ScoRoss Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 Some of these leagues can be explained by the breakup of countries within Eastern Europe, but it's a worrying development in the 'smaller' countries of Europe that is developing. Champions League money is such a huge factor for clubs in these leagues and can hugely distort the finances of the clubs competing against each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eco Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 Outside of Italy, most of the leagues are incredibly boring this year in terms of title race. Other countries like Turkey, Portugal, Greece and others are having a close race, but for the larger leagues in Europe, it hasn't been a race for months now and we still have a ways to go. Is it the CL money or just a coincidence? I'm not sure - but it definitely is bad for the sport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber nudge+ Posted February 12, 2018 Subscriber Share Posted February 12, 2018 Good read. It's worrying that the "bigger" leagues are also following the same trend. Even if Champions League money is not necessarily the main factor there, but still, it just makes rich clubs richer and further increases the gap between clubs in their respective domestic leagues. Don't want to sound like a broken record, but money has ruined the game completely; I'm not sure there's any solution to this anymore. How do you level the playing field at this point? Introduce salary/transfer fee caps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cicero Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 We've haven't had a good title race since 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoRoss Posted February 12, 2018 Author Share Posted February 12, 2018 31 minutes ago, Cicero said: We've haven't had a good title race since 2014 At least the EPL seems to have a different Champion each year (well from a small selection of teams). No team has retained the EPL since Man United's domainance from 2006 to 2009. The television money (along with the foreign millions) has evened out the EPL in recent years. Not perfect by any manner, but at least it's not one club winning 4/5/6 titles in a row. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burning Gold Posted February 16, 2018 Share Posted February 16, 2018 The real kicker is that these teams have no business being in the Champions League in the first place. They don't compete in it (the article suggests they don't even try) and yet it sustains their dominance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoRoss Posted March 18, 2018 Author Share Posted March 18, 2018 On 2/16/2018 at 12:15, Burning Gold said: The real kicker is that these teams have no business being in the Champions League in the first place. They don't compete in it (the article suggests they don't even try) and yet it sustains their dominance. They have more 'business being in' it than the fourth best team from England, Spain, Italy or Germany. I can tell you that Celtic, Scotland's equivalent of these teams, have their season hugely defined by their performances in European competition. Their several good performances in the Champions League last year gave them a huge boost to their entire season, especially their home game against Man City. It's just unfeasible for them to compete against the real giants of Europe. Even the 'Second tier' of European Leagues like Portugal, Russia, and Ukraine struggle to compete against teams from these leagues and their resources, what chance does a team from Poland have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burning Gold Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 15 hours ago, ScoRoss said: They have more 'business being in' it than the fourth best team from England, Spain, Italy or Germany. I can tell you that Celtic, Scotland's equivalent of these teams, have their season hugely defined by their performances in European competition. Their several good performances in the Champions League last year gave them a huge boost to their entire season, especially their home game against Man City. It's just unfeasible for them to compete against the real giants of Europe. Even the 'Second tier' of European Leagues like Portugal, Russia, and Ukraine struggle to compete against teams from these leagues and their resources, what chance does a team from Poland have? That's exactly why they have no business being in Europe's premier club competition. They're not among the best club sides in Europe, nor do they stand a chance when they come up against them, so it's ridiculous that they should be in the competition ahead of much better teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoRoss Posted March 19, 2018 Author Share Posted March 19, 2018 1 hour ago, Burning Gold said: That's exactly why they have no business being in Europe's premier club competition. They're not among the best club sides in Europe, nor do they stand a chance when they come up against them, so it's ridiculous that they should be in the competition ahead of much better teams. They are not amongst the best because they had been marginalised to make room for teams from England, Italy, Spain and Germany. How can all these teams compete when only a few actually can make it to the more lucrative stages of the competition. And next year with those countries having four teams automatically, it's only going to get worse. They can only beat the teams in their leagues to make it there, which they have done. Rewarding mediocrity, and having the fourth best team from a country is just ridiculous. It was a joke for years and years with Arsenal. Not competing to actually win any competitions, but at long as they finished fourth... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burning Gold Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 35 minutes ago, ScoRoss said: They are not amongst the best because they had been marginalised to make room for teams from England, Italy, Spain and Germany. How can all these teams compete when only a few actually can make it to the more lucrative stages of the competition. And next year with those countries having four teams automatically, it's only going to get worse. They can only beat the teams in their leagues to make it there, which they have done. Rewarding mediocrity, and having the fourth best team from a country is just ridiculous. It was a joke for years and years with Arsenal. Not competing to actually win any competitions, but at long as they finished fourth... How is admitting a team who'll do nothing but be embarrassed repeatedly by half decent teams before finishing bottom of their group not rewarding mediocrity? It's even worse than the Arsenal situation, because simply participating in the group stages maintains the hegemony for the second tier clubs, whereas Arsenal have very little in footballing terms to show for their period of finishing 4th every year. And at least they had the decency to win a few group games and wait until February to roll over for the big boys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoRoss Posted March 19, 2018 Author Share Posted March 19, 2018 The entire point of the Champions League is to find the best team in Europe right? Well, we already know that the 4th best English team is not even the best team in England... Why are they even there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burning Gold Posted March 19, 2018 Share Posted March 19, 2018 1 hour ago, ScoRoss said: The entire point of the Champions League is to find the best team in Europe right? Well, we already know that the 4th best English team is not even the best team in England... Why are they even there? Champions League qualification is based on the previous year's standings. There's every chance the fourth best team in England one year could be the best team in Europe the next. In fact, right now, it looks like the third best team in England last year are among the best teams in Europe, and either they or last year's 4th place team will be in Europe's final 4 this year. On the other hand, the chances of the best team in Russia, Ukraine being the best in Europe are vanishingly slim. Purely from an entertainment point of view as well, surely you want the best teams in Europe playing against each other, even if some of them (let's use Arsenal as an example) stand very little chance of actually being number one. It's boring watching the champions of tinpot leagues get embarrassed by good sides. Even I found Liverpool's games against Maribor and Spartak boring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subscriber RandoEFC+ Posted March 19, 2018 Subscriber Share Posted March 19, 2018 1 hour ago, ScoRoss said: The entire point of the Champions League is to find the best team in Europe right? Well, we already know that the 4th best English team is not even the best team in England... Why are they even there? I see where you're coming from but it's hard to justify that argument because we also know that BATE Borisov and Qarabag aren't the best team in Europe either. While the third and fourth placed teams from England and Spain still routinely reach the last 16 and prove that they're among the top 16 teams in Europe it justifies the current format. I already don't find the Champions League remotely entertaining or competitive but if you let less teams in from the elite leagues the competition will become an even bigger joke with Man City and Bayern making it all the way to the semi finals before they come across anyone who can stop them winning 7-2 on aggregate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoRoss Posted March 19, 2018 Author Share Posted March 19, 2018 Maybe so, but the arrogance to suggest these clubs 'have no business' being in the so called Champions League is baffling. It's football fans like that who just are too wrapped up in a bubble to see the rest of the world out there. Fans who would love to just see a Super League. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiley Culture Posted March 21, 2018 Share Posted March 21, 2018 I did a save on FM, I can’t remember what year it was, but I was managing in Finland whilst I was waiting for the new release of the game to come out and once you get into the Champions League and get close to progression into the Group Stage, the gulf in finances is huge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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