Reuters Soccer Blog

Soccer Break Wednesday – Will you watch the Europa League final?

Will you be watching the Europa League final later on Wednesday? Do you even know who is in the final? Does it annoy you that such a tough competition gets undervalued because of the unstoppable rise in popularity of the Champions League?

Anyway, enough questions. Venue: Dublin. Teams: Porto and Braga, two very contrasting Portuguese clubs. This could be one hell of a game, so watch it.

Porto will of course seek to get back to the heights of 2003 and 2004, when they followed their UEFA Cup triumph over Celtic with Champions League glory. But lose, and Braga winning would cap a remarkable season for the minnows. Either way, the signs are good for Portuguese football, in contrast with the country’s economy.

Right, transfer speculation now. Goalkeeper Shay a Given to leave Manchester City despite Champions League football next season? And how about unsettled Tottenham Hotspur striker Jermain Defoe?

Ligue 1 leaders Lille are poised to capture the French title, but do you really know anything about them? Read here for an expert analysis of their season and prospects next term.

And finally here’s a superb feature on the young Dutch players ready to take the game by storm.

Discuss all these topics and other stories in world soccer on the Reuters Soccer Facebook page. And please feel free to send us recommendations for your pick of the day’s stories.

Is there a more superstitious industry than football?

After a foray into the mix zone after the English League Cup final, the injured Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe replied to one journalist who asked him why he had cut all his hair off.

“I had to, I only ever seem to get injured when I have longer hair,” he said.

I am neither a hairdresser nor a medical man but I thought this was a bizarre theory, but perhaps a lengthy spell on the sidelines makes you think this way?

Defoe’s superstition was the second recent football oddity to have grabbed my attention after Arsenal’s Kolo Toure received an unnecessary yellow card in the Champions League tie against Roma.

The Ivory Coast defender failed to ask the referee for permission to enter the pitch after missing the kick-off at the start of the second half.

Toure’s delayed entrance was because he waited for team mate William Gallas to finish receiving treatment so he could maintain his routine of being the last man to leave the dressing room.

Kissing the badge, and other inadvisable ideas

Score goals, kiss badge, declare love for fans, sign long-term contract, collect wages, change your mind and decide you want out a few months later; it’s becoming all too familiar.

Two glaring examples of this have hit the headlines in England recently with the opening of the January transfer window, starting with Jermain Defoe’s decision to follow Harry Redknapp back to Tottenham from Portsmouth.

Back in November, Defoe said the following:

“I’m a Portsmouth player and I’ll continue working hard for the club. I’m enjoying my time here. I’m scoring goals and I’m part of a good team. We’re pushing up the table so why would I think about leaving and anyway, Tony Adams is trying to build something here.

He’s a good manager and training has been fantastic all week. I am playing with good players and for me that is the most important thing.”

Less than two months later Defoe is back in a Spurs shirt.

Less then a year ago, England winger Stewart Downing was “delighted” to have signed a new five-year contract with his hometown club Middlesbrough:

Time to abolish cup-tied rule

Spare a thought for cup-tied Jermain Defoe this weekend, forced to sit on the sidelines when Portsmouth play West Bromwich Albion in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley because of an antiquated rule the authorities should consider changing.

Defoe, who joined Portsmouth from Tottenham Hotspur just before the transfer window closed on January 31, played for his old club against Reading and Manchester United in the third and fourth rounds which ruled him out of the FA Cup for the rest of the season.

He also appeared in 18 Premier League matches for Spurs — but of course is not banned from playing in the same competition for Portsmouth. (One bizarre twist in that move was that because he technically joined Portsmouth from Spurs on a loan deal which was made permanent a few days later, he was not allowed to play against Spurs two weeks ago — but that’s another matter.)

The cup-tied rule was introduced decades ago to stop clubs buying up players who could boost their chances in the later rounds of the competition.

The rule has rarely been waivered, and I can only think of one example when it was. The FA allowed Stan Crowther and Ernie Taylor to play for Manchester United in the FA Cup after the Munich air disaster in 1958 even though both were cup-tied.

But these days, with the transfer window closing at the end of January, clubs are hardly likely to buy players just for the FA Cup. They are buying them for the league.

UEFA also say players who appear for one team in the Champions League or UEFA Cup cannot play for another in the same competition in the same season. Surely though, if you are allowed to play for two clubs in the same league in the same season, logically you should be able to play for two clubs in the same cup competition? (All Things Footie thinks the away goals rule is just as daft.)