Next year is set to be a watershed in European women’s football but there was plenty to remember in 2008.

UEFA WOMEN’S EURO 2009™ runs from 23 August until 10 September next year, with a record 12 teams involved in the finals and hosts Finland hoping for an average attendance of more than 10,000. The organisers will no doubt hope for as much excitement as there was in the qualifying group stage. While first holders Germany and then Sweden clinched automatic finals places with games to spare and ultimately perfect records, the other four groups went to last-match deciders where the teams in second were at home to the leaders. In two the home sides overtook their opponents, France beating Iceland 2-1 and Denmark defeating Ukraine 1-0, while England came from two goals down to get the 2-2 draw they needed in Spain and Norway held Russia 0-0.

At that point, only one of the eight 2005 finalists, Italy, were not already through but they defeated the Czech Republic 3-1 on aggregate in the play-offs to put that right. Iceland, Ukraine and the Netherlands reached the finals for the first time, defeating the Republic of Ireland, Slovenia and Spain respectively, while Russia repeated their 2001 feat but needed away goals to see off Scotland. The draw was held in Helsinki on 18 November: the full fixture list can be seen by clicking here.

Prior to the end of qualifying, Germany, Sweden and Norway travelled to China for the Olympics. Sweden and Norway fell in the quarter-finals and after losing to Brazil, Germany clinched a third consecutive bronze medal 2-0 against Japan while the United States pipped Brazil for gold. Still, Germany will aim for a third straight FIFA Women’s World Cup at home after being named 2011 hosts.

At youth level Germany won the first UEFA European Women’s Under-17 Championship in May in Nyon but two months later lost their grip on the U19 title, Italy beating Norway in the final in France. In the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand, Germany beat England 3-0 for third place while North Korea took the title against the United States. Similarly, in the U20 event in Chile, Germany overcame France to claim the bronze medal, while the US turned the tables on holders North Korea in the final.

At club level, the UEFA Women’s Cup will be transformed in 2009/10 after it was announced in December that a new UEFA Women’s Champions League will take its place, with more entries, more two-legged knockout rounds, and a one-off decider on the eve of the UEFA Champions League final in the same city. That said, the 2007/08 UEFA Women’s Cup final was memorable enough after 1. FFC Frankfurt and Umeå IK beat ASD CF Bardolino Verona and Olympique Lyonnais in the last four.

With the victors to become the first three-time winners, Marta scored in the opening seconds of Umeå’s home leg only for Frankfurt to peg back to 1-1 and in the return a week later a competition record crowd of 27,640 was thrilled by the German side’s 3-2 victory. However, Frankfurt departed the 2008/09 edition in the quarter-finals against league rivals FCR 2001 Duisburg. Duisburg will meet Lyon in the semi-finals in the spring while another club new to the tournament, Zvezda-2005 of Russia, face Umeå.

One of European football’s most historic competitions is being given a total makeover in 2009. The UEFA Cup, which was launched in the 1971/72 season, is to become the UEFA Europa League for the beginning of the 2009/10 campaign as work continues to enhance the image and profile of European club football’s second club competition.

The competition will have a new 48-team group stage with centralised marketing of media rights, a presenting sponsor and an official match ball. It will also have centralised sponsorship from the knockout stage and a new logo and visual identity. The revamping of the competition follows the decision by the UEFA Executive Committee on 30 November 2007 to alter the format of the UEFA Cup and create a group stage in which teams play each other on a home-and-away basis.

The new name and logo is designed to emphasise the special character and unique sporting appeal of a competition that has proved its worth over more than three decades. Europa is an ancient Greek word which is understandable in all languages. UEFA’s ambition in making these changes is to rejuvenate the competition in the light of the new European football landscape, which has shifted significantly with the continued success of the UEFA Champions League, so that the UEFA Europa League can establish itself as a major competition. “We believe that a new name and a new brand identity will help with sponsors and with the whole identity of the competition,” UEFA General Secretary David Taylor told uefa.com when the new name was announced at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting in Bordeaux in September.

The UEFA Europa League will feature 204 matches plus the final. The group stage will comprise 48 sides, split into 12 groups of four. The top two teams in each group will qualify for the knockout phase and will be joined by the eight clubs that finish the group stage of the UEFA Champions League in third place. The knockout stage, with 32 sides and four rounds, will lead to the final, played in a single match at a neutral venue. There will be four qualifying rounds instead of the current two, with an increased number of clubs as a result of the incorporation of places from the discontinued UEFA Intertoto Cup.

UEFA Europa League ties will be played on a Thursday night – or on a Wednesday night during exclusive UEFA Europa League weeks – with two kick-off times, in principle at 19.00 and 21.05CET according to local situations. The final will take place on a Wednesday at 20.45CET.

