FOOTY FAIR

10 Terrific New Kits for the 2016-2017 Season

2016-07-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

The Euros might be over, but with some European clubs already kicking off their preseason friendlies while other sides around the world continue to battle for domestic supremacy there is plenty of football still on tap.

With many of the top tier leagues starting into their league schedule in a few weeks, several have taken the opportunity to release new kits that their fans will invariably want to get their hands on. Here are ten that have caught our eye so far:

1.) FC St. Pauli - Third Kit

2.) Bayern Munich - Away Kit

3.) Pumas UNAM - Home Kit

4.) Pumas UNAM - Away Kit

5.) Newcastle United - Away Kit

6.) River Plate - Home Kit

7.) Club America - Away Kit

8.) Flamengo - Home Kit

9.) Fiorentina - Home Kit

10.) AC Milan - Home Kit

The Fall of AC Milan

2016-04-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

When one thinks of the giants of Italian club football, the two names that invariably come to mind are Juventus and AC Milan. But while Juventus are nine points up on second place Napoli at the top of the Serie A table and will almost certainly be crowned league champions for the fifth straight time, AC Milan are 28 points behind the Turin club and are in disarray.

Since 2014 the club has gone through a staggering five managers and I wouldn't put any money on managerial stability finding it's way to their side of the San Siro any time soon.

Milan followed up a disappointing eighth placed finish in 2013-2014 with a tenth place finish last term, far from where you'd expect a club like Milan to finish.

This season isn't going much better with the club sitting in a very distant sixth place with no hope of Champions League qualification and even the Europa League looking like a long shot.

This week, Milan played out a dull 0-0 draw with 17th placed Carpi that was memorable for what happened before than match rather than what happened during it.

Prior to kickoff, a group of actors dressed to look like the first team squad came out onto the pitch a performed a cringe worthy version of New Zealand's pre-match war dance the haka.

It was a marketing stunt for the club's sponsors Nivea. Milan dubbed the pre-match dance the Tekitanka and came out with some embarrassing nonsense about it being meant to promote male skin care.

Predictably, Milan's supporters were not impressed and neither were the people of New Zealand who aren't too fond of people or companies making fun of their traditional dance.

It's the latest embarrassing episode for the once proud club. But where did it all go wrong exactly?

A number of factors are involved, chiefly among them is the financial difficulties suffered in the past decade by the club's parent ownership group headed up by the controversial former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The successful Milan sides of the mid-2000's that won Champions League titles in 2003 and 2007 contained players like Alessandro Nesta, Filippo Inzaghi, Clarence Seedorf and Gennaro Gattuso were all kept past their sell by date and when these players were finally offloaded in 2012 and 2013 the club didn't bring in players of a sufficient quality to replace them.

This was compounded by the fact that the club lost two of its greatest stars, that still had some gas in the tank, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva to big spending PSG.

While the club used to be among Europe's big spenders, the more frugal Milan side of today have had to make do with low cost signings and loans to get by.

The misstep hirings and then subsequent firings of former playing greats Clarence Seedorf and Filippo Inzaghi turned out terribly, as did the lack of patience afforded this season to Sinisa Mihajlovic who was fired earlier this month.

All in all, without additional investment and a bit of stability on the touchline it's hard to see Milan challenging Juventus for domestic supremacy any time soon.

Football's Greatest Sides - Part 1 of 5: AC Milan (1988 to 1990)

2016-03-25T10:21:00.000-04:00

Nearly thirty years ago this week, AC Milan made the first of three signings from the Netherlands that would come to reestablish the club as one of the giants of not only Italian, but European football.

Stuck in the shadow of Juventus for much of the 1970's and 1980's, and even suffering through the humiliation of twice being relegated to Serie B as a result of their part in the Totonero scandal and then their struggles to recover from its effects, Milan were suddenly transformed by the arrival of entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi in 1986.

Within a year the flamboyant Berlusconi had signed Dutch star Ruud Gullit from PSV for a world record £6 million and he followed that up by landing Ajax's goalscorer supreme Marco van Basten.

As part of a side that also included Italian internationals Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta and Roberto Donadoni, Milan stormed to the 1987-1988 Serie A title.

That summer Milan signed a third Dutch international, Frank Rijkaard from Ajax, and the core of one of Italy's greatest ever sides had fully taken shape.

Under manager Arrigo Sacchi, Milan romped to the final of the 1989 European Cup with their grandest statement handed down via a 5-0 thrashing of Real Madrid's much vaunted "Vulture Cohort" in semi-final second leg at the San Siro.

To claim their first European champions crown since 1969, Milan would dispatch Steaua Bucharest 4-0 at the Camp Nou in one of the most lopsided finals in the competition's history.

Two goals apiece from Gullit and Van Basten saw off the Romanian champions, who were no slouches, having been European Cup semi-finalists the season before and European Cup winners as recently as 1986.

But Milan were simply too good for them and in truth the final score could have been even more damning.

The memorable part of this Milan side was that they swam against the tide of an Italian football culture that had been in place for decades. While most sides played in the safety first catenaccio style, Sacchi, an obsessed student of the Netherlands Total Football of the early 1970's, had his side press the opposition and not simply wait for counter attacking opportunities.

The following year, a single goal from Rijkaard was enough to see off Benfica in the European Cup Final in Vienna.

This great Milan side would run it's course as they were knocked out of the 1991 European Cup by Marseille in the quarter-finals and weakened further still when the hard driving Sacchi was let go that year following a dispute with Van Basten.

The great Dutch striker himself would then see his career cruelly cut short following an injury in 1993.

