Village Idiot

Another goal by Iñaki Williams, I don't know how Athletic manages to extract so much talent from a 2 million population.

And as I say that, Depor concede after a Krul-esque kick from the keeper. 1-1

Jonás handed his first start of the season against Levante, and managed to notch an assist in the first half. Depor are doing very well so far this year.

That guy should still be playing for Newcastle. At least I hope this callup vindicates him.

Benzema officially charged as an accomplice. How does a millionaire get embroiled in the blackmail of a NT teammate? (they reportedly asked for 150k). Makes no sense.

Benzema has admitted to the French police that he was part of the blackmail scheme, according to all the Spanish press (including the serious one, so seems legit). Apparently he would have been a mediator, and talked to Valbuena in order to put him in contact with the blackmailers. Valbuena then related this conversation to the police.

Benzema reportedly spending the night in custody. So it seems serious.

Spanish media are all running with "arrest", but they love a good sensationalistic headline. One has to take into account that the niche that The Sun fills in the UK, is filled by sports rags in Spain.

Benzema seems to be a slightly smarter version of Nile Ranger. How many times has he been arrested for stuff already? He's got a looong rap sheet of driving offences both in Spain and France, plus that underage prostitute thing and now this.

So weird to have CL game at this time of the day.

Espanyol is on the verge of being acquired by a Chinese group. http://www.espnfc.com/espanyol/story/2694224/espanyol-set-for-rastar-group-takeover

Incindentally, Sergi Roberto was awesome yesterday. I had given up on him but I hope he can sustain that level, and prove me wrong

How's Deulofeu doing? I confess I'm not paying much attention to Everton.

One of the criteria for awarding the money under the 3rd chapter is that the stadium looks full on TV. Maybe clubs will have an incentive to lower ticket prices now. Or they will just pack people on one side of the stadium This will hurt teams that have a loads of plastic seats. Hello Getafe.

20-30 million are around 5% of Real Madrid and Barça's turnover. It's not a lot, but it is not negligible either. Both are reportedly running very close to La Liga's wage caps. The value in the new system is to give a way for other clubs to grow, instead of Barçadrid gouging most of the money that enters the system.

The lowest placed club will receive close to €30m this season. That's a huge lift in a league where - until this year - only 12 clubs had a higher turnover than that.

These figures mean a decrease of around €20-€30 million for Real Madrid and Barça vs their current contracts. There was talk of an "insurance" so they couldn't receive less money until the contract grew sufficiently to accommodate their current TV earnings, but it's not alluded anywhere.

More details have emerged about how the new tv contract works. There are 1215 million to distribute (a big increase over the previous contract). Of those... A) 83% go to top division clubs (1008 million) 1) €22 million to each club. 2) €250 million in prize money, distributed according to a table averaging the 4 last seasons' finishes - weighted so the current season counts for more -. The top ranked club (currently us) would receive €40 million, the last club would receive a little over €500k. 3) €250 million distributed according to a formula that values TV audiences achieved (the biggest contributor), ST sales, state of facilities etc... top ranked clubs would receive €50m (that's us and Real Madrid), while lowest ranked clubs would receive €5m Note that the figures don't add up to €1008m, the remainder will be distributed equally. B) 10% go to second division clubs (120 million) 1) 70% in a fixed, equal amount. 2) 15% as prize money (same as first division) 3) 15% according to TV audiences, ST sales, facilites... (same as first division) C) 3,5% in parachute payments for relegated clubs (€42,5m) D) 2% to the Spanish FA (€24,3m) 1) 1% to fund the expenses of organizing the Copa del Rey 2) 1% to finance amateur football (it will all get embezzled anyway) E) 1% to the Spanish Sports Council - to be used to fund government support of other sports (€12,1m) F) 0,5% shared between the Spanish Football Players Union and Segunda B teams (€6,07m)

A month from now. Unlikely to play in the Clásico. Right now we're all over the place, but Neymar and Suárez are carrying us. Unless somehow Turan transforms our midfield in January and we become a solid team again, can't see us doing much this year. Neymar has really stepped up, finally the player we see for the national team. 5 goals and 6 assists in 6 games since Messi's injury. Although I think his performance against Eibar was the worst yet. When a player can have a bad game and still be in the picture of all your teams' goals, you know he's something. He's really stepped up to the plate in a big way during the past 12 months.

A month from now. Unlikely to play in the Clásico. Right now we're all over the place, but Neymar and Suárez are carrying us. Unless somehow Turan transforms our midfield in January and we become a solid team again, can't see us doing much this year.

His brother was signed just to help him settle, obviously.

1996 isn't that long ago in terms of major tournaments. Countries rarely host two tournaments in that space of time. Also England tried to bribe Jack Warner in the 2018 bidding, someone else just bribed him better France 98 & France 2016? "Rarely" Yeah, we have had a bunch of unsuccessful bids since we last hosted a major tournament in 1982, too.

Barça have been fined for booing the CL anthem and displaying Catalan separatist flags (something that's been happening for decades). I think UEFA are in full passive-aggressive mode now.

The south, always oppressed.

I always found weird that the CL anthem is sung in French, but not Italian or Spanish. How many CLs have been won by French teams compared to Spanish and Italian ones?