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      in Soccer

      Ukraine want to reach the World Cup on merit… Wales and Scotland won’t be giving them an easy ride in play-offs

      by

      IMAGINE being a Welsh or Scottish football fan for a moment.Now that you have put aside the urge to question your existence and stopped worrying about having no friends, just think what it must be like.
      Wales will play either Ukraine or Scotland in the World Cup play-off finalCredit: REX FEATURES
      Your national team is on the verge of reaching the World Cup finals for the first time since the Act of Union was signed in 1707.
      These are exciting, optimistic days.
      Then some bloody do-gooder comes along and suggests the players of both countries should step aside and wave Ukraine through to Qatar out of kindness.
      Let the beleaguered Eastern Europeans stroll through the play-offs without kicking a ball and straight into the greatest football show on earth — as a noble gesture.
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      It’s a lovely thought but it should end right there.
      No nation on this planet is more noble than Ukraine at the moment.
      No people holding its collective head up higher than the yellow and blues as they trade blows with Vladimir Putin.
      And judging by the way the Russians are getting their arses kicked on the battlefield, Ukraine doesn’t look like it needs anyone getting all sentimental about it.
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      The way president Volodymyr Zelensky told the listening world that his determined country needed weapons to kill the enemy, not sympathy, sums up the mentality which runs from top to bottom there.
      And it will no doubt be the same with his football team.
      Football and the war have become hugely intertwined in recent weeks, with Mad Vlad’s decision to invade the neighbours transforming Russia into the biggest sporting pariah in history.
      It also had the galvanising effect of turning every Ukrainian into a walking Terminator, whether it be in a frozen trench or on a  Premier League football pitch.
      Just look at West Ham’s Andriy Yarmolenko for that.
      Disregarded as a waste of space by some short-sighted fans before it all kicked off with the Russkies, the Ukraine captain’s every shot at goal is now the equivalent of a Stinger missile.
      Manchester City’s Oleksandr Zinchenko spoke to Gary Lineker about people back home sleeping in bunkers with their lives being smashed all around them.
      He said: “I am so proud to be Ukrainian. When you are watching the people, how they fight for their lives, there are no words.
      “I know the mentality of my people — they’ll prefer to die than to give in.”
      Ukraine’s foreign-based players have spoken of how tough it’s been to carry on working, mindful of what is going on back home.
      But they have done and have given their best in dreadful circumstances. They would be embarrassed to get a favour from Fifa, Steve Clarke, Gareth Bale or anyone else for that matter.
      As Zinchenko said, his people would rather die than give in.
      Of course, two World Cup qualifying plays-off are a zillion miles down the ladder of importance compared to armed conflict.
      But while sport is there to be enjoyed at the best of times, it also plays a role in the worst of them.
      This country saw that with the clamour to get the Premier League back on during the height of the pandemic, when hundreds of people were dying every day.
      With that in mind, it’s fair to assume that if football, in any way, can lift the spirits of a country fighting for its very existence, these guys would want to do it their way — either winning or losing but on a level playing field.
      NO RUN-OF-THE-MIL SUCCESS
      SNOOKER journeyman Robert Milkins spoke for a lot of us when he landed a first ranking title along with 50 grand.
      The Bristolian, 46, plugged away for 27 years with little reward and a lot of mental challenges. The death of his sister was understandably troubling, leading him to drink excessively.
      He then admitted that Covid, the war in Ukraine and not winning matches has ended up with him seeking counselling.
      Snooker’s image of the 70s and 80s was of smoke-filled rooms,  colourful characters, birds and booze that went hand in hand with sublime skill on the green baize. Money, laughter and late nights with no lasting effects on the soul.
      These days it’s not quite so glamorous but people like Milkins still chip away and live for days like his on Saturday in Gibraltar.
      With that commitment and honesty, in a weird kind of way he is more than a little inspirational.
      Covid, the war in Ukraine and not winning matches has ended up with Milkins seeking counselling
      NORN IRON MAN
      HARRY KANE is closing in on the goalscoring feats of Wayne Rooney.
      With 49 goals from 68 England games, the Three Lions captain is marking himself out as a legend of the international game.
      And tonight, Wales keeper Wayne Hennessey will celebrate picking up his 100th cap in a friendly at home to the Czech Republic.
      Both men deserve applause for their skill and longevity. But there is one player from the United Kingdom who deserves an ovation every time he steps out in the green and white of his home nation.
      Last Friday night, Steven Davis scored his 13th goal for Northern Ireland in Luxembourg.
      Nothing too amazing about that, other than he is 37 and it was his 133rd appearance for a tiny football country that has no hope of  winning a major tournament.
      In fact, it was virtually a national holiday the last time they reached a finals — at Euro 2016.
      Kane can dream of maybe one day lifting the World Cup with England, Hennessey gets to play with Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey.
      Davis just does what he does out of love and  loyalty to football and his homeland and it takes  a lot of effort and  determination to keep doing it again and again and again…
      Kane is closing in on Rooney’s all-time England goal scoring recordCredit: REX FEATURES
      POSH ‘N BOSHED
      THE ENGLAND cricket team are in disarray and rugby was a big letdown in the Six Nations.
      Meanwhile our football team are riding high and looking good to use this year’s World Cup to build on the success at last summer’s Euros, where they reached the final.
      Such a shame to see the posh boys struggling and being shown up by the boys from the sink estates.
      Can someone please get that chip off my shoulder?
      England turned in a poor showing at the Six NationsCredit: REX FEATURES More

