On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me...
3 French '10's'
Arguably the most prestigous shirt number a player can wear has to be the number 10. With the French National team, however, there is no arguement - it's a fact.
According to Monsieur Platini, "The street is the best way to become a good footballer." Well, if the video evidence below is anything to go by perhaps more footballers should start off as prostitutes.
Until then, we leave you in the more than capable 'feet' of Sidney Govou, Zinadine Zidane and of course Michel Platini.
Pick the bones out of this christmas footballing feast...
Showing posts with label Michel Platini. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michel Platini. Show all posts
Saturday, 15 December 2007
Saturday, 25 August 2007
Saturday Shout: A league for champions
I used to like Michel Platini. When I was growing up, I can specifically recall seeing him gliding around the pitch on what seemed like a cushion of air during the 1986 World Cup. His every movement had such grace, every ball he kicked seemed to go exactly where it should and every scoring opportunity he had seemed to result in a goal. The man was a legend.
You can appreciate the optimism I had, therefore, when the former French captain gained the presidency of UEFA in January this year. Here was a man who promised sensibility along with new ideas to make the European game better than it's ever been before.
How sad, then, that I should find myself this week shaking my head in disbelief at the new idea Platini has suggested. Having failed in his bid to reduce the maximum number of participating clubs per country in the Champions League from four to three, he's now produced a compromise: for one of those four teams to be the winner of that country's main cup competition.
Now at this stage I feel the need to give you some sort of tangible image of what that could mean. Going by Platini's grand scheme and based on some of the more recent FA Cup Finals, teams like West Ham, Southampton and Millwall could have come dangerously close to playing alongside the likes of Barcelona, Milan and Valencia.
Incomprehensible, you may think, to give the FA Cup winner a place in the Champions League rather than the team that finished fourth in the Premier League, but it could step closer to reality next week when Platini announces his plans officially. Yet for all the bewildering lack of logic Platini's scheme contains, there's a simple solution which I've managed to come up with.
My idea is to take away the qualification place from the team that finishes fourth, then do so for the team that finishes third and second too. What you have after that is a concept which might seem bizarre, but I think it could work. It'd be a league featuring teams from around Europe who are specifically champions in their own country. A sort of 'European Champions' League', if you will.
But here's the masterstroke. If you take the current format of the competition where the first round proper contains 32 teams, what you'd have is 32 countries from all over the continent represented - not the fifteen that took part last season. It's not easy to get much more European than that, be honest.
So here's my thoughts on your new idea, Mr. Platini: if you want to improve the diversity of the Champions League and do away with the rampant commercialism and money-mindedness that permeates the game these days, forget about cup winners - in fact forget about league runners-up. Make the Champions League a league for champions and let's get a sense of realism back in this competition.
Well now I've said all I've got to say, what are your thoughts? This is, after all, the feature where you're encouraged to put your head over the pulpit and make your thoughts known. Leave us a comment and tell me whether I'm talking sense or talking out of my... soapbox.
You can appreciate the optimism I had, therefore, when the former French captain gained the presidency of UEFA in January this year. Here was a man who promised sensibility along with new ideas to make the European game better than it's ever been before.
How sad, then, that I should find myself this week shaking my head in disbelief at the new idea Platini has suggested. Having failed in his bid to reduce the maximum number of participating clubs per country in the Champions League from four to three, he's now produced a compromise: for one of those four teams to be the winner of that country's main cup competition.
Now at this stage I feel the need to give you some sort of tangible image of what that could mean. Going by Platini's grand scheme and based on some of the more recent FA Cup Finals, teams like West Ham, Southampton and Millwall could have come dangerously close to playing alongside the likes of Barcelona, Milan and Valencia.
Incomprehensible, you may think, to give the FA Cup winner a place in the Champions League rather than the team that finished fourth in the Premier League, but it could step closer to reality next week when Platini announces his plans officially. Yet for all the bewildering lack of logic Platini's scheme contains, there's a simple solution which I've managed to come up with.
My idea is to take away the qualification place from the team that finishes fourth, then do so for the team that finishes third and second too. What you have after that is a concept which might seem bizarre, but I think it could work. It'd be a league featuring teams from around Europe who are specifically champions in their own country. A sort of 'European Champions' League', if you will.
But here's the masterstroke. If you take the current format of the competition where the first round proper contains 32 teams, what you'd have is 32 countries from all over the continent represented - not the fifteen that took part last season. It's not easy to get much more European than that, be honest.
So here's my thoughts on your new idea, Mr. Platini: if you want to improve the diversity of the Champions League and do away with the rampant commercialism and money-mindedness that permeates the game these days, forget about cup winners - in fact forget about league runners-up. Make the Champions League a league for champions and let's get a sense of realism back in this competition.
Well now I've said all I've got to say, what are your thoughts? This is, after all, the feature where you're encouraged to put your head over the pulpit and make your thoughts known. Leave us a comment and tell me whether I'm talking sense or talking out of my... soapbox.
Monday, 13 November 2006
Platini v Johansson
This January, UEFA will hold an election to find a new President and it looks set to be a straight head-to-head battle between existing President, Lennart Johansson and Michel Platini.
Johansson is the 76-year-old Swede who has been at the top of the UEFA tree since 1990. Despite his advanced years, many feel he’s the man for the job until 2009 having steered the European governing body through some tricky times over the last sixteen years.
Platini is a former member of the French team that gained a worldwide reputation for playing entertaining and skilful football during the 1980’s and is generally regarded as one of the all-time legends of the game. Since retiring from football, Platini has helped organise the successful 1998 World Cup in his home country and become the chairman of FIFA’s Technical and Development Committee.
