The International federation of football history and statistics has revealed the newest list of 48 legends in this sport. Among the names are Gabriel Batistuta, Dennis Bergkamp, Zbigniew Boniek, Roberto Carlos, Petr Cech, Kenny Dalglish, Andriy Shevchenko, Alessandro del Piero, Philipp Lahm, Michael Laudrup, Abedi Pele, Mohammed Noor, Younis Mahmoud...
Last Monday the organization also has announced the newest 16 football legends for women. In this list are Hope Solo, Nadine Kessler, Aya Miyama, Hege Riise, Sun Wen, Hanna Ljungberg...

12 January 2020

Journalists choice of 2019

On the penultimate day of the old year, a list was released saying who was the best according to AIPS (Association internationale de la presse sportive / International sports press association). According to this organization the best club in 2019 was the European football champions Liverpool receiving 908 votes, which is equal to 30.21 percent. Seventeen point nine percent or 538 votes went to the United States of America female football team for winning gold medal at the World Cup, while South Africa got 434 votes or 14.44 percent for becoming world champions in rugby. In the selection voted 331 journalists from 102 countries throughout the globe.
When their work is concerned, for the best press center at 2019 was the event from Doha (Qatar) who hosted the World athletics championship, followed by the female football World Cup...

11 January 2020

Tale of a bronze structure, (probably) final part three

Once upon a time there was a sculpt that every football fan in Malmo was happy about. Soon this structure became hostile of what the real copy did to betray the jubilant spectators of the club. The following text is a true story of a statue who just stood on its place, could not speak, but in return had to take plenty of insults.
At the request of the Swedish football association, in October 2019 Zlatan Ibrahimovic finally got an own sculpt of himself of two and a half metres high and weighing more than half a tone. When he did what he did and said what he said (that he would like to play for a rival team), then in action were involved all loyal fans, who practically destroyed the poor thing in just under three months time with few different steps.
End of November 2019 was badly burned (with fireworks) plus sprayed all over, had a plastic bag on its head, toilet seat in hands, while one leg was cut off. Next attack of the 'bronze' idol, around 23 December, was left without his nose. On the first Sunday of this year it was the final demolition, from a group or a single person who have totally brought the statue down. The end (hopefully this will be over now).

10 January 2020

Ousting all trainers

Currently one West African country is being without coach in every category. Last Thursday evening, from youth to senior teams, the Ghanaian football association has decided to dismiss all trainers from their position without specifying the main reason. They only issued a statement saying that it had 'dissolved the technical teams of all national teams with immediate effect' which 'affects both male and female national teams'.

09 January 2020

Bad news for one - happy for others

What happens when the first work you adore so much you are suddenly leaving and concentrate on doing a completely something different: are you going to return to your first job that you really loved or you should stay in those new waters? An answer to this question gave one South American footballer last Friday.
Daniel Osvaldo was a player for full 11 years when he decided to retire in 2016. Up to now, the Argentinian was a successful songwriter, guitarist and singer for a Latin rock and roll band Barrio Viejo. However, the 33-year-old striker has changed up his mind and is going back to football again signing for the Primera division club Banfield.

08 January 2020

Coach has deservedly won a medal with the order of knighthood

One of the biggest trainer from Portugal currently right now is definitely Jorge Jesus. After the playing and coaching career mostly in his country, he decided to go abroad. Just a year was present at Al-Hilal, but what has done with the next club, no one predicted.
After taking Flamengo in June 2019, the club won the Copa Libertadores at the South American continent, and towards the end of the year the team have made it to the final of the Club World Cup event (where, as debutants unfortunately lost by a single goal). Shortly his accomplishments was quickly recognized as heroic back home: last Monday the 65-year-old received Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique (Order of Prince Henry) from the president of the state Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, for what has done in only six months with the Brazilian team.

07 January 2020

Unfortunate loss of a young footballer

Nathael Julan is (probably) the first professional player who unfortunately died just three days into the new year. The 23-year-old passed away in a car accident at Pordic, northwestern France. Local media has reported that the Guingamp striker lost his life on a way home after training.

06 January 2020

Successful integration into society

Lots of refugees throughout Europe are having troubles into big societies. Adaptation is a real problem for them and very often they are treated as second class citizens. In order this discrimination to stop once and for all, a group of travelers who were forced to leave their land behind and start from zero (only a small number) has broken this barrier who will shortly get a perfect job.
On the last Wednesday in December it was revealed that 13 migrants are soon going to become referees in Germany. Getting the all-wanted license, all participants have to pass several rounds of training and to know perfectly the language. Most of them are from Afghanistan who are living in refugee camps. Youngest member is only 16-years-old.
This project is runned by Fussball grenzenlos (Football without borders) together with the Berlin football association to easily incorporate these people into the community.

05 January 2020

Reward that was won for the sixth time

On the last Sunday in December at Dubai were given the Globe football (soccer) awards. In the eleventh edition of the ceremony there were 15 various categories: from international awards, like best agent, coach, goalkeeper and youth player, to the 'home' ones as most valuable Arab player (senior and young), trainer plus trophies for sports institutions. Here it will be only mentioned one and the most important, which this prize is always at the end each show: for the sixth time in this festivity Cristiano Ronaldo has been crowned the best footballer for 2019!

04 January 2020

Players who scored most goals in 2019

As every year, the previous one was also full of goals. In the end it can only be summarized who scored most of them on the year which left us. Here it will be presented six names which occupies the first 5 places in the table.
Most goals in 2019 has been scored by a player who represents Poland and Bayern Munich. At 365 nights Robert Lewandowski gave 54 goals. The Argentina and Barcelona striker Lionel Messi follows him with 50. French and PSG striker Kylian Mbappe 44 times have shaken the nets, while Raheem Sterling an England and Manchester city player is in fourth spot with 43 goals. Position number five is shared by two footballers who 40 times have ripped the opposing nets: Eran Zahavi, which is a member of Israel plus Guangzhou rich and force, together with Alfredo Morelos who represents Colombia and Glasgow rangers.

03 January 2020

Infiltration of a 'Nazi' player

On 15 December Rayo vallecano and Albacete played their duel from the Segunda division in Spain who did not finish until the end after an unusual incident. Throughout the whole 45 minutes the home fans have insulted and threatened Roman Zozulya thinking of him as a 'Nazi' footballer. Despite the plea from the official speaker not to continue any further with all the offences towards the visiting striker, Jose Antonio Lopez Toca decided to suspend the game with the support of the two sides at the last moments of the first half.
In fact, the 30-year-old Ukraine international has been mistakenly linked as a member of the far-right movement in his country. As for the suspended game is concerned it will continue without spectators, while last Friday the Spanish football federation has punished the home team with 18.000 euros and partially closed the stadium on two matches.

02 January 2020

Announced cities that will host the best 24 Asian teams

People's Republic of China is going to host the edition number 18 of the next Asian Cup (at 2023). The qualifying event is currently an ongoing process and little by little we are learning new things about the final competition itself. On the last Saturday in December the Chinese football association have revealed the luckiest 10 towns who will welcome the best 24 teams of the continent: Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dalian, Qingdao, Shanghai, Suzhou, Tianjin, Xiamen and Xi'an.

01 January 2020

Happy and prosperous New Year to everybody!

Important notice to all visitors: no matter wherever you are, let these two repetitive numbers (who may also be counted as double or quadruple...) bring you lots of joy, happiness and plenty of love. Happy 2020 to everyone!