EUROPA League
MANCHESTER CITY FANS BRAND UEFA AS MAFIA AND CARTEL
Manchester City may be set to go to war with UEFA, but time is of the essence for the English champions to satisfy their quest to win the Champions League.
City head to the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday (Feb 26), knowing failure to beat 13-time winners Real Madrid over two legs could be their final European adventure for two years.
Uefa slapped a stunning two-season ban on City earlier this month for overstating sponsorship income between 2012 and 2016 to breach Financial Fair Play rules and failing to cooperate once an investigation was re-opened following the leak of internal emails to German magazine Der Spiegel.
City remain belligerent and insist they will beat Uefa off the field. An appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport will decide their fate for the next two years.
In the meantime, Pep Guardiola’s men have to finally get it right on the field to satisfy City’s long-wait to conquer Europe.
Now in their ninth season of Champions League football since Sheikh Mansour’s takeover transformed the club’s fortunes, City are still waiting for a landmark knockout win in the competition.
Even before the latest body blow of a European ban, the City support have not been enamoured by their new status as Champions League regulars.
The club have had to turn to social media influencers to try and sell tickets for group matches and the competition’s anthem is routinely jeered.
“Uefa Cartel” and “Uefa Mafia” were among the banners that greeted their first home outing since the ban was handed down against West Ham last week.
A run to the semi-finals before being beaten by Madrid in 2015/16 is their best ever showing in the competition.
Despite re-writing the history books domestically, Guardiola’s star-studded squad have fallen at the quarter-finals to English opposition in each of the past two seasons.
The contrast with Madrid could not be starker. For generations, Real have risen to the occasion on the Champions League stage, while City have crumbled under the pressure.
A former Barcelona coach and player, Guardiola hailed his old foes the “kings of Europe.”
And in an interview with Spanish newspaper AS last week, City’s Raheem Sterling insisted: “There is no better challenge than Real Madrid.”
However, a meeting with Madrid also offers City an opportunity to change the narrative.
The sort of ferocious atmosphere Guardiola has long pleaded for at the Etihad for Champions League games seems guaranteed when the Spanish giants travel to Manchester on March 17th.
With Liverpool streaking clear at the top of the Premier League, City’s season and arguably Guardiola’s legacy at the club comes down to what happens in this tie.
“If we don’t win it everybody is going to say we are failures like the last five years,” said midfielder Kevin De Bruyne. “It’s something we’ve not won yet.”
The only two Champions League winners in City’s squad are back-up goalkeepers Claudio Bravo and Scott Carson.
Motivation could not be greater for a host of world class players like De Bruyne, David Silva and Sergio Aguero to cap their careers with Champions League success.
Moreover, doing so this season would have the added benefit of sticking it to Uefa by capturing their flagship competition.
“I can’t believe they’re in the competition now. What would happen if City win this season?” former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports. “Uefa will be desperate for Man City to be beaten by Madrid.”
All the more reason for City to not give European football’s governing body the satisfaction.
-AFP
Crystal Palace’s appeal against UEFA’s decision to drop them from the Europa League to the third-tier Conference League was dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday.
UEFA demoted Palace while allowing Olympique Lyonnais to play in the Europa League as, at the time of assessment on March 1, the Eagle Football Group were majority owners of Lyon while their chairman, John Textor, owned a controlling stake in Palace.
Nottingham Forest, who finished seventh in the Premier League last season, will replace Palace in the Europa League.
“After considering the evidence, the panel found that John Textor, founder of Eagle Football Holdings, had shares in CPFC and OL and was a board member with decisive influence over both clubs at the time of UEFA’s assessment date,” the CAS said in a statement.
“The panel also dismissed the argument by CPFC that they received unfair treatment in comparison to Nottingham Forest and OL.”
Palace did not respond to a request for comment. Club chairman Steve Parish told reporters on Sunday that if Palace lost the appeal, they would “have to look if there’s any steps after that.”
The club, who qualified for the Europa League as FA Cup winners, appealed against UEFA’s decision last month.
The appeal came days before New York Jets co-owner Robert Wood “Woody” Johnson completed the purchase of Eagle Football Holdings’ stake in Palace.
Textor has also resigned from Lyon’s board of directors with Michele Kang appointed chairwoman and president.
As both Lyon and Palace had qualified for the Europa League, the French club were allowed to keep their place because they had finished higher in their respective league. Lyon finished sixth in Ligue 1 while Palace were 12th in the Premier League.
