Liverpool's travel agents are under duress today, with the news that the Reds' Champions League date at Atletico Madrid next week is moving to a neutral venue thanks to the Spanish club's racist fans.
UEFA is ordering that their next two matches take place at a neutral venue "at least 200 miles from Madrid" after their pathetic performance when hosting Marseille: chants of "monkey" were aimed at Marseille's African players, and then Atletico fans decided to gild their own lily and attack the French side's bus as it left the stadium.
Of course, the game's next Wednesday, but UEFA still hasn't sorted out a venue. Wouldn't it be nice if they could figure out this stuff more than 10 days beforehand, and maybe sort out the neutral venue before making such an announcement?
Here at UF, we poke a lot of fun at UEFA and FIFA. They're run by two rather astounding idiots whose thoughts, soundbites and actions suggest that they should be living the rest of their days in padded rooms rather than running the big governing machines of our favourite sport.
However, they're absolutely right to punish the Spanish club for its loutish fans, perhaps a bit more expediency would have been nice? The match happened two weeks ago!
LFC chief executive Rick Parry spearheads the mass disgruntlement: "To say the decision is a bit late in the day, is to put it mildly. We are extremely concerned for our supporters, the vast majority of whom have already made travel arrangements. If the match is played at least 300 kilometres from Madrid, it will cause major disruption, inconvenience and large additional expense for our fans. Uefa have to take their needs into account when making a final decision on the game."
And he's quite right, too! After all, as if stealing and forging one round trip plane ticket wasn't hard enough, several Scousers might need to repeat the process.
Chairman of the LFC Supporters' Club, Richie Pedder, also chimed in: "It is an utterly ridiculous decision so late in the day. We probably have three to four thousand fans going out to Madrid for the match. The flights will have been booked, the hotels will have been arranged, and now it's in tatters. What are they supposed to do now? I guess we're left with two options - change the destination of where the fans are flying in to, or to arrange coaches or some other form of transport from Madrid to wherever the new venue will be. But who does that? Uefa? The club? The fans themselves through the travel agents? It's a mess."
It also robs the fixture of the obvious Disney-esque storyline of Fernando Torres returning to his old club, where he'd surely score a brace before half-time and end up being resoundingly booed off under a volley of offensive epithets. Pepe Reina's dad also played for Atletico back in the 70s, and he too is robbed of his different sort of homecoming, one that almost certainly no Atletico fan is aware of.
To recap: UEFA makes a good decision in the heavy fine and punishment of Atletico, which wasn't limited to two CL games at a neutral site:
- a fine of 150,000 euros
- a two-match ban for coach Javier Aguirre, who also joined in the "monkey" comments after the Marseille game. Aguirre is "banned from the sidelines, the tunnel, and the dressing room, and is forbidden from communicating with his team" for the LFC match and the PSV Eindhoven CL match on November 4th.
If it were me, I'd punish them more. The seething hatred between football fans from different teams seems to be spilling over a lot more as of late, as evidenced recently by the Croat fans on Heskey and the Dynamo fans on Louis Crayton -- not to mention that we've been here before with Spanish football fans in general -- and it has to stop somewhere. I'm glad UEFA is putting their foot down and punishing these clubs heavily for their fanbase. I hope Serie A is their next target (damn Lazio).
However, as with most things UEFA, they royally fuck up the implementation of their plan. After all, these matches need to be played at venues big enough in size or equal to Atletico's current stadium capacity, don't they? (Their home, Vicente Calderon Stadium, holds 54,000) Otherwise we face the hilarity of an LFC/Atletico tie at a 2nd Division Portuguese stadium, although I don't think there's anywhere in Portugal that's more than 200 miles from Madrid.
I hope LFC's fans are able to sort out their travel mess. You know Atletico's racism will make the trip, which begs the question: maybe the Liverpool fans can sort out that mess too?
