Another chance to turn on the television and turn down the sound.
Manchester United are attempting what no other team has been able to achieve – a successful defence of the Champions League title. Under the old name and format of the European Cup there were a few dynasties and a handful of back-to-back wins.
Real Madrid (1956-60) set a standard that has yet to be bettered of five consecutive wins. Triple season victors came in the seventies with Ajax (1971-73) and Bayern Munich (1974-76). Consecutive season wins came from Inter Milan (64/65), Liverpool (77/78), Nottingham Forest (79/80)and finally Milan (89/90).
However, the dearth of back-to-back winners does not mean that the race for Europe’s top trophy is wide-open. A look at the make-up of the group stage over the last six seasons and the knock out rounds over the last five paints a picture of a pretty select group of teams that can be relied upon to be there or thereabouts when the appearance money is dished out.
Here are some facts gleamed from a look at the last six seasons of the Champions League.
Group Stage (Last 32) - Number of teams that have qualified:
In the last six seasons – 69 out of 192 available spots
In each the last six seasons – 8 (Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Lyon, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, PSV Eindhoven, and Porto), 25%
On multiple occasions over the last six seasons – 36, 62%
Only once for the group stage in the last six seasons – 25, 13%
Knock Out Stage (Last 16) - Number of teams that have qualified:
In the last five seasons – 30 out of 90 available spots
In each of the last five seasons – 4 (Chelsea, Lyon, Arsenal, Real Madrid), 22%
Only once in the last five seasons – 14, 15.5%
On multiple occasions in the last five seasons – 12 (Roma, Inter Milan, Juventus, Milan, Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Manchester United, Liverpool, PSV Eindhoven, Celtic, Porto), 62.5%
A closed-shop or is there an upset or two possible this season?
RINGO - FA Cup Final Trivia. How many times has a non-English team played in the final? How many times has the final been played outside London? On the two occasions Charlton Athletic played in the final, something unusual happened ,what?
Bobby – Seeing that no one esle is playing here goes. 1) Three, Queen’s Park twice and Cardiff who actually won the Cup. 2) Nine times if you don’t include replays. 3) The ball burst in consecutive finals in ’46 and ’47. There was also a Gypsy's Curse involved in the Derby County Final but as far as I know it was not a consecutive season curse!
Henry14 - Q1 what do you make of Fergie's claim that he wants to spends in the midfield and attack, publicly, even if l am not a Man Utd fan l feel he is going to overpay because he is linked with every good finisher. Even if he spend $100m l still feel Hargreaves is not worth $40m and Berbatov is not worth $80m he is at most a $40m player, do you think it was a smart move?
Q2 What do you make of Fergie’s selection because it was awful, I felt it played into West Ham's plan and would not have been at the top of the table with that line up
Q3 l heard Graham Hunter and Ian Wright on talk sport saying Wenger has summoned the board for another meeting on his transfer budget, he claims that , he is not happy with the amount given to him and feels that another season of fighting for fourth Cesc and co might leave, do see Wenger leaving if he does not challenge for trophies next season
Q4 - Who owns Tevez it seems West Ham do not own him, it’s not a loan everything around this guy is mysterious even after the commission, can you clarify the situation.
Bobby – Q1 – And when has it been any different for Manchester United? As far back as I can remember they have been linked with high profile players. Even if Ferguson came out and said that he is not interested in signing anyone this summer no one would belief him. Q2 – I watched the game and in the first half in particular United destroyed West Ham and did everything except score. If it was a one-off result I could understand your point but West Ham did the double over United and Arsenal and didn’t concede a goal in the process. Q3 – No I don’t see Wenger leaving. Q4 – Tevez is owned by MSI and so when he is sold this summer West Ham will realize nothing from any deal.
Meansucka - The FA Cup and the La Liga race look to be great drama! Any predictions on the latter?