    • 263 Shares179 Views

      in Soccer

      Karren Brady: Five substitutes in the Premier League is inevitable… and it will be another big advantage to the top six

      by

      THE mass Liverpool four-man walk-on at Nottingham Forest was Jurgen Klopp’s latest statement that the substitution rules should be updated.The German manager is practically evangelical in his demand that England should follow the continent and the FA Cup and allow five substitutes in league matches.
      Jurgen Klopp showed why he is a huge fan of bringing in five subs for Prem games with a successful mass change against Forest in the FA CupCredit: PA
      Midfield general Jordan Henderson was one of four Liverpool players brought on in the 64th minute before Diogo Jota sneaked their late winnerCredit: Rex
      Whether or not he did his cause a favour will be decided by the Premier League quite soon.
      We have voted on increasing to five subs three times.
      Each time it was rejected, mainly because the rule change was proposed after the season had started and a radical change halfway through a season is never a good idea.
      For some clubs, there are other reasons to vote against it.

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      I am sure many among the crowd at Forest’s stadium on Sunday, as well as millions of viewers, gasped at the invasion of four men from the Premier League club’s exceptional player pool to try to beat the Championship side. It worked, too.
      Some people think that football pushed equality aside a long time ago.
      There are people who believe that the £1.5billion the PL has paid to the wider football pyramid over the last three years is not enough.
      They remember the time when the consolation for clubs with smaller crowds was a share of the proceeds home and away.
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      As for substitutes, when one per team per match was first introduced nearly 60 years ago a famous manager declared in horror that a club could cheat by pretending a player was injured.
      He’d have had a blue fit today. You can see why, at least by the standards of those days.
      Liverpool kept one player back in case of serious injury in that last 15 minutes or so.
      And calling up the cavalry changed a tight contest sufficiently for Forest, unable to call on such back-up, to let in the only goal.
      Was this fair? With fixture stress growing, why shouldn’t a club be able to use more of their fine and expensive players to help them win games?
      After all at least six of them have been filling the leading positions this century.
      And the money their successes have generated has not only benefited their owners and bankers, but also their supporters and the wider football pyramid.
      You can only guess what some clubs feel about the prospect of five classy subs stripping off, ready to pull back a one-goal deficit
      Judge that by the queue of mainly foreigners to buy Chelsea. Forest would love to be rich and among the game’s aristocracy.
      And if they were they, too, would do all they could to remain there, including a choice of five subs.
      You can only guess what some clubs feel about the prospect of five classy subs stripping off, ready to pull back a one-goal deficit. No, we can all guess.
      Substitutes have become even more essential in rugby than in football.
      It is the usual form in internationals for jug-eared, bust-nosed forwards in the range of 16-18 stones  to lurch off in threes, fours or fives to be replaced with half an hour to go by a similar number of similar sizes though in clean strips and with more amazing haircuts.
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      I can’t imagine a change in football’s rule will have such a radical effect.
      But two extra steps into the unknown are all but inevitable soon and the side-effects unpredictable except, simply, the bigger the club the wider the advantage. More