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Spanish racists ruin Liverpudlian jaunt to the mainland
Scotland Round Up
Yeah, I didn't get to this last week. The pain of seeing my club go bottom of the SPL precluded me from writing about it. Even Rangers shit-the-bed performance against previously last place St. Mirren couldn't rouse me to write about the SPL. That was pretty funny, though. Also, I will not be talking about the Scotland NT's performance against Norway. Suffice it to say that I was cheering in my living room before I had to stare blankly at my computer screen. "Why aren't they celebrating?" is the nicest way to put what went though my head.
Instead, I'll be looking at the different divisions of the SFL. I hope they don't disappoint me as well. I'd hate to have to start writing Highland League updates and explaining the difference between Junior and Senior clubs. Again.
In the First Division, two team are tied on points at the top. Queen of the South and Livingston both have 18 points after nine games. QotS, though, are clear leaders at this points, having a much better goal differential (+11 to +2). The reason? Queens slaughtered Livingston last week in their first head to head matchup, 6-1. Ouch.
The three SFL leagues all have 10 teams a league, and each team plays a double home and home with each other club. That's a fancy way of saying that each club has now played every other club in their league once. Close behind the two First Division leaders are Dunfermline, Partick Thistle and St Johnstone. Greenock Morton sits in last place, five points adrift of the ninth place squad.
Division Two sees Brechin City at the top by one point over Ayr United. Just off the pace are Raith Rovers and MJD's favorite place name, Peterhead. Not a lot to talk about there, excapt for the so far non-challenge put up by East Fife. There were pundits before the season who said that East Fife would pull off a double promotion with ease. Right now, they sit seven points back, due to some horrible home form. Four points in five games at Bayview will keep you midpack, or worse.
In Division Three, Stenhousemuir have gotten out to a blazing start. Undefeated through nine, they hold a strong five point lead over Dumbarton. Annan Athletic, the new team to the SFL, started the season off in a flyer. They have since come back to earth, losing their last three league matches. The match of the season, so far, for entertainment values, has to be Elgin City hosting Albion Rovers on September 20. The hosts picked up three red cards (one straight, two cumulative yellows), gave up six goals, but never gave up hope. In the 88th minute, down five goals and down to eight men, Elgin City's Darren Shallicker scored. Of course, Albion scored right back, but that's beside the point. Elgin City, somehow, sit bottom of the Third Division table.
Finally, for those that miss the SPL coverage, well I don't have anything for you. What I do have is a new SPL map from BillSportsMaps. Enjoy.
Millwall Moz
Apparently song-writing extraordinaire and L.A resident Morrissey is a Millwall fan! The former Smiths man has been spotted in Los Angeles sporting a new Millwall shirt and apparently he will be at the New Den on Saturday for the League 1 side's home clash with Leeds.
The Moz is good pals with Millwall's assistant boss Joe Gallen who sent him his very own shirt featuring the number '9' and the name 'Mobster' on the back. I am not in the least bit surprised at this news as Morrissey and depression go hand in hand and there is NOTHING more depressing than a Saturday afternoon in Bermondsey.
Possible Morrissey/Millwall re-releases...
- Hand in Glove (someone else's)
- Everyday is like Saturday
- Police officer on fire
- Sister I'm a skin head
- Lost
- Do your best and worry
- I am hated for cheering
- Blues fan in a coma
- Shoplifters of the Den unite
- Heaven knows I'm miserable now
- First of the gang to die
- Interesting thug
- Disappointed
- Now my car is full
- Dagenham Dave's dead
- Trouble loves me
- Stop me if you've punched this one before
If you can think of any more, leave them in the comments.
- Bigus.
Arteta for England!
Is Mikel Arteta the answer for England? A bunch of Evertonians certainly think so. Arteta is eligible to play for Capello's men from January 2010. An on-line Facebook group is up and running to support the campaign.
Twenty five year old Arteta has only played for his native Spain at under 21 level, making him eligible to play for England after he becomes a British citizen at the start of 2010. Another Spaniard considering such a switch of nationality is Arsenal stopper Maunuel Almunia, who is eligible for British citizenship in 2009.
Bigus.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Monday Backpasses: Lots of "Boo"s in today's headlines
Picture of the day from this SI article. Shows Switzerland training near an uninterested onlooker.
