Author Archives: Mike

Everyone Through!

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All four English clubs reached the knockout stage of the Champions League: although Chelsea were beaten in France and it took Arsenal longer than it should have done to put their game against Partizan Belgrade to bed, they join Manchester United and Spurs in the draw for the ’round of sixteen’ (the eighth finals in old money) which takes place on Friday 17th at 11:00am GMT.

Joining them will be some familiar names: both Milan clubs and Roma from Italy, Barcelona, Valencia and Real Madrid from Spain, Germany’s Bayern Munich and Schalke 04 plus Les Olympiques (Marseille and Lyon) from France. Last – and by no means least – Shaktyar Donetsk (Ukraine) and FC Copenhagen (Denmark) will be joining the teams from the traditional European powerhouses. FC Copenhagen deserve a special mention as they’re the first Danish club to reach this stage.

That’s the easy bit. The arrangements for the draw are less straightforward: our clubs can’t play each other or teams from their group in the next round, so the list of potential opponents looks like this:

Spurs – Lyon, Valencia, Copenhagen, Roma, Marseille or Milan

Manchester United – Inter Milan, Lyon, Copenhagen, Roma, Marseille or Milan

Chelsea – Inter Milan, Lyon, Valencia, Copenhagen, Roma or Milan

Arsenal – Schalke, Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid.

No disrespect to either club intended, but given their current position in the Bundesliga, Arsenal are probably hoping that they’re drawn with Schalke. Similar kind of situation with FC Copenhagen – having come second in Barcelona’s group, all eight teams they could face in the next round have won silverware in European competitions.

All the clubs from the Netherlands, Portugal and Russia have now been eliminated from the Champions League, although they’ll be taking part in the next stage of the Europa League.

So just to recap, Premiership 4, Russian Premier League 0.

Arsenal Have It All To Do

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After last week’s travesty, I’m hoping that one of our clubs will be able to do the business in the Champions League this season – an English club winning the tournament at Wembley would be one in the eye for you know and his cronies. Three out of four of our clubs are currently through and it’s up to Arsenal tomorrow night to make it a clean sweep. 

Tuesday

Manchester United v Valencia (Sky Sports 2, 7:45pm)

Both teams are through, but the group winner would avoid some of the nastier options in the first knockout round.

United’s first team has had a nice long rest, as it’s been almost two weeks since they hammered Blackburn Rovers 7-1; Michael Owen was due to make an appearance but was ruled out yesterday. Valencia lost 2-0 at Real Madridat the weekend and haven’t won an away game in La Liga since they beat Sporting Gijon at the end of September.

Twente Enschede v Spurs (Sky Sports 4, 7:45pm)

The hosts are joint top with PSV Eindhoven in the Eredivisie after two Theo Janssen goals gave them a win over De Graafschaap on Saturday: Spurs looked as if they were going to win at Birmingham but Craig Gardnerscored the equaliser with ten minutes left. Harry Redknapp’s team would win the group with three points in Holland, but the last time Spurs played an away game in the Premiership on Saturday and then travelled for a Champions League game they drew both of them. Without Rafael van der Vaart and Jermaine Jenas the same thing could happen again.

Wednesday

Arsenal v Partizan Belgrade (ITV, 7:45pm)

Top of the Premiership against top of the Serbian Superliga – which is basically saying top of one of the best – if not the best – leagues in Europe against the leaders in the 27th best competition…and those are UEFA’s numbers, not mine.

Partizan went five points clear at the top with a 5-2 win over Sevojno (no, I’d never heard of them either) – they were 4-0 up after half an hour. By all accounts the Gunners had to grind it out at Fulham and this is a game they’ve got to win as they’re three points behind Shaktyar Donetsk but level with Sporting Braga.

Fortunately for Arsene’s boys, Braga have to travel to the Ukraine and their away form has been awful this season – they lost 3-1 at Uniao de Leiria on Saturday evening and had three players sent off.

