Cypriot League? [R] for CL and UEFA Cup

[SwissGCZ]

What the devil is going on this year:

- Anorthosis Famagusta beats Rapid Wien and Olympiakos to qualify for the CL

- Omonia Nicosia beats AEK Athens to qualify for the UEFA Cup.

- APOEL Nicosia beats Red Star Belgrade to qualify for the UEFA Cup.

Three out of three, all are still playing internationally - beating some big clubs, especially from "big brother" Greece.

Is there something we should know?


(Huge Congrats to all three Cypriot sides. Fantastic Performance.)

[BocaFan]

Yeah, odd.

They top the UEFA coefficient rankings at the moment! :p

[Icarus_222]

Its been a long time coming. Cypriot football has been on the up and up the recent years. They've caught some of us with our pants down and with players who've experience with their international teams and in places like Greece and Spain, good coaching and feeding off each other's results, this has been on the way for a while now.

Cyprus in terms of players it can attract and the quality of football is way above many nations, times 1000 over the nations of similar or slightly larger size nations.

[glennaldo_sf]

I guess it shouldn't really be such a surprise. Last Euro qualifiers saw Ireland get stuffed 5-2. These results in club football only serve as further confirmation that Cypriot football may be on the up.

[Lusankya]

I don't know... how many players are from Cyprus in these teams starting eleven?

[Icarus_222]

Omonia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_Omonia#Current_squad)

APOEL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apoel#Current_squad)

Anorthosis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anorthosis#Current_squad)

[Ceres]

I think the progress of Cypriot football and some of the other more or less average leagues has something to do with especially the English PL and the clubs in the top 4 leagues getting richer and then picking up more top talent from the leagues just below the top 4 leagues, making the level drop in places like the French, Dutch, Scottish, Greek, Belgium (and so forth) leagues... At the same time the TV deals are growing rapidly in places like Denmark and Norway, making it easier for them to keep their talents from moving to the league just below top 4, so the majority of top talent is now either going to the top 4 leagues or staying at home...

As for Denmark the $$ has become so big that the clubs are now able to buy some of the surplus talent from the top 4 leagues, rather than just buying talents from the other Scandinavian leagues as they used to, which again is making the transfer market more difficult for some of the other leagues below top 4 and adding to the fact that especially the Belgium and Greek leagues are going to find it difficult to to keep their position on the UEFA ranking... or in other words, the level of the leagues below top 4 is getting more even and especially the Greek and Belgium league seem on their way down the ranking.... Btw, Red Star Belgrade is a Serbian club and Serbia will most likely drop below Cyprus in the UEFA ranking next season, while Greece will not be that far ahead.. This is how the countries have done so far this season :

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method3/ccoef2009.html
...and how the (5-year) ranking looks right now :
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method3/crank2009.html
The prediction for next year :
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method3/crank2010.html

.

[Chess_Panther]

There's up to 40 portuguese players there...not bad, some were even from midtable clubs. And with this finding, I consider this thread closed. :D

[Portista69]

There's up to 40 portuguese players there...not bad, some were even from midtable clubs. And with this finding, I consider this thread closed. :D

41 to be exact!!:p

[blanc]

Gogo Cyprus!

[nutbar]

I don't know... how many players are from Cyprus in these teams starting eleven?

That's what I'd like to know.

[nutbar]

I guess it shouldn't really be such a surprise. Last Euro qualifiers saw Ireland get stuffed 5-2. These results in club football only serve as further confirmation that Cypriot football may be on the up.

Plus they're in a rather weak group in WC 2010 qualifying. Besides Italy, they got Ireland, Bulgaria, Montenegro and the war-whacked Georgians.