I hate to make my first contribution to this website to be a criticism of someone who has taken the time to write an interesting and fully comprehensive analysis of an important and debatable subject regarding the football world. I mean, I have absolutely no fear of writing debatable comments and bringing up contentious issues, yet I don?t want to start out by making enemies. Despite this I feel that I have to strongly disagree with Kieran Haines? (19/09/2006) piece on the prospects of a European Super League. I read the report with interest, yet also with dismay at the thought that anyone would seriously advocate the formation of such a league. I actually read the column hoping that at the end Mr. Haines would remark that all the above was tongue-in-cheek and that a European Super League would be a terrible idea, but alas this anecdote was never to come.
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With the allocation of four Champions League spots to English Premiership Clubs, it is perhaps not a surprise to see the gradual emergence of the “top four”, as seen facing off together on Sky Sports Super Sunday yesterday. With the rest of the league largely forgotten most of England (and perhaps the world if TV statistics are to be believed) spent the afternoon watching Chelsea grind out a result against sorry Liverpool and Arsenal surprising an inform Manchester United.

English football is witnessing the formation of its own G-4. The party may be gate crashed from occasionally, not so long ago by Leeds United, Newcastle United and Everton yet these challenges were not sustained and future forays by teams such as Tottenham, Blackburn and Bolton are also likely to become One Season Wonders. Quite simply (we’ll call them the G-4) now have the financial strength to muscle all other teams out of the reckoning. The 04/05 Champions League saw 430million euros spread between the 32 group participants alone the winners Liverpool raking in 30million euros. Finish fifth and you may as well be last when it comes to significant financial benefits from UEFA.

Ok, this last statement may not be somewhat of an exaggeration and should a Russian millionaire take a fancy to a particular football club then the G-4 may be in for a shake-up. The possible take over of West Ham United by MSI for example one to watch out for. Yet I can’t help feeling that the polarisation of the English top flight is inevitable. On a regular jaunt around London Town I often believe I should be seeing a plethora of local club teams represented. Crystal Palace, Millwall, Leyton Orient, Charlton, Queens Park Ranges are all conspicuous by their absence instead replaced by Chelsea, Arsenal and even Liverpool and Manchester United. My two young cousins from Swindon Town, about 5-6 years of age, support Liverpool or Chelsea. How can the County Ground hope to capture the imagination of the local children such as them? Certainly not with Rocky the Robin.
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The Europe-wide summer transfer window slammed shut at midnight last night, with plenty of moves to talk about. The Ashley Cole/William Gallas transfer saga, which felt like it had been going on for about twelve years, finally reached a conclusion, while the eye-catching coup of the day went to West Ham who signed Argentine duo Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano from Corinthians.

However it was a quiet day for Manchester United, who allowed Liam Miller and Chris Eagles to leave but didn?t sign anyone, while Merseyside was also quiet as Liverpool and Everton both failed to sign anyone. Martin O?Neill will have to wait until January to continue his Aston Villa revolution after the window shut without him adding to the signing of Stilian Petrov.

As expected, Harry Redknapp had a busy day, making three signings, while Martin Jol added two new faces to his already quite large squad at White Hart Lane. Mark Hughes signed another striker for Blackburn while Fulham and Man City will hope to have solved their left-sided problems with loan deals. Gareth Southgate tried to address the defensive problems at Middlesbrough but also signed a forward, as did Newcastle. Wigan moved late but secured the signatures of three new players, while the three promoted clubs only signed two players between them, Steve Coppell?s Reading being the side who didn?t make a signing.
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We’ll be covering the draw as it happens for the UEFA Cup first round as British clubs Tottenham Hotpsur, Newcastle United, West Ham United, Blackburn Rovers, Derry City Hearts and Rangers wait to see who they’ll face.

The first-round matches are played over two legs on 14th and 28th September.

A total of 40 teams will then advance to the group stages, where pools of five teams vie to reach the knockout stages.

The winner, runner-up and third-placed team from each group advance to the last 32 where they are joined by eight clubs knocked out of the Champions League.

The competition will culminate in the final at Hampden Park on the 16th May.

UEFA Cup First round 2006/2007 Draw:

Levadia Tallinn v NEWCASTLE
Molde FK v RANGERS
DERRY CITY v Paris St Germain
Sparta Prague v HEARTS
FC Salzburg v BLACKBURN
WEST HAM v Palermo
Slavia Prague v TOTTENHAM

Monaco hosts today’s UEFA Cup First Round draw as 80 teams prepare themselves for their ticket to a European adventure. While the glitz and glamour of yesterday’s Champion’s League draw mightn’t be quite as evident, the UEFA Cup still holds some of it’s old glory and there is a strong selection of Europe’s big footballing names, both seeded and unseeded, with which to make for an interesting tournament this season.

These 80 sides will play each other home and away before the winners progress to the group stages where eight groups of five teams will play each other once.

