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9 May 2016 - 10:53pm

Domestic Football Leagues

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Since we have EPL and CL topics all ready I thought it could be a good idea to have one thread for all of the other top (or not) domestic football leagues.

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9 May 2016 - 11:02pm
#1

Still great drama in Primera although Atletico lost their game and title chances in the last match. Still to come in last day of the season:

Granada - Barcelona

La Coruna - Real Madrid

No doubt there will be a pressure on both favourites or at least in the starting minutes of the games, but who'll win the league in the end?

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10 May 2016 - 6:35am
#2

I think both teams will win, so Barcelona will be champions. Both Granada and Deportivo La Coruna are safe from relegation now so I don't think either will put up much of a fight.

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10 May 2016 - 11:14am
#3

Yeah I think it would be a lot tougher game for Barcelona if Granada have to fight for survival but luckily for them home team is safe now. Still it's the last game and I think there will be a lot of pressure over Barcelona until maybe they open the score.
Let's not forget the two lost titles from Real in the last day of the season both against La Coruna If I'm not mistaken so hopefully we'll see some final day drama.

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14 May 2016 - 8:13pm
#4

In the end Barcelona won the league but of course not as convincing as they might wanted, just 1 point in front of Real and 3 over Atletico but I think they do great job in the last 4-5 league games when all the pressure was on them.

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16 May 2016 - 2:11am
#5

Well it went the way I expected after all. I read that Barcelona's last 5 games were 5 wins, 24 goals scored, none conceded. They really stepped up when they had to. Suarez has had a phenomenal season to outscore Messi, Neymar and Ronaldo, all the while managing not to eat anyone.

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16 May 2016 - 8:49pm
#6
CL-Ed wrote:

all the while managing not to eat anyone.

😀 Quite an achievement isn't it 😀

And yeah pretty good recovery from Barcelona in the last five after they've brought the pressure on themselves.

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16 May 2016 - 9:15pm
#7

European top leagues were quite boring in the end and it was another season of domination of just one team, especially in Germany and Italy when they could give the trophy's to Bayern and Juventus even before the season starts.

Juventus 5 straight titles
Bayern Munich 4 straight
Barcelona 3rd in the last 4 and 6th in the last 8 seasons.
PSG 4th straight

Of course the English PL is an exception from that and it was by far the most interesting League this season, in a certain sense the game returns back to the roots which was great I think.
I like the idea for salary caps which would make a "smaller teams'' a lot more competitive I think, similar to the American sports system where we also have a dominant teams at times but as a whole teams in any single sport are quite competitive to one another.

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17 May 2016 - 12:47am
#8

Yes we have a salary cap in Australia and the league winner changes most years. I think it is a great system, best suited to smaller leagues though. It would be hard to implement across Europe for example as all the best players would just move to China or somewhere else full of moneybags team owners where they don't have a cap.

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17 May 2016 - 9:43pm
#9

So what, we'll watch the Chinese League than 😀
Like Juan Mata said recently - Footballers Are Paid Too Much and That He Would Accept a Pay Cut.

I also don't think it would happen in Europe but certainly some measures are needed if they want the sport to be competitive enough which I think is the general aim in the end.

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17 May 2016 - 11:40pm
#10

I agree that players are paid too much for what they contribute to society but I can't work out who should be paid more instead. The players are getting a huge slice of the TV money and sponsorship pie. So if they get less, who gets more? The owners of the clubs? The leagues?

Ticket prices could be reduced for fans, sure. But you could let all the fans in for free and still pay the players millions because ticket sales are only a small fraction of revenue compared to TV money and sponsorship in the top leagues. I think that if anyone should be getting most of the money it should be the players. After all without them there is no game to watch.

