Madrid 'will not allow' an official UEFA match with Gibraltar

MADRID According to The Gibraltar Chronicle, the Spanish Government has declared that it will back legal action by the Spanish Football Federation to block Gibraltar’s membership of UEFA. In answer to questions from an ERC representative in the Madrid Cortes, a Spanish Government spokesman said it is not envisaged that Spain would ever play “against the selection from the British colony” and will do everything in its power so that this “hypothesis never materializes.” The ERC is a separatist party in Catalonia with a small presence in the Madrid parliament. The Spanish government's response to the ERC question:  “We are currently opposed to the membership of the British colony of Gibraltar of any international sporting federation. We will take the necessary measures in our power to avoid a situation which is contrary to the sporting strategy of the Spanish state.”

La Línea police patrol on foot because their only vehicle is broken down

Patrolling on foot
(Photo: europasur.es)

LA LÍNEA Members of the Policía Nacional patrolling the match between Division B clubs Real Balompédica and la Unión Deportiva Melilla yesterday were unable to do so other than on foot. They were also unable to carry their riot gear, also because the only vehicle available to them is broken down and has been for two weeks. Apparently, the central police authorities have yet to approve its repair or substitution, let alone put more vehicles into service. Fortunately there were no incidents to report.

Casillas and Xavi, Príncipe de Asturias awards for sport

Beat the International Paralympic Committee by 11 votes to 7

MADRID Spain's two football 'monsters' (a Spanish superlative, but there's several of them), Iker Casillas and Xavi Hernández have obtained the country's premier award, the Príncipe de Asturias, for sport. The nomination and announcement from the jury said that it had been given them for being a model example of sportsmanship and team playing above and beyond their team and fan rivalries (Casillas plays for Real Madrid, and Xavi for Barcelona, traditional rivals). The jury, presided by tennis star Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and meeting in>>>PLEASE BE AWARE THAT YOU WILL SOON BE UNABLE TO READ THE REST OF ITEMS SUCH AS THIS WITHOUT A SUBSCRIPTION. Subscription information will be available shortly.>>>

We can, and we did - back then

This was taken from the old JimenaPulse site, the mother of them all around here. It read: "In case you hadn't heard, it’s the UEFA Cup final tonight at 8.45 – SPAIN vs. Germany. Thought you should know which side we support"  That was on June 29, 2009. Tonight's match with Croatia is almost as important. (BTW, we have photos of the celebrations when we won the cup that year - and we hope to get some more recent ones soon enough.)

Jimena fans in Poland for Euro 2012

Photo: TioJimeno

JIMENA (sort of) They appeared in a Spanish sports programme, Punto Pelota, last night. These are four football fans who are in Poland to support the Spanish team - you can't tell they're Spanish, can you? From left to right: Fernando Silva, José Ramírez, Celio Cuenca, a Polish copper, and Ernesto Cuenca - no idea who that is on the floor, though. Celio's burro, first presented in public at a Carnival in Jimena, is acquiring notoriety, having before travelled all the way to South Africa for the last World Cup.

Football clubs owe €752 million in taxes

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The BBVA Liga clubs alone owe €485m

SPAIN (Agencies) The Government says that the professional football clubs owe the taxman some €752 million, which has gone up by €150m over the last four years. The debts of the First Division clubs amount to a total of €489,930,880.80, Second Division, €184,180,499.29. The rest total €78,185,978.49 - all up to January 1, 2012, according to the answer to questions in Parliament by IU spokesperson on sports, Caridad García. The figures here do not include what the clubs owe to Social Security, which the IU parliamentary group has tried to obtain in the past but which come under Data Protection legislation and are therefore not obtainable. Also, says García, the Administration has made it difficult to obtain details as to each club's debts. 

