31 July 2020

Another ceremony cancelled

Usually at the end of each year confederations and newspapers are announcing the best players. However, because of the well known situation in the world, plenty of ceremonies are cancelled per this season.
One of them is the well famous award from France football magazine called Ballon d'or (also known as Golden ball). Because of the (completely) destroyed season 10 days ago it was decided that it is not going to be held in 2020. Since its establishment at 1956 this year will be skipped for the first time as it will be inappropriate to announce the winners after all this suffering in every single one of us.

30 July 2020

One player who changed everything

Many European countries have obliged to finish this season until 03 August (date when the football confederation set the deadline) for the local championships, but in some cases that is going beyond their control. Due to the epidemic time, most of them are stranded in the middle of nowhere, and thus its impossible to end it on time as, unfortunately, the virus has not giving up yet in some countries.
Six days ago it was announced that one player of Opava was tested positive, so this raised an alarm of how to continue and complete the Czech league. As the whole club had to go to a 14 days quarantine measures and with no seeing any other option, the leaders decided to completely suspend Fortuna liga (league) with just three rounds remaining. There will be no relegated clubs into second division, while Slavia Prague were revealed as title winners. Furthermore, instead of 16, the championship are going to count 18 clubs next year.

29 July 2020

Workout cancelled due to robbery

On 20 July it was reported that Agremiacao sportiva Arapiraquense did not had daily workout after months of forceful break. After a bizarre incident, the night before, from the team of Brazilian state Alagoas, were stolen 21 pairs of football shoes in a total sum of 7.000 reais (1.136 euros). Besides financial problems that they are having 'training was suspended because the team is not able to get back to work due to this embarrassing situation' was explained on their website.

28 July 2020

'Jewelry is in, but we do not need the car'

Fabio Henrique Tavares (or just Fabinho) was very happy when with his Liverpool teammates lifted the championship trophy. But during this celebration bunch of thieves operated in his empty home and took many valuable stuff like jewelry and an Audi Rs6, as it was reported happened between last Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. These brainless idiots did not take everything though: they do kept the ornaments, but abandoned the vehicle who was found by the police around 35 kilometers from his house. Now, this may be the easiest way to find them...

27 July 2020

Dropping an accurate technology until end of season

After a forced break of four months, this sport has returned in Australia last Friday, but with a slightly different rules than usual. One of them (and the biggest) is that the A-league have suspended the video assistant referee system for the rest of the season. This decision was explained by the football president as an unavailability for the audio sound to reach spectators on stadia. Many other mandatory protocols were altered before the kick off (such as handshaking, toss of coin, clubs and referees are entering the pitch from separate entries).
Regular season in the country finishes on 19 August, then comes semi finals, while 11 nights later is the final duel.

26 July 2020

Best foreigner in a team

From 16 July Edin Dzeko officially became the most efficient foreign scorer in Roma. With 105 goals the Bosnia and Herzegovina captain skipped the Argentine Pedro Manfredini, who from 1959 to 1965 104 times have scored for the Italian club. On the all-time goal scoring list of the team, the first 4 places belongs to local players, while the great Balkan striker is now the best stranger at number five.

25 July 2020

Nations that wants to organize tournament under the same name

Each confederation is determined to finish their international club tournaments no matter what. In order this season not go to waste (due to the virus), plus to minimize the risk, most of them have announced that the finals will be carried out in one country, so in the following lines here are going to be mentioned only two.
After Cameroon has renounced the hospitality for the 'final 4' Champions league competition in the African region, couple of nations have shown interest to close down this season: Egypt (who is in a delicate position of awarding the rights since two clubs are still competing at the event - Zamalek and Al Ahly) and Tunisia (which is now in a favorable position). Both these countries have support from their governments to host the best four teams of the continent on its soil. The decision has to be made fast, because for September are scheduled the final duels.
Going over to Asia, where the same event is in the group stage. Because it is a very vast continent, the Champions league is divided into two zones: East and West. For the western part the host has already been decided: last Thursday it was revealed that Qatar is going to stage the matches from 13 September until 03 October. However, choosing one nation for the eastern part is (still) a little bit tricky, because the epidemic is, sadly, on acceleration. That country who wants to host it had time as far as today (24 July) to submit documents for the bid.

