Global Football Odds & Ends

OCST said:

Astounding, really.

Click to expand...

mauf said:

Anyone else watching the U23 Preolympico tournament on FS2?

They had an announcer for one game who sounded like he was 12 and bounced back and forth between English and Spanish. (I assumed I was just having trouble with his accent, but my son was like, no, that’s Spanish.)

Click to expand...

wonderland said:

Looks like that Leicester deal fell through. Still, crazy amounts of money.

Click to expand...

dirtynine said:

The end of Iran / Qatar (right now) is very intense. 2-2, Iran dominating possession, Qatar scores against the run of play in the 83' to go ahead, wild atmosphere. This will be 10 minutes of absolute bombardment on the other end.

Click to expand...

dirtynine said:

Iran should have had a third in about 20 different ways. I still think they're getting it.

Click to expand...

dirtynine said:

Wow. That was a cauldron. Qatar advances.

Click to expand...

“We found this team and fell in love with the community. We calculated the cost to go up, our predicted promotion. People act like we spend a lot but it’s very reasonable. I didn’t have the luxury of patience; we faced bankruptcy. Our first-team budget is around €2.2m (£1.7m). We’ll spend but I won’t throw $350,000 at some 35-year-old. We’re doing it differently. Young players, proper coaches, staff, the right facilities.”

Click to expand...

“I’m overbearing in squad composition,” Voulgaris admits. Is that hard for the sporting director? There’s a smile. “We don’t really have one.” And the coach? Voulgaris admits seeing one starting XI last season and thinking: really? “But,” he says, “the coach does what he wants. I ask questions, like to understand, but don’t interfere.

Click to expand...

Voulgaris discusses contrasting mentalities – north American, north European, Spanish – the influence of agents, and building owner-player relationships, the lessons learned in the NBA and how footballers can be emotional. “There’s a book that’s Buddhist stoicism through tennis – I’ve given that to a couple,” he says, patting Oscar, his secret weapon: “He’s the ultimate ice breaker; he takes the pressure off round here. That human element is the biggest challenge, the most interesting part of the puzzle. You can’t put that on the spreadsheet.”

Click to expand...

There’s a pause. “Well, in the NBA you can,” he says, laughing. “Coaches that aren’t very sharp say: ‘Your models don’t tell you that.’ Actually, they do. Ceiling cameras take 24 photos a second. Everything is captured. I had a conversation with an assistant coach who didn’t believe in data at all. He’s been married 15 years. I said: ‘Who knows you better? Your wife or your Google search history?’ His face …

“You get coaches who are disparaging of analytics. It’s a culture war; that’s why I wanted my own team. Now if I have someone like that – and I did when I took over here – they’re gone. There’s the ‘Americans know nothing’ thing, eye rolling. But now everyone gets it.”

Click to expand...

Voulgaris laughs. “The players were going round going: ‘Prima, prima’ at me and I’m thinking they like me: prima, prime, No 1. Sounds good. But it means ‘bonus’. ‘OK, let’s talk.’ I gave them two options: a promotion bonus, even if via the playoffs, or a bigger bonus but only if you win the league. They chose that, gambled on themselves. I think we’re doing pretty special stuff here. It’s our model so it’s biased, but we’re 53% to win the league.”

Oscar pads across. “When I started, I wanted to buy a basketball team,” Voulgaris says. “They were trading for $200m, $300m and I was like: ‘I can get there.’ Every time I got close, the goalposts moved: $300m, $700m, $1bn. I felt like Sisyphus with the rock. What I didn’t realise when I was young and stupid is that some of the dudes owning NBA teams have nowhere near 100%. If I had known that: different ball game. So I end up in Castellón instead. But I like it. It’s a chance to genuinely affect people’s lives and I wouldn’t change anything. This is perfect.”

Click to expand...

Morgan's Magic Snowplow said:

FIFA is a corrupt joke of an organization, part one million.

View: https://twitter.com/martynziegler/status/1768310599941750981

Click to expand...

An independent panel has handed Everton a two-point deduction on Monday for breaching the Premier League's profit and sustainability (PSR) rules, the second time the club has faced a points deduction this season.

Premier League regulations stipulate that a club can lose no more than £105 million ($132.54m) over a three-year period.

"Over a three-day hearing last month, the independent Commission heard evidence and arguments from the club in respect of a range of potential mitigating factors for its admitted breach of £16.6million, including the impact of its two successive PSR charges," the Premier League said in a statement.

"Having done so, the Commission determined the appropriate sanction to be a two-point deduction, taking effect immediately."

The points deduction means Everton have dropped one place in the Premier League table to 16th, two points above the relegation zone.

Click to expand...

Fenerbahce players walked off the pitch after one minute of Sunday's Turkish Super Cup match against Galatasaray, forcing the game to be abandoned and conceding the trophy.

Fenerbahce, who fielded their Under-19 team, withdrew from the rearranged match in Sanliurfa about 1,000 km from Istanbul after Galatasaray's Argentine striker Mauro Icardi scored.

