posted Jan 30, 2007

BIGRAB

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few points. The PL has been one of the best leagues in Europe because in European comeptition it's teams do better than teams from other European countries. Only Spain were ahead of us. This year all 7 PL teams in europe have won their groups all 7!! So it is resonable to assume we are now top.

Foreign investors are investing in the premiership because it ios the biggest and best league in te world. That will make it the most profitable. To suggest that fans of other leagues are less loyal to their teams seems pretty ridiculous.

Finally on the best teams being the best teams from each national league is flawed logic. The Champions of the wlesh league couldn't survive in League One let alone the premiership to suggest that the 4th placed PL team couldn't compete with them is laughable.

The competition is fo rthe top 32 teams in Europe. Those top 32 teams include 4 English teams. Heck the top 16 teams in Europe include 4 English teams to suggest (you could even say top 8 as they all won their groups) that the winners from the luxemburg and Welsh leageus deserve a place above them is again ludicrous. It should be about merit not geography and as teams change each year then it seems resonable that a team could finsih in the top 4 in England one year and win the PL the next as we may well see with Arsenal this year and next...

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 30, 2007

Foreign investors are investing in the premiership because it ios the biggest and best league in te world. That will make it the most profitable. To suggest that fans of other leagues are less loyal to their teams seems pretty ridiculous
.........................

first of all I did not suggest that fans of other leagues are less loyal - on the contrary it takes a hell of a lot of loyalty to follow some of the smaller clubs - loyalty you don't see for the Big Buck players in the Premiership

2nd - The Only reason that the foreign investors buy in to Premiership clubs is due to the size of the market place. England has a population of 50 Million+. With that size of potential viewers it becomes viable for Sky TV to throw money at the Clubs in the Top league as they know there will be a good return. This means the clubs get more exposure and importantly more cash, allowing them to offer bigger contracts and thus attracting the top players. This is not the case in smaller nations. The Market for their league is much smaller and therefore not as lucrative for the TV Company/Business man so they are offered much smaller deals. As they have less money they lose their top players to sit on the bench in England Italy or Spain. This makes it difficult to compete with the richer clubs.

But just because a league has a bigger potential TV audience does not make it better. The Premiership has been a vast Bore for a number of years with many clubs happy to accept mid table mediocrity to ensure that they get their slice of the money. Many of the games are completely meaningless and as a result as entertaining as watching paint dry. Bigger and Richer maybe - best league in the World- you are having a laugh.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 30, 2007

It should be about merit not geography

..............................................

I agree - it should be on Merit because you are the best in your country.

Not beacuse your are 4th best in a country with 50 million TV Viewers.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 30, 2007

The Only reason that the foreign investors buy in to Premiership clubs is due to the size of the market place. England has a population of 50 Million+.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

So France, Spain and Germany have smaller populations than England?? You claim that you did say other leagues had less loyal fans but your assertation implied that was the case. Why are the investors investing in teh PL as oposed to La Liga, the Bundesliga or Serie A?

The best league in the world is the one in which all 7 of it's teams finsihed top of their respective European groups this season. Who was that again?

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 30, 2007

I agree - it should be on Merit because you are the best in your country.

Not beacuse your are 4th best in a country with 50 million TV Viewers.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Best in your country means it is about Geography . You see you are talking about which country a team is in which is Geography not merit not talent. i'm talking about the top 32 sides in Europe I don't care if all top 32 came from Serie A and Serie B then they'd all be Italian. As long as the best 32 teams are competing. You see it is then about merit not as you like it to be about geography. Should The winner be allowed to defend their trophy should they not win their league? Should the 2nd place team be crowned Champions if oen country would have otherwise won the trophy 3 years in a row?

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 30, 2007

BIGRAB must indeed be having a laugh. The idea that the EPL is only any good because of all that money is cart before the horse. The money keeps getting more because of the high quality of that league. I travel a lot and have never met a football fan from another country who shares the self-flagellating views on the EPL of so many Brits. The EPL is internationally respected and admired. Even when there was much less money in the game, English teams established the longest run of dominance in the European Cup by a single country (a record that still stands today). The disaster of Heysel took a lot of recovering from, but it looks like we're pretty much over it now. As FlingItNow says: seven teams, seven group winners. Try and argue with that.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 30, 2007

Let's face it - when the new TV deal comes in next year, there's a VERY good argument for saying that it should be the MINIMUM expectation that 3 of the 4 get into the semis, and all 4 make the quarters of the CL.

As for the UEFA Cup, I think that is more open because of the CL dropouts (which is not a bad thing), but like last season showed - CL dropout don't always make the final, indeed just 1 quarter finalist last season (Schalke) was a CL dropout.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 30, 2007

Let's face it - when the new TV deal comes in next year, there's a VERY good argument for saying that it should be the MINIMUM expectation that 3 of the 4 get into the semis, and all 4 make the quarters of the CL.


As for the UEFA Cup, I think that is more open because of the CL dropouts (which is not a bad thing), but like last season showed - CL dropout don't always make the final, indeed just 1 quarter finalist last season (Schalke) was a CL dropout.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I doubt we can claim that 3 out of 4 sudes should make the semi's. But 2 out of 4 would be expected, 3 out of 4 would be terrific. All 4 should be looking to make the quarters. I expect 3 to make it this year.

Removing 1 place from England would mean the Uefa cup is won by the 4th place English team more often than not. I mean all 3 Uefa cup teams have won their groups and look at the teams that have managed that. Put last years CL finalists in their and you can only expect 1 result. DRopping the big 3 leagues to 3 teams just menas that the 3rd place team from the countries that 3 places (Germany, Holland, France) are likely to take up those spots or the 2nd team from countries with 2 (like Scotland). The smaller countries still won't make it and all it will do is menas some of Europes top teams slaughter the Uefa cup which will sease to be a tournament before the semi-final stage while the CL groups will become a full gone conclusion as less of the top teams will be in it meaning only 2 teams with a realistic chance of getting through the group will be in each group.

I think it will devalue both the Uefa Cup and the CL in the long run.

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 30, 2007

HMMMM, Platini has played and been involved in world class football for 40 years. Yet all of you bunch of office workers all know better then him?

Get over yourselves

add comment | complain about this comment

posted Jan 30, 2007

HMMMM, Platini has played and been involved in world class football for 40 years. Yet all of you bunch of office workers all know better then him?


Get over yourselves

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

So you agree that tackling should be banned from football? Fergie has been involved in top flight football for decades too and he disagrees with Platini so they can't both be right.

What is the point of football discussion if you are only allowed to agree with the status quo? You need to get over yourself.

add comment | complain about this comment