Football Daily - Euro Leagues: Alonso’s future, Pogba’s camels, ‘panic’ in Turkey and a bonkers Polish season

Episode Date: December 11, 2025

Is Xabi Alonso’s time up at Real Madrid, why is everyone talking about Paul Pogba’s camels, how is Turkish football headed into ‘panic’, can Lens push PSG for the Ligue 1 title and what on EARTH is going on in the Polish league this season?It’s a packed Euro Leagues episode as Mina Rzouki, Guillem Balague and Julien Laurens join Steve Crossman to go through all the best stories across the continent in the last week.That includes Atalanta’s late victory over Chelsea, and the impressive performance of goalscorer Charles De Ketelaere, as well as Jamie Vardy’s form in Italy, where he’s been named Serie A Player of the Month.Turkish football commentator & presenter Can Onduygu joins the show to dissect the latest in the gambling scandal which has seen more than 1,000 players suspended, and several detained, including players from Fenerbahce and Galatasaray.Polish writer Michal Zachodny also comes on, talking about the struggles of Legia Warsaw, the 15-time champions who are currently in the relegation zone, and the uniqueness of the Polish top-flight this season.Timecodes: 00:10 An unexpected Euro Leagues F1 meet-up 01:52 Paul Pogba's camels 05:55 Xabi Alonso's uncertain Real Madrid future 19:25 Jamie Vardy named Serie A Player of the Month 22:30 Turkish football's 'growing sense of panic' amid gambling investigation, with Can Onduygu 32:00 Lens at the top of Ligue 1! 36:50 What's happening in Poland?!5 Live / BBC Sounds Premier League commentaries: Sat 1500 Liverpool v Brighton, Sat 1500 Chelsea v Everton on Sports Extra, Sat 1730 Burnley v Fulham, Sun 1400 Sunderland v Newcastle, Sun 1400 Crystal Palace v Man City on Sports Extra, Sun 1400 Nottingham Forest v Tottenham on Sports Extra 2, Sun 1400 West Ham v Aston Villa on Sports Extra 3, Sun 1630 Brentford v Leeds.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Football Daily is sponsored by Spring Hill Suites, part of Marriott Bonvoy, the official hotel partner of US soccer. The road ahead is full of surprises and unforgettable moments for the US men's national team. Make your next holiday a memorable one at Spring Hill Suites. Enjoy complimentary hot breakfast and spacious all-sweet accommodation for the whole team, with room for up to six guests. Big journeys start with the right stay. Visit springhillsweets.marriott.com to find out more. Bring more gear, carry more passengers, face greater challenges.

Welcome to the world of Defender, with seating up to eight, ample cargo space, and legendary off-road capability. It's built to make the most of every adventure. Learn more at landrover.ca. On the Football Daily Podcast, the Euroleaks, with Steve Crosman. to the Euroleagues with us, Guillaume Baleigh, Julianne Laurent, and Mina Rosuki, hey everyone.

Hello, hello, Mina, did you enjoy the F-1? It was a very big and enjoyable surprise to suddenly bump into you at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. What were the odds, huh? It was really nice to see a familiar face, so I'm not going to lie. It was a lot of fun to probably one of the best weekends I've had as a sports event.

Was she in a VIP area? Of course she was. Jules. Of course I was. Of course. Jules. If I ran into her. do you think she was in VIP?

Well, I know you went on, but she was on the way to the toilet from the VIP area. Giam, how are you? All good? Yeah, all right, all right. I never fully understood the circus around Formula One,

but it sounds like it's fun. It's so much fun. It's so much fun. I would love to go one. You know how like in the mix zone, you sort of feel a bit like a peasant begging for like these like questions

from footballers, right? Formula One treats you like, you're the star. And this is why you enjoy it. That's what it is. Yes, absolutely. If you're ever going to be a journalist in a sport, Formula One treats you a lot nicer, I'll tell you that.

I'm so excited for tonight show. We're going to do on the Euroleagues, everything from Jabby Alonzo's future at Real Madrid to why Visla Plok are top in Poland. We're going to be in Turkey as well. Head of the Football Federation there says there's a growing sense of panic. More than 1,000 players in officials of various types are being investigated regarding alleged breach.

of betting rules. We're also going to talk the rise of lance and we'll explain why the Seria R player of the month is Jamie Vardy, having scored one goal. A bit of a weird story, but we'll come to it later. Obviously, got to start with this though, Jules, because with everything going on, you demanded that we lead with the fact that Paul Pogba has bought a camel racing team. Yeah, I think it's a perfect way to start this very special show. I'm not really sure how to take this, you know, and how to start it. It's just he had a friend that was involving Camel Racing.