Bigdavedisaster - As the Champions League approaches I can’t help but look at AC Milan and wonder if they should be there? None of the other teams involved in "match fixing" were allowed to compete in Europe, even Lazio with less of a point deduction was kicked out of the lesser UEFA cup. If they cheated enough to have points deducted from there domestic league what does them making the final say about communication between UEFA and domestic leagues in this case Serie A? Did they cheat in the 2005-2006 season or not? It seems as though you here no talk of this incident anymore even though a team that had points deducted for being involved in fixing games is going for the biggest trophy in club football. I’m really not a big conspiracy guy but is this being kept quiet? And yes I am seeing someone on the grassy knoll. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
I wrote earlier in the season that I thought the Bulgo-irish striker combination would be the ticket for Spurs now my question is, Spurs have shown that they can score with the best of the EPL what do they have to do to defend with them? Is a healthy Ledley King the answer or is the problem bigger than one man?
Bobby – First off none of the other teams had enough points to qualify for Europe after the points deduction – the exception was Milan. Did they cheat? Yes they did. But just like other things in life there are degrees of cheating. For example trying to steal five yards at a throw-in isn’t likely to get you thrown out of European competition. Whether we agree with the punishment or not, the fact is that the Commission that conducted the inquiry in Italy found that although all were guilty there were degrees of cheating involved and the different points deduction reflected that. I don’t think that Milan needed to cheat or affect the results last season in anyway to finish in the top four in Serie A.
A healthy Ledley King will make a big difference and I thought that Zokora was far steadier in the second half of the season than the first. They certainly need a left back and if they managed to sign a naturally left footed player then they might just get away without a left sided midfield player. They also need Paul Robinson to pick his game up.
Rwonfootball - It's relatively easy to pick a "Player of the Year," because it goes to the best player. But who would get an MVP award if one was given?
Bobby – Good question. I think my choice would be Mikel Arteta at Everton.
Venti_Vidi_Vici - At the beginning of the season you had rebutted claims that Chelsea were not adequately staffed at the center back position after the loss of Gallas and Huth, replaced only by the Cannibal. Do you think they will be shopping for central defenders this summer, or stick with who they have?
Bobby – They still had three centre backs but as it turned out Boulahrouz was so brutally bad that he was a liability. However, it wasn’t the defense that let Chelsea down this season it was a lack of goals. They only conceded two more goals than last season while goal production in the Premiership was down by 10 goals at Stamford Bridge and 8 overall. The drop in goals at home led to a reduction of 12 points season-over-season at Stamford Bridge. The issue of centre backs was a red herring. If they do buy someone it might be a full back who can also play centre back. Maybe someone like William Gallas. How many games did Gallas and Huth play this season?
RINGO - Note to the SFL - Dump the Shire and promote Tayport! Although looking at the Tayport website, it does not look like they are still in business.
Bobby – You might have the old website. Here is the link I use. Unfortunately we will have to put this season down as a transition one.
Venti_Vidi_Vici - A couple of very promising youngsters who I don't hear mentioned much, but I think show great promise and may well be on the move this summer. What do you think?
Aston Villa's Gabriel Agbonlahor, 20 years old, played hard all year, managed 9 EPL goals, combines speed, strength and technical ability. Could partner Rooney in 2010.
Giuseppe Rossi, is doing very at Parma scoring better that a goal every two matches in a league which is very challenging for young strikers. I'm sure Sir Alex is very pleased.
Daniel Agger, has relegated veteran Hyypia to the Liverpool bench, and in the UCL semi showed experience far beyond his years. Benitez proved he too can spot talent, even though $10m isn't exactly a steal.
Around Europe looking at the top scorers, in Spain David Villa and Freddie Kanute are having great seasons. In Germany Stuttgart's Mario Gomez (21) and Bayern's Lucas Podolski (21) will be Germany's strikeforce in 2010; the latter may be on the market due to possible restructuring at the club after a quiet season. Also in Holland, Heerenveen's Alfonso Alves has scored over 30 goals.
