Despite their new £5.1 billion (Dh27.8b) television rights deal, the blanket failure of Premier League clubs in the Uefa Champions League has left England looking like Europe’s poor relation.
After Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal fell, Manchester City’s elimination by Barcelona on Wednesday left England with no quarter-final representatives in Europe’s elite club competition for the second time in three years.
For a country that supplied three of the four semi-finalists in 2007, 2008 and 2009 — and eight of the 16 finalists between 2005 and 2012 — it appears to represent a startling fall from grace.
And with Hull City, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur having all fallen short in the Europa League, Everton were the last English team still standing in Europe prior to the second leg of their last-16 tie against Dynamo Kiev last night.
In the Champions League, English clubs have acquired a certain queasiness about progressing beyond the last 16.
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Since 2009/10, 18 of the Premier League’s 24 participants have made it past the group phase, but only eight have progressed to the quarter-finals and only three have gone on to reach the last four.
Attempts to explain the malaise have fallen back on old concerns about England’s draining midseason schedule, which once moved Uefa president Michel Platini to observe that English clubs were “lions in the winter, but lambs in the spring”.
"This round [of 16] is particularly difficult for English teams," City manager Manuel Pellegrini told The Guardian this week. "Not having a winter break gives other leagues' teams an advantage.
“Boxing Day is non-negotiable, a wonderful tradition, and changing it would be absurd, but you can’t play nine games in December and nine in January. It’s a heavy load.”
But although the jam-packed festive programme undoubtedly takes a toll, English teams have not played significantly more games than their continental opponents.
Chelsea have played 44 games this season — one fewer than Paris Saint-Germain, the team who eliminated them from the Champions League. Arsenal have played 45 times to Monaco’s 44, and City 42 times to Barcelona’s 44.
Besides, the Christmas schedule did not appear to be an encumbrance during England’s 2004-2009 continental peak.
For others, the explanations lie elsewhere, with former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher claiming the Premier League’s vast wealth has allowed sloppiness to creep into clubs’ recruitment practices.
“With the new TV deal, the clubs get a lot of money,” he said. “You can bring a player in, but if it doesn’t quite work out, you still have the money to bring another in.”
Any evaluation of the English teams’ woes in this season’s Champions League must, however, also take into account the club-specific failings that led to each side’s elimination.
Chelsea showed complacency by electing not to press home their advantage following the dismissal of PSG’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the second leg of their last-16 tie, enabling the French champions to claim a 2-2 draw that sent them through on away goals.
Arsenal paid the price for reckless attacking — a habitual failing — in their 3-1, first-leg loss to Monaco, while in setting City out in a porous 4-4-2 formation, Pellegrini allowed Barcelona to take control of their tie with a 2-1, first-leg win.
Success is also cyclical, and with Manchester United in transition following former manager Alex Ferguson’s retirement, England have lost their dominant European force of the last 20 years.
According to Steven Gerrard, who saw Liverpool bounce back from a fourth-round Uefa Cup exit in 2004 to win the Champions League the following season, it is too soon for soul-searching.
“I don’t think it has been our year, but I don’t think it is a crisis,” the Liverpool captain said.
“It has happened before where teams have gone out early and then come back the next year and won it.
“It’s not a major problem. It’s just that this season, English teams have not been good enough.”
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Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
if you go
The flights
Flydubai offers three daily direct flights to Sarajevo and, from June, a daily flight from Thessaloniki from Dubai. A return flight costs from Dhs1,905 including taxes.
The trip
The Travel Scientists are the organisers of the Balkan Ride and several other rallies around the world. The 2018 running of this particular adventure will take place from August 3-11, once again starting in Sarajevo and ending a week later in Thessaloniki. If you’re driving your own vehicle, then entry start from €880 (Dhs 3,900) per person including all accommodation along the route. Contact the Travel Scientists if you wish to hire one of their vehicles.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Company%20profile
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Paltan
Producer: JP Films, Zee Studios
Director: JP Dutta
Cast: Jackie Shroff, Sonu Sood, Arjun Rampal, Siddhanth Kapoor, Luv Sinha and Harshvardhan Rane
Rating: 2/5
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
UAE v United States, T20 International Series
Both matches at ICC Academy, Dubai. Admission is free.
1st match: Friday, 2pm
2nd match: Saturday, 2pm
UAE squad: Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Shaiman Anwar, Rameez Shahzad, Amjad Gul, CP Rizwan, Mohammed Boota, Abdul Shakoor, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Amir Hayat
USA squad: Saurabh Netravalkar (captain), Jaskaran Malhotra, Elmore Hutchinson, Aaron Jones, Nosthush Kenjige, Ali Khan, Jannisar Khan, Xavier Marshall, Monank Patel, Timil Patel, Roy Silva, Jessy Singh, Steven Taylor, Hayden Walsh
Result
Tottenhan Hotspur 2 Roma 3
Tottenham: Winks 87', Janssen 90 1'
Roma 3
D Perotti 13' (pen), C Under 70', M Tumminello 90 2"
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
The years Ramadan fell in May
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
Honeymoonish
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Dark Souls: Remastered
Developer: From Software (remaster by QLOC)
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Price: Dh199
