It's only the French League Cup, but... [R]

[Montréal United]

Allez les Verts!!! Allez les Verts!!!

St-Etienne 2 - Nice 0

Les Verts are up to the semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. With the club's financial situation, that's a good thing with a large prize money for the winner plus UEFA Cup qualification.

Next up either Auxerre, Nantes or Sochaux.

[Papa Bouba Diop]

Allez les verts!

[david dunn]

that's great, my cousin paly in taht team, I hope they will go in ligue 1 next year, and why not play an europran cup if they win this cup, it's possible...
they played a great match yesterday

[SportBoy333]

I'm happy for St.E's cup success but I often wonder if France really needs a league cup. I would not be unhappy if they did away with it.

[Montréal United]

Ever so close to St-Denis, ASSE 2 - Sochaux 3...

2-nil up after 20 minutes, Les Verts let the dream of the 34,000 fans in house slip away.

Well, better refocus fast because the race for promotion is getting hot.

Ligue 2 (with prediction) with 16 games left

1 Istres 43
2 Amiens 39
3 Saint-Etienne 39 (promoted)
4 Lorient 38 (champs)
5 Caen 38
6 Le Havre 36 (promoted)
7 Niort 35

Sportboy333, the cup might not be the most prestigious, but the fan and players sure cared yesterday.

[gary_rb]

this game was wonderful to watch
a real cup game

[SportBoy333]

34,000 for League Cup game is damn impressive. What are they averageing for attendence in League 2 ?

[SportBoy333]

Originally posted by Montr顬 United


Ligue 2 (with prediction) with 16 games left

1 Istres 43
2 Amiens 39
3 Saint-Etienne 39 (promoted)
4 Lorient 38 (champs)
5 Caen 38
6 Le Havre 36 (promoted)
7 Niort 35



I noticed that the 3 clubs you picked have had a lot more division 1 experience than the current top 2.

[Montréal United]

St-Etienne's crowds are quite impressive for the level. Geoffroy-Guichard "Le Chaudron" has a capacity of 36,000.

The average for this season is 18,000 (with a high of 24k for the league). The league's average is lower than 6,000 if you exclude Les Verts.

As for my promotion prediction, I, of course, take my team to be promoted. Lorient, it's only a feeling with their current form. As for Le Havre, they are currently doing much better after slow start due to the relegation and the loss of the Liverpool duo. I believe their experience will help them jump those smaller teams whose nerves are already frailing.

Gary_rb, I wish I could have seen it. In Canada, we only get two games a week (L1), but no cup games.

[Papa Bouba Diop]

Originally posted by Montréal United

Gary_rb, I wish I could have seen it. In Canada, we only get two games a week (L1), but no cup games.

I live in Montreal and I saw the match. If you have satelite or digital cable you can get a channel called RFO (Resault France Outremer) which shows the occasionnal cup game and telefoot. A couple of years they used to show the TF1 champions league games, all the NT games, (and ALL cup games from national French TV) but I think they got in trouble for that and no longer broadcast them. I will have to inquire as to why and send out some death threats to the culprits, which are either Setanta, RDS/TSN, ESPN or even Videotron, (I don't know much about broadcast rights so I might be just paranoid, it could be lack of viewership or expensive selling rights) but what I don't understand is that RFO is a Saint-Pierre et Miquelon channel which is a French department, so there shouldn't be any problems...

[gary_rb]

RFO is a channel for all Outremer regions (martinique, guadeloupe, reunion ...) and it belongs to France Televisions, who have the TV rights for Coupe de la Ligue and Coupe de France.
The tv rights for international games belong to TF1, those for Champion's league belong to both TF1 and Canal+, as well as the rights for Ligue 1 I think.

[Papa Bouba Diop]

Yes, this is correct, but it doesn't explain why they stoped broadcasting 90% of their games on RFO.

[gary_rb]

cause RFO belongs to France Television and they don't have the right to broadcast the competitions they don't have the tv rights for ? :)
now i don't know why they had the right to broadcast them before

[SportBoy333]

Originally posted by Montr顬 United
St-Etienne's crowds are quite impressive for the level. Geoffroy-Guichard "Le Chaudron" has a capacity of 36,000.

The average for this season is 18,000 (with a high of 24k for the league). The league's average is lower than 6,000 if you exclude Les Verts.



Ok lets say they get promoted to the first division next season. Will they spend the money to win to match their fanatical support ? I say no. I see them on the same level with clubs like Bastia, Strasbourg and Montpellier. I don't see them spending the money to compete with Lyon, Monaco, Marseille and PSG. The best they can do is try to win with young talent like Sochaux and Auxerre. Either that or get a really rich owner and spend some money.

[magic38]

Originally posted by SportBoy333
I don't see them spending the money to compete with Lyon, Monaco, Marseille and PSG.
They just don't have the same money as these clubs ...
Originally posted by SportBoy333
The best they can do is try to win with young talent like Sochaux and Auxerre.
exactly and if after a few years they manage to qualify for the CL, then they might be able to bring some really good players.