Capital cities without Champions league football

Sometimes being based in the capital city can help a club to compete on a greater stage be it at home or abroad. One only has to look at Madrid for a prime example of this with both Real Madrid and Atlético competing for honours. Paris with their sole PSG becoming the dominant force in France, Lisbon with the powerhouses of Benfica and Sporting CP and of course London that is home to five premier league teams this season.

With this in mind a quick glance at the teams playing in the champions league in the past has lead to me coming up with this blog post. What capital cities are absent from the champions league on a regular basis. I developed a criteria for this question because there are of course countries who have never had a team qualify for the group stage, Ireland, Iceland and the Baltic countries being a few. To qualify for this I also discarded countries who had less than five qualifications in the past twenty-three years since the group stage was introduced. This is what I came up with, some you might be shocked with.

Ankara, Turkey:

This might not actually be a surprise at all but the capital of Turkey has never had a team qualify for the group stage of the champions league. Not too surprising given that the capital hasn't even had a a title winner since the Super League was introduced back in 1959. Ankara hasn't even come close to breaking that glass ceiling. In fact the last time an Ankara club finished in the top three in Turkey was back in 2002-03 when Gençlerbirliği finished nineteen points off winners Beşiktaş. The following season however Gençlerbirliği did reach the last 16 of the UEFA cup in the city's best European run to date. 
This season Osmanlispor are currently top of their Europa league group containing Villarreal, Steaua and FC Zürich with a terrific chance of qualifying for the last 32.

Oslo, Norway:

Norway gets onto this list because of Rosenborg's exploits in the late 90s and early 00s when they regularly competed in the group stage. Rosenborg are based in the northern city of Trondheim and their dominance of the domestic league in that time prevented any progress for Oslo to get a team into the group stage of the premier club competition. With Rosenborg's European performances the league actually had two champions league places in 1998 and Oslo still couldn't get a team in with Molde being the lucky beneficiaries that season. 

When Vålerenga did break Rosenborg's domination in 2005 they couldn't get through the qualifying stages the following year going out to Czech side Mladá Boleslav and that is as close Oslo have got to getting into the group stage. 

Edinburgh, Scotland:

Like Ankara this isn't much of a shock really considering the dominant powers of Scotland reside in Glasgow. However unlike Ankara, Edinburgh has had a side in the qualifiers. That team was Hearts in 2006 after they split the Old firm in 2005-06 to finish 2nd. Hearts managed to negotiate the obstacle of Bosnian champions Široki Brijeg before they succumbed to AEK Athens in the final qualifying round, going down 5-1 on aggregate. 

The capital's other side Hibernian haven't threatened to end the barren run with a couple of UEFA cup appearances the some total of their European adventures. 

Bern, Switzerland:

This might shock you. The capital of Switzerland, regular participants in the champions league has never had a team reach the group stage. The city's big team BSC Young Boys did appear in the qualifiers in 2010-11 but they couldn't get the better of Tottenham in the final qualifying round. Since then the club have had two shots of trying to end the run but fell at the 3rd qualifying round in 2015-16 and the play-off round this season. In 2004-05 they fell in the qualifying rounds to Crvena Zvezda. 

The club haven't won the domestic title since 1986 and in a league such as Switzerland's where multiple sides getting into the group stage doesn't happen, a title win is what's needed for Bern to finally grace the group stage of the champions league. 

Minsk, Belarus:

Like Norway with Rosenborg, Belarus gets into this list courtesy of BATE Borisov's regular qualifications. BATE are from a city an hour away from the capital of Minsk and to date the capital hasn't been able to get a side into the group stage. Given BATE's utter domination of the league the capital hasn't had a domestic title winner since 2004 when Dinamo Minsk were top dogs in the country. Belarus only gets one team into the champions league and with BATE's current streak of eleven titles it's difficult to see Minsk ending their run of being absent from the group stage. 

