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The Real Football Thread

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Optimistic that the World Cup may one day be hosted again by England if FIFA are finally interested in tournament profit rather than the backhanded bribes of recent tournaments, especially as English football generates some of the biggest sponsorship revenue in the game.

Almost criminal it will be 64 years without hosting a World Cup by the time 2030 comes around, we already have the stadiums, training facilities and public infrastructure already in place.
 
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-nine-years-in-u-s-prison?srnd=premium-europe

To his lawyers, he was a man who did hundreds of good deeds, including paying for his chauffeur’s knee surgery. But U.S. prosecutors said former South American soccer boss Juan Angel Napout sometimes moved illicit cash by dispatching his personal driver on 15-hour trips from Buenos Aires to Asuncion, Paraguay.

Napout, 60, a Paraguayan who was president of CONMEBOL, the governing body for South America’s soccer, as well as a vice president of FIFA, international soccer’s governing association, was sentenced to nine years in prison on Wednesday after being convicted by a U.S. jury of getting $3.4 million in bribes and soliciting almost $25 million.
...
Napout portrayed himself publicly as an agent of reform who tried to change CONMEBOL, which was plagued by years of corruption. But prosecutors argued that as soon as he joined the Paraguayan soccer association in 2010, Napout began taking bribes and collected perks like a $40,000 seaside vacation condo and more than $10,000 worth of tickets to a Paul McCartney concert.

"He entered sports to make money when he had more than enough," prosecutor Kristin Mace said. "Napout led by example at CONMEBOL and FIFA; he led colleagues and subordinates to believe that bribe-taking was common practice."
...
Alejandro Burzaco, chief of sports-marketing company Torneos y Competencias SA, testified he paid at least 30 soccer bosses more than $160 million to secure broadcasting rights to South American tournaments and World Cup matches in 2026 and 2030. A former Citigroup Inc. banker, Burzaco testified that Napout was among at least six soccer officials who accepted payoffs.

Jose Hawilla, the founder of Traffic Sports International Inc. who was caught lying to the U.S. in 2013, agreed to secretly record conversations for the Federal Bureau of Investigation for more than a year. Hawilla described paying bribes to multiple officials, dating to the 1990s.
 
https://www.dw.com/en/fifa-probe-switzerland-suspends-top-economic-crime-prosecutor/a-46224999
The head of Switzerland's business crime division at the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has been suspended over allegations of a possibly criminal nature, the office said on Friday, confirming a report by the Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger.

The OAG said Olivier Thormann was suspended last week amid allegations concerning his conduct in the investigation of suspected corruption at world soccer FIFA.

"The information on which this decision is based is related to the OAG's criminal proceedings in the field of soccer and its governing body, FIFA," the office said in a statement, adding that the allegations had come to the OAG's attention at the end of September.

It said the information received "may be of criminal relevance," without giving further details or naming specific charges. It called the suspension a standard precautionary measure and said Thormann enjoyed the presumption of innocence.

The OAG said the allegations had nothing to do with a probe launched earlier this week against Rinaldo Arnold, a lower-level prosecutor who is a personal friend of FIFA chief Gianni Infantino. The Tages-Anzeiger reported last week that Arnold, who has not been involved in the FIFA probe, had organized meetings between the Swiss attorney general and Infantino.

FIFA remains the target of a corruption investigation that has been ongoing since the arrest of top football officials on the eve of the 2015 FIFA Congress in Zurich. US prosecutors have charged more than 40 entities and individuals in connection with the probe.
 
https://www.dw.com/en/fifa-president-attempting-to-sell-entire-fifa-rights-reports/a-46336713
FIFA President Gianni Infantino is planning to completely sell all of the sporting federation's major rights to a consortium with links to Saudi Arabia, two German media outlets reported on Friday.

A joint investigation between daily Süddeutsche Zeitung and public broadcaster WDR found Infantino had been lying about the intentions of a planned $25 billion (€22.5 billion) deal.

The deal was supposedly meant to deliver two new tournament formats to the new investors, but would also hand over complete rights to the Football World Cup, satellite and network transmissions, archives, movies and videos, video games and merchandising.

This would essentially leave FIFA as a hollow shell, while Infantino would lead the new organization.
 
At the beginning of the season i had a lot of expectations on Tottenham, i even tought that they could have won their group in Champions League against a declining Barça and a shadow of former self Inter.
Maybe they have suffered Eriksen and Alli injuries and that affected also Kane numbers but they are already eight point down in Premier League and they risk to end up in Europa League if they are going to lose the final game.
 
