Village Idiot

To be honest nobody knows what to do with Barcelona's Olympic Stadium now that Espanyol aren't polluting it. It's fine for the odd big athletic event (like the European C'ships this summer) but way too white elephant-ish for the regular athletic events we host throughout the year. To see it make by as a concert venue is a bit sad.

They are not like English reserve teams. We can't chuck Hleb there for example. Only U23 players can be placed in a B team, or players especially contracted to the B team which can't be included in the team's main squad. Ah right, that makes more sense then. Still think it's a bit harsh on the clubs that only exist in the lower leagues... in theory everyone is part of the same league structure. Yeah, as I said I believe B teams should be capped to Segunda B (our third flight), which has 80 teams in it and it's the lowest professional tier.

Guy that has Berbatov in my league just erased my 50+ point advantage. Somebody injury him, please.

Honestly, the way your pyramid works I'd never institute B teams. The only way it works in Spain is because we have a "true" football pyramid where each lower level has a shitton more clubs. 90% of B teams are in the third and fourth flights, which have 400+ clubs put together.

They are not like English reserve teams. We can't chuck Hleb there for example. Only U23 players can be placed in a B team, or players especially contracted to the B team which can't be included in the team's main squad.

I'm a bit torn about our B teams allowed so much up the ladder to be frank. I love that Barça B is in the second division but if I were a neutral that place would be better used by a real team whose fans could enjoy football at a good level. Our third flight has 80+ clubs in it, so I think B teams don't hurt so much there. But it's true that it prevents an excess of developmental loans in our league. Also, loans are an easy way for an unwanted player to try to rebuild their career instead of rotting on the stands until the contract runs out.

Any restriction could easily be sidestepped with sales with buyback fees. Real Madrid do that a lot instead of regular loans.

Nonono...the trick is that it's the player who is paying the fee, not the club. If a player wants to use his release clause to leave a club, it's him who has to pay his employer under our sports law. The buying club will give him the funds, including VAT, under whatever formula (since this will accrue even more taxes for the player) but the buying club won't be able to claim VAT since they haven't paid it directly, and the player can't either. Now, in most transfers this doesn't happen since there's a gentlemen's agreement between Spanish clubs to just accept bids that are equal to the release clause, and save on tax costs. But if a seller wants to resist the sale, forcing the player to trigger the clause with all the added tax costs is a way to increase the cost for the buying club. I'm not a tax law expert at all, mind, but that's how I have been told it works (and in particular the whole 'it's actually the player who pays the release fee' angle to it it's true)

They can claim the VAT, but they'll only have to hand it over in any case, surely? Yeah, it will go to the state. In most cases the selling club just agrees to accept a bid for the value of the clause instead of having the player actually triggering it, since they won't be seeing any extra money anyway. But in truly hostile player buys it's a way to defend themselves and increase costs for the buyer. We claimed tax in the Figo sale for example.

Boss from Fergie Regarding VAT, the way release clauses work in Spain if it's a hostile buy the selling club can claim VAT since it's the player who's supposedly paying the fee, not the buying club.

"Hatem will tear you apart?"

Atlético prez has just said they have turned down a €45m Real Madrid bid for Kun. His release clause is €45m+18% VAT

That loan deal that hasn't really been talked about enough in this page has a €15m fee agreed towards a permanent move.

I harbor my doubts that they are compatible. In my opinion if they sign Suárez it means Torres is off in the summer.

1. Milan raping us in the 1994 EC final (Marcel Desailly still haunts my dreams) 2. Ronaldo leaving the club. 3. Conceding a late equalizer to Espanyol and losing the league because of it in 2007. #2 was a big deal to me, I was certain that we were losing a one of a kind player, that could go on becoming one of the true greats of the game. I still wonder what would have happened to us and to him if we had retained him. That said, given our current bonanza all these memories have been washed out like tears in the rain [/bladerunner]

Adebayor's loan to Real Madrid to be concluded "within hours" according to Marca. He's a good player when he's arsed, but with any luck he'll fall out with half the squad within 5 minutes of entering the dressing room.

Does he have access to fighter planes?

Yeah, I meant the 200,000 figure as a supplement to what would be your purported 35k wage cap (and yes, it's still napkin math).

And even if he's taking something like 50k, you'll be only paying him for 4 months. Take it at a 200k loan fee or something.

Seems Brum are desperate. Trying to sign every striker that moves (or doesn't).

Van Bommel off to Milan.

I think his best form with City was in the hole or off the main striker.

Can't see much risk on a loan until the end of the season, if I were you I'd go for it. If it works then you can talk.

"As" reporting today that Mourinho has banned Madrid's DoF Jorge Valdano from the training ground. Fun.

Valencia just signed Jonás Gonçalves for €1m. Bit of a bargain if he turns out good enough for Europe.