The Five Biggest European Stories You Missed this Week
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The Five Biggest European Stories You Missed this Week

The Five Biggest European Stories You Missed this Week

With all of Europe’s top five leagues coming to their conclusion in the next couple of weeks, there are countless storylines across the continent that are reaching their finale.

Title races, relegation battles, races for Europe and transfer rumors are the talk of the footballing world, and in the closing stages of the season, all of them will be settled, and with no shortage of drama. The final weeks present opportunities to close gaps, move up a critical position in the table, and make a final scouting trip for a transfer target ahead of the busy summer transfer window.

Europe, more than any other footballing continent, pain-stakingly documents these events, drama’s and stories to bring them to your front door, but with that being said, it is impossible to know everything that is going on in the football world all the time.

With that being said, Football Park is here to take a look at the five biggest European stories you may have missed this week.

5. Barcelona Crowned La Liga Champions

It has been a long time coming, but finally, the inevitable has been confirmed - Hansi Flick’s young, electric, extremely exciting Barcelona side were crowned champions of Spain on Thursday with a 2-0 win over Espanyol, securing them their first league title since 2023.

Flick, a well courted coach in the summer of 2024, arrived at the start of the season at a Blaugrano side in the midst of heavy debt, and with a seemingly unassailable Real Madrid side, recently crowned champions of Europe, hungry to defend their 2023/24 title.

In fact, Barca were given less than a 10% chance of winning the title at the start of the campaign, with Real’s odds all the way up near 90%. It certainly seemed as if Flick had some rebuilding to do before he made a serious tilt at the title.

Due to financial restrictions, Flick made just fee-paying signings, with Dani Olmo by far the biggest at over £50 million. However, their financial restrictions meant they couldn’t pay Olmo’s full wage at the start of the season, meaning he couldn’t be registered to play in La Liga games.

As a result, Flick turned to Barcelona’s famed La Masia youth academy for answers, promoting defenders Gerard Martin and Pau Cubarsi, midfielder Marc Casado, and forwards Pau Victor and Daniel Rodriguez.

Cubarsi and Casado made immediate impacts, becoming some of the first names on the team sheet despite being 17 and 20 years old at the time of their call ups. It helped that Flick had some established youth products already in the squad, most significantly Pedri, Gavi and the ineffable Lamine Yamal.

It was these players that formed the backbone of Barca’s title triumph, along with the outrageous sustained form of Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski, and it was perhaps fitting that Yamal scored a beautiful opener and assisted a stoppage time second against Espanyol to secure Barcelona their 28th La Liga title.

With the squad at Flick’s disposal still so young, they are a side that are only going to get better, and because of the clubs financial issues, the youth academy products have time to grow together, allowing them to build chemistry and gel over the coming season’s while the club sorts out their accounts. You can expect the squad to look very much the same next season, and in the long run, this can only be good for the La Liga champions.

4. Real Madrid Favourites for Huijsen

As a result of their relative failure to retain their La Liga title despite boasting one of the best teams on the face of the planet, it is perhaps unsurprising that Real Madrid have already started to dip into the transfer market ahead of next season's assault on Barcelona.

With Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo leading the line, very little recruitment is needed in the top half of the pitch - instead, Los Blancos are closely examining their backline, which has been riddled with problems throughout the season.

In their most recent game, a 2-1 win over Mallorca in which they required a 95th minute winner from young centre back Jacobo Ramon to keep their title hopes alive for two more days, three of their back four were youth products all called up this season, while Federico Valverde was robbed of his usual position in the midfield in order to fill in at right-back.

Antonio Rudiger, Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, David Alaba, Lucas Vazquez and Benjamin Mendy have all been out injured for some time, something which greatly affected Madrid’s options in the title race, leaving their defense with a bare bones status. And with Carlo Ancelloti on his way out at the end of the season, Florentino Perez is already assessing younger, fitter replacement options ahead of the arrival of Bayer Leverkusen manager and former Los Blancos midfielder Xabi Alonso.

With Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold already joining on a free transfer at the end of the season, Madrid are now looking to bolster their centre back ranks, with Bournemouth’s highly rated Spaniard Dean Huijsen the primary target.

The 21-year-old has been mightily impressive for an over-achieving Cherries side, scoring three goals and boasting some of the best stats for any Premier League defender across the season.

As a result, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal have become well-publicised suitor’s of the youngster in recent months, admiring his composure on the ball and his excellent decision-making.

But clearly, his reputation precedes him, and if Real Madrid come knocking, it is very hard to turn them down. Allegedly, Huijsen has settled on Real Madrid as a destination, eliminating a Premier League move, and with Real Madrid’s financial backing, the rumored release clasue of around £50 million won’t do anything to put them off.

3. The Premier League Waves Goodbye to Goodison Park

As we enter the penultimate weekend of the 2024/25 Premier League season, the nation waves goodbye to one of its longest standing members - but it isn’t a manager, player, club or owner. It is in fact Everton’s home stadium, a ground where the Toffee’s have called home since 1892.

