England have avoided Germany in Euro 2020 qualifying but Northern Ireland must face the three-time winners and the Netherlands in Group C. At forty two in the world, the Czech Republic are the next highest ranked team in England's group, which is completed by Bulgaria, Montenegro and Kosovo. Germany dropped into pot two for the draw after a disappointing World Cup and suffering relegation in the UEFA Nations League. As well as facing Ze Chermans and the Dutch, unlucky Northern Ireland will also play Estonia and Belarus. The Republic of Ireland had, initially, been drawn in Group C but were handed a reprieve as the group already contained two of the twelve host nations for Euro 2020. They were, therefore, placed in Group D instead, along with Switzerland, Denmark, Georgia and Gibraltar. They should, at least, be able to beat Gibraltar. That is, if it hasn't been invaded by Spain by that time. Fellow hosts Scotchland joined Belgium, Russia, Cyprus, Kazakhstan and San Marino in a tough-looking Group I, whilst Wales will meet World Cup finalists Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary and Azerbaijan in Group E. The Euro 2020 qualifiers will take place between March and November 2019, with the winner and runner-up of each group going through directly. The qualifying process is condensed because of this year's Nations League group games, with England and Scotland guaranteed at least a Euro 2020 play-off place should they fail to qualify via their regular qualifying group after winning their Nations League sections. Wembley will stage both the semi-finals and the final of Euro 2020, as well as three group games and a last-sixteen match. Glasgow's Hampden Park and Dublin's Aviva Stadium will each host three group games and a last-sixteen match. England had to be placed in a five-team group, as did Portugal, the Netherlands and Switzerland, to ensure that they have free dates for the Nations League finals in June 2019. Portugal are in Group B along with Ukraine, Serbia, Lithuania and Luxembourg. In Group F, Spain will face Sweden, Norway, Romania, Faroe Islands and Malta. Poland, Austria, Israel, Slovenia, Macedonia and Latvia feature in Grop G whilst World Cup winners France, Iceland, Turkey, Albania, Moldova and Andorra will contest Group H. Group J has Italy, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Finland, Greece, Armenia and Liechtenstein.
A petrol bomb was thrown and police clashed with Ajax supporters during the Dutch club's two-nil Champions League win against AEK Athens in Greece this week. Home supporters reportedly threw flares into the stands housing Ajax fans and pictures show flames burning next to the away section. Images also show police officers hitting Ajax fans, leaving some with blood pouring down their faces. Ajax defender Matthijs de Ligt ran over to the visiting fans to plead for calm. At the start of the second half there were further crowd disturbance as several firecrackers were set off. Players from both sides were seen to be rubbing their eyes as smoke drifted across the Athens Olympic Stadium. Ajax secured victory through two goals from former Southampton forward Dusan Tadic to progress to the last sixteen for the first time since 2005. AEK, who had Marko Livaja sent off for two yellow cards, are bottom of Group E without any points.
This blogger thinks it was appalling that UEFA made The Scum play against Young Boys in the Champions League this week, dear blog reader. Couldn't they find some, you know, older ones?
An amateur Irish football club have grovellingly apologised after falsely reporting the death of one of their players. Dublin club Ballybrack FC had informed the Leinster Senior League that Fernando Nuno La-Fuente had died in a traffic accident.Their game against Arklow Town on Saturday was postponed whilst a minute's silence was held before other fixtures in the league. However, it later emerged that La-Fuente is, in fact, alive in his native Spain and the league has launched an investigation in this whole malarkey. The league placed a death notice in an Irish newspaper, offering its 'heartfelt condolences' to Fernando's family and Ballybrack FC, before being notified La-Fuente had not, in fact, died at all. 'It has come to the attention of both the club, senior players and the management team that a gross error of judgement has occurred emanating from correspondence sent from a member of the senior set-up management team to the Leinster Senior League,' Ballybrack said on Tuesday. 'An emergency meeting was held and the person in question has been relieved of all footballing duties, within Ballybrack FC, its senior team and roles within the club itself. The club has contacted Fernando to confirm his whereabouts, well-being and are thankful for his acceptance of our apology on this matter. This grave and unacceptable mistake was completely out of character and was made by a person who has been experiencing severe personal difficulties unbeknownst to any other members of the club. At this stage we can only offer our sincere apologies to the Leinster Senior League, our opponents Arklow Town FC and the host of clubs and football people who made contact with us or offered messages of support in recent days.' League chairman David Moran told the RTE that the club's secretary had extremely resigned earlier on Tuesday. 'The young lad didn't die in a motorbike accident last Thursday. He went back to Spain four or five weeks ago apparently,' he added. 'The Leinster Senior League rang yesterday morning. We wanted to show our sympathies and go to the Mass and maybe meet the family and see what we could do to help in this horrible situation. And, we were told he was flown back to Spain on the Saturday. Straight away, that rang alarm bells for us. How would you die early on Friday morning and be flown back to Spain on the Saturday? We checked the hospitals, we checked everywhere. Nobody could find anything about this young fella. Obviously, some of his team-mates released stuff on social media saying he went back to Spain four weeks ago.' The Leinster Senior League had earlier released a statement which outlined its plans for an investigation. 'The Leinster Senior League will co-operate with all relevant agencies in the investigation of this matter and the league will also deal with this issue through their own internal disciplinary procedures,' it said.
