news & politics:discussion

[Homer]

30 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

the poll on the bbc had 92% against .....  dont know who these 8 % are ? probably  centrecircleists 

 

[hfuhruhurr]

This ESL amuses me - a similar thing happened to us in Welsh valleys rugby, amateur v. professional. Before we had an active merit table system, loads of support for the local clubs that were actually named after the towns they were based in. Then professionalism came along and we had regions with daft names that played in Europe etc - outrage, but the money men won. Valleys rugby died and regional rugby in Wales is on its arse. English teams flourished albeit with equally stupid names.

The money men will win again - the market for this is on TV outside of the UK. No one will care about fans, they can go see their local clubs. The international players will be selected because no country will lose their best players. Morons will pay Sky/Prime/BT or whatever to watch this crap and the money men will be laughing.

Professional sport is a marketing product, it's not a game. It's not about spectators, it's about viewers and their subscription and advertising value.

One day I dream we'll return to amateur sport - where the game is all important - and we see it for free because the people playing it are doing it for the fun of it and the glory not the money.

You get what you pay for, every sports channel subscriber is guilty.

[Punksnotdead]

51 minutes ago, squirrelarmy said:

a ManUre and a Shitty fan. 

How old are you?

[Ozanne]

Every good story has a happy ending.

 

 

[Crazyfool01]

http://chng.it/B8CdXGs9xV

[TheSheriff]

2 hours ago, hfuhruhurr said:

This ESL amuses me - a similar thing happened to us in Welsh valleys rugby, amateur v. professional. Before we had an active merit table system, loads of support for the local clubs that were actually named after the towns they were based in. Then professionalism came along and we had regions with daft names that played in Europe etc - outrage, but the money men won. Valleys rugby died and regional rugby in Wales is on its arse. English teams flourished albeit with equally stupid names.

The money men will win again - the market for this is on TV outside of the UK. No one will care about fans, they can go see their local clubs. The international players will be selected because no country will lose their best players. Morons will pay Sky/Prime/BT or whatever to watch this crap and the money men will be laughing.

Professional sport is a marketing product, it's not a game. It's not about spectators, it's about viewers and their subscription and advertising value.

One day I dream we'll return to amateur sport - where the game is all important - and we see it for free because the people playing it are doing it for the fun of it and the glory not the money.

You get what you pay for, every sports channel subscriber is guilty.

Ah the days when Pontypool, Ebbw Vale and Treorchy and the like were challenging at the top level of Welsh rugby... As a grassroots rugby fan I’d much rather spend my time at Parc Mawr watching Bonymaen RFC than at the Liberty watching the Ospreys 

[hfuhruhurr]

9 hours ago, TheSheriff said:

Ah the days when Pontypool, Ebbw Vale and Treorchy and the like were challenging at the top level of Welsh rugby... As a grassroots rugby fan I’d much rather spend my time at Parc Mawr watching Bonymaen RFC than at the Liberty watching the Ospreys 

I'm a Pooler boy (in exile).

[Ryan1984]

As bad as the Super League is, wasn’t it always the inevitable next step from when the Champions League started allowing in four or five teams from various nations? Surprised it has taken this long - and that people are so shocked.

If they want matches to be exciting again, just get rid of all the weighted seeding that favours the big boys and draw the teams out of a hat - go back to being a straight knockout competition.

[hfuhruhurr]

With apologies in advance for spurs fans, but saw this and laughed:

Spurs joining a Super League would be like me going into the Crucible and putting 50p on the table!

[Ryan1984]

12 minutes ago, hfuhruhurr said:

With apologies in advance for spurs fans, but saw this and laughed:

Spurs joining a Super League would be like me going into the Crucible and putting 50p on the table!

I liked the ‘It’s like Bananaman being called up to the Avengers’ one.

[mcshed]

28 minutes ago, Ryan1984 said:

If they want matches to be exciting again, just get rid of all the weighted seeding that favours the big boys and draw the teams out of a hat - go back to being a straight knockout competition.

They don't want matches to be exciting they want the big teams to play each other as much as possible.

The Champion's League isn't a great structure so I'd be happy enough with replacing it with something akin to the super league, it's just the closed shop nature of the ESL that is awful, but again that's the point.

[steviewevie]

31 minutes ago, Ryan1984 said:

As bad as the Super League is, wasn’t it always the inevitable next step from when the Champions League started allowing in four or five teams from various nations? Surprised it has taken this long - and that people are so shocked.