It's the Europa league however where they have had a bit more luck with Dinamo qualifying for the group stage there on two occasions (2014-15 & 2015-16). 

Other mention:

Above were the capital cities without a qualification at all. There is one capital with a solitary one qualification that might have you scratching your head and that is the German capital of Berlin. 

The city of Berlin has only had one qualification since the group stage was introduced in 1994-95. That came in 1999-00 when Hertha BSC came through the qualifiers, defeating Anorthosis of Cyprus. They then reached the second group stage after a top two finish in a group containing Chelsea, AC Milan and Galatasaray. A last place finish in the second group stage with Barcelona, Porto and Sparta Praha ended their run and to date is the last time Berlin has played host to champions league group stage football. 

The French cup and it's unique aspect

Coupe de France
source: getfrenchfootballnews.com

The seventh round of the French cup takes place this weekend and as as usual it has it's unique aspect in full flow. This round of the French cup not only features sides as far down as the ninth tier of the football league system but offers a unique aspect in including sides from the various dependencies that make up France's "L'outre mer". The domestic cup winners of New Caledonia and Tahiti being joined by sides from Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion and Saint Martin.

The inclusion of these sides does obviously open up some quite eye boggling travel distances. To combat this the French football association (FFA) offers mainland sides the chance to apply to be eligible to face the overseas teams. To break it down, the sides that express interest in travelling are then put into the section of the seventh round where they can be drawn against any of the overseas teams. The make-up of the travel budget for the overseas teams remains unclear but I'd be amazed if there isn't some sort of grant from the FFA, their local leagues and football associations to travel the vast distances. Likewise for the mainland teams open to travelling.

The French overseas territories
source: meteofrance.fr

The draw for the seventh round is made in two parts with the overseas section made first. As mentioned in the previous paragraph it's pitting sides who have applied to travel for their cup games with the overseas sides and of course which overseas teams make the journey to the mainland. The main part of the seventh round draw being made the following day.

The overseas section of the draw threw up the following:

• CS Moulin (Guadeloupe) vs FC Fleury 91
• AS Magenta (New Caledonia) vs Pau FC
• Club Franciscain (Martinique) vs FC Lunéville
• ASC Le Geldar (French Guiana) vs SC Selongey
• JS Saint-Pierroise (Réunion) vs Sainte-Geneviéve Sports 
• Avoine OCC vs AS Excelsior (Réunion)
• Rodez vs FC Mtsapéré (Mayotte)
• ASM Belfort vs Phare du Canal (Guadeloupe)
• US Avranches vs AS Dragon (Tahiti)
• FC Mulhouse v US Matoury (French Guiana)
• Tarbes v Golden Lion FC (Martinique)

Last season all the overseas sides were eliminated by the time the competition reached the last 32 with Réunion side US Saint-Marienne bowing out to Gazélec Ajaccio, who were in Ligue 1 at the time. No overseas team has ever won the French cup nor has any progressed beyond the last 64. Of the overseas teams only five in the history of the French cup have progressed two ties in the same season. So reaching the last 32 remains as the glass ceiling yet to be breached. Could it happen this season? well history suggests no but given that we are talking about 2016 I guess we can't completely rule out a strong performance from the overseas teams. The Ligue 1 teams don't typically enter the cup until the ninth round (or last 64) so the opportunity of getting a plum tie against the big names of PSG, Marseille, Lyon or Saint-Étienne isn't entirely out of the question. 

A popular question that might rise from this is the hypothetical situation of an overseas team winning the French cup, do they get to play in the Europa League?. The answer to this is unfortunately no. Given that some of these overseas teams come from FIFA members it renders them ineligible for European competition. Some of the sides such as the Réunion representatives have taken part in the African champions league while the Tahitians and New Caledonians are regularly involved in the Oceania champions league. To enter European competition a team to my knowledge has to be affiliated with a UEFA nation and competing in the structure within that said nation, none of the other overseas teams are competing in the French league system. 

