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2008-09 Champions League (pg. 9)
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| raveed |
| quote: | Originally posted by chesco
You obviously have a more favourable perspective on this than myself as you support the most succesful team in the richest league in the world. Unfortunately I support Celtic and the Scottish league has been in rapid decline over the last decade as all the best sponsorship deals, tv money and players go south of the border.
We can no longer compete with even the relegation battlers in the premiership for signings and when you lose out on players to championship sides who can offer £30k a week you know something is seriously wrong. The playing field needs to be more level otherwise the premiership is going to continue to put the rest of us in the shadows and while that may not be seen as a bad thing for yourself supporting a premiership side, it doesn't provide an attractive spectacle when its the same four teams in the champions league semi final every year. |
Your post above is a classic example of the business side of football rearing its ugly head and proving beyond a doubt that football is a business first and a sport second.
You see this situation all around the world with people from third world countries wanting to flock to the developed nations to make more money which results in the countries like India , China etc losing their most brilliant minds to the US, UK and such. Its the same situation in football but it just hurts a lot more because the clubs have thousands of fans that have to see their most talented players leave for greener pastures year after year.
Given the massive financial gap between the big clubs and their counterparts , it would be next to impossible to implement a salary cap in the coming years. For clubs like Celtic, getting a player like ronaldo , kaka , messi etc would probably bite into a large majority of their current wage limit which would make it very difficult to accommodate other players even if they earn half as much.
The bigger clubs are also established brands which mean they earn a lot more money in terms of advertising , sponsorship , ticket sales etc which will continue to be the case for a while even if salary caps are established. The only probably way to do so would be to eliminate the transfer system all together and establish a draft like they have in american franchises where the weaker clubs get to pick first and the problem with that is that this will need to be established on a global stage rather than just in a single country as is the case in the Unites States.
So keeping all that in mind , it just seems highly unlikely that we will see a level playing field in football for a long long time. |
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| VictorJukov |
champions league is liverpool's trophy to lose, i feel
who can beat them on current form? |
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| The_G0dfather |
| euh, el barça maybe :o |
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| trunks1022 |
quarterfinal and semifinal draws happened already at 1100 GMT (0600 EST) today
villareal cf v. arsenal fc
man united v. fc porto
winners of these two ties play each other in one semi
liverpool fc v. chelsea fc
fc barcelona v. bayern munchen
winners play each other in second semi
5th straight year that liverpool and chelsea face each other at some point in the competition. given the number of goals that each team scored in the round of 16, it seems like barca v bayern could be a barnburner :o |
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| DJ_Eternal |
| quote: | Originally posted by trunks1022
quarterfinal and semifinal draws happened already at 1100 GMT (0600 EST) today
villareal cf v. arsenal fc
man united v. fc porto
winners of these two ties play each other in one semi
liverpool fc v. chelsea fc
fc barcelona v. bayern munchen
winners play each other in second semi
5th straight year that liverpool and chelsea face each other at some point in the competition. given the number of goals that each team scored in the round of 16, it seems like barca v bayern could be a barnburner :o |
Barcelona - Bayern looks tasty indeed. Liverpool and Chelsea have always been drab affairs, and the additional fact that this is the 5th time in the last 5 years makes this all English tie anything less than special nowadays.
Man United - Arsenal, Liverpool - Barcelona for the semi's. Although Bayern could pull off a win. |
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| nchs09 |
Champions leauge is lame.....
:( |
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| Saka |
What a boring fixture: Liverpool v Chelsea.
I see Chelsea puttin up a good performance but to be honest, and this isn't dirspecting Chelsea, I see Liverpool gliding through.
Part of me would like it tobe a tough QF, but hmmmmmm not so much. |
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| Renzo |
| I'm predicting a Man U - Barca final. |
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| raveed |
| quote: | Originally posted by Renzo
I'm predicting a Man U - Barca final. |
Im going to wait and see how we do against fulham tomorrow before making such a prediction although the draw does heavily favor united reaching the final.
That said , over the last few years , united have had a tendency to lost to heavy underdogs in Europe(Monaco, Porto , Bayern Leverkusen etc) etc so this matchup might not be as easy as it seems given that complacency might set in as demonstrated against Liverpool last weekend and Benitez trying to further fuel that sense of over confidence by labeling us as favorites to win it all. |
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| ManiX |
| quote: | Originally posted by raveed
Im going to wait and see how we do against fulham tomorrow before making such a prediction although the draw does heavily favor united reaching the final.
That said , over the last few years , united have had a tendency to lost to heavy underdogs in Europe(Monaco, Porto , Bayern Leverkusen etc) etc so this matchup might not be as easy as it seems given that complacency might set in as demonstrated against Liverpool last weekend and Benitez trying to further fuel that sense of over confidence by labeling us as favorites to win it all. |
tottaly agree,but with the first leg at home,it will be even more difficult... |
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| WoF Owner |
| quote: | Originally posted by denys envy
FORZA JUVE!
What a great match, especially with Ranieri returning to Stamford Bridge. I'm hoping we rape the Blues. At least get a solid away result. |
:eek: Are you from Russia and supporting Juventus!??
:whip:
ahahahah!!!! :haha: |
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