Diego21

I think you would deeply admire Cucurella if you saw a photo of his wife.

The general secretary of the Spanish Football Federation has asked UEFA to expel Spanish teams from the Champions League, Europa League and Conference competitions and also the Spanish National Team from qualifying for the World Cup, Euro Cup or Nations League. All this as a threat so that no one expels President Luis Rubiales. The mother of Luis Rubiales has entered a church this morning and has locked herself in to start a hunger strike so that they do not expel her son from her. It is a pity that you are not Spanish and you cannot enjoy this episode as we are doing. What a country...

I feel so jinxed right now

I didn't like our game (I would have commented the same even if we had won 1-0). We have played with one more player for 70 minutes and it has not seemed like it. We have not had control of the game. I have seen very imprecise defenders. I don't doubt Bruno, and I hope it's just a physical issue, but I haven't liked him in any of his 3 games this season. Very good Joelinton and Tonali. Sensational Gordon, that every day is more important. Today has not been a good match for Isak And it is difficult to assess Miggy, he has given everything, as always, he has been able to score a goal (Allison's save) and he has been able to score the goal of the season that he hit on the post, but he has had 2-3 clear occasions that he has not managed to score and in sections it seemed disconnected. I think if you have one more player, you should have made the changes earlier. Against two such physical defenders, Wilson could have fared better than Isak. We have been able to win. In fact, we should have won. We've had enough chances, we've had Miggy's and, above all, Barnes's, who didn't pass Wilson. I think once they got Nuñez out, we should have gotten Miggy out and got Lascelles out to build muscle there. Nothing happens to make a defensive change. The rival has only 10 players... I don't know. We would have made it very difficult for them, we would have been more covered. Anyway. Bad luck. This is the type of matches we have to manage. I hope that Botman's injury is not serious, but hopefully it will help the board make one last effort for one more central defender.

Barnes to Wilson. The same that happened twice against Villa. Bad decision from Barnes.

I don't like Darwin coming in. He can cause us trouble.

Miggydona.

In 9 months Alexander Arnold will give birth to a child from Anthony Gordon.

Asprilla in the stands.

I appreciate it. Actually the third question I think you did not understand me. Really my question was if Barnes plays well on the right wing, not why he wasn't already playing.

I can smell his bad breath from here.

How is Barnes playing on the right? I think it's time to retire Miggy.

Jesuschrist in a bike, Miggy.

Every day I can't stand Klopp less

The Manchester penalty is not given to us in life.

I think every club in Europe would benefit in some way from having Saudi Arabia on their side. All the clubs have some direct relationship with the Emirates and want to do business there because that is where the money is. Barcelona is sponsored by Qatar. Real Madrid is sponsored by Emirates, has several schools in various countries there and continues to negotiate a project to create a sports city there. Atlético is sponsored by Saudi Arabia. The Spanish Super Cup is played in Saudi Arabia, so the teams have to agree to go there. Manchester City is sponsored by Etihad Arsenal is sponsored by Emirates Chelsea (Bhoely) have strong business with PIF and surely their next sponsor could be Riyhad. Manchester United has been negotiating in recent years with PIF to be able to have a sponsorship and sooner rather than later it will come. We are directly from PIF. The Italian Super Cup is played in Saudi Arabia, which pays the teams a lot to play there, so the Italian teams, as in Spain, are conditioned.

On the case of Jenni Hermoso... It's not just the kiss on the mouth anymore. The guy kissed two other women on the team (Olga and Athenea) even if it wasn't on the mouth. He lifted Athenea herself onto his shoulders. In the box, right next to the Queen of Spain, he touched his parts to celebrate the victory. He kissed Jenni Hermoso, and for him it wasn't doing anything wrong. Yesterday he said that the kiss was consented, although the player says no. I really think it's impossible to know. At the airport, he recorded a video of himself apologizing, but says he did nothing wrong. Then, the Federation put out a statement with Jenni's words in which she said that she did not care and that she wanted to move on and it was later shown that she did not say those words. Rubiales pressured the player throughout the flight to Spain to please record a video together exonerating him, and she refused. Jenni's brother says they've been threatened. Yesterday, Rubiales gave a conference that I regret that you do not understand Spanish, because it is not wasted. He says that, on the podium, it was Jenni who took him in her arms, lifted him up, told him he was a crack, and that Rubiales asked if she could kiss him and she said yes. And today, the Federation has published some images where you can see how Jenni does hold Rubiales in her arms (it looks totally Photoshopped and even Rubiales seems to have three feet). The case is very dark. But that gentleman should be expelled yes or yes. Apparently, yesterday he fired many of his assistants and only left his right-hand man in charge, because they say that if the government enters, they could only remove him from office for a few months. The expulsion can only be done by the Federation (and they are not going to do it, it seems) and his intention is that when those few months have passed, he will return to his position.

