However, if Liverpool overcomeReal Madrid, their Quarter Final could take place on the 15th of April. The club have pleaded with UEFA to move the fixture 24 hours, but the pleas have fallen on deaf ears, and the governing body have said they cannot promise anything.

Strikes me as a bit odd. The club only want to move the match by a day, so they aren’t trying to gain any sort of advantage, they literally are doing it because of a tragic tradition at the club.

The Premier League have previously moved encounters involving Liverpool on that date, notably the game against Blackburn three years ago.

Perhaps UEFA are waiting to see if Liverpool get through first, it’d be a real pity if they couldn’t manage it.

In fact, the announcement for this should already have come, but apparently UEFA are giving the British Government a bit more time so that they can change the law.

Lansdowne Road in Ireland is likely to be the venue for the ffreshly rebranded Europa League (UEFA Cup).

Typically, the main competition for the Final comes from Germany, Munich’s Allianz Arena or Berlin’s Olympiastadion, both of which were used during the 2006 World Cup, the event for which Wembley was built, back when England were fighting the Germans for the right to hold that World Cup.

It would be then, a sweet success for Wembley to get the final.

But they have to change those tax laws first. Crazily, the current laws state that because the players appearing in the final would earn their wage in this country, the government would be entitled to a chunk. UEFA is asking for an exemption on Sporting Events.

The prestige of holding the Champions League final, with the added factor of the extra revenue having tourists in if the match contains non-English teams – or indeed the TV revenues if it does, would more than make up for it I imagine.

Fernando Torres said he was really dissapointed he wouldn’t get back to play in front of his old fans, and after a couple days sitting around at UEFA, they’ve decided to postpone the ban, which is great news for El Nino. Except he’s gone and got himself injured and will miss the game anyway. Ho-hum.

To be fair, the descion wasn’t just for Torres, it was for the Liverpool fans as well, who had already booked hotels and the like. But you have to love life’s little ironies, no?

Aside from the obvious offensiveness considering the world is struggling with bone fide slavery still, in this day and age, and the small fact that comparing a footballer who is on that kind of money in the first place to it is absolute madness, putting that aside – the whole bloody situation is Blatters fault anyway.

If so many rules that put the power in the hands of the player, rather than the club, were not in place, then they wouldn’t have to tie them to long contracts. Specifically, this whole nasty Webster Clause buisness has done absolutely nothing but scare clubs into giving players insanely long, well paying contracts, that frankly are asking for trouble. Ask Leeds United.

The Bosman Ruling also has alot to do with it as well. Clubs don’t want to loose thier players on a free (as Chelsea are currently facing with Frank Lampard) so of course they aren’t gonna wanna loose an international footballer for free, so they have to tie him to a big contract.

Don’t get me wrong, as a vague socialist, I’m all for the worker having the power over where he plays to a certain extent, but when a player is earning this kind of crazy money, it doesn’t matter so much that he doesn’t play at the weekend right? And surely most players agree to the contracts? So for example Wayne Bridge, clearly he’s happy with being paid 50k a week to warm the Chelsea bench.

Uefa for thier part have shouted down Blatter (it seems to be Michel Platini’s job these days), they had this to say

”It seems that both clubs and players are trying to negotiate an exit before the player is free [at the end of his contract]. It is a consequence of the Bosman ruling – there is nothing we can do about that. It is obvious that today players have a lot more power than they did 20 years ago, undoubtedly, and agents have a lot more power than they did 20 years ago”

Well, quite. Blatter also said that if Ronaldo wants to leave Man United, United should just let him, and United made the point I was trying to make about contracts:

All our players – like at other clubs – enter into their contracts after an open and free negotiation; most of whom do so after taking advice from a Fifa-registered agent. Many do so on a number of occasions and enjoy long and successful stays at Old Trafford

Anyway, where do you stand, Offsiders?

Ronaldinho’s transfer saga is making C-Ron’s looks pathetic, but the Catalonia club are determined that the Brazil man not play in the games.

This is despite the fact that;

i) He’s a bit unfit at the moment and could do with the games
ii) He’s not in the clubs plans so they would hardly miss him
iii) He’s about to run over to Milan if you believe the press stories that appear bi-daily.

