I'm so glad he won the PFA award. He'll never get mass popular recognition cos of the position he plays but it's great other players recognise him.

so i read the article and it has a nice poetry to it but none of the legalese

let me see if i find it here...

oh here is the best explanation:

http://www.dw.com/en/could-rb-leipzi...gue/a-38027087

and

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/s...ague.html?_r=0

basically red bull doesn't own salzburg and can only sponsor. as long as it sponsors below 30% it should be okay.

or so the lawyers say

So all that column and it turned out Red Bull haven't done anything wrong?

wrong?

they're beating bayern 2-1 right now at 28 minutes

they're actually playing better. simpler but better.

bbl

SO, bayer still losing at halftime and ribéry went out with a weird reaction after getting a sorta karate chop under the sternum

dortmund tied 1-1 vs. augsburg is dropping to 4th so far with hoffenheim staging a little massacre of werder bremen, 3-0 at halftime

--

eta: as for the "not doing anything wrong" it depends on what side of the rules they land. they're definitely close to the edge of what's allowed. just not as clearly "over" as the scandal sheets would make it.

holy shit. bayern surmounts a 4-2 score against them to win 5-4 and shows everyone who's boss.

if you didn't see this game you probably should have

dortmund disappointingly ends 1-1 vs augsburg and... i made a mistake about the table positions earlier: they're now tied for 3rd on points, but dortmund ahead on goal difference

Maybe "wrong" isn't the right word. More that the Guardian made a piece about it and it turned out there wasn't anything that could stop both teams being in the champions league.

well there's definitely been some heavy chatter about them being banned, but since ownership is separated by austrian rules that hurdle is cleared. but there are more hurdles.

there's an issue of doing each other "services" through like pricey transfers and cheap loans where there's definitely cooperation, but how far will that affect them is unknown yet. im sure there will be lawyers involved.

and last, since both their major sponsor is red bull, they (or one of them) has to get their rb sponsorship at below 30%. i don't know figures about that but supposedly they're working on it.

i liked the guardian piece for its analysis of the red bull drink image & what not. made me think of godard's masculin-féminin which is actually not boring (he got boring later). with the coca-cola thing. but as for news proper it wasn't very enlightening on the facts of the case.

Indeed. A few minutes ago, he signalled to the bench to be taken off, holding his thigh, then scores a goal waiting for his replacement to come on.




Seriously, there's no excuse. The journalist would've known the facts and simply decided he wouldn't have a story if he stuck to them. I increasingly only turn to the Guardian for its sports coverage. Now it seems that's gone the same way as the rest of the paper.

o man. sorry to hear that! as a rhetorical/opinion piece i did like it but yeah without actual facts it's just a bunch of hot air

and the legal stuff is the actual story of interest here

rb leipzig has formed & lifted itself basically by fucking with the rules-- sticking to them in a way that betrays their spirit. like the member-controlled thing you already know about, where all the members are company employees, etc. (i haven't followed the development of that story lately but they were supposed to open membership a little bit as i recall, though i don't know where that's at). or how they escaped UEFA financial fair play rules by buying up a 5th-division team where said rules don't apply.

if i were a sports lawyer i'd be fucking THRILLED with the adventures of this particular pirate ship. the champions league thing is just another challenge in their long and rich legal history, and they might very well prevail again as they have consistenly in the past. whoever does this for them are not any kind of morons. it's grandmaster-level rule-hacking. but yeah, good reporting is lacking on this front. we're bound to have more news about this come summer though.

You're right about the lawyers. FiFA needs to introduce laws on ownership that have as few grey areas as possible. Easier said than done, obviously, but this new corporate turn in football has to be met with rules that no-longer rely on the goodwill of owners not to betray the spirit of the game. What we have now is a class of owner that has the same 'by any means necessary' attitude to winning as the players they employ: just as someone like Diego Costa plays cat and mouse with the referee, so the owner of RB is his desk-bound equivalent, playing his own game with FIFA. It's something I personally find fascinating but if FIFA loses grip of the situation (and effectively becomes the mouse instead of the cat) the consequences for the game overall will be dire

HAHAHAHAHA... Kid's off the charts!

Some people are interpreting his goal celebration as indicating that he's staying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAr06rufk1Y

Could be. Could also be saying, "I love this club, I'm immensely grateful for the love Arsenal fans give me every game... But I also want to WIN stuff, you follow?".

Of course. I still think he's going to Man City but if that celebration wasn't designed to get people wondering it certainly had that affect.

im watching a bundesliga multimatch and it's fucking bananas

bremen is beating dortmund 3-2 right now (bremen on a roll lately)

and hoffenheim tied 0-0 with augsburg means hoffenheim gets to the europa league's group stage and dortmund doesn't right now

So that's it, Prem over. Best team won, worst three probably went down. No big surprises.

Player of the season: Kante
Manager: Conte
Flop Player: Bravo/Stones
Flop Manager: Gotta say Pep. (or Ranieri?)

kante conte? i feel i've heard of that show before...

Roots?

Anyway, yeah, perhaps not a vintage season in terms of the league overall but plenty of interesting subplots involving key players and managers.

How was the Bundesliga this year? I suppose RB Leipzig were the big story.

