The UEFA faces headwind for their plans with the CL: http://www.espnfc.com/uefa-champion...gue-and-europa-league-reforms-slammed-by-epfl The European Professional Football League (EPFL) has angrily rejected UEFA's reforms of the Champions League and Europa League which were announced last month. UEFA gave four guaranteed Champions League group-stage places to the top four leagues -- the Bundesliga, La Liga, the Premier League and Serie A -- and redistributed the prize money to better reward historic success in European football. But the EPFL, the umbrella organisation that represents European football's professional leagues, has accused UEFA of breaching the terms of the deal that governs club competitions in Europe and says reforms were made "without the support and consensus'' from the domestic leagues. "This decision will have a detrimental impact on domestic competitions and will lead to an exponential growth in the financial and sporting gap between the biggest clubs in Europe and all the others,'' a statement from the EPFL board of directors said. "As a result of the decision taken by UEFA, the EPFL believes that UEFA has breached the Memorandum of Understanding between the two organisations. "In the event that the EPFL were to terminate the MoU as a result of such breach, this would give all European leagues total freedom to schedule their matches as they see fit, including on the same days and at the same kick-off times as UEFA club competitions.'' The EPFL has been backed by a number of smaller Bundesliga clubs, who fear that the reforms will cement the current status quo in Germany. Earlier this week, German football magazine kicker reported that Europe's top clubs are set to earn over €100 million in the 2018-2019 season following changes to the distribution of Champions League revenue distribution. The ESPN FC panel answer your tweets on Chelsea's title chances, when Liverpool will return to the UCL and more. According to kicker, that could mean top Champions League clubs earn €60m more per season, while smaller clubs could see an increase of only €6m. "The top six spots in Bundesliga are usually taken by the same clubs. The redistribution of the Champions League revenue should only cement that development," TSG Hoffenheim finance executive Frank Briel said. FC Cologne executive Alexander Wehrle added: "It's incredibly important for the national leagues that the sporting competition continues to exist. There are always two teams on a pitch, and there should be a realistic chance for both to win. Everyone profits from that." Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who also acts as the chairman of the European Club Association [ECA], had described the changes as "an evolution, not a revolution," and added that all clubs will "profit" from it. Rummenigge's counterpart at Dortmund, Hans-Joachim Watzke, also told kicker that the "tendency towards the big clubs" could not be stopped in a globalised world. ESPN FC's Germany correspondent Stephan Uersfeld contributed to this report.
I think the UEFA election for the new chair is coming up and it looks like van Praag will lose out to some Slovenian who appears to have the support of all the bigger leagues. I suspect he will continue to push for the new CL arrangement if elected. It's good to finally see some push back on this new proposal but in the end something will have to give. It would be better to see a lot of EPL teams also pushing back but I guess they are satisfied with their current television revenue stream.
It sounds like almost every FA supports Ceferin (the presidential candidate from Slovenia) ... besides the Belgian FA, I haven't seen anybody else show support for Van Praag ... a shame (assuming Van Praag is a bigger proponent of a BeNe League).
Who knows ... maybe he's doing a very good job for the KNVB and they're afraid they'll struggle to attract a successor nearly as competent as Van Praag. IIRC Van Praag didn't even get the support from LUX during the FIFA elections ... let's hope the 3 FAs from the BeNeLux countries are voting for him this time round ... IDK Ceferin at all but it looks like he'll get the job.
What do you know about Van Praag? Villar was by a mile the worst, but luckily he is out. Corrupt ref boss that dude.
Didn't he used to own a chain of shops (elektro Van Praag IIRC) ... on Dutch sites the comments on Van Praag are quite negative ... but yea it's the comment section. Van Praag was leading the group on cross-border leagues and was involved in the (women's) BeNe League ... most likely the biggest proponent of a BeNe League ... that's what sticks out most for me ... but like Ceferin I also don't know Van Praag that well.
Both major Madrid clubs, Athletic and Real lost their appeals of the one year FIFA transfer bans for signing underage players. Perhaps there is justice in the world!!
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/14731635.Alex_McLeish__Scotland_were_cheated_out_of_Euro_2008/ Not an impartial source of course, and very hard to prove (without government authorities willing to investigate), but it wouldn't surprise me one bit. Netherlands 1983; Portugal 1997 to name a few. The usual suspects are present; Italy, Villar protege etc.
Interesting story on German club structure: https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...become-the-most-hated-club-in-german-football
There isnot such a thing as a crook proof structure. Therefore there should also be built in the safety breaks of a test if what is done is according to the rules but in fact amounts to deliberately acting against the spirit of the design.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/sep/09/la-liga-president-champions-league-breakaway The wish for CL breakaway seems to be still alive.
