The Belgian league is pretty 3-tiered. The Big 5 (Brugge, Genk, Anderlecht, Ghent, Liege) are BL1 bottom-third/BL2 direct promotion standard, then there's a big drop to BL2 mid-table mediocrity at the next level. The bottom 3-4 would struggle to get out of one of the RLs.
http://www.espn.com/soccer/soccer-t...yer-on-the-best-team-in-belgiums-top-division maybe might tip the scales a bit in Brugge's favor
Have to contradict you on this one. Of course there's a difference between top teams and mid table to bottom teams, but if you look at weekly results there are plenty of upsets every week. I believe the gap between the top teams and mid table teams is less big than in most of the european leagues. One of the factors may be the incredibly stupid play off competition format, which gives the top teams the reassuring factor that only the last ten matches really matter and which might be the cause of some arrogance during the season. But nonetheless, as a Bruges fan, there aren't many (away) games which are a sure win. I do think the Belgian league as a whole ranks a bit higher than what you suggest here, but then again, there is no way to arbitrary decide on such ranking. Maybe the uefa coefficient is the best way to compare leagues, but it has it flaws too.
https://www.thebulletin.be/pro-footballers-belgium-earn-more-eu20000-month A few years old, but interesting to reflect upon A football player in Belgium’s first-class Jupiler Pro League earns an average annual salary of about €253,586 before taxes, writes Het Nieuwsblad. The amount includes basic wages, group insurance premiums, holiday pay and a 13th month. Anderlecht players are the highest paid in the league by far, with an average gross annual salary of €600,000, followed by Standard Liège (€366,000) and Club Brugge (€365,000). The salaries have increased by 60% over the past six years, from €158,000 to nearly €254,000. Based on statistics, Het Nieuwsblad concludes that Racing Genk is the richest club in the Jupiler Pro League, and Lierse the poorest. Anderlecht has the highest revenue, while AA Gent carries the most debt.
Article from last year (in Dutch) https://m.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20180317_03414594 Worth to mention that these are average wages for the professional players of the club. That includes the reserve squad and even some younger players
I've always felt a lot of posters had misconceptions about salaries vis-a-vis Europe and professional sports in the United States. In American professional sports like the MLB, NBA, NFL and to a lesser extent the NHL, "average" salaries are far into the millions. The minimum in most of these leagues is around $500,000.00 and more commonly players are earning on average 5 - 10 million dollars a year. I think there is this kind of assumption, "Oh he can sign with a club in La Liga, Ligue 1 or Serie A and make wayyyy more money than he did in MLS, that's such a high level, it must be equivalent to MLB, NBA or NFL" which I don't think is the case. Europe is different. The clubs have widely different economic resources.The FC Nantes of the world and the Elche CF's aren't paying (most) players millions and millions. That kind of money isn't there in Europe except at the very highest level. (the very biggest clubs of the league) (England the exception). If you're a Alejandro Bedoya or a Matt Besler or a Walker Zimmerman or a Graham Zusi and a team in MLS offers you upper six figures to low 7 figures, that's a lot of money for most clubs in Europe outside the very highest level and those guys are usually wise to take it.
Throw in the tax rate (many countries have a different dual taxation agreement with the U.S.), but in general you will pay higher taxes in Europe as well. using Belgium as an example, the highest tax bracket for national taxes is 50% where as in the US it is 37%. ($130,000 difference of take home money on a 1 million dollar contract). If you throw in higher regional and municipal taxes (again based on location; you see that in the U.S. too; New York versus say Kansas City or Houston; Nashville will have an advantage as it is a no income tax state), then there could be a significant financial impact. The formulas are more complicated than we can break down (various social security programs, etc), but yes the salary numbers don't necessarily add up to take home income.
You will, however, get to collect an Estonian pension in your old age. Tax issues complicate all these deals. California "millionaire" tax would kick an extra 10%+ marginal rate on any player not able to organize their way out of it. Canada similar issues (50+ marginal Prov+Fed in Ont, Que and BC), esp for non-citizens as it's harder to set-up small biz avoidance systems for non-citz. But I'm not sure league averages tell you that much. It would be interesting if someone really got hold of actual #s - including bonuses, % of transfer fee etc. net agency fees (and even taxes! that would rock) so we could get a real sense of what these different "averages" ever mean, but in the grand scheme of things, the richer the club average, the more likely you'll get more $$s. So Club pay is probably more revealing than league in most cases.
It's the PL effect. When their average wages is 3 million euros. So, maybe the likes of a Zusi or Besler sign with a PL club (after WC 2014) and they get a million or so. Which wouldn't be happened if they signed for the club's counterpart in the BL or La Liga. Or in Scandinavia (which 15 years ago offered wages far better to the average MLS player than MLS itself).
Yes. But I believe Hamburg had extremely high wages despite their lowly ranked league status in recent years.
4-0 now and Eupen still has to register a single shot on goal. Ethan watching TikTok vids, probably. PS: Actually Eupen yet to have a single shot, they have 0 on goal, 0 off goal, and 0 blocked. The sort of stuff you almost never see.
Two games in a row Ethan had nothing 2 do Schoten op doel means ''shots on goal'' (told you dutch is pretty easy)
He's showing off his elite defensive organizational skills Regardless of saves or no saves, this lowers his goals against averages and gives him another shutout. This will be accounted for by larger clubs.
They had two shots off the mark in the end, so they didn't end with the dreaded 0/0/0 (0 on goal, 0 off goal, 0 blocked). That means our 0-4 to Argentina in the Centenario remains as the only 0/0/0 game I know of in history.
Do you feel he might get some games during the playoffs or will he have to wait his turn in the pre-season to show himself again?