Re:

Nirvana said:
At the beginning of the season i had a lot of expectations on Tottenham, i even tought that they could have won their group in Champions League against a declining Barça and a shadow of former self Inter.
Maybe they have suffered Eriksen and Alli injuries and that affected also Kane numbers but they are already eight point down in Premier League and they risk to end up in Europa League if they are going to lose the final game.
why?
so many players playing nearly all of the world cup, so a really messed up pre-season and underdone squad,
no real 'fresh faces' beyond Moura, who's now not really producing much,
still playing all their games "away" while the predictable delays hit the new stadium,
plenty of injuries in the early part of the season that they didn't have before...
could be argued they overachieved last season,
they were never going to be particularly high flying this season
 
Re: Re:

Archibald said:
Nirvana said:
At the beginning of the season i had a lot of expectations on Tottenham, i even tought that they could have won their group in Champions League against a declining Barça and a shadow of former self Inter.
Maybe they have suffered Eriksen and Alli injuries and that affected also Kane numbers but they are already eight point down in Premier League and they risk to end up in Europa League if they are going to lose the final game.
why?
so many players playing nearly all of the world cup, so a really messed up pre-season and underdone squad,
no real 'fresh faces' beyond Moura, who's now not really producing much,
still playing all their games "away" while the predictable delays hit the new stadium,
plenty of injuries in the early part of the season that they didn't have before...
could be argued they overachieved last season,
they were never going to be particularly high flying this season
Because I think they are a very strong team with some bright talents and in most cases they are still relatively young and with room to improve, they don't need a number of new players. In my personal "starting grid" for Champions League they were in the second row with Citizens, just behind PSG and Juvetus. This is a transitional year with Real Madrid that decided to add themselves to Barça and Bayern among the declining big powers of recent seasons, it's something to be expected seeing someone "new" going far in the competition.

If the World Cup is messing their season there is something wrong, per FIFA rules every player should have a 30 days break between the end of a season and the start of the new one, who goes all the way to the end of the World Cup should start the preparation for the new season later but by mid/late September you are fit and ready to play at a good level even if you started training in mid August. Every big team has plenty of players at the World Cup or continental championships every even year and are able to manage the delayed start of preparation.
 
Re: Re:

Nirvana said:
Archibald said:
Nirvana said:
At the beginning of the season i had a lot of expectations on Tottenham, i even tought that they could have won their group in Champions League against a declining Barça and a shadow of former self Inter.
Maybe they have suffered Eriksen and Alli injuries and that affected also Kane numbers but they are already eight point down in Premier League and they risk to end up in Europa League if they are going to lose the final game.
why?
so many players playing nearly all of the world cup, so a really messed up pre-season and underdone squad,
no real 'fresh faces' beyond Moura, who's now not really producing much,
still playing all their games "away" while the predictable delays hit the new stadium,
plenty of injuries in the early part of the season that they didn't have before...
could be argued they overachieved last season,
they were never going to be particularly high flying this season
Because I think they are a very strong team with some bright talents and in most cases they are still relatively young and with room to improve, they don't need a number of new players. In my personal "starting grid" for Champions League they were in the second row with Citizens, just behind PSG and Juvetus. This is a transitional year with Real Madrid that decided to add themselves to Barça and Bayern among the declining big powers of recent seasons, it's something to be expected seeing someone "new" going far in the competition.

If the World Cup is messing their season there is something wrong, per FIFA rules every player should have a 30 days break between the end of a season and the start of the new one, who goes all the way to the end of the World Cup should start the preparation for the new season later but by mid/late September you are fit and ready to play at a good level even if you started training in mid August. Every big team has plenty of players at the World Cup or continental championships every even year and are able to manage the delayed start of preparation.
I'd say that the world cup issue is more about the disruption to the pre-season, through the majority of your first team squad absent, than their fitness. Nearly all pre-season was the seconds and kids...
If they didn't have all the issues mentioned above, they'd be doing far better at the moment, though
 
I've just watched the "derby d'Italia" that i've registered yesterday.
Juventus still playing with half gas and is enough to beat everyone when they don't have defensive blackout like against Genoa or the final minutes against UTD, this year i've seen them going deep only three times (against Valencia after Ronaldo red card, against Napoli in the second half and against UTD excluding the aforementioned final minutes). Yestarday Chiellini was monumental, he deflected almost every ball in Juventus area, i've never seen him so dominant.
The only weak point of Juve is Cancelo, having him is like playing with three defenders and an additional winger and even when he tries to defend he's really bad, i wonder why they didn't try him in a more advanced role.

Now i'm watching Chelsea Vs. Manchester City with the former surprising in the lead at half time. Anyway Premier looks always wonderful after watching the boring Serie A.
 
I hate, as an Interista, how good Chiellini is. That being said, Koulibaly is the best defender and the third best player in the league behind CR7 and Dybala IMO.

De Sciglio is also not really that great of a player and Juve were far stronger with Alves/Lichtsteiner & Sandro than the starting full backs they had this Friday. I hate it, but Juve is such a well run club.

PL is a treat this year because Liverpool has had such excellent results and the wealth of coaching is really there right now. 7-8 of the world's top ten coaches are in England. I hope the title race stays alive for a while too.
 
Inter has a great pair of centre back with Skriniar and De Vrij and also a good third one in Miranda when needed, if i were a Juventus fan i would swap without any doubt one of them with Bonucci and the same with Albiol if i were a Napoli fan. Bonucci is another one that if i were a coach i would try in a more advanced role, he has good skills, an incredible long range pass but when he has to defend he often makes mistakes here and there, a lot of (not many) goals conceded by Juventus come from Bonucci mistakes.

