General Footy Discussions

[Charger]

Wow... Liverpool is struggling big time and Chelsea is in control. That's bit surprsing. I guess they did pull some tricks up their collective butts.

Let's see how Liverpool can counter in the second half...or if they even can...


In order of full disclosure I do have to admit I did put some money down on Liverpool so....

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
I've not been watching live, but I see Liverpool have equalised.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

2-2 after extra time... I can't stand penalties


EDIT: Ok Liverpool won 5-4 on penalties, maybe they aren't so bad after all!!

[Charger]

Quite the match I have to say...lots of action in this one...

Also glad to see the Penalties didn't end with a failure but with a successful save from Adrian.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

RIP Bury FC.

After 125 years Bury -- in the 3rd tier of English football -- have been kicked out of the football league after being unable to secure finances or a buyer. They had been unable to fulfil any of their fixtures this season and the league had given them until Tuesday to come up with a survival plan... they couldn't and now they have gone. The 3rd tier will now only have 23 teams in it and only 3 teams will be relegated this season rather than 4.

In a similar vein Bolton Wanderers (also in the 3rd tier) had to also prove they were financially sound last night... the league gave them an extra 14 days and today the club was sold after a protracted takeover. Bolton have started the season on -12 points and have been playing games with youth players as they only have 3 senior players left. It's only about 5 or 6 years since Bolton were finishing in the top half of the Premiership. They'll probably get relegated this year but like Portsmouth a few years back (the last team to be relegated from the 1st tier to the 4th tier in consectutive seasons) they'll start to rebuild and bounce back with a new, sensible financial plan.

As for Bury, a new team will probably emerge from the ashes in due course, I think they may be able to restart in the 6th tier but I'm not entirely sure on the rules there.

[Zzzptm]

So what's the deal with soccer clubs folding because of finances? I remember seeing a discussion of such back in the early 80s on an episode of Yes, Minister. Is this due to changing tastes in football or are some towns just falling on hard times and can't keep the old club going?

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

It's a mixture of reasons really. Most of the money is in the Premiership coming in from TV rights, corporate deals and sponsorship. I heard mention recently that most of the top teams could play to empty stadiums and it wouldn't matter a bit to their profit margins.

It's the teams on the fringe that seem to be susceptible to financial difficulties. Bolton and Portsmouth are two such teams in recent years, in order to get success they spend money they don't have in order to get better players. The trouble is a few good players don't make a good team, yes both teams had a couple of good seasons but then they have a poor season and get relegated... they still have players with premiership wages who they can't always off-load because in fact they were not very good players. On top of which Bolton had built a flashy new stadium which is going to look great in the lower divisions!

Club owners can be criminally stupid... one of Portsmouth's owners was the only middle east sheik who didn't have any money!

I'm not quite sure what Bury's problem was but they got promoted last season and although it may have been on a smaller scale they may have achieved that promotion by spending money they didn't have.

[Zzzptm]

So how does a club get a shot at Premiership without dropping a ton of cash on salaries for talented players? I can see a possibly profitable existence as a perpetual farm club, always sending talent up to the majors once they get good, but if you want a crack at that top tier, it's a huge risk, seems like.

[Charger]

Well how about that...Finland qualified for the Euro Championships for the first time in history!

That's quite something.

[Jack the Stripper]

^^Well done Finland. What a huge fillip for the Country.

Most experts would've had Greece going through with Italy in that group.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
^^^
Congratulations, that had passed me bye, let's hope it's a sign of good things to come.

[Charger]

Yeah...Finland has stepped up it's game a lot with the current coach Markku Kanerva...He has really improved the ball posession and especially the offence game and still not forgetting defence. Also the team is much more united now than ever before.

But it'll be quite the battle to actually achieve anything in the championships though...I am expecting us to be at zero points after the group stage...or maybe one lucky tie point...depending ofcourse a little bit on the luck of the group draw...Finland still has a long way to go but this is a nice first step and it's a huge win just to get into the games.

I just fear that now people are starting to put unrealistic expectations to the team and when they will fall short it will crush the moral again and it will be even harder to achieve anything after that. The finnish press has a way to start demanding impossibilities from atheletes no matter the sport.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

While you're probably right Charger, look at the last Euros in 2016, Iceland got to the Quarter Finals and Wales (who hadn't even qualified since the 1950s) got to the semi-finals! So stranger things have happened... don't forget Greece won the whole thing a few tournaments back!

[Zzzptm]

FINLAND FEVER SWEEPS THE FORUMS!

[Charger]

Well Greece showed Finland how it's done again.

This loss wasn't as meaningless as people around here seemed to think (including the team I think since they used a lot of b-players) as this ofcourse means it's gonna be a tougher group stage ahead then.

But again we are in and I guess that's the important part. Even if it would be a zero points group stage atleast we got in.