Vancouver Whitecaps win USL-1 title 2-1 over Puerto Rico Islanders [Canadian Press]
Refereeing controversy in MLS? [Soccer America]
Scotland's friendly with Argentina will not see Messi. Or many other good Argies, for that matter [Sky Sports]
Alright, that's it. We're all booed out.
Can Someone Do More Than Ban Him?
Know what's hysterical?
Racial epithets. Seriously. Try it. Walk up the next black person you see and call him the N-word. Or if that's a skosh much for you, maybe just call him a 'spearchucker' or 'jungle bunny.' Hilarity will ensue.
Ridiculous right? Well, that's what happened to DC United keeper Louis Crayton—not the hilarity, just the epithet—after the team's scoreless draw against the Dynamo in Houston last night (Sunday). Somehow Crayton, a native of Liberia, kept enough composure to respond to the offender in a rational manner instead of maybe dismembering him. Crayton recounts: "It is so sad that he would say that to me," Crayton said. "I am saying hi to the fans and he walked up to me and told me, 'Hey, you're a monkey, go back to the jungle.' I told him, 'Hey, you can't say that to me. I am not a monkey, I am a human being like you.' I jumped over to ask him why he insulted me, and he kept going."
The person in question was escorted from the grounds by Robertson Stadium officials and banned from Dynamo games indefinitely. It's a pretty sorry event. And if there is any silver lining it's that it didn't escalate into anything violent.
As a fan of football—not to mention a human in general—this is disappointing to say the least. For all the positive aspects of the game we're trying to import from around the world, racism isn't on the list and shouldn't be tolerated. Assuming this is all accurate, anything the Dynamo or MLS can do beyond simply banning this person it totally cool with us.
How Do You Say "Boo Hoo" in German?
As if the Cole saga and the Kris Boyd moaning weren't enough, it appears that Poor/Afflicted Footballer Syndrome has reached the mainland, and in particular, the German national team.
Kevin Kuranyi, the prolific 26-year-old Bundesliga striker (84 goals in 202 games is decent, right?), was a little disgruntled about being omitted from the 18-man squad for the World Cup qualifier against Russia over the weekend, so much so that he upped and left at half-time.
The end result? Manager Joachim Low doesn't want him back as long as he's in charge.
Here's hoping young Kevin feels good about his decision in the long-term. He didn't get picked for one game, and now he's out of the running for any future Germany games? Sure, it's predicated upon Low being in charge, but do you think any future coach is going to feel enamored to pick this malcontent?
Reports suggested that Kuranyi was about to retire from international duty shortly, but it's the classic "You can't quit... you're fired!" routine as Low beat him to the punch:
"As a coach, you have got to make decisions like this and you expect that some are hurt or disappointed, but that is my job and the players have got to accept it. It would have been advisable for him to come and talk to me or one of my colleagues. But none of us knew what had happened - we just sat on the bus and waited for him. I am disappointed with the way he acted. I can understand his disappointment, but he should not overreact - that is not right."Kuranyi's having a tough season, but it doesn't excuse such petulant behavior. Germany are having a difficult time finding strikers who can score goals (something I thought England were struggling with, although not recently!), but he would have had another turn sooner or later. Klose couldn't score a goal if the posts were a mile apart, so it was merely a matter of time until the Wheel of Fortune landed on him again.
And yet, it wasn't enough for ol' Kevin, and now he's going to have plenty of spare time not helping his country to win their first significant tournament since 1996.
So, another sob story invades the news landscape. Who's next: Karim Benzema? Someone Portuguese? Antonio Cassano pulling a gun on Marcelo Lippi?
Read more on "How Do You Say "Boo Hoo" in German?"...
Carlos Tevez has bigger problems than fitting into the 4-3-3
Carlos Tevez has had a slow, gentle start to the season, much like the rest of his teammates. 8th place after 7 weeks is a little lower than they'd like to be, as is Tevez' strikerate of 1 goal in his first 9 games for the Red Devils in 2008/09.
