The Soccer Thread (Newcastle takeover. For real, this time.)

The first round of the Asian Cup groups stage has ended and here are the results:

Group 1:

• Australia (the hosts) 4-1 Kuwait
• South Korea 1-0 Oman

Group 2:

• Uzbekistan 1-0 North Korea
• China 1-0 Saudi Arabia

Group 3:

• Emirates (my national team) 4-1 Qatar
• Iran 2-0 Bahrain

Group 4:

• Japan (defending champions) 4-0 Palestine (tournament newcomers)
• Iraq 1-0 Jordan

This is probably the first time we (UAE) have a real chance of going through the group stages since the last time we did in 1996, in which we came in second on penalties. As long as we top our group and dodge facing Japan in the quarter-finals, getting to the semi-finals is feasible.

Australia is one of the favorites playing at home, they have been contenders since they joined the AFC. The other favorite is Japan the defending champions, they won 3 of the last 4 tournaments. If these 2 teams top their groups which is expected, they wont face each other till the final. So it could be a repeat of the last tournament's final.

To be honest I expect the final to end up the way you've kind of predicted Japan and Australia. Now though that I know a duder is a UAE fan will definitely keep an eye out! Continually baffled by China's perceived under-achievement for a country so large.

No disrespect to you personally, but Team Meli is gonna smash you guys into pieces :D

Team Meli might as well be team GFB. WE COMING (In reality we are probably gonna lose the quarter/semi finals after going 0-0 and losing on penalties to Japan or Korea)

I'm still amazed James Troisi does so well for himself.

Round 2 of the Asian cup groups stage is over, and the results:

Group 1:

• South Korea 1-0 Kuwait
• Australia 5-0 Oman

Group 2:

• Saudi Arabia 4-1 North Korea
• China 2-1 Uzbekistan

Group 3:

• UAE 2-1 Bahrain
• Iran 1-0 Qatar

Group 4:

• Jordan 5-1 Palestine
• Japan 1-0 Iraq

The teams that have secured qualification to the knockout stage so far are, Australia and S.Korea from group 1, China from group 2, and UAE and Iran from group 3.

Just caught up. That North Korea performance turned into a nightmare after a promising start. I do wonder how far Iran or the Saudis can get in the tournament. Japan and Australia are really performing, though.

In the news this week betting site Paddy Power backs David Ginola for FIFA presidency. This is a rather ropey PR campaign by the Irish bookmakers just to get some punters to chuck money down a well. In the actual contest, Sepp Blatter is up for his umpteenth term whilst being challenged by Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein who currently heads the Asian federation.

Fernando Torres scored twice to send Atletico through in the Copa del Rey against Real Madrid so it looks like he's back to business.

Cristiano Ronaldo won his third World Player of the Year award ahead of Lionel Messi and Manuel Neuer.

African Cup of Nations starts today. ITV4 coverage details here for Brits. 7 live games. Poor.

@theveej: @shindig: @fire_of_the_wind: Any of you watch Portugal's Primeira Liga.

Not since Mario Jardel was scoring 40 a season, sorry. I miss having Eurosport.

@shindig: Do you think Real Madrid can win the Champions League again?

Yeah, probably. They're amongst the favourites along with Bayern and Barcelona.

@shindig: In your mind,do you think Cristiano Ronaldo can win Baloon D'or 2015?

He already did. Like, over a week ago. He'll probably win it next year unless Barcelona sort themselves out.

Dammit it took me over an hour writing about the Asian Cup, I hit edit to edit one thing and my whole post got deleted.

In the spirit of that, lets hope my laptop keeps itself together whilst I go through the first round of AFCoN fixtures.

Group A

Equatorial Guinea 1-1 Congo

Burkina Faso 0-2 Gabon

The hosts are held in the opener whilst Gabon secure a comfortable win courtesy of some cavalier goalkeeping. Dortmund's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang opening the scoring.

Group B

Zambia 1-1 DR Congo

Tunisia 1-1 Cape Verde

All square after the first round of fixtures. Zambia couldn't hold out after taking the lead and Tunisia barely got out the blocks.

Group C

Ghana 1-2 Senegal

Algeria 3-1 South Africa

Mame Birame Diouf turned the tide in the group opener between two of the continental heavyweights. Meanwhile Algeria flatter themselves as South Africa self-destruct. Very harsh.

Group D

Ivory Coast 1-1 Guinea

Mali 1-1 Cameroon

Wasteful Ivory Coast were almost made to pay when Guinea took the lead. Gervinho's dismissal for foul play seemed to galvonise the Elephants into snatching the equaliser. Mali and Cameroon played out a fairly average draw.

@shindig: No,he won Baloon D'or 2014,duder!

The quarterfinals of the Asian cup just ended.

