I was wrong on all counts :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaqiri Is Boss
They were absolutely abysmal.
Though Konate could be crocked...
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I was wrong on all counts :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaqiri Is Boss
They were absolutely abysmal.
Though Konate could be crocked...
:sick:
Though I think this was a rather predictable result anyway.
Can nobody else see where this is going? The fact they can prop up such a bullshit, non-sensical "league" should tell you everything. This is a midway point before the real league takes shape. And they are clever bastards, wouldn't surprise me if they use people like me to highlight how spectacularly non-league, bush-league this "league" is. If you don't ever get a change to measure yourself against the opposition on a level playing field then how can any result ever be respected? This "league" goes against everything sport is supposed to be about, it's a joke and a sham and should be obliterated before it turns into what they always had in mind anyway. The results, btw, are 100% meaningless. How can you place any stock in any result from this "league" when your other opponents didn't get the same chance to measure themselves against your opposition?
Time to go back to the European CUP which said it all, CUP competition, which is never meant to be fair and is always based on the luck of the draw. These faggot Europeans are trying to play out a giant, cash grabbing, fan robbing tournament pretending it is a league because eventually they will have their league.
Weren't we ALL against this when Arsenal were rumbled for their bullshit moves a few yers back? So whay are we suddenly jacking off as if any of this is normal or acceptable?
It is interesting that most football fans seem to be in on the joke that it's all going to shit, but...people keep watching.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
So long as the money keeps rolling in they'll keep doing it.
:shrug:
The ESL as I understand it was a breakaway tournament featuring the so called elite clubs of Europe, proposed as an alternative to the champions league. The main issue with it as far as I could see apart from the obvious greed motivating the founder clubs was that this was non competitive….the same clubs would compete in the league year in year out, creating a permanent and unalterable hierarchy…essentially codifying the existing hegemony.
UEFA changing the format of its own competition to a league format, I’m not exactly sure how contiguous that is with the ESL proposal that was apart from anything else meant to cut the legs off UEFA.
Also I would argue that Uefa’s new format makes it if anything harder for top seeded clubs as their seeding no longer insulates them from playing another top seeded club in the early stages.
Is the whole thing ridiculously greedy and does it add to a congested fixture list? Yes of course
But given that the whole format has been about generating money for the last thirty years, I’m not going to complain too much about avoiding playing FC Communist Home and Away back to back.
I can't really see the point in the format change. It could be to soften people up for another attempt at a super-league.
The bigger issue is the expansion of the CL itself, to the point where the name is a complete misnomer.
It's not for champions any more, which means there can be a group of teams at the top of each league who can, with careful management, qualify year on year. The money generated from that qualification helps keep them up there and the importance of getting or staying there means that a Top 4 finish is an important minimum requirement. Wenger was chastised for saying it's like a trophy, and rightly so, but it has become a disproportionally important thing
Quote:
Originally Posted by Letters
Well it absolutely wouldn’t, in fact it would be the opposite. The league format would be to head off the idea of the ESL by inducing the big clubs not to form their own breakaway competitor to the UCL.
The issue of the Champions League no longer being about the champions playing each other is a valid argument, but it’s clearly not a new one. Finishing 4th and getting through to the qualifying round of the Champions League has been a thing for over twenty years.
I don’t like that there are eight games, and the league format going on till January. And expanding the amount of clubs that can take part is of course responsible for that. But the league format in of itself I really take no issue with, I think the group stage was utterly dull with big clubs playing small clubs home and away, and for the small club it was never about having a chance of winning it was about getting the tv money.
I think when you play different teams of varied ability I think it makes it more interesting in my view.
And I say this as someone who has gone on the record as saying I’ve hated every change UEFA brought to the format of the Champions League. I don’t hate this
So if our fixture list in a similarly constructed was Liverpool, Villa and "minnow" Brighton, whereas the gypos got "giants" Utd, ex-winners Leicester and Soton? What would we be saying if the gypos were on an open top bus celebrating being champions? The CL is now neither a cup or a league, it's a deformed bastard of the two. And the way they will "correct" this is to turn it into the league they always wanted. The end result of this will be a PL schedule that doesn't even have Arsenal or the gypos in the fixture list because they will be too busy playing 38 games a season in Europe. The PL will be the equivalent of today's Championship, already badly though aptly named to reflect the long term plan. Follow the money, ALL the money. Added to that the moaning Euro clubs will finally get control over the mean PL expenditure which has been a goal for years.
108 teams playing in Europe across all the group stages is fucking ridiculous.
Where's the honour in qualifying for Europe?
I didn't know even the shitting Conference League has the 36 team format! :wacko:
I think this format is a bit underwhelming. There are so many teams getting hammered every single week in the Champions League.
I'm not sure what it is, maybe teams thinking they can just coast and only perform in 2 games hoping that'll be enough?
Also to be honest the amount of games and this extending until January and having to wait until then to know where you're at, I'm not really for that either.