His boys really love watching the Camel race. And he says, why not? It's not, you know, like a big amount of money for him to invest. Like he didn't cost him 100 million euros or something like that. And he thought, why not? His friend is between people that he trust and that he loves. The kids love

it. And we've got this thing with French footballers who maybe don't do the things you would expect them to do in certainly in terms of his investment. Antoine Grisman is huge fan of horse racing for example and he bought a few horses and he's very into it. Kieran Mbapé has invested in

speedboating, you know, the speed that race and goes super fast on the sea. Yes, that's what's right. Yeah, he won. He's got his own team as well. So this is another chapter, far more exotic, I guess, than horse racing and speedboating.

But this is Paul Pogba for you. He never does anything like everybody else. But apparently, price money can be enormous. So from the moment you point, Now it all makes sense. Sorry to be the grown-up in the room. But, you know, there is the money side of things.

There's a prestigious thing as well. Events draw huge crowds. They're tied to heritage and history. So it is something that I wasn't aware of, and he certainly put it in the map. They've got some in North London. The bank holiday in May, not far from where we live in North London, they've got camera racing.

You should come. So then explain that to me. like a robotic, like how do you navigate the horse, sorry, the camels? How do you navigate the horse in camel racing? Because apparently you have like, cars are driving alongside the camels? They're a little robot jockey, yes, is the way. Robot jockey. Yeah, because it's a lot of fun.

If you go back, if you go back, I don't know, I'm not an expert. I mean, more than me, no, who thinks they're horses, but, yeah, you know, know, there were real sort of like child labour violations back in the day with that sport, hence why there were robot jockeys. And I mean, look, this might be taking it slightly deeper than we need to. I would like to think if Paul Pogba is looking at, you know, doing what he said, which is bringing it to a global audience, maybe animal welfare and that kind of thing might be looked at as well.

That would be nice. Don't know if that's going to happen. Some amazing quotes from, because he's actually spoken to BBC sport, this might be the The oddest quote that I've heard from a World Cup winner, he said, owning the world's most expensive camel one day would be a beautiful full circle moment. Where did the circle start? Exactly.

I'm not sure if he owned a camel when he was a kid and then I doubt in the Paris suburbs you own camels. But I mean, I don't even know how much a camel cost, to be fair. I'll ask him next time I see him. Guess what the most expensive camel ever bought is for camel racing? What, you've got the answer? Yes, I do. Wow.

Over a million pounds. Two million pounds. Wow. Although another website claims that a camel was bought for 39.4 million pounds. Not official numbers coming out of this. I mean, what I'm a specialised training, strict diets, the sport science related to it. So, yeah, it's a very serious thing. There's expected, there's expected, I'm kidding.

I was trying to find something with expected goals for cameras Good I failed Do you think you could get a small robot to present Euroleagues in future No second I couldn't see you

I couldn't see you on the screen I thought that's it AI now Steve is not coming anymore For future reference you're supposed to all say no all at once next time I do that

so this is the Euroleagues obviously the big story of the week BBC Sport reporting this morning Jabbi Alonzo is expected to continue as Rail Madrid manager at least until their next match against Alevez on Sunday evening. Of course, they lost 2-1 to Manchester City at the Bernabéu this week. Sir Guillaume, why don't we start with this?

I've heard a lot of discussion around what players think. My question is, does it matter? Does it really only matter what one man, Florentino Perez, thinks? Yeah, but Forentino Perez will act according to what the players think. It's all interlinked. In a group of players, in a complex club like Real Madrid, it's not a simple answer. But you can pick at words, see actions, and even reactions of the fans to try to paint a picture. For instance, in what he says, Shabby Alonso talks about, today there's nothing to say to the players.

That sentence he repeated it in the press conference. So I think what he's trying to point out at the fact is that in the past, players have come out onto the pitch and haven't done what they were supposed to do. When that happens, and you can go as back as to the Club World Cup, when, for instance, after playing the first four games, Vinicius realizes he was not going to play against PSG in the semifinals. Chavillons, of course, is already in charge. Gets really upset, a big problem, and Chavillian also has to deal with it, but what Vinny does as well as get in touch with the president.

So as you can see, everything is linked. And the president will, as he said 10 years ago, when he was asked who's got the power, and he said players 90% and the manager 10%. Perhaps the percentages have changed a little bit, but he will just listen to the players. From that moment, from that incident with Vincius, the conversations with Chavez-Alon, the president

have been a lot of the time about managing people. And if Florentino believes that the manager is managing the players in a way that the players want to be managed, then Florentino will continue giving the manager credit. But I think this particular project, started in the wrong foot. Basically, there is three people at the club that will talk about big decisions.

Caliphate, who is like a Shiva scout, but right-hand man to the president, Jose Angel Sanchez, who's been around for three decades almost, and he rounds the day-to-day of the club and Florentino.

