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Random Thoughts on the First and Second Qualifying Rounds
By: Dan |
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Even taking UEFA’s excessively long ceremonies for its competition draws into account, no one is going to accuse the early qualifying rounds of the Europa League of vulgar, conspicuous consumption. Although a familiar name pops up now and again, this time of year is the domain of Europe’s minnows, who are ready for their [...]
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Red Bull, Again
By: Dan | 1 Comment
Just when it seemed that I could not possibly write another piece on news going on outside the transfer window, comes a head-in-hands piece of bad news from the eastern German city of Leipzig. Tinned beverage manufacturer Red Bull has ‘rebranded’ another club, Germany’s fifth division SSV Markranstädt, with the hopes of establishing the [...]
Leave The Capitol: Foreign Player Limits Come to Bulgaria
By: Dan | 1 Comment
One of the major issues that invariably comes up as part as proposed reforms to the game is a return to the days of limits on foreign players. The current incarnation under discussion is the 6 + 5 rule. Usually, these limits are discussed in terms of the larger leagues as a punitive [...]
Debt and the Maiden
By: Dan | 1 Comment
Despite Real Madrid’s best efforts to buy everybody, I still consider this time of year, the first few weeks after the end of the season, to be unbearably slow. There is, however, one issue that doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon: debt. The troubled world economy has pushed club finances to [...]
Goodbye Lenin (and Cottbus)
By: Dan | No Comments
As 2009 progresses, it seems that nearly every day that goes by is the anniversary of a significant landmark of East Germany’s dissolution. For the football clubs of the former GDR, marking this anniversary by seeing their only Bundesliga representative, Energie Cottbus, unceremoniously discarded from the top flight by Nurnberg is a coincidence cruel [...]
Europa League to Host Referee Experiments
By: Dan | No Comments
If you have not seen Daryl’s entry on the front page, UEFA has declared that their experiments with two extra officials, placed behind the goals, will take place during the Europa League next season.
Any experiment, to move beyond theory, will have to be tested in the real world at some point. Running [...]
Idle speculation about next season.
By: Dan | 2 Comments
With the exception of the Romanian qualifiers, next season’s Europa League teams are now firmly in place. UEFA probably could not be more pleased with the way events have played out. Of course there is the usual mixture of up and coming teams, Metalist Kharkiv is back, for instance, and big names from [...]
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