And yet, as with most things Mancunian, they have a tendency to even out over time, and you just know they'll be fine. Despite the endless fun we poke at their underwhelming campaign to date, but we know they'll get back on track, charming their way into the title hunt. Heck, they'll probably win the whole thing.
For Carlos Tevez' brother, it's another story entirely. Being arrested for attempted robbery will do that to you.
From the Daily Mail:"Juan Alberto Martinez, 29 - the United and Argentina star's older half-brother - reportedly was part of a gang of four masked men who attacked a security van at a service station.
Martinez, the older half-brother to Carlos T, ended up with a ton of empty boxes and was eventually arrested in Buenos Aires, while the rest of the gang was rounded up in Cordoba. Interestingly enough, the gang had another lad connected to Tevez: his half-sister's boyfriend.
They allegedly threatened the guards and ran off with their weapons and cash boxes."
There's not much to make fun of here, as invariably these stories come up every once in a while and remind us that yes, there's more to life than soccer. Of course, Carlos isn't implicated or involved in any way, but it's hardly the sort of family matter you wish to be dealing with, is it?
After all, they're hosting West Bromwich Albion this coming weekend!
We've won! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Bigus is not a fan of Ashley Cole. Let's start with that.
In short, I hate him. I think he is a ungracious, spoiled, greedy, two-timing twat. What Cheryl Tweedy sees in him in beyond me! (Ed. Note: Thankfully, his missus is accepting other offers...) I don't want Cole playing for England, but booing any England player after playing a dodgy pass across his own goal while you are winning a game is totally unacceptable and disgraceful.
Until recently I cannot remember the awful booing being a part of England's historical past and NEVER at the old Wembley. It makes me ashamed. Booing away from home has been heard when the team is losing or playing garbage football, but not when they are winning. So why has the new Wembley been filled with boos, even when the team is winning?
When Wembley was being built, the England team traveled the Country. They played at Old Trafford, the Stadium of Light in Sunderland, Elland Road in Leeds, Villa Park in Birmingham, the Walkers Stadium in Leicester, St Mary's in Southampton and they even played on the filthy turf at Portaloo Road. I don't remember booing.
That's because there was none. The traveling England roadshow gave people in different parts of the country a chance to see England, a chance they wouldn't normally be offered. Traveling to London on a Wednesday evening to spend a ridiculous amount of moolah on a game is not really an option when you live in Gateshead and earn a modest living, but the short trip to Sunderland presents an excellent opportunity. What came from England's tour was great support: real fans getting to see their heroes.
What is happening at Wembley is something completely different.
The only real reason for the impatience at Wembley and the expectation of 4-5 goals a game can only be created by casual England fans. Corporate watchers and the wealthy who 'fancy a night out'. They want goals and they want them now. The new Wembley has become a haven for corporate events, the social gathering with clients, the wining and dining and the expected 5 goal entertainment. The facilities at the old Wembley were tat. Not at all ideal for 'sealing the deal' or treating your high-earners. High-earners who may prefer Rugby or Cricket and think that Joe and Ashley Cole are twins.
The tickets at the new Wembley are pricey but the place is full. Last Saturday's game vs. Kazakhstan was a sell-out, and yet there were plenty of empty seats at the end of the first half and at the beginning of the second. The bars must be packed.
You see, watching England at Wembley has become the new 'night at the theatre'. The place is filled with rich casual fans while the real fans shake their head at the cost of attending a game at Wembley AND at the booing that gives them a bad name. If the FA are not careful they will completely isolate real England supporters. I honestly feel ashamed at such behavior. You pay your money and there is nothing wrong with voicing your opinion if the team loses or is having a stinker at half-time, but booing a player for a bad pass is shocking. Even more so do it when the team is up a goal! The Football Association may need to review their ticketing policy if the team is to get the support it genuinely needs to be successful.
- But Bigus, You seem certain it's corporate folk...How so?
If you have ever been to a Cup Final at Wembley, and I was very lucky to go to this year's, you will note that the joint is full of real supporters from the two places competing. Real fans with real passion cheering for success. The atmosphere is electric and the noise for either side tremendous. Spine tingling in fact. Cardiff V Portsmouth doesn't attract the corporate boo boys, but one's Country? Big difference. It also appears to have become trendy to see England play.
