Football (real)

[Pirlo]

The fans can yell all they want, Wenger is not going to leave anytime soon. He's doing the bidding of Kroenke and Gazidis, both of whom consider getting 4th place just as good as winning a trophy.

I know right? He's making the club earn too much money to be sacked! I'm sure he's genius as a tactician, but the club will end losing a lot of fans (cash generators).

[GreecePwns]

Hah, they sell out every single game with the cheapest ticket being something like 600 pounds. If the locals won't buy tickets, tourists will. They're not worried about losing revenue to fans. Plus, the TV money for the Premier League just jumped by an astronomical amount.

I predict that Wenger will be at Arsenal until he retires, and that they won't win the Premier League or Champions League once from now until that time.

[Pirlo]

Hah, they sell out every single game with the cheapest ticket being something like 600 pounds. If the locals won't buy tickets, tourists will. They're not worried about losing revenue to fans. Plus, the TV money for the Premier League just jumped by an astronomical amount.

I predict that Wenger will be at Arsenal until he retires, and that they won't win the Premier League or Champions League once from now until that time.

hahaha legit... I can't disagree!

[betiko]

The fans can yell all they want, Wenger is not going to leave anytime soon. He's doing the bidding of Kroenke and Gazidis, both of whom consider getting 4th place just as good as winning a trophy.

I know right? He's making the club earn too much money to be sacked! I'm sure he's genius as a tactician, but the club will end losing a lot of fans (cash generators).

do you really think that english fans are like american fans who suck only the winners? omg arsenal isn't winning anything but is playing every year champion's league. i'm sure next year they will all support united! not really the way it goes mate!

[Pirlo]

The fans can yell all they want, Wenger is not going to leave anytime soon. He's doing the bidding of Kroenke and Gazidis, both of whom consider getting 4th place just as good as winning a trophy.

I know right? He's making the club earn too much money to be sacked! I'm sure he's genius as a tactician, but the club will end losing a lot of fans (cash generators).

do you really think that english fans are like american fans who suck only the winners? omg arsenal isn't winning anything but is playing every year champion's league. i'm sure next year they will all support united! not really the way it goes mate!

Fair enough. let the fans aside, Arsenal might be at risk of CL disqualification, which means a major part of their income could fade away. As for TV rights, it's pretty cleat EPL is being dethroned, to some extent. It is no longer the best with 2 of them failing to pass the group stage. Even Wenger himself pointed this out. We used to think La Liga was a bullshit competition with only 2 teams capable of winning, but all their 4 teams happened to qualify to the round of 16. Also, Bundesliga teams are getting stronger than ever. I think it's a natural rotation of power though. There came a time when Serie A was #1.

[GreecePwns]

La Liga is a bullshit competition with only 2 teams capable of winning. That Malaga and Valencia went through doesn't change it. Malaga is just another new money team that will do no better than 3rd in the league every year, and Valencia finished ahead of BATE and Lille.

Yeah, they're good teams, but the distance between RM + Barca and the rest is still atrocious. Until La Liga collectivizes TV rights instead of giving 50% to 2 teams and 50% to the other 18, then it will stop being a bullshit competition with only 2 teams capable of winning. Case in point, last year's standings:

Madrid 100 pts
Barcelona 91 pts
Valencia 61 pts

[betiko]

La Liga is a bullshit competition with only 2 teams capable of winning. That Malaga and Valencia went through doesn't change it. Malaga is just another new money team that will do no better than 3rd in the league every year, and Valencia finished ahead of BATE and Lille.

Yeah, they're good teams, but the distance between RM + Barca and the rest is still atrocious. Until La Liga collectivizes TV rights instead of giving 50% to 2 teams and 50% to the other 18, then it will stop being a bullshit competition with only 2 teams capable of winning. Case in point, last year's standings:

Madrid 100 pts
Barcelona 91 pts
Valencia 61 pts

and yet the atletico (2), valencia and sevilla (2) have won the eurpoa league in the past 10 years
Also have a little respect for my team, the real betis!!!

Anyway, they might have only 2 teams as you say, but both are far better than any team in premier league and if one of them was playing it it would win year after year easily. The big 4 would end up 15 points behind at the end of the year easy. but I agree, TV rights are just BS in spain, and the media coverage of the 2 giants is just ridiculous. Fans of smaller teams like myself are fed up of this bullcrap.

Also I'm pretty curious to see where the PSG can go in CL. They have a very decent team, and they will have Lucas Moura (42M euros) on top of that in January. I think they can make it next round vs any team except real madrid, let's see how teams will be paired for the last 16.

[Pirlo]

La Liga is a bullshit competition with only 2 teams capable of winning. That Malaga and Valencia went through doesn't change it. Malaga is just another new money team that will do no better than 3rd in the league every year, and Valencia finished ahead of BATE and Lille.