Barca however, are adament, because the games do not feature in any FIFA calender, so clubs are not obliged to let thier players play. Obviously, as R10 knows he has no future at the club anyway, he could just give them the finger and play anyway (I hope he does). It seems odd that Barca don’t want to let him go, but they don’t want him either.

Still, lets all recall happier R10 moments eh?

I miss that Dhino.

All of it is just a lesson in jumping the gun. Basically after Steaua were accused of bribary, they were docked six points and fined, and kicked out the Champions League. But all those involved denied any wrongdoing, and now are proved innocent.

Steaua’s owner Gigi Becali had previously had a two year ban from entering a football stadium, which has now been scrapped, as has his player Petre Marin’s six month ban.

Steaua will enter the Third Qualifying Round of the Champions League. CSKA Sofia must now be sat wondering if they might be let back in as well – although they were kicked out for debt problems, which are a bit harder to prove wrong really.

His 3 A’s, which are Aggression, Attractiveness, and Attackingness, are he belives, key to his plans to make sure Bayern are there “Untill the end” in this season’s Champions League.
He has also implemented a strict new training regieme, which keeps the players at the club from 9.30 to 5.30. Don’t worry though, Bayern fans, It isn’t all stuff that is gonna make the players knackered by the time the German League starts again. Some of it, is apparently Brain Training. Klinsmann wants the players to be able to speak German better (presumably this is aimed at the non-German contingent such as Luca Toni and Franck Ribery), as well as learning foriegn languages.

He doesn’t think the players will be put off by this school-like atmosphere either.

“I’m not worried. I think the players are looking forward to it. I think this is a young generation waiting to be inspired, stimulated and motivated. We’ll see after a few months how it’s going. I think it’ll release a lot of new energies. My philosophy is to make every player better every day. I’d like to help players get to the next level”

Its certainly a change, and a bit of a revolution in Munich. We will have to see, however, if Klinsmann can deliver his promise to be in the final.

After the Portugese club appealed, Uefa’s apeeal’s body sent the issue back for consideration, meaning that the descion to kick them out of the next edition of the Champions League was completely meaningless and a new descion will be made. This doesn’t mean that Porto will for sure be in the Champions League, but it does mean that stand a much better chance than they did a couplde of days ago.

A Porto director summed it up thus :

The result of the meeting was that the June 4 decision was annulled, but it will return to consider the issue from scratch

Porto were intially kicked out of the Champions League due to the ‘Golden Whistle’ scandal, which involved the fixing of matches a few years ago. While a league matter, the Portuguese FA docked Porto a measely 5 five points (cowardly when Porto were already 20 points out in front – they still won the league at a canter) and gave them a tiny fine. UEFA then decided to take it into thier own hands.

Its interesting that this story break now – Yesterday I bought you news that UEFA was really going to crack down on this kind of thing, by kicking out Steaua. CSKA Sofia have also had to forfeit thier Champions League place, as they could not meet the BFU’s Licensing Commission conditions.

So it seemed that UEFA were going to clear this all up. But they’ve gone back to square one with Porto. Don’t be it be said that the reason Porto are getting a second hearing is because they are a fairly big club who have history in this competition though. That would be absurd.

After the least successful attempt at bribery ever – the Steaua chairman allegedly threw 1.7m Euros at a relegated side to encourege them to beat Steaua’s title rivals, which they failed to do – they have already been docked seven points, which leaves them in position for the third qualifying round of the CL. Everyone involved has denied any wrongdoing.

Is this good news for Inter? Probably. They aren’t going to be playing super-attractive football under Mourinho, but they never were anyway. It means that they are likely to sign players like Rickie Carvalho, Frank Lampard, Micheal Essien and Didier Drogba, although to fund some of these might come at the expense of some of thier current players, like Ibrakadabra. Jose is a winner though, and he will win his way. He’s also entertaining even if his clubs are resolutely not.

Plus it guarentees Man United will draw Inter in the Champions League now, so all the talk can carry on about Fergie trying to break Jose’s curse.