Unusual/Notable stuff from around the football world.

**osarusan** · 08/04/2022, 1:18 PM

Not unusual (well maybe it is to see a strike of this quality) but certainly notable.

Payet goal against PAOK. I love how his teammate near the edge of the penalty area just stands there with his hands on his head.

**SkStu** · 11/07/2022, 6:18 PM

Usually Pineapple Stu with these sorts of things!

https://www.bbc.com/sport/av/football/62127436

Watch the moment Valour FC's William Akio clears his own team-mate's would-be goal off the line during their Canadian Premier League game against HFX Wanderers.

Poor guy!

**NeverFeltBetter** · 12/07/2022, 2:54 PM

What's he trying to do there? Nick the goal? Or has his brain just locked into "clear it off the line" mood when it see's a ball crawling towards it?

**SkStu** · 12/07/2022, 4:42 PM

I really think he was trying to nick the goal! Brutal.

**NeverFeltBetter** · 19/07/2022, 12:30 PM

I suppose this belongs here: Alistair Campbell once suggested a Celtic/Rangers match be held in Belfast to publicise the referendum on the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Campbell suggested that the teams wear each other's jerseys in the match.

However, he admitted "one or two of the Rangers players to my certain knowledge would have a difficulty with this".

...

In the letter headed Rangers v Celtic, An Idea, addressed to Prime Minister, Tony Blair, Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam and Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar and dated 12 April 1998, Mr Campbell asked if this was worth pursuing.

There is no record of anyone getting back to him.

Campbell tweeted today that it was "not the best idea I ever had". It reads like something that someone with no real knowledge of football would suggest, but Campbell is a big Burnley FC fan according to Wiki.

**osarusan** · 18/08/2022, 11:23 AM

I went to an SPL match the other day. St Mirren versus Ross County, both of whom were on 0 points after 2 games. Ross County now on 0 points after 3 games.

Playing upfront for St Mirren was Jonah Ayunga, formerly of Sligo and Galway. I don't think he was much of a success at Sligo either, but he was one of the best players on the pitch. SPL, at the bottom of the table anyway, is actually very poor stuff.

**NeverFeltBetter** · 22/08/2022, 3:16 PM

Vahid Halilhofzic was recently sacked as head coach of Morocco. It's the third time in his career that he has been sacked from an international job in the period between a successful qualification for a World Cup and the World Cup itself: in 2010 Cote d'Ivoire dispensed with his services after an iffy AFCON four months ahead of South Africa and in 2018 Japan sacked him after some poor results and an onslaught from hostile media two months before Russia. This time it's allegedly his refusal to find a place for Hakim Ziyech, after the Chelsea man refused to play in a friendly last year.

**pineapple stu** · 12/09/2022, 1:54 PM

Picked up an interesting football story watching Simon Reeve's South America last night.

Inter Moengotapoe of Suriname - who have won 10 of the last 13 national titles - played Olimpia of Honduras in the CONCACAF League last September, the equivalent of the Europa League. Inter were captained by Ronnie Brunswijk, the 60-year-old team owner, who also happens to be Vice President of the country. They play in the Ronnie Brunswijkstadion. He's the oldest player ever to play in a continental match, coming off after 54 minutes. (His son also started)

He was the rebel leader during the Surinamese Civil War of the late 80s, has been convicted in absentia of bank robbery and drug trafficking, controls much of Suriname's gold reserves, and has been banned from football twice for threatening behaviour (the first incident, a 5-year-ban for threatening players with a handgun, was overturned for lack of evidence)

His side lost 6-0, and shortly after the match, footage emerged of him paying the opposition team, so both clubs were disqualified and Ronnie was given a 3-year ban from any CONCACAF activity.

**NeverFeltBetter** · 14/09/2022, 10:21 AM

Just shy of 14-year-old comes on as a sub in an Irish League Cup game: https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2022...lenavon-debut/

He goes down as the youngest "senior" player in the UK. And got an assist apparently.

Reminds me of a recent Youtube retrospective from SB Nation on the career of Freddy Adu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l-JSw8rh5Y

**NeverFeltBetter** · 05/10/2022, 4:01 PM

Ukraine join Spanish/Portuguese World Cup 2030 bid: https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2022...world-cup-bid/

I also had no idea before today that there was an Egypt/Greece/Saudi Arabia bid in the works. All sorts of interesting mooted bids here, some of which are based on nothing more than a passing comment from an official: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2030_FIFA_World_Cup

My favourite being "South Korea (in association with either

North Korea,

Japan or

China, or all three)"

**tetsujin1979** · 05/10/2022, 10:26 PM

Surely the obvious choice is to give it to a South American bid, given it'll be the 100th anniversary of the first tournament in Uruguay?

