Football You Missed, 11 Feb: Dutch and Belgian football to combine?

12:00pm on Tuesday 11th February 2020
By Martin Macdonald

TO BeNe OR NOT TO BeNe

Dutch Eredivisie and the Belgian Jupiler Pro League are reportedly planning to combine their leagues in an attempt to pre-empt a potential European Super League. The new 18-team league, according to German magazine Kicker, dubbed at the moment as the 'BeNe League', could feature 10 teams from the Netherlands and eight from Belgium and could reportedly be worth €400m in revenue.

Club Brugge CEO Bart Verhaeghe told Kicker:

"We cannot ignore the new reality. Sooner or later, there will be a European Super League with games between Bayern Munich and Real Madrid on Sundays."

The Eredivisie and the Belgian Jupiler Pro League are reportedly considering merging together to create an 18 team league...

Would you like to see more leagues merging? If so which ones?
— The Sportsman (@TheSportsman) February 7, 2020

WANTED - 6,000 NEW FANS

This week, Emmanuel Adebayor agreed a deal to move to Paraguayan side, Club Olimpia. His new team decided to plan a revealing which would see 20,000 new fans sign up as members.

The problem is, only 14,000 have signed up so far, leading the club to release a social media message asking for more - and they have even extended the deadline by 24 hours! Wait, you're saying Adebayor ISN'T popular in Paraguay?!

Having failed to hit 20,000 new members by Monday in order to announce the signing of Emmanuel Adebayor, Olimpia have extended their deadline by 24 hours. They are around 6,000 short. https://t.co/sZeWZHSw1Y
— Tom Webber (@thwebber) February 10, 2020

BANANADRAMA

It was a fiery encounter between Racing Club and Independiente which the former won 1-0 after two players from each team were sent off.

However, Chelo Diaz proved himself to be the coolest man in the stadium late on as he started eating a banana while standing over a free-kick. Not only that, but they would go on to score from the free-kick with part of the banana still hanging out of his mouth!

Nunca vi algo igual. El Chelo Díaz patea un tiro libre COMIENDO UNA BANANA, tranquilo, como si estuviera en el living de su casa. Después hace el gol del triunfo, Racing jugando con 9, Independiente con 11.

Hallazgo de @PasoaPaso. pic.twitter.com/PyNYpG6ROo
— Juan Claudio Castro (@juancastroMDP) February 10, 2020

(OWN) GOAL OF THE SEASON?

Lyon fought back to bring the scoreline back to 3-2 after being 3-0 down against PSG, only to eventually lose 4-2.

The third for the Parisiens was one of the funniest of the season. Julian Draxler hits the line after a pass from Kylian Mbappe before firing a cross into the box, which suddenly comes back to him off the defender, which he, suddenly again, puts back in. It all proves a bit too crazy for Marcal, who ends up rifling a finish into the roof of his own net.

This is the point where you put your controller through the TV and rage quit FIFA 😂

Outrageous own goal!

Beautiful finish to be fair... pic.twitter.com/YDLIkV2zAc
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) February 9, 2020

SCAMAVINGA

Rennes announced late last week that club president Olivier Letang had been sacked by the club, without really providing a reason.

Now, according to L'Equipe, he went behind the club's back to illegally tout star wonderkid Eduardo Camavinga to Real Madrid for a potential summer transfer.

The 17-year-old is one of the most sought-after young players in Europe now after breaking into the Rennes first team, and is expected to fetch the club a huge fee either this summer or in the near future. If the reports are to be believed, Letang wanted to benefit financially from that deal.

Now, though, he'll miss out on any commission. Cheaters never prosper.

Olivier Létang, the now former president of Stade Rennais, was in talks with Real Madrid over Eduardo Camavinga - Real wanted to close the signing now ahead of a summer move but Létang didn't inform the higher management. This was one of the reasons he got fired. [@lequipe] pic.twitter.com/5rlhasGeI3
— Infinite Madrid (@InfiniteMadrid) February 8, 2020