Love God Only

The subject of soccer came up at Guzman's trial. 

https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/drug-money-bought-soccer-teams/

A drug trafficker testified at the New York trial of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán that he spent millions of dollars buying professional Mexican soccer teams.

Tirso Martínez Sánchez, nicknamed El Futbolista, told jurors Monday that he was the owner of teams in Querétaro, Celaya, Irapuato, La Piedad and Mérida, all of which were bought with the proceeds of distributing drugs in the United States for Mexican cartels.

The trafficker, who according to his own testimony worked for both El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel and the Juárez Cartel between 1995 and 2003, said he bought the Venados club in Mérida, Yucatán, for between US $600,000 and $700,000 and the Reboceros club in La Piedad, Michoacán, for US $2.2 million.
 
Martínez added that he sold the latter club in 2004 for $10 million, explaining that he made a $4 million net profit after paying off players and other employees.

Once the Mexican Football Federation became aware of his ownership of soccer teams in 2006, the witness said, it offered to buy his interests in the clubs for $10 million.

In just three years between 2000 and 2003, Martínez’s trafficking activities are estimated to have netted him between $40 million and $50 million.

They're obviously not thinking. I'm a Chelsea fan because more often than not they play the beautiful game. But some fans  .  .  .  .

In Chelsea's last Europa League match last Thursday in Budapest v Hungarian club MOL Vidi, some of the 1,200-or-so Chelsea away supporters started shouting anti-Semitic slurs against Tottenham, their London rivals. This after Chelsea had a campaign started to educate fans about its ugliness and having a Russian-Jew as the club's owner. Completely irrational.

Singing a chant that has become wearingly familiar to Chelsea regulars, the words "Barcelona, Real Madrid, Tottenham are a bunch of Yids... Yiddos" could be heard from the Groupama Arena away end.:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/12/13/chelsea-involved-race-row-fans-sing-anti-semitic-chant-budapest/

Disgraceful.  Has to stop. I don't know what the hell's going on there with some. There have been other incidents of racism. It really burns me for a club I really dig.


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Kerry - ^

The Raheem Sterling incident is separate from the MOL Vidi episode. It occurred during the Manchester City v Chelsea match at Stamford Bridge. I watched this game and wasn't aware of any discomfort coming from Sterling as a result of racial abuse but it appears that the commentators were unaware of it or were solely focused on reporting on the football action.

I don't doubt Sterling's claim. It goes beyond this occasion to how he claims people are portrayed by media. Too, there was a racial incident with some Chelsea fans on a Paris subway platform a few years back where racial slurs were directed at a Parisien on his way home from work. If I remember correctly, they wouldn't even let him enter the car. Imagine this, living and working in one's city and being denied a seat home by visitors. Sickening.

Some fans in many British stadia are really quite close to the action, especially at corners. I've seen a bunch of them in a group sort of lean over the pitch rail and verbally yell at a player throwing the ball in or taking a corner-kick. It's usually an opposing player but sometimes it goes to a player on the home side. I've seen and heard all sorts of things I wouldn't repeat here not just in Britain from fans.

At the very least, the fans ought to be identified and banned from stadia. Too, an example should be made of them by British hate-speech laws as incitement to hatred. Who wants to sit in a stadium to enjoy a match and be within ear-shot of this ugliness or to know nothing is being done about it there?

The individual in question directed a very rough word that some have used against women at Sterling claiming that he called Raheem a "Manc" (4-letter word), not a "black" one and has apologized to Sterling for it. "Manc" is short for Manchester I'm supposing since Sterling's a forward for Manchester City. It still ain't right.



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The last nail in the coffin was delivered by Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool FC in their 3-1 victory over the once great Manchester United FC last weekend. Paul Pogba on the bench the entire match. Players thrown under the bus. 19 points behind the EPL leaders. Accusations.

I take no relish from what happened. I'm not a Man U fan and their business is their business. I would like to see this once glorious and still globally popular club regain some of its lustre, however. They used to be a fabulous attacking side.

Coach Jose Mourinho fired.


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Kerry - ^

Mourinho's getting a reputation for toxicity, apparently. He appears to be an arrogant protagonist (with a swagger at times) and he might have brought all of this upon himself. He was given half-a-billion dollars to buy players which he did. They're not producing. It's the "curse" of the third season for him at different clubs, including Real Madrid. He lost the locker room and other staff while at Chelsea and the same happened with Man U. The latter's known for playing football with flair but he had them playing defensively foremost and on the counter. This made for an unappealing manner of play for fans used to (Sir) Alex Ferguson's successful, attacking sides.

