MARCELO
GALLARDO
The River Plate
boss became
the first coach
to win three
Superclasicos
in a row when
River beat Boca
Juniors 2-
in their Copa
Libertadores
semi-final
first leg.
CYPRUS
Their 2-1 win in
Kazakhstan in a
Euro qualifier was
the first time in 59
years they won a
competitive game
in which they had
trailed at half-time.
Bienvenue
Michel?
Michel Platini is back. Well, free at least.
Now 64, the former UEFA president has
completed his four-year suspension for
accepting a $2million “disloyal payment”
from FIFA, as approved by then-supremo
Sepp Blatter. The ban prevented Platini
standing in the election – for which he
would have been favourite – to become
FIFA president in the spring of 2016.
Platini remains bitter and angry
at the men and the system which, he
insists, betrayed him. His ban expired
on October 7 and he has expressed
a will to return to the game.
He also resents Gianni Infantino
wielding the crown which should have
been his, stating: “Gianni Infantino was a
very good lawyer, a very good general-
secretary, but he has no legitimacy, no
credibility as president of FIFA.”
Earlier this year Platini devised a plan
to bring together, under his leadership,
the top clubs’ body ECA and the players’
union FIFPro.
His idea was “that they could work
with each other and decide whether they
wanted to continue with the Champions
League or some other competition”.
Platini had high hopes after discussing
his idea with Philippe Piat, head of
FIFPro, and Andrea Agnelli, president of
Juventus. But he was to be disappointed,
claiming: “They all said they would get
back to me and never did.”
Don’t call us, we’ll call you.
MARCO
GIAMPAOLO
Sacked after
just 111 days
in charge, he
became the
shortest-serving
coach in Milan’s
history.
TOTTENHAM
HOTSPUR
Their 7-2 loss to
Bayern Munich was
the biggest home
defeat for an English
team in any European
competition.
CAMBODIA
Lost 14-0 away
to Iran and then
4-0 at home to
Iraq in the space
of five days
during the latest
round of World
Cup qualifiers in
Asia. After four
games they are
bottom of Group
D with a -19 goal
difference.
ban and fines ranging between nothing
and €80,000:
OClosed doors and fines: Hungary
(€67,125), Romania (€83,000), Slovakia
(€20,000), Dinamo Tbilisi (€50,000),
Partizan Belgrade, Slovan Bratislava
(€50,000), Universitatea Craiova
(€60,000), Serbia (€33,250)
OPartial closures: Bulgaria, Romania,
Lazio, Levski Sofia, Lokomotiv Plovdiv,
Rangers
ONo away tickets: Red Star Belgrade
(€50,000)
Racist incident charges were raised but
then dropped against Latvia, Olympiakos
and Porto.
This is not an insignificant number of
punishments, but virtually all of them
went unreported except in the countries
directly affected. To that extent, UEFA
has a message problem. This also stems
from the fact that, for administrative
convenience, disciplinary action for racist
incidents is lumped in with fireworks,
stewarding failures, kit-regulation
breaches, serious foul play, dissent, etc.
Hence whatever action UEFA does
take is buried among the day-to-day
disciplinary detritus and rarely makes
the mainstream media.
Ceferin admits “football associations
themselves cannot solve this [racism]
problem” and has appealed to “everyone
from administrators to players, coaches
and fans to work with governments and
NGOs to wage war on the racists and
marginalise their abhorrent views to
the fringes of society”.
Infantino echoed him, saying: “We will
need the support of public authorities to
help us identify and punish the culprits,
but we probably also need to think more
broadly on what we can do to fix this.
“When we proposed the three-step
procedure in 2009 when I was at UEFA,
and then made the regulations even
tougher a few years later, we could not
have imagined that so shortly thereafter
we would again be having to think of how
to combat this obnoxious disease that
seems to be getting even worse in some
parts of the world.”
Maybe a start might be withholding
those annual FIFA grants and/or the TV
cash share-out from central marketing
of the European Championship?
Competition expulsion must also be
added to the protocol.
ANDORRA
Ended a 21-year
wait for a first
Euro qualifying win
with a 1-0 victory
over Moldova.
Back...
Michel
Platini
GLOBAL FOOTBALL INTELLIGENCE