The football blog for fans of all clubs
The opening game of the weekend saw FC Koln take on the in-form Werder Bremen, both looking to finish the season strongly and gain a European spot. It was a ding-dong affair with FC Koln taking the points and finally ending Bremen’s run. Anthony Modeste and Leonardo Bittencourt put Koln two up but Fin Bartels […]
The last Vanarama National League play-off semi-final saw Forest Green Rovers, who were looking to make their 2nd straight play-off final, take on Dagenham & Redbridge, who were eyeing an instant return to the Football League at The New Lawn. With the first leg ending 1-1 after a Liam Noble penalty was cancelled out by […]
It was an odd week of build-up to the showpiece of Northern Irish football as all the pre-match discussion was centred around the man in the middle. Dungannon based referee Raymond Hetherington was the original choice to officiate the match but was struck down with illness in the week prior to the final, his replacement […]
Episode 1 – Introduction to MCOs + The Pozzo Group (link to episode 1) Episode 2 – City Football Group (link to episode 2) Episode 3 – FC Nordsjælland (link to episode 3) Atletico have been on the periphery of La Liga success for a number of years, but it’s only within the last five […]
Episode 1 – Introduction to MCOs + The Pozzo Group (here) Episode 2 – City Football Group (here) The story of FC Nordsjaelland begins back in 1999 when Tom Vernon, then a scout for Manchester United, decided to set up his own football academy in Ghana. He named it the Right To Dream academy, and […]
FC Juárez is a Mexican football club based in the city of Ciudad Juárez. Located just south of the U.S border, Ciudad Juárez is the centre of drug trafficking and crime. In 2010, more than 3000 people were murdered, an average of almost 10 homicides per day. The people were looking for hope, something they […]
Borussia Dortmund had qualified for the Champions League in 1996/97 after winning the Bundesliga the previous season, beaten Bayern Munich to the top spot by six points. Manager Ottmar Hitzfeld had brought in Paul Lambert from Motherwell and Paulo Sousa from Juventus to strengthen the midfielder and produce a challenge in the Champions League. A […]
And we go to the weekend of state championships finals. Often contested, discussed is their importance, if they occupy the unnecessary time of the Brazilian football calendar, Brazilians are sure to say: “winning the state championship is not good, not winning is worse.” In addition to those comments, you’ll see my guesses of who will […]
Quiz question: can you name any player in the world who has played for both Queens Park, in the lower leagues of Scotland, and Konyaspor, in the Turkish Super Lig? No? Really? Well, that is because there is only one player to manage this feat. The answer is young Scottish left-back Barry Douglas. Why is […]
Episode 1: Introduction to MCOs + The Pozzo Group Whilst you may not have heard of the Pozzos, you’ll likely have heard of the City Football Group. The City Football Group technically begun with the purchase of Manchester City by billionaire Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan back in 2008, whilst the subsequent story about […]
I first took an interest in Multi Club Ownerships (I like to refer to them as MCOs) back in the summer of 2012 when the Pozzo family completed their takeover of the team I support – Watford. Obviously wanting to do some research on the new owners, I looked around and found they’d been very […]
In football, there are names that reverberate around the world. The Charlton’s won a World Cup together and Jackie took the Republic of Ireland to two himself as a coach. In Africa, the Ayews are thought of with love due to uncle Kwame and his nephews, Jordan and Andre. The Koemans are now making a […]
FC Köln v Werder Bremen Köln’s defenders will be very happy with themselves as they returned to training this week after a clean sheet against Borussia Dortmund, which meant they have failed to score for the first time since October! Their attackers failed to make the most of some good chances against Dortmund and the […]
It’s a fascinating weekend of Spanish football again as the title race remains neck and neck, the race for Europa League places is just as tight and the last relegation place is looming for Sporting GijĂłn. Sevilla vs Real Sociedad This weekend’s action in Spain kicks off on Friday with Sevilla looking to go level […]
And all of a sudden we are in May and there are only three rounds to play in Liga Nos. And, with those, three chances to see if Porto can still catch Benfica, or if Rui Vitoria’s side are going to make a date with their club’s history, something they would achieve through getting a […]
It is now that time of the season where we can finally acclaim a champion. Juventus can clinch the title with a win and if Roma fail to win against Milan on Sunday. If this is the case, Roma could also slip down to third place if Napoli win against Cagliari. Napoli host Cagliari on […]
When Stuttgart got relegated in the 15/16 season with Frankfurt somehow sneaking into 16th, it came as a surprise to many. Right now, with three games to go, we have a picture that looks familiar with Relegation Play-Off-Specialists Hamburg sitting in exactly that spot. Let us take a look at all of the teams involved […]
Juan Aurich vs UTC Cajamarca A draw is most likely here. UTC have gotten points away from home but aren’t expert travellers and have also dropped many. Although the motivation in this match is that Cajamarca can confirm finishing 1st in their group taking them to the final. However, they’ve showed some weaknesses away from […]
Gonzalo Higuain scored a brace as Juventus recorded a 2-0 win over Monaco in the first leg of their Champions League Semi-Final tie. Juventus came into the match as favourites, but it was the home side that dominated the match for the beginning few minutes. Mbappe spurned a couple of great chances within a period […]
This week saw the quarter-finals of the EA Sports Cup being played with three on the Bank Holiday Monday and one on Tuesday evening. The EA Sports Cup is the SSE Airtricity League equivalent of the League Cup. Again, it was Cork City making all the headlines as their dominant form continued as they beat […]
