The Foreign Football Thread 2010/11

[pork pie fox]

Some high profile arrests in Turkey relating to a match fixing investigation:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14006118

 

[Blue Maniac]

What a ****ed up farcical joke of a league. Almost as bad as what happens in Scotland and in Rugby Union.

Par for the course in the Americas, I'm afraid. When a new league structure was introduced in Ecuador a couple of years back, it was so complex that no two newspapers presented the same version - probably because none of them got it right. It's not just the Americas though. You should see the Belgian set-up.

 

[Mawsley]

Vamos La Vino Tinto!

Donde estan?
Donde estan?
Donde estan los hije putas que nos iban a ganar?

 

[bocadillo]

Vamos La Vino Tinto!

Donde estan?
Donde estan?
Donde estan los hije putas que nos iban a ganar?

Ellas son sólo a la vuelta de la esquina

 

[spionfox]

Vamos La Vino Tinto!

Donde estan?
Donde estan?
Donde estan los hije putas que nos iban a ganar?

Ellas son sólo a la vuelta de la esquina

¿No habia una vez una regla que habia que escribir en Inglés en este foro?

 

[Mawsley]

¿No habia una vez una regla que habia que escribir en Inglés en este foro?

Creo k no.

 

[Blaarev]

Update from Norway halfway through the season. Solskjaers Molde on top after a poor start. Surprisingly poor from pre-season favorites Rosenborg, Valerenga and especially Viking. To my great satisfaction, Brann has done far better than expected and takes summer holidays in 3rd; long may it last!!

Top scorer Ujah (Lillestrom) with 13 goals now sold to Mainz.

1	Molde	15	9	2	4	30-23	29
2	Tromsø	13	7	5	1	25-13	26
3	Brann	15	8	2	5	26-23	26
4	Strømsgodset	13	7	2	4	22-19	23
5	Aalesund	14	7	2	5	19-21	23
6	Lillestrøm	15	6	4	5	32-24	22
7	Fredrikstad	15	6	2	7	16-17	20
8	Haugesund	15	6	2	7	24-26	20
9	Stabæk	14	6	2	6	25-29	20
10	Rosenborg	13	5	4	4	24-17	19
11	VÃ¥lerenga	13	5	3	5	15-14	18
12	Odd Grenland	14	4	4	6	18-21	16
13	Sarpsborg 08	15	4	4	7	23-31	16
14	Start	15	4	2	9	23-28	14
15	Viking	15	3	5	7	12-21	14
16	Sogndal	14	3	3	8	9-16	12

 

[Profondo Rosso]

If Rosenborg were to win their 2 games in hand they'd be up to 4th though, so it's not as poor as it looks necessarily.

Interesting that you only have 16 teams in your league, personally I prefer leagues like that that ones with 24 like ours where you have to play a good 16 more games a season.

 

[Billyjof]

Robbie Fowler off to Thailand instead of returning to the UK.

http://www.phuketgazette.net/archives/articles/2011/article10634.html

 

[Blaarev]

If Rosenborg were to win their 2 games in hand they'd be up to 4th though, so it's not as poor as it looks necessarily.

Interesting that you only have 16 teams in your league, personally I prefer leagues like that that ones with 24 like ours where you have to play a good 16 more games a season.

I see that, but even if Rosenborg should win their 2 games in hand, it is a poor first half of the season for them. They were expected to dominate the league along with Valerenga.

It's only a couple of seasons ago that the league was expanded from 14 to 16 teams. Not everyone thinks that was a good idea. The strongest argument against a 16 team league is that it expands the season in both ends into the winter and the conditions of the fields aren't that good in Norway in late November and early March (unless you have synthetic fields as about half the teams have now). Also having 16 teams of top division quality is streching it a bit.

 

[Profondo Rosso]

I think the number of teams in the English leagues should be cut down a bit, personally. Maybe add a 5th football league division to incorporate it. I'd like to see about 18 teams in each division and incorporate the winter break other leagues have, there are far too many games in the English season right now.

I'd also like to see the League Cup either be completely scrapped or the PL teams who qualify for Europe should be excluded from it (unless the holders qualified through the league cup and not through the league), so it gives the "lesser" teams something to win. It's not going to happen though.

 

[Blue Maniac]

If Rosenborg were to win their 2 games in hand they'd be up to 4th though, so it's not as poor as it looks necessarily.

Interesting that you only have 16 teams in your league, personally I prefer leagues like that that ones with 24 like ours where you have to play a good 16 more games a season.

I refer you again to the ludicrous Belgian league.

 

[Profondo Rosso]

You'll have to fill me in on that one (or refer to your previous post on it), BM. Don't really know much about the Belgian league. Is it similar to the Mexican one though? Where they have play-offs etc. so the team who finish 8th can win the league.

 

[Blue Maniac]

You'll have to fill me in on that one (or refer to your previous post on it), BM. Don't really know much about the Belgian league. Is it similar to the Mexican one though? Where they have play-offs etc. so the team who finish 8th can win the league.

Belgian league is something like this:
16 teams play 30 games each on a home and away basis. Then, three sets of playoffs:

Top six are put into a group, their regular season points halved and they play home and away again. Top team are champions.

7th to 14th are separated into two groups of four (home and away again). Winners of the two groups play each other over two legs. Winner of that plays over two legs against the team who came fourth in the Championship playoff for a place in the Europa League qualifying rounds.

Bottom two play each other five times (the team that finished 15th starts this stage with three points and plays at home three times). Loser of this stage goes down. Winner progresses to a further playoff with three second division sides.

As I said, ludicrous.

 

[Profondo Rosso]

:icon_lol: What's wrong with a simple league structure?

 

[Blue Maniac]

:icon_lol: What's wrong with a simple league structure?

It's utterly insane. Because all the teams in the Europa League playoffs start on zero points, a team can narrowly avoid relegation and realistically qualify for Europe at the expense of the team who finished top. Bonkers beyond belief.

 

[bocadillo]

Belgian league is something like this:
16 teams play 30 games each on a home and away basis. Then, three sets of playoffs:

Top six are put into a group, their regular season points halved and they play home and away again. Top team are champions.

7th to 14th are separated into two groups of four (home and away again). Winners of the two groups play each other over two legs. Winner of that plays over two legs against the team who came fourth in the Championship playoff for a place in the Europa League qualifying rounds.

Bottom two play each other five times (the team that finished 15th starts this stage with three points and plays at home three times). Loser of this stage goes down. Winner progresses to a further playoff with three second division sides.

I'll have to bear that in mind for the Prediction League.

 

[Mawsley]

I'll have to bear that in mind for the Prediction League.

I'm a fan; always up for some pointless complication.

 

[Profondo Rosso]

Fabio Cannavaro retired. :icon_sad:

 

[Blaarev]

Fabio Cannavaro retired. :icon_sad:

Regarded him as retired when he went off for the Saudi cash