It's just as well that we didn't post the 'near-certain' rumor that Oguchi Onyewu was about to sign a deal with Olympique Marseilles.  As it turns out, Onyewu has decided to go on loan with Newcastle United for the remainder of the year, rather than returning to France.  He had played for Metz in 2002.

Newcastle has negotiated an option to make the transfer permanent over the summer.  Onyewu should have an opportunity to play as the Magpies have battled injuries and an overall lack of quality in their defensive ranks.

Do you think this was the best availabe option for Gooch?  Did the Chelsea and AC Milan rumors ever make sense?  Send us your thoughts at scpodcast@gmail.com.

After running Europe's soccer governing body for 16 years, Lennart Johansson will make way for former France captain and star Michel Platini, who was elected UEFA President today.

One of the more controversial tenets of Platini's campaign is his desire to limit the number of Champions League births for any country to 3. While probably not a very popular policy in England, Spain, Germany, and Italy--who now have 4 spots each--it will make more entries available to smaller countries, and give more teams the chance to experience the grandeur and spectacle that is the Champions League.

So just who is Michel Platini? If you don't know or need a refresher, check out this BBC profile.

Comments or opinions on his selection as President? scpodact@gmail.com is the place to send them!

UEFA has awarded Tottenham Hotspur automatic passage into the last 16 of the UEFA Cup, due to the banishment of their scheduled Round of 32 opponent, Feyenoord, from the competition. Spurs will play the winner of the SC Braga-Parma tilt.

The Oguchi Onyewu transfer saga continues.  England's Daily Star Sunday and News of the World are reporting that Chelsea will make a deal to sign Onyewu from Belgium's Standard Liege for approximately 3 million GBP.

The Sunday Mirror notes that Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler will follow David Beckham to MLS.  DC United is rumored to be Fowler's destination.

Would these be good moves for the players and teams involved?  Send us your thoughts at scpodcast@gmail.com.

Bill and Scott weigh in on the decision to boot Feyenoord from the UEFA Cup due to the actions of their fans. Is UEFA sending the right message? Will it work?

Be sure to send your opinions to scpodcast@gmail.com.

On a more uplifting note, more good news for Cesc Fabregas (after being spotlighted in our up-and-coming players segment on Episode 11, of course): he has been chosen by uefa.com readers to be on the Team of the Year 2006!

Almost 400,000 fans voted for the best starting 11 from European club teams, based on performance in the last year. Congratulations Cesc!

Rotterdam, Holland-based club Feyenoord, who won the UEFA Cup in 2002, have been evicted from the competition by Europe's soccer governing body. The punishment results from riotous behavior on the part of Feyenoord fans at a UEFA Cup group stage match in France against Nancy-Lorraine last Nov. 30. The situation devolved to the point where tear gas canisters spilled onto the field, delaying the game by 30 minutes.

A horrid, shameful incident to be sure, but it brings up some very interesting questions. 1) Is kicking the team out of the competition an appropriate punishment? After all, it was the fans, not the players, whose behavior led to the punishment, so why should the players have to suffer as a result by being removed from a competition? (you could make the same argument regarding the Italian teams involved in the match-fixing scandal, and question why players were punished with relegation or point removals for actions they had nothing to do with. But I have a little easier time buying into the punishments here because at least the offenders had official ties to the teams)

2) Is this type of punishment effective? Will taking a team out of a competition really cause fans to change their behavior?

3) If UEFA's course of action wasn't the best one, what is?

E-mail us your thoughts at scpodcast@gmail.com. Plus stay tuned to the podcast, this topic could very well come up on a future episode... :)

P.S. This situation also puts Feyenoord's scheduled opponent for the round of 32 in February--England's Tottenham Hotspur--in a precarious position. UEFA officials are trying to decide whether to give Spurs a "bye," and a free pass to the last 16, or have them play Wisla Krakow, the 4th place finisher from Feyenoord's group in the group stage. And it might not be as clear cut as you think- while I'm sure Spurs would love to be automatically qualified for the next round and alleviate their busy schedule by removing 2 games--the home and away legs of the matchup they would've had with Feyenoord--it also means they'd miss out on the ticket and TV rights proceeds from that home leg. We'll see what happens.

After we recorded episode 11, Paul le Guen decided to return to his home country, signing on to be head coach of a team he used to play for, Paris St. Germain. PSG played to a 0-0 draw in its first game under their new coach. Rangers brought in Scottish national team coach Walter Smith to replace the Frenchman, leaving an opening at the national team post.

And for what it's worth, since the announcement of the Beckham signing, the LA Galaxy have sold 5000 season tickets. Even the expansion Toronto FC have sold 2600.

So David Beckham is coming to the LA Galaxy. Good thing or bad thing? And how about American players going to Europe? What will get MLS into the upper echelons of domestic leagues? Answers to these questions and more as we discuss this major MLS news.

Also, what's going on with Jose Mourinho? Plus what Chelsea has in common with baseball's New York Yankees, and Paul le Guen's ouster at Rangers.

Finally, we shine our up-and-coming player spotlight on Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas.

Links:
Soccernet profile of Cesc Fabregas

Podcast Pickle stats have been reset for the new year, so please make your way over to the PP site and add us as a favorite! You can use the handy link on the right-hand side of this page.

We welcome any avenues to spread the word about our show, and we appreciate your help!

--Scott and Bill

As you may recall, we discussed WPOY contenders in Episode 5.  FIFA selected Fabio Cannavaro as its Men's POY in December.  Brazil's Marta won the Women's POY.

Italy's Captain benefitted from the Azzurri's surprising success at the World Cup.  Interestingly, the scandal which caused Cannavaro's former club Juventus to be relegated to Serie B did not derail the defender's candidacy.

The selection of Cannavaro, with Zinedine Zidane a close second, highlights the over-weighting of World Cup performance in the voting.  Do you agree with the selection?  Should a player's club performance (2/3 of the year) be more influential?

E-mail your opinions to scpodcast@gmail.com, and we'll discuss them on an upcoming episode!


 

Fulham has been pretty busy in the opening days of the winter transfer window. The Premiership side, already home to Americans Brian McBride and Carlos Bocanegra, should soon be adding New England Revolution striker Clint Dempsey. Dempsey can be streaky, but has the potential to be a big impact player. He scored USA's only goal at the World Cup this past summer.

The Dempsey deal now hinges on him getting a British work visa. The transfer fee could reach upwards of $4 million, which would make it the largest in the history of MLS, the US's professional league (in the US, the league owns players' contracts, not individual teams).

In other Fulham-USA-related news, the club could not come to terms with central defender Oguchi Onyewu. According to the article, Onyewu--who is also negotiating with AC Milan--rejected Fulham's offer of $2 million.

For my mind he's absolutely nuts to turn down that kind of money, and the chance to play in the spotlight of the English Premier League. He would get a chance to play in one of the top-quality leagues in the world, and by doing so could hopefully raise his level of play, which would in turn benefit the US national team. It's gotta be better than playing in Belgium (though no offense to any Zulte Waregem fans out there), where he's been with Standard de Liege since 2004. And you'd think that with Fulham he'd have a good shot at being a starter, whereas I can't imagine he'd see much playing time with AC Milan. Oh well...

--Scott