Battle For The Heart of UEFA

Florentino Pérez, the fast-talking and even faster-spending president of Real Madrid, has raised the spectre of a European Super League consisting of the continent’s biggest and richest clubs.

Pérez’s immediate objective is to persuade Michel Platini, the Uefa president, to guarantee the presence of Europe’s marquee names in the Champions League, but has threatened to push for a breakaway league if his proposals are rejected.

The problem with the status quo — speaking commercially now, and God knows that club bosses see the world in such terms — is simple: Europe’s top teams play against each other too seldom. A Super League replacing the existing European and domestic fixtures would allow Europe’s best teams to play against each other twice a week, providing them with huge additional income.

I don't see the super league threat as a risk to domestic football. As much as the Berlusconi's and Perez's might bemoan having to play against lower clubs, I think they realise the importance of the domestic competitions in providing a stronger identity for fans to latch on to.

I also think that if the top clubs did form a break away league and withdrew from domestic and UEFA competitions. You would probably end up with the same problems domestic competitions face today. A club or group of clubs would become dominant. How long would Milan stay in a super league if Madrid, Manchester United and Chelsea were constantly the top 3 teams for 5-10 years? Would a club like Milan really make more money playing in a super league if they lost every week?

I believe that the super league threats are solely a way of keeping rebel romanticist Michel Platini in line. Since his rise to power as president of UEFA he has set about bringing to life his Utopian image of what football should be. A lot of Platini's plans strike at the heart of the top clubs dominance of power and money. Platini has already been made to compromise on some of his larger plans, like the changes to qualification to the Champions League and I think Perez wants to mark his return to Madrid, not only by buying as many big name players as possible, but by becoming the face of the big clubs fight against Platini.

If the big clubs did break away it would destroy UEFA's power. A break away competition could even threaten the participation of clubs and national teams in FIFA competitions. Perez and co. are just trying to make it clear to Platini that he can have his time in the spotlight, but they are the real power.

To The Future

Former Milan coach Arrigo Sacchi wrote in Gazzetta Dello Sport article that "the fans [of Milan] are furious and worried. They blame Berlusconi for a lack of generosity. How someone can do this after 20 years of domestic and international success is beyond me." That has been my view this summer. It's not just that Berlusconi has brought success to the club in the past and so therefore he should get leniency now, but that the club has been in this position before under Berlusconi and gone on to succeed.

In 1997, Franco Baresi retired. The heart and soul of a great era for Milan had moved on. Milan won a league title in 1998-99, but it was a lonely success, the only one between Baresi's retirement and Milan's 2003 Champions League success. In 2002 it was believed to be in debt to the tune of £100 million (yes children, that was a lot of money way back then). Berlusconi shelled out for Nesta (though they were able to pay his fee in installments) and signed Jon Dahl Tomasson on a free and the rest is history.

I have faith Berlu and gang will create a good team. As Sacchi wrote, in the same article, "you cannot buy football, you construct it." I have full faith that under new manager Leonardo, Milan have a better plan for the future, a better construction plan. Milan probably won't win anything in 2009-10, but at least it seems easier to hope that they will win something in the seasons after that now that Ancelotti has gone and Milan have moved on from trying to construct the oldest, slowest squad in football, back to trying to construct the best.

Oguchi Onyewu

I don't know much about Milan's latest signing. I know his tall, I know he plays for the American national team (hasn't everyone who can kick a ball?) and I know he was free. Oh, and I know I'm never going to refer to him as 'gooch' or any other stupid nickname.

Onyewu certainly isn't the type of transfer that is going to raise anyone's expectations for how well Milan will do next season. I'll be very surprised if anyone writes in their season predictions that Onyewu will be decisive in Milan's attempts to topple Inter, or at least catch up to them a bit.

I guess Onyewu is the symbol of the new Milan. A Milan that has to be clever and thrifty, a Milan that will rely on the talent of its scouts and transfer guru's, rather than on Berlusconi's bank account.

It will be interesting to see the chances Onyewu is given to prove himself. Under Ancelotti he would have spent his first season in the stands, his second on loan and then he would have spent another season on the bench or been sold. How Leo incorporates Onyewu into the team could be a major factor in Milan's success this season.

Ancelotti played favorites and it was impossible for fringe players to get a game even in the midst of terrible form dips and even injury to Carlo's favorites. Ambrosini recently claimed that not everyone gave their all for Milan last season and I think it was because of the culture Ancelotti had built where his favorites, like Seedorf and Pirlo, played even when they could hardly walk.

