As the Champions League returns for the knockout stage, James Dutton looks at some of the names ready to light up the competition…
It is an old adage in the football world that has been popularized over time; if you lay any claim to be amongst the best in world football, either at present or through the ages, then you have to prove it on the greatest stage of all – the World Cup.
With the countdown well under way for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Rory Macdowall assesses the host’s chances of winning the tournament on home soil…
On 16th July 1950 in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana, Alcides Ghiggia completed a storming run to fire in a goal at the near post, securing a Uruguayan victory in that year’s World Cup. The goal was met with near silence in a primarily Brazilian crowd of 173,850, stunned into submission by one of the greatest upsets in football history. The loss burned in the hearts of the biggest footballing nation on the planet, their right to win thwarted by their tiny neighbour to the south.
False Nine writer Ethan Meade forecasts greater challenges from Eastern Europe and Paris in elite European competition…
Upon his election as President of UEFA, Michel Platini made it an express concern to diffuse European power away from solely in the hands of the traditional powerhouses. He had numerous plans to do this, ranging from changing the format of Champions League qualification, to the often mentioned, but seldom properly understood, Financial Fair Play rules. Continue reading