Brazilian Serie A leaders Corinthians lost their second match of the season on Sunday, going down 3-2 away to Avai.The visitors had led through a goal from Emerson 31 minutes into the match at Estadio Aderbal Ramos da Silva.
They held the lead going into the half-time break, but three goals in succession, the first from William followed by two to Rafael Coelho, marked an impressive turnaround for the home side.
Jorge Henrique pulled one back for Corinthians in the 90th minute, but it was too late to prevent a surprise defeat to the strugglers.
It was just Avai’s second win of the season and lifts them off the foot of the table into 18th place.
Corinthians remain top despite the defeat, but are now just one point ahead of second-placed Flamengo.
Elsewhere on Sunday, Fluminense were comprehensive winners with a 4-0 victory over Ceara.
Fred opened the scoring for the home side 35 minutes into the match, with second-half goals from Souza, Rafael Sobis and Rafael Moura completing the rout.
The visitors had to play the entire second half with just 10 men following the sending off of Heleno in the 45th minute.
Santos’ poor start to the season continued, as they went down 3-2 away to Atletico Paranaense.
The home side were 2-0 up just 10 minutes in, courtesy of goals from Cleber Santana and Manoel.
Neymar pulled one back on 13 minutes, before Borges struck to get Santos back on level terms just past the hour mark.
But a last-minute winner from Marcinho sealed a 3-2 victory for the home side.
Vasco da Gama climbed to fifth with a 2-0 win over Sao Paulo, with Eder Luis and Felipe striking in the second half.
In other matches, Internacional were held 0-0 at home by Atletico Goianiense, hosts Bahia saw off Figueirense 3-1, while Coritiba won at America Mineiro by the same score-line.
Tottenham Hotspur may battle Liverpool in the signature of Manchester City forward Craig Bellamy.
According to the Mirror, City have agreed to let Bellamy leave Eastlands on a free transfer which would open the door for a return to Liverpool after the Reds insisted they weren’t prepared to pay a transfer fee for a player who left Anfield in 2007.
However, Tottenham could yet scupper a deal by making a move for the 32-year-old themselves. Harry Redknapp’s side have already secured a loan deal for Manchester City’s Emmanuel Adebayor and could also add Bellamy to their ranks.
Bellamy’s national team coach Gary Speed has promoted a potential move back to Liverpool. “Liverpool are a fantastic club and if that’s true and it comes off, that would be great,” said Speed.
“Hopefully by the end of the transfer window things will be sorted out.”
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Article courtesy of Matt Wood from the excellent Clean Sheets All Round
Following the controversy of Carlos Tevez’s refusal to come off the bench against Bayern Munich in midweek, news has emerged that Roberto Mancini’s son Filippo did the same thing for the Manchester City reserve team last month.
The Italian coach has stated that Tevez’s time at the club is finished, following the Argentina international’s refusal to come off the bench in the Champions League.
Despite this, Mancini has been embarrassed by the fact that his son refused to enter the field of play for the club’s Elite Development Squad (EDS), comprising reserve and youth players back in August.
In a fixture against their Liverpool equivalents, Filippo preferred to stay on the bench, and this has been confirmed by the Etihad Stadium outfit.
“Filippo is a non-contracted, unpaid player who was on the substitutes’ bench for the non competitive game in question,” a City spokesman stated.
“In these circumstances, a disciplinary procedure would have been invoked, however, as he was not an employee of the club, this was not a viable option. The matter has been dealt with internally. Roberto Mancini was not aware of this incident,” the statement concluded.
The news is sure to add to Mancini’s plight, as City investigate the Tevez incident in more depth during the South American’s two week suspension.
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After being robbed of a famous win at Anfield on Saturday Liverpool will be looking to maintain their push for a top four finish against Swansea this weekend. It promises to be an open game with two teams that like to attack and we would like to give supporters to watch it in style at the Legends Lounge at Anfield.
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Following Wigan Athletic’s defeat to Newcastle on Saturday, Roberto Martinez gave additional firepower to the age old argument that referees favour the so called bigger sides. Martinez was quoted as saying, ‘it’s just that we’re Wigan Athletic and it’s very difficult to get it wrong against us.’