24 July 2020

Returning to its old jerseys

'The new one is pretty bad - but the old looks very good'. In short, the previous sentence can also be interpreted as a subtitle to this story as after only one (or this) season Barcelona played with blue and red squares on the equipment. Out of 2020-21 the Catalan club will participate on the pitch with the blue and red stripes (with some additional elements), who those wore all footballers since its establishment from 1899. The new / old design was announced on 14 July of when it can be bought on the official stores of the team.

23 July 2020

Schedule revealed for most watchable event on earth

We (football lovers) at the end of 2022 are going to enjoy non-stop football (at some point). That will be the year when the first World Cup will be staged on winter season, and also it is going to be the first time that Arab country will host it. Qualifying games are (little) bit behind schedule, but we have to believe that in two years from now Qatar is going to produce one of the greatest spectacle, and that will be no more delays.
Last Wednesday (15 July) it was unveiled that the real treat begins out of 21 and will last as far as 28 November, where in the first two rounds we are going to enjoy marathon of four duels at 24 hours cycle (two each in the afternoon and evening), that will commence at 13.00, 16.00, 19.00 and 22.00. As every tournament has to come to an end, sadly from the third round (group games are going to be simultaneous) and up until the last duel (29 November - 18 December) kick-offs are going to be halved to two: 18.00 and 22.00. Knowing the full layout, those fans who decides to attend matches live in the country will have the unique opportunity to watch two or more, because stadia are closer to one another, which until now was unimaginable for that to happen. Everything is going to start at Al Bayt (which is in a shape of a tent), while the close down will be at Lusail arena. But before all of the above can actually occur, the draw for the edition number 22 is expected to be performed in April, just seven months prior to the big start. All times written here are local ones.
Review of the whole schedule can be downloaded on the websites of the Asian and world football organization.

22 July 2020

Club can play, but still had to pay

The saga about Manchester city has finally been closed. Last Monday the Court of arbitration for sport has completely overturned the decision by the European football organization to throw them out from the international club tournaments because of financial fair-play breach. So, the club can still participate freely at the events, however, the financial fine has remained...more to say reduced: from 30 the team had to deliver 'only' 10 million euros.

21 July 2020

Football president passes away

This damn virus continues to take away precious and valuable people around us, which sadly, strikes it in the football world as well.
Latest victim is the president of the Bolivian football federation Cesar Luis Salinas Sinka who passed away yesterday at the age of 58. The South American confederation did not disclose the cause of death, but the famous club in the country The strongest, which was their chairman from 2014, announced that he was tested positive on the epidemic last week. In a way to honor him, the team has revealed that the next 90 days will be of mourning. Four years later became president of the affiliation.
Because of this sorrowful news of the renowned official, all games throughout the region will begin with minute silence this week, while flags are going to be lowered on half spear.

20 July 2020

Majority of stadia begun construction for main Asian football show

We know that in three years from now People's Republic of China is going to host the Asian Cup 2023 from 09 June until 09 July. Ten cities and venues throughout the country will host the best 24 teams of the continent, and the organizers have already started preparations for this big event.
From 10 July six stadia in Chengdu, Chongqing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Xiamen and Xi'an began with its build up. Venues in Dalian and Qingdao will commence their construction at the beginning of October, while expansion awaits the last two arenas (in Beijing and Tianjin) until the end of the year.

19 July 2020

Trio of players equaled an old record

At 1951-52 season Juventus had three players who scored at least 15 goals each: Ermes Muccinelli, Giampiero Boniperti and John Hansen. Since then no one could achieved that in the Italian Serie A championship, until one team finally equalized this record 68 years later. The date was 11 July of 2019-20 when the Atalanta trio has done the same thing: Duvan Zapata (who increased today by one) and Josip Ilicic both gave 15 goals while Luis Muriel 17 times rolled the ball behind the goal-line.

18 July 2020

Association got severely punished by its local agency

Last Monday night the Colombian business regulation agency issued a hefty penalty towards its local football association of 4.3 million dollars (3.8 million euros) plus punished two of its presidents: 83.000 dollars (73.761 euros) had to pay the current Ramon Jesurun, together with the former one Luis Bedoya Giraldo with 72.000 dollars (63.985 euros). Some officials from the partner company of the affiliation 'Ticket ya' were also fined, and all of them conspired in a scheme of raising the original qualifying ticket prices for the World Cup 2018 of even up to 350 percent. The criminal investigation took place for two years, and it is estimated more than 40.000 entry papers were re-selled for the home duels against Brazil and Uruguay.