For whatever reason, I think it was Jose Angel Sanchez who convinced Florentino to go in the way that the big clubs are going, which is positional football, method, structure, and I don't think Florentino's ever been convinced that that's the way forward, has been given the chance to Chavi, but now there is a lot of tension, because going back to your question, right at the top, there is somebody that doesn't think this is the way forward, and that's Florentino.

So against Manchester City, the fan said, pointed out of the finger of blame to the players, the whistles were to the players, not to Shabby, but of course, if Real Madrid do not beat Al-A-Bez, Admondi Zarroza away on Sunday, then action may be taken. I remember during the time of Joseo Marino, it was often put that there were, obviously there were problems in the dressing room, not all the players were on board. There was some friction, some loved him, some didn't. But we had always had the idea that Perez liked authoritarian and liked to not coddle some of these players, even though he and management might have special relationships with

players like they used to talk to Gareth Bale and try to, you know, allow him to play where he wanted to play, try to convince him of those things. But when it came to actually choosing the managers, I often thought that Perez was actually known for wanting a stricter hand with some of those players who he thought were being cuddled a bit too much and actually not sort of wanting Ancelotti who was the light touch. So you're saying to me that that's not really true and that he sort of does want the relationship guy? And his time in charge of Ramarid has gone through different phases. He, at the beginning, in the beginning of the Galactico era, he gave all the power

to the players, realized he had gone too far, so he abandoned the ship in Sutherrentino. When he came back, he was going to be to address that power battle. But he has to accept that the way for this team to win, by the way, is the biggest winning club in the world. So he's got it more right than wrong. But what is seen is that the likes of Vicente del Bosque, Ancelotis, and he. Zidan, who are not really intense with the players that don't demand huge amounts of the players

and while the players can do their own thing, that culture has been successful. So he's bared towards that. But every now and again, he feels all right, it's been too much lease on the players, too much freedom. Last year they didn't win anything. Should we go the other way?

He hasn't got a clear criteria, what is the best way. So he was convinced that, same as PSG, by Munich, and the big English clubs to bring a pupil of Peboardiola, the predominant model of our times, basically, and with a relationship with Real Madrid in Chavez-Alonso,

it will be the way forward. But I don't think he does it completely convincingly. And when he stumbles, when the manager stumbles, the blame from Florentino gets put into him and it's easier to get rid of him than actually change the culture, which is what Chavi Alonso has tried to do. and is the hardest thing in the game.

But the thing is, if they won another Ancelotie or Del Bosque or Zidan, good luck finding that one because they're not there anymore so much. All this new generation of coaches are coaches. It's like Guillem just said, it's Arteta and company Chabby Alonzo or Luis Enrique. Okay, Luis Enrique is a bit older, but it's those guys. And I think it's, I can understand why you think, okay, with this kind of dressing room, with those egos, with let's go for the management guy. So more the manager than the coach that Chabby Alonzo is

and a lot of this new wave of coaches are, perfect. But they're just not there anymore. I'm not sure even where you go next. If you don't think you want the structure and the demands and that kind of methodology from Chabia Alonzo or somebody like that, again, Carlo is not going to come back. Zidani is not going to come back. So those guys are not there anymore.

I'm not sure where you go. And I also think that even Real Madrid as a club could evolve tactics. towards something like we see. Now, there's nothing wrong with your players, you know, running a bit more, play that positional play and things like that. It's not just about, you know,

let's just enjoy your football and I'm close to you and I put my arm around you when you've got a problem and we're close and we can talk and I smoke a cigar with you after we win the Champions League and we do a bit of Brazilian dance. It's not that. I remember interviewing Zidan for ESPN on his second stint. And he said something really fair

that sums it all up so well. He said, I'm not going to tell Luca Modrich when to pass the ball, when to play one term, or, you know, what to do with the board. He knows it already. I'm not here to teach him that. I'm here to make sure that he is in the right environment to thrive,

to express his football because there's nothing for me to teach him. He knows everything pretty much, tactically, technically, his own experience, all of that. So this is very much the Zidan approach and the Carlo Ancelotio approach and all of that. I'm just not sure if this approach right now is suited even to this group of players. I tell you how difficult it is to choose. the next big manager of Real Madrid because Real Madrid are thinking of Santis Solari, who of course was in charge

already at the club and made Vinny's debut in his stint. He could do it for a while. Maybe Arveloa, Real Madrid B manager because they know the club and they know what the players required, etc. I'll propose somebody else in a minute. But I'll tell you how difficult it is

to guess who will be next. So about two weeks before Ziran gets named, of Rea Madrid. Florentino Perrette was saying to whoever wanted to listen, nah, not him. You know what he's doing at Rea Madrid B? Not working well. Tactically is not great, it's not, no, no, no.

