The European football thread

[rudel.dietrich]

After the sucessful WC thread (which is still ongoing) I decided a week or so ago that there is enough of a following around here to give football its own season thread.
Most of Europe is gearing up for the 06/07 campaign and this is the thread to disscuss it all.
Enlgish football, SPL, Bundesliga, French football, Serie A, Spanish club play and everything else.

Transfer rumors, great games, club matches, national cups and tournements etc.
Disscuss it all in this thread.

If you are an American who wants to see more club football, I can reccomend a few channels if you have cabel or sattelite.

Fox Soccer channel is a good place to start and is offered in many sports packages.
With DirecTV you can get this an a few dozen other sports channels for $6 a month.
GOL TV is another good pick and offers alot of football outside of Europe.
Finally, Setanta sports is probably the holy grail of football channels.
It is a premium channel and expensive with alot of providers.
DirecTV charges $12 a month for it, but it is worth it.
More football and rugby than you can shake a stick at.


So...for those experiencing post WC blues. This is your thread!
Happy posting.

[Russ]

I can't wait for the race for second place in the EPL to get underway.

[piperclap]

Barca Barca Barca!

[The Just]

Hey Russ, you might enjoy this site.

www.ihateronaldo.com

[CalvinHobbes]

I'd like to get more into football. Here in Canada I get to watch one game a week on Saturdays, but I'm at the mercy of whatever Sportsnet wants to show. I'd like to maybe see Chelsea now that my boy, Ballack, is a member. My Granddad's team was Everton, so I'd like to watch them too. My dad is a staunch Liverpool fan, I guess just to stick it to his old man, lol.

[Herd Fan]

Originally Posted by CalvinHobbes

I'd like to maybe see Chelsea now that my boy, Ballack, is a member.

As a diehard Bayern fan I don't really want to discuss such things.

[The Just]

MLS is getting a new expansion team in Canada, Calvin. It's called Toronto FC and they have their little logo up on the MLS site and everything. Good looking logo, to. But that's only if you're interested, as MLS competition isn't quite like the competition you see around the globe. But it's gaining support and is finally about to turn a profit, so you could hop on the MLS bandwagon if you're willing to bear through it's growing pains.

[Herd Fan]

Originally Posted by The Just

MLS is getting a new expansion team in Canada, Calvin. It's called Toronto FC and they have their little logo up on the MLS site and everything. Good looking logo, to. But that's only if you're interested, as MLS competition isn't quite like the competition you see around the globe. But it's gaining support and is finally about to turn a profit, so you could hop on the MLS bandwagon if you're willing to bear through it's growing pains.

I hate the fact that MLS is expanding beyond our borders. I realize the English leagues have teams from Wales, but that is a different situation altogether. We should not have Canadian teams in our top flight soccer league.

[Sdpm100]

Originally Posted by Herd Fan

I hate the fact that MLS is expanding beyond our borders. I realize the English leagues have teams from Wales, but that is a different situation altogether. We should not have Canadian teams in our top flight soccer league.

I don't see why. It's exactly the same situation as with the Welsh teams. Canada doesn't have a professional league so they have to play somewhere.
Other leagues with the same situation - the A-League in Australia has a New Zealand team, and Liechtenstein teams play in the Swiss Football League system.

[Herd Fan]

Originally Posted by Sdpm100

I don't see why. It's exactly the same situation as with the Welsh teams. Canada doesn't have a professional league so they have to play somewhere.
Other leagues with the same situation - the A-League in Australia has a New Zealand team, and Liechtenstein teams play in the Swiss Football League system.

No, it's not the same situation. Like it or not, Wales is part of teh United Kingdom. Canada is not part of the United states. As far as Liecthenstein, that is also waaaaaay different...Canada is just a tad bit bigger than that and more than capable of fielding their own league if they wish.

[Herd Fan]

Another problem: how does MLS deal with the foregin player rule? do they have to be Canadian or American? This is similar to the problems with Chivas USA and I simply do not like the fact that MLS is expanding to Canada when there are several US cities deserving of an MLS franchise.

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by Herd Fan

I hate the fact that MLS is expanding beyond our borders. I realize the English leagues have teams from Wales, but that is a different situation altogether. We should not have Canadian teams in our top flight soccer league.

