Football (Soccer) Thread

[Duque de Bragança]

We got Zlataned.

"They said they were going to send me to retirement," he said. "I sent their whole nation into retirement."

Zlatan

[FunkMonk]

 

[Liep]

It hurts because its true. Our coach retired, our right back retired, probably Agger, Kjær, Kvist, Kahlenberg will retire too.

[Tamas]

Would be fun to see Zlatan go against our guy:
http://coub.com/view/97vgp

[celedhring]

Not the kind of terror Madrid fans were afraid of.

[FunkMonk]

Madrid got clowned on 

[Josquius]

Leicester are top

[Liep]

Anyone read about Qatar's Aspire Academy? Sounds crazy. So far they've supposedly scouted over 4 millions players from Africa, South America and Asia all in a plot to buy talents for their '22 national squad.

FIFA rules are a little tougher than IHF's but it's still very much possible to buy a national team if you plan 5 years ahead.

[Josquius]

Predicting which youth players will be amazing is a tough game. Even predicting which will be decent is iffy.

[celedhring]

Anyone read about Qatar's Aspire Academy? Sounds crazy. So far they've supposedly scouted over 4 millions players from Africa, South America and Asia all in a plot to buy talents for their '22 national squad.

FIFA rules are a little tougher than IHF's but it's still very much possible to buy a national team if you plan 5 years ahead.

They scooped up a bunch of Barça's youth team coaches and academy staff for that project, and are paying them a small fortune.

[FunkMonk]

Qatar is ridiculous 

[Liep]

The FIFA candidates are for some reason in Copenhagen, I like the little info box they did on them: "Tokyo Sexwale, known for his last name, though it's sadly pronounces se-kwa-lee", "Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, known for being accused of torture", "Gianni Infantino, known for withdrawing his candidacy if Platini is not found quilty of corruption."

They really all seem like stand up guys.

[Duque de Bragança]

So Figo had a chance after all.

[Duque de Bragança]

This just in from Blatter:

The 79-year-old is backing the Frenchman to replace him and also reveals the severity of his recent health scare

Sepp Blatter has stated Michel Platini still has a strong chance of being elected as his successor at Fifa, with the outgoing president also suggesting he came close to death during a recent health scare.

The pair saw respective appeals against their 90-day suspensions rejected by Fifa's Ethics Commission last week in relation to an alleged disloyal payment made by Fifa to Platini in 2011.

Both men deny any wrongdoing although any extension to Blatter's ban would all but end his time as president ahead of elections at the Extraordinary Congress in February next year.

Suspended Uefa president Platini will not have his candidacy for the Fifa role acknowledged while his ban remains in place but Blatter insists the former France international can take world football's top job.

"Platini is an honest man," Blatter told RTS in an interview to be aired on Wednesday.

"If he comes back, he will be elected. And then [if] he comes back, I will return too."

http://www.goal.com/en/news/468/international-football/2015/11/23/17607612/honest-platini-can-still-be-fifa-president-blatter

[Liep]

So apparently Neymar leads La Liga in most goals, most assists, most dribbles, most goal creating moves and now Barcelona gets back the best player in the world.

La Liga seems like a foregone thing, but what about the Champions League?