The idea has been around for so long that many football fans and managers mention it as if it is fact, but following Martinez’s comments, a question must be asked. Is it merely a myth that small sides do not get the decisions?
As a fan of English football, any suggestion of considered bias towards certain clubs is disappointing, we all want to see fair, unbiased officiating in football. Yet it would be naive to think that incorrect decisions really do even themselves out over the course of the season, as if by magic.
The reality is that certain clubs are going to get more decisions over a season, the campaign after that, that club may get less, but do the bigger clubs get more of these decisions? The evidence does not suggest that they do, indeed no evidence or study has ever proven such a claim.
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However, there are other factors that influence the chances of teams getting decisions. Manchester United famously went 10 years without a penalty being scored against them at home, with only 3 penalties awarded in that time. This led to many fans to declare that it was impossible for smaller clubs to get a decision at Old Trafford.
Yet, those claims do not allow for the quality of player at Manchester United, the team throughtout that the time was top draw and logic dictates that top quality players are less likely to concede penalties and more likely to win them than lesser players.
It is true that the more fans in the stadium, the more voices the referee has to block out. Naturally, some referees are going to be better at this than others. It could be argued that teams with bigger stadiums such as Arsenal and Manchester United are more likely to get decisions due to this. However, if the crowd is raucous, such as at Loftus Road on Sunday, surely the amount of people in the stadium is insignificant in comparison to the atmosphere.
This season, both Kenny Dalglish and Andre Villas-Boas have argued that decisions have consistently gone against their sides. As the managers of Liverpool and Chelsea, their claims do not do much to support Roberto Martinez’s words.
Roberto Martinez may feel harshly dealt with and he may feel that Wigan get less decisions because of who they are. In reality, there is no reason that Wigan will not be on the end of beneficial decisions before the season comes to an end. The fact is, the argument that ‘smaller clubs do not get the decisions’ is just a myth.
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There some games that are heated in football, but do any of them come close to the top 10 list below. Sit back and judge for yourself.
10) Ajax v Feyenoord
The most heated fixture in Dutch football is one spurred on between class differences of two cities a mere 30 miles apart.
Amsterdam’s cosmopolitan image is reflected in Ajax’s fluent brand of football whilst near neighbours Feyenoord carry the look of its port district labour image.
Ajax and Feyenoord have dominated Dutch football alongside PSV Eindhoven, yet ‘Der Klassieker’ is by far the most fiercely contested match in the Eredivisie.
The contrast in image is illustrated by the contrasting homes of each team, with Ajax’s uber-modern Amsterdam Arena in stark contrast to the traditional and hostile atmosphere of Feyenoord’s De Kuip stadium, yet both clubs grounds have been littered with scenes of crowd trouble for years.
In 1997 an Ajax fan was killed after pre-arranged ‘battle of Beverwijk’ – an Amsterdam suburb – which led to a banning order of away fans from the fixture.
Once the ban was lifted, incidents continued to occur and in 2004 Feyenoord’s Jorge Acuna was hospitalised after being attacked by an intruding Ajax fan.
Last season the Dutch authorities agrees to once again impose an ban on visiting support but those measures are unlikely to dilute the hatred of these two sworn foe’s.
9) Roma v Lazio
The Italian capital’s two clubs not only share a city but a stadium meaning meetings between the pair become tribal, with each claiming spiritual ownership of the site.
Again, the tensions were pre-cursed by supposed divides along political and social lines with Lazio apparently the club of the social elite, whilst Roma were the team of the Romany’s.
The Derby della Capitale is notorious for being Italy’s fieriest clash with Lazio’s notorious fascist ultras regularly bearing arms to Roma’s far-right facets.
Like so many city derbies, the proximity of one another’s support lends to widespread conflict outside of the ground and the spacious nature of the Stadio Olimpico does nothing to temper tensions inside.
The first ever recorded fatality in Italian football came about thirty years ago during the Rome derby and scores of incidents since have marked this out to be one of Europe’s most fractious encounters.