Messi wins Player of the Year for third consecutive time

ZURICH (Agencies) Already considered one of soccer's greats at age 24, Lionel Messi became the first person to win FIFA player of the year three times in a row. The Barcelona and Argentina forward received the FIFA Ballon d'Or award for 2011, winning out over club teammate Xavi Hernandez and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo for the sport's top individual honor. "It's a huge pleasure for me," Messi said, after accepting the trophy from another three-time winner, retired Brazilian forward Ronaldo. "It's the third time I get this award, and it's a huge honor." The only other three-time winners are Ronaldo (1996-97 and 2002) and Zinedine Zidane (1998, 2000 and 2003). The FIFA award was renamed last year, when it merged with France Football's Golden Ball. Messi scored 55 goals in 2011 for Barcelona, which won its third Champions League title in six seasons, and he had four goals for Argentina's national team. Barcelona won five trophies last year.>>>

...and Guardiola is named 'world's best' for the second time

SPAIN Since we're on the subject of el míster (see previous item), news comes in that Pep Guardiola (Pep is short for Josep in Catalan, or José in Castillian, in case you wondered) has been named the best coach in the world by the IFFHS (International Federation of Football History & Statistics), whose press release says as follows: "Selected editorial offices and experts from 81 nations across all continents took part to the election of The World’s best Club Coach, carried out annually by the IFFHS since 1996. The "Top 18" of the year 2011 is composed by 11 Europeans, five South Americans as well as one African and one Central American coach. Of these 18 coaches are three Portuguese, three Germans, two Argentinians and two Uruguayans. Among these 18 trainers, four coached English clubs, and three German and Spanish teams.>>>

Guardiola is a míster, so is Mo

SPAIN All football managers in Spain are referred to as el míster, or, if there was any doubt, 'the mister'. The question is: why? Although any good English-Spanish-English dictionary will translate it as 'coach, trainer' and such, we have been unable to find the exact reason behind it. The term has been used for a long time and it doesn't require much imagination to associate it with the advent of football to Spain. The first teams came into existence with British businesses and their workers. It is said that the very first 'official' team was the one set up by the Rio Tinto Zinc Company in Huelva, though there are those who would dispute the assertion. According to Wikipedia, the oldest football club in Spain is>>>

Ex FC Barça head and son sentenced to six years in prison

BARCELONA (El Pais) The former president of the FC Barcelona soccer team, José Luis Núñez Clemente, and his son José Luis Núñez Navarro, have been sentenced to six years in jail each for bribery and forgery. In the most complex case handled by the Barcelona High Court to date, 14 out of the 16 defendants were convicted, including the chief tax inspector in Catalonia, Josep María Huguet, who was slapped with a 13-year jail sentence for helping the Núñezs avoid paying around 13 million euros in taxes between 1991 and 1999. Núñez, who is also>>>

'Who’s the Greatest of Them All? Barcelona!' says Newsweek

SPAIN The large circulation magazine in the US, Newsweek, came out this week with the title above. An extensive review of the Champions League winners asks, and answers, the question 'Do Barça’s players, with their poetic ball skills and precise attacking, surpass the best football teams of all time?' - but it's better if you read the whole thing yourself. (Note: We're not football, or even soccer, fans here but we do enjoy watching Barça play.)

Barça wins ... um ... yet another title

It's not as if you hadn't heard, which might be true only if you have just been beamed down from elsewhere...

Six clubs impugn football 'strike'

SPAIN (Agencies) Although most of the country's Professional Football League (LFP, Liga de Futbol Profesional, or La Liga) are loath to call it a strike, it looks as though the stoppage of matches next weekend is going ahead. However, six clubs belonging to La Liga (Espanyol, Villarreal, Real Zaragoza, Athletic Club, Real Sociedad and Sevilla) have asked a court to stop the stoppage of their First Division matches. The six, plus Malaga, are opposed the owners' stoppage, which among other things, is asking that the obligation of transmitting open matches on every day of play and changes to the law on betting, which they see as 'a disproportionate measure, untimely, contrary to the interests of the clubs, of competition and fans."

Football club owners are still threatening 'strike' on first weekend in April

SPAIN (Agencies) The Secretary of State for Sport, Jaime Lissavetzky (photo), yesterday called on the Liga de Fútbol Profesional (LFP) to "sit down ad talk" instead of going ahead with its planned stoppage for the first weekend in April. Many clubs are in a delicate financial position: in all, they owe €694 million in tax payments, while similar debt to Social Security is yet to be announced. Among other things such as the length of TV contracts, the clubs are complaining that they do not get any proportion of taxes on betting, while the stoppage, according to Lissavetzky, "will only impact on the citizenry and the footballers."