There can be no question that Chelsea were the dominant force in the Premier League last season, with Jose Mourinho’s men sweeping aside all that stood before them with ominous ease. It was the combination of superb defensive resilience and ruthlessness in attack that saw Chelsea not only set a new league record for the length of time spent at the summit, but also effectively saw them win the title in the first half of the season.
All the plaudits which headed their way were thoroughly deserved, but although their rivals looked on with enviable eyes, there was little surprise when Bookies.com made Chelsea favourites to successful defend their Premier League crowd. However, no-one could predict the dramatic fall from grace that they have endured this season, with Mourinho not only losing his job at Stamford Bridge for the second time in his managerial career, but Chelsea find themselves just one point above the relegation zone. Read more
Newcastle United manager Steve McClaren has had to fend off questions about dressing room bust ups as is the case with every other team that is struggling in the Premier League.
The club are still winless under the new manager, who came on as the replacement in the summer. McClaren has previously disappointed in his roles at Premier League and Championship clubs. It seems like more of the same at Newcastle, who suffered an embarrassing 2-1 home defeat against newly promoted Watford during the weekend. The team showed no fighting spirit throughout the 90 minutes and McClaren is already fighting to remain in the job.
There have been allegations of problems in the dressing room caused by Cheick Tiote, who is currently injured. McClaren has dismissed those concerns by saying that he is someone who knowsTiote extremely well even from his days at FC Twente. Despite strengthening the squad immensely over the summer, Newcastle look to remain in the relegation dogfight towards the end of the campaign. Keen to avoid this, it has been suggested that the club must invest more in the upcoming January transfer window. McClaren, though, just wanted to concentrate on the club’s upcoming game against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Read more
A number of tributes have been going in for Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard, who prepares to play his final game at Anfield.
The midfielder has joined LA Galaxy on a two-year contract and will be linking up with his new teammates after the end of the Premier league season. Since Liverpool conclude this campaign with an away match against Stoke City, a lot of tributes have been flowing in for Gerrard ahead of the final home game for Liverpool against Crystal Palace. The 34-year-old has spent his entire career at the club despite interest from several top clubs on numerous occasions.
Francesco Totti is also a legend in his own right. He has been at Roma since becoming a professional. Unlike Gerrard, it does not seem as if the Italian international is not ready to leave Roma for a final stint in the MLS or the Middle East. The 40-year-old continues to be a key player at the club. Gerrard, however, was in and out of the team during his final season and this appears to have played a major factor in convincing the player to leave Liverpool. Totti has lavished praise on the 34-year-old by saying that he is the complete midfielder in the world. Read more
The Champions League final is now the most watched sporting event in the world and this year’s showpiece between Barcelona and Juventus promises to be a game you can’t take your eyes off.
Barcelona’s victory over Manchester United in 2009 was the first time the Champions League final had overtaken the Super Bowl in terms of number of television viewers. Audience figures have continued to increase over the past few years, with around 165 million people globally watching last year’s final between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid.
A similar figure will be expected this year when both finalists will walk out at Berlin’s Olympiastadion aiming to win a Treble.
Barcelona have already won La Liga and the Copa del Rey this season. Juventus, meanwhile, have won Serie A and the Coppa Italia. Barcelona have history of winning the Treble as they achieved that feat in 2009, but Juventus have yet to win all three trophies in the same year.
So, in front of a potentially record-breaking television audience, who is going to come out on top and be the Treble winners?
With Lionel Messi in their team, Barcelona are always going to be the favourites to win and the Argentinian superstar has been in sensational form over the past few months. He scored a stunning goal as well in the Copa del Rey final win over Athletic Bilbao.
He is also trying to become the first player to score in three Champions League finals after previously scoring against United in 2009 and 2011. It is certainly worth searching for the free bets that bookies offer to have a punt on Messi scoring in the final again.
Barcelona will be appearing in their eighth final in the competition and they have so far won four of those. Their first victory came against Italian opposition when they beat Sampdoria in 1992, while their most recent defeat came two years after that when they were thrashed in 1994 by the great AC Milan side of the era. But Barcelona have won their last three finals – all against English opposition – and their front three of Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar is going to take some stopping.
Juventus are also in the final for the eighth time, but it is their first appearance since losing on penalties to Milan 12 years ago. Juve have only won two of their finals – against Liverpool in 1985 and Ajax in 1996 – and no team has lost six finals.
The Italians also have a poor scoring record after scoring just three goals in their last seven appearances.
However, they do have players with experience of winning the Champions League as Patrice Evra and Carlos Tevez both won with United, and Alvaro Morata was part of Real’s successful team 12 months ago. Also, midfielder Andrea Pirlo was part of the Milan side which beat Juve in the final in 2003.
Pirlo, along with veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, also has happy memories of the Olympiastadion after winning the World Cup at the venue in 2006 when Italy beat France on penalties.
There is plenty of evidence pointing towards a Barcelona win, but in beating Real Madrid in the semi-finals, Juventus showed they can cope with a mesmerising attack and it would be no surprise if they became the latest team to win this Treble.
With British teams having made an early exit from European competition this year, there is little domestic interest in this week’s Champions League quarter-final ties. Instead, the focus of much of the English football public will already have switched to the forthcoming FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley.
Some may say that the competition is a distraction from the important business of the Premier League, and others may say that the significance of reaching the final has been diminished by hosting the semi-finals at the home of English football. But that will not stop the remaining four teams giving it everything they have to make it through. In this article we look at four of the men who will be shouldering much of the goalscoring responsibility for their teams at Wembley. Read more
The English Premier League has confirmed that it will be sharing a significant portion of the new television money to the lower leagues.
