Champions League 2014/5

The year is 2024.

Arsenal win trophy for first time in 10 years.
Arsenal finish 4th in the Premier League after a heroic upsurge in form late-season at the expense of plucky Tottenham/Villa/Everton.
Arsenal win Champions League Playoff by a hair to qualify for Champions League for 27th consecutive season.
Arsene Wenger "I believe we can win the Champions League. We must believe."
Arsenal qualify for Champions League Knockout Round for the *lost count* consecutive time.
Get spanked by Barca/Madrid/Man Utd/ in Quarter Finals.
Arsene Wenger signs new contract after rejecting Real Madrid job.

Rinse. Repeat.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

hahaha he did it again! Ludogorets win!

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He's a former Dinamo player too. Looked chuffed with himself and rightly so: https://vine.co/v/MlIuTlmFOjE

Brief highlights here

Ludogrets scored in the last minute to bring it to extra time in the first place. And the centre back keeper scored the first in the shoot-out and all. Amazing stuff.

He was so far off his line for the one I saw on thescore.ie, with the extra official only 3 yards away. Ridiculous. Fun though.

Hoping for Arsenal, Bayer Lev, and Maribor.:)
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.n...1347ecdf64af88

Europa draw soon. I see Celtic and Legia are in different seeding pots. Can they meet again? That would be fantastic, Legia getting their rematch after all.

Not gonna happen. Dinamo Zagreb and Salzburg in with Celtic. Boring draw... was thinking they might get Everton, if not Legia, which would have been interesting.

Really?

Plus UEFA hinted themselves this wouldn't happen plus LW are looking at some sort of punishment from them after their fans' antics last night...

Only saw this now. What was the 'really?' bit aimed at?

Please let this happen....

Uefa consider change to away-goals rule and Champions League seedings

Legia got an €80,000 fine for their banner. I wonder if the Polish club will drop the matter now.

How appropriate it is that they were fined for accusing UEFA of being money grabbers!

http://cdn2.independent.ie/incoming/...342/Celtic.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DeLorean

Only saw this now. What was the 'really?' bit aimed at?

Please let this happen....

Uefa consider change to away-goals rule and Champions League seedings

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I hate away goals. No place in football nowadays for it.

The seeding should remain as is.

Yeah, agree on both counts. The group stages are pretty dull though usually. There's probably just too many groups. If it was reduced to four groups of four again and scrap the last 16 it would increase the quality no end, but obviously that's not going to happen for reasons outlined by Legia above. Anyway, it's probably a good thing that more teams get their day in the sun.

http://i.imgur.com/QzoR9BK.png

Just sayin'...https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...2ee1f57aaf875b

In all likelihood, UEFA have fined or are planning to fine Real Madrid for the display there, assuming the UEFA delegate(s) at the match saw the flag. I saw a Dortmund fan waving an Israeli flag behind the goal in their game against Arsenal also and would, similarly, expect that UEFA have fined Dortmund if the delegate(s) at the game saw it.

Why is there an assumption that UEFA aren't fining clubs when their fans display "inappropriate" Israeli flags? Just because fines aren't reported in the news doesn't mean clubs haven't been penalised. I suppose you could always contact UEFA if you badly wanted clarification and they were happy to provide it.

In these instances, do you feel Real and Dortmund should refuse to pay the fines or what is your feeling on this matter? Do you support the "absolute right" of their fans to protest/display certain flags if they like?

Don't support Israel, so not especially in favour. But as long as they're not overtly offensive (eg.no swastikas, fascist crosses) have no problem with flags in general being waved unlike the cretins in UEFA...

Anyway if clubs whose fans wave Israel flags, get fined, will be surprised.

The difference is, it makes no difference to Real Madrid or Dortmund to lose €18,000. It's pittance to them. It makes a difference to Dundalk though as it's almost twice a weekly wage bill.

18k is almost enough to cover Richie Towell's wages for a week.

Except it's about the principle to protest, within reason.

And UEFA levying unreasonable fines, never mind the club. Depending on what they get fined for, Dortmund too should refuse to pay.
R.Madrid have had dozens of fascist banners over the years so they can GTF.