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18 May 2016 - 7:17pm
#11

Good question Ed, these funds have to go somewhere and maybe the players deserves to get so huge part of the money. Maybe the problem is there are too much money in football generally not just in players contracts. I don't think it was so ridiculous 15 - 20 years ago before the huge TV incomes.
Anyway I would like to see part of these incomes get back to society one way or another, heard of many stories when fans gives their own money to save their favorite team from bankrupting but almost never heard of football club helping fans or community with funds in some way.

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21 May 2016 - 9:42pm
#12

It was the day of the cup finals in all the major countries in Europe which is amazing really, I don't remember so many finals in a single day.

France. PSG - Marseille 4-2

England MU - Crystal Palace 2-1 after ET

Germany Bayern - Dortmun 0-0 (4-2) after penalties

Italy Milan -Juventus 0-1 after ET

Anywhere close games and 3 of 4 needed extra time and even penalties for the winner to be clarified, Dortmund had unbelievable bad luck to loose third straight final the first of which against Bayern in Extra time and now with penalties.

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23 May 2016 - 4:33am
#13

And Barcelona won in extra time today too. So all the favourites won, but most of them needed extra time.

The European Championships and Copa America are coming up now. Football, it never ends!

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24 May 2016 - 9:51pm
#14
CL-Ed wrote:

The European Championships and Copa America are coming up now. Football, it never ends!

Yeah hopefully it would never end Ed 🙂
I think these will be an exiting tournaments, especially the European championship, maybe we'll have to create another thread about it.

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26 August 2016 - 9:58pm
#15

After the other 3 big leagues in Europe started all ready today it was the begining of the Bundesliga too, surprise surprise - Bayern won 6-0 v Werder, I guess one of the easiest predictions is who will win the German league and after that they all wondering why the TV ratings are low...
I think Bayern and Juventus could race themselves for winning the most titles in let's say 10 seasons period, seriously doubt one of them would have " just 9" cups in the end.

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27 August 2016 - 11:40am
#16

Two games which promised to be great in Italy tonight,

Lazio vs Juventus

Napoli vs AC Milan

But isn't that just at first sight, Juventus still don't have any competition in Italy and Mllan needed a lot of luck to win their first game at home against a weaker side so would Napoli and Juve would have any problems winning? Hope they will but I'm not to sure about that.

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29 August 2016 - 1:25am
#17

The dominance of Bayern in Germany isn't good for anyone except I suppose Bayern and their supporters. Hopefully another team like Dortmund can put up a good fight and make things interesting. I kind of follow two German teams - Eintracht Frankfurt and FC St Pauli. Neither are very good! St Pauli has been in the 2nd division for the past 5 or 6 years now. They have had a shocking start to this season - 3 games, 3 losses and sit bottom with zero points. Eintracht had a win on the weekend in their first game though.

Napoli and Juve both got up as you predicted. I hope you bet on them!

There has been an interesting start to the Championship in England with Huddersfield who were just promoted from League 1 leading undefeated after 5 games. They beat Wolves on the weekend. I only know this because the best player in the Australian league for the past few years, Aaron Mooy, was signed by Manchester City then loaned out to Huddersfield so the media here keeps printing articles about it. Of the "big" teams in that league Newcastle had a bad start with 2 losses but have bounced back with 3 straight wins, while Aston Villa and Leeds are struggling in the bottom half.

And now its an international break already.

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29 August 2016 - 5:26pm
#18
CL-Ed wrote:

Napoli and Juve both got up as you predicted. I hope you bet on them!

Didn't placed a bet Ed, even didn't check the odds but I doubt they were even decent, usually looking for a higher ones.

CL-Ed wrote:

And now its an international break already.

Already 😕 -That's really sucks

CL-Ed wrote:

The dominance of Bayern in Germany isn't good for anyone except I suppose Bayern and their supporters. Hopefully another team like Dortmund can put up a good fight and make things interesting. I kind of follow two German teams - Eintracht Frankfurt and FC St Pauli. Neither are very good! St Pauli has been in the 2nd division for the past 5 or 6 years now. They have had a shocking start to this season - 3 games, 3 losses and sit bottom with zero points. Eintracht had a win on the weekend in their first game though.