And then Sergio Ramos and Cristiano Ronaldo went for a meal with Florentino Perth. On the back of that, he becomes the manager of Real Madrid. So let's see what kind of meal takes place next. Although there is a lack of leadership at Real Madrid that they also have been affected by, I don't think there'll be those kind of players doing that. I'll propose somebody else. I met Raul at Villa Park on the Arsenal game. And I said, how is the coaching going?

No, no, I'm waiting for a big, big. It has to be a really big project, right? And I said, okay. But he says, I look at what Unai is doing. This is the vanguard of positional football, of, you know, micromanaging, of working 10 hours a day. And he says, and that's not me. That's not me.

So I'm thinking, right. if it's not you, forget going to buy a Munich or an English side or you made for Real Madrid. The problem is, Florentino Perrath and him don't get on that well and he felt he should have been given an opportunity having been Real Madrid B's manager already, but given the chance when Ramadid needed a new manager, they just didn't think Raoul was the one

and preferred him to go out there and find himself as a coach, but still hasn't happened. Mina, Jude Bellingham spoke to Guillem after the game as well. He gave Alonzo full backing, as you'd expect, I guess. It's interesting because we're talking about the fact that Florentino Perez listens to players. And so if there weren't some players who were unsure about Javier Alonzo, these conversations wouldn't be happening. But wouldn't it be interesting to know where Jude Bellingham's voice sits within that?

You would imagine now, let's say you take the top three most influential figures, Drew Bellingham is probably within that group, actually. Yeah, absolutely. And to be honest with you, when you think of the fact that they knew that Rodrigo had quite a lot of value as well, tried to sell him over the summer. And you're looking at some of those players in Killeen Mbapé as well. If you're looking at the hierarchy, a lot of them are happy with Jabby Alonzo. Thibault Cotwa, for example.

They are all on board. And Bellingham, like you said, is one of those who's grown to be a senior figure, has put his voice and back the coach. And I think, I wonder how much of, with Bellingham is that he likes to say the right things, especially when on interviews, he's always one of those people that always knows how to say the right things. But I wonder if there is a change within the dressing room or not. But how many, is the dressing room divided?

And I'll be honest with you, even if they were to find this magical coach, who I still, by the way, will say that there is one left who can do what Ancelotti does, which is Max Allegri, who was once upon a time associated with Real Madrid. I don't know. He's doing great things with Milan. Maybe there's one day a return there, but Raoul would be another option. But how much is it also poor planning in terms of the balance of the squad, having so many veterans leaving? How much responsibility will management take in understanding that there isn't the central midfielder that they really need right now, that there has been a lot of defensive absences? So rather than just constantly focusing on this, what about just

handing the coach some of the actual tools he might need to bring it all together and maybe we'll all work out. But one thing that the Italian press was saying is for so long, we all talked about PSG as being this club that allowed these superstars to run it. And Real Madrid was the first to always make fun of that. And now they are the epitome of everything that we should be, right, is rallying behind this one coach who makes decisions. So if Donald Ruma wants a huge paycheck or whoever it is, then you know what? If you're not going to press, even if you're Mbapé, then you're out. And it all coincides, right, with Mbapé arriving and almost infecting them with the old PSG. And so there's been a lot of points raised in the Italian media about how

Real Madrid now seem to be the old PSG and how long it will take for them to sort of change their ways. And I do think it starts from management. I do think it starts from Jose Angein Sanchez, who says, this is the plan that we're going to stick to you. We've bought him, we've bought Shabby Alonzo win because we think this is the plan forward. And if it means we have to lose three of our superstars, then maybe that's the way to go through it rather than try to find a coach to fit the current scheme of things. I'm trying to describe the situation. I'm not judging that Real Madrid is giving the powers to the players because they are the most successful club in the world. They've done it right and they don't have by giving power to the players.

They are outliers completely. So I wouldn't judge too much what Florentina is doing. I'm describing in the situation. And on Bellingham, I think Chavez Alonso felt before he arrived that he was going to be one of those guys that would help him. And he's found that that has been the case. But he hasn't got still the authority

to be heard by everyone. Because Bellingham himself is trying to find his best form, his best position. He's not really a midfield, I don't think. He's more like the kind of player that gets into the box and scores goals as he's sure in the first season. But he's got to do the midfield a bit

because of Minas says they don't have, the Thuimendi that Chavi Alonso wanted or a similar kind of player. So while you yourself are not in the best form, you're not the Bellingham of two seasons ago, it's difficult for you to just shout out loud what should happen. So meanwhile, there are no leaders. When there are no leaders, the loudest ones is the one who actually is heard.

