Europa League 2011/2012

Jesus Christ almighty, Norwegian teams in Europe is such a disgrace. AaFK has been the only team with honour intact so far, and now they are getting humiliated by AZ, 6-0 down with minutes to go.
 
I really don't understand what's gone wrong with Scottish football. How could standards have slipped so drastically from 10 years ago? I can still remember the likes of Brian Laudrup and Henrik Larsson playing for the Old Firm sides. One of the two would always be guaranteed to show up in the European Cup. This is really shameful. The Scots really need to identify why standards have slipped so much. This cannot all be about money I doubt Slovenian clubs are rolling it after all. The fact that Scotland isn't producing as many top class players as it did even 10 or 15 years ago must be down to more.
 
I don't have any sympathy for Birmingham City but they did great job. Congrats to Brummies..
 
#07 said:
I really don't understand what's gone wrong with Scottish football. How could standards have slipped so drastically from 10 years ago? I can still remember the likes of Brian Laudrup and Henrik Larsson playing for the Old Firm sides. One of the two would always be guaranteed to show up in the European Cup. This is really shameful. The Scots really need to identify why standards have slipped so much. This cannot all be about money I doubt Slovenian clubs are rolling it after all. The fact that Scotland isn't producing as many top class players as it did even 10 or 15 years ago must be down to more.
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People have a go at the Premier League not having many English players, but its not like there are that many Scottish players, surely much less than there used to be. There is no doubt that the money in English football has put many middle teams above Celtic and Rangers, but there are 28 places in the Champions League itself for non English teams. It's crazy they aren't getting into the Europa League!
 
Ron Robert Zieler in goal for Hannover, and is currently holding Sevilla to 1-1 in Spain. About 15 minutes to go, and with this result Hannover will be qualified for the group stage.
 
What's going to happen to Scotland, copy the Portuguese model and expand to 16 teams even if they aren't of much quality, so that you expand the pool of players getting competitive games, whilst doing cup competitions over two legs? Or go down to 10 teams heightening the quality of teams they play every week (by about 6 games), even if it would mean more defensive play.

Or keep the status quo.
 
Fantastic result for Irish football.
 
pauldyson1uk said:
Rangers and Celtic good enough to play in the PL , don't make me laugh ,the pair would not last more than 1 season and then the would struggle in the Championship
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short term maybe, but long term they would easily become one of the top teams in the premier league with the supporter base and infrastructure already in place.
 
Brilliant result from Shamrock Rovers

Irish teams have progressed further than any Scottish teams in this years Europa League
 
All english clubs are through :)

All scottish clubs are out :lol:

Great result for Shamrock Rovers :)

AS Roma vs Slovan Bratislava 1-2 aggregate :lol:

Hannover & Zieler are through too :)

Trnava vs Lokomotiv Moscow, 3 sent-offs and 10 bookings for Trnava.......if that isn't a european record it must be close.

Sonny1972 said:
Schalke 04 - Helsinki 5 - 1 4x Huntelaar .
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12 goals in 7 games for him this season.
 
Wow mental, Shamrock Rovers and a Championship side get to the Europa group stages but Rangers and Celtic are out. What a shambles, and to think they brought forward their season to help them in Europe.
 
Celtic played against a team that fielded 5 Ineligible players?
 
Sally Cinnamon said:
Really? If that's the case then surely Celtic will get in.
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Apparently so:

Sion have five players in their squad - Feindouno, Mario Mutsch and Gabri, Jose Goncalves and Billy Ketkeophomphone - who are, in the eyes of Fifa, ineligible to play in the competition.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport will now rule on the issue next week.

"We have sent in letters last week and handed one to the delegate," the Celtic boss said.

"There is hearing on Tuesday and we will know the outcome after that.

"If clubs are breaking the rules then every club should break the rule then."
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What is going on with European Football :(
 
3 Israeli teams meade the group stage (including Haifa who missed the CL group stage after a penalty shootout in Genk). Standards in Europe must be slipping.
 
holyland red said:
3 Israeli teams meade the group stage (including Haifa who missed the CL group stage after a penalty shootout in Genk). Standards in Europe must be slipping.
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Two Polish clubs for the first time ever as well, Legia and Wisla. Legia managed to eliminated Spartak Moscow in spite of being 2-0 down after 30 minutes in the second leg, having drawn 2-2 at home. Sensational.
 
#07 said:
I really don't understand what's gone wrong with Scottish football. How could standards have slipped so drastically from 10 years ago? I can still remember the likes of Brian Laudrup and Henrik Larsson playing for the Old Firm sides. One of the two would always be guaranteed to show up in the European Cup. This is really shameful. The Scots really need to identify why standards have slipped so much. This cannot all be about money I doubt Slovenian clubs are rolling it after all. The fact that Scotland isn't producing as many top class players as it did even 10 or 15 years ago must be down to more.
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It's basically about money and expectations. This season, Scottish clubs (population of 5million) got knocked out against teams from Poland (38m), England (50m), Sweden (9m), Switzerland (7m) and only Slovenia (2.5m) had a lower population. Now as Portugal, Holland and Uruguay have shown, you can overcome that barrier to an extent if you have a well-principled football culture and astute investing in coaching and training facilities. We don't - and neither do any of our neighbours really.