Bobby – Agbonlahor qualifies to play for Nigeria and Scotland as well as England which is his first choice. He has had a very good season and finished very strongly. I can see John Carew providing a great foil for Agbonlahor. I think Rossi has done more enough to earn a chance at Old Trafford come August. His goal scoring record at Parma has been the difference between a chance of staying in Serie A and being certain to go down. Benitez broke Agger in slowly but he is clearly he is now part of the first choice centre back pairing with the largely underrated Jamie Carragher. Gomez has missed a few games through injury but he scored after coming off the bench against Bochum on Saturday. Alves is beginning to crop up in more transfer stories but I have to admit that I don’t know very much about him.
JKendrick08 - Based on performance in European competitions and overall standard of play throughout this season, how would you rank the top 10 leagues in Europe?
Bobby – The only objective measure is something like the UEFA coefficient rankings and I don’t really know if that accurately describes which might be “best”. I think trying to rank the leagues is a lesson in futility until you can define what you mean by best. Is it the most exciting, the quickest, the most goals, the largest crowds, the greatest level of parity, the best technical players, the greatest level of media hype…the list is endless. Each league has strengths and weaknesses and appeals to individual likes and so it is a very personal. Ultimately it is what ever resonates with each of us and engages us.
Thank you for your continued support of the blog. I will put a UEFA Cup Final discussion blog tomorrow morning.
This weekend has a number of potentially great games. You can add your predictions, thoughts and comments over the weekend. For viewers of Fox Sports World Canada it will be wall-to-wall FA Cup action.
Saturday Middlesbrough vs. Manchester United (12:30 EST)
Sunday Chelsea vs. Tottenham (8:30 EST) Blackburn vs. Manchester City (12:00 EST) Plymouth vs. Watford (2:00 EST)
I normally try to keep predictions to a minimum - for the obvious reason that I am not very good at them (Jeremy claims I think too much) - but seeing that it looks like being a rather special weekend are some predictions for this weekend.
Chelsea - Spurs 3-2 Boro - Man. Utd.1-1 Blackburn - Man. City 2-0 Plymouth - Wattford 2-1
Celtic - Rangers 1-2 Bayern M.- Werder B. 1-1 Barca - Real Madrid 2-0 Inter - Milan 1-2
Finally Barcelona are in the team spotlight this week.
On the back of Michael Carrick's $35M transfer to Manchester United, The Guardian has produced a value-for-money rating on Britain's top all-time deals. I have abbreviated the article below and deleted their ratings out of 10. You might find it interesting to see how your ratings line up against the article. I have included an updated $ value of the transfer rather than pounds.
"1. Andriy Shevchenko - Milan to Chelsea, $56M (2006)
2. Rio Ferdinand - Leeds United to Manchester United, $55M (2002).
3. Juan Sebastian Veron - Lazio to Manchester United, $52M (2003)
4. Wayne Rooney - Everton to Manchester United, $50M (2004)
5. David Beckham - Manchester United to Real Madrid, $47M (2003)
6. Michael Essien - Lyon to Chelsea $46M (2005)
7. Didier Drogba - Marseille to Chelsea, $45M (2004)
8. Nicolas Anelka - Arsenal to Real Madrid, $44M (2000)
9. Marc Overmars - Arsenal to Barcelona, £41M (2000)
10. Shaun Wright-Phillips - Manchester City to Chelsea $39M (2005)
11. Ricardo Carvalho - Porto to Chelsea, $37M (2003)
12. Ruud van Nistelrooy - PSV to Manchester United, $36M (2001)
13. Michael Carrick - Tottenham to Manchester United, $35M (2006)
The Guardian
Summary
Buying club - Manchester United 5, Chelsea 5, Real Madrid 2, Barcelona 1.
Selling club - Arsenal 2, Porto, Milan, Leeds, Lazio, Lyon, Marseilles, PSV, Everton, Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United (all 1 each).
Spurs fans must be disappointed at losing Carrick but it would have been insane to turn down that sort of money for a player who cost them around $5M a couple of seasons ago.
I don't think you will find too many United fans who believe Carrick will provide $35M of value but the prevailing view seems to be that they are thankful that Fergie has at least made a move in the transfer market.
