Full 90: Your Weekly Football Wrap-Up

Welcome to the Full 90—a brief but comprehensive review of the headlines, news, matches, events and stories from the week in international football. 

With this feature, I hope to cover both the biggest happenings in the sport and also the obscure, little-known stories from unexpected origins. 

I’m going to break the news down into delectable, digestible morsels of condensed information so you can enjoy reading this with a happy hour martini. Or, if you're reading this under a martini as a coaster, that’s perfectly OK with me. 

On a day-to-day basis, the sport never fails to entertain and interest us in new ways.  I’m captivated by it and confounded by it—sometimes all in one sitting. 

As the world’s only true global game, the passion I have for football expresses itself across the widest spectrum imaginable and it’s always fascinating tapping into alternative perspectives. 

If I can relay some of that in this space, all the better.

Return of the Champions League

Benfica and Zenit St. Petersburg provided the most entertaining of the Champions League round of 16 matchups that commenced this week. 

A 3-2 win for the Russians in a game that featured two phenomenal goalkeeper blunders, a back-heeled goal setup from a back-heel flick and a polar bear pitch invasion (that last thing is not true but it was that cold at the Petrovsky stadium).

Milan dismantled Arsenal, 4-0, in Thierry Henry’s last game on loan with the Gunners. Zlatan Ibrahimovic set up Robinho's brace before getting his own from the penalty spot.  Kevin-Prince Boateng had opened the scoring with a spectacular volley.  Arsene Wenger officially takes over the hot seat from crosstown manager Andre Villas-Boas.

Barcelona won 3-1 in Germany, but the halftime bust up in the Leverkusen locker room over who gets to exchange jerseys with Leo Messi was the highlight of this match. 

Leverkusen defenders Michal Kadlec and Manuel Friedlich fought each other for Messi’s shirt at halftime after the Argentine gave it to Kadlec. Kadlec ended up asking Messi a second time after the full 90 since Friedlich had taken the first one from him. 

The Handshake

Luis Suárez did little to stem the animosity directed at him after serving an eight-game ban for racially abusing Manchester United’s defender Patrice Evra. 

In only his second game back, Suárez skipped over the outstretched hand of Evra in the pregame lineup before Liverpool faced United at Old Trafford last Saturday. The game was a tense, ill-mannered affair, including a bust up in the tunnel as both teams went in after the first half, won 2-1 by Man. U. in the end.  

Sir Alex called Suarez “a disgrace” in post-match commentary, Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish, only after reviewing the incident, released a flood of apologies and the player himself has admitted the err of his ways. 

However, Suárez is now the subject of transfer rumors to French Ligue 1 leader Paris St. Germain.  According to L’Equipe, Suárez could move in the summer to join countryman and PSG captain Diego Lugano, who staunchly defended Suárez's actions in his own blog this week.

Zambia Triumphs

Zambia beat tournament favorite, Ivory Coast, 8-7 on penalties to win the Africa Cup of Nations. 

It was not only their first win at the preeminent continental competition, but also came in Libreville—the capital of Gabon and the site of a national and football tragedy in 1993. 

A military plane carrying the squad to a World Cup qualifying match in Senegal crashed into the ocean off the coast of Libreville shortly after taking off.  All 18 players on board as well as the coaching and training staff perished.  The only survivor from that team was European based, Kalusha Bwalya. 

Bwalya was on hand (and is now the president of the Zambian Federation) to celebrate the memory of his 1993 teammates with the 2012 champions of Africa.

(Very) Early Transfer Talk

The hottest property in European football hinted this week that his preference is to join the aforementioned Arsene Wenger at Arsenal next year. 

Eden Hazard, the 21-year-old Belgian winger, has notched nine goals and eight assists for third placed Lille in the French first flight this season. 

His play has also drawn the attention of the Spanish giants, but the rising star told Sport Foot Magazine that he prefers England, specifically citing their attacking style, Wenger and Thomas Vermaelen as influential factors toward a possible move to the Emirates come summer time.

FIFA Crimes, No Punishment

The head of Brazil’s football federation, Ricardo Teixeira, has been accused by the Folha de S. Paulo of over-charging air bills and hotel stays for the international friendly between Brazil and Portugal in 2008. 

The FIFA executive committee member is no stranger to financial irregularities—he’s also been implicated by the Brazilian congress in taking bribes to the tune of $1 million for World Cup marketing rights. 

Despite renewed calls for his resignation according to O Globo, Teixeira had a normal week of work and has no plans to leave the CBF.

Jack Warner, the former president of CONCACAF, whose penchant for corruption was too obvious for even FIFA to ignore, is in the headlines again. 

Haitian officials have noted to FIFA that only $60,000 of a $750,000 emergency aid donation after that country’s devastating earthquake has been received.  FIFA and the South Korean federation wired the money through the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation of which Warner was the head at the time (he was also a vice president on the FIFA executive committee). 

So his growing wrap sheet now includes: black market World Cup ticket sales, taking bribes for his World Cup 2018 vote, offering cash for votes during the FIFA presidential campaign of 2011 and stealing aid money that was destined for the Haitian earthquake victims. 

By the way, when Warner resigned from his post at FIFA in June 2011, the ethics committee that was investigating his various misdeeds immediately dropped the case and presumed him innocent.  That move allowed Warner to receive the nearly $36,000/year pension which was suspended pending the outcome of this investigation.