Former Real Madrid CF and Mexico striker Hugo Sánchez has returned to Spain to replace Gonzalo Arconada as coach of UD Almería, with the club saying that they have hired “a coach who has great charisma”.

The 50-year-old has been charged with avoiding relegation with Almería, who lie 16th in the 20-team Liga, with the club offering the incentive of a one-year contract if he is successful. A club statement read: “UD Almería have banked on a coach who has great charisma, who experienced everything as a player and who now wants to succeed as a manager in Spanish football.”

Sánchez has been looking for a new challenge since being dismissed from his dual role as coach of the Mexico senior and Under-23 teams following his failure to lead the latter to the Olympics this summer. Prior to that spell with Mexico, which ran from November 2006 to March 2008, Sánchez coached Club Universidad Nacional to successive Mexican titles and also led Club Necaxa.

However, it was as a player that he really shone. First arriving in Europe with Club Atlético de Madrid in 1981, he switched to join Real Madrid in 1985, scoring 164 goals in 207 league games and winning five successive titles as well as the 1985/86 UEFA Cup. He was also Spain’s top league scorer in his final season at Atlético and his first four with Madrid, earning him the nickname ‘Pentapichichi’. He also later played for Rayo Vallecano and LASK Linz in Europe, finally retiring in 1998.

The British National Association of Disabled Supporters (NADS) has won the UEFA-backed European Football Supporters Award for 2008. The prize will be presented at Wembley Stadium on 28 March next year at the friendly international match between England and Slovakia.

NADS, an association made up of volunteers which represents disabled supporters in the United Kingdom, aims to make the presence of handicapped supporters in football stadiums possible wherever it can be achieved, believing that the integration of disabled fans with able-bodied supporters will help the former with their overall social acceptance. Since its creation, NADS has dedicated itself to the resolution of such problems as obtaining tickets and the reservation of covered areas with good visibility of the pitch as well as access to toilets, bars, shops and club museums.

Originally known as the Brussels International Supporters Award, the prize has now been renamed the European Football Supporters Award in order to clearly confirm its roots in the domain of European football, where it is already established as one of the most appreciated trophies. Since its creation in 2005 by the City of Brussels and the Dialogic agency, the prize has also benefitted from the considerable support of UEFA, which recognises the importance of the role of supporters in football stadiums and fully appreciates the originality of an award that encourages ethics in sport.

When they created the award, 20 years after the Heysel tragedy in Brussels, the organisers first wanted to pay homage to the victims. That is the reason for which they decided to honour supporters for such behaviour as friendship between supporters, respect for opponents and the referee, fighting against all expressions of racism and xenophobia and the condemnation of all physical or verbal violence.

“The spontaneous support of leading sports organisations, such as UEFA and the IOC, as well as the richness of our list of prize-winners, demonstrates that the creation of the award responded to the expectations of the world of football,” Philippe Housiaux, spokesman for the European Football Supporters Award recently declared. “It is clear that the large majority of spectators want to see an atmosphere of friendship and brotherhood in the stadiums, far from the excesses of violence that have disturbed certain matches. For the public at large, football is above all a festive event.”

Instead it will be Everton’s Merseyside rivals Liverpool who will hold a one point lead at the top of the table going into the festive period.

However, Chelsea can feel lucky that they got away with a point at all as Everton really pressed home their man advantage late in the game and were unlucky not to nick a winner.

An uneventful first-half exploded into life in the 35th minute when Terry was giving his marching orders for a bad lunge on Leon Osman.

It did look as if the England centre-half was making a genuine attempt to play the ball but his foot was high and dangerous and after weighing up the decision for a few moments referee Phil Dowd deemed it worthy of a straight red.

The Chelsea players clearly felt that Dowd was against them all evening and Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and Michael Ballack were all booked on the night for dissent.

All this bluster added spice to an otherwise dull first-half with the two best efforts in that period coming from the unlikely boots of Ashley Cole and Joseph Yobo – but Tim Howard in the second minute and Peter Cech in the 43rd were able to deal comfortably with those respective efforts.

Chelsea started the match with Nicolas Anelka up front on his own but swapped him with Didier Drogba at half-time. Branislav Ivanovic also came on at the break for Joe Cole as Chelsea looked to compensate for Terry’s absence.

A man down, they looked less and less likely to score as the match developed but they were at least comfortably heading for a draw until Everton finally started showing some belief in the final 25 minutes.

The Toffees start launching balls into the Chelsea box at regular intervals and Cech had to be on top form to keep them at bay.

Terry off as Chelsea held by Everton … read more »