PSG give up on Eden Hazard

There is nothing new with the trend where your star or in-form players are inevitably come under the radar of your competitors, and it holds specifically true if somehow someone gets to know about uncool relations between player in question and his bosses, but this is not necessary that every time an inside war ends with a split. This is something that is being happened with Chelsea’s 23-year-old midfielder Eden Hazard who recently got media attention for an interest shown by German club PSG. Actually, this is not the first time he has been in the target list just before a transfer window, as he has always been a hot cake during both summer and winter windows since he switched from Lille to English side back in 2012 for his consistent and proven performance in the English topflight. Until few weeks back, German side was exaggeratedly talking about offering him a lucrative offer, but now their interest seems to be gone by – thanks to Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho who apparently played a mind game in the backend and convinced player for a longer stay at Stamford Bridge. Hence, PSG manager Laurent Blanc now seems not to be interested in the Belgian footballer and says “may be Chelsea needs him more!”

His ambitions were tarnished recently when Hazard himself said that he would love to stay in England longer than expected hence there is no reason he should look around for any offer for that matter. Close sources are accusing former Everton manager for convincing him for some luring rewards and as a result he now refuses to go anywhere else – if he continues playing with good results for North London Club.

Refusing any talk with Belgian, 48-year-old French football manager, said, “Some players will ask to leave, we’ll have to see. For the moment, that’s not the case. We’re going to bring in some players, one or two, of great quality. Hazard is a top player, but I think Chelsea want to keep him. A lot of players are going to be mentioned, but we have already got our priority, David Luiz. We’re going to wait a bit before making any more signings. Be patient.”

Anyways, let us make it a history for PSG now and concentrate how midfielder recovers off his toe injury he undergone a scan for as he is in the Belgium national team as well who is going to play with Maracana in Rio on Sunday.

French media optimize PSG chances to reach into the CL semis

Champion League title is perhaps the most adorable one for every participant no matter if it needs to believe over historical facts for this knowing the fact that every game is different from the past one. Still, it is fair to believe in any superstition as long as it is in your favor. This is something what is being happened with German side Paris Saint-Germain who is in terrific form these days. They defeated league giant Chelsea by 3-1 in the first leg of CL quarterfinals strengthening their chances to reach into the semifinal. According to crazy historians, PSG has reached into the semis 76 percent of times after 1970-71 when they crushed league side by a big margin. The biggest sports daily in France L’Equipe has highlighted these figures in its latest issue with a front page focus on PSG player Ezequiel Lavezzi who seemed to be ready to kill anybody! Inside its front page story, it described in detail about the team, their performance this season, and players probability to lift the UEFA trophy this year. If we go through the main media publications after Wednesday match, they all seemed to be applauding PSG great afford to defeat one of the promising English sides who has been the toughest contender of the league title this season.

Even if we leave publications aside, radio stations were also in the heaven after watching the game against the Blues. Similarly, it was one of the biggest disappointments for Chelsea who has been among the top two in the EPL leaderboard for quite some time and its manager has said over several occasions that European tourney is causing players loss of stamina hence they are not able to fully concentrate over domestic event. Once we reach into the semis of European event, picture would be clear whether Germans or French would rule the event as in the past season or would there be an English side topping the chart this time.

Former Everton manager Jose Mourinho said after the defeat, “I’m not happy with my strikers’ performances, so I have to try things. With Andre, at least I know we have one more player to have the ball, we have one more player to associate with the other players. Even not being dangerous because he is not a striker, he can associate and the team can have control of the ball possession like we had. Football is also about scoring goals. That is for strikers, for real strikers. I had to try.”

No Messi for PSG: Senior Messi

Spanish giant Barcelona seems to be passing through a bad phase as far keeping their star players and officials is concerned as this defending La Liga champion is again in the news not for its triumphs on the field but for whatever is being happening in the dressing room. Everyone knows that Messi has recently been a dissenting player at Barcelona; in fact this is not a far ago story when his agent asked for a contract revision and apparently demanded a salary better or at least equal to Brazilian starlet Neymar. Though, club sources later confirmed he will soon be given another extension that would make him probably the best paid soccer player, yet media is keen to dig the insides of the story hence publishing updates around Messi’s dissension with the club. Recently, a media source claimed that Argentinean great could soon be leaving Spain for France., i.e., big spending French club Paris Saint-Germain is being in talks with the Barca starlet and if its sources are to be believed, a possible deal is in the making and even bosses at Camp Nou are aware of it. For some time, this news gained lots of public attention, especially those who follow Messi closely, but when his father and agent Jorge Messi denied these reports right from the roots, Spanish fans pleased that there is nothing wrong in the backyard that they don’t know.