While some may see Platini’s arrival as the chance to elect a new man with new ideas, others are approaching the Frenchman’s candidacy campaign with caution, and all because of one key issue.
Both men have gone on record to state their views on the Champions League, and more specifically, the international make-up of those teams that take part. Platini was the first to put forward his thoughts, and they immediately raised a number of eyebrows among the European football community.
Platini feels that the Champions League should restrict the number of clubs entering from each country to a maximum of three. At the moment, Italy, England and Spain are allowed to enter four teams, purely on the basis of the financial stability that they bring to the organisation. Lennart Johansson has opposed this, favouring the current system for that very reason, but Platini thinks that every associate member of UEFA isn’t properly represented.
“Four clubs are too many - for the country itself, the fans and TV rights. Three should be the limit. There are not enough national champions in the last 32 of the tournament and that cannot be right." However, Platini added that "I am not so stupid as to want to change the current format”
Putting the Frenchman’s slightly illogical footnote to one side for a moment, it’s a contentious issue. My personal thoughts are perhaps a little old-fashioned but no doubt reflect a considerable number of people in that I tend to favour Platini. In actual fact, I’d go so far as to say that the Champions League should be just that - a competition whereby only the league champions from each European country take part, not even the runners-up and teams finishing third.
A solution to the problem would be to rename the title of the Champions League to something like the ‘European Premier League’, thus relieving it of its specificity. Not as catchy, I’ll grant you, but it’d be one solution.
As we all know though, that’s not going to happen, so we’re left with the prospect of a Champions League with ‘only’ three teams from each country. Personally, I think it’s a workable scheme and just requires a refined version of the ranking system currently used for the competition. In addition, any thoughts of seeing the likes of SK Tirana taking the place of Liverpool (shock horror) can be dismissed thanks to the rigorous qualifying competition that’s already in place.
One still has to wonder how many privileges the bigger countries in UEFA really want. Why, for instance, should a smaller country be denied their chance to enter their champion team in favour of a decent also-ran from Italy, Spain or England? How will they be able to develop when the big teams are constantly shutting the door on them?
It seems Mr Johansson is only interested in fleecing as much cash for his organisation as he can. I suggest with a bit of imagination and a mind towards fair play, he and his associates can come up with a reformed version of the Champions League competition that keeps many of UEFA’s member nations happy and reclaims some of the tradition that’s been discarded in recent years.
If Lennart Johansson doesn’t, maybe one day Michel Platini will, and that could make Champions League competitions altogether different in the future.
Johansson is the 76-year-old Swede who has been at the top of the UEFA tree since 1990. Despite his advanced years, many feel he’s the man for the job until 2009 having steered the European governing body through some tricky times over the last sixteen years.
Platini is a former member of the French team that gained a worldwide reputation for playing entertaining and skilful football during the 1980’s and is generally regarded as one of the all-time legends of the game. Since retiring from football, Platini has helped organise the successful 1998 World Cup in his home country and become the chairman of FIFA’s Technical and Development Committee.
While some may see Platini’s arrival as the chance to elect a new man with new ideas, others are approaching the Frenchman’s candidacy campaign with caution, and all because of one key issue.
Both men have gone on record to state their views on the Champions League, and more specifically, the international make-up of those teams that take part. Platini was the first to put forward his thoughts, and they immediately raised a number of eyebrows among the European football community.
Platini feels that the Champions League should restrict the number of clubs entering from each country to a maximum of three. At the moment, Italy, England and Spain are allowed to enter four teams, purely on the basis of the financial stability that they bring to the organisation. Lennart Johansson has opposed this, favouring the current system for that very reason, but Platini thinks that every associate member of UEFA isn’t properly represented.
“Four clubs are too many - for the country itself, the fans and TV rights. Three should be the limit. There are not enough national champions in the last 32 of the tournament and that cannot be right." However, Platini added that "I am not so stupid as to want to change the current format”
Putting the Frenchman’s slightly illogical footnote to one side for a moment, it’s a contentious issue. My personal thoughts are perhaps a little old-fashioned but no doubt reflect a considerable number of people in that I tend to favour Platini. In actual fact, I’d go so far as to say that the Champions League should be just that - a competition whereby only the league champions from each European country take part, not even the runners-up and teams finishing third.
A solution to the problem would be to rename the title of the Champions League to something like the ‘European Premier League’, thus relieving it of its specificity. Not as catchy, I’ll grant you, but it’d be one solution.
As we all know though, that’s not going to happen, so we’re left with the prospect of a Champions League with ‘only’ three teams from each country. Personally, I think it’s a workable scheme and just requires a refined version of the ranking system currently used for the competition. In addition, any thoughts of seeing the likes of SK Tirana taking the place of Liverpool (shock horror) can be dismissed thanks to the rigorous qualifying competition that’s already in place.
One still has to wonder how many privileges the bigger countries in UEFA really want. Why, for instance, should a smaller country be denied their chance to enter their champion team in favour of a decent also-ran from Italy, Spain or England? How will they be able to develop when the big teams are constantly shutting the door on them?
It seems Mr Johansson is only interested in fleecing as much cash for his organisation as he can. I suggest with a bit of imagination and a mind towards fair play, he and his associates can come up with a reformed version of the Champions League competition that keeps many of UEFA’s member nations happy and reclaims some of the tradition that’s been discarded in recent years.
If Lennart Johansson doesn’t, maybe one day Michel Platini will, and that could make Champions League competitions altogether different in the future.
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