As for future moves there are rumbles that despite Fernando Torres' "commitment' to Atletico Madrid there is a chance he could still move before the transfer deadline. He has two years left on his contract and no contract extension in sight. If Atletico don't sign him to an extension then his transfer value will plummet by next summer.
It has not been easy for non-Italian soccer fans to follow the specifics of the scandal that has engulfed Italian soccer the last few months. I have pieced together from various sources the charges, the original punishments, the appeal punishments, the reaction and finally my take on the present situation.
In some cases, the information has been paraphrased or the tense changed.
The Background and Charges - Juventus, Fiorentina, Lazio and Milan.
“How did this investigation begin?
Police, looking into an alleged betting ring wagering on matches in the 2004-05 season, heard a suspect boast that he had a close relationship with Luciano Moggi, the Juventus general manager at the time. This was not true, but police tapped Moggi’s phone and heard him trying to influence the appointment of referees. The transcripts were handed over to the Italian FA in September and were leaked in May after it became clear that there was little likelihood of further action.
Who is also involved?
Five other clubs — Siena, Reggina, Messina and Lecce in Serie A, plus Arezzo in Serie B — have also been indicted but, because they did not qualify for European competition, will be dealt with later.
Will anyone be jailed?
Not at this stage. This was a sporting court, but it means the threshold of proof is lower than in a civil trial or criminal trial.
What were the clubs and individuals accused of?
Attempting to fix a match, fixing a match and failing to report match-fixing or similar “unsporting” behaviour.
Why are Juventus facing the most severe penalty?
Lazio, Fiorentina and Milan stand accused of far lesser crimes. Milan had a consultant who made idle boasts to linesmen. Fiorentina were victimized by match officials controlled by Moggi until the club agreed to stop campaigning against the Juventus general manager, at which point they got a few favourable decisions late in the season and avoided relegation. Lazio lobbied league officials, but there is no evidence that they spoke to anyone involved with referees.”
The Times
“Alleged that Moggi and Giraudo set up a system of influence and corruption whose tentacles reached everywhere, a structure based on threats, intimidation and patronage whose main purpose was to favour Juventus and their allies.
The transcripts of these conversations unveiled the sheer size of Moggi’s operation. There were no bribes or brown envelopes, the evil genius of the system lay in the fact that it was all about influence peddling. Moggi is alleged to have essentially controlled Franco Carraro, the head of the Italian FA, and the two men charged with assigning referees, Pierluigi Pairetto and Paolo Bergamo. The phone taps show Moggi would freely discuss the referee assignments with them, effectively deciding which referee would get which game.
At the same time, it was made clear that a referee’s career would suffer if they made mistakes which damaged Juventus. They would be suspended or sent to officiate in Serie B. In one case, Moggi went even further, underscoring the degree of impunity he had acquired. Following a controversial 2-1 loss to Reggina, he burst into referee Gianluca Paparesta’s dressing room, berated him, then locked him inside before disappearing with the key. On the other hand, those that did Moggi’s bidding would be rewarded with prestigious matches and even spots in Uefa’s list of officials. And those officials who were deemed “untouchable” – like Pierluigi Collina and Roberto Rosetti – were generally kept away from Juve.
As a result, they generally received a helping hand from officials, both directly and indirectly. Teams who were due to face Juventus the following week were regularly hit with a hail of red and yellow cards, ensuring players who were one booking away from a suspension would miss out against the bianconeri. Indeed, during 2004-05, 25 players were suspended the week they faced Juve.
Moggi’s system was so refined that it was used to damage his enemies too. When Fiorentina returned to Serie A in the 2004-05 season, the Florence club had big plans for change. However, allegations claim Moggi saw the club as a threat and Fiorentina were systematically victimized by referees to the point that, as late as April 2005, they faced the threat of relegation.
The allegations also claim that wire-taps suggest there was a deal with Fiorentina officials, whereby the club would drop its campaign for reform in exchange for “better treatment” from referees. It’s unclear whether Fiorentina accepted, though the record books show that they won eight of a possible 12 points in their last four matches to avoid the drop, at a time when the Viola stopped talking about reform.”