 Marseille v Chelsea (Sky Sports 2, 7:45pm)

After their recent return to pre-Abramovic form, Chelsea will be pleased they’re already through to the knockout stages – the odds are in Marseille’s favour to qualify with them, but although L’OM lost 1-0 at Nice at the weekend, they’re currently on a seven game unbeaten streak at the Stade Velodrome.

And here’s a good bit of trivia for you to amaze your friends with: Gareth Bale has scored more goals in the competition than Cristiano Ronaldo.

Football Not Coming Home as England World Cup Bid Fails

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It’s about 24 hours since we were dumped out of the voting for the 2018 World Cup and although I’ve calmed down a bit, guest blogger Richard Smith has actually managed to turn his disappointment into a coherent post…

Despite the huge influences of future Kings, the Prime Minister, Lords, Ladies, Knights of the Realm and future Knights of the Realm, the England bid to host the 2018 World Cup failed (embarrassingly) in the very first round of FIFA voting.

Instead of England being the name on the winning card, it was Russia, the original favourites and who are now charged with creating 13 new stadia, building efficient logistical links between the hosting Cities and their neighbouring countries, all in the short time span of less than 8 years.

Investigations and inquests are being planned, if not already underway as to why the England bid failed, although it is being widely acknowledged that the England presentation was one of the best submitted, suggesting that the failure was due to more spurious reasons. In some respects it is not altogether fair to call it a failure; after all, the Russian bid was based on an extremely valid argument that they had never had the opportunity to host the event in the past. It would also be the first World Cup ever to be staged in Eastern Europe.

The reason why most football fans will regard it as a failure is because the England bid was knocked out in the first round of voting. This means quite clearly, that the bid was never under real consideration, a seriously humiliating indictment for the bid team and quite a surprise considering the England were favourites to win the bid with the odds as short as 4/6!

 The failure could be for several reasons, two of which might best be answered by the BBC and the Sunday Times. The ‘Beeb’ of course decided in their wisdom via their Panorama programme earlier this week, to make serious corruption allegations against four members of the FIFA Executive and the Sunday Times printed similar allegations, suggesting that up to six members of this same FIFA Committee had asked for cash in exchange for World Cup votes.

Whatever the reasons for the failure, it is clear that both the BBC and the owners of the Sunday Times could have better timed their attacks; in fact in light of the failure tonight would have been the ideal time for the Panorama programme to be shown. Certainly it makes those BBC employees on the bid team, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer look rather foolish in the aftermath of the verdict.

England in fact cannot now host the World Cup until 2030, with Qatar winning the right to host the event in 2022 and South America to host in 2026.

One of the early conclusions being speculated is simply that England is simply disliked by the international football authorities. Their high powered bid team may have been regarded as too top heavy and as such it became intimidating to the FIFA Executive Committee. It would also appear that promises made have been broken, as England felt that they were sure to have received at least three votes in the first round, but in the event they only received two.

As strong as the England bid was, it was well known to FIFA that the bid team were not fully united, particularly those from the Premier League and those from the FA. Lord Triesman, the original leader of the bid team, vacated his chair, in the summer, after making negative comments concerning rival 2018 bids. He was only replaced by a stand in leader, Roger Burden, hardly a household name and not the man that FIFA would necessarily view as a credible bid leader.

Add these underlying problems to the simple fact that England tried too hard to sell the success of the Premier League. This is certainly something that would not go down too well at FIFA, who frown upon those in the sport who spends beyond their budgets and who do not nurture home grown talent. It will also not be lost on FIFA that England failed to qualify by right for Euro 2008 and produced a very poor standard of football in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. These performances would suggest to FIFA that the all is not well in the English game.

Final Presentation: Outstanding

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I’ve just finished watching the presentation from Zurich and – without the benefit of seeing those that preceded it – it was fantastic. Of course, I’m somewhat biased about this (I live in one of  potential host cities), but even taking that into account I don’t see how everyone involved in the bid team could have done anything any better.