If Leo gives Onyewu and some of the other fringe guys a chance, it might generate more motivation and energy through out the entire squad. I'll be following Onyewu closely...

The Realist Milan

It's been a month since Kaka left and Milan aren't anywhere near signing a replacement. Many pundits are now suggesting Milan won't sign any big name players this summer.

The rumours are Milan will play a similar system to the one they played under Ancelotti, but with a preference for 2 strikers and 1 trequartista rather than 1 striker and 2 trequartista's. The prefers line-up being as follows:

Abbiati

Zambrotta - Nesta - Thiago Silva - Jankulovski

Gattuso - Pirlo - Ambrosini (C)

Ronaldinho

Pato - Borriello

I think that is a strong line-up if everyone stays fit and in reasonable form. I think Pato could be used as a secondary striker who drifts out to the widths to create more space. I also think if Pirlo is played a bit higher up the pitch than Ancelotti played him and Gattuso and Ambrosini play deep and do the defensive work in front of Nesta and Silva, than Janks and Zambrotta won't be so susceptible on the wings and can provide extra attacking potency.

However, the depth still concerns me and I think that if Milan suffers a couple injuries to players in that preferred XI, they may struggle to crack the top 4. I don't think they necessarily need a big name (though I wouldn't mind seeing Dario Srna arrive and someone who can act as cover for Ronnie in case Seedorf repeats last seasons effort), but they do need to continue buying good youngsters to back up the first team.

UEFA's Move Against Racism

"Referees have been given the power by Uefa to suspend and even abandon matches in European competitions this season if there is racist chanting by fans."

Its a great idea. I'm just concerned that racism is so rampant, referee's won't be able to enforce the laws properly. I mean, will they ever play another game in Russia? And it doesn't address the bigger issues, like Dick Advocaat admitting that he would never buy black players for Zenit because the supporters wouldn't accept them.

Still, my fingers are crossed and I hope it works.

The Most Devastating News Ever!

Reports in Italy suggest Milan have turned to Peter Crouch after hitting problems for Edin Dzeko and Emmanuel Adebayor.

Please no...

u21 Euro Wrap

For me, the u21 European Championship was the tournament to watch this off-season, not the farcically over analysed kick around they call the Confederations Cup. The u21 tournament produced some great results and it was good see some of the young talent on the verge of making their impact.

Markus Berg top scored in the competition with 7 goals in 4 matches for Scotland after scoring 17 goals in 31 matches for Groningen in the Dutch Eredivisie last season. I would certainly be interested in Berg if I was a manager looking for a good striker during this transfer market. Berg is good with both feet, can dribble and is more than competent scoring goals from headers and has the ability to fill any kind of strikers role.

Winners Germany conceded just one goal all tournament in their group stage draw with England. Their central defence partnership of Jerome Boateng and Benedikt Howedes
are both well over 6ft and have been preforming well for their clubs in the Bundesliga. Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is a good prospect at just 23 and plays his club football with Howedes at Shalke and perhaps the partnership that has been established might help Germany to a World Cup somewhere down the line.

As for the azzurrini, I was a little saddened that their forwards didn't hit form as expected. Roberto Acquafresca was the only Italian to score more than one goal. I thought Marco Motta had some good performances and I'm not sure why clubs on the peninsula are showing greater interest in him, especially when one of the clubs was willing to pay 15 million for a french fullback from Porto before dental problems killed the deal. Sebastian Giovinco desperately needs more game time at Juve or needs to move somewhere where he will get more game time. He obviously has talent, but he is still very raw and lacks the refinement needed to really make a big mark on games. Overall, I probably rate the azzurrini's performance 7/10. The results weren't great, but they showed they had a strong mentality, an Italian ability to button down the hatches and fight for results, and they showed they have plenty of potential.

Gloom and Doom

So Italy get dumped out of the Confederations Cup and everyone starts screaming doom. Personally, I'd be more worried if Italy won the Confed Cup. Brazil won in 1997, only to done 3-0 by France at the World Cup. Mexico won in 1999, only to go out 2-0 to the USA in 2002. France won in 2001 and were humiliated at the 2002 World Cup, coming bottom of their group after losing to Senegal and Denmark and drawing with Uruguay. France won in 2003 and Brazil won in 2005. At the 2006 World Cup France knocked Brazil out before losing to Italy in the final.

So the winning the Confederations Cup doesn't mean you'll have a bad World Cup, but I do think it indicates that perhaps you are peaking too early. The World Cup is about who can play the best and most consistently for 7 games in one month.

