UEFA Champions League Real Madrid's offensive woes will not be aided when they travel to the Stade de l'Abbé Deschamps on Tuesday and face an Auxerre squad who gave up the fewest goals in Ligue 1 last season with a meager 29. While Auxerre's form has not carried over to this current season, where they […]

La Liga clubs spent a week on vacation after the opening round of fixtures because of the international FIFA date, although for Real Madrid and Barcelona, many of their players were on international duty. In particular, ten players from Barcelona and six players from Real Madrid traveled to Buenos Aires midweek for the Argentina – […]

It probably doesn't matter that Clint Dempsey's now-famous daisy-cutter turned poor, hapless Robert Green into the best football punchline since Titus Bramble. See, even in the wake of the U.S.'s 1-1 draw vs. England at the 2010 World Cup, one of the few solaces English fans probably still have is looking down their noses at […]

While I do not always agree with UEFA President Michel Platini, like his proposals for wage caps and vendetta against the big-spending Premier League, the Frenchman has been spot on in implementing more referee assistants on the pitch. Platini was massive in introducing extra assistants to aid the referee in last season's Europa League competition. […]

So you may now recognise him as the head of U.E.F.A. and the man that moved the Champions League from a Wednesday night to a Saturday night. What you may not know is that Platini, for 3 or 4 years, was the best player in the world. A fabulous midfield play-maker of the highest level, […]

My memories of how I learned about the news regarding the Hillsborough Disaster and the Bradford Fire Disaster are a lot more vivid than what happened 25 years ago today in the Heysel Stadium Disaster. Part of the reason was because both the Hillsborough and Valley Parade games were played on a Saturday, while the […]

Depending on the results of the final round in La Liga this upcoming weekend, Atlético Madrid can finish as high as ninth and as low as eleventh in Spain. Fulham completed their 2009-10 in the Barclays Premier League in twelfth position. All mattered not as they both navigated through massive European obstacles to arrive at […]

Everyone off the Coach, It's Time for a Kick About Not one of the four clubs competing in a European semi this week could manage an away win. Fulham came closest away to Hamburg as they set themselves up with a pretty decent chance of progressing through to the Europa League final with a 0-0 draw. The […]

After yesterday's final games in the Champions League round of 16, we now know which teams will be in the hat tomorrow morning to decide who will play who in the quarter-finals. But before tomorrow's draw, I thought it'd be fun to fantasize a little and think about which two teams would be the dream […]

Most of the headlines focus around Group G, the consensus "Group of Death" with Brazil, Portugal, Côte d'Ivoire, and North Korea, and the pairing of England and the United States in Group C. For Spain and manager Vicente del Bosque, privately they will be happy with their draw in Group H, the match schedule in […]

Well, you can't blame them for trying, two weeks after that hand ball incident and FIFA and UEFA being as patronising as possible, the Football Association of Ireland have asked to be included in the World Cup draw on Friday as a 33rd team.I've just had the misfortune of sitting through a Sepp Blatter press […]

UEFA has confirmed that it plans to investigate 40 cases of suspected match-fixing in the Champions League and UEFA Cup. Most of the cases were from Eastern Europe and involved games in the early qualifying rounds of the tournaments, according to Peter Limacher, UEFA's head of disciplinary services. Last year, the number of games being […]

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 […]

It seems like this is all coming out of nowhere. Any fan of the game knows that the "tapping-up" allegations have always been prominent but rarely has it been so harshly punished. From United's perspective, they were accused of tapping up Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney in the recent past and accused Real Madrid of […]

"Giggs looking to pick out Rooney... who's got there, is that a penalty kick?! What does Mike Dean say?! He says penalty!" This whole routine is getting a little old, isn't it? Screw diamonds, refereeing mistakes are forever. It's like the referees all convene and decide whose turn it is to make mistake and forbid […]