This is going to be long and I'll start at the beginning so you know what this character is like. The problem is that Luis Rubiales should have been expelled a long time ago for many things that have been known for years, but nobody has ever done anything. A couple of years ago, it became known that Luis Rubiales (who is also the head of the referees in Spain) earned more money due to a clause in his contract if Real Madrid and Barcelona finished 1st and 2nd in the League (this is because after the Super Cup from Spain the first two play it in Saudi Arabia and it was so stipulated). How is the head of the referees going to earn more money if two teams from the League are the first two? In what also affects me (as a follower of Atlético) a few years ago, in the 2018-2019 season, Barcelona was first and Atlético second (Real Madrid was already third and with practically no chance of becoming second) . But we had a positive, upward dynamic and it seemed that we could be champions. Suddenly, in two consecutive days, we were robbed in an incredible way. We lost against Betis. Morata had a goal disallowed for offside (which was later shown not to be offside) and he was not awarded a very clear penalty (I leave the link with the summary of the match here). In the following week, the movie was the same. This match was a mess. We played against Real Madrid and we are used to Real Madrid always stealing, but what we saw was incredibly strange. First, a foul on Vinicius outside the area, the referee interpreted a penalty. Later, they disallowed another goal from Morata for offside (again, the technology, with the game over, showed that it was enabled) and minutes later a penalty from Casemiro for kicking Morata in the knee was not awarded a penalty. We lost six points in two days and Barcelona went away. But when we returned to having a positive dynamic and we were facing Barcelona, who were not doing so well, with 6 games to go before the end of the League... The strangest thing happened. If we won that day we were going to get 4 points behind them, but with a very easy schedule compared to theirs. Diego Costa was sent off in minute 25. Direct red. Supposedly for insulting the referee. Diego swears and swears (and I have a mutual friend with him) that he did not insult the referee. The Federation said that it had an audio where it was heard, and that they would publish it. They have never published it. And in fact, a few months ago, a professional referee from the League said that it was impossible for there to be audio. Diego Costa was sent off for nothing demonstrable and the sanction was 8 games. He couldn't play any of the remaining ones and even missed some of the following season. Atleti lost and ran out of options to fight the League. The serious thing came when an audio of Rubiales was leaked, just before those two games against Madrid and Betis, in which he spoke with his second in the federation, and said: "Poor little ones from Atleti (I really call us Pathetic from Madrid) who think they can win the League. We'll do something so that doesn't happen." Okay. It has been discovered that Rubiales organizes parties and orgies with the money of the federation. Nothing has happened. It has been discovered that he recorded conversations with a pen with an integrated microphone to senior government officials and that he even had access to the mobile of the president of the government. Nothing has happened. It has been discovered that he did a business with Piqué so that his company was the one that sold the rights to the Spanish Super Cup in Arabia (when Piqué was still a footballer, he played for Barcelona and played that Super Cup (influence peddling) . He is a character who does not deserve to be in charge of anything.

From what I have been able to find out, what the Arabian Super League is proposing is the proposal for a wild card invitation for the 2024-2025 season. I don't know if for one or more teams. That would allow them to play in the Uefa Champions League without having to change the confederation or the country, or the clubs, or anything. It is something similar to what has happened some times in which teams like Qatar or Japan have participated in the Copa América. Even in 2015 they invited Spain, and we rejected it. Regarding the level of the championships, what they are studying to enter one of the 10 best leagues in the world is simply the market value of the squads. The study was done in January (done by a British sports intelligence agency called Sport Twenty Group) and the Saudi Arabian Super League was ranked 58th in the world. I don't know which are the 10 most powerful Leagues, but I imagine that the Championship will possibly be in the 7th or 8th position.

About the Saudi Arabian League. They have the objective of, in 2-3 years, making the League one of the 10 best in the world. I think the players will have no problem going there. I mean, they don't see that as a bad thing. They are rich with money, there they will have much more. In fact... They go on vacation to Saudi Arabia to the artificial luxurious cities built just for that. For them it is not going to the end of the world, but to paradise. Then we have the issue of the level of the League. Well it's true... The players there aren't good and their level would be like League Two and below. But there are 4 teams that, to this day... They are managing to sign important players and make an XI that could compete with almost anyone. These 4 teams are the 4 that the state directly controls (PIF) and has 75% control of each one. In addition, there are 4 teams based in luxurious areas of the country. What is the problem? That the other 16 are hardly signing anything because they are not as attractive, because they are not behind the government, because they do not have as much money and because some are not in cities that are paradises, but in the middle of the desert. As long as the championship is 4 Super teams and 16 trash teams, nothing will happen. Now, as the other 16 manage to make important signings (or let's say, there are 10-12 Super teams in total), things are going to change, because that is going to become the new Super League and the fans are going to want to buy that product. In just six months they have gotten players like Ronaldo, Kante or Benzema. Yes, it is true, they are people who are of an age, who have little football in their boots, but they have also stolen a signing from Barcelona (Neves), they have taken away a starting player from European champion Manchester City (Mahrez), They have taken Liverpool players at a good age to continue performing in Europe (Fabinho and Firmino), they have taken the best pearl of Spanish football (Veiga, 21) and other players such as Kessie, Laporte, Demiral, Mitrovic, Malcom... . They are many. And there is still a lot of market (they close on September 20). Their project is long-term because they seek to be important in 2030. And they will have no limits. As their level of growth is progressive like these six months... They are going to be very important in a very short time and I am sure that in 2-3 years we will see a couple of teams from the Arabian League playing the Uefa Champions League.

Aaaah. I was thinking about the Netherlands National team.

Who was this man?

I hadn't really said that, but now I do.