EPL players in 'lesser' leagues

[The|nstantClass|c]

I thought I would get EPL fans opinions on this subject since it was the basis of the discussion. Here are the relevant posts.

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=12413795&postcount=468

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=12414278&postcount=469

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=12415326&postcount=471

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=12417194&postcount=478

It seems to me that the EPL etc. is better than smaller leagues because of the money. What do you lot think?

[sendorange]

The Bundesliga is a weaker league and pretty much always has been. The league here was at the top in Europe long before the TV money came along, feel free to take a look at the European Cup and UEFA cup history. It was only Heysel which interrupted things and the Premiership recovered from that.

Occasionally there are Bundesliga players like Berbatov that come and do well, however for the fan there to suggest parity at the top level is stretching credibility and sounds more like they want that to be the case to justify their time spent watching it. I notice one of the people you quote is squidward, a well known troll with a chip on his shoulder when it comes to England and a lack of knowledge about the game, so I wouldn't take his view as a typical one.

In any case, football is a professional sport and money will always be a key factor. However the money does not appear out of thin air, it comes from the fans who follow that particular league and they do so because it is more entertaining. Quite simple really.

[Matt Clark]

Not that simple. The Bundesliga manages to be perfectly entertaining without fleecing its customers in the way that the EPL does. Go to the Veltins Arena or the Westfalenstadion and stand on their huge banks of terracing, watch a top-class game of football and do it all for as little as €15. Strikes me as entertaining ...

Fact is, there's a degree of irony in you telling a German fan that they're wilfully deluding themselves about the Bundesliga's qualities in order to justify the amount of time spent watching it. In reality, the average "EPL fan" is amongst the most deluded on the planet. That's not to say the EPL isn't fantastically entertaining in its own very specific way, but we're saturated with totally gormless hype about just how big or significant that entertainment is. And that's because the clubs and their TV partners need to maintain a near-crazed pitch of excitement at all times so no one get seriously distracted by the truly absurd prices we pay for the privilege of all this entertainment.

For real football fans, German football has a hell of a lot more genuine entertainment to offer than top-flight English football. You just don't get to see all the "stars" you might see here: but then, that's only important because we keep getting told it is.

We're doing the Premier League website at the moment and you would not believe some of the directives we're getting for media planning and creatives on photo assets. Suffice it to say that we have a junior designer more or less full-time on comping those images you see everywhere of Rooney, Ronaldo, Gerrard and Drogba in "thrilling action poses".

That said, the rest of the posts provided above about how players of that calibre would not be significant contributors to other leagues is clearly toss.

[sendorange]

At no point would I say the Bundesliga is a weak league, just not in parity, and of course the Premiership marketing is always in overdrive and the ticket prices are too higher, however the facts speak for themselves when you compare results and also my post is in the context of responding to the original posts.

I have spent time in Germany and been to see not only the top level Bundelsiga games at Gladbach but also even lower level games at Uerdingen. Have you been to the grounds and games you cite in your post? It's not poor quality, but certainly not more genuinely entertaining or more "real", ultimately it was still paying to get in, merchandise and corporate sponsorships eveywhere for 22 players kicking a ball around. I would rather pay a bit more for more quality, although preferably some kind of happy medium between the two.

[Matt Clark]

Yeah, I've been to Schalke and Dortmund loads of time (although as a Bochum fan that's probably not something I should admit too openly ...).

I don't think the disparity in quality or entertainment is anywhere near as vast as the disparity in cost. Which is, of course, a value for money argument: but that's relevant - money doesn't equal entertainment. In actual fact, there's almost an obverse relationship in England: for all the riches lavished on the EPL and the players it buys (and pays) a lot of 'the EPL product' is total dross; add to that the fact that for all the money we are forced to pay for our entertainment, the experience of actually watching football in person in England is very regularly inferior to what it is in Germany and you've got more or less no real terms disparity at all.

[leg_breaker]

Well, I've just paid £26 to sit an a soulless stadium in the middle of nowhere with zero atmosphere other than a 100db tannoy and some idiots playing drums in the corner, to watch the display of football more diabolical than many games in the lower divisions.

Some how I think the Germans paying €10 or whatever have far the better deal. Quality my arse, you can have all the best players in the world, it doesn't matter if they've just going to knock long balls to each other and fail to connect ten yard passes.