European Leagues Thread 2012/2013

[sandman]

Atletico Madrid win the Copa Del Rey with a lot of help from the post and Clos Gomez. First time they've beaten Real Madrid this century in a match that resembles a football version of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFIr9kfYI3M

Edit Ronaldo now sent off for kicking thin air as Gabi cleans him out.

[paultheroyal]

Antics of players in this match is nothing short of embarrassing

[JayRoyal]

Why are they showing Eastenders on Sky Sports 1?

[leon]

Atletico Madrid look to be about to win the Copa Del Rey with a lot of help from the post and Clos Gomez. First time they've beaten Real Madrid this century in a match that resembles a football version of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFIr9kfYI3M

Edit Ronaldo now sent off for kicking thin air as Gabi cleans him out.

nah, he caught him in the face. He knew what he was doing, that's why he didn't complain when he was sent off. After all he complained about every other decision.

It was a local derby in a cup final. Tempers were running high - great stuff.

[sandman]

Well having seen the replay it was a red but he didn't catch him and if he did then it was a very slight touch and was nowhere near the level of contact that Gabi was trying to make it out to be.

The (not so) Special one deserved to lose that and leave with nothing from his last season there. He has put his personal fights ahead of his team this season and he has suffered for it.

[soggy biscuit]

ALOLex Song

[Simon's Church]

CLOLassic.

[sandman]

Can't see him being there next season.

[soggy biscuit]

Juventus look like they will shortly be signing highly rated 18 year old Mattheus Oliveira from Flamengo.

The name might not mean much to you but you will remember when his dad celebrated his birth

[RoyalChicagoFC]

Annnnnnd on Sunday, Benfica capped off their trebLOLe

[AthleticoSpizz]

what a fail of a season for Benfica.....nothing like ours

(obligatory)

[soggy biscuit]

Inter captain Javier Zanetti ruptures his achilles tendon which will likely end his career

He turns 40 before the start of next season and Inter had started talks with him about renewing for another year which apparently he was keen on until this happened. Can be up to 9 months out with something like this.

More than 800 appearances for Inter, captained them for the past 14 years, most capped Argentinian with 145 appearances.

Inter give him a 1 year extension, which is quite nice of them.

[soggy biscuit]

Andres Iniesta gives his home town club, Albacete, €240,000 to save them from going bust.

Nice touch

[soggy biscuit]

Falcao has numerous confrontations with opposition in a friendly, ends up kicking the ball into the crowd in frustration and gets subbed.

Following that, his old primary school in Colombia 'reveal' that he is not 27 but is in fact 29.

Great first week for the boy

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Today's Indy :

Exclusive: Real Madrid and Barcelona face removal of privileges
European Commission is examining special status currently enjoyed by Spanish giants
SAM WALLACE

WEDNESDAY 07 AUGUST 2013

Real Madrid and Barcelona could soon be forced by the European Commission to relinquish their privileged status as member-owned clubs and are likely to become plcs, losing one of the key advantages behind their dominance of Spanish football and success in European competition.

In a development that could affect the landscape of European football, The Independent can reveal that the European Commission competition office's four-year investigation into allegations of illegal state aid against both Madrid and Barcelona, linked to their status as membership clubs, is at tipping point.
It is the second EC investigation into Madrid, who are also under scrutiny for a land deal with Madrid city council dating back to 1996 which critics believe constitutes illegal state aid. Both investigations are coming to a head against the backdrop of a summer in which Madrid prepare to break the transfer world record again, with an £80m-plus bid for Gareth Bale.

While Madrid and Barcelona occupy the first two places respectively of the most recent "football money league" of European clubs, published by Deloitte in January, they have been operating under rules which give them significant tax advantages – and are denied to all but two of their rivals.

The membership culture of Spanish football's two biggest clubs is projected as an attractive feature of their constitutions and is often cited by disillusioned fans of Premier League clubs which are in the control of absentee owners. But the ownership structure of Madrid and Barcelona – who have more than 250,000 members between them – masks a gross inequality in the way Spanish football is run.

In 1990, the Spanish Government ruled that all clubs apart from Madrid, Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao and Osasuna were obliged to become limited companies, "Sociedades Anonimas Deportivas" [SAD], and could not be member-owned. The exemption gave the four clubs in question significant advantages in terms of corporation and property tax. It also granted the four a not-for-profit status under Spanish law.

This latest case comes with the first monitoring period for Uefa's financial fair play [FFP] rules completed at the end of last season with potential sanctions for non-compliance to be announced in April.

