Despite being a fan of arch-rival Paris Saint-Germain, hats down to the Olympique Marseille (“OM”) who after 18 long years has finally won the French Premier League again known locally as the “D1″ for division 1. 60,000 fans gathered in the famous “Vieux Port” of Marseille to celebrate their champions. This can only happen in Marseille where “l’oème” is the cement of the rich and the poor, the immigrants and the locals, the left and the right. It reminds me of clubs like Boca Juniors or Atletico Madrid.

World champion coach Didier Deschamps was key in building a very balanced and physical team, perhaps with not so much talent, but finishing very strongly after a hesitant start. Deschamps was also flexible enough to change his central defense after the mid-season, a move which proved to be decisive. Then there was also the excellent second half of Lucho Gonzalez who finished with the highest number of decisive passes. The question for all the white and blue fans now is what future in the next Champions League? Deschamps can sell some players and will benefit from the Champions League pot of money to buy some players at probably much more competitive prices than just 1 to 2 years ago. The key for Marseille is probably to find a great goal scorer.

Maracanazos are generous enough to celebrate arch-rivals.

The recent parody of a game between Lazio and Inter has caused a major outrage in Italy. The behaviour of most Lazio players was scandalous (with the notable exception of the Uruguayan goalkeeper Muslera) in that they didn’t behave professionally and gave Inter an easy win. This will probably mean that Lazio’s archrival AS Roma will not win this year’s scudetto. Prior to the game, Lazio fans had voiced their opinion on forums stating that they would prefer to have their team relegated to the 2nd division (Lazio are not yet sure to stay in the Italian Premier League) rather than seeing AS Roma win the title. I don’t have a problem with that. When you are a die hard fan, part of the passion is as much being against your favourite ennemy as it is in supporting your own team. That is why derbies are so intrinsic to football history. On top of that, there are well know ties between the Inter and Lazio fans which probably didn’t help the context of the game. I’m also quite sure AS Roma fans would have acted just the same had they been in the same position as the Lazio ones.

Where I do have a problem though is that the Lazio staff and players can’t decently behave as they did. We are talking about a professional team being paid heaps of euros to do their job as well as possible. I don’t care if Lazio’s President got death threats, a team just can’t stop playing because some fans have decided to dictate what they should be doing on the pitch. Don’t they have more pride in their club’s values?

This is even more damaging since after a couple of years of decline (decreasing crowds, increasing violence, corruption), this was the first time attendance was increasing again in most Italian clubs in a relatively Ultra free context. The last 2 championship days promise to be very tense in all the games involving Inter and Lazio and I don’t want to imagine the potential problems in the upcoming Italy Cup final between Inter and….AS Roma on Wednesday (this is the 5th time this happens in the last 6 finals). Lazio staff and players should meditate about the climate their behaviour have brought about.

Maracanazos think players should have the balls to act professionally.

Heard these days about the some of the major premier league championships in Europe; if you can’t win the championship, it isn’t so bad since you can also qualify for the European Champions League by finishing second, third or even fourth. Well what do you think about that?!

That’s the reality of major league football these days. Obtaining the national title is still important of course but isn’t vital anymore. A few years back, only champions could participate in the then called European Champion Clubs’ Cup. Now with the European Champions League, priority is given to playing more games, protecting the most prestigious teams and making as much money as possible along the way. The consequence is that it undermines the prestige of winning national titles, at least in the German, French, Italian, English and Spanish leagues where more than one club can participate in the UEFA’s European Champions League. I would propose to rename the competition to something like the European Old Boys’ Cup!

UEFA and Platini should step hard here. I would go as far as to advise underdoing competitive events to football. It’s by creating relevant scarcity that you actually increase the quality of an event and not by proposing more.

Maracanazos argue for less, not more.