Here are some of his individual awards which are very worthy of note:

Onze d'Or Coach of the Year: 2005[228]
FIFA World Coach of the Year: 2010[4]
IFFHS World's Best Club Coach: 2004,[229] 2005,[229] 2010,[229] 2012[229]
Premier League Manager of the Season: 2004–05, 2005–06, 2014–15[227]
Premier League Manager of the Month: November 2004, January 2005, March 2007[227]
Serie A Manager of the Year: 2008–09,[230] 2009–10[231]
Albo Panchina d'Oro: 2009–10[232]
Miguel Muñoz Trophy: 2010–11,[233] 2011–12[234]
UEFA Manager of the Year: 2002–03,[235] 2003–04[235]
UEFA Team of the Year: 2003,[235] 2004,[235] 2005,[235] 2010[235]
World Soccer Magazine World Manager of the Year: 2004,[236] 2005,[236] 2010[236]
World Soccer Magazine Greatest Manager (Active): 2013
European Coach of the Year—Alf Ramsey Award: 2010
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Coach Award: 2005[237]
La Gazzetta dello Sport Man of the Year: 2010[238]
International Sports Press Association Best Manager in the World: 2010[239]
Prémio Prestígio Fernando Soromenho: 2012[240]
Football Extravaganza's League of Legends (2011)[241]
Globe Soccer Awards Best Coach of the Year: 2012[242]
Globe Soccer Awards Best Media Attraction in Football: 2012[243]
Portuguese Coach of the Century: 2015[10]
PFA Portuguese Manager of the Year: 2017
LMA Performances of the Week:[A] 2 December 2017 (Arsenal 1–3 Man.Utd),[244] 7 April 2018 (Man.City 2–3 Man.Utd)[245]:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mourinho

Yes, he'd bring plenty of publicity to the USMNT but I'm not sure it would be the kind they need right now. There are others who would do better in this regard. Here's some background in terms of his footballing philosophy. He won't be hired at Barca.:

Mourinho hated Barcelona. The club had been his final education as a coach. He had moved there in 1996 when Bobby Robson was appointed to succeed Cruyff, having outgrown his role as translator for the former England manager to become his consigliere. When Robson was deposed after a year, Mourinho became an assistant coach to his replacement, Louis van Gaal, a manager who had developed Cruyff’s principles (if not necessarily in the way pure Cruyffians enjoyed). Under van Gaal’s management, Barça won two league titles. His captain was Pep Guardiola.

In 2008, when Frank Rijkaard left Barcelona, its decision on a successor as manager came down to two men. There was Mourinho, who was about to win the Italian title with Inter, having already led Porto to the Champions League and Chelsea to only the second and third league titles in their history, in 2005 and 2006. Or they could go for Guardiola, who had had one season as a coach, leading Barça’s reserve side with some success. They went for Guardiola. Mourinho, as former Barça vice-president Marc Ingla put it, was “a bit poisoned by the fact he was rejected”.

Mourinho had already begun to amend what he had learned at Barça, but from that moment on he became their ideological opposite. At Porto and at Chelsea he had been pragmatic, but after 2008 there was a change in tone. If Guardiola attacked, he would defend. If Guardiola wanted the ball, he didn’t. If Guardiola pressed high up the pitch, he would sit deep. At Madrid, Mourinho’s biographer Diego Torres claimed, he had a seven-point plan for winning big games:

1. The game is won by the team that commits fewer errors.

2. Football favours whoever provokes more errors in the opposition.

3. Away from home, instead of trying to be superior to the opposition, it’s better to encourage their mistakes.

4. Whoever has the ball is more likely to make a mistake.

5. Whoever renounces possession reduces the possibility of making a mistake.

6. Whoever has the ball has fear.

7. Whoever doesn’t is thereby stronger.

Mourinho was just as much a post-Cruyffian as Guardiola, but those principles, passed down from Ajax through Buckingham, Michels and Cruyff, were turned on their head. His consecration was that 2010 semi-final. Barcelona against Real Madrid, Catalunya against Castilla, a Dutch-inspired team ethic against a policy based on buying the biggest stars, was already arguably the greatest rivalry in football. Guardiola against Mourinho made it apocalyptic. In 2010-2011, Guardiola came out on top. His side humiliated Mourinho’s 5-0 in their first league meeting of the season and beat them again in the Champions League semi-final. Barça won both competitions.

But Mourinho, harassing Guardiola in the media as much as on the pitch, slowly wore him down. Madrid won the league in 2012 and Guardiola, exhausted, resigned to take a year’s sabbatical. As always happens, Mourinho had won the league in his second season. Then, as always, in his third season, the team disintegrated, wearied by his abrasiveness, and he left in acrimony. :

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/sport/2018/04/fall-dark-angel-jos-mourinho-s-anti-football-philosophy

You know, there were moments when I liked what he did. Perhaps, like Guardiola but in a completely different sense, he ought to take a sabbatical to see how it keeps going wrong for him with people, some self-examination. I just don't know what's going on with the man.

But let's give the new signatory, Gregg Berhalter a chance, shall we  ?


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