If they want matches to be exciting again, just get rid of all the weighted seeding that favours the big boys and draw the teams out of a hat - go back to being a straight knockout competition.

and only league winners from every country.

[steviewevie]

I just can't see this ESL happening, just too much anger from everywhere about it....infact you never know, something positive might come from this...

[mattiloy]

Agree with the sentiments above.

Its a misunderstanding of the appeal of football. To the extent that I'm fairly confident that the league would flop and these teams would end up taking a big financial hit and see their statuses as footballing powers decline.

American sports are made for a nation with a short attention span but the joy of football is in the scarcity of its events and the relief from all that anticipation when they do. On a micro level with goals with often only 1 or 2 in a game (versus the many in a sport like basketball) to winning trophies on a macro level, to drawing one of the european giants in the champions league.

It could be fairer, the money could be distributed more fairly, then teams like Leicester could win on a more regular basis. But the idea that football would benefit from less competition and an entirely repetitive fixture list is an idea coming from people who don't understand the game.

Edited April 20, 2021 by mattiloy

[squirrelarmy]

15 minutes ago, mattiloy said:

But the idea that football would benefit from less competition and an entirely repetitive fixture list is an idea coming from people who don't understand the game.

It’s being put forward by club owners who can’t bare to lose money if they don’t qualify for the big tournament each year all because of the audacity of smaller clubs having good games against them. 

[eFestivals]

2 hours ago, steviewevie said:

and only league winners from every country.

Because the Scottish League winner as show how good they are every year.. not.

[steviewevie]

I hate to agree with Barry Fish, but I agree with Barry Fish. After a while would just be boring. I actually find a lot of football boring anyway...really need the likes of Leicester/WestHam/Leeds to make things interesting,  and another thing that annoys me is the constant need for all male politicians everywhere to pretend they support such and such a club...a prerequisite for proving they are blokey blokes who are in touch and have real lives etc etc.

[steviewevie]

3 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

Because the Scottish League winner as show how good they are every year.. not.

Man, it's always Scotland with you.

And why not anyway. Any team can beat any team on the day. Leicester can win the premier league. Greece can with the Euros. Wigan can win the FA cup. Celtic have won european cup more times than Arsenal or Spurs.

One league winner from every country, knock out. Less money. Less bollocks.

[steviewevie]

2 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

You not ignoring me anymore ? 😛

I am, but I keep accidently seeing your posts and then having to go clean my eyes.

[steviewevie]

4 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

You not ignoring me anymore ? 😛

Actually, just taken you off ignore...you are on probation....so be very very careful and don't say anything that upsets my wokey ways.

[Haan]

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/04/the-european-super-league-is-the-inevitable-conclusion-of-football-capitalism

[Haan]

I honestly do not see how capitalism can deal with climate collapse

 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/20/carbon-emissions-to-soar-in-2021-by-second-highest-rate-in-history 

[Haan]

1 minute ago, Barry Fish said:

 

Look at COVID - the pursuit of more money is why we have a vaccine so quickly.

 

Oxford vaccine 97% publicly funded.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/apr/15/oxfordastrazeneca-covid-vaccine-research-was-97-publicly-funded 

 

[mattiloy]

1 minute ago, Haan said:

I honestly do not see how capitalism can deal with climate collapse

 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/20/carbon-emissions-to-soar-in-2021-by-second-highest-rate-in-history 

The biggest beneficiaries of capitalism (the west) are also the countries most insulated (pardon the pun) from its effects.

I saw an interesting analysis once that attributed the syrian civil war to climate change and a drought which ballsed up the agricultural economy.

Unfortunately government is mainly reactive instead of proactive: ’there is a migrant crisis, how do we stop migrants from coming here?’ instead of ’why is there a migrant crisis, how do we best look after these people whilst also making sure this doesnt happen again?’.

I’m still hoping that new technology will save the day but in the worst case scenario I suspect that displaced individuals from the third world will be the major victims of climate change. Unfortunately they are quite far away from those who make the decisions and so the west will continue to hurtle towards catastrophe.

[maelzoid]

2 hours ago, mattiloy said:

American sports are made for a nation with a short attention span...

I'm not disputing your general thesis here, but this nugget couldn't be more wrong.

NFL matches last on average well over 3 hours, for which you get only 1 hour of play.

And baseball? A sport for which a 30% success rate on batting is considered top of the game! And if you're real lucky, you can sit through a no-hitter, a game in which not one player hits the ball! This is not to mention that the baseball season has so many games in it (162) that any single game you could watch is almost certainly inconsequential.

American sports are more boring than cricket.