But Bellingham is trying to help Chavi clearly. Italy next. The Seria R player of the month is Jamie Vardy. I mean, bear in mind he's 38 and he's the first England internationals win the award. So that is cool. Great quote, though, as he got the award from the Seria our chief executive Luigi DiCevo, said Vardy is truly a player from another era. I don't know if that's a compliment. This award is basically like, it's through fan voting and then statistical analysis, which includes like off the ball movement, kilometers covered, his positional, and he

won it, first Englishman to win it. And then you've got people like, you know, Loftus Cheek, for Kaya Tomori, who's had brilliant seasons. They've never won it, but it has been Jamie Vardy. And, you know, we had this conversation. I don't know if you guys remember, but when he was first going to move to Cremonese and I was arguing with you guys about this league is trying to stay young,

and yet they continue to invest in old players, whether it's J.B. Vardy and Luca Modrich. And now he's the first Englishman to win this award. So there we go. Maybe, Mina, the real story there is the fact that a fan-led vote has led to Jamie Vardy winning it. Like, that really makes it sound like Italian football fans are taking to him?

They love him. Right. And that's really interesting. They do. They absolutely love him. And like the quote you just read, everybody loves him. And he has sort of put Kremonese, who are doing very well under Davina and Nicola, they are now strongly a mid-table team when you thought they might be relegation

battlers. And a lot of that has to do with a lot of the hype that's surrounding Jamie Vadi and how much attention he's bringing to it. And honestly, how well he's leading the team going forward. He's been quite inspirational for those other players. because of the way that he's training, because of the way that he's playing at the moment. So I think a lot of that your right is to do with how much the fans are loving what he's doing right now. But I do think it also tells you a lot about the state of Sediar at the moment as well,

because nobody's doing that well. I was going to say there's a problem with number nines, clearly, isn't it? And goal scoring, if you look at the top goal scorer so far outside of Lautaro, who is obviously, as we know, very special. But then it's Puli with seven and Charno Glue with six. And also Lini or Nicopaz who are number 10s or wingers, white players, Bonadzoli, Yieldes, Leao, okay, Leao, maybe now plays a bit more like a number nine,

but still, it's just, and then you've got Vardy on four. And then it's saying, it's just, there's a lack, for a league that for so many years had some of the greatest number nine's in the world, and sometimes so many of them, all together, to have this kind of like drought, really, of number nine scoring. It's quite incredible.

But just before you go to anything, did you see that Roma, Evan Ferguson, has gotten onto the score. today. So well done to him. Finally, Roma have been really dying for their number nines to come through because otherwise they were going to have to go and do something in the one to transfer market. So that's a little bit of a sigh of relief for them. Right. We're going to do L'Anse before the end of the programme, talking about the fact that they are top of League 1. We'll talk about Florian Tovan. We're going to be speaking to a guest

from Poland about Legia Warsaw, one of the big heavyweights of Polish football history, being in the relegation zone and an unheralded team more famous for their hands. ball side being top of the league. Before we do any of that, the president of the Turkish Football Federation says there is a growing sense of panic after more than a thousand players were suspended as part of a wide-ranging

and ongoing investigation into illegal gambling. This has gone to the very top. So Fenabace's captain, Mertakkenyandas, Galatasarai player Methan Baltachi, are amongst those who've been detained. The current count of arrests is up to 46. This includes some players, some club presidents, commentators,

one referee. As we know, FIFA and UEFA and UA for band players, club officials and match officials from betting activity, as does the Turkish Football Federation itself. So there is the background. Turkish football commentator and presenter Jan Erndoogu is with us. Jan, good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Hello, everyone. Thanks for the invite. Not a great topic to talk about it. I know. I know. I know. But I mean, the numbers are remarkable. More than a thousand players. I feel like, could we start with a bit of context here? As you said, late October, one morning, Turkish Football Federation President Ibrahim or Joe Osmanolo just announced that in a press conference. 152 referees are actively involved in betting.

And people were like, yeah, yeah, we knew, we knew. We knew they were rigged. We knew they were the problem of the Turkish football, the referees. And, you know, it was an excitement, I might say. And he said on that press conference, we'll clean the dirt in Turkish football. But as the investigation proceeded, moved forward, it was understood that there was no match fixing by the referees, especially in the Super League, in the highest division of Turkish football. In fact, some of the referees had to open these betting accounts in order to watch the lower divisions of Turkish League because the right was given to a betting site, betting application, the lower divisions broadcasting rights. So some of the referees even opened their batting account in order to watch these leagues.

And the first part, the first wave of detainments actually didn't live up to the hype. But in the upcoming weeks, things went forward. And, you know, Fenarbite, Smerta, Khan, Yanddash and Meta and Baltic just were detained. Let me do a couple of the details around the Fenabarce captain and the Galatasarai player as well. And then I can kind of ask a follow-up question because obviously we've got to express what everybody is saying here. So prosecutors are saying that Mert Hakkan Yandas, who's the captain at Fenner, had significant financial transactions with a long-time associate and that these funds were moved into accounts used to bet on Fenner-Barche matches.

