Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Yes it's soccer season again

It seems odd that the scribes who were so eager to see politics and culture in every angle of the World Cup have gone into hibernation, because the imminent club season has no shortage of intrigue. Perhaps it's not the right kind of intrigue. First let's note UEFA's bizarre attitude to Team Silvio (AC Milan) and their participation in this year's Champions League. Whereas UEFA was determined to use every rule at its disposal to keep Liverpool as low down in the draw as possible last year, after they, like, won the competition, this year it's scandal-plagued AC Milan being meekly allowed into a competition that they were initially barred from:

Uefa said it "had no choice but to admit" Milan, who play Crvena Zvezda or Cork to qualify for the group stage. The governing body was worried about a legal challenge from AC Milan.

Uefa said the Italian club took advantage of the fact that the Swiss-based body lacks legal grounds to refuse the club's admission - and said it would change its regulations as a result.

The emergency panel said it was "deeply concerned that AC Milan has created the impression of being involved in the improper influencing of the regular course of matches in the Italian football championship." ... Milan were initially deducted 15 points and thrown out of the competition by the Italian Football Association (FIGC).

But on appeal they had the deficit cut to eight points and were included in last Friday's Champions League draw


By the way, that unglamorous sounding Crvena Zvezda is in fact the quite well-known Red Star Belgrade who are indeed just a Cork City miracle away from a big qualifier next week against AC Milan. Events are certainly conspiring nicely to maintain the value of Silvio's extensive TV rights to Italian soccer.

And speaking of Liverpool, they have an interestinq qualifier next week too:

Liverpool v Maccabi Haifa

Yes, that Haifa.

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