• S.Korea 2-0 Uzbekistan
• Australia 2-0 China
• Iraq 3-3 Iran, 7-6 on penalties for Iraq
• UAE 1-1 Japan, 5-4 on penalties for UAE

The semifinals will be:

• S.Korea v Iraq
• Australia v UAE

We're playing against the hosts next match, it wont be easy but I believe in this team.

@fire_of_the_wind: I have to admit, I was very shocked when I saw the UAE beat Japan. Is the core of the current national team a lot of the group from the 2012 Olympics? They looked like they had something about them, especially Abdulrahman.

@gatehouse: It is the same team and the same manager.

DC United going to face their first "real" test in the CONCACAF Champions League facing off against Costa Rican team Alajuelnese on the 26th. I expect that Olsen will field a team of mostly reserve players, but if he can throw Espindola into the Starting XI then DCU will put up a good fight.

Very happy that Man United managed to scrape a draw at the mighty Cambridge United in the FA Cup. Hopefully we'll be able to sneak one from a set-piece and turn them over at Old Trafford...

Sounds like Rangers have had a fun week of speculation, fan protests that never happened and bizarre bedside interviews. For those that don't follow, here's Wikipedia's condensed version:

On 6 May 2011, Craig Whyte bought David Murray's shares for £1.^[158] On 13 February 2012. Whyte filed legal papers at the Court of Session giving notice of their intention to appoint administrators.^[159] The next day, The Rangers Football Club Plc – which was subsequently renamed RFC 2012 Plc – entered administration over non-payment of £9 million in PAYE and VAT taxes to HM Revenue and Customs. In April the administrators estimated that the club's total debts could top £134m which was largely dependent on the outcome of a First Tier Tax Tribunal concerning a disputed tax bill in relation to an EBT scheme employed by the club since 2001.^[162] However, on 20 November 2012, the Tribunal ruled in favour of Rangers. If that decision is upheld the tax bill could be significantly reduced from an estimated £74m to under £2m. On 4 February 2013, HMRC lodged an appeal of the FFT decision and a further hearing will be carried out by a Second Tier Tribunal.

On 25 June 2012, the Crown Office asked Strathclyde Police to investigate the purchase of Rangers and the club's subsequent financial management during Whyte's tenure.^[166]

Charles Green agreed a deal with the administrators of The Rangers Football Club Plc to purchase the company for £8.5 million if a proposed CVA was agreed or to purchase its business and assets for a £5.5million if the proposed CVA were to be rejected.^[167] On 14 June 2012, the formal rejection of the proposed CVA meant that the company would enter the liquidation process. The accountancy firm BDO were appointed to reveal why the company running the club failed.^"

Rangers returned to the footballing pyramid promptly under a new company and resumed life in the fourth-tier of Scottish football. Almost 3 years on from liquidation, Rangers are now seeking their third manager in a matter of weeks whilst allowing the previous managers one year's notice. In effect, you're paying two managers to stay at home. On the pitch they remain a distant second from an unbeaten Hearts in the Scottish Championship (second tier) and financially they seem desperate.

So step forth Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley and former Newcastle United Managing Director Derek Llambias. The two have had a long term interest in the former Scottish giants and Mike has made attempts to increase his share in the club, prompting talks of a potential takeover. He's now won some brownie points after announcing Ibrox won't be used as part of a loan he's intending to throw their way.

And now the best part of the week. An interview Sky Sports conducted with a bed-ridden Charles Green.

Oh and, if Ashley does take over, where does this leave Newcastle United? Well, as Deloitte published the Football Rich List which places Newcastle in the top 20. He'd be daft to sell that.

Don't suppose any of you folks have an opinion on the whole Frank Lampard situation? Several months ago they announced he would be playing at NYCFC, even selling jerseys with his name on them, in a ploy to attract more season ticket holders before they played a single match. Later it came out Lampard was never going to NYCFC and would instead stay with Manchester City, pissing off the people who had bought tickets because of him. I know the joke about MLS being a choice for European players who are either very old or couldn't quite hack it at the Premiere League level, but this does seem like a case of MC just buying themselves an American farm team so they could tiptoe around financial fair-play rules. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't know tbh, I despise the way Man City go about their business, just buying success, same as Chelsea. But I genuinely don't believe they planned this from the start. Lampard was a free agent, so no transfer fee involved. And i'm assuming the wages they are paying him now will still show up in City's accounts, so I don't see this being some move just to get around the FFP rules.

Lamnpard just ended up being a more important player for them than they intended, especially with Toure off at the AFCON.

One of the maddest days in FA Cup history today! Chelsea and Manchester City have been knocked out at home by lower league opposition (Bradford City and Middlesborough, respectively), Spurs have been turned over at home by bottom of the table Leicester City and high flying Southampton have been beaten by a struggling Crystal Palace side. Amongst the big clubs, only Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United are left standing and it's only the fourth round. The Chelsea result is particularly amusing given their manager Jose Mourinho's comments before the match that it would be "a disgrace" if they lost.