Yeah, they're good teams, but the distance between RM + Barca and the rest is still atrocious. Until La Liga collectivizes TV rights instead of giving 50% to 2 teams and 50% to the other 18, then it will stop being a bullshit competition with only 2 teams capable of winning. Case in point, last year's standings:

Madrid 100 pts
Barcelona 91 pts
Valencia 61 pts

and yet the atletico (2), valencia and sevilla (2) have won the eurpoa league in the past 10 years
Also have a little respect for my team, the real betis!!!

Anyway, they might have only 2 teams as you say, but both are far better than any team in premier league and if one of them was playing it it would win year after year easily. The big 4 would end up 15 points behind at the end of the year easy. but I agree, TV rights are just BS in spain, and the media coverage of the 2 giants is just ridiculous. Fans of smaller teams like myself are fed up of this bullcrap.

Also I'm pretty curious to see where the PSG can go in CL. They have a very decent team, and they will have Lucas Moura (42M euros) on top of that in January. I think they can make it next round vs any team except real madrid, let's see how teams will be paired for the last 16.

not sure, but I think the 2 giants get 60%, not 50%, which is even worse

As for media over-concentration on Real & Barca, it's necessary for business to prosper. Mourinho, Cristiano and Messi get the most attention. A shitty report about Cristiano could bring ya 15k page-views, and an excellently creative report about anything related to the other 18 teams may not exceed 1k, except Falcao who started getting some fair attention since he destroyed Chelsea!

[GreecePwns]

My post is not to put down the rest of La Liga's teams, which have a lot of quality players. It's more the fact that the competition itself is really a pointless one to watch when its fixed toward two teams, which is separate from their performance in Europe. FFP (a harsh destruction of any semblance of parity) will destroy a lot of the lower teams in Spain in terms of talent as well.

An interesting article I found today: http://www.360footballnews.com/premier- ... al-leagues

Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell believes UEFA is coming round to the idea of expanding leagues beyond borders.

Lawwell revealed early proposals had already been mooted for regional leagues within Europe and that Celtic would be interested in exploring their potential.

Speaking in a club media interview screened at the SPL League champions' annual general meeting, Lawwell said: "We are committed to the SPL but nothing stays the same. There are initiatives in Europe. UEFA have opened their mind up to some form of regional leagues.

"I think they recognise the polarisation between the top leagues and the smaller leagues in terms of media values.

"There are very early proposals that may look at regional leagues."

Lawwell revealed Scandinavian countries as well as the Belgian and Dutch leagues were among those being looked at.

"Coming together to create bigger markets for media rights, they could try to close that gap," he added.

"Our job at Celtic is to maintain standards. We believe we are a top-class European football club in everything we do. Any changes in regard to the landscape of football in Europe, we would like to think we would be a part of that."

Lawwell also revealed that Celtic's Champions League run had already offset the financial impact of the loss of Rangers.

I think this could be a positive change to European football, as long as the regional leagues were not closed off from the rest of the teams in the national leagues below. FIBA (European basketball) has plenty of regional leagues which bring the best teams from a bunch of small countries together and they make for decent competitions. Something like a Scandinavian league or the old idea of the Atlantic League (Scotland, Netherlands, Portugal best teams) would be very interesting.

[Symmetry]

My post is not to put down the rest of La Liga's teams, which have a lot of quality players. It's more the fact that the competition itself is really a pointless one to watch when its fixed toward two teams, which is separate from their performance in Europe. FFP (a harsh destruction of any semblance of parity) will destroy a lot of the lower teams in Spain in terms of talent as well.

An interesting article I found today: http://www.360footballnews.com/premier- ... al-leagues

Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell believes UEFA is coming round to the idea of expanding leagues beyond borders.

Lawwell revealed early proposals had already been mooted for regional leagues within Europe and that Celtic would be interested in exploring their potential.

Speaking in a club media interview screened at the SPL League champions' annual general meeting, Lawwell said: "We are committed to the SPL but nothing stays the same. There are initiatives in Europe. UEFA have opened their mind up to some form of regional leagues.

"I think they recognise the polarisation between the top leagues and the smaller leagues in terms of media values.

"There are very early proposals that may look at regional leagues."

Lawwell revealed Scandinavian countries as well as the Belgian and Dutch leagues were among those being looked at.

"Coming together to create bigger markets for media rights, they could try to close that gap," he added.

"Our job at Celtic is to maintain standards. We believe we are a top-class European football club in everything we do. Any changes in regard to the landscape of football in Europe, we would like to think we would be a part of that."

Lawwell also revealed that Celtic's Champions League run had already offset the financial impact of the loss of Rangers.

