What you missed while cowering in fear after seeing what a box jellyfish can do to a human leg…
- UEFA Champions League roundup: Lyon 0-3 Bayern Munich; the highlight of the match was undoubtedly Bayern striker Ivica Olić and his perfect hat trick.
- Bayern advances to the final (0-4 on aggregate), but Franck Ribery has been ruled out of the final after his red card for violent conduct in the first leg.
- Inter Milan manager Jose Mourinho has urged referee Frank de Bleeckere to be mindful of Barcelona’s gamesmanship during tonight’s Champions League semifinal. He also has said that Barcelona are obsessed with advancing to the final.
- Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, has said that he never sensed any greatness from Mourinho when the he was an assistant at the Camp Nou during Guardiola’s playing days.
- Johann Cruyff thinks Zlatan Ibrahimovic sucks.
- From the “Duh” department: Real Madrid winger Cristiano Ronaldo hopes that Barcelona lose tonight.
- Cristiano Ronaldo also says he will not be at Real Madrid forever (which gels with my FM save, where he inexplicably moved to Tottenham in 2017).
- Gianfranco Zola wants to reach a settlement on his remaining two contract years with West Ham so that he can leave as part of a dignified exit instead of just up and quitting as manager.
- Manchester City will seal a loan deal for Sunderland goalkeeper Marton Fulop later today; Fulop will be an “emergency loan” to replace injured goalkeeper Shay Given, because Man City has billions of pounds, eleven strikers, and apparently only one keeper.
- Brazil have overtaken Spain for first place in the FIFA rankings; how Brazil moved up over a period of time where no international matches of any importance took place is unclear. England also dropped a place, while Portugal are somehow in third.
- Fans of Brazilian attacking midfielder Neymar had police called on them when they went to Dunga’s house with signs and costumes to try and convince him to call the midfielder up.
- Brazil and Sevilla striker Luis Fabiano would like to move to Manchester United in the summer.
- Liverpool have spent their entire transfer budget £1.7 million on Charlton Athletic midfielder prospect Jonjo Shelvey.
- Yahoo and the Premier League have struck a three year deal for a five-minute online highlight package.
- Stoke City manager Tony Pulis is going to purge the club of disciplinary problems this summer, with up to ten players being sold. Stoke has had two or three separate incidents involving players punching each other this season.
I know I’m speaking from a Spurs fan perspective, but why in the world were Man City allowed to pick up a keeper outside the transfer window? I know it’s a kind of “protected position”, but they got themselves into this mess with the bad Joe Hart loan contract (no recall clause). Is there any precedence for this? Specifically in the Premier League.
Also…Portugal is third? Really?
I have no idea, and I think it’s bullshit. They HAVE keepers on staff, they just don’t want to use them. Liverpool have to play with David Ngog every single week now, but that’s just how it rolls with injuries; if Man City wanted keeper depth, they should’ve planned for it.
Joe Hart wasn’t able to be recalled because Birmingham paid a loan fee for him; since there’s a cash component to the transfer, he’s theirs for the season. If Birmingham had allowed him to move back (like Sunderland is doing with Fulop), it could’ve gone through; The Guardian was saying today that they tried that and Birmingham refused to give him back early.
FIFA explains that the current shifts are the result of the degradation of past results; the rankings are based on your results over what I believe is a two year span, so as your old results fall off your ranking changes. Recent results are given more weight, but when nobody plays in awhile it becomes more about how well you did than how well you’re doing.
But, yeah…Portugal in third makes no sense.
US Soccer Daily has a pretty good explanation of how the FIFA rankings are figured, although even after having read it twice, I am not sure I see how teams could have moved if no matches were played.
Mags has it right, except that it is a four year span. Basically, all matches in the rankings are now 1 month older. And weightings of points gained in those matches change as they become one year older.
- Points gained from matches played in April 2006 are no longer included in the rankings
- Points gained in matches played in April 2007 are now weighted by .2 instead of .3
- Points gained in matches played in April 2008 are now weighted by .3 instead of .5
- Points gained in matches played in April 2009 are now weighted by .5 instead of 1.0
If a Team A had a worse total in these months compared to Team B, then Team A will move up in the latest rankings relative to Team B.
But still, Portugal should not be third.
I was really hoping that story about Yahoo and the Premier League was going to result in the “Yahoo! Premier League” for the next five years.
And speaking of the rankings, you can gripe about Portugal all you want but the real travesty is how anyone could have Eritrea ranked six, count’em six, places behind Vanuatu.
To borrow a phrase from the The Princess Bride “Inconceivable!”