The Sunday Herald
The Original Verdicts and Verdicts on Appeal
“A brief rundown of the original sentences and again after the appeals verdicts were delivered.
Juventus Relegated to Serie B with a 30-point penalty – reduced to relegation to Serie B and a 17-point penalty Stripped of last two titles Handed three-match home ban Fined 120,000 euros
Fiorentina Relegated to Serie B with a 12 point penalty – remain in Serie A with 19 point penalty Deducted 30 points from their 2005-06 tally Handed three-match home ban Fined 100,000 euros
Lazio Relegated to Serie B with a 7 point penalty – remain in Serie A with 11 point penalty Deducted 30 points from their 2005-06 tally Handed two-match home ban Fined 100,000 euros
Milan Deducted 44 points from 2005-06 tally – reduced to 30 points from their 2005-06 tally Remain in Serie A with a 15-point penalty – reduced to an 8-point penalty Handed one-match home ban Fined 100,000 euros
Qualify for 3rd round Champions League subject to UEFA acceptance.
Club officials Luciano Moggi (ex-Juventus) banned for five years Antonio Giraudo (ex-Juventus) banned for five years Adriano Galliani (Milan) banned for nine months Leonardo Meani (ex-Milan) banned for two years and six months Andrea Della Valle (Fiorentina) banned for three years Diego Della Valle (Fiorentina) banned for three years Sandro Mencucci (Fiorentina) banned for two years and six months Claudio Lotito (Lazio) banned for two years and six months
FIGC officials Franco Carraro (ex-President) fined 80,000 euros Innocenzo Mazzini (ex-Vice-President) banned for five years
Referees and officials Tullio Lanese banned for two years and six months Pierluigi Pairetto banned for three years Gennaro Mazzei banned for six months Pietro Ingargiola cautioned Massimo De Santis banned for four years Paolo Dondarini cleared Gianluca Paparesta banned for three months Fabrizio Babini banned for six months Claudio Puglisi banned for six months”
Channel 4
The Reaction
“Juventus' former general manager Luciano Moggi and other club executives were found guilty of conspiring with referees and linesmen to rig games during the 2004-05 season.
Italy's system of 'sporting justice' offers one more level of appeal for the club, the Chamber of Arbitration of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), before they can turn to a civil court
"It would have been OK to have Serie A with penalty points and maybe one, not two, of our titles revoked and they shouldn't have removed us from the Champions League," said Cobolli Gigli of Juventus.
Of the four clubs charged, only AC Milan, who had their sentence reduced allowing them to play in the qualifying round of the Champions League next season, have said they will not be appealing the decision.”
The Guardian
Giovanni Cobolli Gigli, the president of Juventus, was equally pugnacious. “We are very disappointed and we refuse to be turned into scapegoats,” he said. “We don’t understand why we’ve been treated more harshly than everybody else. You can be sure that we will appeal in the strongest possible terms. We owe it to our fans and to our shareholders.”
The scandal — the biggest in the history of Italian football — centred on what prosecutors called a “pathological web of influence-peddling” skilfully manoeuvred by Luciano Moggi, the former general manager of Juventus.
With the support of the highest echelons of the Italian FA, as well as an array of agents and journalists, Moggi effectively controlled a number of referees, promising career advancement to those officials who favoured his club and “punishing” others with relegation to minor matches and lower leagues. Fiorentina, Lazio and Milan had faced lesser charges and the court was persuaded that their misdeeds were a means of sel####efence against Moggi’s “system”.”
The Times
But the cut on appeal has met with an angry reaction around Italy. "This is not a hard punishment, this is a bland punishment," said Alessandro Vocalelli, the editor of the Corriere dello Sport. "This is a message that nothing happened but actually a lot happened - the biggest scandal in Italian football happened, and lots of referees and individuals got banned for five years."