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      in Soccer

      Colombia hope Liverpool sensation Luis Diaz can fire them to World Cup qualification, but face uphill struggle

      by

      NEW Liverpool sensation Luis Diaz was the last player to score for Colombia. The problem is that since he found the back of the net, seven games have gone by.Diaz shot past Claudio Bravo to clinch a 3-1 win at home to Chile in a World Cup qualifier back in early September.
      Luis Diaz will have to be Colombia’s talisman if they want to qualify for the World CupCredit: Getty
      In the subsequent qualifiers Colombia have ground out four goalless draws and suffered three 1-0 defeats.
      Diaz has played in all of them. The last two, in late January, came just as he was finalising his move to Liverpool from Porto in Portugal.
      He had his moments in the last game – a 1-0 defeat away to Argentina, although based on that performance former Argentina boss Alfio Basile was amazed that Liverpool were paying so much for him.
      The previous game was the lowpoint – a 1-0 loss at home to Peru which may well ensure that Colombia cannot make it to a third consecutive World Cup.
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      On that afternoon they battered Peru for ninety minutes, but could not find the guile to create many chances.
      And in a rare late break out, Peru scored a shock goal when former Arsenal keeper David Ospina made a dreadful error at his near post.
      By this point, Colombia were already looking like a side who had given up on the possibility of ever scoring again.
      Their dry run is extraordinary. Then can count on all time top scorer Radamel Falcao Garcia, on the Atalanta pair of Luis Muriel and Duvan Zapata, on Raphael Santos Borre of Eintracht Frankfurt, on the creative talents of Juan Guillermo Cuadrado and, rushed back into action, of James Rodriguez, plus Luis Diaz. And they cannot find a goal.
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      It is surely impossible that they will be held again this Thursday in the penultimate round of South America’s World Cup qualifiers. They are at home to Bolivia. It is the home banker.
      In their eight previous away games Bolivia have drawn two and lost six, scoring 6 and conceding 22. This could be the time when Luis Diaz and company finally get over their trauma in front of goal and fill their boots.
      But it will probably come too late. To have any chance of making it to Qatar, Colombia will have to beat Bolivia on Thursday and win away to Venezuela the following Tuesday. This should not be beyond them.
      But all those dropped points – Colombia have drawn 8 of their 16 matches, and only won three of them – mean that they can only reach a total of 23.
      If other results work in their favour, this might just be good enough to sneak into fifth position and snatch the play off slot. The chances are, though, that it will not be good enough.
      The crunch game could be the final round tie between Peru and a very disappointing Paraguay, where a Peruvian win will carry them beyond Colombia’s reach.
      Despite boasting attacking talent like James Rodriguez, Colombia are goalless in seven World Cup qualifiersCredit: AFP
      This was the problem with that home defeat to Peru.
      Not only did Colombia drop points, but one of their closest rivals came away with all three.
      Colombia look poised to pay a high price for that summer afternoon when David Ospina blundered and Luis Diaz played so badly. More

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      in Soccer

      Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper is a phenomenon and would love to end his boyhood club Liverpool’s Quadruple dream

