ATLETICO MADRID boss Diego Simeone has escaped with a one-match ban for his Anfield Champions League red card.
Argentine Simeone was dismissed in the aftermath of Virgil van Dijk‘s stoppage time winner for Liverpool, when he became embroiled in a row with home fans.
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Diego Simeone has been handed a one-match ban for his clash with a fan at Atletico Madrid’s Champions League clash at LiverpoolCredit: Getty
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The Argentine is banned for the match with BenficaCredit: Getty
A huge skirmish boiled over when a member of the Atletico staff was accused of spitting and squirting water at Liverpool fans.
But after studying the referee’s and match delegate’s report and video images, Simeone was handed a single game ban for “unsporting conduct”.
It means the former midfielder has been banished from the dressing room and touchline for tonight’s home game with Eintracht Frankfurt.
No action has been taken against the member of the coaching staff, with Uefa seemingly keen to put the matter to bed, although Liverpool were fined £3,500 for fans throwing objects onto the pitch during the game.
NEWCASTLE UNITED supporters are fuming after 45 tickets for their clash with Barcelona were handed to a private school 184 miles away in DUNDEE.
The Magpies welcome the Spanish giants to St James’ Park next Thursday as they kick off their Champions League campaign in bumper fashion.
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Newcastle fans are fuming ahead of the Champions League clash with BarcelonaCredit: George Wood/Getty Images
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Newcastle fans are not happy that 45 tickets were handed to a private school 1in DundeeCredit: George Wood/Getty Images
Only a few lucky thousand managed to secure the hottest ticket in Toon as Newcastle United members entered the ballot in a huge scramble to try and secure a seat.
The membership, which costs £37 an adult and £20 a child each season, is a requirement in order to purchase tickets in ballots or queue sales.
Over 100,000 members were left disappointed as the final few tickets quickly sold out on Tuesday.
And that frustration turned to fury after it emerged 45 had somehow been given to the High School of Dundee, a private school in the Scottish city that costs pupils £20,606.40 a year to attend.
The shock news came to light in a social media post by the school offering a matchday trip by coach plus an overnight stay to students costing £295 per person.
Newcastle United Supporters Trust released a statement that said: “We have been inundated with messages regarding a school in Dundee being given 45 tickets for the Barcelona fixture.
“With >100k in today’s member sale queue and countless tickets on 3rd party sites at vastly inflated prices, we completely understand the ongoing frustration from our members and the wider fanbase.
“We have sent this to the club and continue to push for a response.”
Uefa also have a ticket allocation and their partners also have entitlements to tickets in the Champions League and the governing bodies’ other competitions.
Newcastle are yet to comment but SunSport understands the source of the school’s tickets is being looked into.
Sky Sports viewers ‘get motion sickness’ as Premier League adds new feature for Newcastle vs Liverpool coverage
SunSport has contacted the High School of Dundee for comment.
Newcastle return to action in the Premier League on Saturday when they host Wolves.
Tuchel insisted after the match that Rashford is putting in the effort to succeed.
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Rashford has been recalled for the England teamCredit: Getty
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Thomas Tuchel insisted that the forward is training wellCredit: Alamy
He said: “For me, he’s clearly a left winger.
“That’s where we played him today. He had the freedom to go a bit more inside to play not only against the fifth defender in the back five, but to play maybe more inside against the third.
“I think the right side was a bit more active and found the positions a bit better. So I think he suffered from that today.
“He had an excellent training week, and it was obvious that we want him to start because he trained so well on the left side.
“I can see that he tries. This is, for me, the most important, that he stays positive and he trains at the moment with the right attitude with a smile.
“He struggles a bit with numbers and with ‘wow’ performance in an England shirt.”
Alan Shearer was in his prime and in the starting lineup for Blackburn when the English Premier League kicked off its first season 33 summers ago.
Shearer scored two goals that day in a 3-3 draw with Crystal Palace. But he had no idea that season would give birth to the most dominant force in the history of club soccer — and perhaps the most dominant force in the history of international sports.
“There’s no way anyone could have predicted back in 1992 that it was going to be this incredible, huge, gigantic force that it’s become,” said Shearer, who would go on to become the leading scorer in EPL history, of the Premier League. “It is sort of chalk and cheese in terms of where it was then to where it is now.”
That’s an English way of saying the league, which kicked off a new season Friday, has progressed.
International soccer is a sport ruled by money, and the Premier League became the best league in the world because it’s also the richest. Six of the 10 wealthiest teams in the world play in the EPL, where the average franchise value is $1.5 billion, according to Sportico. And the 20 teams combined to earn more than $8.5 billion in commercial revenue in 2023-24, according to Deloitte.
That’s allowed the EPL to outbid others for the top talent, resulting in deeper rosters and a level of play no other league can match.
Other leagues may have one or two better teams — France’s Paris Saint-Germain, for example, is the reigning European champion and Spain’s Real Madrid has won 15 continental titles, more than twice what any English club has won — but top to bottom, no league is as competitive as the EPL. That’s why its games are broadcast in 189 countries to a potential audience of 4.7 billion people, part of an international and domestic broadcast package valued at $5.1 billion a season, according to CNBC.
“It is where it is because of the interest and because of how many people want to watch it,” said Shearer, now a soccer pundit for the BBC. “We’ve got, without a doubt, a lot of the best players in the world. We’ve got the best atmosphere in the world. The finances are there.
“Basically everyone wants to be a part of it. And whilst that is the case, it’s only going to get bigger.”