With only the tapped phone calls as evidence, much wrongdoing is a question of interpretation. The evidence on Lazio, for example, points at one disputed game.
Rules of the Italian Code of Sporting Justice only require the clubs to appear to be trying to fix a game. No actual evidence of money changing hands is needed to condemn them.
Oddly, a delegation from the Turkish football league were in Rome yesterday, to observe how the Italians had dealt with their probe and to make recommendations to the Turkish FA. Denizlispor are accused of rigging a game last season to avoid relegation. "An inquest will be held," promised Kemal Kapulluoglu, the Turkish FA's vice-president”.
The Daily Telegraph
My Take
Juventus is very lucky still to be in any league let alone getting away with relegation to Serie B and a 17-point penalty. The level of manipulation grossly exceeded that of Genoa at the end of the 2004/05 season and they were demoted the equivalent of two divisions to Serie C given that their promotion to Serie A was rightfully annulled. They have got off very lightly.
Fiorentina and Lazio’s original sentences – in comparison to Juventus and I stress the words in comparison – seemed overly harsh to me. The appeal verdicts do not seem out of line however.
It seems commonly accepted that in Milan’s case there was no systematic attempt to influence games on an on-going basis. In fact, their “attempt” was a bit comical given that the focus was on an assistant referee. A sort of poor-man’s attempt compared to Moggi. Perhaps it could be argued – actually it was argued – that the penalty deduction was too high. Maybe – but I do not believe they should have been reinstated to the Champions League and I hope that UEFA refuse to accept their nomination.
In terms of perception the reduction of sentencing on appeal gives the overall impression that the four teams involved have been let off lightly – and in some cases they have. However, if the original sentences had held up we would heard and read less furour.
One last thing. When posting comments please keep to the facts and away from hatemongering, stereotypical comments and overall ignorance. As one poster pointed out, there are many other juvenile boards that you can post ill-conceived and hateful rhetoric on - so smarten up or my finger will gravitate to the delete button.
No nation or league should consider what has happened in Italy as unique to that country. Dig deep enough and ever country has their skeletons.
The verdict is due very soon but Gazzetta dello Sport reported this morning that the sanctions will be:
Relegated to Serie B and docked points for 06/07 - Juventus, (docked 20 points) Fiorentina (docked 7 points) and Lazio (docked 10 points)
AC Milan to remain in Serie A but excluded from the Champions League and docked 10 to 15 points for 06/07 season.
I will not be surprised if these are the sanctions or something very close. With a 20 point deduction it is the equivalent of demotion to Serie C.
The ramifications are extensive and the impact long term.
The sale of players will take a number of Italian players to other leagues. Traditionally Italian players do not play in other leagues. Vialli, Zola and Di Matteo (Chelsea) are probably the highest profile Italian players to make a living in another league. Di Vaio, Viera, Corradi are either border line or past their best.
Loss of revenue to the clubs and Serie A in general. I saw one estimate - from a reliable and credible journalist - that the loss to Juventus over a three year period (before they could return to Europe ) of close to $500M. That also takes into consideration the required firesale of players e.g. paid around $20M for Patrick Vieira but will be lucky to get $5M tomorrow.
The over supply of quality players will further depress the transfer market and impacts all teams in Europe. Manchester United is rumoured to want $15M for a 30 year-old Ruud Van Nistelrooy - will they get that when you might be able to pick up a 26 yesar old David Trezeguet for maybe half of that.
The quality of Italian teams in the Champions League will be less which means less money flowing to Serie A and an opportunity for other European leagues to fill the vacuum.
I am sure there are more. If you support an Italian team - and particularly one of the four - how do you see it impacting your team. For supporters of other teams how do you think the verdicts will affect your team.
And last but not least will Inter now win Serie A!
Henry Winter says that Alan Shearer will be Steve McClaren’s assistant.
Argentine World Cup winner Ossi Ardilles believes it is time to drop David Beckham. An idea that I think is absolutely daft but perhaps more on that later.
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
Thank you to all who take time to visit this blog and especially to those of you who post your comments and thoughts.
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