Football (real)

[2dimes]

Barcafuckingwho?

...Obama. It's the same guy as before he just basically kept his job. Not really a big deal in a way. No surprise you missed the whole thing over there.

[pmchugh]

Barcafuckingwho?

...Obama. It's the same guy as before he just basically kept his job. Not really a big deal in a way. No surprise you missed the whole thing over there.

Barca Obama?



Brought back down to earth this weekend with a draw against St Johnstone at home, this league might not be as easy as we thought...

[crispybits]

Just goes to show the Scottish league, even without Rangers, is tougher than the Spanish one

[sam_levi_11]

I now understand what it must be like to support tottenham, continual disapointment and anger.

[crispybits]

Not until you spend 2-3 decades down there you don't....

[betiko]

I now understand what it must be like to support tottenham, continual disapointment and anger.

well how long has it been since you guys won something? like half a decade at least? how is wenger still there?

[crispybits]

Depends who you believe.

The official record says it's 7 and a bit seasons now

Wenger thinks that 4th place is a trophy and he wins one every year

[sam_levi_11]

I used to defend Wenger, but honestly, it really is hard to this season...

A few plus sides today. Wilshere looked great, glad to see he is returning to form so fast from his injury. We didn't concede, which is always a plus. Cazorla, Arteta and Wilshere linked up well. No Aaron Ramsey.

Unfortunately, the fact we had to rely on two penalties is worrying. Cazorla's dive was worrying too. While Giroud held up play well, Gervinho looked poor again, and Podolski is too patchy of late.

[Pirlo]

I used to defend Wenger, but honestly, it really is hard to this season...

A few plus sides today. Wilshere looked great, glad to see he is returning to form so fast from his injury. We didn't concede, which is always a plus. Cazorla, Arteta and Wilshere linked up well. No Aaron Ramsey.

Unfortunately, the fact we had to rely on two penalties is worrying. Cazorla's dive was worrying too. While Giroud held up play well, Gervinho looked poor again, and Podolski is too patchy of late.

So can we summarize this with a "Wenger sucks!" phrase?

[GreecePwns]

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.

[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.