Guff football is pish

[InversneckieDob]

Is it all that different from the NFL though?

And watching Man City is f.ucking boring for the most part. It's almost that they're too good, most matches are like training games.

It is different in the sense that the NFL, flaws and all, exists as a stand alone body, and, unless a particular club is very badly run, you have a shot at winning periodically.

It's made that way with the draft and the cap system.

It's not like there's other American Football Leagues suffering because of the pervasive economic model of the NFL.

The Collegiate system seems to function OK-ish (again not without flaws) and any new leagues are designed as (much needed IMHO) developmental leagues.

[InversneckieDob]

Did you see the Ajax players at the end?......no way is the soul gone out of the game, of course you have mercenaries in any sport......Sanchez/Ozil close to home for myself or Pogba/Beckham etc......further away.......there is a large increase in all levels of folk attending the games down South and unlike some who go on about the NFL on here, they are not changing their name or moving cities.......that is not an argument, just a belt and braces fact.......yes, some clubs have moved/gone bust/changed their name.......not at the high end of things like the NFL.

With this, I like guff football, f uck knows how many games I’ve been to and genuinely don’t care, some folk think it is pish......so be it........4 club’s doing the first ever perhaps knocks that argument down on the park anyway......I would much rather hop on a train to Sunderland/Middlesbrough or wherever on a free Saturday to watch the Arsenal than stay up late to watch NFL stars play in whatever ground is their home this year.

NFL is pish.......only imho and respect to those that can stay up to watch without assistance.

SF

It's nae a choice though. It's nae "You can only like the NFL or English fitba".

The NFL is not without many, many issues in the way it's run/funded.

But that is a totally separate issue to the fact that English top level fitba, in it's current socio-economic model, is having a hugely negative effect on football at large, in Europe and possibly beyond.

The issue of the quality of players or individual games or the entertainingness (if that's a word) thereof is not what's being debated (at least by me).

People can follow and spend their hard earned on English top league fitba if they want, it is their absolute right.

But with that right, in my opinion, comes a responsibility to look at the game beyond the English top division.

Fine, enjoy it as a stand alone thing....entertainment.....sport......but look hard at the causality upon events elsewhere, including our own tiny country.

Do you think the overspending of the cheeks, and the coraling of as much domestic funds to do this, is not motivated by a desire to get their snouts in the trough with the big boys?

So they adopt this uber-Thatcherite "me first" short-term mentality without a thought to any domestic commonality of purpose.

Now, maybe that's OK, I don't think so but it's only my opinion.

From that perspective, the quality of the "product" in England doesn't bother me in the slightest, I'm sure it is a fun (if pricy) day out.

[InversneckieDob]

Some have moved.

And that is one of my major issues with the NFL, the ownership model and structure that allows this to happen.

[Jackjarvis]

Wow. You really think the soul is still in Euro fitba

The soul has completely gone and has been for years. Its designed for moneyball big leagues/teams.

Its not designed to incorporate Aberdeen, Mechelen, Slovan Bratislava, Magdeburg, IFK Gothenburg, Dinamo Kiev et al.

Its designed for Man City, Chelsea, Paris St Germain, Juventus , Real Madrid and other rich list teams English, spanish, German, Italian plus PSG are all that matter.

Look at the way teams qualify. Or how leagues are favoured. For example two teams who havent won the league in decades are in the "Champions League" final after being placed straight in the groups. yet teams who won their leagues had three qualifiers to get in and failed

The souls not gone?So how come there have been finals where 30k of a stadium has been divided out between the two teams and the other 30k has been sponsors and corporate arseholes

Euro fitbas as f@cked as guffball

I quoted the Ajax players reaction and having been there a few times know how the supporters must have felt......if you reckon Ajax as a club/support does not have soul........that is your opinion, but FFS chill, if I sponsor my local team or indeed pay for corporate now and again I fall under the @rsehole umbrella......seriously........I’ll always travel to support fitba, where I sit is at my behest.......does not make me or my “made up chums” @rseholes.......get a grip and you go on about ticking off grounds.......there are plenty of grounds out there home and away that have players/supporters that have soul /passion at many levels in many countries, however, that does not suit your agenda.

SF


Tuna/Chablis/port and cheese

[Aldo1983]

And that is one of my major issues with the NFL, the ownership model and structure that allows this to happen.

I mean some guff clubs have moved.

It's all relevant when England's the size of Arizona.