The problem of Inter IMHO is Spalletti and his choices, Perisic is awful this year but he didn't bench him, he has a fixation for 4-2-3-1, he wanted at any coast Nainggolan that is a smoker and an alcoholic and he stays more in discos and pubs than on the pitch to train, not to mention the fact that to buy him they were forced to not retain Rafinha and to sell young talents like Zaniolo and Pinamonti along with others from "Primavera". He's lucky that other teams like Lazio and Roma are having subpar seasons and that covers a bit Inter problems (last year they were with ten more points after the 15th round, an huge difference).
 
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Re:

Nirvana said:
Inter has a great pair of centre back with Skriniar and De Vrij and also a good third one in Miranda when needed, if i were a Juventus fan i would swap without any doubt one of them with Bonucci and the same with Albiol if i were a Napoli fan. Bonucci is another one that if i were a coach i would try in a more advanced role, he has good skills, an incredible long range pass but when he has to defend he often makes mistakes here and there, a lot of (not many) goals conceded by Juventus come from Bonucci mistakes.

The problem of Inter IMHO is Spalletti and his choices, Perisic is awful this year but he didn't bench him, he has a fixation for 4-2-3-1, he wanted at any coast Nainggolan that is a smoker and an alcoholic and he stays more in discos and pubs than on the pitch to train, not to mention the fact that to buy him they were forced to not retain Rafinha and to sell young talents like Zaniolo and Pinamonti along with others from "Primavera". He's lucky that other teams like Lazio and Roma are having subpar seasons and that covers a bit Inter problems (last year they were with ten more points after the 15th round, an huge difference).
True, I had the same idea last year at Milan when they already had Romagnoli and Musacchio as CBs, but no proper playmaker, having him play in a more advanced role before the defence could have solved a decent amount of problems.
 
Putting Bonucci in the middle of a back 3 allows him to play a libero playmaking role. That's his ideal position.

I love Nianggolan though, but he doesn't really fit in the 4-2-3-1 system perfectly. Because he's such a box-to-box player he should play in a 4-3-3 or something similar. I agree that Rafinha would have been a much better fit. He was only there briefly but boy was he good. Balde and Politano should be the first choice wingers btw.
 
Napoli should complain with themselves, the 0-0 with Crvena Zvedza and the goal conceded in the extra time in Paris were decisive, but IMHO they overperfomed (maybe Ancelotti effect), no one would have betted on them in a group against PSG and Liverpool.
But the elimination could be a blessing in disguise, if they'll go to Europa League with the right mindset they can win, and will be huge for them, the last time they won something there was Maradona.

Looking to last 16 draw between the first four groups seconds we have Atlético, Tottenham and Liverpool. We could have already in February something like Barcelona Vs. Liverpool, Juventus Vs. Atlético and Real Vs. Tottenham, and if Bayern will lose tomorrow will be also second of his group.
 
Re:

Nirvana said:
Napoli should complain with themselves, the 0-0 with Crvena Zvedza and the goal conceded in the extra time in Paris were decisive, but IMHO they overperfomed (maybe Ancelotti effect), no one would have betted on them in a group against PSG and Liverpool.
But the elimination could be a blessing in disguise, if they'll go to Europa League with the right mindset they can win, and will be huge for them, the last time they won something there was Maradona.

Looking to last 16 draw between the first four groups seconds we have Atlético, Tottenham and Liverpool. We could have already in February something like Barcelona Vs. Liverpool, Juventus Vs. Atlético and Real Vs. Tottenham, and if Bayern will lose tomorrow will be also second of his group.

Well you could have been able to tell that about both Liverpool and PSG too, had one of them been eliminated. Liverpool specially were a complete shambles away from home. Midfield filled with hard runners with no creativity and unable to recreate the intensity of Anfield in away games, they were hugely lucky to scrape through on home form alone.

Agree that there will almost certainly be some mouthwatering fixtures already in the first knock-out round. Will be intresting to see how the incoming VAR will influence the playoffs, as the last few seasons have been completely dominated by scandalous refereeing mistakes.
 
So after the end of group stage we have:

*Pot 1: Borussia Dortmund, Barça, PSG, Porto, Bayern, Man. City, Real, Juventus.
*Pot 2: Atlético Madrid, Tottenham, Liverpool, Schalke, Ajax, Olympique Lyonnais, Roma, Man. UTD.

*UEL: Club Brugge, Inter, Napoli, Galatasaray, Benfica, Shakhtar, Viktoria Plzeň, Valencia.


I've tried to make a draw using one of the sites that provides random draws that's the result:

Porto Vs. Roma
Barça Vs. Olympique Lyonnais
Bayern Vs. Man. UTD
Man. City Vs. Schalke
Borussia Dortmund Vs. Liverpool
Real Vs. Tottenham
Juventus Vs. Ajax
PSG Vs. Atlético Madrid
 

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