18, December 2018
UEFA Champions League draw: Liverpool vs Bayern, Man United vs PSG 0
Football fans all over the world are relishing the mouth watering ties served up for the UEFA Champions League knockout stages, including a match between last season’s finalists Liverpool and German champions Bayern Munich.
The round of 16 draw, held on Monday paired defending champions Real Madrid, who are chasing a fourth successive title, and Dutch side Ajax. Juventus, who have the services of Portuguese talisman, Cristiano Ronaldo, will take on Spain’s Atletico Madrid. Ronaldo won four titles with Real Madrid.
Struggling Manchester United have been handed a seemingly herculean task of stopping Neymar and Mbappe’s Paris Saint Germain.
The other round of 16 fixtures includes Tottenham vs Borussia Dortmund, Lyon vs Barcelona and AS Roma vs FC Porto. The first legs will be played on February 12-13 and February 19-20, while the return legs will be played on March 5-6 and March 12-13. Fans are now sharing their predictions and thoughts on several social media polls.
Source: Africa News
6, January 2019
Bayern Munich hand Ribery ‘heavy fine’ for angry Tweetstorm 0
Bayern Munich on Sunday said it will impose “a heavy fine” on Franck Ribery over an obscenity-laced outburst on social media, after the French striker became embroiled in controversy for eating a gold-coated steak.
The punishment comes after Ribery lashed out at critics in a string of angry posts on Twitter and Instagram on Saturday. It is the latest scandal to engulf the 35-year-old, who is deeply unpopular in his native France but revered by German fans.
“I had a long talk with Franck and I let him know that we would impose a heavy fine on him and he accepted it,” the club’s sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic told journalists in Qatar, where the club is on a training camp.
“He used words that we, FC Bayern, cannot accept and that Franck does not have the right to use, as a role-model and player of FC Bayern,” added Salihamidzic.
On Thursday, Ribery posted a video on social media showing him in a Dubai steak house owned by celebrity Turkish restauranteur Salt Bae and rubbing his hands before tucking into a huge chop coated in gold.
That ostentatious luxury, and the reported cost of the meal, drew ferocious criticism before Ribery — who earns an estimated eight million euros a year with the German champions — hit back.
“Let’s start with the envious, the angry, surely born because of a broken condom,” read the first of the posts on Ribery’s Twitter account. “F*ck your mothers, your grandmothers and your whole family tree,” he wrote, having taken care to sanitise the French word “n*quez”.
Salihamidzic made clear that Ribery did not pay the bill himself because he had been invited to the restaurant.
“Franck has been slandered and insulted,” said Salihamidzic. “And not only Franck, but his pregnant wife, his child and his mother, who is currently in hospital for an operation. Franck wanted to defend himself and defend his family. He has the right to do that. I support him in that, but unfortunately he totally lost control.”
German media and social media users had called on the reigning Bundesliga champions to punish the striker, who is out of contract at the end of the season after 11 years at the club. “Bosses must suspend Ribery,” urged Germany’s bestselling Bild newspaper.
The news portal T-Online went even further, slamming Bayern for not taking firmer action. “Ribery should not play for Bayern anymore,” it said in an editorial. “With this fine, the club falls short of drastic repercussions and that is a fatal signal.”
– Hated at home, loved abroad –
Ribery’s outburst comes less than two months after the forward insulted and attacked French TV pundit Patrick Guillou who had criticised his performance following Bayern’s 3-2 loss against Dortmund.
Bayern later made Ribery post a video apology on the club web site. Despite being known as one of France’s best players, Ribery is little loved at home, partly because of his perceived key role in the French team’s infamous training ground strike during their disastrous 2010 World Cup campaign in South Africa.
Ribery’s reputation was also damaged by allegations that he had had sex with an underage prostitute although charges in the case were dropped for lack of evidence in 2014.
Ribery announced his retirement from France duty after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, which he missed due to a back injury.
But run-ins with the media and perceived displays of arrogance have kept Ribery in the headlines, and he has repeatedly been mocked on the French satirical puppet show “Les Guignols” as a dim-witted, out of touch figure.
It’s a different story in Germany, where Ribery is known as “King Franck” to grateful Bayern supporters. Since joining the Bavarian giants in 2007, Ribery has helped the team win the Champions League in 2013 as well as eightBundesliga titles and five German Cups.
Although he now sees less time on the pitch than in his younger days, Ribery finished 2018 in style scoring four goals in the final three matches of the year. But Bayern bosses have indicated the current season is very likely to be Ribery’s last.
AFP