17 July 2020

Expelled from Premier league

Seven days ago the third most popular club in Ukraine (after Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk) Karpaty was thrown out from the Premier liha (Premier league) of the country. Due to financial problems, the team from Lviv did not show twice at the top division games against Mariupol, which according to the rules of the league faced expulsion. Opponents who were scheduled to play with this team are going to get automatically victories as 3:0. Until today it is still unclear whether next season is going to compete in the second or is going to be relegated further down into the (lower) amateur leagues.

16 July 2020

Brazilian club lost an appeal

For the first time Neymar junior came to play in Europe in 2013. And because of this transfer, Santos demanded a big sum from Barcelona where at the end lost the legal battle last Tuesday and on top of that had to pay for expenses. In 2015 the Brazilian team demanded nearly 61.3 million (to be exact 61.295.000) euros compensation from the Spanish counterparts and sued them at the highest sports tribunal (Court of arbitration for sport). Before the signature ever happened, the 'accused club' paid a certain amount to the family company NandN and so, were not involved in any irregularities. The court costs that the South American club had to give was 20.000 Swiss francs (18.787 euros).

15 July 2020

Offensive words written on social media, endless part

Disgusting words towards footballers are just continuing to pour social media. This time the latest case comes from England where a 12-year-old wrote dumb, racist commentaries towards the Crystal palace striker Wilfried Zaha before his game against Aston villa. Instead of playing (fairly) with his friends, this small idiot who thought he would never get caught deluded himself at the end, so the police arrested him two days ago.

14 July 2020

News about club international tournaments from four continents

At little bit forgotten football club competitions that entertain us every year, officials formally have announced their return which were forcefully stopped in March. In some of them the format is going to be new for everyone.
On the last day of June the African region have confirmed that its two international club events are going to finish in the 'final 4' system at September and all matches will be staged in just one place. Cameroon was awarded to close the Champions league for this season, but today came the news that the country withdraw from that intention, because their government are still in fear over health issues. This means that the league is yet to find a new place, while Morocco will host the teams for the Confederation Cup. In order to speed up the proceedings, duels in semi finals will be decided on 90 minutes only.
Nine days later (09 July) the Asian confederation announced their plan to finish this season. Currently teams at Champions league are divided in East (games will resume in October) and West (matches are going to continue in September) zone. After that the knock out phases will be played on one duel until the final who is scheduled for 05 December. In a similar way the AFC Cup is going to make a return in September, whilst 12 December will be the final game.
At 10 July the European region conducted the draw for their two tournaments. Because the Champions league is like a 'very speedy turtle', there are still an unfinished duels who are from the last 16 phase. So, for quarterfinals the following four games have to be played from 12 until 15 August:

Manchester city or Real Madrid - Juventus or Olympique Lyonnais.
Rasenballsport Leipzig - Atletico Madrid.
Barcelona or Napoli - Bayern or Chelsea.
Atalanta - PSG.

Out of this, first and third together with second and fourth pairs are going to be posing as semi finals on 18 and 19 August in Lisbon (Portugal). And the winners of those two matches will be the final on the Estadio da luz 23 August. The last three games of this season is going to be played on 90 minutes, and all of them will start at 21.00 CET.
Quarterfinal pairs of the most interesting Europa league competition are scheduled for 11 and 12 August:

Shakhtar Donetsk or Wolfsburg - Basel or Eintracht Franfurt.
Manchester united or LASK - Kobenhavn or Basaksehir.
Getafe or Inter - Bayer Leverkusen or Glasgow rangers.
Wolverhampton or Olympiacos - Roma or Sevilla.

For 16 and 17 of next month is the semifinal time, and the pairs are fourth and second winners plus the third and first. The last duel will be on 21 August in Cologne (Germany), while all duels from the quarter final stage, and onwards, are going to begin at 21.00 CET.
South American confederation has revealed their plans for its two events. On 11 July it was discovered that Copa Libertadores will resume from 15 September, while Copa Sudamericana is going to continue from 27 October. It is expected that both finals are going to finish in January 2021.
Due to precaution, sadly it is already announced that at each four regions games will be carried on on empty stadia (without spectators).