Lampard is still going to NYCFC in the summer.

Yeah the FA cup was crazy this round and that's why I like this competition.

Is there a way I can watch the FA Cup from America? We have NBC for the premier league but I haven't yet found a way to watch cup games or the champions league. This is my first year really getting into football and it's frustrating that I am limited to regular premier league games.

The BBC website has all the goals. There might be some coverage on the BBC iPlayer but I'm positive that's region restricted.

It's always great to see the big boys get a pasting, especially in their own backyard.

Fell asleep infront of the Liverpool/Bolton game the other night, woke up to see Heskey and Gudjohnson in the Bolton lineup, thought I'd somehow teleported back to 1999.

The Asian Cup ended yesterday with the hosts Australia winning it 2-1 in extra time against S. Korea. In the third place match UAE won 3-2 against Iraq.

1. Australia
2. South Korea
3. United Arab Emirates
4. Iraq

As for the individual awards:

• Ali Mabkhout (UAE) won the Golden Boot award with 5 goals.
• Mathew Ryan (Australia) won the Golden Glove award conceding 3 goals.
• Massimo Loungo (Australia) won the Player of the Tournament award.
• The Fair Play award went to Australia.

Pretty sure Fox Sports carries the FA Cup in the US. Fox Sports 1 is showing the Man U v Cambridge match tomorrow.

I knew Celtic was going to win but I thought we would of at least scored

Bayern Munich lost to Wolfsburg. And Ribery picked up an injury.

What's your take on half of Newcastle's reserves turning out of your lot? Is Ashley trying to turn Rangers into a feeder club or is he really desperate to get hold of the club?

@shindig: Aye it's starting to look that way, not sure how I feel about it yet. Funny thing is most of my mates are all Newcastle fans as well, I suppose it's because they are the closest big English team to us.

I suppose an argument could be made that this is just a little extra insurance to ensure his mate Derek Llambias gets the club into the top flight but, the more interest Mike takes in them, the more I see a purchase being inevitable. From his perspective, it takes a lot less in terms of investment to make Rangers profitable whilst also making them appear successful on the pitch. Like Newcastle, there's the infrastructure in place but I'd hate to see what shambles the Rangers accounts are in. He knows how to run a club on a budget but he might have to provide more financial backing than he realises.

I mean, they're paying Ally McCoist £400k to stay at home for a year whilst they can't afford undersoil heating.

I feel like the Intercontinental Cup had prestige, though. The Club World Cup/Championship is just okay though. It is too bad the Club World Cup has not been the tournament since 1960, instead it just "replaced" the hole there, instead of being the renaming of the tournament that was won by so many great players.

That being said the Intercontinental Cup was marred by a lot of ugly things.

How Africa was won.

They don't do short shootouts.

Fun times in the MLS, as both the players and management have called in federal mediators to help them reach an agreement before the season starts in a couple of weeks. My guess is that they'll have a temporary agreement on some forms of compensation and kick the free agency/single-entity can down the road, but who knows?

Also, through interesting circumstances, I got a couple of tickets to see Orlando City SC and NYCFC in their opening match. The two sides finished a friendly and already there's drama on Twitter after the OCSC supporters were called various forms of uncouth, to put it mildly. Should be interesting to see how they'll act during the opener, assuming the long-threatened work-stoppage does not come to pass.

Orlando's attitude to smoke bombs are a bit dumb.

Premier League has a new TV deal. Big, stupid numbers.

Quite a few are upset by this. Its a ridiculous increase that ultimately won't result in ticket prices going down and just perpetuates the Premier League as a product, rather than a competition. The big worry is where the ceiling on this kind of stuff is. The global audience for the Premier League ensures they can flog it to any country they wish. If Sky are struggling for slots to pack in more coverage, they'll just create a new channel (they did that this year by offloading their European games to Sky Sports 5) so the bubble looks set to continue. A bubble which has shown no signs of stopping in the 22 years since Murdoch's money rebranded the top flight into a more family friendly atmosphere.

Grim.

What exactly was the deal with the Premier League at the early stages? I understand that it effectively "replaced" the Football League then the second division became the Championship, and so on. I understand it was originally for a TV deal, but what else was there to it? As well I have no clue what happened in Scotland to spur something similar, as I have only started watching Scottish football since not long before Rangers left the top flight.

Also wow, those were some fantastic games today.

The Taylor report which recommended all major league stadia be converted to all-seater venues. This was all setup in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster in which 96 Liverpool fans were crushed at Sheffield Wednesday's ground. The all-seater measure was a way to prevent another crush. One of the major factors of Hillsborough was the fact more fans were being let into the ground after it was deemed full and, at the time, grounds had fencing to prevent fans escaping on to the pitch.