The way they want it means they want the breakaway with the "guaranteed" domestic league income. If any league is sensible they tell those clubs to grab the big loot without a safety net under their high wire balancing act of the national league. Tell them to do the high wire act with risk of a death dive if it doesnot (quivk enough) work out well. These clubs remind me of the traders of the banks that earned (=stole) hundreds of millions while betting hundreds of billions of tax payers money into a black hole, never to be seen anymore. Grabbing the big money and putting the risk elsewhere. Kill them financially.
Interesting: https://fromarnhemwithlove.com/2015/10/26/the-english-perception-of-vitesse/#more-1303 The English Perception of Vitesse By Jordan McNamee As Vitesse’s working relationship with Chelsea continues to flourish, the perception of the club with many football fans in England continues to sit undecided. FAwL takes a look at how Vitesse are identified in England and how the speculation from 2014 affected the club and how we are perceived. Being both a Manchester United and Vitesse fan, I am blessed with the ability to see both sides of the coin with this arrangement. Through one eye I see the ability to allow future stars to not only help Vitesse challenge in the Eredivisie but develop their talents in preparation for playing in the Premier League and through the other I see a power house of a club (Chelsea) shipping their young players out to play for their ‘B team’. Now that is more of a generic view, as I do see through the first eye and the first eye only. For me, I think it’s great that the Chelsea young guns can come over to Arnhem and show off their ability, ultimately pushing Vitesse up the table. Over the past few years, we’ve seen the likes of Bertrand Traore, Tomas Kalas, Christian Atsu and Patrick van Aanholt don the yellow and black jerseys and that’s just to name a few. One question that I believe football fans around the U.K. will be waiting to ask is “why Vitesse?” and I don’t blame them; in theory, what’s so attractive to Chelsea about a team outside the power three in Dutch football (Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord)? The answer to this question is something I’ve learnt over the past four/five seasons. If I was a youngster at Chelsea, I’d be itching to secure a loan move to Arnhem, and that’s not so I could succeed at Chelsea in the future but it’s because I’d rather be playing for Vitesse than a mediocre Premier League or Championship team. For a young footballer, what could be more exciting than playing week in week out for a team challenging for European football, in a very competitive league. The latest crop of Chelsea youngsters will be looking at the likes of Traore, Atsu etc and they’ll be able to see how successful they were in Arnhem and much they developed during their time in the Netherlands and aspire to be just the same. At any stage in their careers but especially when they’re young, footballers need to be playing regularly to keep developing and progressing and plenty of playing time is almost a guarantee for players at Vitesse. As we can see this season, Dom Solanke and Lewis Baker are both massively benefiting from regular high standard football and each week you can see them improving. As an on-looker, I also believe it’s important for young players to be winning regularly to keep their confidence levels high. This is also another guarantee for players at Vitesse, although we may not win week in week out, we are always in and around the Europa League playoffs come the end of the season. A couple of seasons back, there was a controversy developing in the U.K. surrounding Vitesse and Chelsea’s partnership ‘deal’. The Dutch Football Federation investigated the partnership between the two clubs as it was believed that Chelsea didn’t want Vitesse to qualify for the Champions League; UEFA states that two clubs under the same ownership can’t play in the same competition. This then resulted in speculation that the Dutch side were told to throw games to avoid qualifying for the Champions League. Roman Abramovich (Chelsea’s owner) is an associate of Alexander Chigrinsky (Vitesse’s owner), hence the strong partnership between the two clubs. The controversy was sparked by former Vitesse owner Merab Jordania, who is believed to have “told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that Chelsea had discouraged Vitesse from winning the Eredivisie title to avoid qualifying for the Champions League” (BBC Sport, 2014). Chelsea, however, dismissed Jordania’s allegations and insisted Vitesse are an independent club whose qualification for the Champions League would benefit their loanees’ development, but declined to comment publicly on the matter. Jordania was then quoted in a post speculation interview by saying, “I wanted to reach for the title, but ‘London’ didn’t want that in the end. Ambition is fine, but Vitesse is not allowed to reach the Champions League … I will tell you now why Fred Rutten left. He knew that he wasn’t allowed to win the title with Vitesse. In the winter he brought the team to the top. We had the feeling we needed one more player to win the title, Kelvin Leerdam. The transfer seemed to be a done deal when all of a sudden ‘London’ intervened. We were not allowed to be too strong. I couldn’t explain that to Fred. I had to cover the club and ‘London’, but it caused a lot of tension and chaos.” Obviously, this speculation didn’t help Vitesse’s reputation in England and throughout Europe and you just hoped that after Jordania’s allegations, we could have gone on to qualify for the Champions League that year. Now that would’ve been awesome. But as it is, we’re going to keep building as a club and making strides in the right direction as we continue our pursuit of Champions League football.
