When the Racing de Santander board fired Juan Carlos Mandiá on November 9, the team had only won one game out of ten in La Liga, and they had lost the first leg in the Round of 32 of the Copa del Rey against UD Salamanca, a mid-table club in the Segunda División. This job […]

The big story of the weekend was the snow that postponed four matches including the much anticipated Fiorentina-AC Milan match, rescheduled for January 27. However, the weekend still had plenty of drama, especially around Juventus. In honor of the holiday season, this week's Lessons will be handing out presents to various people and teams in […]

This weekend's round of fixtures is highlighted by El Clásico, the rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Not only are they the two most successful teams in the history of Spanish football, they occupy the top two spots in this season's table. Real Madrid has a one point lead over Barcelona heading into this pivotal […]

"It is difficult for us to qualify, but not impossible,We have to win our game and see what happens with Fiorentina and Lyon. Then we will approach the last game." Benitez has certainly fought his corner today after the galling last minute equaliser Liverpool conceded in the Stade Gerland last night. Of course, the nay […]

If the Copa del Rey is played, but hardly anyone cares about it, did it really happen? To say that some of the La Liga teams think of the cup as a nuisance would be quite an understatement. With the overloaded fixture list consisting of European and domestic matches, the Copa del Rey is near […]

Athletic Bilbao would have no problems with the proposed UEFA plan of mandating eight homegrown players in the squad of eighteen for every match or the theoretical 6 + 5 rule, where six players of the starting eleven would have to be eligible for the national team of their club's country. Athletic Bilbao refuses to […]

On Friday UEFA conducted the draws for the Champions League and Europa League play-off rounds. In the Champions League, Vfb Stuttgart will be matched against FC Timisoara of Romania’s Liga 1. Timisoara finished as runners-up in last year’s Romanian Championship, and boast the likes of Costa Rican international striker Winston Parks. Having successfully avoided the […]

A massive number of clubs are involved in the Second Qualifying Round (80 in total). The winners of the 23 First Qualifying Round ties were joined in this round by a further 57 clubs that includes the domestic cup winners from the national associations ranked 30 to 53 in the UEFA coefficient, the runners-up from […]

Without a lot of herald or press coverage, UEFA announced at the start of the week that there will be five referees on the pitch for all Europa League matches next season. An additional pair of eyes will be stationed behind each goal, focusing on incidents in and around the penalty area. I'm 100% behind […]

As we reported on a number of weeks ago, the UEFA Executive Committee has finalized the change in name of the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League starting in the 2009-10 season. Along with the new name come major changes to the competition, which will feature a 48-team group stage. Changes to the name, […]

Reuters reports that UEFA is considering changing the name of its second tier UEFA Cup competition to the UEFA Europa League or the Europa Cup. The planned rebranding was revealed by Bayern Munich chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, also the acting chairman of the new European Clubs Association, The European Clubs Assocation was presented with the […]