Sports Burst - Time To Scrap The Ballon d'Or?
Ballon d'Or prize turns political with accusations of Real Madrid manipulation
Italian paper accuses Real Madrid president of Ballon d'Or skullduggery
And this is why football can't have nice things. They just get ruined.
The Ballon d'Or started life as a fun winter holidays diversion. It was the time when the turtle-neck clad journalists of France Football chose their best player of the year. An individual prize in a team sport - therefore subjective, arbitrary, and plain weird more often than not. Michael Owen. Looking at you.
But then the concept started to get bigger. FIFA joined in, then broke away with its own prize. UEFA got on board with a confusing rival. And now the whole business has turned into a chance for everyone on the internet to yell at each other. Even more.
Thursday sees reports in the Italian and Spanish press that for the first time since 1906, neither Cristiano Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi will be in the final-three shortlist for the prize to be awarded on 3rd December.
Instead, it could be Raphael Varane, Luka Modric and Kylian Mbappe. Fair enough - Varane won the Champions League and World Cup. Modric won the Champions League and reached the World Cup final. Mbappe won the domestic treble in France and the World Cup.
But Italian outlet, Corrierre dello Sport, says the shortlist is down to the dark arts of Real Madrid president, Florentino Perez, who has lobbied to ensure that his three big football player enemies in life - Cristiano Ronaldo (that whole Juventus thing), Leo Messi, Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid) - were struck from the 2018 record.
Not a great deal of proof to be fair, and the paper is ltalian and thus laying claim to Cristiano Ronaldo and his great marketing machine. Quite the hullabaloo has been started.
See, football can't have nice things. Ever.
See what our Sports Burst live show on the beIN SPORTS Facebook page at 12PM ET / 9AM PT has to say about all this.
Nations League claims first victim as O'Neill leaves Ireland
Thought the days of football Euro-crat action was over with the end of the Nations League on Tuesday?
Nope.
UEFA is back in action on Wednesday with the seedings for the draw for the 2020 European Championships, which is due to take place all over Europe, this time around.
Considering it is a 24-team tournament, most nations would have to be spectacularly bad not to qualify - or Scotland.
Notable groupings sees Italy - which failed to reach the World Cup - in Pot 1. Although that sounds fantastic, Pot 1 isn't actually the First Pot. The First Pot is the pot with the Nations League winners in it. Germany is in Pot 2. Which is now the third.
It is really is too early for all of this.
But there is time to announce the Nations League may have claimed its first victim. Republic of Ireland coach, Martin O'Neill, is left his role by mutual consent. A spectacular 2018 of one victory in nine games and finishing bottom of the country's Nations League group did the job.
Julen Lopetegui offers himself to the USMNT
Well, 2018 ended on a bit of a damp squib for the USMNT. A late loss to Italy on Tuesday saw two defeats in November's jaunt to Europe after a loss to England last week.
It now seems just a matter of time for the announcement of Columbus Crew Gregg Berhalter to take over, after what appears to be an exhaustive search of one person. However, another figure did make a play for the job, apparently.
Julen Lopetegui? Remember him? Sacked by both Spain and Real Madrid in a matter of months in a 2018 when the Spanish manager has pretty much dynamited his career. However, in the news broken by Grant Wahl, the interest was rebuffed by US Soccer as coming too late in the process.
Rebuffed too soon, though? Lopetegui has a great deal of experience at international football, developing youth players and speaks English. Sounds like an opportunity missed by US Soccer.
Manchester United to fend off Real Madrid's Rashford raid
TRANSFER TRACKER!
Manchester United has reportedly been spooked by Real Madrid's interest in striker, Marcus Rashford, and will have his salary doubled in a new contract to keep him at Old Trafford.
Frenkie de Jong continues to be the latest fashionable name in the world of transfer gossip with both Manchester City and Barcelona interested in the Ajax midfielder. However, there is no chance of a move in January. Maybe in the summer, though, Who knows.
Iker Muniain has removed himself from the transfer gossip world by signing a new contract with Athletic Bilbao. The forward had been linked with Milan in the summer when his old deal ran out.
Get the latest transfer news on the XTRA at 7PM ET / 4PM PT and everything else you could possible need to know.