It wasn’t so long ago that this blog featured a report detailing the loudest grounds in English football. Near the top of that list sat recognizable English giants Manchester United and Liverpool. At third on the list sat the proud claret and blue of Aston Villa. Surely one of the loudest moments in Villa Park during last season’s campaign was the last game when Aston Villa beat Liverpool. Not only had Villa walked away with all three points, but also it was during this game that the Holte End discovered that their crosstown rivals would be relegated. The stadium sang so loud that it drowned out the commentary on the television, with over forty thousand voices creating an exuberant fortress of a football ground.

However, upon the arrival of Stoke this week, the once-vocal support of a European Cup winning side were largely absent, as 13,000 empty seats became the image to summarize this season at Aston Villa Football Club. The disillusioned supporters inside Villa Park are now being forced to see unfortunate parallels between their plight this season and that of their neighbours only one year ago. This time last year, manager Alex McLeish’s Birmingham City also sat five points above the relegation zone with only six games to play. Villa fans are left hoping that other results might give them a lifeline. With Wigan’s win at Old Trafford and QPR’s victory at Swansea, the lifelines are appearing shorter and shorter.

Alex McLeish’s arrival at Villa Park was always strange. After a messy move from the blue side of Birmingham, McLeish arrived with an overflowing inbox. He would first have to win over the Villa fans, then address some severe shortages in the first team squad, all while managing a wage bill that had run out of control under the watch of his predecessors. It’s fair to say that these are heavy tasks for anyone coming into a new job. However, after another draw that saw Villa teetering on the brink of Premier League safety, it’s time for the Villa leadership to realize that McLeish may not be the man for the job.

McLeish’s resume is no stranger to relegation, as his stint across town saw his former club relegated twice, once under identical circumstances last year. It was solely this reason that Aston Villa fans met his appointment with such aversion. Why employ someone with a proven record of falling short? It would be an understatement to suggest that Aston Villa has been far from easy-on-the-eye this season, with performances that have had former Villa legends lambasting their club. Recently, Tony Cascarino called Villa’s performance at the Emirates “awful,” admitting that he was “amazed at how poor they were.”

Sadly, it doesn’t take a Aston Villa legend to drive the point home. Instead, the empty seats at Villa Park speak volumes. It’s true that McLeish’s appointment alienated Villa supporters, but though media outlets continue to suggest this is only a result of his stint at Birmingham City, Aston Villa fans continue to point out that the vitriol aimed at his tenure only has to do with his CV. The tactics, or lack thereof, have proven inept; from playing players out of position, strange team selections, and a defensive mentality, Villa now have their lowest point tally in years, and only seven wins in the Premier League.

Villa’s American owner, Randy Lerner, has poured millions of pounds into the club, and has been rightly heralded as a model foreign owner, coupling loyalty and patience with personal investment. However, his appointment of Alex McLeish is driving the claret and blue army into hiding. Aston Villa fans are now being forced to watch the results at the bottom of the table. With Wolves already destined for the drop, Villa supporters are now praying for other clubs to defeat the likes of Wigan, Blackburn, Bolton, and QPR — teams Villa have struggled to defeat throughout the season.

In addition, distressing news surrounds the league. Both Aston Villa and Bolton have had to cope with tragedy this season, as the Villa captain Stiliyan Petrov was diagnosed with acute leukaemia, while Bolton’s Fabrice Muamba suffered cardiac arrest on the pitch. The response to both of these tragedies has illustrated the overwhelming support from the global football family, and put the game into perspective. Amid tragedy, unrest, hardships and tribulation, and with the relegation battle looming large, these clubs are destined to meet on the 24th of April. Both teams will be playing for everything.

If you’ve been blissfully ignorant of Bundesliga comings and goings over the Winter break, you may have missed the news that Ralf Rang­nick resigned as coach.  This came as a bit of a shock as Rangnick is generally viewed as a fine coach who was doing a good job in developing Hoffenheim from a village team to a quality Bundesliga outfit.

Rangnick was hired in 2006 to coach Hoffenheim while they were still hanging out in the 3rd division. Rangnick had kicked around at VfB Stuttgart, Hannover 96, and Schalke 04 with varying degrees of success. He was even considered by Joachim Löw to be an assistant on the German national team.  Upon signing on with Hoffenheim, they quickly gained promotion to the 2nd division and just as quickly made the climb to the Bundesliga. This all happened much more quickly than even the most optimistic Hoffenheim supporter could believe. This team from a city of 3,200 suddenly had a team playing at the top level of one of the world’s best football leagues.

