Reuters Soccer Blog

Soccer Break Monday

Welcome back to another week of digesting the global game, and where better to start than with a look at the Lionel Messi effect on the sport.

The wizard-like Argentine is a joy to watch and by playing in countries such as the United States, where soccer is not the main sport, he can only have increased enthusiasm for the round ball game.

The U.S. will also face world champions Spain in June.

In Europe, while Spain huffed and puffed and finally blew the Czech Republic’s door down for a 2-1 win in Granada with yet another mesmerising display of quick passing, there was little else to go crazy about.

In fact, UEFA president Michel Platini fears that Euro 2012 qualifiers are becoming a little boring, and he is concerned that players look forward more to Champions League matches than internationals.

Brazil were another big name to take to the field and win at the weekend but despite their 2-0 loss at the hands of the five-times World Cup winners, Scotland’s Charlie Adam said his team had learnt some valuable lessons.

Other people who could be a taught a lesson are the laser users at the Wales-England match and the fans who were noisy during the minute silence for the Japan earthquake and tsunami victims at the U.S.-Argentina game.

Soccer Break Tuesday

Football’s governing bodies are dominating the news on Tuesday as the FIFA presidency candidates hit the campaign trail and the UEFA presidency will be retained by an unopposed Michel Platini.

The sport is more global than ever, highlighted in December when Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup ahead of the United States, Japan, Australia and South Korea despite the fact a Middle Eastern country has never before hosted a major global sporting event.

For Qatar’s Mohamed Bin Hammam is challenging Swiss Sepp Blatter as the head of football’s world governing body later this year. Who would you like in charge? Reports of a divide, or potential one, have been ruled out by the Qatari.

Michel Platini has more football in him having been the architect of France’s 1984 European championships win, but is his re-election as UEFA president necessarily the best thing? Would you prefer someone who hasn’t played the game to come in with an outside view?

Sticking with the global theme, we’ve already been discussing the new season of the American league MLS. Do you agree with this blog that the MLS is a little misunderstood? Or do you believe it truly is a ‘major league’?

Another league which provokes debate is the Scottish Premier League, dominated by Celtic and Rangers. Is this a good or a bad thing? Scotland’s captain thinks the league is a bore.

One of the world’s best leagues in La Liga often ends up in a two horse race, Barcelona and Real Madrid battling for the title. Do you prefer more open leagues such as Ligue 1?

Would Juve not be better off selling Buffon?

Juventus need a striker desperately but don’t want to bust their budget and yet have two top goalkeepers.

The answer? Why not sell one of the goalkeepers and use part of the proceeds to recruit a world-class forward?

The only problem is the most obvious and lucrative keeper to offload is Italy number one Gianluigi Buffon, widely recognised as one of the best if not best in the game.

Many Juve fans though would agree with the idea of letting Buffon go and entrusting the keeper jersey to the ever reliable Marco Storari if it meant the likes of Diego Forlan or Luis Fabiano could ease their injury and confidence crisis upfront.

Injury-prone Buffon has only just returned after over six months out with a back problem, during which time Storari has been superb.

The spectre of Buffon leaving Turin looked quite possible at the start of January with the likes of Manchester United linked in the media but he has now committed himself to Juve as the days run down in the transfer window.

Juve though still need that striker and having missed out on lesser lights like Antonio Floro Flores, who chose Genoa over the Old Lady, it’s all looking a bit desperate.

Europeans baffled by fuss over Terry’s private life

Michel Platini’s Gallic shrug said it all. “I’m not bothered. What do you want me to say?” he said.

The UEFA President and former France captain had just been asked for the third time in a few minutes on England coach Fabio Capello’s decision to strip John Terry of the captaincy because of something which happened off the field.

Platini was speaking in Warsaw at a news conference and was supposed to be talking about the qualifying draw for Euro 2012, an event which involved all 53 of UEFA’s associations.

Instead, he found himself fielding questions on the internal problems of one single member.

“We have 52 other associations in UEFA. Everybody has their own way of doing things…Poland, Ukraine, Austria, Norway, Malta, Cyprus. The problem of the English is not the problem of Italy, of France.

“You have some funny problems in England, but fortunately you have an Italian to sort them out.”

Angry Beitar fans break into Platini presser

UEFA President Michel Platini got a close-up view of the ugly side of Israeli soccer in Tel Aviv on Tuesday when a small band of angry young men who support Beitar Jerusalem briefly disrupted a news conference he attended with Israel FA chairman Avi Luzon.

The half-dozen irate supporters, including one in military uniform, sneaked in with the media throng to one of Tel Aviv’s top hotels and sat to one side. Security guards were nowhere to be seen.

After a few minutes, the men began making expletive-filled chants against Luzon, as Platini, who did not understand what was being said, looked on bemused.

One of the supporters approached Platini and attempted to place a Beitar scarf around his neck but he was easily thwarted by Luzon who plucked the scarf away. Once the protesters had made their point they began to exit, shouting more abuse on the way. You can see a clip of it here on the sport5 website.

There is little love lost between the often outspoken Luzon, who has boasted big plans and a bright future for Israeli soccer that many critics say are unrealistic, and Beitar, the club seen as a bastion of Israel’s right-wing. Beitar are one of Israel’s most popular soccer clubs with huge support but they probably also elicit more deep hatred from rival supporters than any other outfit.

Luzon called on the police to arrest the hecklers and clearly, far more stringent security measures will be in place when UEFA holds its annual congress in Tel Aviv next March.

