A third attempt by Guadalajara to sign Shakhtar Donetsk striker Nery Castillo has fallen in tatters, with the Mexican club blaming the footballer's agent for demonstrating a "lack of reliability". Castillo had been training at Guadalajara with the view to securing a loan deal that would allow him to participate in the remainder of the Mexican Primera Division season and the Copa Sudamericana. Click to continue reading...

OK, so it's not the UEFA Champions League. And there are at least 10 things we'd do to improve it. But this season's UEFA Cup is actually looking pretty good. The group stage starts today, and there are some big teams involved. Scoff all you want, but if you don't look forward to games like Aston [.. Click to continue reading...

Uefa cup Watch the game LIVE here Pre-register at the NEW football site 11×2 today Don`t forget to sign up 11×2.com - the next big football site Click to continue reading...

Got a train to catch, so I'll make this quick: the under 21s lost 2-1 in Austria last night, leaving things in the balance for the second leg in Turku this Tuesday. Perparim Hetemaj got the goal for Finland. I'm hearing from the Greek football press that Jukka Raitala was watched by Olympiacos last night. Click to continue reading...

AEK fans are as familiar as any Greek fans with the suspicious way decisions are made (or not made, or unmade) by the EPO (the Greek FA). Last year, as has been well-documented on this blog, Olympiacos was able to take the League Championship from AEK through a shady court maneuver (essentially Oly argued that [. Click to continue reading...

Making Kyrgiakos captain was not enough to limit the damage when playing the red team away, so now we've slipped to sixth.  We'll have to wait another week to move back up though, since World Cup 2010 qualifiers return this weekend. Speaking of which, former AEK star Lyberopoulos is trying to rally the fans behind the [. Click to continue reading...

Olympiacos F.C. (Greek: Π.Α.Ε. Ολυμπιακός), also known as simply Olympiacos, Olympiacos Piraeus or with its full name Olympiacos C.F.P. (Greek: Oλυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς), is a Greek football club that is part of Olympiacos CFP, based in Piraeus, Athens. Click to continue reading...

Here is yet another story of a Samba skill artist working his magic in front of his home crowd. Brazilian players are found in virtually every domestic league in Europe. Except, this name might be unfamiliar.

Jajá, a forward playing in the Ukrainian Premier League, has an opportunity to write his own transfer out of town if he can continue to dominate his opponents in his UEFA Cup group much like he has in the UPL. Click to continue reading...

UEFA held the draw for the UEFA Cup group stage today and some fascinating pairings emerged. Both Martin Jol and Steve McClaren will take their new clubs back to England as FC Twente will face Manchester City and Jol's Hamburg will take on Aston Villa. This year's groups are looking really tough and the field contains [. Click to continue reading...

Olympiacos beat an offensively weak AEK yesterday in the second main Athens Derby of the season. This was the first week in the Superleague where AEK did not gain a point (AEK had two draws and two wins up to this point). Fortunately for AEK, its still early in the season, and there is still time [.. Click to continue reading...

I never knew how hard it would be to keep this up for 30 straight days!
Alas, I've made my readers a promise, so on I chug.

Today's big news is ... umm ... there's really not much to say.

We all know about Silva's operation. Godspeed.
We have word that Valencia haven't elected a team captain yet.

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We drew away at PAOK yesterday in the Dikefalo Derby, a match of two halves, the first exciting, the second decidedly dull, both teams seemingly willing to settle for a draw rather than push and probe and risk a costly mistake. Honestly, we were lucky to earn a point in this match. PAOK were ready [. Click to continue reading...

Notable arrivals: Vitor Flora, Robbie Keane (Tottenham), David Ngog (PSG), Philipp Degen (Borussia Dortmund), Andrea Dossena (Udinese), Diego Cavalieri (Palmeiras), Vincent Lucas Weijl (AZ Alkmaar), Emmanuel Mendy (Murcia Deportivo). Notable departures: Sebastian Leto (Olympiacos, loan), Harry Kewell (Galatasaray), John Arne. Click to continue reading...

Notable arrivals: Robbie Keane (Tottenham), David Ngog (PSG), Philipp Degen (Borussia Dortmund), Andrea Dossena (Udinese), Diego Cavalieri (Palmeiras), Vincent Lucas Weijl (AZ Alkmaar), Emmanuel Mendy (Murcia Deportivo). Notable departures: Sebastian Leto (Olympiacos, loan), Harry Kewell (Galatasaray), John Arne Riise (Roma),. Click to continue reading...

Four clubs surprised the pundits by pulling off impressive victories against higher ranked outfits. Based on current rankings:

• Anorthosis Famagusta (ranked 193) defeated Olympiacos (ranked 44)
• FC BATE Borisov (unranked) defeated Levski Sofia (ranked 80)
• Atlético Madrid (ranked 67) defeated Schalke 04 (ranked 22)
• Dynamo Kyiv (ranked 74) defeated Spartak Moscow (ranked 61)

FC BATE from Belarus and Anorthosis from Cyprus are the first clubs from their perspective countries to ever qualify for the UEFA Champions League.

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I can't believe it, but it is a reality:Olympiacos is officially out of the UEFA Champions League for this season. It's something I wouldn't expect to say until after the group stage, or even later -- especially after making the Round of 16 lineup. Unfortunately, 'O Thrylos' couldn't stave off Click to continue reading...