They claim Yandes engaged in behaviour intended to influence match results. He denies betting on Fenabarche matches. Baltachi, who plays for Galatasarai, has been accused of betting on 27 of his team's own matches. He's admitted placing bets as a youth player saying he didn't know it was illegal, but denies betting on Galatasarai matches after joining the senior squad. So that's where we are and obviously it's an ongoing investigation

so we don't need to get into the specifics of what is and isn't happening because we don't know. What I am really interested in though is what the reaction has been internally. Because of the number of arrests and the number of players suspended and as I say more than a thousand players suspended,

are fans, you know, are they outraged? Do they see this is something which is hugely damaging Turkish football? I don't think internal reaction is some kind of outrage. I think it's more of an empathy because in Turkey, every adult male, I think, bet on sports or bets on slots and casino and something like that. Because the economic situation is worsening in the last couple of years. And it's like a pandemic in Turkey, this betting thing.

You must know that there are two kinds of betting in Turkey right now. One is legal, state licensed sites, and four or five applications, four or five websites. You know, they are legal. You can just join in with your national identity number and bet on sports or whatever. But the illegal betting part is the real problem. It's illegal. So you cannot trace the bets, you know, on which games the player bet, the people bet. And it's illegal, but not a jailable offense.

You just pay your fine and go on with your life. And it is estimated that 50 billion euros are the annual world of markets in illegal betting. That is the real problem. Apart from the players taking part in it, referees taking part in it, almost everyone, especially males, bet on something in Turkey right now. Yeah, but despite the fact that some of those that open accounts, were in betting that they were doing it to watch a football game, maybe. It sounds like what has happened is a terrible cocktail of widespread participation in betting, integrity rules being violated and obviously public trust being damaged.

When that happens, when rules don't count anymore, my question is, is that could that be the top of the iceberg? Could it be that this has been easy to find out, but there is more if rules don't matter? Yep, that can be more, can be the. tip of the iceberg and the latest gossip in fact in the last couple of hours on turkish twitter turkish ex there will be a new wave of detainments tomorrow with new players new club managers and so on so it can be the tip of the iceberg but so far apart from merta kan yandash i might say there has been no evidence surfaced that's you know proves the map of the icebergs but so far apart from mertakhan yandash i might say there has been

no evidence surfaced that proves the match fixing amongst the players the referees and the Meritaka Yanbache's case is a bit different

because his longtime associate he sends him a large amount of money and then this friend bets this money on a FNRbaucha player to be booked to commit a foul this might be different

of course we don't know yet if that particular player is involved He did this on purpose. He gets booked on purpose. But yes, yeah, that can be the tip of the iceberg. I ask as well, because there was obviously Jose Mrino left in the firestorm, as it always does, and called out corruption and said that this was a very toxic crazy league.

So I wanted to know what his words, are they being analyzed at the moment? And when it comes to the referees, so seven in the top flight, 15 assistant referees, some of them have made more than a thousand bets, and how many players have now been as well, will be disciplined or investigated. How many teams are now going to be shortchanged and not have enough players within their squads? How are they going to align that now?

Especially in the lower divisions. Some teams are short-handed, as you say, but in the Super League, there is just a handful of players from each team that's been suspended, and they are not very long suspension. Some of them 45 days, some of them 90 days. So in the Super League, in the highest division, so far,

a great negative effect has not been felt. But as I said, it looks like it will go on. The detainments will go on. And I don't know how that will affect even the highest league in Turkey. Jan, just before we let you go then, is there any kind of discussion around the possibility that this investigation could end up really kind of cleaning up the image of Turkish football?

Some people believe it, but in Turkey we tend not to believe that everything will be fine and all right once something is done. We just know that other problems will occur in football, in life, in politics. So we don't absolutely count on this investigation, but of course we'd like to know

who took part on it, who fixed these games or so. But there's not a common belief that once this is done, yes, the football will be all clean now. Jan, thank you very much for coming on. Really appreciate it. Jan and Daugu joining us there from Turkey. Just to put some more numbers on what Jan and Mina were talking about there in terms of the number of officials.

So a five-year investigation found 3171 of 571 officials held betting accounts, 152 actively gambling. Some had only bet once, but 42 had. bet on more than 1,000 football matches. One official found to have placed 18,227 bets. So clearly there is a lot more to run on that investigation. So, yeah, I feel like that is a story that we will keep you up to date with. I'm Maisie Adam.

And I'm Susie Ruffel. And we host the Women's Football podcast, Big Kick Energy. Each week we bring you the latest from the WSL and beyond. Whether you're a lifelong fan like me, Or I knew a fan like me and have recently got swept up in the lioness's excitement. We've got everything you need to know about the women's game. And chance. We've got chance. Oh yes, we love a chant.

