da aviator aposta： GOAL looks back on a season marred by financial scandals involving Manchester City and Juventus, but illuminated by Napoli's Scudetto success
da supremo： Well, that's a wrap. Another season has drawn to a close, one which offered no end of controversy and quality, as perhaps best illustrated by Manchester City. Pep Guardiola's terrific team finally conquered Europe to complete a historic treble, but an asterisk must be placed against all of their achievements over the past 15 years, with the Abu Dhabi-backed club having been charged with breaching more than 100 of the Premier League's financial regulations.
There was similar drama in Italy, with Juventus having points being taken away from them, given back, and then taken away again on a seemingly weekly basis, making a farce of the Serie A standings. In an era of football now in very real danger of being completely corrupted by finances, the table, it seems, actually does lie sometimes.
It wasn't all doom and gloom, though. There were some inspirational success stories. For example, unlike City's treble, Napoli's Serie A title triumph was a legitimate fairy tale and sparked one of the biggest street parties the world has ever seen!
So, without a further ado, let's get stuck into the biggest winners and losers of the 2022-23 European season…
Getty ImagesLOSER: Lionel Messi
In the grand scheme of things, what happened this season on either side of the World Cup is irrelevant as far as Lionel Messi is concerned. He'd long since proved himself the GOAT – but his heroics in Qatar effectively ended the debate. He's now completed both international and club football.
However, there's no denying that the second half of the 2022-23 campaign didn't pan out as Messi planned. He looked utterly lost as PSG suffered a humiliating last-16 exit in the Champions League and very few fans were sad to see him leave. Indeed, Messi, rather incredibly, left with boos, whistles and jeers ringing in his ears.
To make matters worse, hopes of a romantic return to Barcelona were dashed by the grim reality of the very same financial problems that forced him out of Camp Nou two years ago.
Inter Miami is obviously a shrewd move for Messi, certainly from a financial and familial perspective, but there's no doubt that he would have preferred to end up back at Barca, aiming for the fifth Champions League title he'd long targeted.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesWINNER: Xavi
The writing was on the wall for Xavi after Barcelona's humiliating group-stage elimination from the Champions League. And he knew it. "With the effort made by the club [during the summer transfer market] the squad we have, we have to compete for trophies," he admitted to reporters. "And if we don't, as the president [Joan Laporta] said, there will be consequences, starting with me. But I am going to give everything so that this works." And it did.
Barcelona's football certainly wasn't pretty – it was more reminiscent of the Louis van Gaal era at Camp Nou than Pep Guardiola's – but it delivered a first Liga title in four years that definitely saved Xavi from the sack. Of course, it's imperative that Barca challenge for the Champions League next season – not least for the club's coffers – but, for now, the coach can be proud of a job well done.
Getty ImagesLOSER: Chelsea
The Chelsea board issued a statement after the conclusion of the worst Premier League campaign in the club's history, acknowledging that "there is a lot" that they can do better. In truth, though, they need to do absolutely everything better next season, because the past year has been an absolute farce.
One could argue that Todd Boehly and his equally clueless colleagues only got one thing right: cancelling the annual end of season awards ceremony because they realised it would not have gone over well with the club's already furious fans.
The arrival of Mauricio Pochettino will hopefully restore a semblance of order at Stamford Bridge, but on the evidence of what we've seen so far – the shameful sacking of Thomas Tuchel, the embarrassing abandonment of the Graham Potter project, the ludicrous appointment of Frank Lampard on an interim basis and the arrival of one overpriced player after another – it would be naive to expect an end to the chaos anytime soon.
(C)Getty ImagesLOSER: Football's fight against racism
Racism is a societal problem. We all get that. But football's handling of the problem is, at best, embarrassingly haphazard, and, at worst, downright offensive. Seriously, what was more shocking: the racist abuse that Vinicius Junior has been repeatedly subjected to in Spain this season – or Javier Tebas' reaction to it? The head of La Liga was, incredibly, more interested in lashing out at the victim than doing anything about the culprits.
Tebas subsequently apologised for his shameful reaction, but it was indicative of a wider problem. When players of colour all across the world like Romelu Lukaku are still being booked for silent protests, one begins to understand the scale of the ignorance at the heart of football's supposed fight against racism. How can the game's authorities even begin trying to solve a problem that they clearly still don't understand?