Thanks for the answer. Their Youth setup is very impressive; Sommer, Shaqiri and Xhaka were all excellent last night.
Pretty funny that Inler, who wasn't good enough for Basel while in their youth set-up, sent out the other Manchester team. All in all a very good day to be Swiss and a Liverpool-fan!
I think you and I are of the same opinion on all matters above. I've nothing per se against F&S, but their time at international level* was up. Both players have given excellent service to Switzerland over the years, but now their remaining years belong at Basel. * I well remember Streller's crucial goal against Turkey in the WCQ play-off 2nd leg. Reckon I could've got circa 12-1 on Streller to be the first goal-scorer v Man Utd
Aleksandar Dragovic and Park Joo-Ho were featured in the Eurosport's Champions League - Team of the Week. CB: Aleksandar Dragovic (FC Basel) - Expert 7, Users 7.6 - Helped keep Manchester United at bay until the final moments of the game - by then he had already done enough to secure a memorable result. LB: Joo-Ho Park (FC Basel) - Expert 8, Users 7.8 - Exceptional down the left for the Swiss side and denied Nani with a last-ditch block. http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/08122011/58/champions-league-team-week-miss-gomis.html
yes, that save was very important Switzerland is now 14th in the 5year ranking meaning we'll have 2 teams in the CL qualifiers again next but one season http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/crank2012.html - but always the same problem. One of 5 years is always bad (08/09)... Maybe we can add another two good seasons now. Basel will be seeded in the qualifiers next year again... YB and Sion could be seeded in the UEFA qualifiers next season, Zurich would be seeded but they're far... Lucerne wouldn't be seeded and has to do much better than last time anyway. with the current team points, the ideal scenario for next season would be to have Basel, Zurich, YB and Sion in the European Cups by Sion losing the cup final So, Sion and YB could get a few points in the qualifiers but the Sion forfeit was just too bad and too unnessecary... They would have beaten Celtic even without the new guys...
Finally some co-efficient points from FCZ after a hugely disappointing campaign. Hopefully Sion will get something as well albeit through the judges
Nice to see FCZ get something for the coefficient. I will agree, that this was a very disappointing European adventure for them. I would love it if Sion received all of their points, but I would take all that they earned prior to the Celtic series.
as expected, the CAS decided against Sion - Blick thinks they already decided today on pressure of UEFA what seems plausible http://www.blick.ch/sport/fussball/superleague/fc-sion-vor-cas-abgeblitzt-189767 nothing unexpected here... Sion has to wait for the CAS explanation until they can make an appeal at the federal court
Basel vs Bayern interesting - Basel should have learned from last season. But Bayern also is stronger this season. However, Bayern has trouble vs teams with good tactics in the Bundesliga (vs Favre's Gladbach, Klopp's Dortmund, Slomka's Hannover) a chance for Vogel to prove himself. hope, Bayern won't try to buy Shaqiri now in the winter transfer period. This would be just a typical Bayern behaviour
http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/7362136/fifa-threatens-ban-switzerland-fc-sion-case is titled "FIFA threatens to ban Swiss over Sion" and says that my favorite club, Manchester United, could come back from the dead in the Champions League if Basel was banned. If that happened, I expect Otelul Galati would get the Europa League spot that currently belongs to Manchester United, but the problem with that is that Manchester United was seeded in the Europa League because they were in the top half of the Champions League third place clubs, and even if it is agreed that Basel should be suspended Otelul Galati would not deserve to be seeded. Porto, who was the fifth best third place Champions League Group Stage club, would be much more deserving of being seeded in the Europa League that Otelul Galati.
FIFA stepped up the fight Saturday by ordering the Swiss FA to enforce a ban on registering six Sion players signed in the offseason ''As a consequence, all matches in which the relevant players participated shall be declared forfeit or three points shall be deducted respectively,'' FIFA said. ''Should this deadline not be respected, the Swiss FA will be automatically suspended from Jan. 14, 2012 onwards.'' Under the terms of a FIFA suspension, a country's national and club teams, referees and officials are prohibited from taking part in international matches and meetings, or receive FIFA funding. Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/sp...land-over-sion-case-1983899591/#ixzz1goJdZwpV Although I am not really a Sion fan, I think this comes down to power. FIFA and UEFA do not want its clubs to have access to legal systems outside of the CAS. Sion has threatened to upset the entire system. I wonder where this will end. Somehow this seems like FIFA is trying to get too involved in the FA of a nation.
