Ageing Like A Fine Wine: Aritz Aduriz Style

Midweek, 35 year old Aritz Aduriz scored one of the memorable goals in the Europa League. In this day an age, football relies on pace and power, normally associated with youth, but the Basque striker joins an elite club of players that effectively get better with age.

The Bilbao front man has been on fire for his club, scoring 88 goals in 121 games since he rejoined the Basque side from Valencia in 2012. That is quite a tremendous record for any striker. Aduriz is a poacher, not so much playing off the shoulder of the last defender, but more in terms only taking one touch to score. However he is partial to the odd spectacular goal, scoring a bicycle kick against Eibar in January.

This season, Aduriz has netted on 26 occasions, one behind the best player in the world, Lionel Messi and three more than Messi's partner in crime, Neymar. Admittedly though, both Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez are streets ahead in the goal scoring charts. Aduriz leads the charts when compared to any of the Barclays Premier League top scorers with Romelu Lukaku on 20 goals in all competitions and Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane on 19 goals. Surely there would have been a few Premier League sides that could have needed him this season?

Rather surprisingly, Aduriz has been scoring goals at a steady rate throughout his career. Playing at Valencia, Vallodolid and Mallorca, he has scored 27, 22 and 24 goals at each club respectively, not too bad when you consider the talent he was up against. With 26 goals so far and about a third of the season remaining, you wouldn't bet against him reaching 30 goals for the season.

Looking towards the Euros, he has certainly done his chances no harm in claiming a spot in France. In previous seasons, Aduriz has been faced with fierce competition, Fernando Torres, Fernando Morientes, Diego Costa and Alvaro Morata to name a few. His style of play wouldn't have resembled something which Vicente Del Bosque's Spain would have suited, favouring a more agile false nine, rather than the strong frame which Aduriz provides.

Based on form, he has to go, particularly as he has outscored Del Bosque's favoured trio combined of Paco Alcacer, Alvaro Morata and Diego Costa, falling four short of Aduriz' benchmark. There will be severe pressure put on Del Bosque by the Spanish media to select him and rightly so but he has been speaking highly of Aduriz's form so a call up is looking likely. He has represented Spain before, just once back in 2010 as replacing Fernando Llorente in the 77th minute of a Euro 2012 qualifier. While it won't be a debut in the Euros, it'll certainly feel like it.

His only honour as a player to date has been the Super Cup win against Barcelona in August 2015, but even then he scored a hat trick in a simply terrific performance against last season's treble winners. He has become an icon in Bilbao helped and further instated his name in the club's folklore with his performance during that match. With the Europa League 1st knockout round against Marseille poised in the favour of the Basque club at 1-0 with the home leg to come, Aduriz will be looking to fire Athletic Bilbao into the round of 16. Similarly, he will be looking to get his side's faltering league campaign back on track in a bid for European football next season.

The next time you are getting bossed about by a person 20 years your senior, you can always point to the tale of Aritz Aduriz - the fine wine that got better by age.

Revamping the Champions League

Quite frankly I was outraged to hear that there were plans to revamp the Champions League. It is rumoured that a proposal has been made to guarantee the 'big teams' spots in the Champions League at the end of the current cycle, from 2018 onwards. The proposals are primarily targeting clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool, AC Milan and their rivals Internazionale.

These proposals would be effectively creating a 'European Super League,' alienating many teams such as Napoli and Leicester who are at the top of Serie A and the Premier League respectively. As a football fan, the only positive I see in the move is the financial benefits and to be honest, these financial benefits should be completely trumped by all the negatives.

Throw back to the days where the top sides such as Benfica struggled to overcome Glentoran of the currently-named Danske Bank Premier League or when Linfield reached the quarter finals of the 1966-67 European Cup. Some would say this would be the 'true' Champions League as the knockout competition consisted of the champions of each league as well as the holders of the previous year battling it out for the title of European Champions. Those times changed in 1992, with the introduction of European co-efficiency table, effectively ruling out the clubs from nations such as Northern Ireland and Ireland from fielding their sides in the European competition.

