Spanning the Globe: Bribes, Brawls and Black Sabbath

By: Bob | December 18th, 2006

Chances are you probably don’t have the time to follow every football league in the world closely. Never fear. We are here to help. Here’s a quick and dirty rundown of some of the highlights and lowlights from the weekend that was.

Israel - “This is the black sabbath of Israeli soccer,” said Iche Menacham, chairman of the soccer association. He isn’t talking about the masters of the power ballad, but rather about a match that had to be called off because three players from the Hapoel Beer Sheva team said they were offered bribes to throw a game against Hapoel Raanana.

The three players were reportedly given $2,400 and a note that asked them not to play too hard. If the crooks were really smart they would have taken the Hapoel Beer Sheva players out to a pub and would have fed them Hapoel Beer and let them party with Chelsea’s Sheva until 4am the night before the game.

Central America - Motagua is champion of the world in Honduras after delivering a knockout blow against heated rival Olimpia in the championship match of a league you most likely have never seen and most likely never will see. Unlike that obscure league in Honduras, the one in El Salavador is world famous so you probably don’t even need me to tell you that Once Municipal defeated FAS to win their first title in 57 years. Does that mean they can change their name to Dos Municipal? It was a good weekend for teams named Municipal as the one in Guatemala clinched their fifth consecutive title with a 1-1 draw against Comunicaciones.

Ecuador - El Nacional won their second consecutive championship, but the big buzz in Ecuador is about a nasty fight that took place between Barcelona and LDU. More about the brawl, including delicious YouTube goodness, in a bit.

Peru - Think your commute to work was tough today? Cienciano recovered from a 12-hour bus journey across the Andes to beat Melgar 2-1 at the weekend and force a playoff with Universitario to decide the second stage of the Peruvian championship. That 12-hour ride home is going to be one oxygen-deprived party,

Spain - With Barcelona too cool for La Liga school this week, Sevilla powered their way to the top of the table with a 3-1 win at Recreativo Huelva. Sevilla is now one point ahead of Barca, who came out on the losing end of things in their 1-0 loss to Brazil club Internacional in the final of the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan.

Netherlands - PSV Eindhoven is having all sorts of fun this season, running their league winning streak to 11 games with a 3-0 victory against Heracles Almelo. PSV is now seven points clear of AZ Alkmaar at the top of the table and their goalkeeper Gomes has not allowed a goal for an amazing 829 minutes.