Swiss FA should take speedy actions.. The whole world has been impressed by Basel and even though I am a Bayern Fan, I have an utmost respect for the team (or the fact that I want Xherdan Shaqiri at Bayern )... Manchester United certainly doesn't deserve to qualify.. that too in such circumstance... Lets hope everything turns out for the good and we get to see clean and non controversial match!
well, if somebody should be punished in this whole story then it's in first place Sion as they were found guilty in 2008, as they started to make transfers in 2009 by interpreting the decisions of the TAS/FIFA they wanted... they could just have waited two years till the ban is over and all would be solved since more than a year now... now, that doesn't give UEFA/FIFA the right to go against Swiss law all the times. And UEFA/FIFA should be heavily punished for that as well. SFL and SFA are the least responsible in this whole story and it does not make any sense FIFA wants to punish the SFL/SFA because the SFL/SFA tried to do everything by the book. The did not qualify the players as long as they had not been forced by the law. And then only gave a provisional qualification etc... and now has banned the players again after the CAS decision. They've done everything right, although they should have shown more strength in this whole story. Now FIFA wants them to go against their own laws in order to punish Sion and for some FIFA functionnaries to keep their high salaries.... FIFA and UEFA are hiding behind the CAS which really is not an independent body. Decisons are not taken fairly in an indepent manner at UEFA either. Celtic announced the disqualification of Sion before the UEFA judging panel had their teleconference... the SFL will probably go against their own law and retire points to Sion as forfeits are not possible any more in this case. Otherwise, the clubs of the SFL would decide by themselves that Sion needs to be punished, maybe even relegated. And in any case, Constantin will go to all possible courts till he'll won the case, till the CAS is declared a non-independent instance under Swiss law, till UEFA and FIFA have to pay them etc
http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/ne...ub-team-fc-sion-files-criminal-complaint-fifa is titled "FC Sion takes FIFA spat to criminal court."
Looks like the SFV has given in to FIFA's demands and punished FC Sion with a 30 points deduction. That should ensure that Basel gets to play Bayern. As for the rest, who knows at this point!
well, as the SFV is going against their own rules and against Swiss law, Sion will probably win this case in the end. But SFV had not much of a choice, they will be losers in this story in any case. This way, at least the NT and Basel can continue playing and in the end, the national court will decide. Probably giving the 30 points back to Sion and fining SFV and FIFA... then there is still the open case in which the court in Vaud requested UEFA to reinstate Sion in the competition. The CAS didn't want really to discuss the question as they didn't want to go against swiss law, so they only discussed the eligibity of the players. I read once, a CAS decision has the same weight as a cantonal court decision in Switzerland. Now, UEFA didn't appeal the decision of the court in Vaud. I don't know whether Sion can take this one to the national court, but they surely will ask the court in Vaud to pass this on.
What a mess. I thought that the final number was 35 points. That would put FC Sion at -5 points. As an aside, this is much better for Servette fans. As Servette owns one of the wins over FC Sion, Sion was forced to forfeit all of the matches, Servette would loose 3 points.
yes, it was 36 points for now. If Sion go to CAS, it could be reduced to 12 points (as the max. of penalty the FA can give), but as the CAS is controlled by FIFA/UEFA anyway, that won't happen. Meaning, Sion will have a reason to go to federal court and prove the CAS is not an independent panel
http://www.tdg.ch/sports/football/Sion-nobtient-pas-gain-de-cause-contre-lUEFA/story/20631131 Sion losing in the abuse of power case vs UEFA the most interesting decision in the Sion vs UEFA cases will be the ones at the cantonal court in Vaud, tough. The decision is expected this week. If Sion wins that one, they still could have to be reintegrated in the Europa league playoffs
Sion lost vs UEFA at the cantonal court in Vaud http://www.uefa.com/uefa/aboutuefa/organisation/news/newsid=1750524.html
Lots of articles out there about the Basel - Munich match. Many say that Munich is ripe for a loss. I hope so, and would love a Basel victory.
Here are a few links about today's match. http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2914...r-shaqiri-looking-to-repeat-manchester-united http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/clubfootball/news/newsid=1587775.html http://news.monstersandcritics.com/...w-signing-Xherdan-Shaqiri-in-Champions-League http://www.france24.com/en/20120222-below-par-bayern-out-avoid-slip-basel http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/sports/2012/02/21/bayern-hopes-to-bounce-back-at-fc-basel/ http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2914...aqiri-granit-xhaka-the-teenage-basel-star-who