Of course none of this would have happened without the sizable wallet of SAP AG owner, and former Hoffenheim youth player, Dietmar Hopp. Like so many other billionaires, Hopp decided he was going to buy himself a soccer team. However, two things prevented Hopp from taking over Hoffenheim and making it his own little vanity project as so many other billionaires have done.

First and foremost is the 50+1 rule. This rule dictates that the club must have a majority ownership of the club itself. In other words, the most Mr. Hopp would ever be able to own of his childhood club is 49.99999999999%. Note that this doesn’t mean that he cannot personally invest more than 49.99% of the funds that the club has. Rather, he cannot take over the clubs daily operations and management of the team.

The second reason is that he wants to make Hoffenheim a financially viable operation. As of today, Hoffenheim’s entire rise can be attributed to Mr. Hopp’s cash infusion into the club (including investing in their €60 million stadium). For while he may be allowed to only own less than half of the team, there is no such restriction on how much money he can give to the club. But he knows that at some point he or his heirs may not have the ability to continue pumping money into 1899 Hoffenheim. So his entire philosophy has been to find young talent, develop them, and ultimately have them play in the Bundesliga.  Hoffenheim would rather currently sell players in the transfer market rather than buy them.

Hopp has claimed that the club’s former director of sport Jan Schindelmeiser was far too loose with the funds. Even with the sale of Luis Gustavo, he claims that Hoffenheim will lose €7 million this season. He  wants to keep player salaries to a minimum.

And this leads to the reason of why Ralf Rangnick was fired. All reports indicate that the board and Dietmar Hopp were satisfied with his coaching. However, Rangnick kept pushing for the board to purchase players in order to improve his roster. So long as Hopp is funding the operation and so long as Hoffenheim are losing money, this was not going to happen.

Furthermore, Rangnick and Hopp clashed about the potential sale of midfielder Luis Gustavo to Bayern. While Rangnick was not inherently against the move, he was adamant that it should happen after the season and not at the winter break. Hopp saw differently and it is reported that he dealt directly with Bayern management to seal the €15 million transfer deal.

Seeing as there was an ideological rift between himself and Dietmar Hopp, Ralf Rangnick resigned his post. Reports indicate that the two still have a very amicable relationship and it is quite unlike most knee-jerk firings in the Bundesliga. This one had to do with long term philosophy and not with short term performance.

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As a post script, assistant coach Marco Pezzaiuoli was promoted to be coach of Hoffenheim.  It has also been reported that the DFB is investigating the negotiations between Hoffenheim and Bayern primarily to see if Mr. Hopp used undue influence to force the transfer (ie, violating the 50+1 rule). As part of the Gustavo transfer, Davad Alaba is being loaned from Bayern to Hoffenheim until June 30, 2013.

Now that Qatar has bought won the 2022 World Cup, what do we know about this tiny nation? Well, they are the home to the Al-Jazeera television network, they will host the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, and they are known as “Qataris” (“Qintendos” would have been a tad cooler). Also, Qatar is spelled Katar in German. So there’s your German word of the day.

As far as the Bundesliga goes, there are a few connections. After Felix Magath foolishly tactically decided he no longer needed central defender Marcelo Bordon at Schalke, Marcelo skipped over to Qatar and signed on with Al Rayyan. Currently, Al-Rayyan is tied for 5th in the Qatari League with the 3rd best Goals Against Average. Meanwhile, Schalke has underperformed this season.

2004 Asian player of the year and former Bayern-bust Ali Karimi eventually left Munich to try his luck with Qatar SC. After one season there he moved over to Al-Siliyya for a reported 4.7 million euros. Karimi proved he was too big (or too homesick) for the Q League and is currently playing in his home country of Iran. A completely unreliable report mentions that the LA Galaxy were interested in signing the “Asian Maradonna”.

In 2004, the always dining entertaining and former Bundesliga goal champion Ailton almost became a citizen of Qatar in hopes of playing for their national team. He was set to join along with fellow Bundesliga Brazilian’s Dede and Leandro. A clarification of FIFA naturalization rules prevented this from happening. Apparently, you have to have some kind of link to the country for which you play. So unless those guys had Qatari grandparents or had lived there for 2 years, they were out of luck.

FC Bayern Munich will spend their winter break this year in Qatar instead of in Dubai. They will be joined in Qatar by none other than Inter Milan. No word on whether they will play a friendly rematch of last year’s Champions League final. They will also meet up shortly after the winter break in a Champions League game. Are these two teams starting to become best friends?

Otherwise, the pickings between the Bundesliga and Qatar are pretty slim. I imagine as Qatar magic’s some yet-to-be-seen climate control technology (or gets FIFA to move the World Cup to Winter) that they will be a more welcome destination for teams around the world looking to enjoy some sunshine.

Does anyone else know of any Bundesliga ties with Qatar? If so, leave comments below!