Derby County has been taken over by General Sportsanentertainment, a retired military person from Washtanaw country. We visited the General's website in a hope of learning more about him, but the page returned completely blank. The Durby Blankwebsites, as they'll now be known, are the fourth Division I side in North American ownership, following the Manchester Buccaneers, Birmingham Browns, and Liverpool Stadiennes. Or, as they almost got re-named last week, the Liverpool Havant a Waterclooville.
Real fans of the Stadiennes have launched a multi-million pound attempt to buy out their club's owners. According to Share Liverpool, if 100,000 fans purchase shares at £5000 each, they'll have enough money to oust Hicks and Gillett, and build a new stadium with the small change. If they can't afford Liverpool, they might as well buy the last side to have led them.
In the CFL, the Off-White Cup has been won by New Jersey/A, who beat the New Southamptonshire Terrorists by two goals and a penalty to two goals. The NCAA-ball desk has been searching for people who see this sort of result as the greatest argument for a poll to decide the real national championship. The line of thought: it's ludicrous to say that six-loss Jersey/A is better than the one-loss Terrorists, or even the four-loss Cowpersons and Cheeseheads. The Sagarin computation shows that the Terrorists are miles ahead of all other teams, so what's this nonsense about Jersey/A being the winners? We can be certain that the people who insist that one-off results trump season-long quality will deem Jersey/A the champions. And then, in the same breath, argue against a play-off for NCAA-ball. Bonkers.
The Upset-o-meter
46 Siena - Roma 3:0 45 Scunthorpe United - Charlton Athletic 1:0 43 Fulham - Aston Villa 2:1 39 Werden Bremen - Bochum 1:2 39 Almeria - Real Madrid 2:0 38 Wigan Athletic - West Ham United 1:0 37 Borussia Dortmund - Werder Bremen 2:1 37 AEK Athens - Panonios 2:3 36 Preston North End - West Bromwich Albion 2:1 35 Udinese - Catania 1-2 35 Racing Strasbourg - Metz FC 0:3 35 Napoli - Udinese 3:1 35 Leicester City - Crystal Palace 2:0 34 West Ham United - Liverpool 1:0 34 Queen's Park Rangers - Bristol City 3:0 34 Lazio - Fiorentina 2-1 33 Southampton - Norwich City 0:1 32 Brighton & Hove Albion - Crewe Alexandra 3:0 31 Southend United - Leeds United 1:0 31 Sedan - Troyes 0:1 31 Blackpool - Leicester City 2:1 30 Norwich City - Preston North End 1:0 30 Coventry City - Barnsley 4:0 19 HIBERNIANS - Rangers 0:0 19 DERBY COUNTY - Manchester City 1:1 18 Juventus - CAGLIARI 1:1 16 PORTSMOUTH - Chelsea 1:1 16 Fenerbahce - GALATASARAY 0:0 15 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR - Manchester United 1:1 15 Levante - SANTANDER 1:1
Siena knocks off Roma, Scunthorpe wins for the first time since decimalisation, and Fulham for the first time since Mr. Fayed was a small Egyptian grocer. Oh. Werder had the chance to go top if they'd beaten Bochum, but it wasn't to happen; Schalke overpowered Stuttgart to go fourth. Real Madrid lose, Wigan win.
Cup matches in Germany (Round 4, where Werder lost to Dortmund) and France (Round 5) don't properly fit within the model, but we can come up with some sort of approximate figures. Actually, take these with a liberal pinch of salt, it's more to laugh at top flight clubs who lost to little guys.
38* TSV 1999 Hoffenheim (II) - Hansa Rostock 2:1 44* Carl Zeiss Jena (III) - Arminia Bielefeld 1:1 ** Carl Zeiss Jena won 1:0 in extra time. 40* Sochaux FC - Montpellier Herault SC (II) 1:1 ** Sochaux won 1:0 in extra time. 43* Bastia Sporting Club (II) - Auxerre 3:0 47* Angers SCO (II) - Nice OGC 3:1 55* Carquefou (V) - Nancy-Lorraine 0:0 ** Carquefou won 1:0 in extra time.
We understand that Carquefou is already in talks about twinning itself with Havant. Or was it Waterlooville? Anyway, the third-placed side in France losing to a part-time club playing in the 5th division is something the fans are going to remember forever.
The First XXII
01 -- INT 1306 85.6 02 +1 MUN 1258 83.0 03 +2 CHE 1255 80.8 04 -- BAR 1246 77.8 05 -3 RMD 1200 80.6 06 -- ANL 1195 78.6 07 +3 ROM 1156 81.3 08 +10OLY 1155 102.3 09 +7 BAY 1141 95.9 10 +3 SEV 1135 77.4 11 +1 FEN 1129 107.3 12 -1 PTO 1126 105.4 13 -5 VIL 1120 78.0 14 -5 AMD 1112 76.4 15 -8 ESP 1108 81.1 16 re ACM 1105 79.3 17 -- JVE 1102 90.0 18 +3 SNV 1102 87.0 19 re PSV 1101 100.1 20 ne BDX 1099 81.4 21 -6 LYN 1096 80.1 22 -2 HAM 1093 91.6
Movements are against 1 January. Minimum RD remains 110; out go Valencia (22-27), Werder Bremen (19-32), and Liverpool (14-25).
Top Five Averages will return at the March international break, as domestic competitions are as near zero-sum as to make no odds.
Monte Carlo Model
01 -- Inter Milan 02 +4 CSKA Kensington 03 +2 Arsenal 04 -- Barcelona 05 +2 Manchester Buccaneers 06 +8 Roma 07 -5 Real Madrid 08 +8 Bayern München 09 +1 Fenebaçhe 10 -2 Porto 11 +1 Olympiakos 12 +10Panathanaikos 13 +7 Sevilla 14 re PSV Eindhoven 15 +6 Schalke 04 16 +1 Juventus 17 ne Ajax 18 -9 Villarreal 19 ne Bordeaux 20 -9 Lyon 21 re AC Milan 22 -9 Atlético Madrid
Out go Espanyol (7), Liverpool Stadiennes (15), Werder Bremen (18), Hamburg (19).
