Champions in Top footballing nations (as per current FIFA Ranking)

1. Belgium - Club Brugge (16th tittle) 

(most tittles - Anderlecht -34 )

2. France - PSG (9th tittle) 

(most tittles- St Etienne -10 )

3. Brazil - Flamengo (6th tittle) 

(most Champions - Palmeiras)

4. England - Liverpool (19th tittle) 

(most Champions- Manchester United -20)

5. Uruguay - Nacional (47 tittles) 

(most tittle- Penarol/CURCC)

6. Croatia - Dinamo Zagreb (21- most tittle )

7. Portugal - Porto (29th tittle) 

(most tittles- Benefica-37)

8. Spain - Real Madrid (34th tittle-most tittles)

9. Argentina - Boca Juniors (34th tittle) (most tittles- Riverplate-36)

10. Columbia - America De Cali (14th tittle) (most tittles- Atletico Nacional - 16)

11. Mexico - Monterrey (5th tittle) 

(most tittles- America -13)

12. Switzerland - Young Boys (13th tittle) (most tittles- Grasshopper -27)

13. Italy - Juventus (36th most tittles)

14. Netherlands - Ajax (34 -most tittles)

15. Germany - Bayern Munich (29th- most tittles)

The Queen of Football Leagues at its best !

England, where it all started still continues to thrill millions. When a very interesting and dramatic season comes to an end, Liverpool came out as Champions. A season which saw corona pandemic break, and matches without audience. My favourite team Chelsea are currently 3rd (2 matches remaining) and Manchester City secured second position. City scored most number of goals and also they have best goal difference in the season, but lost few crucial games. Season had importance in the history of the game as VAR was introduced this season.

Unbeatable Liverpool

Liverpool came close to 2003-04 Arsene Wenger's Arsenal set 49 matches winning streak, with 44 wins before losing against Watford 3-0. They waited 30 years to become champions and when they did, did it in style. It is also their 19 the tittle so far. They were able to make sure the trophy with 7 matches remaining with the likes of super strickers Salah, Mane and Firmino, they had reply to almost all opponents.

Vs Man Utd 1-1
Vs Burnley 1-1
Vs Man City 0-4
Vs Everton 0-0
Vs Watford 0-3
Vs Arsenal 1-2

These are the only matches they lost points this season.

Salah is currently third in top scorer list with 19 goals and Mane scored 16 so far. Firmino has been pivotal with scoring and assist,  Captain Hernandez, Fabinho and Van Dijk also scored in important games. Alex Arnold leads the team in assists by being part of 12 goals. Experts say Firmino more potential at front for Klopp's Liverpool , who hold and make Mane and Salah score with key passes.

Sheffield making history

I first noticed Sheffield ,when they held Chelsea 2-2 draw. But, that was just a start for Chris Wilder team. Soon, they managed to break Birmingham's record of highest points by a newly promoted team in Premiere League. This season they reached Premier League with a double promotion. In 36 matches they scored only 38 goals and conceded 33, but gained points in vital matches. Sheffield Goal keeper Henderson had a superb season. His performance was a key in their success with 13 clean sheets (3 matches left). At one point , they were eyeing top 4 position.

Resurrection of Southampton

On 25 October 2019, Southampton suffered their worst ever loss at home in their history 0-9. Leicester didn't show any mercy on the Saints on that rainy day till last whistle. While I am writing this , they are 12th with 3 matches remaining, safe from bottom of table, with 13wins and 6 draws. Among those 13, 11 wins came after that horrifying match. They even avenged by defeating Leicester at their home 2-1. They also defeated Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester City, held Arenal and Manchester United for draws. Danny Ings is currently third in top scorer. Once at bottom team is now looking to finish within first 10.

Other Notable incidents from the Season

Manchester City's Sergio Aguero is now leading goal scoring foreign player, which was Theory Henry earlier. He also equalled Alan Shearer's record of most number of hattricks. (12). Also, this would be David Silva's last season with Manchester City.

Spurs bring Mourinho back to Premier league. When he arrived, team were struggling at 15th spot. Son has scored a solo wonder goal against West Ham after dribbling the ball 65 yards from his own half.

Rashford has been phenomenal in the start of the season but his injury proved to be hard for Manchester United. Even after missing many matches , he managed to score 16 goals for the club. Martial also scored 16 so far.

"Again they played well but lost" - this became a usual comment for Norwich this season. With Pukki, and Cantwell in team, they always played really well, but lacked the winning touches. They started well with win over defending champions Manchester City 3-2. Their build up play from back was also beautiful but eventually became first team to get relegated this season after suffering 8 consecutive losses.

This was first season since 2010-11 without a Wales team as Cardiff City FC relegated last year.