And finding ways to shoehorn in some truly obscure pop culture references. It's actually quite a silly podcast. Yeah, listen now on BBC Sounds. Yeah, you should. Okay, cool. Football Daily is sponsored by Spring Hill Suites, part of Marriott Bonvoy, the official hotel partner of US soccer. As the U.S. men's national team prepares for what's next, you can too at Springhill Suites. Enjoy complimentary hot breakfast and spacious all-sweet accommodation for the whole team, with room for up to six guests.

Big journeys, start with the right stay. Visit springhillsweets.marriott.com to find out more. To embrace the impossible requires a vehicle that pushes what's possible. Defender 110 boasts a towing capacity of 3,500 kilograms, a waiting depth of 9,000. 100 millimeters and a roof load up to 300 kilograms. Learn more at Landrover.ca. On the Football Daily podcast, the Euroleagues with Steve Crossman. For the first time since 2002, Lonce, a top of league earn, a head of Paris Saint-Germann.

Jules, you're smiling about it. It's good, and it's 2004, by the way, not 2002. But at the time, they stayed at the top for only one week. It was in August, I think, so pretty much the start of it. season. And you're right, it's been a very long time for such a big club. And I think these seasons so far, where they're not in Europe and they play a very demanding style of football with a lot of intensity, a lot of pressing, a lot of running, has been the massive difference for them, is that they have the whole week to prepare for the league and game at the

weekend. They've been in incredible form. They won the last five games in the league. I think they won eight of the last nine. The one that they lost, funnily enough, or weirdly enough, is against Mets away, one of the worst teams in the league, but it was just enough there from Lans. and they're just building this team very nicely. Their recruitment in the summer from Jean-Louis Lekard, their new sporting director has been outstanding. From Tovin, who came home at 32. Great story, that.

Amazing story when he was the Udin is a captain, having a really good season last year there, but felt that maybe he just wanted to go back to full circle with the Camels and Paul Pogba. This time, you know, finishing where he all started really at 32 and Luka and him used to play together long, long time ago when Tovin was really young. at Bastia, but they stayed in touch,

and Luka convinced him to take a bit of a baker and move away from Syria to come to launch with not real expectations. The players like Sangare, who they went and found in Austria, has been a great finding, one of the best midfielders in the league right now, young playing international football for Mali. All those great stories, and Pierre Sage, of course,

who has a funny name because you can translate it as Stonewise easily, and let's call him like that. What? Yeah, Pierre, Stone, Sage, Wise. Here you go. Why Stone? Yeah, whatever way you want to put it. Okay, fine.

Did a good job at Leone and was really unfairly psyched by John Texter. But Pieszsche is a really good coach, and he's coaching this team really, really well. They lost a PhD-2-0 when they were the better team and should have got at least a draw. They lost against Leon when they were the better team and should have never lost that game. So even their three defeats outside of the one against Mets, two of them should not really have happened. So they're well-deserved to be leaders. I don't know how long they would be. They play Nice on Saturday, who, as we know, because we talked about them last week,

shambles so there will probably be winter champions because they're not going to lose against this and stay ahead of PhD and Marseille and all the others and it's been a great story and a very good story for Liga so if you make the calculation of the value of the squad and make a league out of the points of in the top five leagues a classification with points the ones who have maximized the potential of the squad in reference to the value is Lenz top number one Rens number three number two is Spanish How are you done that?

That's just my excuse to finally mention Spanish which I've been trying for two months to try to make it a little bit of a special moment but anyway going back to France do you believe

Jules that that it has got as you were saying at the end that it's got a continuation that this is just taking advantage some results of PSG

Yeah I mean it would be very interesting to follow it's hard to tell really but when you think that it won't be in Europe, obviously, as we say, all season. When PhD will qualify for the next one of the Champions League,

Marseg looks good for the top 24. Monaco might make it too. Lyon will certainly make it in the Europa League and the others as well. I think it's really interesting what they can do. And I don't know for how long it will last. There might be a moment where they find it a little bit more difficult, but they've got one of the best crowd and fan base in the country

when you go to the start ballade. It's very difficult. It's a very hostile place for opposition. And I think what's seen really interesting, and we will get him on the show soon, the owner, Joseph Hugo-Oleon, who lives in London. Oh, wow. Yeah, and we would get him on the show

because it's fascinating story, because remember, not that long ago, they played in the Champions League for the first time in 25 years, they'd be Arsenal at the start ballout, and maybe they've got a big carried away. And they're spending maybe too much money, extended control for some players that were aging

with the pay rise and this and that, and they lost their way a little bit. And it followed by two seasons, which were not good enough, and certainly not at the level that they were hoping for. So they went on to this massive cuts operation in a way where they had to sell players, big-name players, high-paid players, try to find younger players

who you don't sign for merch and you don't pay that much, but you get them into this team and this mold that Pierre Sages has been building. And then you've got success. They've got a good academy. They've got one of the young players, Paris Bon and Bread, I have to say, like Guillem has to say Spaniard in every show, Ryan for Fanon, who's going to be a great, great, great player.

