TW3 #10

The weekend in review.

Cup joy for Lyon, 1-0 winners over Quevilly who will forever be called 'plucky', and Olympiakos who sealed a league and cup double.

League joy for Porto where their win over Marítimo and Benfica's draw with Rio Ave meant that the gap is out to six points. With Porto shading the head-to-head record, they cannot now be caught in the final two games. League joy for Basel who beat Lausanne while Luzern could only draw with Grasshopper. No joy for Christian Gross, offed by Young Boys after defeat to embattled Servette.

Almost impossible to interrupt league joy for Ajax. A win over FC Twente - who slump to sixth as a result - leaves the Amsterdammers six points clear of Feyenoord who move up to second. But with a goal difference superior to the tune of 24, it's pretty much a done deal. Quite a start to the managerial career of Frank de Boer. At least one, maybe two, of the top six will miss out on European football for next season. There's a hell of a scrap on for second, third and fourth. The final European spot is decided by play-offs.

So close to league joy that you can almost smell it in France. Montpellier scraped past Toulouse on Friday night and sat back while PSG took on Lille and lost. The gap is out to five points now, as big as it's been all season, but four games remain.

Three games and three points; so goes the equation in Italy. Juventus remain unbeaten and beat lowly Novara easily. Milan did likewise in Siena, maintaining the status quo. Behind them, four teams - Lazio, Napoli, Inter and Udinese - are locked on 55 points in the scramble for third.

European places are settled in Germany. Dortmund are champions, Bayern are second, Schalke - who bade a home farewell to Raúl - are third. Gladbach are fourth and go into the Champions League qualifiers. Levekusen and Stuttgart go into the Europa League. Hertha were battered by Schalke and now must win their final game to stand a chance of staying up through the relegation play-off. Koln will go into that play-off with any other outcome, the opponents being Fortuna Dusseldorf, Paderborn or St Pauli. The latter two play each other next week, Fortuna against mid-table MSV Duisburg.

Delayed league gratification in Spain. El Real comfortably beat Sevilla and then hoped Rayo could take something from their home game with Barcelona. They couldn't, emphatically so. 7-0 it finished. And so we go to Wednesday and El Real's trip to the Basque country and Marcelo Bielsa's Athletic. In the race for third, Málaga beat Valencia by a goal to nil to go level on points. Wins for both Sporting Gíjón - 3-0 away to Espanyol - and Zaragoza - 2-0 over Athletic - kept their survival hopes alive for now. Another win for Villarreal will end it for both. On Tuesday, the Yellow Submarine go to Gijón.

Derby joy for Wisła Kraków and Manchester City. The former doesn't really ignite the race for the Ekstraklasa title - that's a five-way scrap between Legia, Slask, Ruch, Lech and Korona - but, coupled with Lechia's win over Widzew Łódź, confirms Cracovia's relegation. It didn't help that Cracovia finished with nine men. Vincent Kompany and some strangely negative tactics from Alex Ferguson helped City to a win over their neighbours United and leaves the EPL title race on a knife-edge.

Finally, title joy for the Brisbane Roar, recipients of one of the worst calls in refereeing history. With the game locked at 1-1 and in the fifth of four minutes of added time at the end, a complete airshot in the box from Roar striker Besart Berisha ended with him falling over and claiming a penalty. To the incredulity of most of the 50,000+ in the ground, it was given. You know it's a dodgy call when the recipient of the penalty runs off celebrating like Marco Tardelli. After a bit of a scuffle, for which Perth defender Billy Mehmet was booked for slapping Berisha, the man 'fouled' slotted home the spot kick to win the title for his side. The referee Jared Gillett is a Brisbane man. The final was played in Brisbane. Gillett's other half works for the Roar. Why the A-League put him in charge is a mystery. Not for one moment are we suggesting it was anything other than an error, but when you have the opportunity to nip conspiracy theories in the bud, why not take it? It's as much to be seen as being beyond reproach as actually being it. Needless to say, the head of the refereeing board backs his man to the hilt, reckoning that even after replays, he saw enough contact - we saw none, incidentally - to warrant the penalty. Rubbish.

Still lots to play for around the leagues and a busy midweek schedule to come.

Marking your card #4

A busy Easter schedule and here are our picks of what to look out for.