It is not really that new of a thing. When a country is too small to support its own league, but has cities that can support a team they put them into another league.

One thing that does bother me, can the MLS support this extremly rapid growth?

I realize they are just 10 teams but they are expanding at a rapid pace.
Can they support this?

[Sdpm100]

Originally Posted by Herd Fan

No, it's not the same situation. Like it or not, Wales is part of teh United Kingdom. Canada is not part of the United states. As far as Liecthenstein, that is also waaaaaay different...Canada is just a tad bit bigger than that and more than capable of fielding their own league if they wish.

Wales have their own FA. The six teams in the English league are there from before their own national league - the League of Wales was even formed in 1992.

New Zealand are not a part of Australia either, but they don't have the capabilities, like Canada, to have their own professional league.

[The Just]

That's what I'm most worried about. If they can support this or not. We're not talking about a league that carries a lot of supporters. I heard somewhere that the average attendance of an MLS game is around 15,000. So it's not like if this team doesn't cut it in making money, they can just count their losses and move on. It wouldn't be the first time they've had to do this with a franchise either. So it really makes one wonder.

[marc]

MLS is teh suk. That is all.

[Sdpm100]

Originally Posted by The Just

That's what I'm most worried about. If they can support this or not. We're not talking about a league that carries a lot of supporters. I heard somewhere that the average attendance of an MLS game is around 15,000. So it's not like if this team doesn't cut it in making money, they can just count their losses and move on. It wouldn't be the first time they've had to do this with a franchise either. So it really makes one wonder.

As an outsider looking in...
One thing that MLS has got over the NASL, is that the franchises have been a lot more stable, with one relocation and two contractions in 10 years, IIRC.
And probably their policy of having all the squads have a major American presence on the playing roster has been a good thing for the league as well.

Now if they need more players to stock more teams, and there aren't many Americans of a high enough standard not in the league, then they'll have to go down the foreign players route.

[CalvinHobbes]

Originally Posted by Herd Fan

I hate the fact that MLS is expanding beyond our borders. I realize the English leagues have teams from Wales, but that is a different situation altogether. We should not have Canadian teams in our top flight soccer league.

It's the same as in Baseball and Basketball (and hockey, but I'll leave that alone for now). I've argued this with my Brother actually. I don't *really* agree with having a Canadian team in either league, for the simple fact that most Americans don't care about the teams/city (how many Americans actually watched the Jays win back to back WS?) and most American players would rather play in Milwaukee than Toronto, nothing against Milwaukee.

I'm a Torontonian born and raised, I love the city. It's nice and clean and much much bigger than Milwaukee, 3-4 million in the Greater Toronto Area and, I believe, there is something like 9 million people within an hours drive, so it's a huge market to draw upon. Yet most Americans don't care, for the simple fact that it's not American. So, basically my point is, why have Canadian teams in an American league, when the general population of the States could give a rip about the team. Same way I feel about hockey. Why have teams in Carolina/Tampa Bay, when it is abundantly clear that Americans, in general, dislike hockey.

Sorry for the rant, I guess I'm gettin waaaay off topic. Sorry English Chap who started this thread?

EDIT: Sorry, that's Fallschirmjager, and it doesn't look like you're English at all.

[a87star]

Does anyone know of any good soccer sites on the web? Any recommendations?

[The Just]

ExpertFootball.com

It's a great place to learn about the history of the sport, the most heated derbies, top players, and it also has links to other good sites worth checking out.

WeCallItSoccer.com

Home of the "Free Beer Movement" in promoting MLS. Entertaining and insightful at the same time. Also has links to other sites worth checking out.

Just a few websites off the top of my head.

[bababui]

Originally Posted by The Just

That's what I'm most worried about. If they can support this or not. We're not talking about a league that carries a lot of supporters. I heard somewhere that the average attendance of an MLS game is around 15,000. So it's not like if this team doesn't cut it in making money, they can just count their losses and move on. It wouldn't be the first time they've had to do this with a franchise either. So it really makes one wonder.

It would be the third time. And the Bay Area debacle had to do more with stadium issues more than attendance. It really doesnt make you wonder.