Welcome to the 40th edition of Football Circus. No shortage of shenanigans this week with reports on a frankly ludicrous Barcelona shirt deal, crowd trouble in Brazil, Greenpeace crashing a Real Madrid press conference and Juventus' exit from the Champions League.
Intel Barca Sponsorship An Inside Job
Barcelona have agreed a $25 million shirt sponsorship deal with Intel this week. The Intel logo won't appear on the outside of the jersey though, rather it will be on the inside of it, meaning the shirt needs to be slightly lifted to display the logo.
The shirt deal will run for five years and we can only assume we will see a significant increase in goal celebrations involving shirt lifting. While the idea may seem original and innovative, it's difficult to forget the Getafe jersey of a few years ago which featured the Burger King 'King'...
Crowd Trouble in Brazil
If the crowd control measures taken before last Sunday's Vasco de Gama and Ateltico Paranaense match are a barometer ahead of next summer's World Cup, Brazil has a lot of work to do to avoid international embarrassment.
Television footage showed a mass brawl between hooligan fans of the two teams. Kicks and punches were exchanged while other fans were even trampled on, before police began to fire rubber bullets in an attempt to diffuse the situation. The trouble got so out of hand that a helicopter had to land on the pitch in order to transport injured fans to a local hospital. Some of the fans are now said to be in critical condition.
The game was marred by the ugly scenes after just fifteen minutes of play. Brazil has had large number of hooligan-related incident this year and, in addition to fears over the safety of some of the country's stadiums, will not fill FIFA officials with confidence.
Vasco coach Adilson Batista said afterwards:
"This is deplorable. It's sad to see images like these just before the World Cup in our country. I'm shocked, this is not sport".
The match was stopped for half an hour before play could be resumed. Atletico ran out 5-1 winners.
Greenpeace Crash Real Madrid Press Conference
Real Madrid saw their pre-Champions League press conference gatecrashed by Greenpeace as the environmental activists surprised Carlo Ancelotti and Pepe on Monday. As Ancelotti and Pepe sat being interviewed by the media, a banner descended behind them.
The banner in question was a protest against Gazprom, the Russian gas company who are one of the main Champions League sponsors. It read:
"Save the Arctic: Show Gazprom the red card".
Ancelotti and Pepe, for their part, laughed off the stunt.
Exactly how Greenpeace managed to sneak the banner into the press conference is a mystery, but it certainly got people talking.
New York City FC to build $400 Million Stadium in The Bronx
New York City FC, the new MLF franchise owned by Manchester City and the New York Yankees, are close to agreeing a deal with GAL Manufacturing to buy land just south of Yankee Stadium according to the New York Post.
Current mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg has approved the deal, although mayor electorate Bill de Blasio will also have to give his go ahead in order for the deal to be finalised.
The stadium would be a 28,000 seater and would be paid for over 35 years. The club would "guarantee bondholders revenues from suite sales, naming rights and the like", the newspaper claims.
With the club due to start to playing in 2015, expect a lot of hype during the coming year. The move to the Bronx-based stadium, if approved, would likely happen around 2018 or 2019.
What's Mad Mario Upto This Week?
Kicking ass, that's what. Balo scored twice in Milan's 2-2 draw with Livorno at the weekend. What's more, Milan had been 2-1 down until the 85th minute when Balotelli hit a superb free kick to salvage a point for his side.
His Champions League outing later in the week against Ajax was less impressive. Milan drew and Mario did nothing more than pick up a booking for himself.
What was maybe the most noteworthy part of Balotelli's week however, was his defence against a zombie attack last Saturday. Yes, defence against a zombie attack. Whilst collecting an award at Milan's training facility, the striker found himself having to fend off a zombie who seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The zombie was in fact part of a television campaign which Balotelli is taking part in, so Balo lives to see another Football Circus feature.
And Frimpong?
Frimpong has been clowning around not only on Instagram this week, but also on Twitter. Following the World Cup draw, Frimpong jokingly tweeted that he would injure Arsenal teammates Mezut Ozil, Lukas Podolski and Per Mertesacker before the competition got underway.
Frimpong was then found to be upto his usual antics, posting a photoshopped picture onto Instagram, poking fun at Man United star Marouane Fellaini's perceived lack of pace.
Italian Football Story of the Week
- Snow Joke - Juve Crash Out of Champions League after Gala Defeat
Juventus' Champions League tie away to Galatasary on Tuesday was abandoned after just 31 minutes due to heavy snow. The Old Lady may have been weary after the trip to Turkey coupled with having already played half an hour of football the evening prior, but on Wednesday the match went ahead and Juve were knocked out of the Champions League by former Inter Milan star Wesley Sneijder and his Gala teammates.
As Tuesday's Champions League fixtures got underway, the snow in the Galatasary-Juventus game became progressively worse - So much so that after 31 minutes, all involved decided that match could not be continued in such conditions. This meant that the match would have to be replayed and given the hectic schedules of both sides, a decision was made for the match to start from scratch at the rather odd time of Wednesday afternoon.
Whether the Turk Telecom Arena's pitch was fit to be deemed playable even on Wednesday is debateable. Commentator John Bradley tweeted the following photo of it prior to kickoff.
Nonetheless, the game went ahead, with Juve needing just a point to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition. Despite missing Paul Pogba and Andrea Pirlo, neutrals would still have favoured the Turin giants to progress.
Alas, it was not to be however, as Wesley Sneijder popped up with what proved to be the only goal of the game after 85 minutes, sending the Roberto Mancini-managed Galatasary into the last sixteen. Juventus will now partake in the Europa League and will surely consider this one of their worst Champions League campaigns to date.
Football Recommendation
- Keane & Vieira Best of Enemies - This ITV4 documentary certainly went down a treat with most who watched it this week. If you missed it, it's well worth keeping an eye out for a replay or catching it online
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Non Football Recommendation
- It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Song of the Week
- I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas (Bing Crosby) - We had a few contenders for song of the week this week but we're going with this as a tribute to the Gala-Juve Champions League fixture(s).
Make sure to read the rest of our blogs this December as we feature:
- The 'Golden Clown Shoe' award, where we crown the biggest clown of 2013 in world football. We will count down the fifteen biggest clowns featured on Football Circus to date.
- Recommendations Special - A rundown of all the Football and Non Football recommendations we have given this year.
- The introduction of our 'Artist's Impression' segment, where we will recreate some of best stories we feature
- The introduction of our 'Artist's Impression' segment, where we will recreate some of best stories we feature
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You can also contact us at footballcircus@gmail.com
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