13 July 2020

Decisions from the African confederation

On the last day of June many decision were made for the future of football in Africa:
The saddest news is that the main tournament of the region (African Cup of Nations) is moved 365 nights forward.
Other unfortunate thing is that Africa is the second continent (after Asia) that completely cancels the annual awards. So for 2020 no best players are going to be announced due to the well known reason that the whole world is facing, as it will be inappropriate to have winner ceremonies like this one.
And because of that 'well known reason' the confederation divided in total 16.2 million dollars (14.4 million euros) to all 54 member nations as to financial help. Each one of them on their account has received 300.000 dollars (266.694 euros).

Promotion company with a new name

DDMC Fortis is an exclusive sponsor and partner of the Asian football confederation. This marketing agency decided to rebrand itself, and from last Monday has a new name and now is called Football marketing Asia. Selling football rights (for various club and international competitions) to media throughout the continent, this corporation acquired them until 2028 (which is divided in two cycles: 2021-2024 and 2025-2028).

12 July 2020

Insolvent club

This virus continue to drive all teams to madness where, unfortunately, do not intend to stop with its existence.
In an unable attempt to find needed sponsors, on 01 July the second division club Wigan became the first to go bankrupt in England. Due to this awful thing automatically 12 points were lost, and new management came whose priority is to (somehow) survive until the end of the season. Next leader fund, a Hong Kong consortium with its president Au Yeung Wai Kay, took over the team four weeks prior to the liquidation (04 June).

Suspended agreement due to unusual reason

A really strange termination of contract was done on 30 June after just five months where the virus, sadly, played the biggest role in this story. Olimpia Asuncion ended the agreement with one of the best former African player Emmanuel Adebayor, where was rested at home. For the club one of the main reason is the impossible logistical and economical trip, to bring the player back from Togo to the Paraguayan capital.

11 July 2020

Lenient fine towards its ex worker

On 30 June the world football organization has punished its former financial director Markus Kattner. The 49-year-old is accused of receiving various bonuses of around 73 million euros (together with other two colleagues who are already suspended) from 2011 until 2015. He is completely removed from this sport for the next 10 years, and on top of that had to deliver an (measly) one million Swiss francs (937.182 euros).

10 July 2020

Unbelievable moment which ended without any major consequences

The next story indicates a really rare and terrifying incident that happened at the beginning of the week on a training session at a third division club in Russia.
A goalkeeper of Znamya truda team, Ivan Zaborovsky was working out separately from his teammates when suddenly a lightning struck him. Video is showing the moment of how the 16-year-old kicked the ball after the thunderbolt, who survived it thanks to the prompt action of his coach Anton Basov that performed heart massage on the pitch. After a quick rush to the hospital, local media reported that the youngster is out of life danger and that his heart is functioning normally.

09 July 2020

Five associations battle for hospitality

On 30 June finished the extended deadline that the Asian confederation have set for its member associations asking them of organizing the biggest event of the continent - Asian Cup 2027. And the end result is that five countries submitted the documents and have shown interest to stage this major competition, in seven years from now: Islamic Republic of Iran, Qatar, who together with India, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan are trying to bring the best 24 teams of the region on its soil for the first time. The final winner of where edition number 19 will be is going to be known at the early stages of 2021.

08 July 2020

Most infected country plans to open up

Although Brazil is the most infected nation on the South American continent from the virus the local government in Rio de Janeiro decided to slowly open up this sport for spectators. With gradually loosen up for some constraints, this will be done in three steps: starting on 10 July people can enter venues where tickets can be purchased only from Internet, who is going to be one third of the capacity for each stadium ; from 01 August will increased to two thirds ; while all restrictions is going to be gone out of 16 August.
In this confederation football activities resumed first with the local championship at the state of Rio de Janeiro on 18 June.

07 July 2020

Africa without its main tournament next year

Couple of continents have delayed their major international championships plus one more had to follow this decision knowing that its qualifying duels could not finish in time. Thus this virus took another 'victim' as Africa Cup of Nations is officially cancelled six days ago. Instead of 2021, the event number 33 will be played from 09 January until 06 February 2022.