A female fan claims that she was sexually assaulted at a German Bundesliga game and was allegedly told by a steward to 'go home and watch on TV' if she did not like it. The woman claims that she was 'repeatedly groped' by a man who also tried to open her bra during Schalke's match against Nuremberg at Veltins Arena on Saturday. Police in Gelsenkirchen said the woman has filed a complaint and they are trying to identify the dodgy geezer allegedly involved in the incident. Officers are also investigating the alleged behaviour of the steward. Police confirmed that they had started a criminal investigation after the woman filed a complaint after the game. Schalke told BBC Sport that they were taking the allegations 'very seriously.' The club have launched an internal investigation and added: 'We are in the process of getting an overview and working in close cooperation with the police.'
A very naughty man who bombed the Borussia Dortmund team bus in 2017 has been given fourteen years in The Slammer for attempted murder. Sergei Wenergold, a German of Russian origin, had hidden bombs packed with metal pins which went off as the bus passed a hedge on its way to a Champions League quarter-final match. The blast, which wounded two people, was initially treated by authorities as a suspected jihadist attack. But Wenergold admitted the plot, saying that he had not meant to hurt anyone. In a bizarre twist, it emerged that the twenty nine year old had planned to 'make money' out of the bombing by betting on a fall in Borussia Dortmund's stock market price. Dortmund's Spanish defender Marc Bartra and a police officer were wounded in the attack. Wenergold was convicted of twenty eight counts of attempted murder.
Cameroon have been stripped of hosting next year's Africa Cup of Nations, says the Confederation of African Football. African football's governing body, CAF, says it is because of delays in the progress of Cameroon's preparation for the tournament, due to start in June. Officials made the decision at a meeting on Friday in Accra, Ghana, that lasted more than ten hours. CAF president Ahmad Ahmad says it will work to 'determine a new organising country by the end of the year.' The tournament is set to be the first held in June and July and will be expanded from sixteen to twenty four teams. Ahmad said last year that Cameroon still needed 'to convince CAF of its ability' to host the event, with the country playing down fears that sanctions would be imposed if preparations were deemed to be behind schedule. But in August the chairman of CAF's Nations Cup organising committee, Amaju Pinnick, said 'nobody is going to take it away from Cameroon.' Morocco have been touted as potential hosts, having stepped in to hold this year's African Nations Championship after Kenya were deemed not ready.
Glasgow Rangers chairman Dave King has told a court that he 'suspects' some shareholders in the club 'have links to organised crime.' At the Court of Session of Edinburgh, King said he is 'now one hundred per cent committed' to making an offer for the remainder of the club's shareholding. He was ordered to do so after being found to have 'worked with others' when taking control of the club in 2015. But King said that he could not make an offer to four shareholders because of their claimed criminal links. He said that a Glasgow Rangers board meeting last Monday concluded that the four 'could not transfer their stakes,' adding that one of them was 'engaged in criminal activities in the USA.' King has been in dispute with The Takeover Panel, who applied to have the South African businessman held in contempt of court for refusing to comply. The Ibrox chairman had argued that he should be allowed to 'ring-fence funding' for the offer in South Africa but told the court, in front of Lady Wolfe, that after 'exhausting all options,' he will now agree to transfer funds to the UK. The Takeover Panel want financial guarantees of around nineteen million knicker to be held 'by a third party.' As part of his evidence, King also listed key shareholders who, he claims, have told him they will not take up the offer. One of the investors mentioned was former chairman of the football board Sandy Easdale. Easdale subsequently told the BBC that he has given 'no such undertaking.' A spokesman for the Easdales said: 'Despite Mister King's evidence today, at no time has Sandy Easdale given him an assurance that he would not sell his shares for twenty pence as stipulated by The Takeover Panel. Neither Mister Easdale nor his brother, James, have ever spoken to Mister King on this matter.'