During a game in 2005, Roma’s ultras forced a game to be abandoned midway through after rumour spread that police had killed a supporter and the two sets of ultras became involved in a barbarous brawl which resulted in almost 200 police officers being injured.
The Derby della Capitale remains arguably Europe’s most vicious mainstream derby.
8. Manchester United v Liverpool
These two are England’s most successful clubs and the fate of the cities football teams significantly plays its part in an inter-city rivalry which has been brooding since the Victorian industrial age. Manc’s don’t like Scousers. Scouser’s don’t like Manc’s. End of.
Both clubs claim to be the greatest English club and both have had ample opportunity to taunt the other during periods of success and failure.
Liverpool outshone United for large parts of the 70’s and 80’s much to the envy of United and United’s subsequent success during the 90’s and beyond has caused similar resentment on Merseyside.
The clashes between the pair are by far and away the most feverish of the English top flight calendar and even thought the safety and segregation of grounds limits terrace trouble, the hostilities frequently are taken out on the turf.
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7) Cracovia v Wisla Krakow – The Holy War
Polish football is in the midst of a hooliganism crisis with these two at the forefront of things.
It’s unlikely the Krakow derby is dubbed the ‘holy war’ because of Pope John Paul II’s allegiance to Cracovia. Instead, the term gives scope to what has traditionally become one of the most violent affairs on the continent.
The fixtures are regularly marked with bouts of organised and relentless pitch battles between opposing sets of fans, both inside and outside of the grounds and in recent years the Polish football authorities have had little option than to impose a blanket ban on travelling support to reduce trouble.
However, the measures have had a limited effect and unfortunately Krakow has earned the dubious nickname of the ‘city of knives’ because of the proclivity to carry blades, and since 2004 there have been over a dozen fatalities as a direct result of football related disorder.
6) Fenerbahce v Galatasaray
Turkey’s two most successful and well supported clubs are separated by the Bosphorous strait which divides Istanbul, and divide is perhaps the best term to describe these arch enemies.
Like many inter-city rivalries, there are socio-political connotations which add to the intensity of the hatred. Traditionally Fener’s fanbase is derived from the working classes whilst Gala emanate from the Istanbul bourgoise.
Both clubs relentlessly compete for the top honours in Turkey and thus the status as the nation’s number one club, and as such the fixtures make for volatile occasions both on and off the pitch.
Meetings between the duo are routinely the scene of terrace trouble and similarly to the Krakow derby, this violence has led to scores of fatalities throughout its history.
Graeme Souness hardly smoothed over relations between the two following the second leg of the Turkish cup final in 1996, whilst managing Gala. Souness celebrated lifting the cup on Fener soil by planting a massive Gala flag in the centre circle much to the ire of the furious Fener following.
Souness and his Galatasaray squad were forced to seek refuge for several hours in the bowels of Sukru Saracoglu stadium as the riot police fended off furious Fenerbahce fans.
5) Rangers v Celtic
The ‘Old Firm’ game is arguably the world’s oldest football derby with the first meeting between the two Glasgow giants taking place in 1888.
The rivalry is prominent as football’s most religiously charged encounter with the origins of the rivalry dating back hundreds of years between the divergent cultures of protestant and catholic beliefs.
The sectarian differences between the two clubs are ingrained in their history and tradition and largely splits the city of Glasgow into blue or green. Set against the backdrop of Northern Irish politics, the Old Firm games are infused with partisan chanting and hooligan confrontations which stretch further than other football feuds.
The increasing number of players playing from both clubs, with little or no ties to the city and religion, has seen on-field agitations, tapered in recent times. Little of the ill-feeling between the masses has been lost and given the sensitivity of the situation, nor will it do any time soon.
4) Red Star v Partizan Belgrade
Like many communist influenced football leagues, two of the most prominent teams have affiliations to the military and the interior ministry – themselves both opposing political influences.
Borne from the former Yugoslavia and now continuing in Serbia, Partizan were formed in 1945 as the club of the Yugoslav army whilst bitter city adversaries Red Star were set up in conjunction with the interior ministry.