I think this could be a positive change to European football, as long as the regional leagues were not closed off from the rest of the teams in the national leagues below. FIBA (European basketball) has plenty of regional leagues which bring the best teams from a bunch of small countries together and they make for decent competitions. Something like a Scandinavian league or the old idea of the Atlantic League (Scotland, Netherlands, Portugal best teams) would be very interesting.

It's an idea that's been floating around for a long time. There are major problems with it though. I guess the big one is that supporters aren't interested. Uefa cup and the Champions League pull supporters in because they're interested, and it's a special occasion.

Plus Celtic isn't a great team.

[betiko]

well a couple of years back due to the financial difficulties of the jupiler league (belgium) the standard de liège came up with the idea to integrate the french league. Also 2 weeks ago after all the crap of catalunia being independent, one of the candidates of the region said that if catalonia became independent they would not create a football league of it's own because they wouldn't want the level would be too low, and he suggested tha the barça could play in the french league. We already have monaco in the french league that is not completely french...

I don't really see the point of the scottish league to tell the truth. they should at least create the celtic league with the welsh and irish..

[Pirlo]

I heard of this crap 2 weeks ago and wasn't impressed.. my first thought was that Platini is a lame and attention whore! Having the Euro in 20 cities is just ridiculous. I won't be surprised if one day he came up with an idea of making the Euro similar to CL (Home & Away shit).

[betiko]

I heard of this crap 2 weeks ago and wasn't impressed.. my first thought was that Platini is a lame and attention whore! Having the Euro in 20 cities is just ridiculous. I won't be surprised if one day he came up with an idea of making the Euro similar to CL (Home & Away shit).

what does platini has to do with that story about the barça? I'm talking about catalan independentist politicians (by the way, few people know but cataluña is partly in france with the city of perpignan ect that are french catalan, billobaords and menus in the restorants are written in both french and catalan).

Regarding the eurocup held in several countries I don't see the big deal there, as long as it's just one edition and it doesn't become the norm. I don't know if the cities are yet chosen by the way?

pirlo, where are you from? I don't know why I've always kind of had the image of you being argentinian..

[Pirlo]

I heard of this crap 2 weeks ago and wasn't impressed.. my first thought was that Platini is a lame and attention whore! Having the Euro in 20 cities is just ridiculous. I won't be surprised if one day he came up with an idea of making the Euro similar to CL (Home & Away shit).

what does platini has to do with that story about the barça? I'm talking about catalan independentist politicians (by the way, few people know but cataluña is partly in france with the city of perpignan ect that are french catalan, billobaords and menus in the restorants are written in both french and catalan).

Regarding the eurocup held in several countries I don't see the big deal there, as long as it's just one edition and it doesn't become the norm. I don't know if the cities are yet chosen by the way?

pirlo, where are you from? I don't know why I've always kind of had the image of you being argentinian..

I'm aware of the Catalan whiners, and it will never happen, at least not anytime soon. As for Platini, I don't like how he changed the ceremonies of crowning the champions, and I don't like his thoughts about increasing the champions league teams (if he was behind it, maybe someone else, i'm not sure) ...etc. the multiple (20) cities to host the Euro is a pain because you would have to follow your team to many countries. As a media man/journalist in football, it would mean i'll have to travel too much to cover that tournament decently.

I'm not from Argentina, in fact Argentina is kind of my favorite national team.. I was alive when Maradona was still playing I'm originally from Palestine, but you can call me homeless because I keep moving!

[GreecePwns]

It's an idea that's been floating around for a long time. There are major problems with it though. I guess the big one is that supporters aren't interested. Uefa cup and the Champions League pull supporters in because they're interested, and it's a special occasion.

Plus Celtic isn't a great team.

Thing is, Europa League barely pulls supporters in as well. Platini is talking of merging the competitions, which would just be unexciting and water down the Champions League, which right now has the perfect mix of top quality sides lesser known champions. I'd rather see no nation have more than 3 teams in the competition, but anyway.

I think regional leagues would provide for a good replacement for the Europa League. The biggest clubs don't really care for Europa League (they prioritize winning their domestic league over it for sure), and they wouldn't have to participate in regional leagues which lightens the fixture load for them.

The major clubs from smaller leagues get access to larger TV money this way, which allows them to keep up with the other major leagues. I'm willing to bet that a league with some of the teams mentioned here (Celtic, Rangers, Ajax, PSV, Feyenord, Porto, Sporting, Benfica, Anderlecht, Bruges, Standard Liege) and teams in similar situations could attract significantly higher TV revenue than any of the current national leagues they play in. I think the fans would initially not like the idea, but as they see the on-the-field product improve they would come around to it. You don't really get that consistent quality opposition with Europa League. One week you'll be playing Liverpool and the next Young Boys or Nefchi Baku.

Similarly a Balkan League (including Turkish/Cyprus teams as well) would bring the best out of the teams there, since all those leagues are very, very top heavy. If any place, it would work there.