What makes this aspect more interesting is that the likes of Réunion, New Caledonia and Tahiti are FIFA members. So this could happen with say the Dutch cup including sides from say Aruba and Curacao or even the likes of England, Spain and Portugal going down a similar road.
It's safe to say that while the FA cup in England remains the oldest cup competition in the world, the French cup is surely the biggest. From researching this blog post a figure of the amount of teams that took part one season was north of seven thousand. A quite incredible figured given that the FA cup most years hovers in and around the eight hundred mark.

SO for the weekend that's in it, Bon chance to the overseas teams and hopefully one at least breaks new ground in getting through to the last 32. 

Super competitive title race number two

Finland's Veikkausliiga had up until last week four sides that were vying for the title, in the end that was won for the first time by IFK Mariehamn after they got the win they needed against Ilves. However across the gulf in neighbouring Estonia, the title race is entering the final two rounds of games with one crucial result on Tuesday ensuring a dramatic finale is in store for these final rounds of games.

Tuesday saw Nõmme Kalju beat bottom side Rakvere Tarvas 2-1 with a winning goal from Italian Maximiliano Uggè in stoppage time. That goal moved Nõmme Kalju into second place, two points behind leaders Infonet with two rounds of games to play. They moved level on points with the big two Tallinn clubs Levadia and Flora on seventy-two. Four contenders for the title with two rounds left.

The league known as the Meistriliiga is contested by ten teams with all of them playing each other home and away twice. It commences in March every year and concludes in November. This season the four contenders have been in a league of their own. The league table shows this with the gap between 4th placed Levadia Tallinn and 5th placed Sillamäe Kalev standing at an enormous twenty-five points. 6th placed Paide are level with Sillamäe Kalev who themselves are nine points clear of the next side in the table, 8th placed Tammeka.

The Contenders:

To the four contenders themselves. Two of them are the country's most successful sides, Flora and Levadia Tallinn. Flora Tallinn have since independence in 1992, racked up ten league titles, their arch-rivals Levadia have nine. However you might be forgiven in thinking Levadia have been around since independence in the top flight but in actual fact, Levadia only played their first top flight season in 1999 having been founded the year before. Flora were the dominant team in the 90s and hold a joint record with Trans Narva in being the only founding members of the Meistriliiga in 1992 to never be relegated.

Nõmme Kalju are chasing only their second league title. Winners in 2012, they have emerged as a challenger to the Flora, Levadia arms race that developed in the 2000s. Promoted to the top flight for the first time in 2008 they have never finished below 5th in their current spell. During the summer they shocked Israeli side Maccabi Haifa in the Europa league qualifying rounds by beating them on penalties before bowing out to Osmanlıspor in the following round. They knocked out HJK Helsinki in their debut champions league campaign back in 2013 before Czech side Viktoria Plzeň ended their dreams.

The final contender are actually the current leaders, Infonet. They also hail from the capital Tallinn. However they are the only one of the contenders to never taste a league triumph. In fact they are the youngest club having been founded only in 2002. Infonet also only made their top flight bow in 2013 which makes their rise to this title challenge all the more impressive. Last season they ended up twenty-two points off the title, with two rounds left they are two clear.

The Run-in:

The season climaxes on November 5th but this coming Saturday (October 29th) will be a pivotal round. Flora Tallinn host Sillamäe Kalev with Levadia Tallinn away at bottom side Rakvere Tarvas. Nõmme Kalju are on the road to Tartu to face Tammeka with leaders Infonet playing the day before everyone at home to Paide, a chance to really put pressure on the chasing trio. 

Should all four remain in contention after this next round of games, the final day promises to be a very interesting watch. Similar to Finland's title race just ended, we have a pair of head-to-head fixtures for the title. Nõmme Kalju host leaders Infonet and Tallinn city rivals Levadia and Flora go at it in the derby. A mouthwatering climax to a pretty epic title race. 