Glad to hear you're not a Bayern fan Ed, it's almost too easy to be their fan.

Eintracht were great back in the 90's with players like Yeboha and after that the other Nigerian guy, can't remember his name, came from England - great player...yeah - Jay-Jay Okocha.
St Pauli is a team from Hamburg, always wondered why such teams which coming from so huge Cities can't be decent opponents to Bayern Munchen, Hamburger and Herta are also in that category. Shalke 04 had many great periods but never managed to win the league, even lost in the last week once ( Bayern scored in the stoppage time while Schalke fans were already on the field celebrating :'( )

CL-Ed wrote:

There has been an interesting start to the Championship in England with Huddersfield who were just promoted from League 1 leading undefeated after 5 games. They beat Wolves on the weekend. I only know this because the best player in the Australian league for the past few years, Aaron Mooy, was signed by Manchester City then loaned out to Huddersfield so the media here keeps printing articles about it. Of the "big" teams in that league Newcastle had a bad start with 2 losses but have bounced back with 3 straight wins, while Aston Villa and Leeds are struggling in the bottom half.

It's the league of the real British style, the games are always very intensive, I've watched few games already this season, didn't saw the standings though and didn't knew Huddersfield leading 😳
But usually I'm interested what's happening there, sometimes a lot more than the PL.

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30 August 2016 - 12:22am
#19

Actually I have a strangely similar story about why I like both Eintracht and St Pauli. When I was a very little boy my dad had to go to Germany for some training course to learn how to fix some type of printing press (he was like a mechanic for printing presses) which was in Frankfurt. So he brought me home a football shirt of Eintracht. It was was too big and went down to my knees but I wore it all the time. And then in 2006 when I went to see some of the world cup my friends and I met some German guys who showed us around and one of them was a huge St Pauli fan so he bought us a shirt each.

So there you go, I'm a cheap convert - you just have to buy me your team's shirt.*

* Not guaranteed to work for Manchester United.

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30 August 2016 - 12:59am
#20
CL-Ed wrote:

So there you go, I'm a cheap convert - you just have to buy me your team's shirt.*

* Not guaranteed to work for Manchester United.

Great stories Ed 👍
Relax, I won't buy you United shirt 😜 at these prices I can't afford to buy one even for myself 🤑
They've getting more and more expensive every season 👎
I've got one MU's with Sharp as a sponsor recently - can't find it now 😀

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18 September 2016 - 2:38pm
#21

Big game today in Italy ( or at least on paper) Inter will face Juventus at home and maybe it suppose to be a close game but when we see the form of the home team who lost in Uefa Cup at home midweek to the Israel team, things don't look quite so even any more.
Napoli sitting on first place after the win agains Bologna yesterday so at least in the first few rounds we have some race in Italy. Could that continue in the second half of the season though?

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19 September 2016 - 12:58am
#22

Well Inter got one over Juventus which was a bit of an upset and now Napoli lead. A friend of mine is from Naples and he's a big Napoli fan. By the sounds of things they are really determined to show Higuain and Juventus that he made a big mistake in moving. I'm not sure how that is going to work out for them long term but for the moment it seems to be working.

I watched the first half of Bayern vs Ingolstadt on Saturday night. Ingolstadt got off to a surprise lead but within minutes Lewandovski cored a beautiful chipped equaliser. Bayern ran out 3-1 winners but it was good to see them getting a competitive game for once.

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19 September 2016 - 12:58pm
#23

I'm not sure Napoli were so upset after letting him go at 75mill pounds 😉

I guess we should celebrate every loss of Juve/Bayern in these leagues.

3-1 for Bayern - as closer as it gets 🙂

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20 September 2016 - 8:31am
#24

Yeah its pretty sad when I'm getting excited about a team only winning 3-1. Ingolstadt had a few good chances though and an upset was possible if they had finished better.

