World soccer's governing body FIFA says players who feature in any breakaway European Super League would be banned from playing in FIFA competitions, including the World Cup.
In a joint statement with European governing body UEFA and the other five continental confederations on Thursday, FIFA said they would not recognize any such breakaway.
Few things in sports are as difficult as predicting results of future games. According to Chris Anderson and David Sally, authors of The Numbers Game, soccer is 50 percent luck and 50 percent skill. Add in an overwhelming number of professional leagues and players and the low-scoring nature of matches, soccer is one of the most unpredictable sports.
El corazón de Arturo Vidal es indomable. A veces, demasiado. Tanto, que las emociones del chileno siempre saltan a la vista y eso hace que a veces veamos actuaciones como las que protagonizó en el Derbi d’Italia, que terminó con una victoria de 2-0 para el Inter de Milán sobre la Juventus.
AC Milan coach Stefano Pioli labelled Zlatan Ibrahimović a champion who continues to surprise him after the 39-year-old striker produced another stellar performance in Milan's 2-0 win at Cagliari on Monday.
Injury has deprived Milan of Ibrahimović's services for much of the season but when he has started, the goals have flowed to help Pioli's team climb to the top of the Serie A standings.
Lorenzo Insigne scored twice and produced a dazzling assist as Napoli stormed into third place in Serie A with a crushing 6-0 victory over Fiorentina on Sunday.
Striker Andrea Petagna teed up Insigne to fire home after just five minutes, and Petagna was again the provider when he teed up Diego Demme for the second.
Insigne produced a moment of magic on the 38th minute, winning the ball inside his own half and embarking on a winding dribble past several opposition defenders, before playing an inch-perfect pass behind the defense for Hirving Lozano to tap in.
Roma’s 22-year-old center back Roger Ibañez is not a bad footballer — we don’t want to pile on too much here — but he had one of the worst performances of his career on Friday. Ibañez was directly responsible for Lazio’s first two goals en route to a 3-0 defeat in the Derby della Capitale.
Lazio, which came into the match in eighth place and eager for a victory to get back into the race for Champions League qualification, controlled the Roman rivalry from the outset. A couple of early mistakes from Ibañez put Le Aquile on the road to an easy win.
From living a total “nightmare” to being closely monitored by Manchester United, what a difference six months can make. On Wednesday, Hirving “Chucky” Lozano went full circle by providing an influential performance in Napoli’s Coppa Italia Round of 16 win over Empoli.
There’s no telling what records Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will break in any given week — it’s entirely up to statisticians as to how they want to morph it at this point (most goals on a Tuesday, most goals with a common denominator of five scored across three leagues, most goals by a JUST RETWEET THIS POST GODDAMMIT).
It’s a testament to both the consistent longevity of their greatness and the somewhat curious cases of the historical players they rival, namely Josef Bican and Pelé.
Gianluca Mancini's late goal earned AS Roma a 2-2 draw at home to Inter Milan on Sunday which left the visitors three points behind leaders AC Milan in the Serie A title race.
Lorenzo Pellegrini’s deflected shot put the hosts in front at halftime, but Inter mustered a spirited response and Milan Škriniar headed in a deserved equalizer after the break. Achraf Hakimi put Inter ahead by curling an outstanding shot in off the bar, but Mancini's glancing header leveled the scores with four minutes remaining to clinch a sixth consecutive league draw between the two teams.