To this day though, Milan are still the last side to repeat as European champions. Even the great Barcelona sides of Pep Guardiola didn't manage that.

Throwback Thursdays: Milan v Estudiantes - The Culmination of All That is Evil in International Football

2015-10-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

Conceived in 1960 as a showdown between the European Cup and the Copa Libertadores holders, the Intercontinental Cup had a very rough start.

Due in no small part to the aggressive tactics and intimidation used by clubs from Argentina and Uruguay in particular, the competition was in danger of falling apart on numerous occasions.

In particular the 1967 edition between Argentina's Racing Club and Scotland's Celtic F.C. was an extremely violent affair, with the decisive game being dubbed "The Battle of Montevideo".

This infamous showdown saw two players from the Argentine side sent off and three players from Celtic sent to an early bath. In the middle of some outrageous carnage, a fourth Celtic player was sent off but refused to leave the field and ended up playing on.

The following year saw England's Manchester United against Argentina's Estudiantes in another brutal match-up that saw United's Nobby Stiles sent off for retaliation in the first leg that was won 1-0 by Estudiantes at home. The second leg at Old Trafford saw United star George Best kicked and punched constantly until he traded punches himself with Jose Medina, with both players being sent off towards the end of the 1-1 draw.

If the 1967 and 1968 competitions had been violent, they were just warm ups for the main event.

On 22 October 1969, AC Milan took on Estudiantes, returning for another final, in a match that one paper described as "the culmination of all that is evil in international club soccer."

After winning the first leg 3-0 in Milan, things seemed to be pretty straight forward for the Italian side as they went into La Bombenera for the return leg.

But the situation became extremely hostile even before the opening kick-off as fans dumped hot coffee on Milan's players as they emerged from the tunnel and Estudiantes players kicked balls at the visiting team during the warm-ups.

Once the match kicked off Milan's Pierino Prati was violently challenged and ended up with a concussion. He was ordered back on the field by the referee but collapsed and had to be replaced.

The Estudiantes players used every trick in the book to get under the skins of the Rossoneri with a series of sly kicks and digs. The Italians later claimed that they had even been pricked with pins by the Argentine players.

The legendary Gianni Rivera was punched in the face by Estudiantes goalkeeper Alberto Poletti, but got some sort of justice with a goal in the 30th minute.

The worst treatment of all was reserved for Milan's Argentina-born French striker Nestor Combin who was called "a traitor" all match, was dug at, clawed and kicked numerous times before the keeper Poletti kicked him full on in the face.

As if that wasn't enough, Combin later had his nose and cheek broken thanks to an elbow by Estudiantes defender Ramón Aguirre Suárez.

To complete his evening from hell, Combin was arrested after the match and ended up spending the night in jail, on charges of evading his mandatory Argentinian military service. Fortunately in the morning he managed to convince the authorities that he had completed his service in France, where he was a citizen.

The match itself ended in a 2-1 win for the home side, with Milan winning the cup by virtue of a 4-2 aggregate score.

Estudiantes faced severe criticism from the media and the international football community after the match. As a result of their actions on the night the Argentine Football Association came down hard with Poletti receiving a lifetime ban, Eduardo Manero a 20-game suspension, and Suárez being handed a 30-game ban.

The following decade would see several European Cup winners duck out of the competition to avoid similar problems and the cup only survived after it was reorganized in 1980 as a one off match held annually in Japan.

AC Milan Most Impressive Records

2014-08-25T06:00:00.000-04:00

AC Milan is one of the most historic clubs in Italy and in European football. They have achieved many records both domestic and internationally and have become one of the most popular football teams around the world.

I have been looking at the record books of Serie A and Champions League and I noticed that AC Milan holds some very interesting records either as a team or by individuals who represented the club.

AC Milan name is synonymous with greatness and what better way to show it than by sharing these records with our readers. Here they are the five most interesting records held by AC Milan.

Longest Consecutive Run without Conceding a Goal

Sebastian Rossi played for AC Milan from 1990 to 2002, having appeared in 240 games for the club. During his time at the club his most impressive achievement was setting the Serie A record for longest consecutive run without conceding a goal. During the 1993-94 season he went 929 minutes without allowing a goal. This is an impressive achievement for the historic goalkeeper.

Most Appearances

Paolo Maldini, the AC Milan legend, holds an incredible Serie A record. He is the player with the most appearances in Serie A with 647, all of them representing AC Milan. This is a record that may never be broken, and an incredible mark in Paolo Maldini’s career. His name and the name of AC Milan will forever be interconnected, and this record plays a huge part in that.

Champions League “Away” Goals at Home

In 2002-03 Champions League campaign, AC Milan met Inter Milan in the semi-final of the competition. In the first leg they tied 0-0 and since both teams happen to share the same stadium, AC Milan was designated as the away team in the second leg, which they tied 1-1. However since AC Milan was the designated away team in the second leg, they became the only team in Champions League history to win on “away” goals without having scored a goal away from their stadium.

Longest Unbeaten Streak

AC Milan holds the Serie A record for longest unbeaten streak. The unbeaten streak lasted 58 games and it started during the 1990-91 season and it was broken in the 1992-93 season. Another curiosity about this record is that the streak started with a 0-0 draw against Parma on May 26th 1991 and it ended against Parma on March 21st 1993.

Fewest Points during Champions League Group Stage, Yet Advancing

During the 1994-95 Champions League campaign, AC Milan finished the group stage with five points. That is a Champions League record; they are the only team to have ever advanced group stage with only five points. No single team has ever advanced with so few points. Not a great record to have, but an incredible feat to achieve.