RIP football

[bluenorthwarrior]

Spot on.

The elite clubs voted in the champs league group stages, to make it even harder for a smaller club to knock them out and gaurantee even more money for themselves.

Tbh I love football but the elite clubs are doing everything to cancel out any kind of competition from non established clubs and stop them breaking in to the big boys club.

I used to love how more clubs competed on a 'relatively' even playing field, in the past, it made the league more exciting but nowdays the league is more like an F1 procession than a competition. It makes me wonder why we even bother having it.

It says it all that in the 20 odd years of the premier league, only 4 teams have won it (and you can pretty much discount one of those as a blip achieved by what was then mega money but now would be peanuts). The Champs league is a huge misnomer - how can the word Champs be in it when the 'big boys' of England, Spain, Italy etc have rigged it so they will always qualify. TBH the advent of the Champs league was just to appease these clubs and prevent a breakaway EuroLeague - I say let them go for it, at least it might bring honest competition back to the domestic game.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I f*cking hate Spain. Iniesta and Sergio Busquets are the worst.
[video=youtube;HrTIlWa5wvM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrTIlWa5wvM&feature=player_detailpage[/video]

EDIT: The video is a bit over the top, but is the best compilation I could find.

Sadly the WC merely reinforces the point. In the final on one hand you had the Dutch trying to foul their way to victory, whilst on the other the Spanish would use their acting skills to eccentuate any contact. The final was horribly ugly, made even more so by the added bonus of our beloved Howard Webb delivering one of the most inept refereeing displays of modern times.

The Beautiful Game my arse.

 

[johnnydawg68]

Sadly, modern football is now playing into every stereotype I held as a hater growing up...the reason I hated the sport growing up in this country is because I felt they were all pussies who dived at the slightest breeze. Truth is, I was wrong then (because I didn't have access to watching the English game in the 80's -I've seen replays of those days and it's great to watch) but now that I"m a fan, it's starting to be true. Something needs to be done. It's such a fantastic game when played properly by MEN, not men acting like little girls and refs enabling them.

 

[mjohn06]

Love football hate the authoritys who control the game.

Watch the CFL or NFL or even NHL and very rarely will the conversation be about the referee and officiating. The one thing they all have in common is that they use technology and getting the call right is integral to the game as proven by todays game.

People paid good money today to be entertained in a fair and honest way and it shows how little they appreciate us when its ruined as a spectacle by someone who dosen't have the decency to explain his decision.

As for Suarez, his performance is no different to a lot of players in Europe and until the authoritys start stamping this sort of behaviour out we will always have players like Suarez Nani and Drogba etc.

The Championship is a much more competitive league and the only competitive thing about premier league is the relegation battle.

 

[nesky]

It says it all that in the 20 odd years of the premier league, only 4 teams have won it (and you can pretty much discount one of those as a blip achieved by what was then mega money but now would be peanuts). The Champs league is a huge misnomer - how can the word Champs be in it when the 'big boys' of England, Spain, Italy etc have rigged it so they will always qualify. TBH the advent of the Champs league was just to appease these clubs and prevent a breakaway EuroLeague - I say let them go for it, at least it might bring honest competition back to the domestic game.

This was always a hollow threat. Why? Because for a start, one or two clubs would start to dominate the new breakaway league and thus perennial winners like Bayern Munich (for example) would suddenly find their regular trophy haul switched off if say, Barca or Man Utd got in first and started to win year in, year out. None of the elite clubs want to be also-rans, that's why they need their own domestic leagues. They simply need clubs like us, to provide lesser opposition to come ahead of and then provoke with the gloating from their blowhard bandwagon-jumping followers.

 

[davek]

This was always a hollow threat. Why? Because for a start, one or two clubs would start to dominate the new breakaway league and thus perennial winners like Bayern Munich (for example) would suddenly find their regular trophy haul switched off if say, Barca or Man Utd got in first and started to win year in, year out. None of the elite clubs want to be also-rans, that's why they need their own domestic leagues. They simply need clubs like us, to provide lesser opposition to come ahead of and then provoke with the gloating from their blowhard bandwagon-jumping followers.

...and it was a hollow threat because winning a domestic title in one of the top leagues is far and away more prestigious than winning some Euro-circus. The EC in all it's guises has always been hype over reality. National titles in England, Germany, Italy, Spain will always be the Gold Standard.

 

[bourneblue]

Spot on, but if they used the technology available to then they wouldn't be able to fix the games.
By that i mean the fa ,eufa, fifa.