“Olympique Lyonnais welcomes today’s decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport confirming its participation in the Europa League,” Lyon said in a statement.
Palace, who won the Community Shield on Sunday , beating Liverpool in a penalty shootout, are set to play in the Conference League’s qualifying playoff round later this month.
-Reuters
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UEFA has decided to postpone its assessment of the multi-club ownership case involving Olympique Lyonnais and Crystal Palace until the French club’s relegation has been confirmed, European football’s governing body said on Monday.
The multi-club ownership regulations do not allow clubs under the same ownership compete in the same European competition, and American businessman John Textor holds a stake in both Palace and Lyon.
Palace qualified for the Europa League by winning the FA Cup last season while Lyon reached the competition by finishing sixth in Ligue 1 but have since been relegated to Ligue 2 by French football’s financial watchdog (DNCG).
Lyon are appealing the decision, which came following an audit of the club’s finances, and UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body will now await the outcome of the appeal before making its decision.
UEFA and Lyon reached a settlement agreement over the club’s breach of the financial sustainability requirements, and as part of the settlement, Lyon agreed to their exclusion from European competition should the DNCG confirm their relegation.
League of Ireland club Drogheda United lost an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport earlier this month over their exclusion from the Conference League, after falling foul of the multi-club ownership rules.
-Reuters
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Tottenham Hotspur have sacked manager Ange Postecoglou, the club said on Friday, little more than two weeks after the Australian guided the London club to a first major trophy in 17 years with victory in the Europa League final.
While Postecoglou’s fate has split opinion amongst the fans, the 59-year-old ultimately paid the price for an horrendous Premier League season which saw Tottenham finish 17th.
“The Board has unanimously concluded that it is in the best interests of the Club for a change to take place,” Tottenham said in a statement.
“Following a positive start in the 2023/24 Premier League (PL) season, we recorded 78 points from the last 66 PL games. This culminated in our worst-ever PL finish last season.”
Postecoglou leaves two years to the day after his appointment and 16 days after his side beat Manchester United 1-0 in Bilbao for the club’s first silverware since 2008, a win that also put them in next season’s Champions League.
The former Celtic manager has had to face questions over his future for several months, yet delivered on his claim early last season that he always wins a trophy in his second season in a job
He also took Tottenham to the League Cup semi-final but their league campaign was their worst since 1976-77, the last time the club suffered relegation from the top flight.
Several of the club’s first team have voiced their support for Postecoglou since beating United, but chairman Daniel Levy is now searching for his fifth full-time manager in six years since Mauricio Pochettino was sacked in 2019.
“At times there were extenuating circumstances — injuries and then a decision to prioritise our European campaign,” the club said. “Whilst winning the Europa League this season ranks as one of the Club’s greatest moments, we cannot base our decision on emotions aligned to this triumph.”
Several managers have been linked to the Tottenham job, including Brentford’s Thomas Frank and Crystal Palace’s Oliver Glasner.
GOOD START
Postecoglou will walk away with his pride intact and a handsome bonus, but his recent comment to fans at the Europa League victory parade that the third season of a TV series is always better than the second now looks hollow.
It all started so well for Postecoglou. He began the 2023-24 campaign by guiding Tottenham to their best start to a top-flight season since the 1961 title-winning team.
That form soon dipped though and despite finishing fifth in his first campaign the momentum had long since gone.
This season Tottenham earned only 38 points and lost 22 top-flight matches. They managed five points from their last 12 league games and the only win they earned during that run was against a Southampton side who narrowly avoided becoming statistically the worst team ever in the Premier League.
Postecoglou has pointed to a long injury list which denied him the likes of Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Dejan Kulusevski, Destiny Udogie, Dominic Solanke, James Maddison and Son Heung-min for significant periods.
But while it has clearly been one of long-serving chairman Levy’s toughest calls, he has concluded that Postecoglou is not the man to lead the club forward.
“We have made what we believe is the right decision to give us the best chance of success going forward, not the easy decision,” the club statement said.
“We have a talented, young squad and Ange has given us a great platform to build upon. We should like to express our gratitude to him. We wish him well for the future — he will always be welcome back at our home.”
Many fans reacted to the news of Postecoglou’s sacking with surprise, but England manager Thomas Tuchel said that sometimes even winning a trophy is not enough.
“I feel for every manager and I have huge sympathy for every manager in these moments because I was in the same spot,” the German, who was sacked by Chelsea despite taking them to the Champions League title, said on Friday.
“If the trust is not there anymore then sometimes it’s not enough to win a trophy.”
-Reuters
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