The rise of the Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish clubs

[aloisius]

With the strengthening and stabilization of the economies in these big countries, their clubs have also been steadily improving. They’ve turned themselves from sellers to buyers in the transfer market.

They are now financially stronger than clubs in the Netherlands , Portugal, Scotland Belgium and other smaller W. European countries, and it’s only a mater of time when they will clearly be overpowering them on the pitch as well.
The clubs like Ajax, Benfica, Celtic or Porto started losing ground on clubs from the big 5 in the mid nineties with freer player movement and will now be overtaken by another batch of clubs. Their chances of success in Europe will be close to zero. I wonder how will they accept that.

[Hurley]

Money is not enough to give those clubs the conditions to compete with the big dogs, not even with the other clubs you mentioned like Ajax or Porto. Those countries are not the most attractive markets for foreign players, and they also dont have the best youth systems. The only 2 teams from outside the big leagues that won the Champions League in the last 10 years were mostly composed by homegrown talent, and thats where the eastern countries should invest, not in overpaid has-beens like the Turkish ones do.

[SoccerFan8270]

Turkish clubs may have a few "has-beens". However, this is a good start and young players have also started to come to Turkey such as John Carew, Alex, and more. I think that there is a good future ahead for Turkish clubs...

[|--LdC--|]

With the strengthening and stabilization of the economies in these big countries, their clubs have also been steadily improving. They’ve turned themselves from sellers to buyers in the transfer market.

They are now financially stronger than clubs in the Netherlands , Portugal, Scotland Belgium and other smaller W. European countries, and it’s only a mater of time when they will clearly be overpowering them on the pitch as well.
The clubs like Ajax, Benfica, Celtic or Porto started losing ground on clubs from the big 5 in the mid nineties with freer player movement and will now be overtaken by another batch of clubs. Their chances of success in Europe will be close to zero. I wonder how will they accept that.
I think you made good points, no one knows what will happen but like you say they are big countries, so they have the potential thats for sure but this doesn´t mean they will achieve success easily or they will easily surpass the teams from Portugal, Holland who are almost the only ones who can challenge the power of the big 4 and the explanation is given by the other big nation France, they are usually considered the amongst the big 4 as the biggest and strongest nations in Europe at club level but the truth is that football in France had a huge growth since the 80s i think and after 20 years they only have 2 european trophys, their big teams still struggle and often lose against teams of Portugal and Holland and they fail to retain their best players at their league.
So despite their economical and demographical power they still are an exporting nation, this is only one of the possible futures of nations like Turkey, Ukraine and Russia, all 3 have potential but what will come from that no one knows, like no one knows how European football leagues and continental competitions will be structured in the future.

[nicephoras]

Turkish clubs may have a few "has-beens". However, this is a good start and young players have also started to come to Turkey such as John Carew, Alex, and more. I think that there is a good future ahead for Turkish clubs...

Well, that's a difficult definition of young. ;)

[aloisius]

I doesn´t mean they will achieve success easily or they will easily surpass the teams from Portugal, Holland who are almost the only ones who can challenge the power of the big 4 and the explanation is given by the other big nation France, they are usually considered the amongst the big 4 as the biggest and strongest nations in Europe at club level but the truth is that football in France had a huge growth since the 80s i think and after 20 years they only have 2 european trophys, their big teams still struggle and often lose against teams of Portugal and Holland and they fail to retain their best players at their league.



So despite their economical and demographical power they still are an exporting nation, this is only one of the possible futures of nations like Turkey, Ukraine and Russia, all 3 have potential but what will come from that no one knows, like no one knows how European football leagues and continental competitions will be structured in the future.
Portugal and the Netherlands have produced a few outstanding teams in the last 10 years, but
overall the French were more successful. And with the new TV contract there will be very few French players leaving the country.

The three countries in question have all outperformed the Portuguese in UEFA competition this fall.
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method3/ccoef2005.html
The trend is clear. They are not losing their domestic players (admittedly, they aren’t producing loads of quality either) and they are bringing in better and better foreign players all the time.

I don’t see any changes happening in the structure of continental competitions. I think UEFA has a achieved a stabile compromise between commercial demands and sporting credibility.

[Sneaky Greeky]

Ukraine isn't on the rise, and really they aren't stable with the election debacle and Russia bothering them, haven't heard about Russia, but they are losing money and are getting alot more terrorist attacks, they are scared, and the Iraq war was bad for them so how do they benefit, Turkey is the only one of this three listed that has really gotten alot better, one of the top ten leagues, i give turkey alot of credit they are slowly getting a much better league

[|--LdC--|]

Well Ukraine still has 3 teams in European competitions thats not bad at all, i believe they are improving and teams like Dinamo Kiev and Shaktar are respect teams in Europe.
The Russians are trying to bring new blood to their league in order to improve their teams, if they keep investing in players and infrastructures the level of football played there will rise sharply.
Turkey already has one of the top 8 leagues in Europe (IMO), their only problem is lack of money, when their economy stabilize and they enter European Union maybe we will see teams like Galatasaray, Fenerbace, Besiktas and Trabzonspor with super squads.

[herewego]

I think economycal rise of the whole countries is not the main factor, in my opinion it´s more the money that championsleague generates and that teams that dominate their not very competitive domestic leagues take profit of that in almost every year for a decade or more now. Because it are almost always the same teams that qualify from this leagues they don´t have to share this benefit with other teams.

[AFCA]

That goes for most leagues though

[FCDynamo]

Ukrainian clubs are getting stronger because of the number of brazilians they have i would love it when the new uefa rule goes in effect when teams have to train their players

[GoodDead]

The clubs like Ajax, Benfica, Celtic or Porto started losing ground on clubs from the big 5 in the mid nineties with freer player movement and will now be overtaken by another batch of clubs. Their chances of success in Europe will be close to zero. I wonder how will they accept that.

Yeah how is Dinamo Moscow getting stronger? Cicero, Loureiro, maybe maniche? Getting Portuguese talent, but guess what? we keep on producing them so we will be fine, you can buy the players up after we win more euro silverware.

[guado]

Ukrainian clubs are getting stronger because of the number of brazilians they have i would love it when the new uefa rule goes in effect when teams have to train their players

more brazilians does not equal better quality. if it was like that brazil would have the best league.