Veikkausliiga update

Last month I did a blog post about the most competitive title race in Europe which turned out to be Finland's Veikkausliiga. At the time the top seven in the league were extremely close to each other with just seven points separating seventh place and top spot.

In the month since the contenders have been whittled down from seven to four. The race has ended for KuPS, who have lost every single game they have played in the past month and RoPS whose hopes ended by picking up just four points in that time. VPS are currently fifth and astoundingly still could, in theory at least, win the league. They sit five points off leaders IFK Mariehamn with two games to play. However realistically their hopes depend on an odd combinations of results. That leaves the four contenders being leaders IFK Mariehamn, traditional powerhouse HJK Helsinki, defending champions SJK and outsiders Ilves.

The league enters it's final two rounds of games after Friday's results. A day that saw none of the final four contenders win their games. Ilves were held to a 1-1 draw at home by lowly HIFK, SJK rescued a late point against mid-table Lahti while there was a top two clash with HJK Helsinki and IFK Mariehamn playing out a 1-1 draw at Sonera Stadium.

Those results mean IFK Mariehamn remain just about on course for a first ever league title. The side from Åland which lies just south of the gulf of Bothnia between Finland and Sweden are a solitary point ahead of HJK Helsinki. 
In third is defending champions SJK who are a point behind HJK. SJK also have a resurgent streak on their side and are actually the form team in Finland right now. In fourth a further point behind is Ilves. They are also reaching peak form at just the right time. 

The penultimate round of fixtures take place on Monday. IFK Mariehamn are away to Lahti, SJK host already relegated PK-35 Vantaa while Ilves host HJK in a massive clash between two contenders. Defeat for Ilves ends their hopes but a victory puts them above HJK and puts their title hopes in their own hands. 

This leads me onto the best part of this epic title race. The final day is next Sunday on October 23rd. In that round of games the fixture computer has given fans a pair of massive fixtures. All four contenders, should Ilves remain in the running until then, face another contender. HJK Helsinki host SJK while IFK Mariehamn are at home to Ilves. So it's pretty much set up for an almighty conclusion to what has been an utterly insane season. 

The run-in

The massive title swing that was October 8th

October 8th was a massive night in the League of Ireland title race. The scene that afternoon had Dundalk with a four point buffer ahead of Cork City with seven games to play, which includes a head-to-head between the two, more on that in a bit.

Dundalk also had the superior goal difference which was +40 with City on +34 large enough to effectively be an extra point in the title race.
Cork City were away on Saturday in Galway while Dundalk hosted a Sligo Rovers side that had their European ambitions still burning although getting quite feint so needed a result. Both games kicking off simultaneously at 7:45pm. Nobody including myself could've foreseen what was to unfold in those two hours on Saturday night.

It began when Sligo's French striker Achille Campion capitalized upon Gary Rogers fluffing a clearance to give his side the lead in the first minute. A minute later on the opposite coast Sean Maguire kept up his scoring run by putting City in front against a Galway side that sacked manager Tommy Dunne the previous week. Not even 7:50pm and already movement in the table. By 8:10pm the picture got rosier for City as goals from first Stephen Dooley and then Garry Buckley had City coasting at 3-0 while Dundalk were still 1-0 down but probing.
8:21pm and a massive moment in the title race. Philip Roberts, who had replaced the injured Campion minutes previously planted a low shot past Rogers after he evaded Andy Boyle and the Dundalk defense to put Sligo 2-0 up in Oriel park, Dundalk stunned. A moment of magic from the Sligo substitute. That is how it stayed until half-time. Forty five minutes of football, City moving to just a solitary point behind Dundalk in the table but crucially a five goal swing in goal difference. It was now Dundalk +38 and City +37.
To the second half and much like the first, no waiting around for the action. 8:48pm and Maguire got his second goal of the night to put City 4-0 up. Game set and match for City the only thing not certain was on the east coast at this point. That game was to have another turn on 8:54pm when Liam Martin was given his marching orders for Sligo. Not what Sligo needed and early enough in the half for Dundalk to still turn the deficit around. Just after 9pm and massive title swing number two as Rafael Cretaro finishes off a Sligo counter attack to put the visitors 3-0 up. Sensational stuff from the ten men of the Bit o'Red.
Dundalk failed to register even a consolation goal in the final half hour while for City there was still enough time for them to register a fifth when substitute Chidozie Ogbene slotted coolly past Sam Ramsbottom. A 5-0 victory for City coupled with a 3-0 defeat for Dundalk, a massive night in the title race. That eight goal swing in goal difference also wiping out the advantage Dundalk had and actually giving City the edge in that column.

