Same round - different leg

These couple of weeks most of Europe has one serious problem - unusual for this month: freezing and very cold days, especially nights. In most parts of the continent matches are being cancelled, but we hope that everything will be in order next midweek where European Cups (leagues) are back. And while the first tournament will be incomplete, the second is going to finish all games from this same round.

Part 1 out of 2 is going to be played on 2 days, with equal number of matches - 2. In these first 4 plays of the Champions league, some may need extra time, so that troubled teams can qualify into last 8.

Tuesday, 06 March at 20.45 CET: Liverpool - Porto.
Tuesday, 06 March at 20.45 CET: PSG - Real Madrid.

Wednesday, 07 March at 20.45 CET: Manchester City - Basel.
Wednesday, 07 March at 20.45 CET: Tottenham - Juventus.

There is no division, nor parts at the Europa league. Like a good and small obedient child (competition) this one is playing in full - all 8 pairs in 1 day. Separating in two time slots we have to see good football as always, but with these extreme weather conditions this may lack in the first leg.

Thursday, 08 March at 19.00 CET: Atletico Madrid - Lokomotiv Moscow.
Thursday, 08 March at 19.00 CET: Borussia Dortmund - Red Bull Salzburg.
Thursday, 08 March at 19.00 CET: CSKA Moscow - Olympique Lyon.
Thursday, 08 March at 19.00 CET: Milan - Arsenal.

Thursday, 08 March at 21.05 CET: Lazio - Dynamo Kyiv.
Thursday, 08 March at 21.05 CET: Olympique Marseille - Athletic Bilbao.
Thursday, 08 March at 21.05 CET: RasenBallsport Leipzig - Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Thursday, 08 March at 21.05 CET: Sporting Clube de Portugal - Viktoria Plzen.

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Videos are good for review

It looks like from next season we are going to have some (not to say major) changes in this sport. First, European Cups are going to be revamped, and now in Spanish Primera division additional referees will be installed.
Yesterday LaLiga Santander has decided that from 2018/19 season video assistant referees are going to be introduced for better view in its matches. The president announced last November that this shift would eventually have to come, and this Friday it has been made official, where referees and assistants has been training on offline simulation games.
In another and related news, today the world football organization is so close to carry out with this technology on the World Cup event this summer. FIFA itself gave the green light, but the final decision on whether to use it or not is going to be at the FIFA meeting in Bogota, Colombia 16 March.

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Accused manipulators, and yet free

Out of 84 people that were originally named in this scandal, 58 are charged for being a part of a massive criminal organization in Greek football. This Wednesday the court in Athens indicts them for match fixing, illegal betting, bribery and money laundering which mostly operated in matches from second league and two from local championship (Super league). Among this number there are players, city mayors, club owners and football officials from 2011 case better known as 'Koriopolis'. Each of these manipulators are facing prison sentences from 30 months up to 10 years, however because all of them are suspended, noone will go to jail. The European football organization has praised itself that it helped giving information to Greek authorities to catch the villains.

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Great legend, goalscorer and fighter has left us

This Tuesday night one of the best European strikers in his time unfortunately passed away. Enrique Castro, better known as Quini has died from heart attack at the age of 68. Played an whole career in Spain, from 1974 to 1982 has won the Pichici trophy for the best goalscorer in LaLiga 5 times, and due to his fantastic skills also was known as: 'The Wizard', 'Quinocho' or 'Quinigol'.
Just one season after signing for Barcelona, in 1981 Quini was kidnapped on the day when he scored two goals. That afternoon the Asturian was headed to the airport to pick up his wife and kids when was attacked from two gunmen who held him hostage for 25 days. Later the assailants were found, and the player who was unharmed finished top scorer in the championship that season.

Many supporters and football stars paid tribute yesterday at El Molinon stadium (now called after the great striker) in his native city of Gijon. Another icon and his teammate at the time in Barcelona Diego Armando Maradona through social media wrote 'the kind of scorer that no longer exists'.

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'Big' transformation per both European Cup competitions

Yesterday the European football organization accepted measures to change rules for both European Cup (league) tournaments. With this new system we are going to encounter first from 2018/19 season. Important things in all this revamp process are the following:
- This new (and unnecessary) remodeling is made up on coefficients from 2016/17 season.
- Before qualifying stages, in both events are introduced preliminary round.
- For the 'strongest' tournament, 26 clubs will enter directly into the group stage. Out of that number, 6 are going to come from the qualifying part: 4 from the Champion and 2 from the league path. In the second competition 17 teams will have a direct access to the group phase.
- One of the 'big' news is that no matter in what qualifying stage they lost in the Champions league, teams will have another chance to qualify for the Europa league. In short: losing club from Champions league will play again (qualifiers) in the Europa league. 
- At both tournaments there will be Champion and league route. But, what is more confusing is why do we need Champion (or league) route for the Europa league. To what cause do we actually need both paths in qualifiers for this competition?
- From the group stage and onwards, we will no longer have 3 fixed times to start the games (19.00, 20.45 and 21.05 CET). However, that is going to be reduced to only 2. Thus, from September our new time habit for matches are going to be 18.55 and 21.00 CET for both competitions.

In the end all unanswered questions (if any) are going to be clear from the end of June.

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