Let us not forget that Italy are cruising through their qualification group so far, like they did in qualifying for 2006. I'm not suggesting Italy are destined to retain their trophy, not many countries do (only Italy and Brazil or should I say Italy and Pele have won back to back World Cups), but why is everyone so upset about dropping out of the Confed Cup early?

So they didn't play great football, who cares? Lippi got to try a few things, the squad got a bit of a taste of what it will be like to play in South Africa next year and we probably dropped off a lot of teams radar as a threat next year, how much more successful could it have been?

But most of all, as bleak as it may look, at least we look odds on to qualify, unlike Portugal, Mexico and Argentina. The fact is that Italy still have more than enough quality to go deep into the knockout stages in South Africa and still has more than enough time to bring that quality together and create a great team.

Food or Football?

The Italian top flight faithful could be set to miss Sunday lunch following the recent developments for the future of Serie A...

I think its a good idea. I believe that if the point is to catch up to the EPL financially, then the games are going to have to become increasingly spread so that fans have the ability to watch most, if not all, games live each weekend. So that probably means eventually having Friday and Monday night games as well as staggered games on Saturday and Sunday, even if that means fans miss out on a meal or two.

Timmy and Bozza

Here is a youtube clip of Cahill's post game interview and Bozza's rant afterwards. sounds a little dodgy and not all of Bozza's interview is included. If you can find Bozza's full rant you should, it's pretty funny, you can tell all that cocaine has taken its toll.

wtf...?

So now that the Cissokho deal has fallen through due to the players poor teeth (I've caught some much shit about this from mates), Milan have apparently decided they want to buy John Arne Riise from Roma. What the hell is going on?

I can understand cancelling the Cissokho deal no matter how bizarre the reasoning sounds, but why go for Riise? He is 28, so thats sort of an abandonment of the youth policy Galliani was banging on about earlier in the week. Although a 28 year old could currently be considered a youth player at Milan.

But most importantly, Riise was a member of the 2005 Liverpool team that inflicted Milans greatest embarrassment. I don't want him anywhere near a Milan jersey, he shouldn't even be allowed to buy replicas.

I really hope the Riise-Milan rumours are false.

What The...?

"A statement issued by Porto to the Portuguese stock market read, "Porto would like to inform the market that the agreement in principle with AC Milan for the transfer of Aly Cissokho is of no effect anymore, since the athlete could not meet the demands of the medical department of AC Milan."

Reportedly a dental problem has stopped the transfer, which is about as Bizarre as the whole David Suazo Inter/AC transfer saga.

Grow Up

Tim Cahill is my favorite Australian footballer. Forget the Kewell's, Viduka's and Schwarzer's, Cahill is the first man on my team sheet every time. Before the 2006 World Cup I thought that Cahill was going to be an important player for Australia and then he popped up with that brace against Japan and he has never looked back.

I think it's Cahill's attitude on the pitch that endears him to me. I often favour players like Maldini who strength of character, or managers like Harry Redknapp who are just great characters. Cahill's ability to just fight for everything and to be in the right place at the right time is just amazing.

Cahill scored to 2 goals to bring Australia back from 1-0 down against Japan to win 2-1, in a sort of replay of the 2006 World Cup. After the game he refused to look at the interviewer and ignored the questions and just kept repeating some scripted rubbish about the fans and blah, blah, blah.

It was a really insolent display from Cahill who later continued his hissy-fit in the dressing room in front of the camera's saying "Talk about writing the script, stick that on the front page hey Franky." Tim was upset at a newspaper report that suggested he had been kicked out of a nightclub for being drunk.

Cahill has had such displays before. He was a bit insensitive when his brother was gaoled and he celebrated a goal by pretending to be handcuffed. I can understand a close brotherly bond, but his brother so badly assaulted a man he left him partially blinded and out of respect to the victim and perhaps so that people didn't think he was condoning violence, Timmy could have found a better way to express his feelings.

Tim's a passionate guy, it's part of what makes him a great footballer, but what did his childish tantrum achieve? For one, if I was the young female report that copped the brunt of it, I wouldn't be releasing too many positive stories about Cahill any time soon. Did Tim really think he would change the media's behaviour? If anything the media will be looking for every bit of dirt, real or not, they can get now. I wasn't even aware of the nightclub story until Timmy's hissy-fit. All he has achieved is to turn rumours into a whole bunch of negative attention.

The tantrum has really turned me off Cahill. It reminded me of the two week tantrum tour of Australia Lucas Neill did after the infamous Grosso penalty at the World Cup. If you are earning the average yearly wage in a week or two by living out a childhood dream and your biggest problem is that a journo wrote a lie about you being kicked out of a pub, you don't have a right to complain.

