The Champions League Is Back

The Champions League is back, it has been 111 days since Manchester United paraded the white flag to Barcelona’s football merry go round. The stage is set again for another year of despair, joy, shocks and glory. Will the English teams again reign in Europe or will Real Madrid and Barcelona show that Spain is the biggest league in Europe? And what of the Italian teams? They will be keen to show that they are still going strong despite losing stars like Kaka and Ibrahimovic in the summer. Hopefully this preview will help give an insight into the chances of Europe’s elite.

Group A

Bayern

Bordeaux

Juventus

Maccabi Haifa

Common sense seems to see Bayern Munich and Juventus sail through this group. Bayern should be safe after spending £60 million on players including Arjen Robben in the summer and holding onto Franck Ribery. But Juventus are no longer the team they were in the nineties, with Nedved retiring in the summer and players such as Cannavaro and Del Piero reaching the end of their illustrious careers. They need to keep an eye on the French champions Bordeaux who managed to hold on to prize striker Marouane Chamakh despite overtures from Arsenal amongst others. They also possess another ‘new’ Zidane in Yohann Gourcuff. Israeli champions Maccabi Haifa will surely just be happy to make the numbers up.

Group B

Man Utd

CSKA Moscow

Besiktas

Wolfsburg

Not an easy group for last years runners up, but they should be expected to progress despite the loss of Tevez and Ronaldo. The fight for second place could be interesting but Wolfsburg should edge it after keeping hold of star striker Edin Dzeko and adding Newcastle old boy Obafemi Martins. CSKA will provide the sternest test for the champions of England and Germany as no-one will fancy a trip to Russia mid winter. Keep an eye out for former spurs manager Juande Ramos who has recently taken over at CSKA. Besitkas again will be a tough away trip but again they should be overcome.

Group C

Real Madrid

AC Milan

Marseille

FC Zurich

All eyes will be on Real Madrid in this year’s competition after their summer signing spree. They should stroll through the knockout stage convincingly, Kaka’s early return to the San Siro could add a bit of spice to the group. Milan like Juventus are struggling with an aging squad not helped by losing one of the best footballers in the world. Marseille have invested heavily in the summer with midfielder Lucho Gonzalez from Porto being a clever bit of business. The Swiss champions Zurich really have no chance but will gain huge experience from playing at the Bernabeau and the San Siro, the best they can really hope for is a one off shock result.

Group D

Chelsea

Porto

Athletico Madrid

APOEL

Chelsea will go into this year’s competition with a point to prove, for the last two years they have been desperately unlucky in the latter stages of this competition. Be it because of John Terry’s footwear or because of a certain Norwegian psychologist. Carlo Ancelotti has a lot of expectation on his shoulders after his European exploits with Milan and Chelsea will expect to progress in what could be a difficult group. Porto showed last year that can hold their own in Europe after running Man Utd close in the Quarter finals and Athletico possess two of the hottest strikers in Europe in the shape of Aguero and Forlan. Second place should be a battle between those two, with Cypriots APOEL likely to be the whipping boys.

Group E

Liverpool

Lyon

Fiorentina

Debrecen

Liverpool are consistently one of the best teams in Europe, with Benitez’s tactics usually spot on, they will miss Alonso’s presence in midfield but in Gerrard and Torres they possess probably the best players in the Premier League. Keep them two fit and they should get through. It won’t be a stroll in the park however with Lyon presenting arguably the largest threat, they may have lost Benzema but they have strengthened significantly over the summer and have been reached the knockout stages on a consistent basis. Fiorentina won’t be pushovers and at home they will be difficult to beat, but they won’t really pressure Lyon and Liverpool. Adrian Mutu will have a point to prove to an English audience after his undignified exit at Chelsea. New boys Debrecen like so many of the smaller teams in this year’s competition will struggle to cope with the big boys.

Group F

Barcelona

Inter Milan

Dinamo Kiev

Rubin Kazan

Another Italian/Spanish glamour tie, which sees ex-star players returning to their former clubs. With both Ibrahimovic and e’too returning to their former stomping ground. Few will expect Barcelona to be troubled in this group, especially if they play like they did in last years competition. Barca will be looking to do what Man Utd couldn’t and retain the Champions League. There is a lot of pressure on Jose Mourinho and Inter Milan to do well in this year’s competition, they may dominate Italy but they have flattered to deceive in Europe. An interesting duel could ensue between Ukrainian champions Dinamo Kiev and the Russian Champions Rubin Kazan for a place in the Europa League. Especially given the team’s soviet ties.