Now, the fencing bullshit was something set up by the government of the day to contain hooligan elements. This came about in response to the 1985 Heysel disaster in which 39 Juventus fans died after opposing Liverpool fans rushed them. This disaster ruled English clubs out of European competitions (a big moneymaker) for 5 years, Liverpool for 6.

So, with the ban lifted the Football Association looked to satellite television to offer more coverage of the league. Terrestrial TV just couldn't match the offer and Sky could effectively market the new league as a clean break from the 80s image. Satellite TV also allowed a bigger audience so more money was due to the league and could, therefore offer the clubs more money. This was arguably the start of when the Premier League's ideal of a promised land that every club wanted to get to had began.

In short, the English game was in a bad way in the early 90s. The European ban had just ended but, aside from Man Utd's Cup Winners Cup... win, they weren't competitive. The Heysel disaster brought the unsavoury elements to the continent whilst Hillsborough brought it home and, was arguably, the last straw. Sky gave the league an offer impossible to refuse to rebrand the image of the top flight and the deal was done.

I remember that game like it was yesterday. Mark Hughes scored a couple of fine goals, taking revenge on Barcelona after his difficult time there. Then current Southampton Manager Ronald Koeman buried one of his trademark free kicks to make the last few minutes interesting. The whole cup run was amazing, it's what made me fall in love with football in the first place. United weren't a great side back then to be honest, I certainly picked a good time to get involved :-)

@shindig: Ah I see, that makes perfect sense as I hadn't exactly put the two tragedies together with the formation of the PL. Obviously that disaster was the death nail to the golden age of Liverpool and a lot of English clubs for awhile.

I can see both sides of the coin, but certainly the growing money pumped into the league can be at least a bit unfortunate to people who have to pay to watch games (getting more expensive), or lesser teams moving up the Premier League possibly having a tough time financially have all these different pressures to stay in, or teams needs to renovate or build entirely new stadiums, and so on. As well as the growing amount of ads on everything - especially the kits is so slippery. I am glad England isn't as bad as so many kits in South America that look like NASCAR cars at this point and kind of ruin some of the beauty in some of the modern sportswear out there.

I actually think the pressures to stay in the Premiership are lessened due to parachute payments and such. Hence why clubs like Leicester and Burnley aren't losing faith with their managers just yet. There's a definite lack of a trickle down effect with regards to League One downwards. This was actually something the ITV Digital deal of 2001 was hoping to address until that collapsed almost immediately. It left a lot of Football League clubs scrambling for funding in the aftermath. As soon as Sky came in to rebrand the Premiership, the top flight was seemingly ring-fenced from the other divisions so the money doesn't make its way down as it should.

Advertising's actually a telling sign for where the league has gone. In the 90s, everyone seemingly was sponsored by electronics or alcohol. Nowadays its financial institutions. The Premiership has gone from being sponsored by Carling to Barclays bank, The League Cup has went from Coca Cola to Capital One although, in an excellent twist of fate, the FA Cup is Budweiser's domain after being under the thumb of insurance peddlers AXA. And then there's stadium naming rights, which is a whole other mire.

Just thought I'd pop into here to say how sad it is that Parma FC are basically being dissolved. No one at the club's been paid since last July, and their last game against Udinese was cancelled because they couldn't even afford to run the match. It's a really sad end for a club that fielded so many fantastic players during the late nineties and even won the Uefa Cup.

Hmmm fifa committee has now officially suggested that the 2022 world cup in Qatar take place in November / December because of the heat, under a shortened schedule. http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/24/football/qatar-2022-world-cup-winter/index.html

This is going to cause massive upheaval to the domestic leagues world wide. The 2022 world cup is shaping up to be a massive clusterfuck.

It already has been from the very start.

FIFA is gonna have to pay for all the problems caused by this. This can just be a good thing.

@battlemcstruggle: This is probably not going to happen, but imagine if the decision leads to the bigger nations having to send b-tier teams to the cup. I'm not sure if the league-teams are allowed to stop players from going to the world cup, but I would imagine that teams like Real, Barca, Bayern M and so on wouldn't be so keen on letting their players leave for a tournament in the middle of the season, especially a shorter tournament that could make the players even more worn out. But this is what happens when the whole world of soccer is being controlled by money. And boy, do FIFA like them some money!

@shindig: I don't have a problem with something being named THE COCA-COLA FOOTBALL LEAGUE, but the names of stadiums like the Emirates and the Etihad are pretty lame and corporate, and you tend to miss the elegant and classic names like Highbury. I miss the days of Nintendo sponsoring Fiorentina, SEGA sponsoring Arsenal and other rad sponsors like DEMON INTERNET (Fulham) and The Untouchables (Motherwell) and other various amusing and accidentally stylish and ironic or iconic ones.

Also man, what a great day in the Champions League! Bummer Messi's PK went awry.