Chelsea with trasfer ban used their experience and youngsters to adjust. With  legend Lampard taking charge of club from Sarri, team gained energy. He used Tammy Abraham at front most of the league matches instead of more experienced Giroud. Willian, Jorginho, Pedro had been important players for Chelsea this season.

After a disastrous start, Unai Emery was sacked from Arsenal and later Mikel Arteta took charge as manager. He surely bring some change in playing , but team is still at 9th.

I would say Portugal national team is practicing in England. Their new sensation Bruno Fernandez joined Manchester United after many of the national players playing in Wolves. Wolves were a real nut to crack this season , Adama Traore's excellence and players like Raul Gimenez, Jao Moutinho, Ruben Neves, neto, Jota playing at the club. Portugal keeper Rui Patricio is also enjoying a good season at the current 7th positioned team. Podence also recently joined Wolves. Jao Cancelo and Bernardo Silva are at Manchester City. Klopp says Traore as the "undefensible" player. Carlo Ancelotti felt pressure at Everton during the middle of the season, but Richarlison showing superman powers and Calwert Lewis finding net at times, they managed to find winning ways again.

I am hoping for a tougher next season at English premier league as Chelsea bringing new players, Manchester City scoring at will, Klopp will be trying to defend the hard earned tittle, and teams like Arsenal, Spurs, United trying to come up and regain their top spots. With new management at Newcastle, they also will dream high. Leicester , Wolves, Everton teams will be trying to get European championships.

Again I congratulate Champions Liverpool and Jorgen Klopp.

Thank you all.

Vineeth Pankajan

Royal Belgian Dominion

Do you know which team is FIFA number 1 in football ranking? Not Brazil the most favourite team, not France the current world champions, not Germany the most successful team in men's football.... it's a new team at top- Belgium.

Ever since introduction of Ranking in 1992, only 8 teams have attained that position ever - Italy, Brazil, Germany , Spain, France, Netherlands, Belgium and Argentina.  Brazil have spent longest time as number 1. Belgium and Holland are the only teams to reach that high, without winning world cup.

Out of 21 World Cup tournaments, Belgium were part of 13 , first in 1930. Their previous best was 4th place finish in 1986. They saw a decline after 2002, when they failed to qualify for 2006, 2010 world cups. 

They started showing strength at the start of this decade. Their Golden generation were getting notice then. Thibault Courtois was selected as Belgian Goal Keeper of the year in 2011, when he was just 19 years old. Eden Hazard was in French Club Lille and was key in their crowning after 54 years in Ligue 1 in 2009. He was just 20 years old and became first ever player from outside France to become Player of the year. He continued his performance in 2010 and 2011 and recieved award 2 more times. Vincent Kompany had already gained a place in Manchester City. Jan Vertonghen was an inevitable part of Tottenham Hotspur. Witsel and Lukaku were making name by then at the age of 19. Kevin De Bruyn was also in limelight. He was considered as a future great creative midfielder , by scoring and creating chances. Fellaini was another midfielder with great potential.  You must be knowing Dries Mertens for sure. Mousa Dembele, Chadli, Benteke are other prominent players of current Belgian squad.

Their plan was "Back to Basics" (India's current slogan is "learn from past") they wanted to produce quality players to lift the standard of their league and therer by improving football in the country instead of buying big players. Also, they thought those players would bring income to local Belgian clubs when they sell/transfer. It worked.

Along with their no 1 ranking, world is now discussing their swift counter attack goal against Japan in 2018 world cup, which came just in 13 seconds, after a Japan corner, at the injury time of second round.

Belgium were group leaders ahead of England in first round, scoring 9 goals and conceding just 2. But in second round, Japan looked going ahead when they took 2-0 lead. Belgium showed real strength by scoring 2 goals before 90 minutes. 94 th min winner and heart breaker for Japan was beyond words and imagination of anyone. It was a complete team goal, only possible to create with a long long time playing together experience and coordination. In quarter finals, they beat Brazil in a thriller. But, France beat them 1-0 , with a parking bus strategy. Courtois said after match "It was better to lose to Brazil, they were better opponents". In the third place match, Belgium beat England second time in the tournament.
All believe, they were a team that could have lifted the ultimate trophy of Football World.
Courtois and Hazard were awarded Golden glove and Silver ball respectively in 2018.

Royal Belgian Football Association manages football in Belgium. It was a founding member of FIFA (1904) and UEFA(1954). League system have 6 divisions, starting from First Division A to Provincial Leagues. Club Brugge are the current champions in top division. Also there are women leagues and cup tournaments.