This is not the first time a 'Super League' has been proposed. Back in 1998, sports marketing company, Media Partners, initiated talks with some of the top European clubs about breaking away from UEFA and starting up their own league. FIFA quashed these proposals by promising bans on any national associations, clubs or participants in the proposed idea. Similarly, UEFA looked to re-evaluate the European stage, with Cup Winners' Cup being merged together with the UEFA Cup in 1999 and then for a group stage to be introduced into the second tier competition in  the 2004-2005 edition as well as dishing out more money to keep the participants happy.

Looking at the potential changes, the European Clubs' Association boss (ECA), Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has suggested "a tournament consisting of 20 teams from Italy, England, Spain and France," and also stating that a "stagnation means regression." If the proposed changes are made into a reality it will certainly increase the glamour of the competition and be more profitable for the chiefs. I'm still uncertain as to whether I would like to see these changes implemented. As stated previously, it runs the risk of making an unlikely fairy tale story, such as Leicester's this season, really having an impact on the club.

Let's break down a few statistics. For the 2015-2018 cycle of the competition, €12m will go to each participant in the Champions League group stage - every team is guaranteed to get that money regardless of their performance in the group stage. Each win for a club bags themselves a nice €1.5m while a draw nets €500k. There is also €428.9m available in a 'market pool' that will be split between each association 'according to the proportional value of each TV market represented by the clubs taking part.' A substantial amount would be available to the FA to be assigned subsequently to each participating English club. The higher the position in the domestic league previous to the current competition the more money would be on offer. Leicester finished in the Barclays' Premier League the more money they would take in from another part of the market pool, similarly a sum is awarded for each club according to how many European matches they play in the specific season.

There would be a finite amount of opportunities for clubs such as Leicester if a Super League was created. Who doesn't love a good underdog story?

There have already been a number of teams who have slammed the proposals, particularly from the Scottish Premier League. In fairness to UEFA and the ECA, they have done something that many people have tried, but failed... Unite both Rangers and Celtic. The Sun has reported that Ronny Deila has criticised proposals, while the Sunday Mail add that Rangers and Aberdeen will join forces with the Scottish Champions. I'm not surprised the Scottish FA are outrage as the changes could hinder Celtic, winners of the competition in 1966-67. The leagues that would be limited would drift further and further away from the so-called 'top leagues.'

On the other hand, it has been reported that viewing numbers are dwindling in the competition. Ben Rumsby of the Telegraph disclosed this week, that the viewing figures of BT Sport having been nothing short of dismal. The company's free to view channel, BT Showcase, peaked at just 200,000 viewers watching English teams in the top European competition after spending £879 million to acquire the rights of the elite competition. The ratings of BT Sport has plummeted since the Champions League changed hands from ITV and Sky Sports, so it's either a case of the channel or the competition needs re-jigged.

As a football fan, I don't see how these proposals can be made into a reality. I'm not even sure if they would be possible to implement due to the uproar it would cause leaving me to think that this is just an exercise to try and get the reputable sides a bigger slice of the monetary pie.

As always I'd like to hear your thoughts on the proposals and any changes that you would like to implement if given the option.  

A New Power in Football?

Football in Asia, predominantly China and India is growing four fold. The introduction of the new Indian Super League has brought many ex-internationals to the country, including former Man City player Elano, Nicolas Anelka as a head coach, while Alessandro Del Piero featured during the 2014 Indian season and had a short spell with Sydney FC in Australia. This also not forgetting the ludicrous sums of money spent by the Chinese clubs this transfer window.

Football fans in Asia usually affiliate themselves with an English club or else either Barcelona or Real Madrid. With a population of over 4 billion people, it is easy to see why the Barclays Premier League is the most watched league in the world. It is broadcast to China through SuperSports while in India it is the most widely distributed sports programme. The Indian Super League has tried to attract more viewers to the local football in India.

In India, the average attendance for the the 2015 Super League season was 27,111 which, when compared to that of the Premier League appears measly, but is in fact 5,000 more than the average in Serie A. Despite being a cricketing nation, the Indians do get out to support their newly formed league. The attendances in China would be similar to that in Italy - approximately 22,000. It is perhaps limited due to the unstable political situation restricting teams in certain regions and alienating many potential supporters. It also has to be noted that the population of both India and China dwarfs that of any league in Europe and are one of the worst performing countries in terms of sporting success to population. In contrast, the top tier in Japan only draws an average attendance of approximately 7,000, although the country does have a considerably lower population than India and China with 127 million inhabitants.

