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Euro Champs This Weekend (England SPoiler)

Hacker Khan said:
To me the qualifying campaign is all a huge waste of time and resources. As they have expanded the finals to 24 teams the top 2 and possibly 3rd will qualify. They then rig the draw and deliberately put the lesser ranked teams in with the top teams and keep the better teams separated as much as possible.

So to me there's not a huge amount of excitement watching matches which mean very little. It's not an arrogant attitude I hope saying that England will qualify, but the way it is done they will have to try very hard not too. Which to me seems a bit of a pointless exercise. The bigger teams don't get that much of a challenge and the lesser teams must get bored of being beaten more often than not. I don't have a problem with it expanding to 24 teams as such as it does give teams more chance to get there, but just the way they want to effectively legally fix who gets there. They will probably then go and seed the teams in the finals as well, yet again desperately trying to ensure the bigger teams with the biggest TV audiences go further in the tournament.

Apart from possibly getting lower TV audiences, I can't see what is wrong with it all being a completely open draw, all the names in a hat and if you draw Germany, Italy, France and Spain in your qualifying group then suck it up. The best teams in the end will score more points and get to the finals. And if that means that some lesser teams get there through the luck of the draw, and some bigger teams go out, then so be it.
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The whole point is so teams can play competitive matches and improve for when the finals come around. I know England do it back to front but we are special :D

So Gibralter, Kazhakhstan, San marino, Andorra, Luxembourg all get drawn in a group and two of them obviously have to get through to the euro championship finals.

They will get absolutely mullered to pieces about 8-0 every game so what fun is that? We are just seeing the exact thing you have just moaned about but on a much bigger stage!

Better to filter out the crap earlier so we can have the best standard of the sport at the finals.
 
Well done England, good away win against a team much higher in the world rankings.

I have always been impressed with Welbeck, I think he is a better player/prospect than Sturridge.
 
Birchy said:
The whole point is so teams can play competitive matches and improve for when the finals come around. I know England do it back to front but we are special :D

So Gibralter, Kazhakhstan, San marino, Andorra, Luxembourg all get drawn in a group and two of them obviously have to get through to the euro championship finals.

They will get absolutely mullered to pieces about 8-0 every game so what fun is that? We are just seeing the exact thing you have just moaned about but on a much bigger stage!

Better to filter out the crap earlier so we can have the best standard of the sport at the finals.
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I suppose the fun for them is that they have a chance of qualifying, instead of going into just about every qualifying group knowing that it's mostly a waste of time and effort? Sport is only real when it's not preordained, when the result is not known before the game begins. Trouble is that, until we get to the later stages of most football tournaments nowadays, this is mostly not the case. And the driving force behind this seems to be commercial interests instead of sporting ones.

Ask yourself if you think FIFA/The Premier League/EUFA etc etc are more interested in a) the commercial side of the game or b) progressing the game? Yes you can do both, but to me the commercial side is taking over more and more and ruining the sporting side of it.

Yes get all the sponsors you like from the Far East to advertise in Chinese at games in England if you must. But don't mess with the ethos of a free and fair draw just so you can just about ensure the teams with the biggest audience get to the finals. If they are that good they would have got there anyway.

Love Lenin.;)
 
It is not unique to football though. Tennis draws are the same as are the top rugby tournaments in fact pretty much every team world cup is the same. Sport is, at a top level, entertainment and the crowds want to see the best teams play.
 
GB72 said:
It is not unique to football though. Tennis draws are the same as are the top rugby tournaments in fact pretty much every team world cup is the same. Sport is, at a top level, entertainment and the crowds want to see the best teams play.
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Most top sports seem to have a seeding element involved. I guess it's to get the top teams through for bigger audiences, bigger advertising revenue and bigger profits for the governing body. It makes sense I guess and I'd rather see the top sides compete rather than a couple of one sided matches
 
Birchy said:
Surprised you like him now he has moved to Arsenal :whistle:
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16 million for a 24 year old with pace to burn , him along with walcott and sanchez and being fed by Ozil and Carzola , goal glut when they settled down and best bit he still be there next season , falcao at 350k a week will not be there next year , no brainer , really has to be one of the best deals this window
 
The staggered games is not a bad idea. Getting to watch games you wouldnt otherwise be able to.
 
Hacker Khan said:
To me the qualifying campaign is all a huge waste of time and resources. As they have expanded the finals to 24 teams the top 2 and possibly 3rd will qualify. They then rig the draw and deliberately put the lesser ranked teams in with the top teams and keep the better teams separated as much as possible.

So to me there's not a huge amount of excitement watching matches which mean very little. It's not an arrogant attitude I hope saying that England will qualify, but the way it is done they will have to try very hard not too. Which to me seems a bit of a pointless exercise. The bigger teams don't get that much of a challenge and the lesser teams must get bored of being beaten more often than not. I don't have a problem with it expanding to 24 teams as such as it does give teams more chance to get there, but just the way they want to effectively legally fix who gets there. They will probably then go and seed the teams in the finals as well, yet again desperately trying to ensure the bigger teams with the biggest TV audiences go further in the tournament.