A decade ago the Old Firm were a match for a top five Premiership team. But those Premiership teams have been repeatedly bolstered with 50million TV money every single year. Rangers and Celtic on the other hand have had to make do with pennies. Why anyone expected Hearts with a squad assembled at a cost of £10m to be remotely competitive with a Spurs unit which cost £190m to put together is beyond me.

Ixion said:
Wow mental, Shamrock Rovers and a Championship side get to the Europa group stages but Rangers and Celtic are out. What a shambles, and to think they brought forward their season to help them in Europe.
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That might have been the official line but the season was only brought forward to allow Celtic to compete in the Dublin tournament at the end of July.

It may be an idea though to look at bringing the season forward a few weeks. There's no doubt some of our teams have underperformed a wee bit, probably as much a result of new management (Rangers and Hearts) as anything else. Unless Scotland qualify, there are only a handful of internationalists who are likely to play in a summer tournament so there's unlikely to be a real clash.
 
Group A: Tottenham, Kazan, PAOK Thessaloniki, Shamrock Rovers
Group B: FC Copenhagen, Liege, Hannover, Vorskla Poltava
Group C: PSV Eindhoven, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Rapid Bucharest, Leagia Warsaw
Group D: Sporting Lisbon, Lazio Rome, FC Zurich, Vaslui
Group E: Dynamo Kiev, Besiktas, Stoke, Maccabi Tel Aviv
Group F: Paris St Germain, Bilbao, RB Salzburg, Slovan Bratislava
Group G: Alkmaar, Metalist Kharkiv, Austria Vienna, Malmo
Group H: Braga, Club Brugge, Birmingham City, Maribor
Group I: Atletico Madrid, Udinese, Stade Rennes, Sion/Celtic
Group J: Schalke, Steaua Bucharest, Maccabi Haifa, AEK Larnaca
Group K: Enschede, Fulham, Odense, Wisla Krakow
Group L: Anderlecht, AEK Athens, Lokomotiv Moscow, Sturm Graz
 
I fancy all 4 English sides to go through to the next round.

Well done Shamrock
 
Tottenham - Shamrock, the dream tie for them surely.
 
Stoke go to Tel Aviv, Kiev and Istanbul. Enough air miles to travel to next year's qualifiers for free if they get there.
 
FAO: Frenchies or Kouroux. Can you translate this for me please?

...500 supporters Serbes. Finalement, ce sont 500 supporters Serbes qui ont pris place dans la tribune resevee au cop visiteur. L'occasion pour le public Rennais de decouvrir l'ambiance que peuvent mettre 500 hommes. Et d'imaginer ce que cela peut donner lorsqu'ils sont 56000 dans leur stade du Marakana a Belgrade. Tout comme ils ont pu decouvrir le respect des joueurs Serbes vis-a-vis de leurs supporters. En effet,malgre la defaite,les hommes de Robert Prosinecki ont salue leur cop pendant pres de dix minutes.
Impressionnant.
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Celtic reinstated in Europa League as UEFA rule against Sion

Celtic have been reinstated in the 2011/12 Europa League after FC Sion were made to forfeit their two play-off round ties.

The Swiss side have been adjudged by UEFA to have included five ineligible players in their squad for the two fixtures, with Pascal Feindouno, Gabri, Mario Mutsch, Jose Goncalves and Billy Ketkeophomphone all taking to the field against Neil Lennon’s side.

FC Sion recorded a 0-0 draw in Glasgow and then ran out 3-1 winners at home last Thursday. But under UEFA’s Europa League regulations, Celtic have been awarded both games 3-0 by means of forfeit.

As a result, the Scottish Premier League side will now inherit Sion’s place in Group I of the Europa League and will face Atletico Madrid, Udinese and Rennes.

FC Sion however have the right of appeal to UEFA within the next three days, as well as having the option to elevate their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

As the fixtures currently stand, Celtic will play their first Europa League group stage match in Spain against Atletico Madrid on September 15.

Udinese will then visit Glasgow on September 29, before Neil Lennon’s side go to France to take on Rennes on October 20.

Celtic will then play a home double header against Rennes and Atletico Madrid on November 3 and 30 respectively, before rounding off the campaign with a visit to face Udinese on December 15.

Prior to Friday’s decision, Sion owner Christian Constantin had already vowed to take further action against any negative decision, with the Swiss press raising the possibility of a delay to the start of the group stages as a result.

Sion have the right to appeal to UEFA and are given three days following the notification of any decision to lodge their protest in writing. The grounds for their appeal must be submitted within six days. A fee of 1,000 Euro is payable.
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Two days before competition starts? :lol:
 
Celtic will have booked flights and might have even traveled to Madrid already, it'd be hilarious if Sion went there tomorrow and replaced them. Almost like Trabzonspor preparing to play Bilbao and then finding out they'd be entering a competition from which they had already been eliminated. :lol:
 
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