Palermo have been sold to 'a London-based company' for the price of ten Euros, the Italian second division side's owner has announced. Maurizio Zamparini said that he has sold 'one hundred per cent of the club' at 'a symbolic price.' Zamparini bought Palermo in 2002 and last year stepped down as president. However, his replacement resigned as a takeover fell through. He made around forty five managerial appointments during his time in charge. Zamparini said he was 'profoundly sad' to finally be leaving but is 'thinking of the club's future.' In an open letter to fans, he added: 'The objective for some time has been to find someone to continue my work with more financial power, capable of investments that I was no longer able to make. The new London-based owners will put into action the construction of the stadium and training ground. I have, with a lump in my throat, signed my departure.' When Zamparini took over, Palermo had not been in the Italian top flight for thirty years. They returned to Serie A for the 2004-05 campaign and competed five times in the UEFA Cup and Europa League under his ownership. Players such as Edinson Cavani, Paulo Dybala and Javier Pastore featured during the years before relegation to Serie B in 2014. They returned immediately to the top flight as second division champions, but were relegated again in 2017. Palermo are currently top of Serie B, three points clear of Pescara.
The second leg of the Copa Libertadores final between Boca Juniors and River Plate has been moved more than six thousand miles away to the Bernabeu in Madrid. The Buenos Aires derby was postponed last weekend, following an attack on the Boca team bus by River Plate fans. Boca players suffered cuts from the glass from broken windows and were also affected by the tear gas used by police to disperse the crowds. The match will now take place on Sunday 9 December. The Copa Libertadores is the showpiece club competition in South America, equivalent to the Champions League in Europe. Both sets of supporters will be given an equal allocation of tickets for the match in the Spanish capital. CONMEBOL, South American football's governing body, rejected Boca's appeal to be awarded the trophy without playing. The fixture had been poised to be the biggest club match in the one hundred and twenty seven-year history of Argentine football, and the first leg ended two-two. But it was marred by the attack which led to a number of players, including Boca's former Sheikh Yer Man City, The Scum and Juventus striker Carlos Tevez, reportedly 'suffering from dizziness and vomiting' and being treated by club doctors. The mayor of Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodriguez Larreta, said River Plate 'hooligans' described as the 'mafia of Argentine soccer' were behind the sick and vicious attack. It came a day after police raided the house of a leader of the Barra Brava - the powerful and violent wing of River's hardcore support - and confiscated ten million Pesos and three hundred tickets for the final. River Plate have been fined over three hundred thousand smackers on account of the violence and the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sanchez, has since tweeted: 'Spain is ready to organise the final of the Copa Libertadores between Boca Juniors and River Plate. The security forces have extensive experience of these situations and are already working on the necessary deployments to ensure the event is secure.'
La Liga has taken the Spanish Football Association to court in its fight to play Girona's home league game against Barcelona in Miami. The Spanish top flight has filed a lawsuit with a civil court in Madrid to force the RFEF to approve the match. A decision is expected around the middle of December. 'La Liga has taken a case to court in Madrid and expect a resolution in the coming days or weeks,' a spokesperson for the league said. It is understood La Liga thinks the RFEF's role in bringing the second leg of the Copa Libertadores final to Real Madrid's Bernabeu stadium on 9 December will strengthen its case, as it is a precedent for matches transcending country and regional borders. The RFEF and Spanish players' union have previously been vocal in their objections to the game. AFE president David Aganzo has now said the match will not go ahead next year, but that it could be 'possible' in the future. La Liga agreed to play one game a season in the US as part of a fifteen-year deal with media company Relevent and Catalan neighbours Girona and Barcelona agreed to move their game to the Hard Rock Stadium. In addition to the Spanish FA, the match also needs the approval of FIFA, US Soccer and the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football. La Liga has previously said it will go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport if FIFA blocks the move. Football's world governing body has not yet formally banned the proposal. Because someone's going to make a shitload of money out of it, obviously. And, FIFA are never one to get in the way of greed.
Dutch police are helping officers in Bristol after a pub was badly damaged in a fight in the run-up to a Championship football match. Officers were called to The Luckwell Hotel on Saturday amid the fight, with kids gettin' sparked and aal sorts. Four men were extremely arrested at the hotel on Sunday morning. Millwall and Bristol City were playing at Ashton Gate later in the day. Avon and Somerset Police said they were working with Dutch police because 'a number of fans have travelled from Holland to watch the game.' Superintendent Paul Mogg, said that he believed the disorder involved 'a number of football fans' planning to go to the match. 'We're working closely with Bristol City FC, as well as officers from the Metropolitan Police and colleagues from the Dutch police to apprehend those involved as we know a number of fans have travelled from Holland to watch the game,' he said. 'Anyone else identified as taking part, can expect to be dealt with robustly. Fortunately, it does not appear anyone was seriously injured in the incident but the pub was significantly damaged.'