Apart from possibly getting lower TV audiences, I can't see what is wrong with it all being a completely open draw, all the names in a hat and if you draw Germany, Italy, France and Spain in your qualifying group then suck it up. The best teams in the end will score more points and get to the finals. And if that means that some lesser teams get there through the luck of the draw, and some bigger teams go out, then so be it.
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You have to look at it as a pinnacle of European football. Imagines group that had say.......

Germany
holland
france
italy
spain
portugal

you loose 4 big teams and you end up with the finals full of teams like SanMarino, Lithuania, Slovenia, who is going to pay for TV rights for Slovenia V Lithuania, the stadium that is half empty and the host nation now pissed because all the money they put into holding it is not coming back as no one is going to the games.

It is about money and politics. I would love to see Engkand in a group with all the good teams and see some top games
 
JCW said:
16 million for a 24 year old with pace to burn , him along with walcott and sanchez and being fed by Ozil and Carzola , goal glut when they settled down and best bit he still be there next season , falcao at 350k a week will not be there next year , no brainer , really has to be one of the best deals this window
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He may be trouble but I prefer Balotelli, but hey let's judge it on who scores the most at the end of the season
 
Watched the Andorra v Wales game last night. Poor game of footy but what a shambles of a pitch! Fresh astroturf with black 'brake dust' added to slow it down. Overall a good result for Wales, thanks to Gareth Bale.
 
Piece said:
Watched the Andorra v Wales game last night. Poor game of footy but what a shambles of a pitch! Fresh astroturf with black 'brake dust' added to slow it down. Overall a good result for Wales, thanks to Gareth Bale.
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I currently play 5aside on a 3G pitch, funnily enough the best players are still the best players. All the whinging about the pitch is utter pish IMO.
 
MadAdey said:
You have to look at it as a pinnacle of European football. Imagines group that had say.......

Germany
holland
france
italy
spain
portugal

you loose 4 big teams and you end up with the finals full of teams like SanMarino, Lithuania, Slovenia, who is going to pay for TV rights for Slovenia V Lithuania, the stadium that is half empty and the host nation now pissed because all the money they put into holding it is not coming back as no one is going to the games.

It is about money and politics. I would love to see Engkand in a group with all the good teams and see some top games
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Hasn't Platini made it that the one after France will be played in 36 different countries, or something bizarre like that?
 
MadAdey said:
You have to look at it as a pinnacle of European football. Imagines group that had say.......

Germany
holland
france
italy
spain
portugal

you loose 4 big teams and you end up with the finals full of teams like SanMarino, Lithuania, Slovenia, who is going to pay for TV rights for Slovenia V Lithuania, the stadium that is half empty and the host nation now pissed because all the money they put into holding it is not coming back as no one is going to the games.

It is about money and politics. I would love to see England in a group with all the good teams and see some top games
Click to expand...

You say that, but in the World Cup the best games by far were in the first round. Once we got into the later stages, which all the big teams did qualify for due to the unique way the world cup final draws are rigged, a lot of the games were actually very dull. So a game against 2 very good but mostly equal nations can be very cagey and dull. But throw a few lesser nations in there who have got nothing to lose and it often livens up and you get a much more exciting game.
 
Piece said:
Watched the Andorra v Wales game last night. Poor game of footy but what a shambles of a pitch! Fresh astroturf with black 'brake dust' added to slow it down. Overall a good result for Wales, thanks to Gareth Bale.
Click to expand...

The pitch was poor but so were Wales. Their quality should have been more than enough to win easily
 
HomerJSimpson said:
The pitch was poor but so were Wales. Their quality should have been more than enough to win easily
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I saw a bit of the game, and Wales had no idea how to play on such a pitch. Trying a passing game, when it was obvious a big hoof upfield was needed.:mad: I hear that Neil Warnock is looking a getting a similar pitch at Palace.:whistle:
 
I hear England are "reborn" again and on the verge of greatness with the powerhouse that is Fabian Delph in the middle and that clinical striker that is Welbeck ( first goals in 20 England games ) up front - a new dawn I hear under the fresh new exciting tactics of the Evergreen Hodgson !
 
Liverpoolphil said:
I hear England are "reborn" again and on the verge of greatness with the powerhouse that is Fabian Delph in the middle and that clinical striker that is Welbeck ( first goals in 20 England games ) up front - a new dawn I hear under the fresh new exciting tactics of the Evergreen Hodgson !
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Did you really hear this tho?? Or is it just a bitter dig at England & Hodgeson??
Welbeck did well,maybe he could use the excuse that he was played out of position in the past 20 games :whistle:
 
Let's be honest here, if you picked a 2 world 11 teams to play each other would you really be picking any England players? If you had to pick 2 18 man squads would you still find room for any England players? Can anyone with a straight face tell me 1 current England player who really is up there with the best in the world.









I'm still trying to think of one, what about you? :confused:
 
MadAdey said:
Let's be honest here, if you picked a 2 world 11 teams to play each other would you really be picking any England players? If you had to pick 2 18 man squads would you still find room for any England players? Can anyone with a straight face tell me 1 current England player who really is up there with the best in the world.









I'm still trying to think of one, what about you? :confused:
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Easy.......Sterling
 
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