By,
Vineeth Pankajan


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Iceland : a 3 million dream

Iceland

Iceland is an Island in North Atlantic Ocean, with a population of just 3.6 million people. Majority of the people stay near and around south west Iceland, Reykjavic, Capital city. Through out the year, weather is chilled, by polar climate, but it's heated by oceanic gulf stream.

Iceland have one of the oldest and longest running parliament- Althing. They are believed to be transcends of Vikings. Icelandians believe in unity, strength and valor. With so many changes in rules, they finally became republic in 1944. Iceland is a country which did Industrialization of Fisheries, and became rich. They joined European Union economy in 1994, it stays high in economic, democratic and social stability. It's a peaceful country with no standing army. They are very social and we'll connected to community.

Iceland is very fond of sports. People love handball, football, athletics, swimming, basketball, tennis, golf, shooting, etc. Oldest sports association in the country is Shooting association. Handball team won silver medal in 2008 Beijing Olympics. But the most famous sports person of the country is Eidur Gudjohnson, football player, who had a long good career at Chelsea and later at Barcelona. In his 22 year old career, he played in England, Spain, France, Holland, Belgium, Greece. He was able to be part of team winning Champions league, Premier League, FA Cup, La liga. He is the top scorer for the country too. His father Arnor Gudjohnson was also Iceland national team player. They played a match together in 1996, a match against Estonia, when father substituted for son, which happened for the first time ever.


Iceland Football Association

Football Association of Iceland was formed in 1947, and joined FIFA. It's based in Reykjavic. Urvalsdeild is the league of Iceland. Under KSI, there are U17, U21, Women , Futsal, and senior men's national teams. Women team have a better performance record compared to men.

The Rise

In 2012, Iceland was ranked 122 in FIFA. Since then they climbed to 34 by the time of Euro 2016. They beat Netherland twice, Czech Republic and Turkey. In Euro, they reached quarter finals. This was the first time they qualify for a world level competition. Their best ranking was 18, in 2018.

This came not as a surprise. Because of the climatic situations, registered players were very few and outdoor practice was hard. They started plan to solve this in 1990s. They started building domed football pitches, known as "Football Houses". One of them were full sized while some half sized. Now almost all schools have atleast one 5s ground . These football houses are publicly owned, making it accessible to common people. Also, they conducted coaching courses frequently, with low expense, without expecting profit from it. By this, 1 in every 500 Icelandian is a coach compared to 1 in every 10000 in England. Their main stadium is at Laugardalsvöllur , in capital city Reykjavik, with a capacity of only 15000.

Even though Iceland football hasn't been into much of International Championships, their relegation based league system was started in 1955. Before that, they started a tournament in 1912. Currently, there are 5 divisions, first and top being Icelandic Premier league. First 3 divisions have 12 teams/clubs each. Fourth have 10, fifth have 4 sub divisions with 33 clubs being part of it.

World Cup

Iceland men's national team is known as "our boys". They applied for participating in 1954 World cup, but it was rejected. In 1958, took part in qualifying round, but couldn't win any game, were last in their group conceding 26 goals. Since 1974, they have been competing in qualifiers of every World cup and Euro Cup.


They came close to getting qualified in 2014. They reached upto playoff, where they held Croatia 0-0 in home match, but lost to 2-0 in away. When they got ticket for 2018 World cup, Iceland became the smallest country ever by population to get qualified for the tournament. It was their first ever participation in the tournament. There were nationwide celebrations when they got qualified. One of the commentator said during a world cup match "it looks like almost everyone is here from Iceland to see their historic match".

Iceland were placed in along with Croatia, Nigeria and Argentina in Group, which was considered to be "group of death".  They held Argentina for a 1-1 draw. But, lost to Nigeria and Croatia. Despite high expectations from fans and media, they were out in group stage.


EURO

Their first ever participation in the tournament was in 2016. In group stages, they were with Portugal, Hungary and Austria.

They held Portugal and Hungary 1-1 draw. In the thrid match against Austria, they managed to defeat them 2-1. England was their opponents in second round. Iceland defeated England 2-1 recoding one of the biggest upset of the tournament. England manager Roy Hugdson resigned soon after the final whistle, in disgrace. They lost to France in the Quarter Finals 5-2. Their Viking clap got attention in the tournament.

Women's Team

Women Football is popular and successful in Iceland. They have never qualified for World cup, but were able to participate in European championships 3 times. They have reached quarter finals in1995 and 2013.

U17

Iceland U17 and U20 teams have never been able to qualify for World Cup. U17 took part in European championships 8 times since 1985, and U20 team 6 times, but were not able to make much impact beyond group stage performances.





The best part of the story from Iceland was their plan to make less expensive coach education. They understood the base and it will give them sure success in future. Without doubt, we will be seeing more successful campaigns an Viking claps from Iceland teams. 

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