For the most part Cahill is adored in Australia and rarely cops criticism. Fox Sports, who covered the game, talked about Cahill after the game like they were reading an erotic novel and Mark Bosnich went on a crazy rant criticising those responsible for the nightclub story and defending Cahills actions.

I just wonder who helped Cahill decide this was a good way to deal with the nightclub story. The kid definitely needs a better PR manager and he needs to grow up a bit. It's not like he is being constantly hounded by paparazzi and slandered constantly in the press. It was one story in a tabloid newspaper that hardly knows what football is.

Grow up Tim or you'll lose a lot of fans

Ronaldo

"It's true lots of people hate me but there are even more who love me and who support me. I feel bad only when I play badly. Fortunately, that happens rarely."

Ahh... sweet modesty

Some Kinda Friend

Milan have signed Ally Cissokho from Porto for £13 million. I think it's a good move. Cissokho is young and talented and has experience in a top competition (Champions League, limited though that experience is). I'd preferred it if Milan could have got a similar player that was Italian, but you can't have everything.

The price isn't too bad considering the current transfer market. United paid £15-18 million each for Anderson and Nani a few years back from Porto and Sporting Lisbon respectively.

Adriano Galliani said "in the end the friendship prevailed, after many years in football, with the Porto directors, with whom in the past we were co-founders of the G-14."

Though it should be noted that Porto paid £250,000 for Cissokho just 6 months ago. If all you have to do to make a deal with your friends is provide them with a 5200% profit on a 6 month investment, it's time to get new friends.

Deja Vu

Italian football is in crisis and the failure of its clubs in Europe is the least of its worries. It is a crisis of credibility, in a football world that grows madder by the day and seems quite unable to learn from its mistakes. Then again, what can you expect from a country that is almost certainly going to elect Silvio Berlusconi as its prime minister

May 2001

Milan, the five-times European Cup winners owned by the Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, are facing a financial crisis that could cost the manager and vice-president their jobs and see a host of the club's biggest names sold off to pay debts, which stand at more than £100m.

February 2002

We have to hear it every time an Italian club doesn't win the Champions League, every time some nut pretending to be an ultra gets caught on the way to a game with a collection of knives, every time the corruption that's plagued not only Calcio, but the country, rears its head and every time some corrupt construction mogul from Madrid, Russian oil magnate, or trillionaire Middle-Eastern business group buys our best players at grossly inflated prices.

By the time the apocalypse does hit Italian football it'll be a non-event. English pundits are extremely fond of predicting the end of Italian football. Perhaps it's because the amount of English footballers to have succeeded in Italy only marginally exceeds the amount of times England has won the World Cup.

At the beginning of the century Italian football had huge problems and after a decade and a half of Milan and Juventus being regular fixtures in the final of the European Cup/Champions League, Italian clubs were struggling to make a mark on the worlds greatest club competition. The end looked nigh.

Towards the end of the 2002 season, amongst all the trouble Italian football was already in, it was revealed AC Milan were in heavy financial debt and in danger of having to release many of its stars.

At the end of 2003, at Old Trafford, surrounded by the English Press that so dearly love to predict Italian football's demise, AC Milan and Juve played in the first all Italian Champions League final and the winners that day, Milan, would go on to dominate Europe for half a decade.

Here we are again, the end of the decade, the clouds are gathering and everyone is predicting the end, once again, of Italian football. Does Italian football have problems? Definitely, but it doesn't mean it cant change.

The 2008 player of the year was Cristiano Ronaldo. In 2003 he was a relatively unknown 17 year old with a lot of promise, but a long way to go to become the real deal. By the end of the 2006 World Cup he was one of the Worlds best and just two years later he was the worlds best at the tender age of 22.

Cristiano Ronaldo's heir apparent is Lionel Messi. When he made his debut for Barca at the age of 17 against Udinese in 2005, he was just the next in along line of youth products coming out of the Barca youth system. Messi had plenty of talent, but was unrefined and Barca weren't even sure what position he should play. At 21, Messi lead Barca to a treble, the first by a Spanish team and is the odds on favourite to inherit the World Player of the Year crown from Ronaldo.

So who knows, there could be a couple of 16 or 17 year olds sitting in the youth teams of one of the Italian teams waiting for a chance that they just might get with Kaka leaving and others predicted to follow. And in 3 or 4 years time they might be winning Champions Leagues for Milan, Juve, Inter or some other Italian club and being hailed as the World's best.