Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Friday, May 2nd, 2008
When many European Football Leagues have not yet finished, specially in Eastern countries there are 10 clubs already qualified for the first phase of the competition and 21 clubs also qualified for the preliminary phase. The 10 clubs already qualified for the first phase of the competition are: Real Madrid (Spain), Bayern Munich (Germany), Manchester United and Chelsea (England), Internazionale and Rome (Italy), Olympique Lyon and Girondins Bordeaux (France), Porto (Portugal) and PSV Eindhoven (Holland). Another 5 clubs will join the above 10 as soon as their national leagues finished: 1 club from the following countries: Spain, Germany, Greece, Portugal and Russia.The 21 clubs already qualified for the preliminary phase of the competition are: Arsenal and Liverpool (England), Juventus (Italy), Sparta Prague and Slavia Prague (Czech Republic), CFR 1907 Cluj and Steaua Bucarest (Rumania), Shakhtar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev (Ukraine), Standard Liege (Belgium), FC Santa Coloma (Andorra), Rapid Vienna (Austria), CSKA Sofia (Bulgaria), Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyprus), Lanelli AFC (Wales), Dinamo Tiblisi (Georgia), Linfield Belfast (North Ireland), F91 Dudelange (Luxembourg), Valetta FC (Malta) and Wisla Krakow (Poland). But still other 50 clubs will join the 21 above clubs when their domestic leagues completed.Spain, England and Italy (4 clubs each country), France, Germany, Portugal, Holland, Greece and Russia (3 clubs), Scotland, Turkey, Czech Republic, Rumania, Ukraine and Belgium (2 clubs) and other 39 countries (1 club each).In total it will be 81 clubs that will fight for the Champions League 2008/09. But let wait for the complete list and the preliminary qualification phase results to know the last 32 clubs which will go into the draw next September to conform the eight definitive groups.
Tags: Chelsea, Real Madrid, Roma
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Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
This season’s UEFA Champions League Final will see Chelsea - Manchester United go head to head in arguably the biggest match ever played between two English clubs. Of course it’s not being played on English soil, with both teams and their fans travelling to Moscow for the 21 May showdown at Luzhniki Stadium. This will be the third occasion where two teams from the same country – England – will play the final match of the Champions League joining two other countries – Spain and Italy – that have done the same. In year 2000 it was Real Madrid and Valencia who played the final match at Saint Denis Stadium in Paris (Real Madrid win 3-0) and in year 2003 Milan and Juventus have done the same at Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester (Milan win 3-2 pen). Europe’s top club competition has never featured two English sides in the Final before. But Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers did contest the UEFA Cup Final over two legs in 1972. In the early years of the competition two English sides couldn’t meet, because only the League Champions were able to enter. Manchester United entered as holder in 1968, but avoided Manchester City in the First Round draw and City were surprisingly knocked out by Fenerbahce from Turkey. In 1977 Liverpool won the ‘European Cup’, as we called it in those days, but they were League Champions too.Manchester United and Chelsea FC will fight for this year European crown and the winner will receive the competition trophy number 53.
Tags: Old Trafford, Tottenham Hotspurs
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Saturday, April 19th, 2008
When there is only about one month for the 2007/08 season end of the most important football European leagues the probable winners in each country have already a name or at least some teams are clear favourites to obtain the championship.Let’s have a look to the present situation of the football leagues in Spain, England, Germany, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Belgium and Greece.Liga bwin in Portugal: This is the only of the above mentioned countries where there is already a winner of the major football league. Porto with 66 points is the winner when still there are four matches to be played before the end.Super League in Greece: When only one match must be played, Olympiakos with 67 points could be the winner. AEK with 65 points is second. Eredivisie in Holland: Also there is only one match to be played and PSV Eindhoven with 69 points will probably win the championship this season.Jupiter League in Belgium: Four matches to be played and Standard Liege (68 points) has 7 points advantage over Anderlecht (61 points).Premiership in England: Also four matches to be played and Manchester United (80 points) has a comfortable advantage of five points over Chelsea who is second in the table (75 points).Ligue 1 in France: Olympique Lyon with 68 points is the leader followed by Girondins Bordeaux with 64 points when there are still five matches to be played.Serie A in Italy: 4 points is the advantage of Inter (75 points) over Rome (71 points) when still five matches must be played.1 Bundesliga in Germany: 10 points is the comfortable advantage of Bayern Munich over Werder Bremen six matches before the end of the season.Primera Division in Spain: Real Madrid with 69 points is the maximum favourite to obtain the championship because second in the table is FC Barcelona with 60 points when only six matches must be played.According this up to date situation it is almost probable that following teams will go directly into the Champions League next season: Porto, Olympiakos, PSV Eindhoven, Standard Liege, Manchester United, Chelsea, Olympique Lyon, Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen, Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Posted in Bayern Munich, FC Barcelona, General, Manchester United, Real Madrid | No Comments »
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
Since 1999 the prestigious French magazine ‘France Football’ publishes the ranking of the players and trainers who earn more money in the world of football. In the indicated figures for the players the money they earn for publicity is also included. Regarding the trainers there are some names that are not working at present.