The events of Saturday night set up a mouth watering head-to-head between the top two tonight. Dundalk with home advantage with a win will put daylight between them and their challengers with five to play after tonight.
City will go top with a victory and really put the pressure on their county Louth opponents.

There will be points dropped by both sides in the remaining games. The pair have after tonight five league games which will be squeezed in before the final day of the league season on October 28th. This means games every three-four days between now and then,
Dundalk have an extra game due to their Europa league exploits with them hosting Zenit St Petersburg in between league games with Longford and Bohemians. So ahead of tonight, Come on City!.

"Maybe the switch will do us good? "

In 2017 Georgia's top division, the Umaglesi Liga, will become the twelfth spring-to-autumn league in Europe. The decision taken earlier this year means that there will be a transitional season for the rest of this calendar year to decide who represents the country in next season's European competitions. The transitional campaign isn't a normal league campaign and does require a bit of a breakdown.

Transitional Format
The league has fourteen clubs which for this short season are divided into two groups of seven. Each side plays each other home and away against the sides in their own group. The two group winners will then play each other at the end in a championship play-off to decide who gets the champions league place. 2nd and 3rd place finishers in both groups enter play-offs against each other to decide who gets the Europa League berth. The winners of the Georgian cup will take a Europa League berth as usual.
The teams finishing bottom of both groups are relegated to the second tier Pirveli Liga with 5th and 6th place finishers in both groups entering play-offs to keep their top flight status, the two losers here are relegated.

The change:
The league originally started out as a spring-to-autumn season after independence. The Georgian Football Federation (GFF) then decided to go with the autumn-to-spring season from the 1991-92 season up until last season. In that time the league has switched around league formats with a sixteen team home and away format, a championship and relegation pool system after a general season and a ten team home and away format with a twenty team format and oddly a seventeen team format also used.
The reason for this switch in calendar can probably be put down to European performance. Georgian clubs enter European competition in early July which is a good month and a half before domestic football resumes. The hope is that by switching the calendar the clubs will be match fit and sharp heading into these games giving them a slight edge of potentially out of season opponents, thus improving European results.

Dinamo Tbilisi were outclassed by PAOK
source: enallaxnews.gr

This season only Dinamo Tbilisi made any sort of run in Europe. They beat Alashkert from Armenia in the champions league before defeat by Dinamo Zagreb sent them into the Europa League play-off round which ultimately ended in a 5-0 aggregate defeat to PAOK. For the past two seasons all other Georgian clubs haven fallen at the first hurdle.

There have been notable runs such as Chikura Sachkhere in 2014 when they reached the third qualifying round in the Europa League after beating Bursaspor from Turkey and of course Dila Gori's runs to the play-off round in successive seasons, beating sides such as AaB Aallborg, Hajduk Split and Anorthosis. Zestafoni have also reached the play-off round in recent years. However those runs remain exceptions as opposed to rule and as of yet Dinamo Tbilisi remain the only Georgian club to have qualified for a group stage of European competition (2004-05 UEFA Cup).