Now the waiting starts: if anything happens before 3:00pm GMT, I’ll update this post but it’s important to remember that what happens now is no longer in our hands…and having made my position on FIFA absolutely clear earlier in the week, it still wouldn’t come as much of a surprise if we didn’t win.

Finger crossed.

Update: Russia won the vote. Can’t be bothered to react to that immediately, but I’m sure I’ll have something to say about it tomorrow.

‘Panorama’ Did Us All A Favour

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‘Logic has to be suspended, normal standards of honesty and integrity have to be suspended. We have to go on our knees to accept FIFA diktats, crawl on our bellies to beg them to give us the World Cup.’

If you’ve not watched last night’s ‘Panorama’ then I strongly suggest that you do before reading this post. Here’s the link.

So…it’s not often that I agree with David Mellor, but it’s his quote at the top of the post and he’s absolutely right. As much as I would love the World Cup to be held in England, when it’s clear that there’s an endemic problem with corruption within FIFA then to be perfectly honest we’re better off staying as far away from them as possible.

In fact, I’d go further than that. We’ve always had issues with FIFA – the FA withdrew for political reasons after the First World War and didn’t return to the fold until after the Second – but it was only when Joao Havelange took over from Sir Stanley Rous in 1974 that the almost medieval culture of simony, patronage and nepotism began to prevail in Zurich.

Almost 40 years later, Sepp Blatter and his henchmen are running FIFA like a third world dictatorship and being  allowed to get away with it by both the football world and the Swiss authorities. There’s absolutely no point in the FA submitting any further bids to stage any tournament until the likes of Blatter, Ricardo Teixeira (Havelange’s ex-son in law) and Jack Warner have been removed from FIFA.

In summing up, as far as I’m concerned last night’s ‘Panorama’ destroyed any remaining credibility that FIFA had rather than any faint hopes that England might host the 2018 World Cup. In any case, there’s bound to be some decent teams that don’t qualify for the 2018 World Cup…so why don’t we organise an alternative one?

Feel free to disagree.  After all, 11 Lions is only a blog, not the international sporting equivalent of Zimbabwe.

Premiership Roundup

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As the Sky commentators kept reminding us yesterday, last weekend was a historical one in the Premiership as all twenty teams managed to score.

Obviously, some teams managed to score more than once: new leaders Manchester United put seven past Blackburn Rovers (Blackburn’s biggest defeat in the Premiership since Arsenal beat them 6-2 at the Emirates last October) with Dimitar Berbatov hitting five. Arsenal and West Brom scored four goals at Aston Villa and Everton respectively and all these goals are contributing to a very healthy 2.75 goals per game – which is still fewer than the Bundesliga (3.21), but a lot more than Serie A (2.25).

Having said that, there are still some teams that don’t seem to be able to manage to score in front of their own fans. Manchester City and Birmingham are the worst culprits: City haven’t scored at Eastlands in the league since early October, while two goals at St. Andrews is a bit of a goal glut these days. Away from home six teams (including Liverpool) are scoring less than one goal per game.

United’s win gave them a two point lead over Chelsea and Arsenal – who are only seperated by goal difference – while at the bottom West Ham’s second home win of the season meant that there are now only six points between the bottom six clubs. Somewhat surprisingly, Everton are without a win in their last six games and could be in for an uncomfortable December if that trend continues.

It’s beginning to look as if QPR will replace one of the relegated teams next season: the last time Rangers played in the Premiership was in 95/96 but they took another step on the road to top tier football with a 2-1 win over 2nd placed Cardiff Cityat the weekend.

The draw for the 3rd Round of the FA Cup took place on Sunday evening, although traditionalists like myself would prefer it if the ‘celebrities’ ITV chose to carry out ball drawing duties were people I’d heard of. I’m young enough to remember Oasis’ glory days, but I had no idea what a ‘Kasabian’ looked like until yesterday. If Wagner and/or Jedward are roped in for the fourth round draw don’t say I didn’t warn you.

