Is Belgium the New Spain

For years Spain underachieved on the world stage, now they are the best team on the plant. Belgium could soon be following that path. For years, the small country has produce the odd star now they are producing stars by bucket load. During the past couple of years, Michel Sablon changed Belgium into the team that they are today.

Time for lift off for Belgium

About six years ago, Croatia came on to the world stage, could Belgium be set to the do the same. Lead by a talented group of young attacking players, Belgium are ready to take flight. They could be a fun team to watch during the next world cup.

Eden Hazard = Lebron James

For the last couple of week Eden Hazard has keep the soccer world waiting. Everyone wants to know where he is going to be playing next season, is it going to be Manchester City, Manchester United or Chelsea. Hazard has drug this out over the last couple of weeks and there seems to be no end in sight. Hazard is turning into Lebron of soccer world, all that is missing is the "Decision Special."

Maybe its time

With Rangers getting closer and closer to almost becoming Leeds United, maybe its time for both Celtic and Rangers to run away from the Scottish Premier League and head for greener pastures. Rangers 's club's bankers Lloyds are owed £30million by the end of the campaign. With a TV contract that is nothing to celebrate the only way that they maybe be able to meet the payment is to sell half of the first team. Maybe its time that both clubs look for a new idea to generate revenue, something like the North Atlantic Soccer League.

The league, which has been rumored for sometimes, would include top teams from the Netherlands, Belgium, Scotland, Portugal and Scandinavia. The league would almost be like a smaller version of the Champions League.

The league would create some interest all of Europe. Traditional powers like Porto, Celtic, Rangers, Ajax, PSV would bring large fan bases and large of amounts of money to a league that would be interesting to watch. Under my proposal the 20 team league would consist of Rangers, Celtic, Sporting Lisbon, Porto, Benfica, Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord, Standard Liege, Anderlecht, Malmo, Gotenberg, Brondby, HJK, and eight other teams to developed from a playoff.

Some think the creation of the league would kill the leagues in Portugal, Scotland, and Belgium, but that does not have to happen, if UEFA decides to give out spots in the Champions League to the winners of the leagues that are left behind and give a spot to the winner of the proposed North Atlantic League, it might all workout in the end.

Sure it might not be the best idea to soccer purist but its only a matter of time before something like this happens and before we turn our backs on the idea we have to look at what the impact will be and if UEFA handle it correctly it could be a win win for everyone involved.

Now this is a logo

The NFL has their iconic logo, the NBA has Jerry West, but its easy to see why the top soccer league in Belgium has the best logo in the world. The Jupiler League logo (above) features a beer can playing the trumpet, can it get any better than that. Can you imagine the NFL logo featuring a Budweiser can playing an electric guitar, now that would be priceless.

OTWT: UEFA Cup predictions

During its history the UEFA Cup has been the red haired step child to the Champions League, but this year in its final year as the UEFA Cup, it has some interesting match-ups in the the Round of 32. There are a couple of former European Cup winners and even some up and coming clubs.

Here is how I see the round going:

• Paris St Germain v Wolfsburg: PSG, the only top flight club in Paris has shown a rebirth this year after a couple of years battling relegation.
  
• FC Copenhagen v Manchester City: Manchester City, the only question is what will the roster look like after the January transfer window.
  
• NEC Nijmegen v Hamburg: Hamburg.
  
• Sampdoria v Metalist Kharkiv: Sampdoria
  
• Braga v Standard Liège: Standard Liege, could be a team that makes a run deep into the knock of rounds.
  
• Aston Villa v CSKA Moscow:Villa, this might be one of the hardest ties to call. I would not be shocked if the former UEFA Cup champions beat the rising English team.
  
• Lech Poznan v Udinese: Udinese
  
• Olympiakos v St Etienne: Olympiakos
  
• Fiorentina v Ajax: Fiorentia
  
• Aalborg v Deportivo de La Coruña: Aalborg
  
• Werder Bremen v Milan: Milan, maybe Golden Balls will make an appearance in the knock out stages.
  
• Bordeaux v Galatasaray: Galatasaray
  
• Dynamo Kiev v Valencia: Valencia
  
• Zenit St Petersburg v Stuttgart: Stuttgart. Zenit look like a team that could care less to be there.
  
• Marseille v FC Twente: Marseille.
  
• Shakhtar Donetsk v Tottenham: Donetsk. I think that Harry will be more concerned with the Premier League rather then the UEFA Cup.
  

The match ups are really not that bad, some are really interesting.

Need a midfielder head to Standard Liege

During the summer transfer window, Everton was rumored to be going after a couple of different players, but those did not pan out so they turned to Belgium and paid what could turn out to be 15 million pounds to Standard Liege for Marouane Fellaini.

At the time the Toffee fans voiced their pleasure saying it was a complete waste of money for such an unproven player. But as the season has gone on the supporters have fallen in love with the player that has one of the best uni brows in the world. His hard tackling, hard working style have been one of the surprises for Everton.

Fellaini success at Everton has many other EPL teams looking to Belgium for midfield help. Manchester United, Chelski and Arsenal have all been rumored to be in for Standard Liege's Alex Wistel. Wistel is versatile, he can play on the right and the left and can also play in his natural position of defensive midfielder. If teams are going to get in the race for Wistel its going to cost more then Everton paid for Fellani.

A couple of teams have also been rumored to be in for Standard Captain Steven Defour. Defour is know as a play making for midfielder with great vision. He will not come cheap either.

Standard Liege has a developed some great midfielders over the last couple of years and by selling them at the right time has allowed them to rule the rule the Belgium League.