On Sunday, the Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, described Madrid's bid for Bale, which could exceed the record fee paid for Cristiano Ronaldo four years ago, as making a "joke" of FFP. As Madrid prepare to sign the Tottenham Hotspur player, the Spanish club's finances are under scrutiny by European authorities like never before.
The issue of Madrid and Barcelona's privileged status has proved a major problem for the EC competition office, which has a number of Spanish nationals in prominent positions. Having received the initial complaint in November 2009, it has delayed reaching a decision on the issue despite a regulation one-year deadline.

Now the European Ombudsman has intervened in the matter. The Ombudsman, based in Strasbourg, is an independent adjudicator with power over decisions taken by European institutions. In a letter sent by the Ombudsman's office to the EC president, Jose Manuel Barroso, on 30 May, the former urged that a decision should be made on the case but the commission failed to respond.

In the letter the competition office is criticised for having "failed to comply" with its own deadlines over the Madrid and Barcelona complaint. The Ombudsman says it "is not convinced by any of the commission's explanations for justifying its delay in reaching a decision".

Under its own code of best practice, the EC competition office should reach a decision on "priority cases" – as this Spanish football case was classed – within a year. The EC, when contacted by The Independent, said "the duration of an investigation depends on the complexity of the case and the cooperation with the national authorities in question".

The Ombudsman, in the letter sent to Barroso, also raised concerns by the complainant about EC competition officials with loyalties to Spanish football clubs giving the impression of a potential conflict of interest.

The Ombudsman wrote that the commission "does not provide any explanation capable of dispelling any suspicion of a conflict of interest on behalf of DG COMP [the competition office]". While the Ombudsman did not find evidence that any individual had been caught in a conflict of interest it "strongly emphasises" the need for the office to be seen to be above suspicion.

The head of the EC competition office, Joaquin Almunia, has made no secret of the fact that he is a fan of Bilbao, one of the four exempted clubs. When the competition office was contacted about his allegiance it said that Almunia was committed to fighting illegal state aid and cited a joint statement with Uefa president Michel Platini last year claiming their aims were the same on the issue.

A spokeswoman for the EC competition office also said that it was "in contact with the Ombudsman" over the issue of Madrid and Barcelona's member-owned status and expected "to take a position as regards state aid to professional sport in the near future". She added "the commission is looking at the situation of this [sic] clubs at a preliminary stage", although under EC rules this has apparently passed any preliminary status.

The enforced conversion to plcs of any club that is promoted into the Spanish second-tier Segunda Division continues to wreak havoc on the fortunes of small clubs in Spain. Guadalajara, a club from the Castile-La Mancha region, have been relegated back to the third tier, Segunda B, as a sanction for irregularities linked to their plc conversion, which requires €2m (£1.7m) of capital .

The Madrid club Alcorcon also face problems over their plc/SAD conversion and will learn this week whether they are to be relegated to the third tier despite finishing fifth in the Segunda Division last season.

Mirandes, another Segunda Division team, went through the same process. Their supporters wrote to Uefa to protest about the "insecurity, doubt and social distrust" caused by losing control of their club.

[Sanguine]

Highlighted by the Daily Mail - including their development squads playing in Serie B and Serie C, Parma have 226 (yes, 226!) registered players, including 109 out on loan. And I thought Chelsea were collecting players!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parma_F.C.#Players

I hope they are paying their accountant well.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... amuel.html

[sandman]

Barcelona aided by the referee against Sevilla.

Real Madrid saved by Diego Lopez in fortunate 2-2 against Villareal in which Bale scored on debut. On a side note, even by La Liga standards Villareal's Mexican international Javier Aquino could give Tom Daley a run for his money.

[Wax Jacket]

Today's Indy :

Exclusive: Real Madrid and Barcelona face removal of privileges
European Commission is examining special status currently enjoyed by Spanish giants
SAM WALLACE

WEDNESDAY 07 AUGUST 2013

Real Madrid and Barcelona could soon be forced by the European Commission to relinquish their privileged status as member-owned clubs and are likely to become plcs, losing one of the key advantages behind their dominance of Spanish football and success in European competition (continues)

interesting

good use of the EU's time and position IMHO

[sandman]

In La Liga news Karim Benzema is a fat, useless, waste of skin.

[soggy biscuit]

Reading a Serie A roundup last night I saw Gervinho referred to as 'the early season stand out player' which had me double checking the person they were referring to.

He plays on the wing for Roma and scored twice for them yesterday as they went top of the league