      by

      NOTTINGHAM FOREST’S Steve Cooper is another phenomenon – a top football manager without any high-level playing experience.No doubt the Welshman, along with world-famous names such as Arsene Wenger, Sven-Goran Eriksson and Jose Mourinho, kicked the ball around for small clubs on pitches of mud or concrete – but not a lot more.
      Steve Cooper is out to end his boyhood club’s Quadruple dream when Nottingham Forest face Liverpool in the FA CupCredit: Getty
      They owed their success as managers in fiercely competitive leagues to an intricate study of the game, to tactical skills unallied to success on the field, to motivation and to understanding what makes players tick as much as to kick.
      Cooper isn’t yet among the elite coaches named above.
      His record with Swansea and now at the club on the banks of the River Trent is very sound.
      Yet he still hasn’t escaped from the Championship, despite two play-offs with Swansea and a brief spell with Forest, who are keenly chasing a top-six place this season.
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      To make tomorrow’s FA Cup quarter-final home tie with Liverpool even more fascinating, Cooper, 42, has been a fan of theirs since he was a boy in Pontypridd.
      A town renowned for its production of international rugby players and still often retaining the view of football as a ‘soft’ sport.
      This was always nonsense and the variety of serious injuries from collisions and tackles may not impress rugger men.
      But I am all too aware of the distress they cause among our players.
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      And I know from our incredible performance on Thursday night that not one West Ham player could be considered ‘soft’.
      The son of a former first-class referee, Cooper had little choice but to love football as a boy.
      However, his playing career went no further than the stiffs at Wrexham and died away at Porthmadog – a very old and proud Welsh club.
      Better at least than Avram Grant, who rose to the heights of football management on a song and a prayer, with an unrecorded playing career behind him.
      Cooper clearly is a football academic, like Wenger and, more recently, Bruno Lage at Wolves. Addicted to theories and capable of making them understandable to players.
      Young players’ willingness to learn has nothing to do with the promise of future riches, although it is naive to imagine that many parents and agents are not attracted by the millions at the beginning of the rainbow.
      Later, it will often be different.
      Later, too, disaffected or dropped players might well pose the question: “Who did you play for, then?”
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      I’m sure Mourinho or Brendan Rodgers would silence them with a look that is worthy of being on The Apprentice!
      Cooper’s climb through the ranks to become youth manager at Liverpool impressed the FA.
      As England Under-17s coach he led his team to the final of the 2017 European Championships and then to World Cup glory later that same year.
      With Jadon Sancho, Phil Foden and Callum Hudson-Odoi in the team, he had facilitated (his word) players at the start of their careers who have already brightened Gareth Southgate’s outstanding international team.
      Imaginative teaching is a talent and to do it with dozens of ambitious players demands patience and leadership.
      Tomorrow’s Cup game will be a marker in Cooper’s career and I’m sure Jurgen Klopp, profiting by his rival’s work at Anfield, will not underestimate Forest’s threat to unravel his four-trophy dream.
      They have already lifted the League Cup and are now chasing the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.
      In football’s love-hate world, Cooper would love to beat Liverpool and hate to be the man who shattered that Quadruple dream.
      In a purely football context, though, how good it is that once-barred women and once-derided managers should be making waves. More

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      in Soccer

      Chelsea facing Deadline Day for new ownership – but scrutiny over ethics will have many Premier League owners worried

      by

      FRIDAY is Deadline Day for would-be Chelsea owners to submit bids to replace Roman Abramovich as the most scrutinised billionaire in football.And it seems there is no shortage of interested parties, with suggestions that as many as 200 potential investors are jostling for position.
      Roman Abramovich has been forced out of ChelseaCredit: AP
      If it’s any help, I’m willing to make it 201 with an offer of £50 — as long as I can quickly sell for an obscene profit like Abramovich did with all that Russian oil.
      It was only two weeks ago that Britain’s most infamous oligarch was panicked into putting Chelsea up for sale.
      Yet the queue of prospective buyers is already stretching all the way around Stamford Bridge.
      First of all it was going to be a mysterious Swiss mogul in partnership with a couple of American tycoons.
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      Then it was some bloke from Turkey swiftly followed by a Saudi media group that definitely isn’t connected with Mohammed Bin Salman, a Mayfair property developer, a Ghanaian gold miner, the owners of the New York Jets, Chicago Cubs, Houston Rockets and Crystal Palace, ex-Liverpool chairman Martin Broughton, Sebastian Coe and Uncle Tom Cobley.
      In fact, the only one missing from the list is Aliko Dangote, ‘Africa’s Richest Man’ who has been talking about buying a Premier League team for 20 years without ever putting his hand in his pocket.
      If Abramovich really is in league with Vladimir Putin, this would be the perfect opportunity for Russia to destroy one of the western world’s biggest clubs by tying the whole process up in never-ending legal arguments.
      The fact that the deal will require approval from the Government as well as the Premier League already means any takeover is not going to happen overnight.
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      And the fact that the source of the new owner’s wealth is finally going to be properly investigated means it’s now squeaky-bum time in boardrooms up and down the country.
      No one is more concerned than tin-eared Newcastle director Amanda Staveley, who has publicly sympathised with Abramovich’s plight.
      She says: “I’m really sad that someone is going to have a football club taken away because of a relationship he may have with someone.”
      I’ll bloody bet she is.
      Because all of a sudden new questions are being asked about the morality of Newcastle being so closely tied to a regime complicit in genocide, human rights abuses and mass public executions.
      So why aren’t the Saudis also being sanctioned by the Government and barred from trading? Oh, because they might sell us more oil.
      And if we’re suddenly going to be concerned about the ethics of the Premier League’s distant owners, why stop at Newcastle?
      What about the Emirati owners of Manchester City, the Chinese conglomerate controlling Wolves, Everton’s recently severed links with Alisher Usmanov, porn barons David Gold and David Sullivan at West Ham and even the fortunes acquired from gambling by the owners of Brighton and Brentford?
      The sad reality is that nice guys very rarely become billionaires and football abandoned its moral compass a long time ago.
      Whoever finally gets the nod to acquire Chelsea probably isn’t going to be the kind of person you’d want as a mate.
      But if that’s the price of finding someone who can keep running the club in the manner to which they have become accustomed, we’ll all hold our noses and look the other way.
      EXPENSE CLAIMS
      CHELSEA’s pampered stars are starting to feel the pinch as Government restrictions on travel and accommodation spending kick in.
      So I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome them to my world of budget hotels and 5am flights on budget airlines from an airport in the middle or nowhere.
      And if the people behind the sanctions are serious about keeping an eye on Chelsea’s spending, might I suggest they appoint The Sun’s expenses department to oversee the operation.
      Because there’s not a single penny of unauthorised claims which will get past that lot. More