06 July 2020

Group gatherings are still dangerous

When on 30 June the Danish government has allowed of up to 500 people to enter stadia, no one predicted that this measure could cause up trouble in the Cup final played at the neutral place between Aalborg and Sonderjyske just 24 hours later.
The game was delayed for 14 minutes in the first half when a group of 'home' spectators refused to sit one meter apart, and like that of course broke the social distancing rule. Police and officials in the pitch had to intervene, where at the end they were kicked out from the venue in Esbjerg who with a bus were send back in Aalborg, while some arrests were also made.
On the same date the above thing happened at the Bulgarian Cup final where CSKA Sofia was entertained by Lokomotiv Plovdiv. At the Balkan state, free face masks were delivered at the entrance where only few people decided to protect themselves, while thousands of fans declined to keep apart from one another.

05 July 2020

Rehearsal before the biggest sports show

As it was tradition in the past, before every World Cup was played a preparation tournament (called the Confederations Cup). Sadly that is not the case anymore as that testing event is completely destroyed, however the host for the next major football competition has tried and at the end found a proper replacement who confirmed it seven days ago.
We know that in 2022 Qatar will welcome the best 32 teams in the world, and one year before that is going to be staged the Pan-Arab football event. Although not all six confederations will be represented, only two are going to participate: from Africa and Asia. The invitational event will gather 22 national teams who are going to entertain us from 01 until 18 December 2021, on the same stadia that the big finals are going to be played less than one year later.

04 July 2020

Hope really dies last

After the French Supreme administrative court made an official ruling on 09 June that the top local championship have to be increased to 22 clubs next season, that door was shut by the football leaders itself. From 20, this increase meant that Amiens and Toulouse can retain their status in the first league, so that both clubs could still be happy not to be relegated one ladder lower. Because in every story there is a word 'but' who pops up from somewhere, these three letters (as it is the right time) are occurring now.
Total refusal about the court decision to change the format of play for the next season was announced by the officials from Ligue 1 ten days ago, who with 74.49 percent of the votes at the General assembly was against this idea for the expansion, that undermined all chances for the above clubs to return to the top championship. Simply saying, this was an absolute right decision where the league leaders can not alter the already determined playing structure of 2020-21 season just for these two.

03 July 2020

Trainer that likes to cheat...off the pitch

Many footballers are having this bad habit to keep more money for themselves, but it is very rare that their teachers are doing it the same, and lately one famous name has joined the list.
When he trained Real Madrid from 2013 until 2015, Carlo Ancelotti has damaged the Spanish state with 1.1 million (or to be exact 1.062.079) euros and appropriate them for himself. On 23 June the tax authorities have accused the greedy Italian manager, who, during that time signed two deals: for his employment and image rights. Prosecutors charged him for the second thing 'with the intention of avoiding his tax duties towards the public treasury with no justification'.

02 July 2020

Caring for various associations

In total 211 member states on their account have got financial support just to cope easily (if can be said like that) this epidemic crisis.
Because the South American confederation constantly is helping its associations with money, on 24 June came the news that all 10 of them received new boost of six million dollars (5.3 million euros). Out of those, it is estimated that 2 million dollars (1.8 million euros) will be spent for testing purposes for its two major international club tournaments (Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana) because they are not yet finished. So far the region gave away 85 million dollars (75 million euros).
The same ones plus 201 other affiliations obtained needed aid from the world football organization just one day later for the same cause. Each one of them received 1.3 billion euros in donations and loans. Here also it includes help for the women football, and in order not to be any malversations all the help is going to be strictly controlled.

01 July 2020

On the dream debut, made history in Spanish championship

Entering for the first time on the pitch at LaLiga against Real Madrid last Wednesday night seven minutes before normal time, Luka Romero has became the youngest player who participated in the championship. With a nickname 'Mexican Messi', the Mallorca striker with 15 years and 219 days broke the record which lasted 81 years, where Francisco Bao Rodgriguez (known as Sanson) made his debut against Celta Vigo on 31 December 1939, when he had 15 years and 255 days. Although the new record holder was born in Mexico, he comes from an Argentine family who represents the country at youth football levels.