It must have been an embarrassment for Luzon and the Israeli FA, who have always touted their ability to guarantee total security for  visiting sides. It was a no-brainer that the main dailies would mention the incident on their front pages — and they did, with the word “disgrace” most prominent.

Is Eduardo’s two-match ban too harsh?

UEFA’s decision to hand Arsenal striker Eduardo da Silva a two-match ban for diving has infuriated the Croatian media, many fans and national team coach Slaven Bilic.

“It is a shameful decision, especially in view of the fact that Eduardo personifies everything that’s decent in professional sport,” Bilic told Zagreb daily Vecernji List after learning the verdict.

Fans and media have gone to even greater length in defending the Brazilian-born Croatia striker, who has won the hearts and sympathy of his adopted country after recovering from a horrific leg break he suffered in Arsenal’s Premier League match at Birmingham in February 2008.

The sense of injustice in Croatia wasn’t helped by last weekend’s injury suffered by Tottenham playmaker Luka Modric, who faces up to six weeks on the sidelines after breaking his leg in a league match with Birmingham (again).

Croatia’s leading sports website, www.sportnet.hr, had harsh words.

“Eduardo has been punished in a most detestable manner, supposedly so that justice is done, while justice was deaf, dumb and blind only 18 months earlier when he was in bed with his ankle shattered and his career hanging by a thread,” the website said.

Is Eduardo a victim of double standards, or simply his own ill-judged decision to go down rather easily after minimum or no contact with the goalkeeper?

Arsenal v Celtic in play-offs. Is this what Platini wanted?

The draw for the Champions League final qualifying round raises the question whether Michel Platini and UEFA have done the right thing by giving teams from Europe’s less heralded leagues a better chance of reaching the money-spinning group stage.

On one hand, restructuring the qualifying campaign has opened the group stage doors to Latvian champions Venstpils, Cypriots APOEL Nicosia, Hungarian title holders Debrecen and Moldovans Sheriff Tiraspol.

On the other, it has pitted former European Cup winners Celtic against 2006 finalists Arsenal, with the loser confined to taking part in the Europa Liga, the continent’s second tier competition.

The new formula means the Champions League lucrative group stage will now have more champions from obscure countries on Europe’s soccer map at the expense of third and fourth-placed teams from the top leagues.

It gives unfancied teams a chance to boost their finances and close the gap on wealthier rivals, but it also runs the risk of depriving Europe’s premier club competition of some of its glamour.

Would you rather watch both Celtic and Arsenal in the Champions league proper or draw pleasure from seeing a pack of underdogs take centre stage instead?

And crucially, will the new qualifying format last long enough for the new arrivals to establish themselves as regular campaigners?

A question for all you trivia buffs

Giorgi Megreladze - remember the name, it may well earn you some money in later life.

Why, I hear you ask. Well, the FC Olimpi forward has become the first man to score a goal in the newly revamped UEFA Europa League.

Yes UEFA’s second tier competition is underway on the second day of July, with Wimbledon still being played, the British Open yet to tee-off and England and Australia still preparing for their Ashes series to start.

Formally known as the UEFA Cup, the competition has undergone a major overhaul in a bid to boost its appeal.

We’ll see about that. Extending the amount of teams competing and the number of matches played may prove counter-productive as fans are likely to demand quality not quantity, especially in a global economic downturn.

Still, I’m sure Megreladze is not bothered by that!

Now, who was the first man to score in the revamped Champions League in 1992?

Will UEFA be haunted for good by Euro 2012?

Yet again I find myself asking the question: why did UEFA award Euro 2012 to Poland and Ukraine?

Questions marks have again been raised over the decision by European soccer’s governing body after it was yet again forced to set another deadline for Ukraine to meet is criteria for a number of its venues.

So has anything changed since I wrote a blog from the UEFA crunch meeting in Bordeaux last September when both countries were given a final warning over their lacklustre preparations for European soccer’s top event?

Poland seems to have made steady progress on its stadiums at least but UEFA sources say the related infastructure such as transport links and accommodation are still questionable.

Ukraine, reeling from the impact of the worst financial crisis in nearly 80 years, is still way behind and has been warned they risk losing the right to stage the final in Kiev if they don’t get their act together before November 30.

How many warnings does a country need before delivering upon its promises? Does UEFA have a plan B if the Kiev government fails to meet the deadline?

Why St Etienne are green with envy

If you don’t mind the sight of St Etienne glued near the bottom of the Ligue 1 table, you did not grow up in France in the 1970s.

Everybody there then had two teams, their own and Les Verts (The Greens). Even today, many fans of other sides have a soft spot for the team from a small industrial town near Lyon.

Why? Simply because France, where football is not part of the popular culture, fell in love with the beautiful game courtesy of St Etienne’s European Cup saga in 1976.

An unglamorous outfit featuring players who had worked in the city’s factories, they went all the way to the final, losing to Bayern Munich in Glasgow. And many people will tell you they only lost because Hampden Park was the only place in the world at that time, apart from maybe some pitch in Kazakhstan, to still have square, wooden posts instead of round, metal ones.

The St Etienne players hit that archaic woodwork twice and the ball bounced off it. Had the posts been round, like at every civilised stadium outside Scotland, they would have gone in. No doubt.

That year, green fever was everywhere, with Les Verts’ stupid fan song playing on the radio all the time. But St Etienne are not just about that.