Media reported the club had requested the game be postponed ahead of their Europa Conference League quarterfinal, first leg at Olympiakos Piraeus on Thursday but were turned down.

Fenerbahçe president Yıldırım Ali Koç spoke of a "rebellion" in a statement on the club's website, where he detailed alleged injustices going back over the years. "It is time for a 'reset' for Turkish football," Koc said.

Two Fenerbahçe players, İrfan Can Eğribayat and Jayden Oosterwolde, were banned for one match by the Turkish soccer federation last week after a Superlig game against Trabzonspor. Trabzonspor fans had charged onto the pitch after the final whistle. Trabzonspor was ordered to play six games without fans as punishment.

"As the largest sports club in the world, with 30 million fans who embody the national values of their respective countries, we'll continue to stand tall today and in the future, just as we did yesterday," Fenerbahce said on social media Sunday.

The Turkish Super Cup was scheduled to be played in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh in December, but was postponed.

Media reported at the time that the two teams would not play the match as Saudi authorities did not allow the players to wear T-shirts featuring the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in the warmup ahead of the evening kickoff.

Click to expand...

At a Premier League Shareholders’ meeting today, clubs unanimously agreed to the introduction of Semi-Automated Offside Technology.

The new system will be used for the first time in the Premier League next season, and it is anticipated the technology will be ready to be introduced after one of the autumn international breaks.

The technology will provide quicker and consistent placement of the virtual offside line, based on optical player tracking, and will produce high-quality broadcast graphics to ensure an enhanced in-stadium and broadcast experience for supporters.

Click to expand...

Vinho Tinto said:

AVB has been elected club President of FC Porto. Replacing Pinto da Costa after 42 years. The club won two European Cups, 23 league titles and 68 trophies during PdC's run.

View: https://twitter.com/PsoccerCOM/status/1784337853696139725

Click to expand...

One television in the directors’ box at the City Ground bore the brunt when Arsenal won at Forest in January, Marinakis’s shoe put through the plasma screen in frustration...On his left arm, Marinakis has a tattoo that reads: “Dream, Love, Create, Fight, Survive, Win.” And there is certainly fight left in him. It was only in 2021 that he was banned in Greece for two months from entering the field of play after verbally abusing a referee. There was also a £26,000 fine for abusing referee Tassos Sidiropoulos following a 1-1 draw with Aris Thessaloniki.

Click to expand...

Jake Peavy's Demons said:

Not sure the best place to put this (new thread?) but EPL have voted to introduce a spending cap. 16 clubs voted yes, while MC, MU, & AV all voted no. Chelsea abstained.

This would not go into effect for current wages, clubs, etc, & the amount will be the least amount of £ earned by TV rights by 1 club in the EPL. There will be no need to reduce current wages or current spending.

https://www.90min.com/premier-league-clubs-vote-to-introduce-spending-cap?utm_source=fotmob&utm_medium=share

Click to expand...

InstaFace said:

Or perhaps this only applies to wages, and transfer amounts remain uncapped? *Reads article* nope it covers wages, transfer fees and agent fees, collectively. Wow. Might as well rename the UCL trophy to the Real Madrid Cup, then.

Click to expand...

rguilmar said:

Isn’t the Champions League already the Real Madrid Invitational?

In fairness to RM though, they’ve been paying significantly less than Premier League rivals over the recent past. This season, a larger than usual transfer window for Real Madrid, they would have ranked 11th in the Premier League in net transfer expenses, just behind Bournemouth and well behind Nottingham Forest. Last summer, Real Madrid made money on transfers and would have been the most frugal team in the Prem by a long distance in terms of transfers.

For context here, from what I’m reading the cap will be set around five times the revenue of the lowest earning Premier League club from the previous season, so this year it would have been 5X the over £100 million from Southampton (I think it was them) so the cap would be over £500 million. That is significantly higher than what Real Madrid spent this season, which includes the huge Bellingham transfer fee. It is also more than the budget allowed to Barcelona and Atletico Madrid combined*. Real Madrid are allowed a higher budget but they don’t come anywhere near that amount, and Barcelona would sell whatever is left of their soul for a budget like the reported Premier League cap.

It’s not about Real Madrid. They’ve done more with less, in some cases significantly so. Premier League teams need to be smarter about team building.

*Anyone can feel free to double check my math. Exchange rates can be tricky.

Click to expand...

teddykgb said:

AFAIK City aren’t spending all that close to that amount either. Real Madrid have tightened up recently but they broke the bank for Bellingham and were prepared to do so for Mbappe but he turned them down. Where Madrid maybe deserve credit vs City is that they don’t bother buying the Mateus Nunes of the world if a mega star doesn’t work out

Click to expand...

Kliq said:

PSG on the other hand...

It helps to have the branding advantage and to have young players just dying to want to put on the white jersey, but Real's post-Ronaldo rebuild has been an incredible job from getting the right manager, to identifying really good young pros, scouting at the youth level, and wisely spending big on core players.

Click to expand...