Dembele's going the wrong way.

Dembélé a day and a half without giving signs of life and is excused as having gastroenteritis.

Dembele is once again splashed with controversy. The young French striker has just adapted to Barcelona. The situation begins to be more than worrying. And the last episode starring 'the mosquito' doesn't help to reduce the tension.

The surprise has jumped in the training in the Sports City of Sant Joan Despí. A work session programmed by Ernesto Valverde which Ousmane Dembélé did not attend. And it is that the matter has not ended there.

Some of the club's employees tried to contact the Frenchman, although without success. More than an hour and a half later, the striker showed signs of life. Once they managed to talk to the player, they sent him home to the medical service to confirm the illness and treat it. A few hours later, official club sources pointed to gastroenteritis as the reason for his absence.

Some people don't believe it.

It's not the first absence in a French training under strange circumstances. Some doubt this version and point out that if it had really been a gastrointestinal affection, the footballer would have warned to inform of his absence from the preparatory session.

There are those who blame these delays to the supposed bad life that Dembele leads in his home in Barcelona. And it is that not only the party causes havoc among the soccer players. Video games with friends until late hours and junk food would be hampering the performance of crack azulgrana.

Dembélé has already starred in an episode like this and social networks are aware of it. "Gastroenteritis," some asked. The comings and goings of footballers no longer go unnoticed and people are getting tired.

Beyond the official communiqué issued by the club, the hermeticism with which the subject is being treated is total. Some begin to wonder why the heavyweights in the dressing room are covering it up.

Barcelona didn't like this incident at all. Their delays and absences in training have ceased to be seen as something casual and they attribute it to the lack of attitude that the player is showing this season.

-       Do you think Dembele is having an attitude that could be justified by his age?

-       What do you think about this player's behaviour?

Barça returns to the bad streak of matches

Valverde: "The first part has been decisive"

Ernesto Valverde was very clear at the end of the match against Betis, corresponding to Round 12 of the Santander League, that the defeat was based on the first half.

The FC Barcelona coach acknowledged that they failed to take advantage of the risky system raised by the green and white team, which led to a series of defensive mismatches that resulted in the 0-2 at half-time.

"We wanted to take advantage of the fact that Betis has a situation with many players in front and we started well, squeezing and causing losses of the rival, but there has been a time when the match has broken, we had some mismatches and we have conceded two goals," summed up a Valverde who was clear that "the first half has been decisive.

Valverde regretted that the reaction in the second half was aborted by two unfortunate plays: "We lacked time in the interval between the 1-2 and 1-3 to be able to regain the match. In an unfortunate move they made us the third. Then, after the 2-3 we were sent off to Rakitic and then we fit the 2-4.

We knew we weren't going to be able to dominate the match, but the key is that we weren't very successful in the 1x1 and we lacked continuity, hence the result of the first half. We made a very bad first half and allowed them to distance themselves on the scoreboard.

The FC Barcelona coach insisted on the mistakes made by his team: "I don't want to detract from the opponent, because he took risks to win, but I have to think that we could have counteracted that in another way. We could have stopped the cons earlier.

We didn't attack well and when they stole the ball from us, they took advantage of the accumulation of players at the top. Everything goes together, when a team attacks well, defends well.

Valverde explained his bet on Malcolm in the starting eleven and the discard of Rafinha, a player who had had a good performance in the absence of Messi: "I knew it was going to be a game without control in which situations were going to arise 3x3 in attack and thought that in that dynamic match, Malcolm could give us overflow and depth. Regarding Rafinha's absence, I thought we needed players to give us more deployment and he helps us more in possession.

He also valued the contribution of Arturo Vidal, who scored a goal and served another: "As the game was, we had to shake it and put a bit of cane, because we lacked a little intensity. The match wasn't there for anyone to control it and Arturo has arrived". Rakitic's dismissal could open the door to the Chilean's starting line-up, an option that the Blaugrana coach insinuated: "He can start any match.

-          Do you think Valverde is having a passive attitude during games?

-          Do you think he doesn't risk making a change during the match or when he makes the initial 11?

-          What do you think he should do?

Ribery doesn't know how to lose

The real protagonist of the 'Der Klassiken'

Last weekend was played the German classic 'Der Klassiker’ between Borussia Dormund and Bayer Munchen. After the end of the match in which Borussia Dormund was the winner, Franck Ribery was the real protagonist of the weekend because at the end of the match according to information published in the German daily 'Bild' the French player insulted and slapped BeIN Sports journalist Patrick Guillou. Information that would later be confirmed by the sports director of the German club, Hasan Salihamidzic.

"Franck Ribery told us about an altercation with his compatriot Patrick Guillou, whom he has known for many years. We agreed with Patrick Guillou that we would talk at a meeting about how to deal with this issue," Salihamidzic said after the altercation.

In the meantime, the journalist has not wanted to speak out on the issue when asked by other media.

