2014 - 2015 Football Thread - Page 270

On October 09 2014 19:12 Crushinator wrote:
Every major change would have very serious drawbacks, it is easy to hate on FIFA for doing little about financial inequality, but honestly there isn't all that much that can be done without extremely drastic changes across the board. I don't care much about variance in winners. I'm quite happy to watch my team try to get a top 5 finish in a shitty leaugue with a bunch of third tier scandinavian youngsters. It would just be nice if the smaller leaugues don't get even smaller and poor clubs even poorer.

There should be mandatory sell-on clauses and stricter limits on foreigners, equally in all competitions and enforced centrally to stop leaugues from competing with eachother by making these rules as lax as they can get away with. Poaching youth from other clubs should also come with a steeper financial penalty. I think this would go a long way towards making the smaller leaugues, and smaller clubs, more competitive.

On October 09 2014 19:33 Pandemona wrote:


I think they addressed the youngster situation right? Isn't it now "illegal" in a sense to buy a player under 18? Obviously might be loopholes in you just attract them when they are under 16 and haven't signed a contract BUT that is a risk that you take. If you get caught your going to get Barca'd

But the only way to financially control football is by doing it across a WHOLE continent or in Europe's case, the whole of Europe. Or all the players who play for money would just jump ship to the league which doesn't have the rules.

On October 09 2014 21:32 Ferrose wrote:
I hate drafts and I hate the lack of relegation in American sports. The draft is the antithesis of what sports is all about for me. It rewards teams for being bad.

And the lack of relegation makes it so teams can be horrible every year with no repercussions, so you see teams that play no meaningful games all season (because they are too far down in the standings to make the playoffs). In football, for teams at the bottom of the table, the threat of relegation means that they still have meaningful games because they're fighting to stay in their current division. Even if they are one of the worst teams in the division, the fans still have a reason to care and show up to the games.

Without relegation, you end up with teams like the Cleveland Browns. Imagine if Hamburg in the Bundesliga had been as bad as they are now...for 15 years in a row. And still kept getting the top draft picks and access to the best young prospects, as well as a truckload of cash from the DFB every year. That's what the Cleveland Browns are. Yet according to Forbes, the Browns are worth $1.12 billion, higher than all but five football clubs.

Edit: Leagues could impose restrictions on players from outside the EU. But placing restrictions on the number of foreign players from EU nations is illegal according to EU law per the Bosman ruling.

On October 09 2014 14:53 lprk wrote:
Number of unique winners doesn't mean anything, how tight si competition for the title is way more meaningful for league attractiveness.

The drafting system combined with the salary cap effectively makes sure all the teams stay at roughly the same level in the longer run. Who wants that? The only skill part is picking the right player in the draft (Portland must have been kicking themselves for not picking MJ since they had the earlier pick than the Bulls).

Reducing the amount of money won in the CL will only make teams less hungry for it, I feel. It might become a second EL, where some teams don't really put in much effort, since they know they won't win it at the end. Just progressing a few rounds hardly nets you anything, but puts a lot more stress on the players' fitness.