It came as something of a surprise that there was only one all Premiership tie, but presumably ITV execs will have been squealing with excitement when Manchester United and Liverpool were drawn together. The twelve games featuring Prem teams against Championship opposition may be a record, but Spurs’ record of actually winning something when the year ends in a one will get off to a good start if they can beat either Charlton or Luton.

Newcastle’s last trip to Stevenage ended in a memorable draw and those of you with long memories will remember that once upon a time Manchester City beat Leicester in the 1969 final (winning goal scored by Canadian hippie Neil Young) and Leeds beat Arsenal in the first Cup Final I ever saw in colour.

Finally, the decision on who is awarded the next two World Cups will be made on Thursday afternoon but it’s unlikely that football will be coming home in 2018 – in fact, some of the bookies have now priced Portugal and Spain ahead of us. So if I come across as slightly grumpy when I report the decision, it’s also because I’ve had a filling earlier in the day.

Four Out Of Four?

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With only a couple of group stage games left, it looks very much as if there might be four English sides entering the knockout stages of this season’s UEFA Champions League. Here’s a quick preview for this week’s games involving the English clubs.

TUESDAY

Braga v Arsenal (7:45, Sky Sports 4)

Braga didn’t play at the weekend but despite only losing once at home in the Portuguese league this season, it’s their away form that’s been letting them down – they haven’t won in the league since April. After losing to Shaktyar Donetsk in their last game, Arsenal’s qualification isn’t as straightforward as it was and it’ll be interesting to see how they cope after their home defeat at home to Spurs on Saturday lunchtime.

Chelsea v Zilina (7:45, Sky Sports 2)

Group F’s whipping boys suffered a rare away defeat at 2nd place Senica on Saturday but having lost all their Champions League group games this season Zilina won’t  even qualify for the Europa League. Having already booked their spot in next round, a Chelsea win looks a formality but after their recent run of poor form they might want to put on an exhibition against the Slovakian champions –
if Marseille can beat them 7-0, then Chelsea could easily equal that.

WEDNESDAY

Rangers v Man United (7:45, ITV)

Apart from losing 3-0 at home to Hibs a couple of weeks ago, Rangers have a pretty formidable record at Ibrox; compared with last season’s disaster at group stage (three home defeats), beating Bursaspor and drawing with Valencia indicates that Walter Smith’s side have worked out how to play in the UCL but they need to beat United to stand any chance of qualification for the next round. United’s loss to Bayern Munich earlier this year was their first away defeat in the Champions League since May 2007 and despite supposedly not being at their best, they’re still undefeated in the Premiership and only need a point to qualify for the next round.

Spurs v Werder Bremen (7:45, Sky Sports 2)

Spurs’  win at Arsenal on Saturday lunchtime was the first time they’d won at either the Emirates or Highbury since Herbert Chapman was Arsenal manager May 1993 and they should be clear favourites for this game. Bremen lost 4-0 at Schalke 04 on Saturday and are currently only four points outside the relegation places in the Bundesliga with the second worst defensive record in that competition this season; if Spurs win – and they should – then they’re through.

England’s Adam Johnson Seeks Move

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Less than a year after his move from Middlesbrough – and with six weeks until the transfer window re-opens – it looks as if Roberto Mancini’s selection process may have had an unexpected affect on one of England’s promising youngsters. Guest blogger Thomas Rooney investigates.

Great things are expected of Adam Johnson. After impressing in his appearances so far for England, he has been touted as a big player for the national side in the future, with many pinning England’s hopes of Euro 2012 success firmly on his shoulders along with those of another few young stars currently lighting up the Premier League, such as Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere. However, the player realises that in order to fulfil his destiny on the biggest stage in international football, he needs to perform consistently for his club. 

Tired Of Riding The Pine?