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      in Soccer

      Man Utd are in freefall and could finish outside top eight let alone top four with their lame-duck squad

      by

      MANCHESTER UNITED have a lame-duck manager and a squad with lame-duck players.And just like a duck, there is plenty going on below the surface – but not a lot to show for it. It’s quackers.
      Man Utd are now in total freefall and could easily finish outside the top eight amid their horror run of formCredit: PA
      The team’s head is barely above water with the season now in danger of total freefall and the real prospect of the club finishing outside the top eight, never mind the top four.
      That is the sad reality as the dust settles from the Champions League last 16 exit at the hands of Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.
      United’s next chance to win a trophy will be in 11 months in the Carabao Cup.
      That means a trophy drought of almost six years, so this is already their most barren period since 1983.
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      Soon they will be hanging up a banner at the Etihad – as they used to at Old Trafford – to remind their city rivals of how long it had been since they lifted a trophy.
      In the Premier League they could easily finish in their worst position since 1989-90 when they came 13th.
      Seventh was their worst since then under David Moyes in 2013-14.
      They have Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea in their final nine games, but no game will be easy for a team in the state they are now in.
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      Their season effectively finished on Tuesday night and it will be very difficult to lift the players for a battle to finish in the top four, one which in reality they will not win.
      Particularly when everyone knows the manager will no longer be at the helm in three months time. And a number of your team-mates are no longer fully committed to the club.
      Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Edinson Cavani will all be off. And 24-year-old homegrown star Marcus Rashford is considering his future.
      Cristiano Ronaldo, 37, does not want to stay if they are not going to be in the Champions League.
      Bruno Fernandes’ negotiations to extend his deal remain on hold.
      They also have a captain in Harry Maguire who can no longer hang on to the armband while his own fans are abusing him.
      The cheering when he was hooked on Tuesday was sad for a man, 29, who constantly plays through the pain barrier while others cry off at the slightest pull or strain.
      And all the time, the noise around the club is deafening.
      It is the same after every game, plenty of criticism but no solutions.
      Get a new manager? They keep doing that.
      Man Utd have a habit of burning through managers and it doesn’t seem to be helpingCredit: Reuters
      Grow from the academy. They continue to do that.
      Get directors of football in? They have them.
      Invest in the squad? They have spent almost £1.3BILLION since 2013.
      Get more ‘football people’ in at boardroom level?
      David Gill was not one. He was a chartered accountant who just happened to be at the helm when the greatest manager of all time was in the dug-out.
      For the last eight years Gill and Sir Alex Ferguson were in tandem, the Glazers also owned the club.
      So what exactly would former players Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes or Owen Hargreaves do to change things?
      Scholes said they had to get the right manager this summer but could not say with any certainty who.
      Sir Alex made a big decision in 2013 on his retirement in naming his successor and that man – Moyes – was gone ten months later.
      The best idea I heard came from his former No2 Rene Meulensteen who said United need to identify NOW the players they would have in every position to compete for a title in THREE YEARS’ time.
      The decision to hire David Moyes after Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement set in motion a horror decade for the clubCredit: Action Images – Reuters
      Is there the patience for that? I doubt it.
      Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was on the right track getting to semi-finals before things unravelled – but he apparently took the club backwards.
      Jose Mourinho won two trophies – but now we are told he was past his best and not the right fit.
      So who is? Erik Ten Hag? Because, well, he is from Ajax, dumped out of the Champions League on Tuesday as well by Benfica.
      Thomas Tuchel’s future is uncertain at Chelsea, Mauricio Pochettino will be let go by PSG in the summer and Antonio Conte is growing frustrated at Spurs. All good candidates.
      Will any have this club challenging again for a title soon, given the state it is in?
      With each passing year the desperation of grows.
      A microcosm of the current Manchester United was there for all to witness on Tuesday.
      An excellent first half had everyone bouncing, by full-time water bottles were flying and fingers of blame being pointed here, there and everywhere.
      The one certainty at Old Trafford right now is that it is chaos and between now and the end of May it will only get worse. More