For today’s draw the sides have been split into seeded and unseeded groups and then further divided into eight pools of ten teams, five seeded, five unseeded from which the draws will be made. Seeded teams can only play unseeded teams from within their own group or pool. Confused yet? Have a look down the following tables to see which of the British clubs involved (Newcastle United, Rangers, West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur, Hearts, Blackburn Rovers and Derry City) have the toughest possible draw.

We’ll be covering the draw live here at State of the Game from 1200 BST.
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Chelsea and Champions League holders Barcelona will renew their rivalry after they were drawn together in the first phase of this year’s competition. The two sides, who have now been paired for the third time in three years, also face Werder Bremen and Levski Sofia.

Manchester United will meet Celtic in Group F with Benfica and FC Copenhagen.

Last year’s finalists Arsenal take on Porto, CSKA Moscow and Hamburg while Liverpool face PSV Eindhoven, Bordeaux and Galatasaray.

British teams in bold and the top seeds in CAPITALS.
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News reports from Turin are saying that Juventus’ sports director, former Juve and Italy star Gianluca Pessotto, has fallen from a window at the club’s HQ and is in a serious, thought to be life threatening, condition in hospital.

ROME (Reuters) - Former Juventus player Gianluca Pessotto was in a serious condition after falling from a window at the club’s headquarters, the Juventus press office said on Tuesday.

Pessotto, who took up the post of Juventus’s sports director at the end of last season after 11 years with the team, was taken to hospital in Turin.

The defender, who made 22 appearances for Italy, was a regular starter during one of the most successful periods in Juventus’s history, winning six Serie A titles and the 1996 Champions League.

Italy captain and Juventus defender Fabio Cannavaro walked out of a news conference at the Azzurri’s World Cup training camp when he heard the news of Pessotto’s fall.

I understand that the whole Italian World Cup squad are now demanding to be returned to Italy to visit Pessotto and to find out exactly what the circumstances are regarding this tragedy.

With the continued threat of relegation and heavy punishment hanging over Juventus for their part in the match fixing scandal, the real reasons for Pessotto’s fall seem unclear although there are sure to be many conspiracy theories launched by fans until the actual details emerge.

The big question is: just how badly do some people at Juventus want to distance themselves from punishment for their part in the match fixing scandal?

What a game. After Saturday’s FA Cup Final I thought it would be a long time before I saw another that matched it but the 2006 European Cup final certainly got close.

Thierry Henry missing a sitter after two minutes, Lehmann self destructing and reaping the effects of the bad karma he’s built up in the Premiership over the past two seasons and Sol “Judas” Campbell scoring his first goal of 2006 to put the Arsenal a goal up despite being down to 10 men after Eboue took a dive to win the free kick. What a first half. If you were an Arsenal fan that is. For the Barcelona inclined “Neutral” it was more than a little hard going.

Samuel Eto’o hitting the post, Henry missing another sitter and constant Barcelona pressure with no serious openings were really doing my heart no good at all and as the rain came down in torrents in Paris there were growing doubts in my mind whether the best footballing side in Europe could get the vital goal to make their numerical advantage count.

Offside concerns aside it finally came from Eto’o with a fabulous move and through ball which he banged inside the near post to send the Barcelona fans into raptures and one interested observer in Northern Ireland absolutely ballistic watching on TV. When Belletti and Larsson combined five minutes later to net the eventual winner I almost needed resuscitation. The goals had been coming with immense pressure being put on the rapidly tiring Arsenal defence but it’s one thing having the pressure and quite another actually hitting the back of the net.

Ronaldinho poked and prodded but rarely got his proper rewards for his invention and skill while Ludovic Giuly, Deco and Eto’o take most of the plaudits for their own invention and movement all night. Giuly in particular was integral to Barca’s attacking play down the right hand side and should use this performance to help him get over the disappointment of missing out on France’s World Cup squad. If they can afford to leave Giuly out then they must have some squad.

Arsenal’s players worked hard but were always fighting an uphill battle after Lehmann’s deserved sending off on 20 minutes. Thierry Henry worked hard but his usually immaculate finishing left him once again in a big game and one does have to ask now if his true world class quality is real or just perceived and blown up by the English media. Maybe a move to Barcelona to replace the departing Henrik Larsson would show us the real level of quality Henry has.

One thing neither Henry nor his manager have is any class when it comes to losing. To come on TV afterwards and blame the referee for giving Barcelona some decisions and then not mentioning the blatant dive from Eboue which won Arsenal the free kick from which they scored is childish and immature and for such a supposedly cultured player as Henry, a tad embarassing.

In the end justice was done and as Carlos Puyol lifted the European Cup there could hardly be any football fan in Europe who didn’t feel that Barcelona deserved to be champions of Europe after the football they have played this season.

Long may their reign continue.

Marius Mitu and Laurent Delorge have been sacked by Anderlecht after the pair admitted being involved in matchfixing while playing for Lierse last season.

Belgian police had begun an investigation last November after being tipped off regarding unusually heavy betting patterns on some Belgian league games.

Anderlecht General manager Herman van Holsbeeck has said about the sackings: “We have no confidence in these players and have decided now to terminate their contracts.”