My German teams have had a decent couple of weeks. Eintracht beat Leverkusen and St Pauli have 4 points from their last 2 games after losing the first 3. So hopefully they are both on the up now!

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22 September 2016 - 12:06am
#25

I really don't have a favourite teams across Europe, outside England I mean but there was few over the years which I kind of liked.
Particularly in Germany Werder Bremen in the 90's were a great team under Otto Rehhagel and often were a match even for Bayern Munchen, of course Dortmund was a great team when they won the European champions cup, I think it was 95' although they defeated United :'( on the semis and great Juventus team on the final.
But usually I'm supporting those who fight against Bayern for the title (obviously none lately 🙂 )

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27 September 2016 - 8:27am
#26

I saw the second half of Toulouse beating PSG on the weekend. PSG were awful and I'm wondering how long until they pull the trigger on the new manager who was with Sevilla last year. They have already lost twice this season which is as many as they lost all of last season. They won the league by more than 30 points but the president still wasn't happy with Laurent Blanc and said the season was disappointing!

In Germany my team St Pauli went back to their losing ways but at least Eintracht managed a 3-3 draw and they are 5th in the Bundesliga which isn't bad. Of course your favourite team Bayern have 5 games, 15 points, 15 goals for and only 1 against. 😉

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27 September 2016 - 9:50pm
#27

I was about to bet on Toulouse victory but changed my mind and of course they won.
PSG will face Ludogorets tomorrow and I hope they will continue their poor run,
I used to like them over the years but not any more when they get use to buy their ..success, at least on paper winning the local league should be a piece of cake for them.
With that dominance of Bayern, Juventus, PSG and even ...Barcelona I really start thinking there's have to be some changes in football as a whole because these leagues getting ridiculous and it's sometimes even embarrassing for some of their own fans.
I know the other clubs should do better but with the amount of the salaries those clubs could afford to pay no one could be even close to them in their respective leagues, except for Real M of course
At least there should be salary caps I think or something that would make those leagues tighter and more entertaining for the fans.

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28 September 2016 - 8:26am
#28

I agree but the reality is there isn't much anyone can do. Financial fair play rules have proven to be a joke. We have a salary cap here in Australia which makes the league quite evenly contested but we're far away and a smaller market so we can get away with it. If England for example enforced a salary cap all the best players would just move to Spain or Italy or somewhere else that doesn't have one.

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28 September 2016 - 10:58pm
#29

Maybe you right Ed, but I think there's have to be a huge change from the very top of the football management.
Organizations like UEFA and FIFA should be thinking about making the game more competitive and entertaining and not just to serve to the biggest clubs because some shady interests and of course money.
The salary cap doesn't mean that particular team would not have a superstars but would spend a lot wisely outside those 2 or 3 star players they have I think.
Probably there's have to be some arrangement between the top European Leagues which would make that a lot easier and if anyone wants to go in China or Qatar leagues or anywhere...so what it's up to them if they want to play quality football for a little bit lesser pay-check or the other way.
I'm not watching PL because of the stars and will continue to watch the games even if there aren't any...and the fact is that despite PL is by far the most popular it's also the tighter one and that's also hugely increases the interest.
I don't think in Italy or Germany they are satisfied with the numbers of the TV viewers in the last years because they have been a lot higher over the years but that could be only improved if there's a competition in these leagues and of course some other factors too but that's the main thing for me.

It's funny that if you play any fantasy football game as a manager you will have certain budget to construct your team and that's a huge part from the challenge but in real life there's some managers who don't have any financial restrictions and that's I think is ridiculous (although some of them not doing well even in that scenario)

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29 September 2016 - 7:24am
#30

I like the comparison to fantasy football. You're right that some of the managers are playing real life fantasy football but without the spending limits. I liked the idea of FFP in allowing clubs to only spend in relation to their income but it has proven to be toothless when an owner can phantom bill another corporation he owns for hundreds of millions in order to inflate the revenue artificially.

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