Do you think that Frank Ribery should be denounced by the journalist so that he can receive some kind of compensation (economic...) or should he receive some kind of punishment from his club?

The descent of viewers in Spanish Basketball national league

Why the ACB league has lost 88% of its audience in the last 20 years?

 

On May 20, 1997, the ACB league reached its peak. Succession in the Palacio de los Deportes, in Madrid, in the fifth game of the final, which would decide the title. It was a Tuesday, but more than 12,000 spectators filled the pavilion. Madrid and Barcelona decided the title of the ACB. The game was broadcast by La 1. The league finally was won by Barcelona. It was the first time that a team managed to win a final of ACB with the court factor against. However, the most important data of the final we knew it the next day, when reviewing the audimeters, that match was followed by television 4.8 millions of Spaniards, which is not only the highest ever registered by the league, it was also, finally, the basketball obtained better results than the average of football matches, eternal first choice of the Spanish people. Those 4.8 million meant, in addition, that the League enjoyed a good audience that could evolve to be broadcast in the private TV.

In the 96/97 season, when the audience heaven was touched, the ACB averaged over a million spectators for every match. Two years after this final, the league went to Canal +, a private television channel, and never again it went the same. Five years later, basketball returned to Televisión Española with an average of 713,000 viewers. Nowadays, again closed for subscribers, the ACB is followed by just 128,000 Spaniards, with some matches results of 5,500 spectators. How has ACB lost almost all of its audience in twenty years?

Indeed, Canal + invested heavily in the ACB, transplanting the innovations that were sweeping football, such as planes with the crane, the super slow camera or a program like 'What the eye does not see'. Of those four years we do not have audience data, only that, when the league returned to the open source, it had left twelve out of every hundred spectators on the way.

The return to public television was traumatic: the clubs spent less money, which impoverished the quality of the staff, and part of the television rights went to the regional ones.
In this period it was when the fans definitively lost the space-time reference of basketball. There came a time when people did not know when the ACB was played. When it is? Saturday afternoon? Sunday morning? People who want to see basketball have to look for it, they do not have a specific time of the week, as happens with the Champions League or the Euroleague.

 

In view of the poor results, many fans, often spurred by the league itself, reproached Televisión Española with the little care that ACB handled: "It is true that TVE has not treated the product well, but it is also that there was a margin ... With regard to Canal +, our media was outdated, we had to invest in the deployment, in the post-party ...

As the national league was losing influence, the Euroleague won, in which the main Spanish teams compete. Thus, the interests of the most distinguished members of the ACB were uncoupled, since the Euroleague meetings fill the pavilions more and, to top it all, financially reward the victory. "The Euroleague is eating not only the ACB, but all the European leagues, before they played Tuesday and Wednesday, but they moved on Thursdays and Fridays, which are more commercial, and they ruled out the ACB, which was forced to play on Sunday. This situation, degraded the perception of the ACB. Although the ACB is the most important league in Europe, it is actually third division for a professional. Above are the NBA and the Euroleague teams, and that makes it very difficult to retain talent and build on it.


In 2008 came the crisis and stripped the economic model of most of the ACB teams: "The league, for many years, has been two football clubs and 16 political wills, I was terribly impressed behind the clubs that were public institutions releasing money without control. I saw the budget of the Unicaja that won the league on  2005 and 16 million euros were spent, then you see the income and they did not cover a million.

These words were said by a journalist that was specialized in Spanish basketball.

Is there salvation for the ACB? We are not so clear that there is a solution at this point. We know that the interest in basketball exists, we see it with the National Team and the NBA, but we do not like the ACB product, so there is an evident disconnection. Perhaps one solution would be to limit the number of signings per season, so that the fan could recognize his players and re-identify with his team, but that is something that obviously will not happen.

We also heard that the ACB is decapitated, does not have an executive figure, as in the NBA, which sets a horizon for the competition. It was decided long ago by an assembly model that has two problems. The first, that each decision costs a lot, which causes the league to advance with short steps. The second, and more serious, that are the big clubs that decide in the shade, manipulating to support them with assignments and other perks. The ACB needs someone at the front to prepare a road map, as in the Euroleague, which may have errors, but knows where it is going.

Also, we think that the ACB matches, should be available TVE, because it is basic that the ACB retrieves a window to the outside, so that everyone can see the product.

Finally, we follow the NBA. Everyday we open the NBA app on the smartphone and for free, and we see the best plays in the NBA every three minutes, but in the ACB we don’t see nothing at all. Maybe americans know better how to sell their League?

What do you will change in the ACB league to make it greater? Which do you think are the current problems on the ACB?

PSG & CITY = PETRODOLLARS $$

Football Leaks uncovers what was evident

Football Leaks reveals new irregularities in the world of football. According to the German daily Der Spiegel, Gianni Infantino, FIFA President, could have systematically helped PSG and Manchester City to avoid sanctions for breaches of the financial 'Fair Play' when he was still in charge of UEFA.