The problem is that his club happens to be Manchester City, which sees world-class players warming the bench on a weekly basis. Although some of these individuals appear content to continue picking up their wages whilst sitting on the sidelines each week, it would seem that Johnson is different. 

“Every footballer has to think about [moving on] when the time comes. It is still early but I definitely would consider it,” he said. 

Johnson’s comments are likely to be received differently in different sectors, with some fans believing that the youngster reckons he’s too big for the club. With the playerstill developing and learning all the time, the chance to train with and observe some of the best players in world football under the guidance of one of Europe’s top coaches is an opportunity that no 23-year-old, no matter how talented, should pass up. The football predictions  suggest City could qualify for the Champions League next season, which would offer Johnson another chance to develop, but there’s no guarantee he’d make the squad.

Some fans clearly think the player believes his own hype and should stick with the club as they seek to help develop him over the next couple of years. Any move could be crucial for his future and that of the England national team. 

On the other hand, some fans have praised the player for not being content to pick up a hefty wage packet while doing nothing on the pitch, and others have urged him to take the plunge and make the move from Eastlands as they fear for his ability to improve under the management of such a defensive boss. If Johnson really is England’s brightest hope for the future, he needs to play regular first team football soon and the transfer rumours have linked him with a move. 

Whatever Johnson and City decide to do, there are likely to be many fans of other clubs in England with one eye on the player.

2010: Annus Mediocris

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After the World Cup we had, it’s not too difficult to feel at least a twinge of sympathy with our near neighbours, although on the other hand it’s also quite difficult to suppress any giggling.

In some respects the French campaign in South Africa was so wonderfully dysfunctional that it’s hard to imagine any other team self destructing with such panache; at least Italy nearly made it to the second round although at least they have some previous when it comes to underperfoming in Africa.

The sanctions the French FA imposed on their squad in the aftermath of both the performance on the pitch and the histrionics off it look like a classic case of shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted.

Tonight’s friendly can be seen from two contradictory angles. On the optimistic side, it’s an opportunity for both sides to field players with minimal international experience who wouldn’t normally make a contribution in the hope that a couple of them will make a breakthrough. From a negative point of view, the game will feature ‘experimental’  (ie under strength) sides and concludes a year that arguably could and should have been more successful for both sides. That’s certainly the way French manager Laurent Blanc seems to see it (some knowledge of French required).

The problem we’ve got – again – is goals. Montenegro’s clean sheet was the first time that we’ve failed to score at home since February 2007, when a goal from Andres Iniesta was enough for a Spanish win at Old Trafford. Fab’s hands have been tied with the usual crop of withdrawals and injuries, which is why the (ahem) ‘troubled but talented’ Andy Carroll of Newcastle will probably start up front; presumably he got the nod before Cardiff City’s Jay Bothroyd because Cardiff aren’t in the Premiership…yet.

The only other confirmed starters are Sunderland’s Jordan Henderson and Arsenal’s Kieran Gibbs – when there’s some kind of news about what the team actually is, we’ll have it here.

With just under two weeks to go before the announcement of the host nation for the 2018 World Cup, it’s fair to say that – for whatever reason – our chances of winning the bid are slightly worse than they were at the beginning of the year.

The incident concerning Lord Triesman was regrettable even if there may have been something to it; the perception of the Sunday Times enquiry into vote buying may have damaged the bid even though it seems public perception refuses to blame the journalists, who were right to investigate what was happening.

So the decision to award the 2018 World Cup to Russia will be made by a discredited body that won’t even have enough time to investigate itself before announcing where the next two competitions will be held.

Don’t hold your breath and be prepared for more disappointment. However, if by some miracle we actually win the bid, then mine’s several pints of Bombardier.

Update: starting line up against France:

Foster, Jagielka, Ferdinand, Lescott, Gibbs, Walcott, Henderson, Barry, Milner, Gerrard, Carroll.

Didn’t Ferdinand Lescott-Gibbs discover the Zambezi?