Prior to the collapse of the former Soviet Union both teams had contrasting political and social ideologies which were played out on the football field.
The ongoing scenario whereby a nations two most successful, and heavily followed forces, both emanate from its capital city is in evidence once again, but what elevates the Belgrade derby in significance is a nationalistic element derived from decades of military conflict.
Red Stars ‘Heroes’ and Partizans ‘Gravediggers’ stood side by side during the Serb-Croat war at the start of the 1990’s but parted ways during the infancy of an independent Serbia and tensions have remained ever since.
The fixture has been host to several deaths, most notably in 1999 when a Partizan ultra fired a missile from a hand held rocket launcher into the Red Star end, killing one fan.
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3) Boca Juniors v River Plate
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The clash between Argentine football’s two superpowers has resonance all over the world and match days are amongst some of the most choreographed and colourful on the world stage.
Again, the combination of the countries two best supported and trophy laden clubs being separated geographically by a couple of miles only fuels the tension between players and supporters.
Both clubs were originally formed from the La Boca docklands area of Buenos Aires but in 1925 River upped sticks to the more affluent district of Nunez and in doing so earned the tag of ‘Los Millionaires’ because of their perceived wealth.
Boca are said to be the club of the people and the perceived differences in culture mean differences between the opposing fan factions. Like many of the rivalries on this list, the occasion has been tinged with tragedy. In 1968, 71 Boca fans were killed and hundreds injured following a stampede caused by a fire at River’s El Monumental stadium.
The incident has further intensified relations between the clubs which ensures a turbulent atmosphere whenever the pair collides.
2) El Salvador v Honduras
The term ‘football war’ may seem like the type of hyperbole you’d read in the tabloids but in 1969 a clash between El Salvador and Honduras led to an actual military conflict between these two countries.
Tensions were already simmering between the two neighbouring Central American territories when the sides were drawn to play a qualifier for the 1970 World Cup.
The first leg in Honduras was marred between fighting between the teams supporters in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa. And following the game an 18-year-old El Salvadorian girl shot herself in the heart and immediately became a martyr for the El Salvador cause.
The countries president and the national football team led the cortege at her funeral before the second leg which saw even greater violence and immediately after a third game play-off played in Mexico City, El Salvador declared war on Honduras leading to a four day borderline battle which resulted in over 3000 deaths.
1) Nacional v Penarol
Uruguay has long since had a foul reputation throughout world football for their acts of petulance and aggression and that image has only been tarnished by Montevideo’s two biggest clubs.
Nacional and Penarol continue the theme of the countries two biggest clubs coming from the capital and throughout history, matches between them have been noted for extreme physical violence in all elements.
Two quite bizarre incidents set this rivalry out from the rest. A match in 1990 was abandoned after 85 minutes when 22 players – 11 from each side – were sent off after a riotous meleé kicked off on the pitch with members of each side wading in with few if any acting as peacemakers.
That incident takes some beating but somehow they managed it in November 2000. Another saloon brawl resulted in nine players and a coach being sentenced to a month in prison for their part in the action and the general consensus is that when these two meet, something similar could happen at any time. Box office.
It has been confirmed that the Metropolitan police have passed their findings on John Terry’s alleged racist slur against Anton Ferdinand on to the Crown Prosectors Service (CPS), who will determine if the Chelsea man has a case to answer.
In an ongoing and protracted saga, the England international was accused of racially abusing QPR centre half Ferdinand in The Blues’ 1-0 deeat at Loftus Road on October 23rd, with clips of the potentially derogatory comments broadcasted in the world media.
After an FA investigation the police were brought in to collect evidence, and they have now left the decision making process in the hands of the CPS, which is common practice in case like this.
The CPS have acknowledged that they have a decision to make, but have given no inclination on how long this may take.
“We can confirm that we have a file on John Terry and it is under consideration. We can’t give a date or time when this decision will be made,” an official CPS statement reads.
