The Hundred Club

There's more than a hundred and the Super Cup doesn't count: The feed for the blog from the article about my decades of bagging European club finalists.

[The Hundred Club @The100Club2]

@thefactualist_1 What? There was a bigger crowd at the Pasadena Rosebowl the last time the World Cup final was in the US, bigger crowds both times the final was held in Mexico City's Azteca, at Wembley in 66...

The crowd at the Maracana for 1950's unofficial final was more than double today's...

[The Hundred Club @The100Club2]

@SkySportsNews Understands sports really well, except for every basic rule of football and what a red card or a suspension is. This man is a piece of sh*t, the lowest excuse for a human there is. Infantino will be remembered for doing his and Putin's bidding, a lapdog for vermin.

[Corms🦁 @Cormsbadger]

@HLTCO I vote for the Pepto Bismol advert song to be the new National Anthem

[Wembley Archive 1923 @ArchiveWembley]

1st June 1961 Strange but true, International Ski Jumping comes to @wembleystadium over two days in May (31st) and June 1961

[The Hundred Club @The100Club2]

This was my first game at Wembley, my first Scotland away game.

And while I'm on this platform I'm obligated to say Elon Musk is vermin.

[Stu’s Football Flashbacks @stusfootyflash]

On this day in 1983, Jimmy Hill took matters into his own hands in the Wembley commentary box.

Asked by John Motson about a Scotland chance at one end, co-commentator Hill ends up describing a disallowed goal at the other.

Brilliant improvisation.

[David @Zero_4]

Isabel Oakeshott on Nigel Farage buying a £1.4m house: “I honestly don’t see why it’s anyone’s business. Why should people know how he paid?”

Isabel Oakeshott on Angela Rayner buying a 2nd home: “I smell a massive rat. How on earth has she raised the money to buy a £800k flat?”

[Aston Villa Updates @avfcbreaking]

There was a time when a European final belonged to the supporters who dragged their club there.

Not anymore.

When Aston Villa were handed roughly 11,000 tickets for a Europa League final in a 70,000-plus stadium, the number itself told the story. UEFA can package the event however it likes — “festival of football”, “European showpiece”, “global celebration” — but the modern European final is no longer built around supporters. It is built around clients.

The supporters fund the journey. The corporates inherit the destination.

Villa fans will have spent thousands following the club across Europe. Flights, hotels, time off work, loyalty schemes built over years. Yet when the final arrives, huge sections of the stadium are reserved for sponsors, hospitality guests, executives, delegates and “neutral” allocations that often end up on resale sites within hours.

And supporters are expected to accept it.

UEFA’s defence is familiar. Sponsors fund competitions. Broadcasters need space. Hospitality drives revenue. All true. But football crossed a line when the event surrounding the final became more important than the supporters inside it.

The optics are awful because fans can see it themselves.

A finalist gets 11,000 tickets while corporate packages costing thousands remain available. Genuine supporters scramble through ballots with lottery-like odds, while neutral areas fill with tourists taking photos during the warm-up.

And UEFA wonders why resentment grows.

Supporters are constantly called “the lifeblood of the game” until ticket allocations are discussed. Then they become an inconvenience to work around premium inventory.

Football did not become Europe’s dominant sport because sponsors created atmosphere. The noise, colour and emotion UEFA sells globally every season is generated by match-going supporters — the same people increasingly pushed aside at the biggest games.

The “neutral fan” concept is perhaps the biggest fiction of all. In theory it promotes access. In reality it fuels resale markets, inflated prices and thousands travelling ticketless out of desperation.

UEFA could change it tomorrow. Finalists could receive 70 per cent of the stadium combined. Corporate sections could shrink. Hospitality would still exist.

But that would mean sacrificing revenue.

And modern football has shown repeatedly which side wins that argument.
#AVFC #scfreiburg

[The Hundred Club @The100Club2]

1990-91, European Cup straight knockout.

91-92, European Cup but with quarter-finals becoming two groups of four.

92-93, 1/4 final groups officially become "the Champions League"

2024-25, "Swiss System" means one 36-team group stage...

[graeme murray @gersfan0611]

@cjnovo992 Cannae wait till we're the first team to have a second half goal chopped for a first half foul

[The Hundred Club @The100Club2]

@olimaccoole Just the three goals in UCL finals, compared to two (one pen) between the other three players.

[Futebol Nostálgico! @futnostalgico]

O defensor Ditmar Jakobs, do Hamburgo, após a final do Mundial em 1983, contra o Grêmio e a troca de camisetas.

Líbero da seleção alemã, Jakobs era um dos melhores zagueiros do mundo nos anos 1980. Três anos depois, em 1986, faria uma partida memorável na história semi-final Alemanha x França na copa do México, anulando o poderoso ataque francês. Pela sua dedicação em campo, ganhou dos jornais alemães o título de “último guerreiro da Bundesliga”.

[Harry Eccles @Heccles94]

A year ago today Farage and his partner bought a house in Clacton, in cash, worth £885,000.

Nigel told the world he bought it, but when it transpired he didn't pay enough stamp duty (he owns 4 other properties) they said his partner paid and he had lied.

However, she does not have that kind of money so it only raised more questions.

Who paid? Did they dodge tax? Was it Russian money? Was it from the ongoing fraud case in the EU? Was it a bribe?

Considering he could be the next PM, the public have a right to know.

Why is the media silent on this?!

We won't forget Nigel, and we won't let the media forget.

[The Hundred Club @The100Club2]

Apparently it's not an airport so I shouldn't announce my departure. But it is currently a sewer where that jibe passes for wit and where deviants like Andrew Tate hide behind the ideal of free speech to peddle hate speech. The medium is the message, is Musk.

@fateck.bsky.social

[The Hundred Club @The100Club2]

Shakhtar at Schalke. Happening for horrible reasons but sounds nice - like Waterford at Watford or Angers at Rangers - and a lovely coal mining link too. Home from home.

[FC SHAKHTAR ENGLISH @FCShakhtar_eng]

🧡 We won the @ChampionsLeague match! ⭐️

⚒️ #Shakhtar defeated Young Boys 2-1 in Gelsenkirchen! 👏

⚽️ Zubkov ⚽️ Sudakov

The next #UCL game is against PSV in the Netherlands on November 27.

#ShakhtarYoungBoys

[The Hundred Club @The100Club2]

He himself was the most incredible player when Milan crushed Real in the 1989 European Cup semi, announcing an era of the Rossoneri closing in on Real's record number of titles. Maybe he's just been on the other side of Milan stopping Real's two decades of stretching away again.

[GiveMeSport @GiveMeSport]

Carlo Ancelotti has managed some incredible players in his time at both AC Milan & Real Madrid 🤩🔥

[The Hundred Club @The100Club2]

Incredible. So many Ballons d'Or played in Spain yet this is only the second native Spaniard to win it. The last was Luis Suarez, who also won the Euros with Spain (1964).

Suarez won the European Cup for Inter and Rodri scored the winner against Inter in the final.

[Football on TNT Sports @footballontnt]

Rodri becomes Man City's first-ever Ballon d'Or winner and Spain's first since 1960! 🏆👏

[OldFootballPhotos @OldFootball11]

#FranciscoGento #RealMadrid #RMCF.

[90s Football @90sfootball]

Javier Zanetti's unstoppable goal vs Lazio, 1998 UEFA Cup final 🏆