Uefa Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round Leg 2: Olympiacos Piraeus are meeting Anorthosis Famagusta FC Wednesday August 27th. Watch the highlights and LIVESTREAM here at footiedb.com Pre-register at the NEW football site 11×2 today Click to continue reading...

Notable arrivals: Robbie Keane (Tottenham), David Ngog (PSG), Philipp Degen (Borussia Dortmund), Andrea Dossena (Udinese), Diego Cavalieri (Palmeiras), Vincent Lucas Weijl (AZ Alkmaar), Emmanuel Mendy (Murcia Deportivo). Notable departures: Sebastian Leto (Olympiacos, loan), Harry Kewell (Galatasaray), John Arne Riise (Roma),. Click to continue reading...

This article compares AEK to an English Premiership team.  That's almost as funny as this! Click to continue reading...

The 3rd qualifying round usually goes unnoticed unless your team is participating simply because it usually shakes out how it should. The minnows go home and the teams deserving of a spot in the group stages somehow found their way. Couple of relatively surprising early exits this year came in the form of Rangers, well [. Click to continue reading...

2008-09 Pre season match: Racing Santander are meeting Olympiacos in a friendly match Wednesday August 06th Watch the highlights and LIVESTREAM here at footiedb.com   Pre-register at the NEW football site 11×2 today! Click to continue reading...

Alex is off on vacation and I've been busy at work, on my amatuer team AEK Baltimore (three games in three days) and nursing a nasty case of Athletic Pubalgia, so we've let the blog slide a few days. My apologies. The news has really started to pile up. AEK destroyed Turkish-side Ancaragucu on Sunday in Austria. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool midfielder Sebastien Leto has spoken positively about being loaned to Greek giants Olympiacos.

Argentine midfielder Sebastien Leto has been loaned to Olympiacos by Liverpool after the English Premier League side were unsuccessful in seeking a work permit for him.

Leto played last season under an Italian passport, but that was revoked following an investigation by the Italian authorities into passport irregularities. Click to continue reading...

Olympiacos and Panathinaikos must wait for the 3rd Qualifying Round opponents, after both were paired with clubs still involved a 2nd Round tie. Greek Champions Olympiacos were joined by the tie featuring Cypriot side Anorthosis Famagusta, and Austria club Rapid Wien. Meanwhile, Panathinaikos -- who lead their tie by a Click to continue reading...

Officials from Olympiacos and Panathinaikos will be present in Nyon tomorrow (13:00 GR; 6:00am Eastern), for the 3rd Round Qualifying draw for the 2008/2009 edition of the UEFA Champions League. Olympiacos will make their entrance into the competition in the upcoming round, while Panathinaikos currently have a 3-0 aggregate lead Click to continue reading...

The latest reports have Papastathopoulos, the 20 year old rising star, moving to Genoa (10th in Serie A). This is hardly surprising as he has been rumored to be moving to a bigger club for more than a year now. More surprising is the news that Kyrgiakos is set to be his replacement. Kygriakos is pure [. Click to continue reading...

It was just brought to my attention that about a week ago one of the bloggers at the Guardian did a piece on Rivaldo. You can read it here. It's a strange article really, often lapsing into the past tense, as if, in the author's opinion, the Rivaldo he remembers isn't playing anymore, [...] Click to continue reading...

"Better dead than Red." It's an old anti-communist slogan, but I'm pretty sure it's how Rivaldo has felt about his old club for most of the past year. Given the latest news, he certainly feels that way now as do most AEK supporter (and the supporters of other clubs that want some fairness [...] Click to continue reading...

All the drama of the past week could not put a damper on our play. We are in top form. And as all our fans knew, and now all of Greece knows, we are the real Champions. Despite the EPO, regardless of Olympiaco's money, forgetting how even the CAS would not put things right, [...] Click to continue reading...

Apollon Kalamarias had their day in court, as the saying goes, and they lost. Yes, its a shame. We would all even many Olympiacos fans prefer to see the Championship settled on the pitch, not in a courtroom. But that is not the world we live in. Olympiacos has been [...] Click to continue reading...

With so much focus on the English Premier League and its dominance of the Champions League, I wanted to switch gears and take a look at some of the other leagues in Europe.

We start in Germany, where FC Bayern München took their first step towards a treble with a win in the DFB Pokal (German Cup) final against Borussia Dortmund. Click to continue reading...

One of our sources in Greece just wrote in with the following update: The Court of Arbitration for Sport held its hearing today and it lasted 9 hours. Kalamaria and Olympiakos were there with their lawyers. AEK and PAO were there but were not allowed to intervene. If I understood correctly, Oly objected to having [. Click to continue reading...

I mean it. On February 3rd, a scrappy Apollon Kalamarias side upset heavily-favored champions Olympiacos 1-0. Olympiacos ran to the EPO protesting that Apollon fielded an ineligible player. The EPO ruled in Olympiacos's favor, reversed the result of the match and docked Apollon an additional point. Click to continue reading...

AEK won what seemed a fairly easy match. The team's form seemed, from the sunday nigh highlights, to be in good shape. We saw goals from Lyberopoulos who scored from another long range effort, one from Papastothopoulos who scored his first of the season, a goal from Blanco and one from Kallon. The first goal came [. Click to continue reading...

Yes, according to this article, but the needed slip in form by Olympiacos seems unlikely to me. Click to continue reading...