[InversneckieDob]

Wow. You really think the soul is still in Euro fitba

The soul has completely gone and has been for years. Its designed for moneyball big leagues/teams.

Its not designed to incorporate Aberdeen, Mechelen, Slovan Bratislava, Magdeburg, IFK Gothenburg, Dinamo Kiev et al.

Its designed for Man City, Chelsea, Paris St Germain, Juventus , Real Madrid and other rich list teams English, spanish, German, Italian plus PSG are all that matter.

Look at the way teams qualify. Or how leagues are favoured. For example two teams who havent won the league in decades are in the "Champions League" final after being placed straight in the groups. yet teams who won their leagues had three qualifiers to get in and failed

The souls not gone?So how come there have been finals where 30k of a stadium has been divided out between the two teams and the other 30k has been sponsors and corporate arseholes

Euro fitbas as f@cked as guffball

I still find it incredulous that Ajax, the one time masters of European fitba, the blueprint of the "total football" model, are viewed as "plucky minows" for getting to the European Cup semi finals.

Yes, there players were devastated at the end of the game midweek, that in and of itself has nothing to do with the "soul" of the sport.

And never mind, this experience will do them the world of good in next year's challenge (unless, of course, the big boys come waving wads of cash and half their team gets decanted to the G....whatever number they're up to now).

[InversneckieDob]

I mean some guff clubs have moved.

It's all relevant when England's the size of Arizona.

Ah, gotcha.

[Pacman1903]

I quoted the Ajax players reaction and having been there a few times know how the supporters must have felt......if you reckon Ajax as a club/support does not have soul........that is your opinion, but FFS chill, if I sponsor my local team or indeed pay for corporate now and again I fall under the @rsehole umbrella......seriously........I’ll always travel to support fitba, where I sit is at my behest.......does not make me or my “made up chums” @rseholes.......get a grip and you go on about ticking off grounds.......there are plenty of grounds out there home and away that have players/supporters that have soul /passion at many levels in many countries, however, that does not suit your agenda.

SF


Tuna/Chablis/port and cheese

Ive been to Ajax, cracking fans. Where did i state they as a club didnt have a soul.

You are just not getting it. Id be aswell speak to the cat. At least he has a bigger vocabulary and doesnt repeat the same stuff over and over. Enjoy your weekend min

[BogBrush1903]

Wow. You really think the soul is still in Euro fitba

The soul has completely gone and has been for years. Its designed for moneyball big leagues/teams.

Its not designed to incorporate Aberdeen, Mechelen, Slovan Bratislava, Magdeburg, IFK Gothenburg, Dinamo Kiev et al.

Its designed for Man City, Chelsea, Paris St Germain, Juventus , Real Madrid and other rich list teams English, spanish, German, Italian plus PSG are all that matter.

Look at the way teams qualify. Or how leagues are favoured. For example two teams who havent won the league in decades are in the "Champions League" final after being placed straight in the groups. yet teams who won their leagues had three qualifiers to get in and failed

The souls not gone?So how come there have been finals where 30k of a stadium has been divided out between the two teams and the other 30k has been sponsors and corporate arseholes

Euro fitbas as f@cked as guffball

I enjoyed the 1980s European competitions and barely watch any now unless I attend them in person (and I don't really have much interest in the Champions League although I have been to two matches, Dynamo Kiev v Sporting Lisbon (because I was there because of the Dnipro game against the Dons) and Benfica v Anderlecht...

However, the 1980s was not a halcyonic era of fair competition either. Teams from the communist bloc like Dynamo Kiev, Steaua Bucharest and Red Star Belgrade (actually from a non-aligned state but the same rules were in effect) were successful because they hoovered up all the talent within the country which was made possible by the restrictions on players moving abroad before a certain age. They were, for all intents and purposes, national teams.

Bribery will still be alive and kicking but back then away legs were very difficult to achieve a positive result due to the amount of pre-match gifts and entertainment that was presented to the match officials and the cheating was overt.

Indeed, Aberdeen were able to win the European Cup Winners Cup but the team we beat in the semis, Watershcei, had been involved in a bribery scandal the year before when Standard paid them to take a fall, and the manner of their semi final collapse was suspect

[Pacman1903]

I still find it incredulous that Ajax, the one time masters of European fitba, the blueprint of the "total football" model, are viewed as "plucky minows" for getting to the European Cup semi finals.



.

Is that not meat on the bones of this whole argument. World famous Iconic club with immense history seen as underdogs in a tournament because their league is deemed sh@te as its nae moneyball league.