It certainly didn’t start that way. The Premier League formed when English soccer was emerging from a low point that threatened to sink it. In the mid 1980s, hooliganism was rife, English teams were banned from European competition for five years following a deadly clash between Liverpool and Juventus supporters in Belgium, and the Football League First Division, the country’s top level since 1888, lagged well behind Italy’s Serie A and Spain’s La Liga in attendance and revenue. As a result, the best English stars, not to mention international talent, played elsewhere.
By 1990 the situation had gotten so bad, England’s top clubs — Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Everton, known collectively as the “Big Five” — had begun discussions to form a breakaway league that would have commercial independence, allowing it to increase revenue by negotiating its own broadcast and sponsorship deals.
Two years later, the Premier League debuted.
The revenue growth that EPL has enjoyed in the three decades since is well beyond the wildest dreams of the league’s founding fathers. And that’s turned around an exodus of top players out of England; now nearly three-quarters of Premier League players are foreign-born, among them Egypt’s Mo Salah, Norway’s Erling Haaland and Sweden’s Alexander Isak.
Manchester City’s Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring against Wolverhampton on Saturday.
(Dave Shopland / Associated Press)
But what has really made the Premier League great is its relative balance. Although just seven teams have won a title in the league’s 32 seasons, that qualifies as parity in Europe, where Bayern Munich has won 12 of the last 13 German championships, PSG has won 11 of the last 13 French crowns and just one team not named Real Madrid or Barcelona has won the Spanish league in the last 21 years.
In the Premier League, on any given weekend every game is in doubt. That competitiveness is why three EPL teams have won the UEFA Champions League since 2019 and in two of those three seasons, the European champion didn’t win the Premier League title. This summer Chelsea won the FIFA Club World Cup, making it arguably the best team on the planet, two months after finishing fourth in the Premier League table.
“One week the team at the bottom can beat the team at the top and that’s not a fluke,” said Shearer, who played for a Newcastle team that finished second in the EPL in consecutive seasons, then fell to 13th in each of the next two. “I don’t see that jeopardy in other leagues at all. That’s why the Premier League works and why the Premier League is the most watched.”
The challenge now for the Premier League is staying on top. When the EPL came into being, Serie A and La Liga were widely considered the best leagues in the world, winning a combined six Champions League titles between 1990 and 2000. But financial issues, tactical stagnation and a lack of investment in infrastructure combined to sink Italian soccer while La Liga became so top-heavy, with superclubs Barcelona and Real Madrid choking off all competition, that it became a league of two Goliaths and 18 Davids.
Shearer said there are lessons to be learned from those experiences.
“Every huge business has to evolve and keep going forward and keep improving,” he said. “The Premier League is no different. Since that very first day when I ran out for Blackburn against Crystal Palace to what it is now, there’s been improvement. Whilst the interest is there, whilst the finance keeps coming in, whilst we all want to watch, it is getting bigger and better.
“But yeah, you have to keep an eye on your competitors.”
⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.
A so-called friendly between Real Betis and Como descended into chaos after players from both sides were seen throwing punches at one another.
The Spanish and Italian clubs were playing their penultimate friendlies before the competitive season starts for them.
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Pablo Fornals squared up with a rival during a pre-season friendly between Real Betis and Como
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He was seen hitting former Man City star Maximo Perrone in the face
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That resulted in players from both teams rushing over
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It caused a mass melee before the end of the first half
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Betis star Natan was accidentally punched in the face by team-mate Cucho Hernandez during the chaosCredit: Getty
But Wednesday evening proved the two sides had certainly found their competitive edge in pre-season.
Cesc Fabregas‘ Serie A side won the clash 3-2, but not before trying to go 12 rounds with their rivals after a stunning brawl broke out at the end of the first half.
Former West Ham star Pablo Fornals was at the centre of the brawl as he exchanged blows with Máximo Perrone.
The rivals were seen squaring up to one another before they got involved in a shoving match.
That was abruptly ended when Fornals appeared to PUNCH Perrone, with the Argentine then trying strike the 29-year-old.
However, he was unable to do so as Betis and Como players rushed over to intervene, before many of them also ended up in grappling matches of their own while trying to diffuse the situation.
There was one unfortunately funny moment in the melee as Cucho Hernandez came flying in to try and land a punch on a rival, only to punch his own team-mate, Natan, in the face instead.
Fornals avoided being sent off despite landing the first blow, with the same lack of punishment also going to Hernandez following his attempted flying punch.
On the other hand, Como – who recently “banished” Dele Alli from their squad – will play Suditrol in the first round of the Coppa Italia before facing Lazio in their Serie A opener.
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Hector Bellerin was seen arguing with the ref after he was sent off in the scuffleCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
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But he too got overly heated by the situation, before his red card was reversedCredit: Getty
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LIVERPOOL could be set to lose a second top star to a Madrid rival after Atletico Madrid reportedly made Andy Robertson their top target.
The Reds are already reeling from the loss of right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid and could now be forced to deal with the loss of left-back Robertson in the same window.
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Andy Robertson has been made a top target by Atletico MadridCredit: Getty
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EMI MARTINEZ is wanted by Manchester United and Barcelona after he hinted at an Aston Villa exit, reports in Argentina say.
Martinez joined Villa from Arsenal in 2020 – following eight years in North London where he was loaned six times.
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Emi Martinez is wanted by Manchester United and Barcelona, reports in Argentina sayCredit: Alamy
And he emerged as one of the best keepers in the league, also cementing his place as Argentina No1 before their 2022 World Cup win.
But Martinez – whose contract expires in 2029 after extending it in the summer of 2024 – appeared to hint that he is leaving the club.
He was seen tearfully waving to fans following Villa’s 2-0 home win against Tottenham – suggesting he is preparing for an exit.
And according to Argentine TV channel DSports, United and Barca are both interested in signing Martinez and the keeper has offers from both.
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