Cork City Foras Co-op up and running

From the ashes of Cork City FC, Cork City Foras co-op will be representing Cork in this year's first division in Ireland.

With the fans behind the club this could be the beginning of a long road back to the success of the previous club by winning the League of Ieland.

Tommy Dunne is on board as manager while Greg O'Halloran will be player/assistant manager. It remains to be seen what players will join but the possibility of George O'Callaghan signing will be boost. Of course there will be salary issues which will be nothing compared to the previous club.

Today the club defeated Crosshaven in a pre-season friendly, their last before the new season gets under way on Friday, away to Derry City.

Scotland rightly stripped of Champions League place

Scotland was recently stripped of it's 2nd champions league spot by UEFA. This decision has been met with mixed opinions. Mine of course is that UEFA is right on this one.

Scotland's clubs apart from Celtic and Rangers, have been pretty much not up to speed in recent years. Aberdeen, Motherwell and more recently the likes of Dunfermline (1st division) and Queen of the South (1st division) have been below par when if comes to European competition.

Celtic and Rangers themselves haven't covered themselves in glory either. In 2005 Celtic were embarrassed by Artmedia Bratislava and Rangers were knocked out of the Champions league by FBK Kaunas in 2008 while also exiting this season's champions league thanks to defeats against Sevilla twice and Unirea Urziceni.

Their place has gone to Belgium and in my mind Belgium has been improving. Anderlecht, Club Brugge and Standard Liége all made the last 32 in this years Europa League and over the years clubs are starting to improve having faced decline.

Classic title race that was

La Liga in 2002-03. A very exciting if not most dramatic title race in recent memory. Real Madrid had a new challenger to look out for. This challenger wasn't a club known for it's title challenges but in 2002-03 made a real go for it.

Real Sociedad of course were the side that nearly and in my view should've won the league that season. They took everybody by surprise and not only that but the fact that they kept the race alive until the very last weekend of the season.

2002-03 was a long season for both. of course it did end on June 22nd 2003 which was way too long but that is another entry for another day. Real Madrid went into the penultimate game of the season away to city rivals Atlético Madrid while the Basques of Real Sociedad had Celta Vigo to deal with. Two very difficult games I must say. Celta Vigo had a great season finishing 4th ahead of Valencia and Barcelona.

Real Madrid had a Ronaldo hat-trick to thank for as they ended up 4-0 winners which meant they went top. Sociedad meanwhile slumped to a 3-2 defeat to Celta Vigo. This meant Real Madrid finally had Sociedad in their hands.

The final day of the season saw Real Madrid wrap up the title race while Sociedad, having spent the whole season building for this final month had to make do with 2nd. What I loved about this season was that Real Sociedad had shown that it is possible to catch Real Madrid. They certainly put up a better fight than Valencia and Barcelona in this season.

What happened next? Well Real Madrid went on to lead La Liga the following year until a massive drop in form ended their 2003-04 title hopes while Sociedad were fortunate to save themselves from relegation in 2003-04.

Real Sociedad though were relegated five years after finishing 2nd and have since failed to gain promotion although this season (2009-10) they are looking good for a return to La Liga and maybe they will challenge again.!