133 years and countless matches later, Everton are finally moving away, and this Sunday’s fixture will be the final time it hosts a men's Premier League game, a true end of an era. As of next season, Everton will relocate to the Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium, a state of the art facility which will boast a capacity of over 52 '000, over 13' 000 more than Goodison.

However, a positive headline for Everton fans emerged this week after it was announced that Goodison would escape demolition - instead, it was confirmed that the fan favourite ground would play host to Everton Women’s Super League fixtures from next season onwards.

With no team frame on this agreement, it appears that Everton Women intend to use the ground for the foreseeable future. Thankfully this means it is not goodbye for good for Toffee’s fans. However, it will be leaving the Premier League as of this weekend, so savour it while you can Toffee’s!

2. Man City and PSG Escape Punishment Over Alleged EU Competition Law Breaches

This one will be a bit wordy, but bare with me. In July 2023, La Liga president Javier Tebas accused Saudi and Qatar backed Man City and PSG of breaches in the EU competition laws.

As a result, Tebas claimed that these benefits distorted the transfer market, as both sides were able to spend extortionate quantities on both transfer and wages, creating a big gap in competitiveness between themselves and clubs operating within more conventional revenue streams and sources.

Of course, both sides vehemently denied the allegations, providing a number of audits and other financial information as evidence to support their claims of no wrong-doing. And despite Tebas’ claims, it has been reported that the European commission has decided against moving forward with an formal investigation, citing the distinct lack of legal evidence linking Tebas’ claims to reality.

Had both sides been found guilty, they could have been slapped with one of a big fine, points deduction or even enforced relegation, and had an investigation found them guilty on multiple counts, more than one of these punishments would likely have been administered.

But while the involvement of state entities was acknowledged by the commission, there was no incriminating evidence that they were giving either side a competitive advantage, resulting in the complaint being waved away.

With City involved in a number of financial investigations at the moment, they will be glad that this one went no further than an accusation, meaning they can now turn their focus to dealing with the financial fair play hearing, which has seen them charged with 116 breaches of FFP between 2009 and 2018. Should they be found guilty here, their punishment could be equally, if not more severe than breaching EU competition law.

1. Sunderland Heading to Wembley After Last Gasp Heroics

Though Championship football often isn’t glamorous to take number one spot on any list, this week's play-off semi-final second leg between Charlton and Coventry is more than worthy of the spot.

After Sunderland secured a shock win over the Sky Blues in last week's first leg, they knew that avoiding defeat would see them through to the showpiece game at Wembley next weekend. Coventry, who had undergone a remarkable turnaround after Frank Lampard took over mid-season, were certainly the fans favourite to go through, if only because it would be a fantastic story.

And for 75 minutes, it seemed as if Sunderland were going to cruise through - the Black Cats were happy to sit back, absorbing Coventry pressure much like they did in the first league, and limiting themselves to counter-attacking opportunities when Lampard’s side committed too many to an attack.

However, this was not as easy a task as it may sound. Both Jack Rudoni and Tatsuhiro Sakamoto saw glorious opportunities go begging through miskicks, and while Sunderland forced Coventry keeper Ben Wilson called into action on multiple occasions when they managed to foray forward.

Eventually, Coventry’s pressure told, as Ephron MasonClarke popped up at the back post to convert a stunning Milan Van Ewijk cross, a goal which forced the game into extra time.

Here, the game truly opened up, as both sides went on all out attack in order to avoid the lottery of a penalty shootout. Sunderland saw a shot blocked on the line, while Coventry lost count of the number of attempts that were blocked before reaching the goal. The second minute of added time, and the anxiety was palpable inside the Stadium of Light.

Enter Dan Ballard - he had earned the man of the match award for his stoic performance in the first leg, having made 20 clearances, 11 more than any other player on the pitch. However, in the second leg it was up the other end that his presence was most telling, as he rose high to meet Enzo La Fee’s delightful corner, and somehow directed into the top corner by using a combination of neck and head.

The Stadium of Light erupted, Sunderland players swarmed both him and the corner flag, and Lampard’s Coventry sank to the ground in defeat - they knew it was too late to force a shootout now.

And sure enough, as soon as Coventry kicked-off, sending it back to Wilson for one last long ball, the whistle blew, and Sunderland had made it to the play-offs for the first time since their relegation from the Premier League in 2017.

It was a magical night on the Wear, and the nervous anticipation of facing Sheffield United in the play-off final can wait while the Black Cats bathe in their success. It is the closest they have got to returning to the top flight since their relegation, and going by the spirit of their performances of the two semi-final legs, it would take a brave man to bet against them upsetting the Blades and returning to their rightful place amongst England’s elite.

Benji Kosartiyer
Journalist

Harry Pascoe

Lead Writer

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