Actually, PSG is known to lure high profile players with their mounting pay checks, hence whenever a salary dispute appears for any star player, media starts linking him with some high net worth clubs and Laurent Blanc club is one of them. Senior Messi replied to the rumors linking Messi with French club and said, “I have heard about those rumors and I don’t know where it came from. There is nothing so far. Lionel is a Barcelona player, where he is under contract for several years.

“It is an honour to know PSG could think about him. But I repeat it is not a subject we want to think about now. The only reality is his contract with Barca. I don’t know what we are talking about when people talk about a transfer here or there. We don’t want to think about anything, neither Paris nor any other team.”

However, he also kept doors open by saying nothing is certain in football particularly in contemporary soccer; he added, “Can I assure Messi will play at Barca next season? He is under contract. Then in Football, you know we never know what can happen. I don’t know what will be tomorrow made of. Only God knows.”

Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema case finally begun in a French court

Soccer stars enjoy the shining world where every move they make is on the radar of the media, but sometimes this also becomes a nightmare for them coz each of their impish moves is also trapped by news hungry peoples. The thirty-year-old French footballer Franck Ribéry who plays for German club Bayern Munich and his 26-year-old countryman Karim Benzema who plays for Read Madrid are the starlets who are like the eye candies for sport media around the world these days. Don’t worry; they have not done anything brilliant on the field but coz they are accused of having a relationship with a minor prostitute – something that they are obviously denying right from the beginning. Since, the incident belongs to Spain their case was also subjected for Paris Jurisdiction, but they have until been denying to appear before any court of law for obvious reasons. Now, there is a bad news for them as a court in Paris has accepted an application to proceed with a trial on them. Notably, if they are found guilty of doing anything wrong in this case they can be penalized up to 45,000 euros or three years imprisonment or both.

First hearing of the case was on Monday and none of them appeared in person therein though their legal representatives appeared and explained their absence. This is not the very recent case perhaps something that happened back in September 2009 when Police got the tip from an anonymous source and investigating agency had since been trying to levy such charges on them. Earlier in June, proceedings could have started but court deferred it until January 2014. Lawyers of both players prominently said that victim Zahia Defar, who now owns a lingerie company, was then a prostitute and lied about her age therefore none of the players is guilty doing anything intentionally.

According to investigating agencies, Ribery paid somewhere around €700 to Defar for making a sexual relationship in a Bavarian city hotel room while Benzema paid somewhere around five hundred pounds for sleeping with the same minor girl. Ribery’s lawyer Carlo Alberto Brusa explained, “It’s not a lack of respect for the justice system. We’re in a case where we are going to ask for it to be dropped and there is no complainant.”

Good news is both clubs are backing their players and not letting them alone. Bayern Munich sporting director Matthias Sammer even said, “Of course we are concerned with it – we cannot pass on a topic like this. We have a responsibility to our player and will signal to him that we are on his side, and he’ll get the best support from us.”

New ‘Super tax’ worries French clubs

Everyone knows that some big clubs earn more than we can even think of, and State Governments around the world always try to bring these high profile clubs under some kind of special tax vicinity so they could charge them higher. This regime is helpful for small clubs who are still in their adolescent age or even for those who are making losses since long, but whenever a government takes an initiative to tax high profile money making clubs, these powerful business houses start opposing the ruling citing one reason or another. This time, we are talking about French clubs who earn more than one million in one financial year, coz according to new government ruling, income beyond that threshold will be charged at 75% which is possibly the highest in the business; hence top French clubs have called a protest against highly unanticipated taxing. Accordingly, all the fixtures scheduled on November 29 and December 2 in all domestic leagues will be halted in lack of available players which will be the first time in last forty years in this country. Last time French players went on strike was in 1972 when they refused to play in both domestic leagues.

The new tax regime is being initiated by the President himself who expects to gather somewhere around €420 million with newly imposed super tax, however, it will also be the hardest to pay for many clubs who have been facing tough financial targets in last few years, hence French professional clubs’ union has come forward and offered their objection. President Jean-Pierre Louvel said in a press meet in Paris that “We are talking about the death of French football. That’s why we are fighting and we will continue to fight. How can you tax businesses that have been in difficulty over the last three or four years?”

New ruling is going to affect clubs who pay more than one million in salaries to players by treating them contrarily to companies which is the main reason for protest as Louvel is demanding clubs should be treated at par with any other profit making company while president of Lyon criticized clubs’ demand and said, “Look at the drama which football is experiencing, we are the only country which taxes companies that are losing money.”

French Football Federation, who is supporting Super Tax said via a statement, “This is a historic decision, made unanimously and with determination, to save soccer.” So, only time will tell how French government is going to take the matter and impose new taxes from next year.