442 - The Football (soccer) Forum

"she (Powell) was creating the organisation and structure which English women's football has benefited from"

The same Powell who guided the winless women's team to LAST place at the Euros before being rightly sacked.

Jupp Heynckes has been coaxed out of retirement by Bayern for a fourth stint at the Bundesliga giants. The 72 yr old had last taken charge of a side in June 2013.

In his last stint with Bayern they became the first German club to win the European Champions League (or equivalent), the Bundesliga title and the DFB-Pokal in the same season.

The retirement of Eire's Kevin Doyle due to ongoing problems with headaches and concussions has stirred the debate re the risk of CTE in football. For some time now Dr Bennet Omalu - one of the world's foremost experts on CTE in sportsmen - has been calling for heading to be banned in matches and training for those under 18. Infact he has gone further than this just recently when he stated that heading should be banned from football full stop.

If ongoing research is able to establish a clear risk factor btw heading and CTE then the radical call to outlaw heading will become harder and harder to deny.

The FA continue to come under fire in the Eni Aluko scandal.

The FA Is Still Not Listening, Says PFA

There is now even an allegation of misleading Parliament by Lord Ouseley, the Chairman of the anti-racist "Kick It Out" campaign. He alleged during the Parliamentary enquiry, which is still ongoing, that Martin Clarke's evidence yesterday was misleading in that he said he was unaware of the matter although he had discussed it with Lord Ouseley prior to the date at which he says he first heard of it.

Despite denials of bullying against Aluko, analysis of touchline videos reveals that (un-named) coaches in the England set up were disparaging towards her in matches that she played in. One has been shown to say to another "Aluko's fitness levels are good" to which the other replies "yeah, but she's lazy as f**k".

Statistical details from the match concerned shows that she ran further in terms of overall distance and made more touches of the ball than any other player in the England team during that match. If that's "lazy", I'd like to know what constitutes "making an effort."

She was dropped, so the FA say, because her form dropped off, and yet she was the top goalscorer in the Women's Super League last season. How does that work..?

Sports minister Tracey Crouch said the FA needed to take steps to improve.
"This is why, alongside Sport England and UK Sport, we have drawn up a a new Code for Sports Governance that all publicly funded sports bodies, including the FA, must adhere to."

The inference is quite clear. The FA is drinking in the Last Chance Saloon. The next step, should such mismanagement continue in the future, could be regulation.

Football isn't above the law.

"which fell into the racist Mark Sampson's lap"

Another BS misuse of a serious word. So come on then, what evidence do you have that Sampson is racist?

Certainly the independent barrister Katharine Newton who investigated the allegations found NO evidence that Mark was racist. Rather she found that on two separate occasions he made "ill-judged attempts at humour"
which were "discriminatory on grounds of race" towards Eni Aluko and Drew Spence. So just to make it clear, the person who investigated the allegations concluded that Sampson was NOT racist. Furthermore, Newton found there was NO evidence to support allegations that Aluko was subjected to "a course of bullying and discriminatory conduct" by Sampson.

So come on, you made the claim that Sampson is racist so where's your proof? What evidence do you have that barrister Newton was never privy to?

"Despite denials of bullying against Aluko"

An independent barrister investigated the claims of bullying and concluded there was NO evidence to support allegations that Aluko was subjected to "a course of bullying and discriminatory conduct" by Sampson. Now if she had concluded that there was you would have been trumpeting her report from the roof tops as irrefutable proof. But because her findings don't match your preconceived ideas you simply dismiss them. Unreal.

Stunning win by Huddersfield over Man U

Burnley made City work hard for their win but in the end it was to no avail. De Bruyne had another stand out game.

City have now won a club equal 11 straight games in all competitions. In the EPL they have scored an incredible 32 goals in just 9 matches whilst conceding just 4 times. With Man U going down City now have a 5 pt lead at the top.

Bit of trivia...in the past 5 years in Europe's top 5 leagues De Bruyne has been credited with more assists than any other player.

Congrats to The Steelmen on defeating the Zombie Hun and making it into the SLC final.

Good to see Marseille take points off PSG. In truth they were unlucky not to have become the first team to defeat the Parisian giants this season.

Ronald Koeman has been sacked by Everton.

Will Slaven Bilic be the next manager to be given his marching orders?