So that's the end of the season then? I'm kinda glad, to be honest, I definitely need a few weeks away from football. Gets to the point where fatigue sets in. Well after this week anyway.

more fish for conte!

ha ha ha. sorry i can't help my ears

anyway dont know about the big bundesliga story as i don't follow the press so assiduously. i have a number of stories that call my attention right now

1. lahm retiring. fucking sad! and he's still so good! he and xabi alonso had a little pregame ceremony this saturday. i couldn't watch a lot

2. werder bremen making a comeback after being in the wildnerness for years. well not a comeback proper-- they placed 8th and it's only been a good 1/2 season. but they gave dortmund a run for their money in the last game. dortmund ended winning 4-3 from a bit of individual talent/great luck.

3. wolfsburg on freefall. after losing to hamburg on the last date, they'll be on a relegation playoff. wolfsburg! wtf! they were the new dortmund when dortmund collapsed. were playing europe and the pokal final. and now? holy fuck..

their manager has to also be the biggest flop.

4. speaking of flops, i think thomas tuchel has failed to fulfill expectations. not a massive flop but yeah they almost placed 4th this season. got to 3rd by the proverbial cunthair but far behind 2nd place and waaay behind bayern.

5. oh and ancelotti not a flop based on sheer overpowering the competition but his system doesn't seem to have quite gelled for me. of course i don't measure them by bundesliga standards, i measure them by champions league standards, which is probably how one also judges teams like juventus or real madrid.

6. the biggest revelation of the year timo werner from rb leipzig. also démbélé. they're gonna get some MASSIVE offers this transfer season. also little pulisic has become such a star so soon and so young. best USA player in history already ha ha ha. im serious. well, outside of tim howard anyway.

7. hoffenheim in the champions league next year. sure, they'll have to qualify for the group stage first but not bad at all.

8. well yes, rb leipzig, which reminds me of the old dortmund under klopp. extra bonus: the fans have a great j.s. bach flag. of which i post a picture right next.



can you spot him? with the shades? aaaahaaaa haaaa haaaaa!!!

Confederations Cup 2017 starts June 17! :) The draw is seriously fucking ridiculous, though...



COME ON! :mad:

wait! man city placed 3rd, after all? sure, faaaar behind chelsea, but 3rd? i was expecting more of a debacle.

i'm disappointed, ha ha ha

and he beat klopp by 2 points! daaaamn.

but he has a much better squad, no? petrodollars?

i'm curious about your league now. i should keep up better next year. im getting my shit organized so that should free up a bit of time. at least watch ther recaps or something.

The position made it look better than it is, although they did improve towards the end of the season. Either way, Pep's main priority in the summer must be to get a solid defence in place, and think about his apparently unshakeable commitment to playing out from the back. He needs to look at how Chelsea and Spurs combined defence with attack in a less dogmatic but more effective way.

pep? solid defense?? would need neuer (and even then...)

as for "less dogmatic..." i dont think he's capable

but who knows. maybe people can change?

i think he'll always go his way or die trying. i get the sense that to him, the ideal takes precedence over practical notions.

Yeah. Part of me admires his commitment, but then ISIS are committed, so it's hardly an automatic virtue. The thing is, if he buys his way to success will that ultimately say more about MC's spending power than Pep's managerial prowess? I mean it's probably fair to say that DeBruyne and Silva had more to do with them qualifying for the CL than anything Pep did - whose input arguably lost them more points than they gained. It might just be one slightly underachieving season but I think his stock's dropped considerably as a result. If I was the owner of a top club I could think of quite a few managers I'd take over him right now.

tldr?

You were right all along

Well it only took Wenger 20 years to clock on to a 3-man defence., so maybe by 2037 Pep will buy a functioning centre back.

FA CUP FINAL DAY! Surely to be a better final than that god awful Europa League game!

Predictions-I can't anything but a Chelsea win. Although a part of me wants Arsenal to win, just so it sticks in the throat of the Wenger out brigade.

oh shit i forgot about the pokal final. frankfurt vs. dortmund. not that i care tons but still. damn. when was it supposed to be.


AAAA HAAA HAAAA

-_-

The fa cup final is where it's at. So far Wenger has opted for his second keeper and a makeshift defence. Oh and John Terry has ordered a couple of angels to come down and carry him round on his lap of honour.

i see. pokal is in 3 hours as it happens. i'm interested in the tuchel drama-- basically, he might be booter after the season.

so yeah i have a dog in that fight so to speak

more here:

http://www.espnfc.com/club/borussia-...the-german-cup

count orlock might get the stake thru his heart. blam! he turns to dust

Brilliant game and fair play to Arsenal they totally deserved it. WENGER IN!!

ah ah ha yes i managed to catch the last 10 minutes of that game

mezut's goalpost could have been such a pretty goal! damn.

i'm missing the pokal one as it's not being aired but o well

seattle sounders vs portland timbers about to play which yeah it's a big joke and all but it's the biggest rivaly in the MLS so maybe a fight will break out ha ha ha ha

Excellent final. Arsenal deserved it on the day. Interesting whether this makes it more or less likely that Wenger will go.

And Symbols, no offence but can you please stop describing goals as pretty? It's doing my head in.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eu4gZs9C1i0

And that's why New Orleans should have an MLS franchise. Although he'd be buggered when it came to headers.

he's got a hard head so i wouldn't worry

plus unbeatable goalkeeper!

So long as Pep doesn't sign him as a sweeper keeper. He doesn't look very mobile to me.

Hahahahahahahaaaaaa

Just as Wenger say he's staying at Arsenal, Tuchel is fired by Dortmund. He'd be a great for Arsenal too. Can imagine Arsenal fans going mental about that.