Porto Kicked Out Of CL - Milan to take their place?

[jmurphyc]

Breaking news on Sky Sports News. Porto will not be in next year's Champions League due to match fixing in the 03/04 season. Milan may get their place as the highest ranked team that are not in the competition. If Milan get it, it sounds like double standards to me.

[WoodquayBoy]

Replacing cheats with cheats. Take a bow UEFA

[TheBoss]

If they are out of the CL, then Sporting and Guimaraes go in automatically and Benfica will be in the 3rd Round Qualifiers, not Milan.

[Block G Raptor]

Full story on RTE.ie (http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2008/0604/porto.html?rss)
Kinda takes the gloss off their CL Win and indeed their defeat of Celtic in the previous years UEFA cup final when they got more than a few questionable decisions

[tomred23]

This is terrible, this team are caught cheating and oly get docked 6 points! When Leeds went into admin they got docked 15 pts. There is something very wrong there.

[WoodquayBoy]

Who was manager at the time? Oh yeah, someone special! Question marks over the Chelsea league double??

[superfrank]

If they are out of the CL, then Sporting and Guimaraes go in automatically and Benfica will be in the 3rd Round Qualifiers, not Milan.
Yeah that's what I thought straight away.

[old git]

Full story on RTE.ie (http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2008/0604/porto.html?rss)
Kinda takes the gloss off their CL Win and indeed their defeat of Celtic in the previous years UEFA cup final when they got more than a few questionable decisions

if serious enough allegation to throw them out of next years champions league should uefa not have also stripped them of their champions league win :ball::ball:

[Sheridan]

Full story on RTE.ie (http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2008/0604/porto.html?rss)
Kinda takes the gloss off their CL Win and indeed their defeat of Celtic in the previous years UEFA cup final when they got more than a few questionable decisions
No, it doesn't. There's no suggestion that any European games were involved in this matter. Lubos Michel, the referee who was courageous enough to clamp down on Glasgow Celtic's butchery in the 2003 final, has just refereed the Champions League final and is off to Euro 2008. Hardly the punishment incurred by a cheat.

[Plastic Paddy]

No, it doesn't. There's no suggestion that any European games were involved in this matter. Lubos Michel, the referee who was courageous enough to clamp down on Glasgow Celtic's butchery in the 2003 final, has just refereed the Champions League final and is off to Euro 2008. Hardly the punishment incurred by a cheat.

0/10 for a very, very poor attempt at trolling. Stick to cricket, old chap.

Balde - the very definition of a headless chicken that night - was rightly sent off for a tackle so late that it could have been carried over to the following season. The blatant diving by Deco and friends, on the other hand, continually went unpunished by Michel. Hardly the actions of a "courageous" official and proof, if any was needed, that Peter's principle applies equally well to the world of football refereeing.

:ball: PP

[Dodge]

0/10 for a very, very poor attempt at trolling.

Nothing trolling about his post. They'd have qualified for the european competitions anyway. Diving often gets overlooked in every single league/competition in the world. I'd guess almost every team could point to a match won or loss or a ref's dodgy decision.

Still if it gives Celtic fans another reason to think they're hard done by, fair enough

[shakermaker1982]

I'm not a Celtic fan by any means but I still break out in sweats when recalling Porto's antics that night. I don't think I've ever witnessed such a masterclass in diving and rolling around the floor. The only thing that could ever compete with Porto that night was if you fielded a team of Drogba's.

[Plastic Paddy]

Nothing trolling about his post

No trolling? Did you actually read past the first the first line of Sheridan's post, Dodge?

:ball: PP

[WoodquayBoy]

No trolling? Did you actually read past the first the first line of Sheridan's post, Dodge?

:ball: PP
His first line reads: "No, it doesn't." What is trolling about that?

[Plastic Paddy]

His first line reads: "No, it doesn't." What is trolling about that?

Oh FFS. Nothing. If you're going to be pedantic, at least read my post in reply to Dodge properly. It is what is said after the first line is what is disputed. Not that it really matters anyway.

:ball: PP

[Dodge]

No trolling? Did you actually read past the first the first line of Sheridan's post, Dodge?

:ball: PP
Thought it was obviously sarcastic PP.

Granted with Sheridan you can never be too certain...

[Closed Account 2]

I agree, it has to be sarcastic - he's mentioned the Slovak's performance in the Champions League final as vindication of his ability... Lubos Michel was so weak, supine and spinless in that game I thought it was the Moscow hybrid of Steve Benett and the McCurry guy (the one in the Rangers Dundee match, who has since been caught offside in a box - if you get what I mean) .

Back to Michel, for any ref, at any major final, to be cajolued by one of the managers at half time (to say nothing of the constant crowing by both teams players) and not to report or discipline the offenders was shocking. Lubos Michel bottled it big time, hard to imagine a great like Collina doing that.

[superfrank]

CSKA Sofia (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/7437926.stm) have also been thrown out of the CL for next season.

The club are deep in debt and their chairman resigned.

[Closed Account 2]

In a bizzare twist of irony Celtic now look likely to benefit from Porto's demise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Champions_League_2008-09

It looks like they will be bumped up from the 3rd qual. round to the full group stage... I guess it must go on the fact Scotland is deemed to be the strongest league without an automatic entry into the group stages.

[Plastic Paddy]

Not sure that's correct as to the best of my knowledge Celtic were assured of an automatic CL place. Eirebhoy, or anyone else in the know, care to confirm?

:ball: PP

[ArdeeBhoy]

Celtic were assured of a place in the Group stages by winning the SPL.

Perhaps after their wonderful behaviour in Manchester, it would be rather apt to offer a 'wild' card to the other crowd from Glasgow?

[Morbo]

I think Celtic were assured of an automatic CL place because an automatic CL place was resereved for the winners of the CL league and since the CL winners had already secured an automatic position there was a free automatic CL spot to next highest rated team

[dublinred]

How do you catch a cheating ref , how would one define the fine line between total incompetence and cheating.