The first player in the top ten list is David Beckam with 31 million Euro, (6 from LA Galaxy and 25 from publicity contracts). Beckam has been already in the top of the list in years 2003, 2004 y 2005 until he was overcome by the star of Barça Ronaldinho. This year Beckam is followed by the mentioned Ronaldinho (FC Barcelona) with 24.1, Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona) with 23, Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United FC) with 19.5, Thierry Henry (FC Barcelona) with 16.8, John Terry (Arsenal FC) with 13.9, Michael Ballack (Arsenal FC) with 13.8, Ronaldo (AC Milan) with 13.4, Kaka (AC Milan) with 12.9 and Steven Gerrard (Liverpool FC) with 11.8.Regarding the teams, 3 players from the top 10 belong to FC Barcelona followed by Arsenal FC and AC Milan with 2 players each. With reference to trainers one of them is far away in the top list: Jose Mourinho with 29 million Euro. A bit far from him is Fabio Capello with 14.2, Alex Ferguson with 7.4, Juande Ramos with 7.3, Sven Ericksson with 7.1, Arsene Wenger with 6.4, Martin Jol with 5.8, Vicente del Bosque with 5.2, Roberto Mancini with 5 and Frank Rijkaard with 4.8.Seven of them work for English teams (except Capello – he is the coach of English national team), while three of them (Mourinho, Del Bosque and Jol) are now on ‘unemployment’.Although these figures are high, there other sports that overcome football and for example Beckam would only be the fourth in the absolute ranking behind Tiger Woods (Golf), with 75 million Euro, Oscar de la Hoya (Boxing) with 35 and Phil Mickelson (Golf) with 32,5.
Tags: Arsenal FC, Liverpool FC, Milan AC
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Friday, April 11th, 2008
On Saturday 17th May, The FA Cup will reach its climax at New Wembley Stadium when Portsmouth and Cardiff City will battle it out to lift the Cup.
The FA Cup is the oldest football competition in the world and is synonymous with Wembley’s rich history. The first FA Cup competition in season 1871-72 had fifteen entries and this season more than 600 took part. Wanderers, a team formed by ex-public school and university players, won the first final 1-0 against Royal Engineers at Kennington Oval. A crowd of 2,000 attended the match and they each paid one shilling for the privilege.
The FA Cup Final has been played at Wembley Stadium from 1923 to 2000 and at Millennium Stadium from 2001 to 2006 and returning to London in 2007. Chelsea are the current holders of The FA Cup after becoming the first team to win the competition coming back to the New Wembley Stadium, beating Manchester United last season.
Tickets for FA Cup Final are being always distributed by the participating clubs. Portsmouth, who plays at the Premiership, reached the final beating in the semi-final to West Bromwich Albion (1-0) on 5th April.Cardiff City, who plays at the Championship League, is reaching the FA Cup final after a win in semi-final (1-0) over Barnsley on 6th April.
Cardiff City supporters will return to Wembley 81 years after their previous FA Cup success of 1927 beating Arsenal (1-0) and Portsmouth supporters will also come back to Wembley 69 years after their FC Cup last success in 1939 beating Wolverhampton (4-1).
Tags: Copa FA, Portsmouth, Wembley
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