Group G

Sevilla

Stuttgart

Rangers

Unirea Urziceni

Probably the least glamourous of all the groups but that could well suit Rangers who will believe they can make it to the next round. Sevilla will be definite qualifiers with Luis Fabiano smashing in goals left, right and centre for club and country. Stuttgart will pose the biggest threat to Ranger’s aspirations, with Arsenal old boy Alexander Hleb posing a particular threat to the Scottish Champions. Romanian champions Unirea are making their debut in the Champions league, but will be lucky to come away with anything but pride. Two ex premiership players on show as managers in this group with ex Liverpool defender Markus Babbel in charge of Stuttgart and ex Chelsea favourite Dan Petrescu in charge of the new boys Unirea

Group H

Arsenal

Standard Liege

AZ Alkmaar

Olympiakos

On paper this looks like a plum draw for the Gunners who will be hoping to erase last years humbling by Man Utd in the semis from their mind. It could be anything but easy, Standard Liege boast probably the best player outside of Europe’s major leagues in Stephen Defour, who was been tracked by half of the premiership. You may also remember them giving Liverpool a real scare in last seasons Champions league qualifiers and knocking Everton out of the UEFA cup. The Dutch champions Az will also be tough to beat, as they are a big, strong footballing side. They may suffer from losing their experienced coach Louis Van Gaal to Bayern Munich. Greek champions Olympiakos boast English under-21 star Matt Derbyshire in their squad and will be no pushover either but you would expect them to finish last in the group. With Arsenal progressing alongside either Standard or AZ.

It will be an interesting season to say the least. The final is also being held on a Saturday for the first time this year, at Real Madrid’s Bernabeau stadium. The bookies are currently suggesting that Barcelona are this years favourites, followed closely by Real Madrid who would love to play in the final at their home ground and Chelsea, who surely deserve a bit of luck in this years competition. Of course you would be foolish to write off Man Utd and Liverpool. But I don’t see anyone out of those four challenging for European football’s biggest prize. Personally my heart says Man Utd but my head says this year will belong to Barcelona again.

Fair Game

Given the events of the last few months, I find myself asking whether there is enough honesty in sport. It’s been turbulent to say the least and few sports can really claim to be completely honest; it ranges from little instances of gamesmanship to full blown unhindered cheating.

We’ve probably all heard about the ‘Bloodgate’ saga that has completely blown Rugby’s image as a wholesome and transparent game out of the water. It has been commonplace to always think that Rugby is what football should be like; no diving and a fantastic amount of respect for the match officials. You would never see huge hulking men go down like that they’ve lost a limb, only for them to jump straight back up. But using a blood pellet to force a substitution? Only for it to not be convincing enough, and resort to actually cutting the inside of a player’s mouth? That’s disgusting, dishonourable and completely disrespectful of the game. The guilty parties have rightly been punished, but the game’s image is in tatters.

Then there is Football, the nations number one sport and rife with gamesmanship. Every week we see players diving and finally it looked like UEFA was about to make a stand with Eduardo’s dive against Celtic. He was charged with a two game ban. Only for Eduardo to appeal and appeal successfully against what we all know was a blatant dive. Another incident involving Arsenal has also shown Football’s ugly underbelly, Emmanuel Adebayor was a walking advert of how to get yourself at least a 3 match ban, a heavy fine and become North London’s public enemy number one. (Well at least at one end of the seven sisters road) His stamp on his former teammate Robin Van Persie would have been GBH outside a football pitch, he caused a minor riot which culminated in a steward been knocked unconscious. Is this what we really want to see at a game of Football?

It’s not only what goes on during the games that is bring Football into disrepute. Poaching of young footballers is potentially turning Football into a child trafficking market. Well if you use the words of the infamous head of FIFA Sepp Blatter. Again the games governing bodies have laid down a marker by banned Chelsea from buying any players for two transfer windows for the ‘inducement’ of Gael Kakuta. But after Chelsea’s appeal that is most probably going to be significantly reduced.

Whereas diving and potential ‘child poaching’ is still something of a grey area in football, there is no defence for the race fixing that Renault have admitted to at the Singapore Grand Prix 2008. Where the second driver for the team, poor Nelson Piquet Jnr was told before the race that he was to crash his vehicle at a certain point in the race to ensure victory for his team mate Fernando Alonso. Piquet Jnr who feared for his place on Renault team, did as his boss; Flavio Briatore told him. Only for Briatore to axe the driver a few races on. It was Piquet Jnr’s father who brought the incident to light and Piquet Jnr was rightly given immunity from prosecution. A fate that didn’t befall team boss Briatore, who has left Renault as they plead guilty. It is ridiculous to think that the actions of Briatore could land Renault with a substantial ban and in turn lose over 700 people jobs with the motoring giant. A huge price to pay for one race win.

To cheat is to act dishonestly or to gain an underhanded advantage, so where does that leave Caster Samenya? The reigning woman’s 800 metre world champion. However it has been well documented that she may not have been entirely truthful with her gender. While nothing has been confirmed either way, with rumours flowing that she may well be a hermaphrodite. If this is true does this class as cheating? She certainly looks more muscular and broad than her competitors, she has yet to confirm whether or not there is anything she has been hiding. Would she really have been cheating if she is indeed a he?

Its obvious that cheating and dishonesty will never go away in sport, it has always been there. From Maradona’s Hand of God to Dwain Chambers. But is enough being done to really try and clamp down on it? A drugs ban is usually for two years at the most then the athlete can get straight back into action, bans can be appealed and are usually done so successfully or are too lenient. But then how do you stop the inevitable? It seems that in the modern sports world, where money talks, that taking a risk on cheating is a much more viable option than losing.