Wembley cost a fortune to build and was well over budget. The England team were supposed to get a nice new environment and the supporters a home to be proud of. But that environment appears to have a cost as the F.A look to recoup theirs. 5-1 was the final result on Saturday and that's 3 well earned points but I didn't feel pride afterwards, Just embarrassment.
If the best stadium in the World comes with boos and dispassionate businessmen then I'll take the obstructed views, minuscule leg-room and the nasty loos that the old Wembley offered... gladly.
- Bigus.
Boo Hoo
Kris Boyd (who?) or Billy big boots, made the top story of the BBC home page this Saturday.
Bigus, for one, did NOT appreciate having England's 5-1 victory knocked from the top slot to indulge the selfish whims of an average Scottish footballer (suck it, Boyd).
The Rangers forward made all the headlines this weekend for 'quitting International football'. Why has Sir Billy of large boots decided to shun his country? Because he was not picked to play. Altogether now... AWWWWW, Poor Kris.
Boyd told Scotland manager George Burley of his decision in an voicemail message on Saturday night. Maybe he should have sent a text? I mean, leaving a message takes up more time and you have to be bothered to speak, after waiting for the beep, which could take a whole 5 seconds to arrive depending on your service.
"I left a message on George Burley's phone last night and he hasn't got back to me (not surprisingly). I will not be playing for George Burley again, but I hope to be back in a Scotland jersey again one day." - Kris Boyd.
Boyd is throwing his toys from the pram because Burley left him on the bench for Saturday's World Cup qualifier against Norway at Hampden Park, preferring to bring on Chris Iwelumo in the second half instead.
Burley has responded to Boyd's fit, claiming that Boyd has not established himself in the Rangers team this season and he also questioned Boyd's commitment.
Speaking on Saturday night Burley had this to say...
"I only want people who are totally committed. You have got to show that passion and if you don't want to show it and you want to step out, fine."
He added: "Reputations are in the past. I choose a squad, I look at them play, I look at their attributes, I look at how they show up in training, which is very important, and I look at combinations."
So let's look at Boyd's record and form and see if he is justified in acting like a toddler.
Boyd has 52 goals in 84 games for the Gers (impressive) and 7 in 14 appearances for Scotland, but we all know that current form is the key to International selection. But before we look at his current form compared to that of the player that Burley selected instead of him, lets take a look at his International goalscoring record.
Boyd scored twice against the teachers and shepherds of the Faroe Islands, once against the mighty Georgia, once against Lithuania, twice in a friendly with Bulgaria and once in a friendly with South Africa, 2 of which were penalties. Hardly a record that puts your name at the top of the team sheet is it?
Which brings us to his Rangers form. Boyd has 3 goals this season, two of which were penalties. He has started 5 games. Peter Crouch has scored most of his England goals against lesser opponents also and starts every game for a Premiership club. Do we hear him complaining that he was on the bench this Saturday? What about Defoe? He has 5 goals in 7 Premiership games. Is he quitting his country?
On Saturday, George Burley preferred Wolves forward Chris Iwelumo to Boyd, coming from the bench. Iwelumo has scored 6 goals in the last 8 games and is a major factor in Wolves promotion-place form.
The manager is there for a reason and he picks the side that HE believes is right. Whether or not the players agree is irrelevant; Burley picked his team and Boyd should be happy to be included. It is a privilege to play for your country and one that most footballers dream of, and Boyd's childish behavior is nothing short of pathetic.
Personally, I hope that he's never selected to play for Scotland again. Any player that thinks he is bigger than the team, and Boyd clearly does, is bad news. His attitude alone is detrimental to Scotland's dressing room. Football is a team game; perhaps this very attitude is why he has only started 2 of the last 5 league games for Walter Smith.
I wonder how long it will be before he wants to quit Rangers? Oh that's right, they pay his wages... easy to quit when you play for free.
-Bigus.
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