By getting Georgian teams match fit and in season when these qualifying games come around the GFF hope to replicate the success neighboring Azerbaijan is currently having. For the second season is succession, Azerbaijan have two sides competing in the Europa League group stage.
The case point for a change in calendar having better results is Ireland. In 2002 the league of Ireland made the decision to press ahead with a switch in calendar to play through the summer with the aim of improving European results. That switch was made it 2003 and only a year later Shelbourne made serious inroads of getting into the champions league group stage. Results in Europe did improve but only for a few years until the lack of money impacted on the standard of Irish sides. Results are only now starting to pick up after that lull with Shamrock Rovers in 2011 and Dundalk this season making the group stage of the Europa League.

The season so far:
So far this season it's a free for all. The biggest and most successful club, Dinamo Tbilisi are off the pace. The defending champions are six points off top spot in Group 2. The country's second most successful side, Torpedo Kutaisi are bottom of the same group.

The struggles of the bigger sides have opened a window of opportunity. Leading both groups are sides that have never won the league title before. Samtredia lead Group 1 by two points ahead Dinamo Batumi, who themselves haven't won the title before. Chikhura Sachkhere lead Group 2 by five points from Locomotivi Tbilisi.

The group games will be concluded on November 25th by which time the play-offs for the European places will take center stage so still a bit of time for the bigger sides to sort themselves out.

Well that's Nice to see

After seven rounds of games in Ligue 1 someone other than Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) is top of the table. It's not even Monaco either, or Lyon, or Marseille. Nope, instead it's the unexpected name of Nice that are sitting top of the tree.
From the outside looking in, Ligue 1 these past few years has been, well let's be honest, a bit of a bore when it comes to title races. PSG since their Qatar investment in 2011 have basically ran free with the title with the notable exception of 2014-15 which I blogged about a number of months ago. For a recap the 2014-15 Ligue 1 season was actually a three horse race up until April with Lyon and Marseille pushing PSG. In the end both chasing sides fell away in the final few games but it did provide some competition. Then came last season's procession.
Prior to PSG getting that Qatar investment the league was mightily competitive. Lyon's run of dominance ended with Bordeaux claiming the title in 2008-09 and after that no fewer than three different sides claimed the title in the successive three seasons. Then came the start of the current run of dominance of PSG.
Despite the runs of dominance by PSG in this decade and Lyon in the last, Ligue 1 still has produced more different league champions than all the other so called big leagues since the turn of the century. Eight to be precise.(England, Germany, Spain and Italy all have five different champions since 99-00).

Back to this season and well Nice are not one of those eight sides to have claimed at least one title since 2000. In fact Nice have only ever won the title four times and the last of those was in 1958-59. The rise of Nice for followers of French football shouldn't be that much of a shock considering they had a superb campaign last season. Sure they may have missed out on the prize of champions league football by two points but under Claude Puel they secured European football for the first time since 1997-98. Puel departed in the summer for Southampton and their star performer was the familiar name of Hatem Ben Arfa, he also left. Nice did however replace one troubled genius in Ben Arfa with another one this summer. Step forward one Mario Balotelli. Nice raised eyebrows when they signed the Italian from Liverpool with even Jaime Carragher saying that the free transfer was Nice paying over the odds. Balotelli made his debut in the home game against Marseille and he responded with two goals, a penalty and close range header. He added two more goals in Nice's 4-0 demolition of Monaco last Wednesday. That big victory over Monaco put Nice top of the league and the narrow 1-0 success away to Nancy on Sunday maintained their position at the top.

PSG's rather indifferent start has opened up the table in these early weeks of the season, with the champions already suffering two league defeats which is the same total they suffered last season in it's entirety. Although it is early days one does hope that they are challenged this season. Can it be Nice? well so far the signs are pretty good. They have the best defense in France after seven games with just four put past them and much will depend how they juggle their European commitments, which began two weeks ago with a defeat at home to struggling Schalke. Coach Lucien Favre has the side playing lovely stuff at times and with the experienced head of Dante at the back they have the foundations of a reliable defense that could see them have an even better season than last season.