Starting in the Ukraine. The top four face each other this weekend with Metalist away to Dnipro on Monday, but the top two, the two big boys, play on Saturday as Dynamo travel to Donetsk to face Shaktar. Three points separate them with Donetsk playing catch-up (channelling our inner Henry Kelly there). This game is huge.

A similar thing happens in Portugal as well. Porto go the quarry in Braga with the hosts two points behind the leaders. Benfica, sandwiched between the two, are in derby action at the Alvalade against fifth-placed Sporting Clube de Portugal. Tasty.

The big game in Germany sees leaders Dortmund go to a resurgent Wolfsburg. With Bayern at home to Augsburg and having rediscovered their mojo, any slip-up by BvB will be sized upon.

A week off for the Eredivisie as it's cup final day in the Netherlands. Heracles are long odds to beat PSV, but the chances of Almelo's plastic pitch hosting European football next season may rest on the Eindhoveners making it to the top four. The top two in the Eredivisie make it to the Champions League, the next two go to the Europa League and one of the next four join the latter through the play-offs. With a genuine top six vying for those four top places, nothing is guaranteed.

More derby action in Poland's Ekstraklasa, this time in Łódź where Widzew are away to ŁKS. Given the lack of action in previous derby, especially the recent one in Warsaw, stick the farm on 0-0.

Finally, to MLS and a derby of sorts in an all-Canadian affair as Toronto go to Montreal. Just the 542km each way for TFC fans...

Marking your card #3

Things to look out for this weekend.

Real Madrid got back to winning ways last week, but have a tough trip to Pamplona to play Osasuna on Saturday. Barcelona have already slipped up there and they take on Athletic this week. The Bilbao side back up from Thursday's 4-2 Europa League win over Schalke 04, the Liga authorities refusing to put the game back. It makes little difference: Athletic have struggled to back up from European exploits all season long and Barcelona should win this relatively comfortably. The 2-2 draw between the two at San Mamés was one of the games of the season. It's difficult to make a case for a repeat.

It's a big week in Portugal. Porto face the obdurate Olhanense at home, but new leaders Braga go to Lisbon to face the side they usurped at the top, Benfica. Should Braga win, they will fancy going on to take the title. Anything else and it's all still up for grabs.

It's third v fourth in France on Sunday when Lille host Toulouse in the battle for the final Champions League place. PSG can steal a march on Montpellier by winning their game against mid-table Nancy as the southerners don't play until Wednesday as the league allowed Marseille to reschedule in order to better prepare for Champions League football. Fat lot of good that did...

In Poland, two of the traditional powerhouses meet on Friday night when Wisła Kraków host Legia. Wisła are down in seventh, eleven points behind leaders Legia who are having a bit of a wobble having drawn the last two. Both have parsimonius defences, so this looks like being a cagey affair - well as cagey as it ever can be.

Having been denied by Rangers last week, Celtic can seal the Scottish title this week, though they'll need a helping hand from Motherwell who play their Glasgow rivals. Even if it doesn't happen this week, there's always the week after.

In the US, Sébastien Le Toux returns to Philadelphia - the club he didn't want to leave - with the Vancouver Whitecaps and a win for the Canadians would heap pressure on Piotr Novak. Chile's version of Rangers travel to play Universidad de Chile who are still quite incredible to watch. The big one in Russia sees leaders Zenit take on fourth-place Spartak Moscow. And if English non-league football is your bag, York City's trip to Luton on Friday night is a massive game. These sides met in the FA Trophy semi-finals, York sneaking through over two legs, securing a dramatic draw at Kenilworth Road to edge it 2-1 on aggregate. Further down the ladder, Chester FC celebrate two years since their rise from the ashes of Chester City with a home game against Whitby Town. 11 points clear with seven games to go, a win for Chester puts on foot in next season's Conference North. Our new best friends at 1.FC Magdeburg have a tough trip to Halmstad to take on Germania.


Finally, in Belgium Westerlo and Sint-Truiden begin their five-game series to determine which of them gets relegated. They will be utterly fed up of the sight of each other by the end of April.

You should find something to suit your tastes from that little lot. Wherever you end up, have fun.

