Not much - if anything - to do with reserve teams being in the pyramid. After all, that only happens in Spain and Germany (used to in Holland, at least for the Cup, in the early 80s). It's more to do with the scale of the various teams. Barring financial meltdown at a particular club, there is a clear gap between teams like, say, Nantes, that are D1-standard clubs that could sustain themselves for 5-6 seasons in the top flight if they get a good coach and assemble a good squad, and the clubs where D3 is their natural level. In England, virtually the entire Championship and even a portion of D3 (e.g. Sheffield United) are D1 clubs in waiting. Check the stadium sizes. Most of the Championship clubs are in 25K+ stadia, whereas in Italy, Spain the D2 clubs are in stadia as small as 7k . In other countries, you're talking about 5-6 teams max that are capable of mounting a promotion challenge and sustaining themselves. Even in BL2 only half are at that level.
This situation is kind of blowing up. If anyone reads French, maybe they could read and summarize the following article? http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/201...riez-ne-cedera-a-aucune-menace-politique.html From what I can gather, the secretary of sport in the French government came out to say that this situation is ridiculous and that the leagues are trying to enforce a "closed system" and not allow any new teams in. The president of the professional leagues obviously had a rebuttal. Also, we know how much FIFA hates "outside involvement" of political bodies, so they might weigh in soon too.
Here is the summary: Frédéric Thiriez, the President of the LNP (Ligue de football professionnel) has stated that he will not accept political interference with regards to Luzenac. Others have argued that LNP wants to have a closed system of only a few clubs with only 18 clubs and only one being relegated each season. One went as far as to call they hypocrites. The upcoming court date deals with the LNP refusing Luzenac on the grounds that their stadium is "outside of the normal security" rules. Ligue 2 has already had 3 matches, while National has had two. Here is where I bet this ends up, Luzenac plays the season in National, but gets a bunch of cash. Either league will be difficult for the club as a result of so many matches to make up. The longer this goes on, the more likely Luzenac will be relegated from either league.
Looks like Luzenac didn't make the jump due to their stadium sitch. http://toulouse.tribunal-administratif.fr/communiques-ktk/sasp-luzenac-ariege-pyrenees.html #Luzenac :je regrette cette décision injuste,alors que Toulouse avait fait le nécessaire pour lever les derniers obstacles à la montée en L2— Jean-Luc Moudenc (@jlmoudenc) August 27, 2014 Not sure where they go now...
French lower divisions are weird. Last few years clubs like Stratsbourg and Cannes have jumped all the hell over the place with no apparent explanation.
CFA is regional. So each year the teams that are played are grouped into regions, thus creating odd groups where one year a team may be in a region with teams in the Southeast, but the next there might be lots of Southeast team and they are forced to be in the Southwest, etc. Here is a pretty lengthy article in French: http://www.rtl.fr/sport/football/luzenac-toujours-pas-accepte-en-ligue-2-7773953982 It basically says that things were fine, except the stadium situation. It did not meet minimum qualifications for Ligue 2. I think no one has any idea how to get out of this situation. What I mean by that, Luzenac is not placed in a league yet, because they do not know how to do it.
Luzenac is not giving up hope yet. They have another court date set this upcoming week to get into Ligue 2. After that, who knows.
Depends on the owners and what they want to do. If they decide they still want to pursue Ligue 2/be a local heroes club in D3, then he's under contract and he (and the club) has to honour his contract. A lot of the players (like Quentin)signed because they thought they were going to Ligue 2: tough luck, it's D3 for the season. If they don't, then they will surely tell the players "the league have screwed us, so this project makes no sense for anyone, including you. If your agent has any options we're willing to give you a loan or a free transfer. If not, here's X months wages and you're released. Either way, the club is going into liquidation. Thanks & good luck."
Now a free agent: French club Luzenac releases entire 1st team, inc. former U.S. U-20 GK Westberg, after being denied place in Ligue 2: http://t.co/esHUJx7uPf— Ives Galarcep (@SoccerByIves) September 10, 2014
Sadly. I don't like the sight of small-market teams being denied access to the leagues based on bureaucratic criteria, but in this case I have some sympathy for the league. Playing at a Ligue1 team's stadium 80 miles away is a recepie for financial disaster in the medium-term once the owner/sponsor loses interest/runs into financial difficulties. 80 miles may not sound like a lot to you guys across the pond; but take it from me in Europe (even in rural France) it's a heck of a distance for a sports event,
Realize it's a low chance but I suppose Westberg would enter allocation order if he tried MLS, right? Flow chart doesn't help
Excellent chart. I don't think he would enter the allocation order though because he isn't a national team player. I also don't think he's good enough for MLS, but that's another topic for another day.
Does he have a senior cap? If yes, then he's subject to the allocation order (a la Robles). If not, then it would come down to whether anyone has a discovery claim on him.
I think as a former YNT player the league might shoehorn him into a weighted lottery if there was interest from multiple teams. Otherwise I think he'd be in the wavier draft like Jared Jeffrey.
The whole thing sucks. He should be able to land a job in France, but not the most favorable circumstances through no fault of his own.
Trying to find some vids on Westberg. Here are three from the last year: Also a very old highlight video, including one save AGAINST MESSI at 1:35 ; ) All-in-all, seems fairly explosive but a tad short. A little sloppy but he kind of reminds me of Steve Clark before he went to Columbus. Always had the big spring but mechanically things weren't there. I'd have to see more of Westberg but I could see him playing USL/NASL and possibly working his way up. He's 28, so not ancient.