And with the leadership of Tovin or Tomasson, they're leading this team really nicely. And I think it's a, again, it's a good story in a league that has had a lot of good stories and some not-so-good stories this season. All right, last up for us on the Euroleagues tonight then. We're going to flip this. It's quite common at this time of the year, as we've just done with Lans, that on the Euroleagues, we'll be talking about some sort of team punching above their weight

and can they mount a title challenge. This initially is the flip of that. And it's a story about Legia Warsaw. So this is a team who've won 15 titles in part. Poland. That's more than anybody else. They are currently playing their 77th consecutive season of top flight football, but they may not make it to 78 because we've reached the half point of the season. They're in the relegation zone. They just lost earlier tonight as well to FC NOAA of Armenia in the conference league. They are 30th in the table in that competition. Let's bring in Polish football writer Mikhail Zahodny. Mikhail, good evening. Thank you for being with us. Good evening, guys. Just to add to that numbers, they have no. set a record of 10 games without a win, first time in 59 years. This is how bad it is.

What's gone wrong then? How have they ended up like this? How much time do we have? You might remember that Legia won against Chelsea at Stanford Bridge this year, earlier this year, and it's completely different right now. Back then, they had a young coach, Gonzalo Feo, Portuguese, who was thinking himself, as a next Jose Murino, let's

shall say. However, he did not meet the demands of Legia when establishing new contract, so they decided to find a new coach. It took them some time this summer to find a new coach. They settled for Edward Giordanescu. I know that

you know him very well because he led Romania in the European Championships for example. But despite initial success, Yes, they won the Super Cup against Lek-Posnay, which is a big game in Poland in his second game, despite advancing to the Conference League stage. He was quite surprised of what Legia did this summer.

Because one Freddie Bobbich, who is head of football operations at Legia, alongside with second sports director, Michael Javlovakov, ex-Olympiakos player, they've made a revolution in the final days of the transfer window. They overhauled the squad. They sold some of the first squad players and brought new plays. Not bad, some from Polish national team, for example, but the change was not met with coaches' acceptance. So, Edward Yoldonesco took his mission to convince everybody

how tired he was of working with a completely new squad, how he was unhappy with some of the players signed this summer, and how bad are the results. He even said that he's not. sleeping well, that he's sleeping like for four hours for him. And he took a lot to convince Legia to sack him, really. He did a lot to sack him, even saying at one point that if this is the best for the club, then I will have to go. So when Legia went out of the Polish Cup, and it was at the beginning of the series I mentioned at the beginning, they sacked him.

And for the next month or so, they decided not to find anybody else in his place. So they gave the squad, which is the biggest and the richest in Legia's history, to two assistants with no experience of running the team. So the biggest and the richest squad, the most expensive squad in the extra classes history, in Polish League history, is coached by the smallest coaching staff there is in the league. And hence the defeat, hence the atmosphere around Legia. Before we finish, I wanted to ask you one about the league leaders because it's just as important a story.

Unlike Legia, Vizloploch have never won the top flight. There are a promoted side. Can they go on and do it? I don't think so. It's the most, it's a really strange season. Anybody can do it. And the difference between Legia is second to bottom to V-Swapholzki is just. 13 points. I think that it will

look quite different at the end of the season but it's very, very competitive league. So follow it. Yeah, I convince you to follow it. Mikhail, great to have you with us. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you. Brilliant. That's Mikhail Zahodny. Joining us. Jules, Guillem, Mina.

Thank you all very much indeed. There you go. Real Madrid at the start Vizlaploc at the end. That is the Euroleagues. That's what we like to hear. The manager of which was at Real Madrid. Was he? All right, there you go. Well, maybe they'll come back up.

Maybe they'll continue their title charge. Big thank you to Guillain Ballagay, Julien and Luron and Mina Azuki for being with us on the Euroleagues. As always, thank you so much for listening. This winter, cricket's oldest rivalry is reignited. England and Australia do battle to compete. for The Ashes. That is extraordinary.

Hear live, ball by ball commentary on Fife Sports Extra. And get analysis and reaction of every day's play with the Test Match Special podcast. The Stamps out of the ground. Test match special at the Ashes. Listen on BBC Sounds. Football Daily is sponsored by Spring Hill Suites, part of Marriott Bonvoy, the official hotel partner of US soccer. As the U.S. men's national team prepares for what's next, you can too at Springhill Suites. Enjoy complimentary hot breakfast and spacious all-sweet accommodation for the whole team, with room for up to six guests.

Big journeys, start with the right stay. Visit springhillSuite.marriott.com to find out more.