Play-off mayhem

In the Netherlands, there are three play-off finals today. In the Europa League play-off, NAC and Groningen are locked at 1-1 after the first leg after Fouad Idabdelhay grabbed a late, late, late equaliser for NAC responding to Danny Holla's opener.
In the relegation play-offs, there are two finals, seeing as there are two Eredivisie places up for grabs. Both the Eredivisie clubs are involved, De Graafschap 2-0 down to RKC Waalwijk after beaing beaten away from home on Thursday. Distant Snoyl and Fred Benson got the goals, but De Graafschap will be looking to better form at De Vijverberg to see them through. Roda drew away from home 0-0 with SC Cambuur Leeuwarden and it's all to play for this afternoon.

In Germany's relegation play-off, Energie completely left their closing Bundesliga form behind them in going down 3-0 at home to FC Nurnberg. Isaac Bokaye got two and Christian Eigler the other and they'll start favourites in front of their own fans today.

In Poland, Arka finished third from bottom and face Bielsko Biala in the play-offs while Widzwew Łódz and Zaglebie Lubin go straight up to replace Cracovia and Górnik. Any seasoned watcher of Polish football will know, however, that results on the field are only ever half (at best) of the story.

Financial Crisis Reaches Polish Football

It seems that the global financial crisis has reached Polish football, having a particularly severe effect in Division I where the running costs are not much different to those in Ekstraklasa but clubs cannot bank on millions of zloty rolling into their coffers from Canal+. Things are getting pretty desperate - training facilities are being sold off, clubs are cutting back on everyday costs such as meals and match time liquids for the players and squads are being trimmed and filled up with youth team players.

Ruch Chorzow are currently sitting in mid table in Ekstraklasa and looking fairly certain of retaining their seat at the top table for next season but their chairman Mariusz Klimek is still worried by what he's seeing in the lower leagues - "I don't want to be too pessimistic about it but I have a real concern that most of the clubs in Division I will go under". Now if that's not being pessimistic I hate to think what he would have said were he a "glass half empty" type of chap. It has to be said that he has a point though. A lot of the sponsorship deals at the lower levels of Polish football are with small to medium sized local businesses and as these are being hit by ever declining income it is unlikely that they will want to support their local side with little or no benefit to their business.

Surprisingly, news of the impending crisis has filtered through to the Polish FA, an organisation which is usually so slow on the uptake that it has probably only just realised that the Berlin Wall has come down. There have however already been rumblings from ul. Miodowa that a number of clubs are behind on the payments for referees, observers and delegates attending their games thus starving PZPN of the cash they need to do whatever vital service it is they perform (answers on a postcard please - I've not figured it out yet).

Apart from a small group of clubs fighting for the promised land of Ekstraklasa (Widzew, Zaglebie Lubin, Podbeskidzie Bielsko-Biala) the majority are struggling to make ends meet and teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

GKS Katowice, currently bottom of Division I, are suffering more than most. Staring at almost inevitable relegation this season they have been unable to secure sponsorship and are culling their squad and will be fielding their junior side in the coming round. There was a chink of light which could have kept them going for a bit longer, namely a 300,000 PLN grant from the city council, but this has been withdrawn due to the 300,000 PLN the club owes in unpaid National Insurance. This same debt could also see the club lose its right to the grant it would normally receive for youth and junior player development.

The lack of funds is having a knock-on effect on the players themselves. At GKS Jastrzebie the players have not been paid for over three months and according to an un-named source at the club the squads nutritional supplements consist of "whatever the physio can find and mix up in a 10 litre barrel". Last season Jastrzebie could rely upon 500,000 PLN provided by sponsors Jastrzebska Spólka Weglowa (a coal company) but, according to JSW spokesperson Katarzyna Jablonska-Bajer, "Due to the global financial crisis funds available to the club will decrease in the order of 30%".

Two other clubs in trouble are Odra Opole with over 1 million PLN owed in taxes and National Insurance and Kmita Zabierzów who have lost 10 first teamers and whose entry into the coming round depends on a 400,000 PLN donation from the local council.

It seems that the ambition for many of Poland's smaller clubs in the near future will not be to achieve sporting success but simply to remain in existence. Some have over-exerted themselves financially with sides that should, in truth, be in the lower leagues rising way above their natural level through the generosity of local businessmen who can no longer bankroll their hobby. The knock on effect could be extremely serious for the future of Polish football as a whole, particularly the national side with many clubs going bust and many others taking the decision that a move to amateur status is the only option. If this proves to be the case then who will provide the youth players who will one day go on to make their names on the international stage? It certainly won't be the Ekstraklasa sides who more and more seem to be moving towards foreign imports to satisfy their playing needs.