**NeverFeltBetter** · 27/10/2022, 11:15 AM

Spanish fan attempting to walk to Qatar goes missing in Iran, presumably arrested: https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sp...an-2022-10-26/

Not the best time to go marching through Iran you have to say. Some people are a bit strange.

**NeverFeltBetter** · 05/01/2023, 10:39 AM

Spotted two interesting headlines on the Guardian this morning.

First, the story some may have read today about Gregg Berhalter kicking his then girlfriend/future wife 30 years ago came from Claudio Reyna and Danielle Reyna, and seems to have been "revealed" 30 years after the fact because Berhalter wasn't playing their son Gio in the national team: https://www.theguardian.com/football...na-family-feud

And Crawley Town, owned by a crypto guy who randomly took up a spot in the dug-out for a recent loss, have one player who gets bonuses for winning the ball back in the opposition half, and offered a potential centre-back a bonus for every header of the ball: https://www.theguardian.com/football...ess-leadership

**pineapple stu** · 23/01/2023, 9:52 PM

Two interesting Cup ties tonight, both featuring top-flight sides against sixth tier sides.

In France, PSG were away to US Pays de Cassel, a side so obscure they didn't have a wikipedia article until last week. Sixth tier in France is lower than it sounds as the fourth tier has 4 sections, the fifth tier has 12 groups, and then the sixth tier has 13 sections - so in terms of number of clubs ahead of them in the leagues, you're probably looking at eighth tier in England. I have to assume that's about LoI First Division standard, if not LSL - and PSG rocked up with Keylor Navas, Neymar, Mbappé, Sergio Ramos, Renato Sanches et al (though no Messi). It was still scoreless after half an hour, but it was 4-0 at the break and 7-0 in the end - Mbappé with five. If Wexford or Crumlin United held PSG to 7-0, they'd be thrilled.

And in Scotland, Aberdeen were away to Darvel of the West of Scotland league, the level below the Lowland League. Darvel's ground has 60 seats, so again you're probably looking LSL level. But Darvel won 1-0, and it's being described as the greatest upset ever seen in the Scottish Cup. Former Irish international Jim Goodwin is the Aberdeen manager, though probably not for much longer.

**OwlsFan** · 24/01/2023, 8:06 PM

Have to say that even for Sky they went over the top in their reporter interviewing the owners of Everton in the car park after the recent loss. He used words like "surely you're going to sack Lampard now". Thought it was disgraceful for a reporter to tout the sacking of a manager like that but hey, that's the way of the world I suppose.

**osarusan** · 01/02/2023, 2:26 PM

Originally Posted by osarusan

Aaaand it's over.

At the mere age of 54 (almost 55), Kazuyoshi Miura has called it a day at top level football.

He is leaving Yokohama FC to sign for a Japan Football League team (which is the 4th tier, below J3), based in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture, with the incredibly cringeworthy name of Suzuka Point Getters.

So long, King Kazu. We shall not see his like again.

Aaaand, incredibly, he is back in senior football. At the tender age of 55, he has just signed/will soon sign on loan with Portuguese Division 2 side UD Olivairense.

**NeverFeltBetter** · 02/02/2023, 2:27 PM

I was listening to the the Formula E focused podcast for The Race today, recapping the recent event held in Diryadh, Saudi Arabia. The presented ended the show by mentioning that he had taken the opportunity of going to see Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr playing a Saudi Super Cup game.

"Did he score, like, 23 goals?"
"None, they lost...I was in the away end and every time he missed or did a terrible cross, which was actually quite often, we all started bowing down and chanting 'Messi'. It was quite amusing".

**OwlsFan** · 22/03/2023, 10:00 AM

The longest unbeaten run in league football in Europe went last night. Luca Connell isn't a bad player.

**NeverFeltBetter** · 19/04/2023, 2:57 PM

A reduction in football-related violence in Sao Paulo might be due to criminal gangs ordering it to stop: https://www.theguardian.com/football...-criminal-gang