The Premier League has been heavily criticised for widening the gap between the Championship and the English top division. Clubs in the Premier league can earn – through television money – in a single campaign what they would on for a decade in the Championship. Such wide gulf in class could mean bad for the game going forward, but Premier league chief executive Richard Scudamore has confirmed that the lower leagues will now receive £1 billion – over three years – from next season onwards.
This figure is a substantial increase from the current £700 million provided to the lower leagues. This increase comes after Premier league negotiated a new £ 5 million deal with sky and BT for television rights starting from the 2016 season. The league will be investing this figure in five areas – grassroots, participation, solidarity, disadvantaged groups, and matchday experience. Some have criticised the small increase in additional revenue, but it represents an increase of more than 40% over the existing deal. Premier league, meanwhile, had a £ 3 billion deal with its existing broadcasters. The league has the potential to learn more depending upon international sales figures. Read more
The Premier League has once again proven to be the most marketable league in the world after negotiating a £ 5 billion deal with Sky and BT for the live telecast rights.
This deal will come into force from the 2016-17 season and it will make the Premier League clubs even richer. It would finally enable the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal to compete with the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona, who boast of huge TV money to go along with the large commercial revenue from the sponsors. TV money is a major contributor to the finances of a club.
The latest deal will see the bottom club in the Premier League receive more money than several time European champions Ajax, who play in the Dutch league. It remains to be seen if this huge sum of money will trickle down to the lower levels of British football. Currently, only a small fraction of the amount goes into the championship and the lower stages as parachute payments. Premier league has promised to support grassroots level football at a much bigger scale than it is currently funded. The news comes as a welcome boost for the likes of Manchester City, who failed to comply with the FFP regulations. Read more
Colombian forward James Rodriguez says that they will not be feeling any pressure ahead of the World Cup quarter-final match with Brazil. Colombia managed to overcome one Latin American team in the form of Uruguay to reach the quarter-finals of the competition. Their progression in the tournament so far has been hugely helped by the form of James Rodriguez, who at 22 years of age is looking like a star in the making. He has scored five goals and is leading scorer in the tournament, when he has also contributed through assists as well.
Brazil will be providing the toughest test for Colombia so far in this tournament. As the hosts of the World Cup and one of the strongest teams in the world, Brazil will be considered as favourites to win the match. However, the odds have been slightly shifted after the latest round of last 16 matches. Luiz Felipe Scolari’s team struggled to find a way past Chile in the last 16 match. The only narrowly scraped through after a penalty shootout win. The prospect of having to come up against another South American team will be viewed with dissatisfaction amongst the Brazilian players.
Colombia have been a surprise package and Rodriguez feels that they can continue this form going into the quarter-finals as well. “Obviously, we have to watch Brazil closely. They have very good players and they play good football, but they’ll have to watch us closely as well. There’s no pressure, we have good players and we can be dangerous. I think it’s going to be a beautiful match. I only want to help the team. I’m playing at a good level. We’re scoring goals and I’m happy because of that,” said the 22-year-old forward who moved to Monaco last summer. He is valued at more than £ 30 million.
Sky Sports has launched a dedicated channel for European football coverage. Sky Sports 5 will be coming along with the package without any extra cost. This will be providing the user with all forms of European football like Euro 2016 qualifying matches, Champions League, Spanish league, and Copa del Rey along with the numerous of the matches as well. For the first time, British users will be able to watch the Dutch Eredivisie on Sky Sports 5. The channel intends to show matches involving top teams like Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven, Ajax, and FC Twente.
Sky Sports has been facing intense competition from BT sports in recent months. BT sports recently managed to get the rights for the Champions League from the next season onwards. In order to cope with the extra pressure, sky see this new channel as an alternative. It remains to be seen how they will schedule the matches once the Champions League rights go away to BT sports. The competition between these two giants has seen television money increase rapidly. Premier League clubs recently registered a huge increase in the television money compared to last season.
Even the team that finished bottom of the table got £ 60 million and in addition to the parachute payments that they will receive over the next four years. “Sky Sports 5 takes our unrivalled live football coverage to the next level offering more European football than ever before. There’s never been a better time to be a Sky Sports customer and with two years’ free totally unlimited broadband, we offer the ultimate package for sports fans,” said the managing director of Sky Sports. “Sky Sports 5 will offer all the drama and excitement that European football has to offer and I’ll certainly be gripped,” said brand ambassador David Beckham about the new channel.
Despite finishing bottom of the table, it has been revealed that Cardiff city have earned more television money than former champions Manchester United did last season. For winning the Premier league title last campaign, Manchester United received just over £ 60 million in television revenue. This has been just overtaken by Cardiff, who finished bottom of the table this campaign. Figures released by the Premier league show that football on TV has become more popular than ever. Cardiff managed to pocket £ 62.1 million in the season.
This would be of major influence to them next season as they aim to come back to the Premier league in the first instance. This television money will be significantly greater than that enjoyed by the championship clubs against whom they will be competing next season. Cardiff were not the only team to enjoy record revenues from the television companies. The new Premier league deal, which is just over £ 3 billion for a three-year period, has also helped the top clubs record incredible turnovers as well.
Liverpool were the biggest winners because of this deal as they pocketed £ 42.7 million more than they did last season. In fact, they have managed to finish the season with more television money than champions Manchester City because of being shown as part of three more live games.
Liverpool had the most televised appearances last season, as they made an incredible 28 live games. This was primarily due to the title challenge, which went down to the last day of the season. Liverpool failed to win any major trophy, but they will now be able to enjoy even more revenue when they take part in the Champions League group stages next season. Chelsea are the second highest earners with an increase of £ 39.1 million compared to last season.
