Friday, March 22, 2013

Ahmet Cakar suggests 'fixed' Champions League draw.

Heated balls, squishy balls, heavier balls, bigger balls – we've heard all these conspiracy theories of how UEFA allegedly rig their Champions League draws.  Now a former International referee has now gone further, explosively claiming that UEFA use vibrating balls to ensure that the biggest clubs are kept apart until the latter stages of their competitions.    

The Turkish official, Ahmet Cakar, has sensationally suggested that the former football stars that carry out the draws have metal objects in their hand which pick up vibrations in the balls as they bounce around in the pot.  This therefore allows the stars to know exactly when to draw each ball and guarantee the ties that UEFA’s top brass desire.  Those incriminated by the allegations would include former footballing heroes including Steve McManaman and Patrick Kluivert – who picked out the balls during last week’s respective draws – while past legends such as Denis Law, George Weah and Ruud Gullit would also be accused, having presided over draws in years gone by. 

Ahmet Cakar
Cakar also believes that UEFA General Secretary, Gianni Infantino  also plays a part in this deception – with Cakar accusing him of suspicious hand movements while the draws take place, with the Italian seen to be moving a lever beside the pot of balls during last week’s draw. Suspicious, indeed.  The wacky official, who has re-invented himself as the country’s most controversial TV pundit  carried out a bizarre demonstration, live on national Turkish television, in which he showed the ease with which a draw can be fixed. 



Going through a methodical system that he believes UEFA use (although he does not reveal his mysterious secrets), Cakar mystically picks balls out of a bowl with the intention of recreating the exact order of last week’s Europa League quarterfinal draw. Cakar keeps his eyes closed throughout but he still manages to spookily create a draw identical to the one that UEFA carried out last week.
The Turk’s suspicions were raised when, during the Champions League last 16 draw in December, the rehearsal draw corresponded exactly with the real one day later, with bookmakers offering odds of 5,000-1 of the incident occurring, while others suggested the odds could be as extreme as nearly 2,000,000-1.

The official’s major concerns also surround his conviction that Europe’s biggest names are favoured by being handed 'easier' ties while Cakar maintains that clubs from the same country are also separated for as long as possible.  Interestingly the evidence of last week’s draw does little to dampen his speculation – with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, the clubs widely considered to be the competition’s favourites – all being kept apart.  There is a particular sense of injustice in Turkey, with supporters believing that Galtasaray were purposely drawn against Real Madrid so as to ensure that, as a 'supposed' weaker side, they would be eliminated before the latter stages of the competition. 

Adding further fuel to the fire is the fact that no clubs in either the Champions League or Europa League quarter-final draw were drawn against a team from the same nation – despite the fact that the Champions League competition has three Spanish clubs out of the remaining eight still in the competition and the Europa League had three English clubs of the remaining eight still in their competition.

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Thursday, March 7, 2013

Juve is smaller but ready to compete

Juventus returns to the Champions League quarter finals after 7 years


Juventus, traditionally one of Europe's biggest clubs, are back in the last eight of the Champions League but coach Antonio Conte does not want them seen in the same light as Barcelona or Bayern Munich.

Conte has recognised that the 28-times Italian champions and twice European champions cannot compete financially with clubs from Spain, Italy or England, even if results on the field have been just as good, if not better.

Conte himself won a Champions League medal with Juventus during his 13-year playing career with them, and they also finished as runners-up three times while he was at the club.

Having bounced back after the Caliopoli match-fixing scandal, which saw them stripped of their 2005 and 2006 Serie A titles and demoted to the second tier, Juventus now face a different reality on their return to the quarter-finals following a seven-year wait.

Twice European champions, five-times runners-up, Cup Winners Cup winners on one occasion and UEFA Cup champions three times, they no longer find themselves mentioned in the same breath as Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern.

"When I played, there were not so many well-structured clubs, and there were more opportunities for Italian teams to be successful," Conte told reporters after Juve beat Celtic 2-0 on Wednesday to complete a 5-0 aggregate win in the last 16 tie.

"Now, for a variety of reasons, mainly financial, teams such as Barcelona and Bayern Munich are stronger.

"We must be humble, be aware that we can no longer bridge that economic gap. We are three of four steps below them but it doesn't mean we can't compete with them.

"At the end, it's about two teams with 11 players, a pitch and a referee."

Juventus are not Europe's most stylish team but Conte, still in only his second season in charge, has turned them into a formidable outfit, who hassle the opposition incessantly in midfield and break forward at breakneck speed when they win possession.

Conte habitually fields a three-man defence and a five man midfield where the majestic Andrea Pirlo, whose role as a deep-lying playmaker makes him a rarity in modern football, pulls the strings.

Fleet-footed teenager Paul Pogba, who played alongside Pirlo on Wednesday, is showing every sign that he can eventually replace the 33-year-old.

Juventus are at their most dangerous when they break forward with raking diagonal passes from their midfield for any one of their speedy forwards to chase.

Combative Chilean Arturo Vidal is another key figure on the right of the midfield.

Conte always fields a two-man front line, rotating between any two of Fabio Quagliarella, Sebastian Giovinco, Alessandro Matri and Mirko Vucinic.

With the talismanic Gianluigi Buffon in goal, their three-man defence has not conceded a goal in their last five European games and they have not been beaten in Europe in their last 18 outings.

"They have a great work ethic about them," said admiring Celtic manager Neil Lennon.

"They don't have the flamboyance of Barcelona but they work very for each other, they have great balance and they are always a threat going forward.

"I don't see why Juventus can't win it. They have been fantastically consistent, and at home here in Turin, it's a fortress."