In an extremely rare move for the otherwise orderly club, Bayern
Munich have sacked coach Jürgen Klinsmann
with just five League games to go in an attempt of salvaging the season and securing at least a place in the Champions League.
After crashing out of both the German Cup and the Champions League,
Bayern lost to Schalke 04 and dropped to third in the Bundesliga,
behind Wolfsburg and Hertha and level on points with ambitious Stuttgart.
Beckenbauer and Rummenigge thought that was the last straw and replaced
Klinsmann with the far more trustworthy Jupp Heynckes.
A superb goalscorer and World Cup winner just like Klinsi, Heynckes
beats his predecessor in experience by something like a quarter
of the century and has to his name a Champions League won in 1998
with Real Madrid.
Still, not even Heynckes is deemed to be a permanent solution for the Bavarians. Kicker magazine claims that the favourite
for taking over Bayern next summer is Louis van Gaal, of Ajax and
Barcelona fame.
The Dutchman, who has just taken AZ Alkmaar to their only second
national League title in history, should be a long-term solution
for Bayern, but his immediate boss should be not the legendary Uli
Höness, but the young Christian Nerlinger. The Bayern star
in the latter part of the nineties will take over from Höness
as the sporting director as of January 1st 2010.
The leading Italian clubs have come to the conclusion that their
loss of competitiveness with respect to English Premier League clubs is due to their sharing their profits with the
second division members.
Milan's deputy chairman Adriano Galliani has spent several months
campaigning for the exit of the top clubs from La Lega and the creation
of their own league competition modeled on the English Premier League.
With this in mind, all the Serie A teams except for Lecce met last
Thursday and initiated the formation of Lega Serie A, a separate
top division which would take its own decisions regarding the distribution
of TV money.
Clearly, this will widen the gap between the residents of the top
flight and the lower divisions, but will enable the biggest and
best supported clubs like Juventus, Inter, Milan, Roma, Lazio or
Napoli to challenge their English and Spanish rivals for European
supremacy.
Already written off for next year's World Cup finals in South
Africa, Romania now have a new coach in view of future commitments.
Razvan Lucescu (40) has been named national team manager in place
of Victor Piturca, dismissed after Romania practically gambled away
all their chances of reaching South Africa in qualifying group 7.
If Razvan is anything like his famed father Mircea, the tricolori
may consider themselves lucky, because Lucescu senior is a coach
of international reputation, currently one step away from taking
Shakhtar Donetsk to their first UEFA Cup finals.
Razvan used to be a useful goalkeeper for six Romanian sides before
coaching Brasov and Dinamo Bucharest. His salary with the FA will be just 250,000 euros, less than he had at Brasov - not a tremendously
lucrative job, coaching Romania.
No less than 176 soccer games at all levels have been played behind
closed doors this weekend in Mexico because of fears of further
spread of swine influenza. The decision taken by the Mexican FA
includes 12 First Division games. Already in the last days of April
three games of the top division were played without spectators for
fear of a pandemic.
The extreme measures have influenced Mexican media coverage as well.
Instead of the commercial channels showing games pay per view, Mexicans
could view six matches of their Primera division on public television.
It had been almost half a century since Real Madrid conceded half
a dozen goals on its home turf. The scoreline was 3-6 and the feat was achieved by their local rivals Atlético Madrid in 1950/51.
And emulating that amazing result could not be other than Barcelona.
Spearheaded by Messi,
Eto'o and Henry, the most
amazing attacking trio soccer has had for a while, Barca crushed
Madrid 6-2 at Santiago Bernabeu, coming within inches of their 19th
League title. The historic result will no doubt become as legendary
as the 0-5 from 1973/74 from the era of Cruyff, Rexach, Asensi and
Sotil.
In fact, Barcelona might secure their 19th domestic title next Sunday
if they defeat Villarreal at Camp Nou and Real Madrid fail to win at powerful Valencia. Real also have a tougher season finish with
three away games, compared to Barcelona's two. Still, between next weekend and now, the Catalans have to visit Chelsea in their Champions League semifinal return leg, after a goalless draw last week in
Spain. Just three days after the Villarreal game, it will be the
turn for the King's Cup finals against Athletic Bilbao in Valencia.
This is because Barca is, along with Chelsea, the only remaining
European team with a chance of winning the triple crown, although
Chelsea's chances in the domestic championship seem rather slim.
This year the professional Footballers' Association Players' Player
of the Year annual award has gone to Manchester United veteran Ryan Giggs. Bravo for Giggs, but what on earth
induced the voters, his fellow professionals, to vote for him at
this time?
Ryan Giggs may easily be the best player the Premiership has ever
had. Present in United's squad ever since 1991, the Welshman has
contributed significantly to ten League titles, two Champions Leagues
and many other trophies. In fact, not a season has passed without
Giggsy scoring a goal in the Premier League
Still, the decision to concede the 35-year-old winger the player
of the year award seems unfounded and ill advised. Despite his trademark
wizardry and some extremely valuable contributions in the latter
half of the season, Giggs has not been the Premiership's top performer.
Not by a long shot. Steven Gerrard, Nicolas Anelka or even Wayne Rooney would have deserved the prize more. Cristiano Ronaldo also
did more for United than the Welshman, even though his own output
has somewhat decreased in comparison to the previous campaign.
But, until a prize for the lifetime achievement is created, various
institutions will continue to offer annual awards to people they
consider may be nearing the end of their career without ever receiving their due recognition.
Sadly, because Giggs has occupied the slot for 2009, somebody else
has been shortchanged right now - and will probably, just like the
Welsh Wizard, be compensated with the award some time in the twilight
of his career, instead of some other, more deserving footballer
in his prime.
