Learn English with the News – UEFA Opens Disciplinary Proceedings against Three European Giants

Football mania! The world’s most popular sport has seen a bit of a plot twist when some of the most important teams decided to have a go at making their own private league, effectively cutting out the global organizers. What happened next is for the history books! Watch the video and then do the accompanying English language exercises on our website!

The news is a consistent source of entertainment, knowledge and discovery that never ceases to exist and always comes out with more and more material each day. Because it plays such a vital part in our lives and is so important to keep up with, it is without a doubt a piece of your everyday routine that can’t go ignored.

Whether it is to understand the ramifications of recent legislation passed, to hear about recent events and grasp the potential consequences to your country, or simply hear about what is happening in other countries in order to compare them to what’s happening in yours, the news is certainly a staple in our lives and the most consistent way to get information.

This is why Scrambled Eggs has decided to unite two of your biggest worlds: learning English and keeping up with what is happening in the world. We hope our challenging daily exercises, composed of listening, vocabulary and comprehension exercises in English, will satisfy both of those above worlds in a satisfactory and also entertaining way.

So enough about introductions, let’s get to today’s Learn English with the News topic:

Adapted from this article.

Now that you’ve had a listen, let’s put your knowledge to the test with some of our vocabulary and comprehension exercises:

UEFA Opens Disciplinary Proceedings against Three European Giants | Definition Match

Put the following words to the correct definitions.

UEFA Opens Disciplinary Proceedings against Three European Giants | Fill in the Blank

Fill the empty spaces with the proper words.

UEFA Opens Disciplinary Proceedings against Three European Giants | True or False

Decide if the statement is true or false.

 

Full Text:

UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against three European giants: Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus. The teams were part of a larger group of 12 that announced they wanted to start a new competition.

Their idea received heavy criticism. The other nine clubs spread out across the UK, Italy and Spain changed their minds. They expressed regret for their actions and recommitted to the UEFA club.

Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus then issued a joint statement. They said that they intended to persevere in finding a solution, calling the current football situation “unsustainable.”

UEFA released a statement that they will investigate “a potential violation of UEFA’s legal framework.”

The nine clubs were ordered to collectively donate 15 million euros to charities. In addition, they will not receive five percent of the revenues from competitions as scheduled.

UEFA says the clubs have agreed to be fined up to 100 million euros should they breach their commitments again.

For now, the form of punishment that may await Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus after the disciplinary proceedings is unclear.

 

And that’s it for today’s English lesson, where you can improve your English with the news and current events. Do you have any comments or special requests for us for the next edition of Learn English with the News? Be sure to leave any feedback you have in the comments section below, as we would love to help you on your quest to learn the English language!

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Premier League Problems | Reading Comprehension

The English football Premier league is having some problems at the moment. Some of the managers are saying there should be some serious changes to the organisation of the matches. If you’re interested in football and improving your English, read this article and try the quizzes attached too!

VAR

Video Assistant Referee (VAR) is a recent addition to many of the big football leagues. It has been introduced in many of the big European leagues and it was introduced in the Premier League last year. It is fair to say it has stoked some controversy since its introduction. The technological system involves a separate referee checking decisions by using video technology, and alerting the on-pitch referee if he has made a clear and obvious mistake. When the VAR is not sure themselves about the decision, the referee is asked to go to a screen by the side of the pitch to look himself. Then, hopefully he can make the correct decision. The main problem that fans, players and managers have with the new system is that there have been many decisions made against attacking teams, when one of the attackers is deemed offside. Some of these decision have been very tight. Usually when a player is level with the defender when the ball is played, he is onside. But with VAR, if the player is level and even just one part of his body is past the defender, for instance his arm, then the goal is disallowed. These very close decisions have infuriated managers up and down the league, with Jose Mourinho, manager of Tottenham Hotspur, recently saying “I miss my old football”.

Scheduling

Some of the top teams in the Premier League have to play a lot of games. Some teams are involved in up to four competitions at the same time with the two domestic cups, the league and a European competition all to play for. This means the schedule for a team can become very tight, with lots of fixtures in a short space of each other. For example, this week Manchester United played on Wednesday evening in the Champions League and then had to play at 12.30 in the afternoon on Saturday, a space of only two full days to rest. This infuriated manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who was frothing at the mouth in his post-match interview. The interview was after his side’s 3-0 victory over Everton that day. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp had the same opinion and told reporters that the scheduling of the Premier League had caused some of his players to get injured. He said “If you want good football, give the guys a few more days rest!”.

Five substitutions

Many of the big European football leagues recently introduced a new rule giving teams the option of five substitutions and a bigger bench. This was also introduced in the Premier League after the quarantine, but since the restart of the new season, the decision was made to only allow teams to have three substitutions. During this weekend, managers also expressed their displeasure at the decision, partly because having the option of five substitutes would allow the teams playing lots of games a chance to give their players a rest. Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said “I was talking with Jurgen Klopp about this and I think we’re going to fight it [the decision to not allow five substitutions]”. The decision was reached during the summer after all of the Premier League’s twenty clubs voted on the issue. Many of the smaller teams voted against the idea of letting teams have five substitutions. This is because many of them are not involved in a lot of different competitions and they felt this would give an advantage to the bigger teams. Perhaps it is not surprising then that it is two of the league’s biggest clubs that are so sour about the issue!

We hope you enjoyed the reading! Try the quizzes below to test your knowledge on the vocabulary and the content.

Premier League Problems | Definitions Quiz

Match the words to the correct definitions

Premier League Problems | True or False

Choose if the statement is true or false