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The issue of third party ownership is threatening to rear its ugly head again – insert sigh here- with clubs in England and France making increasing noise about the fact they are not allowed to undertake in such shared ownership of players (think back to the Tevez / Mascherano debacle and you can see why) and feel this hampers them in comparison to other European clubs who use such deals when ‘complying’ with the FFP regulations.
The sad thing is, the FA actually have a point, with multiple clubs in Spain and South America to name but a couple using third party deals in order to keep their costs when buying players down, and attempt to come under the £38 million target from 2013-2014.
It seems baffling that the FFPR allows such ownership yet will point blank refuse to entertain the notion of “transparent owner equity investment” ie Abramovich at Chelsea or the Sheik at City, and the Premier League, along with the French FA feel that not only is this contradictory, but places them at a huge disadvantage and are determined to get UEFA to look more closely at this issue.
Uefa are willing to ban clubs who do not comply with the FFPR, and exclude them from their competitions, with Chelsea and City being especially vulnerable here, with third party ownership being outlawed in the EPL due to it compromising the ‘integrity of the competition’ with this placing EPL clubs at a significant disadvantage in comparison to their counterparts in Europe who enjoy this benefit with Hertha Berlin raising €44m from selling the economic rights of players to a third‑party ownership fund since 2009 – something Premier League clubs are simply not allowed to do.
Whether Uefa would actually take action over these concerns remains to be seen, as although they have ‘promised’ to look into it – a Uefa promise is worth about as much as one from Carlos Tevez – and even now they will have you believe that the issue is much less prominent than the Premier League would claim it to be.
The idea of allowing third party ownership rights in the Premier League is not what is being pushed for here, and the main issue of both the French and English is that they feel at a significant disadvantage when compared to Spanish, Portuguese and German clubs who can use the FFP rules and third party ownership to keep losses down and essentially be in a better position in the transfer market.
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If any kind of resolution can be reached the Premier League would be open to this, with even the idea of where revenue is raised from directly selling a stake in a player, this is then exempt from FFP calculations. Whether Uefa would be willing to entertain this notion however remains to be seen.
West Brom have completed the signing of Dundee United midfielder Scott Allan, with the youngster moving to the Premier League side for an undisclosed fee.
The 20-year-old passed a medical and will now join The Baggies’ first team squad with immediate effect, and be eligible for his debut against Norwich on Saturday.
Allan’s contract at Tannadice was expiring, and with the starlet set to become a free agent in the summer, the Scottish side decided to cash in on their young talent.
Old Firm duo Rangers and Celtic were also thought to be interested in signing Allan, but the news of his departure to Roy Hodgson’s outfit was confirmed by United manager Peter Houston.
“I’d like to wish Scott all the best for his future career, it is a fantastic opportunity for him to go down to the English Premier League,” the coach told the side’s official website.
“The completion of the deal at this time was beneficial for both the player and the club.”
By Gareth McKnight
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Sir Alex Ferguson has stated that his Manchester United team are aware of the physical challenge posed by Stoke, and are ready to combat Tony Pulis’ men on Tuesday at Old Trafford.
The Red Devils suffered a setback at the weekend by being eliminated from the FA Cup by Liverpool, and are currently three points behind Manchester City in the race for the Premier League title.
Although the Scottish coach knows his team are in for a tough game against The Potters, he is looking forward to it.
“You know what Tony Pulis’ team will be like, they are the same all the time,” Ferguson told The Guardian.
“They will be 100% committed and they always get stuck in. You have to cope with that. To be honest, I always enjoy it to.
“It was like when we used to play Wimbledon. No one used to look forward to playing against them but my team started to because it was a physical challenge and in terms of taking the ball and playing football.
“Stoke are a different team altogether but they still have the same qualities of never giving in, so it is always a good challenge for us,” he stated.
United have a critical month, in which they take on Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham, and Ferguson knows that his team must be at their best to retain their Premier League crown.
“It is a big programme. From the middle of January until we go to Tottenham, it looked quite a daunting programme.
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“But when you go back years ago in our title campaigns, we have always had periods of must win-games in a row and that is what we have here. It is important to keep on City’s coat-tails and hopefully come the important part of the season, we still are,” he concluded.