Kaizero

Head of legal at the Norwegian FA said he believes that the big clubs have gambled on the national FA's and UEFA not having the balls to expel them and thus strong arming it through, as he says UEFA and national FAs are within their rights to expel them, and he'd expect UEFA to throw them out of the European competitions.

I'd hope in an ideal world, the best players would still want to play in the Champions League, World Cup and their respective continental tournaments - and would realize that the massive wages would remain with them if they, the players, just went to the clubs that now are competing in the Champions League. Thus driving the TV deals by them being players in the tournaments. Without the players, there's literally no interest in the Super League.

Current league table with the shit teams removed:

I'd welcome that. I fucking detest the current status quo.

"Lee, you have the thumb face filter on."

And thus limit worldwide interest in the sport, creating lower revenue. In one way you'd be making the playing field more even as there'd be more interest in the domestic leagues.

They're not discussing how to change due to viewership, they're discussing change so the big clubs get to keep more of the TV money.

And don't tell me you'd not rather watch Djokovic/Federer/Nadal vs an Underdog in a final than you would one of them against eachother.

Johanna Konta’s victory over Simona Halep in the in the 2017 Wimbledon Women’s Singles Quarterfinal had a higher viewership figure in the UK than the 2019 final between Djokovic and Federer, just leaving that there.

Shouldn't allow Finland to play in the European Championship this summer because they don't stand a chance of winning it anyhow. Let's rather throw in an England B squad, that will do wonders for viewership figures and interest in the game in Finland.

For who? Seeing Rosenborg or another Norwegian team face off against European competition, even if they're already knocked out, used to be an annual television highlight. Molde almost reached the quarters in the EL this year as well, meaning we're not even just all dead rubber outfits anymore. It works for the markets that match is meant to work in at the stage the tournament is in. There's no interest for anyone not a fan of a club to watch a group stage game of a team they don't have any affinity to, it's boring.

I miss the Cup Winners Cup.

The coefficient system works well.

Ratings are highest towards the end of the tournament, irrespective of the teams playing. If a World Cup final ended up being contested between Sweden and Croatia, you'd get as high numbers as England vs Italy. People who aren't fans turn in for the event, not the teams involved. This is why group stage games between two historically massive sides does not necessary have high viewership numbers, because it's just a group game. In Croatia, Dinamo Zagreb vs Any would get higher viewership than Juventus vs Barcelona - which in turn means there's more to gain for UEFA viewership/ad wise through local representation for viewership than globalization.

Because seeing teams like Slavia Prague and Dinamo Zagreb in the EL quarter finals against the "established" sides is what makes european football entertaining.

Why would a guy working for Castore tell randoms? Not saying it didn't happen, just find it hard to believe it either can't be confirmed by journos or, if they're under an NDA, someone that works for them spouting off in public.

I'd imagine it would be fairly easy for a (proper) journalist to just check with Castore if they've bought the shop or not.

Essentially a similar reason to why we have one transfer rumors thread and one twitter transfer rumors thread. This thread merits its existence as in the other thread you'd get jumped if you were just a tiny bit positive, to the degree there's even spillage over into this thread from people wanting to jump others for being positive.

I find it hard to believe these posters can't read a simple sentence such as the thread title, so they're either nor particularily gifted mentally or just want to be dicks for the sake of being a dick. I'm gonna start going into the NFL thread and talk about what films I've recently seen, seeing as that is the thread logic we follow now.

It's been changed tons of times and a wrong offside has always been shit, which is why the human element needs to be removed.

I'm with Wenger in thinking offsides should be fully automatic at the top level and the ref would just get a notification on his watch if something was offside - remove the human aspect completely from that equation.

This reads wrong when you realize his actual first post is him saying he's had the AZ vaccine and he is fine. Get out of here, anti-vaxxer

By doing that you rob nations not qualified for 2020 the chance to play in the EC. It's not a good thing at all, it means some players might not get to play at an EC for 12 years (if they weren't qualified for 2016 for instance). Their entire career essentially, when they could've had one last chance at it.

Milan is a shit city.

It's the dumbest fucking thing You play the best CM you have at your disposal at CM. I mean you don't play your goalie as a striker just because you happen to have two world class goalkeepers, you play the best of the two in their natural position and bench the other.