By Andrew Warshaw
March 7 – When the great and the good of UEFA, accused of being behind the times, finally gave the green light for the video assistant referee system to be used in the knockout stages of their most prestigious competition, they could hardly have anticipated the furore that exploded in Paris and, to a lesser extent, Portugal, on Wednesday night.
March 7 – In a rare outburst of feelings that would normally be kept in-house, Germany’s World Cup winner Thomas Muller (pictured) says he is “puzzled” and “angry” by coach Joachim Low’s decision to discard him from the national squad as part of a rebuilding process.
March 6 – England triumphed in the SheBelieves Cup with a 3-0 trashing of 2015 World Cup runners-up Japan to win the tournament for a first time and lay down a marker for this summer’s Women’s World Cup in France.
March 6 – As end of eras go, few have been quite as humiliating as that of Real Madrid who spectacularly crashed out of the Champions League on Tuesday having won the trophy for the past three years and four of the last five.
March 1 – Claudio Ranieri, the manager who captured the imagination of the world by guiding Leicester City to one the most miraculous league titles in the history of English football just three years ago, has discovered to his cost that lightning rarely strikes twice after being sacked by relegation-threatened Fulham.
February 26 – French-trained players dominate a ranking of players who dribble the most in the Big-5 Leagues but Lionel Messi is still the master with the ball at his feet and tops the ranking over the past year.
February 26 – So much for a mere misunderstanding. Chelsea’s Spanish goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga has been fined a week’s wages and apologised for refusing to be substituted during Sunday’s English League Cup final defeat by Manchester City, an incident which made global headlines.
February 25 – Have you ever seen anything like it? That was the widespread reaction to the extraordinary scenes that marked the climax of Sunday’s English League Cup final won by Manchester City, who retained the trophy on penalties following a goalless draw with Chelsea.
By Samindra Kunti
February 21 – The newly arrived video refs were in the spotlight once more in the Champions League last night as both the Schalke 04 vs Manchester City and Atletico Madrid vs Juventus matches were punctuated by VAR incidents.
February 20 – Data looking at how much playing time young players born 1988 and later are getting in Europe’s top leagues show very are getting experience in the Big 5 and the France and Spain providing the most opportunity for development.
February 18 – Players who have developed through the Barcelona or Real Madrid academies are far more likely to have careers in Europe’s Big 5 leagues than players developed anywhere else in Europe.
February 18 – A financially destitute Italian third-tier club is under fire for fielding just seven players at the weekend and losing 20-0 in the process – the worst trouncing in the league’s history.
By Abdelaziz Abuhamar
February 18 – Glasgow Rangers became the 2019 champions of the U17 Al-Kass International Cup, a football tournament organized annually in Qatar by the Al-Kass TV channel since 2012.
February 15 – UEFA have launched an investigation that could rule Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos out of a potential Champions League quarter-final after he admitted getting booked on purpose in Wednesday’s 2-1 win at Ajax Amsterdam.
February 15 – Despite a hugely controversial offside call at Ajax that went Real Madrid’s way and could have changed the outcome of the game, the Video Assistant Referee system “worked perfectly” at all stadiums that hosted first leg games in the last 16 of the Champions League this week, according to UEFA’s chief refereeing officer Roberto Rosetti.