[betiko]

The point that you guys are missing here is that there are a lot of supporters of "minor" teams such as myself. I'm personally thrilled when the betis gets to play the europa league and I'm proud to see them play a european competition. What platini has intended to do since he is head of the UEFA is to give more visibility to smaller nations and smaller clubs. I think it's good. I know no one cares about the champion of cyprus or anything, but look at the hapoel nicosia last year who made it to quarter finals. That was a national event over there.

Ok, so basically I agree that I"d rather watch a barcelona juventus rather than an apoel tel aviv vs shakhtar donetsk in CL or whatever, but smaller nations have the right to have their chance. Like in qualifiers for the euro/world cup, people complain that some very small nations such as luxembourg, san marino ect even have the right to present a team...

I personnally liked it a lot better when there were the UEFA cup, the cup winner's cup and the champion's league (tuesdays wednesdays thursdays). All cups had some kind of level, and many times the UEFA champion was stronger than the champion's league champion.

Unfortunately, in spite of changing the format every year the europa league is meant to disapear, people are interested to play it only in 1/4 finals.

Pirlo, what media are you journalist for? Maradonna was till playing in 95 or something, so I doubt that anyone here hasn't seen him play lol. By the way did you guys hear what the dumbass pelé said about messi the other day?

[Pirlo]

Pirlo, what media are you journalist for? Maradonna was till playing in 95 or something, so I doubt that anyone here hasn't seen him play lol. By the way did you guys hear what the dumbass pelé said about messi the other day?

Web-based, but in Arabic for mid-east market. and yes, Maradona isn't an ancient history yet

As for Pele, I'm pretty sure he doesn't even see football. What would one expect from someone who says Nymar is better than Messi and CR7?

[betiko]

pelé is a fucking idiot. he played almost all of his games vs half ass teams from the paulista championship, and like 20% of his goals are not completely officially proven. He never had the balls to play in europe, and the only thing he does is criticize everything that is not brazilian.

neymar is a very talented player for sure but he isn't even miles away from the others even in brazil... santos was ridiculous this season!

oh and hat trick for Ibra with the PSG last night, 17 goals in 14 games so far!

[Pirlo]

Hahaha did anyone notice how full of shit Mourinho is?

he's been giving us a headache with his CR7 is better than Messi... but it's too mainstream now, so he switched to an Adan is better than Casillas joke

[betiko]

taking bets on when mourinho gets sacked:
I bet march !

[sempaispellcheck]

taking bets on when mourinho gets sacked:
I bet march !

I bet (and hope) he gets the axe over Christmas break.

[betiko]

I see that a former topic is back..
The president of the standard of liege is asking again to create the beneliga (belgium+nederlands) ASAP or he will leave the belgian league for the french league.

what cool leagues would you come up with?

benelux league: belgium, netherlands, luxembourg
scandinavian league: norway, iceland, faroe islands, sweden denmark
baltics league: finland,latvia, estonia, lithuania
Alps league: switzerland, austria leischtenstein
celtic league: ireland, scotland, wales, northern ireland
balkan league: slovenia, croatia, bosnia, montenegro, serbia, macedonia, kosovo, albania, bulgaria
happy friends league (my favorite): greece, cyprus, turkey, israel
eastern europe league: czech, slovakia, poland, hungary, belarus, ukraine, moldova, romania

[chang50]

I see that a former topic is back..
The president of the standard of liege is asking again to create the beneliga (belgium+nederlands) ASAP or he will leave the belgian league for the french league.

what cool leagues would you come up with?

benelux league: belgium, netherlands, luxembourg
scandinavian league: norway, iceland, faroe islands, sweden denmark
baltics league: finland,latvia, estonia, lithuania
Alps league: switzerland, austria leischtenstein
celtic league: ireland, scotland, wales, northern ireland
balkan league: slovenia, croatia, bosnia, montenegro, serbia, macedonia, kosovo, albania, bulgaria
happy friends league (my favorite): greece, cyprus, turkey, israel
eastern europe league: czech, slovakia, poland, hungary, belarus, ukraine, moldova, romania

Fun idea,I can just see the hardline Protestants in N.Ireland and Scotland being overjoyed at the prospect of a Celtic league..lol

[betiko]

and I just saw that the russian minister of sports rejected the idea of a "soviet" league today, that was asked mostly by the zenith saint petersbourg. The minister claims that being within the top 10 leagues in europe it's good enough for him.

[GreecePwns]

and I just saw that the russian minister of sports rejected the idea of a "soviet" league today, that was asked mostly by the zenith saint petersbourg. The minister claims that being within the top 10 leagues in europe it's good enough for him.

I don't see how such a league would exist, it's not like there are more than a couple of clubs in the Baltic or Slavic states that would compete in the Russian league anyway.

At most only the top 2 from Croatia and Serbia would even stand a chance avoiding relegation.