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      in Soccer

      Karren Brady: Barring Russian sport stars won’t stop Putin’s war… but it could influence countrymen to rise against him

      by

      THERE are fans who seem to confuse football and war. In the one you kick a football, in the other you kill people — lots of people.Reasoning that cancelling matches or barring Russian sports stars will make much difference to Vladimir Putin’s attitude to slaughter in Ukraine belongs in junior school.
      Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at a press conferenceCredit: AFP
      But it does have an outside chance of influencing those among the despot’s fellow countrymen who have not been silenced by propaganda or the threat of a good beating up and 15 years in prison.
      It is said President Putin rather likes football and sport in general.
      He certainly believes that winning medals is important and reflects well on him or he would not have endorsed mass drug-taking among athletes.
      At least, any thoughts steroids and other performance drugs have helped Russian football teams may be true, but are made spurious by the simple fact major medals and their football have not coincided.
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      From all we hear, the truth of the terror being waged on fellow Slavs, the pitiless explosions of bodies and bricks across Ukraine, is being forcefully denied except in the Kremlin where the Putin-ites, shallow-minded sympathisers and yes-men generals bathe in their brutality.
      But these hatchet men must eventually lose the propaganda war among young people at least, the mobile phone will surely see to that.
      Among millions of conversations, there will be many asking: “When are Spartak playing again?”
      Not key but enough to spark other questions: Why are so many of our soldiers being killed in Ukraine?
      Why is there so little in the shops? Why haven’t we heard from Alexei Navalny (the jailed opposition leader)?
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      So, the football authorities are making a point. Even if Fifa and Uefa took too long to order an absolute boycott, better late than ever.
      I am proud of the way our country’s football leaders have behaved.
      Within a day or two of the first explosions in the east of Ukraine they pledged to withdraw all contact with Russia.
      The blue and yellow colours of the invaded country along with the message ‘Football Stands Together’ were shown at every Premier League match at the weekend followed by a minute’s supporter appreciation.
      In China, a rare ally of Putin’s, our actions led to a ban on screening and earlier this week the Prem ripped up the remainder of the £6million TV contract with Russia for the rest of the season.
      Ukraine colours with the message ‘Football Stands Together’ were shown at every Premier League matchCredit: Mark Pain / Premium Sports Image
      The EFL also ended their TV agreement while the PL gave £1m in support to the people of Ukraine.
      Chelsea supporters did no one any favours with their pro-Roman Abramovich chant at Burnley.
      They do have reasons to be grateful to him for funding the club to the tune of £1.5bn but he does represent the rueful effects of Russian oligarchs on Britain.
      Crowds overwhelmingly applaud Ukrainian players.
      West Ham’s Andriy Yarmolenko could not resist an outburst against the silence of Russian footballers towards Putin’s evil.
      But Fifa have at least permitted foreigners to break their contracts over there for the rest of the season.
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      In general, the reaction of sport and business — with the exception of the weak-kneed International Olympic Committee — has set an example to many of the world’s governments who, I think we all realise, are desperate not to provide an excuse for Putin to press the nuclear weapons button.
      We must all be patient. More

