Village Idiot

So weird to have CL game at this time of the day.

Espanyol is on the verge of being acquired by a Chinese group. http://www.espnfc.com/espanyol/story/2694224/espanyol-set-for-rastar-group-takeover

Incindentally, Sergi Roberto was awesome yesterday. I had given up on him but I hope he can sustain that level, and prove me wrong

How's Deulofeu doing? I confess I'm not paying much attention to Everton.

One of the criteria for awarding the money under the 3rd chapter is that the stadium looks full on TV. Maybe clubs will have an incentive to lower ticket prices now. Or they will just pack people on one side of the stadium This will hurt teams that have a loads of plastic seats. Hello Getafe.

20-30 million are around 5% of Real Madrid and Barça's turnover. It's not a lot, but it is not negligible either. Both are reportedly running very close to La Liga's wage caps. The value in the new system is to give a way for other clubs to grow, instead of Barçadrid gouging most of the money that enters the system.

The lowest placed club will receive close to €30m this season. That's a huge lift in a league where - until this year - only 12 clubs had a higher turnover than that.

These figures mean a decrease of around €20-€30 million for Real Madrid and Barça vs their current contracts. There was talk of an "insurance" so they couldn't receive less money until the contract grew sufficiently to accommodate their current TV earnings, but it's not alluded anywhere.

More details have emerged about how the new tv contract works. There are 1215 million to distribute (a big increase over the previous contract). Of those... A) 83% go to top division clubs (1008 million) 1) €22 million to each club. 2) €250 million in prize money, distributed according to a table averaging the 4 last seasons' finishes - weighted so the current season counts for more -. The top ranked club (currently us) would receive €40 million, the last club would receive a little over €500k. 3) €250 million distributed according to a formula that values TV audiences achieved (the biggest contributor), ST sales, state of facilities etc... top ranked clubs would receive €50m (that's us and Real Madrid), while lowest ranked clubs would receive €5m Note that the figures don't add up to €1008m, the remainder will be distributed equally. B) 10% go to second division clubs (120 million) 1) 70% in a fixed, equal amount. 2) 15% as prize money (same as first division) 3) 15% according to TV audiences, ST sales, facilites... (same as first division) C) 3,5% in parachute payments for relegated clubs (€42,5m) D) 2% to the Spanish FA (€24,3m) 1) 1% to fund the expenses of organizing the Copa del Rey 2) 1% to finance amateur football (it will all get embezzled anyway) E) 1% to the Spanish Sports Council - to be used to fund government support of other sports (€12,1m) F) 0,5% shared between the Spanish Football Players Union and Segunda B teams (€6,07m)

A month from now. Unlikely to play in the Clásico. Right now we're all over the place, but Neymar and Suárez are carrying us. Unless somehow Turan transforms our midfield in January and we become a solid team again, can't see us doing much this year. Neymar has really stepped up, finally the player we see for the national team. 5 goals and 6 assists in 6 games since Messi's injury. Although I think his performance against Eibar was the worst yet. When a player can have a bad game and still be in the picture of all your teams' goals, you know he's something. He's really stepped up to the plate in a big way during the past 12 months.

A month from now. Unlikely to play in the Clásico. Right now we're all over the place, but Neymar and Suárez are carrying us. Unless somehow Turan transforms our midfield in January and we become a solid team again, can't see us doing much this year.

His brother was signed just to help him settle, obviously.

1996 isn't that long ago in terms of major tournaments. Countries rarely host two tournaments in that space of time. Also England tried to bribe Jack Warner in the 2018 bidding, someone else just bribed him better France 98 & France 2016? "Rarely" Yeah, we have had a bunch of unsuccessful bids since we last hosted a major tournament in 1982, too.

Barça have been fined for booing the CL anthem and displaying Catalan separatist flags (something that's been happening for decades). I think UEFA are in full passive-aggressive mode now.

The south, always oppressed.

I always found weird that the CL anthem is sung in French, but not Italian or Spanish. How many CLs have been won by French teams compared to Spanish and Italian ones?

Remember him always having a tab in his mouth. Hope he pulls through. He famously quit smoking after suffering a stroke while he managed us. He even headlined an anti-smoking campaign in the Catalan telly after that. Seems it finally caught up with him.

Cruyff diagnosed with lung cancer.

Our FA's president (acting UEFA president while Platini is suspended) is under investigation too. God, how I wish that massive crook ended up in jail.

He came out of nowhere to be frank. You bought him after his first season as a senior player, and no youth caps. Some brilliant scouting there.

Damn, I was away today because of work and I missed this. It was even on the Spanish telly.

Our press keeps linking you with Valdés as a replacement. Would love it.

Av threw me. Was wondering why VI hated Neymar now. It's absolutely horrible. I keep thinking VI has lost it when Tooj posts (Not that Tooj has lost it, but they have quite different views on football and stuff ) Do we? I usually find myself in agreement with a lot of what Tooj says, or his football tastes.

Ney Same old story for Rayo. They always look like troubling big teams, but end up with a pasting.

Think for example of Real Madrid. If we still went with pre-Bosman rules, they'd have to pick 3 out of: Ronaldo Benzema Bale Modric Varane Rodríguez Kroos Navas Kovacic Danilo Casemiro (Marcelo has a Spanish passport IIRC) Now besides the fact they'd be weakened themselves, all the players they'd be giving up would be at smaller teams, a lot of them in their nation's leagues, strengthening them. That's how football was before the Bosman ruling.