The German newspaper reports that both Manchester City and PSG systematically broke the rules of financial fair play and Infantino protected both.
In this sense, UEFA did not sanction either club and in addition, the head of the football body in Europe met secretly with the leaders of both clubs.

According to the documentation published by Football Leaks, the Parisian club has received 1.800.000 € fraudulently from the government of Qatar for irregular financing, something that should have caused its expulsion from the Champions League. Therefore, the continuity of Neymar and Mbappé could be compromised. 

On the other hand, PSG benefited from a reduction in the fine of about 60 million euros and, like Manchester City, took advantage of the fact that UEFA retroactively accounted for a fraction of the contract with the Qatar Tourism Authority for the 2013-2014 season. All this allowed the City to lift the sanctions suffered a year in advance. 

Finally, the documents that have come to light show an investigation that was concluded without any accusation in 2017 to PSG. Football Leaks points out that the case was closed according to UEFA "for political reasons".

What do you think of this news? Amazing truth. The petrodollars are destroying football don't you think?

Our question for you is if you were the Fifa what sanction or punishment would you impose?

Be creative and enjoy it!!!!😜😜

🂥🂥

Rain of sexist insults

Rain of sexist insults in a Third Division match

Was going to be a matchday to be remembered, three womens refereeing a male match in the Spain’s Third Division. The match faced C.P. San Cristóbal against Llagostera in Terrassa, a city near Barcelona.

Aina Acevedo (principal referee), and Ylenia Sánchez y Matilde Esteves as referee assistants, jumped into the field wanting to do well his job and trying to enjoy that historic match for them. The dream was truncated when a group of followers per part of CP San Cristóbal were devoted to insult and disparage every decision the referees make. Insults like: “Go to scrub!”, “Who fucks her from the team?!” or “Go take for ass!”.

C.P. San Cristóbal has issued a statement in which it rejects this type of disrespectful and intolerant behaviours and says that will identify and sanction to the fans. What exemplary punishments would be? and Do you that the Federació Catalana de Futbol (FCF) should intervene and punish the fans? Here you have a video:

Is La Liga going to America?

Is La Liga going to America?

Top-flight Spanish soccer clubs will play official games in the United States,
LaLiga will celebrate for the first time in history official matches outside of Spain, in the United States. It is one of the plans of the 15-year agreement signed between LaLiga and Relevent, a multinational media, sports and entertainment company, to promote football in the United States and Canada. "The goal of this extraordinary 'joint venture' is for the culture of football to grow in the United States. It will be a big step in its growing popularity, "said Stephen Ross, a US businessman and principal owner, among other firms, of Relevent, the Miami Dolphins of the NFL and the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. The celebration of the game or matches of Spanish LaLiga will be completed as soon as possible. The idea is that there is already a match this season and, predictably, with Barça or Real Madrid as one of the contenders. It will be the first time that a European league has held matches outside the continent.

LaLiga and Relevent, which will form a new organization called LaLiga North America, adopt an idea of ​​promotion and expansion similar to that carried out by major professional sports in the United States such as the NBA, the American Football (NFL), the Baseball League (MLB) or the Ice Hockey League (NHL). For some years, these leagues have held official matches outside of North America.

The Real Madrid or Barcelona brands have expanded during the last years in the United States. Tebas now wants the LaLiga brand to expand in the same way. "Relevent has filled stadiums throughout the United States with the ICC. It is the firm that can help us grow in the United States, not only in a very competitive market in football, but in the sports industry. The brands Barça and Madrid are very well introduced. It is also necessary to develop the LaLiga brand and thus benefit the brand from the rest of the Spanish clubs.

According to a 2016 study, of the 47 million fans that the United States has, 33 million are followers of LaLiga. And 30% of Americans interested in world football are Hispanic. "Unite with Relevent to create LaLiga North America is a great milestone in our international expansion strategy," says Óscar Mayo, director of international development at LaLiga.

What about the non-economic side?  

The news that La Liga will play regular-season matches in the United States came as a surprise to most fans and clubs.  Players from all 20 La Liga clubs voiced their opposition to the idea at a meeting earlier this week. Further player meetings are scheduled for later in the year but La Liga may still go ahead with their plans, despite threats of a strike.

Local supporters think it might lead to a situation where part of top-level football in Spain is sold to the highest bidder rather than what's really best for the fans and players alike.

We, as a football fans have a certain pessimism this cannot be stopped once it begins. We think that these types of matches will increase the possibilities of injuries and tiredness on players. Also, fans will lose the possibility of  enjoying some games. On a positive note, bringing a few La Liga matches to a country like the United States, where football is growing slowly but steadily, could make it more popular.

In conclusion, yes, we may miss that one game. But the fans in America never get to see a game, and now they can. All this will increase the invest in La Liga and will make it more competitive.

Our question is that if we have seen the NFL or NBA move games outside of America, 'Why can't we do that the other way around?'" Why that situation is not accepted by clubs and fans?