FootballJunction

Sven-Goran Eriksson has at long last been officially removed from his role as manager at Man City. The football headlines have been filled recently with speculation as to the Swede’s future at the club, which he has done well for since coming to the premiership at the beginning of this season. Despite this, the clubs mid table finish was not enough for the board who have decided to look elsewhere for a new boss to drive their team to European qualification. The Ex-England boss had two years remaining on his contract to Manchester City so is expected to have received a fairly substantial pay off to terminate his contract with the club. It is thought that the decision to chop Eriksson was made by the clubs new Thai owner, Thaksin Shinawatra, who brought Sven to the club last summer was unhappy with the clubs final position in the league. Read more…

Ex-Chelsea boss, Jose Mourinho, has been named and confirmed as the new man in charge at Italian club Inter Milan. The move comes after months of speculation and rumour around the manager’s future which saw him linked with a number of major clubs, including a possible move back to Chelsea to replace his unsuccessful successor Avram Grant. Mourinho’s managerial career to date has been a highly successful one, but not without controversy. Whether you are a fan of the man or hate him with a passion, you cannot deny his ability, talent and impact he has had as a club manager. Chelsea fans will not be best pleased with the news, having been teased with a Mourinho comeback to the club a few weeks ago which was quickly dismissed by the manager himself. Read more…

Euro 2008 finals co-hosts, Austria and Switzerland, are confident of the tournaments success despite the realistic possibility of both nations failing to break out of the group stage. The finals themselves are sold out, with all available tickets sold and an estimated 5 million football fans expected to attend this summer’s tournament. This year’s European championships are predicted to be one of if not the best to date, despite the failure of England to qualify for the tournament. However, do not dismay without England as the other top European football nations will be out inforce, including the likes of the Netherlands, France, Spain and current World Cup champions Italy. One of the highlights of this year’s tournament will be the so called ‘group of death, with Italy, France, and the Netherlands all joisting over the two available sports for progression in the tournament. Read more…

Fifa’s new plan to bring in restrictions on the number of foreign players on a single team has been ruled as illegal by the European commission. This plan, which was supported by the English FA, would have seen and increase in the number of first team premiership players of English nationality and an end to teams such as Arsenal who only have one or two players eligible to play for the English national side. This debate, as to whether there should be quotas on the number of international players permitted within the league, has been around a long time but has only now been fully supported by Fifa. At the moment, around as little as 34% of all players are eligible for an England call up in the Premier League which compared to some of the leading football nations is considerably low indeed. Read more…