Annoying Soccer Update

Michel Platini wins UEFA election

This is actually a big deal, since Platini campaigned by courting the smaller European countries, and promised to reform the Champions League. In Platini's vision, nobody will have more than three entrants (currently the top three countries get four and England once got five), and he wants more champions of smaller countries to be in the big show. This could signal a philosophical shift from pursuing big money markets to developing the game in smaller markets, depending on how much influence Platini really has. Personally I wish they'd just go ahead and merge a few small leagues in the Benelux and the Alps, but that's just me.

Ronaldo returning to Milano

Now that he can't run for more than 20 minutes a game, Real Madrid is shipping out former galactico Ronaldo, to AC Milan. Since he had all those injury plagued years at Inter, some Italians are saying he'll need to fortify his home. He'll also be reunited with former Inter teammate Clarence Seedorf, who was rumored to have played a part in Ronaldo's transfer to Real Madrid, because he was (allegedly) doing Ronaldo's hot wife, ex-model and pro soccer player Milene Domingues. Since then, Ronaldo has moved on and apparently had an entire bus full of hookers delivered to a party he was hosting in Madrid. If he can get in shape and come on as a supersub for Milan, he could still be pretty useful in getting Milan into next year's Champions League. I think he may be the last of the galactico era buys to leave Madrid, now that Zidane, Figo, Beckham, and Michael Owen are all gone.

Ridiculous lead by Inter

On the topic of Italian football, what is going on with Inter's ridiculous lead? They're up 11 points on Roma, 18 on Palermo, and there's a staggering 27 point difference between first and fourth place. I know this was supposed to be their year with Juventus relegated and most of the other seven sisters having points docked for rigging the league, but yikes, I guess they'll win a scudetto for once. I'm still rooting for Il Piccolo Principe and Roma.

Arsenal v Chelsea, Feb 25th, Cardiff

Arsenal will play Chelsea in the final of the Carling Cup, kind of a Mickey Mouse event, but it does give automatic qualification to Europe next year. This is a bigger deal for Arsenal than for Chelsea, since Arsenal could really use the safety net, given the importance of European revenue to finance their stadium debt. Arsenal have traditionally played younger players from the reserves in the Carling Cup, and after the kids saw off Tottenham Hotspur in the semi-finals, Arsene Wenger announced that the players who got them this far will get to finish the job and play in the final in Cardiff. If Chelsea's free agent stars were to lose to a youth team from Arsenal's academy, this would really be a stunning embarrassment for Chelsea, and certain front-runners in the financial world might have to reconsider their loyalties.

That is all.