Last month marks the 10th anniversary since Australian football moved into the Asian Confederation. The men's side won the Asian Cup last year and finished runner up in the edition previous to that in 2011. Similarly, the female's have encountered similar success, winning the competition twice and losing in the final on another occasion. On the club scene, they have enjoyed recent success in the Champions League with Western Sydney Wanderers winning the competition in 2014 and Adelaide United reaching the final in 2008. On the domestic scene, they've improved, but not so much on the national stage as we will find out later.

Looking at China in particular, they have developed a bit of a reputation for recruiting older players for their sides. More and more money is being spent by the Chinese clubs with Guangzhou Evergrande flushing £45m on Atletico Madrid flop Jackson Martinez. It's hard to believe that Martinez only joined the club last summer scoring just 2 league goals in 15 appearances, Atletico must be licking their lips. This transfer smashed the record for the highest amount Chinese side has ever spent on a player with the previous record being £25m - set a week before with the transfer of Ramires from Chelsea to Jiangsu Suning. Similarly, Hebei China Fortune FC, forked out £13.5m to acquire Gervinho from AS Roma in their bid to remain in the Chinese Super League after gaining promotion last year. And he wasn't even that good.

It has been confirmed today that Liverpool's transfer target, Alex Teixeira has been signed by a Jiangsu Suning who are willing to pay the €50m fee to release him from his contract. He's just another one of the contingent that have plied or the potential to ply their trade in the Premier League moving to East Asia. Looking at the Asian club Championship (Asian Champions League), South Korea have the most wins by nation with Pohang Steelers leading the pack with 3 titles. Chinese side Guangzhou Evergrande have won two out of the last three competitions and with the signings made by the former and other Chinese sides, we could witness the nation dominate the competition in the near future. These transfer are firing Chinese football and football in Asia up the rankings and it would surprise me if it were to become the most watched league outside of Europe.

In recent history, the Asian sides don't tend to do too well in the World Cup. When Japan and South Korea hosted the event back in 2002, South Korea reached the semi finals under the stewardship of Guus Hiddink, the best an Asian side has done in the history of the tournament. On their way to the fourth place finish, South Korea beat Portugal in the group stages, Italy in the last 16 and Spain in the quarter finals. They didn't have the easy route. In the most recent competition, none of the four sides that qualified, made it out of the group stages.

For all their riches in the domestic game, China have really not made an impact on the international stage, reaching just the one World Cup in 2002 where they were knocked out in the group stages. Surely with the huge population the likes of India and China should be doing better on the international scene than they already are?  Obviously we need to take into consideration other sports that the nations play with cricket being the dominant force in India. In Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski's book entitled Soccernomics, they mention a chapter on Guus Hiddink's journey with both South Korea. Hiddink took over in 2001 and instilled the ECC philosophy of football, (European Economic Community) a fast, powerful, collectivist style of play. Safe to say it worked. Another impact into the disappointment on the world stage for India and China is that they can be considered developing countries. China are listed 91st and India are listed 135th on the human development index (HDI) as of 2013. If the children of a country are succumbing to illnesses, their growth will be stunted leaving not as developed as someone who was fed three times a day and lived comfortably.

With the likes of Australia and South Korea high in the HDI table, where does that leave them? When Prime Minister Paul Keating announced intentions of Australia joining the Asian confederation in 1994, many thought this would drastically improve the national team, and it has, but probably not to the extent that they thought. Guus Hiddink left Australia at the end of the 2006 World Cup after a very positive experience in the tournament but the players to supplement stars such as Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell and Tim Cahill weren't up to standard and Australia drifted back into mediocrity once again.

After the spirited performance of the Socceroos in 2006, Financial Times Sydney Reporter, Raphael Minder, described their slump as an 'Aussie inferiority complex' aided by the island's geographical isolation and colonial history. This is something that is plausible, particularly as psychology plays a big part in modern sport. Australia failed to pick up a point in the 2014 World Cup group, but that's rather unsurprising considering the copious amounts of talent within the ranks of the Dutch, Spanish and Chileans.

Domestic football in Asia seems to be going from strength to strength however the same cannot be said for the national sides. With the influx of new talent into the Indian and particularly the Chinese leagues, the foreign players may aid the home-grown players in their development as they learn more efficient skills from their experience in Europe. The only way is up for the domestic football in Asia.