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      in Soccer

      Abramovich a rarity for his love of throwing money into Chelsea’s youth – he did more for football than anyone realises

      by

      NO sooner had the For Sale signs gone up at Chelsea than you could hear the sniggers across the whole of football.Sympathy for the devil? Not a bit of it. More a smugness from the have-nots that the haves were about to get their comeuppance.
      Abramovich spent his 19-year ownership investing money in both the first team and youth set-up at ChelseaCredit: Getty
      Not so much a nose-thumbing at Roman Abramovich, but at Chelsea FC as a whole.
      That’s what being successful over a length of time brings. Envy, jealousy, loathing from all quarters.
      There’s nothing like a hint of green around the gills to bring out the schadenfreude in people.
      But once those revelling in Chelsea’s potential demise stop smirking, they should consider the repercussions further down the ladder, they should be aware of the wider effect.
      Even if Abramovich’s valuation is too high, any would-be buyer is going to have to pay upwards of £2.5billion for the keys to the castle.
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      Yet on top of that, there is the £1.5bn it has cost just to run the place over the two decades he’s been there.
      That is an average of £70million-plus every year, purely to keep it going.
      And therein we come to the crux  — the very real question of whether the next owner will be willing to sacrifice that amount season on season.
      You’d have to say it is doubtful, given most are in football for two things — money and trophies.
      They want the kudos and prestige the first team brings, not the long-term project-building of finding and developing youngsters.
      When the new man, woman or consortium comes in, there will surely be some cost cutting. As we all know, that always starts at the bottom.
      Meaning it wouldn’t be at first-team level where the impact is felt but the other end.
      With all the money spent on youth — and in this case spent better than anyone for over a decade.
      Pull back on that and it’s a significant building block taken out of the scheme. Not just at Stamford Bridge, but in the whole of football.
      For over ten years only Manchester City have scouted, selected, nurtured and matured as many players as Chelsea.
      Whether it’s been developing talent for their own team, such as Reece James and Mason Mount, or ones who have benefitted others.
      Mount lifting the FA Youth cup in 2017Credit: Getty
      It comes down to where they were taught.
      Would Southampton and Crystal Palace be having the season they are without on-loan duo Armando Broja and Conor Gallagher, for example? Or Huddersfield, with defender Levi Colwill?
      There are the ones who were moulded at Chelsea and moved away, like Marc Guehi and Tino Livramento — two more nailed-on England stars of the future.
      Yes, Chelsea have spent a lot of money sourcing and shaping the kids, but they didn’t snatch them at gunpoint. They have paid for it.
      But other clubs have money, it’s just they chose not to splash out or, in the case of some, didn’t do it wisely enough.
      Chelsea — along with City — have led the way. And far from damaging the game, in some cases it has been a lifesaver.
      Take young Dylan Williams, the kid who was on the bench in last week’s Cup game against Luton.
      Chelsea paid Derby about £500,000 to get him and that half a million was vital to keeping the Rams going.
      No doubt the snipers will say that, as and when the purse-strings tighten post-Abramovich, then it gives others the chance to get the best kids out there.
      But there’s nothing stopping them now. Just their ability to spot and develop hasn’t been anywhere near as meticulous or masterful.
      Plus they haven’t all had owners interested in anything but the short-term, the immediate.
      That’s where Abramovich has been different, inasmuch as for all silverware was the most important, he was happy to chuck dough at the other end of the scale.
      Yes, huge amounts went on the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Kai Havertz and countless more big names before them.
      Yet below the surface, the money pumped into the youth side brought a different reward — and Abramovich was quite prepared to wait.
      That alone makes him a rarity. We’re seeing it already because finding someone not only to take that on, but  sustain it, has put off a few would-be interested parties.
      So maybe stop and think for a second before mocking what might happen to Chelsea now.
      The next time anyone asks, ‘What did the Roman ever do for us?’, well in terms of football in general, a whole lot more than you probably realised, actually.

      WE’VE seen the era of AVB at Chelsea. Now it’s clearly the one of ABB… Anyone But Barkley.
      Four years after signing from Everton, Barkley, 28, has still started only 56 games. That’s under four different managers, too.
      Antonio Conte, Maurizio Sarri, Frank Lampard and now Thomas Tuchel have continued to overlook the man who was once dubbed the new Gazza.
      Just four of his starts have come this season and Barkley has been subbed in every one.
      Last Sunday he didn’t even make the squad for the League Cup final.
      And in midweek Barkley stayed on the bench while teenager Harvey Vale came on for the Cup game at Luton.
      Get the feeling it might not have been the wisest move ever? For either party.

      JURGEN KLOPP makes ten changes against Norwich and still Liverpool barely break sweat in skipping past Norwich in the FA Cup.
      It may only have been the Canaries but it was definite proof that they are indeed genuine challengers to Manchester City.
      Because when it comes down to it, it isn’t so much the first XI that wins the trophies but the back-up when you need them.
      And Klopp, as we saw, can certainly do that. More