Interesting facts about stadium occupation %%: SportNEXT Thema's Team Magazine Events Contact Zoeken RSS BE BlogsEvents Bezetting van Nederlandse voetbalstadions scoort wereldwijd de tweede plaats 01/11/2012 08:30Wijnand van der Waal 5 reacties5189 Terwijl Amerikaans onderzoek uitwijst dat 70 procent van de sportfans liever via de TV kijkt dan in het stadion zitten de voetbalstadions volgens een Braziliaans onderzoek wereldwijd voor gemiddeld 80 procent vol. Nederland scoort daarbij een fantastische tweede plaats achter Canada en voor de Verenigde Staten. China, Japan en Italië scoren slecht met percentages onder de 60 procent. Duitsland heeft over het algemeen de meest gevulde stadions. Nederlandse clubs in de top 10014. Ajax Amsterdam (Amsterdam Arena): 50.147 (capaciteit: 51.628 - 97%) 23. Feyenoord Rotterdam (De Kuip): 44.722 (capacitieit: 51.177 - 87%) 52. PSV Eindhoven (Philips Stadion): 33.288 (capacitieit: 35.200 - 95%) 68. FC Twente Enschede (De Grolsche Veste): 28.119 (capaciteit: 30.000 - 94%) 82. SC Heerenveen (Abe Lenstra Stadion): 25.306 (capaciteit: 26.100 - 97%) Gemiddelde bezetting per land Het Braziliaanse onderzoek richt zich op de top 100 voetbalclubs wereldwijd en Duitsland is daarin het best vertegenwoordigd met 22 teams, gevolgd door Engeland met 20 en Spanje met 12. Nederland heeft slechts 5 teams. Canada is de absolute koploper met een gemiddeld bezetting van 96.1 procent (deze hoeft ook maar bij één club behaald te worden). Nederland komt op een tweede plaats met een gemiddelde bezetting 93,5 procent verdeeld over 5 clubs en Verenigde Staten heeft een gemiddelde bezetting van 91,9 procent verdeeld over 2 clubs. Gemiddelde bezetting per club Duitsland heeft niet alleen de meeste clubs vertegenwoordigd in de top 100 maar heeft ook de twee stadions is gemiddeld het best gevuld zitten. De Allianz-Arena is gemiddeld over gevuld met 100,1 procent en Borussia Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park is gemiddeld voor 99,8 procent gevuld. De Engelse clubs Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur en Arsenal volgen op een derde, vierde en vijfde plek. Gemiddeld aantal bezoekers per club Ook bij het grootste aantal bezoekers is Duitsland de koploper, gemiddeld bezoeken meer dan 80.000 mensen Signal Iduna Park van Borussia Dortmund. Ajax Amsterdam is met de Amsterdam Arena de enige Nederlandse club in de lijst, gemiddeld bezoeken ruim 50.000 mensen de wedstrijden. Of er een verband is tussen de clubs die in Europees verband uitkomen en de gemiddelde bezetting in het stadion komt niet in het onderzoek naar voren. Lees hier het hele Braziliaanse onderzoek.
a couple of arena points that doesn't affect the study. The Dortmund stadium has a seat capacity of 65,000 that is used for international matches and 82,000 that includes the terraces where supporters stand. The Seattle stadium is a football arena with a capacity of well over 60,000. However, they close off seating areas for soccer matches so that capacity is 41,000.
Nice article on the UEFA election: https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...sident-election-backroom-talks-michel-platini
The Slovenian lawyer is the new UEFA president. He says he is going to revisit the CL deal and wants to make sure that the smaller FAs are consulted on this stuff. Also, mentioned looking at the Financial Fair Play rules. Maybe this is a good sign. https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...der-aleksander-ceferin-elected-uefa-president
Pizza baker Mino Raiola in the newspaper: http://s.vk.nl/sf504-a4382571/ http://www.volkskrant.nl/sport/zwar...&utm_campaign=shared content&utm_content=free Both links are good to read. Interesting insight into the football politics.
That's an illegal cartel agreement in European law and also flies in the face of European Labour laws. If he can prove that, it could cost them dearly, as cartel practices are dealt with by very high penalties. But one who wants to hurt the EPL clubs has to hurry before they Brexecute.
Do you remember the Scamacca case? Same thing. This is also nice. http://nos.nl/artikel/2134633-engelse-bondscoach-allardyce-in-problemen.html
I read on teletekst that AZ just announced a profit of 6.1 million €€ for the season 2015-2016. That's amazing, more so if you consider the financial choas they were in caused by Dirk the megalomaniac. For this sason there is already the blockbuster sales of Janssen and Henriksen 0f about 25 million to book in.
Oh dear, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...b-offered-itself-as-a-conduit-to-help-a-fict/ Belgium football club offered itself as a conduit to help a fictitious investment firm get around third party ownership - against FA and Fifa rules Belgium club boss: 'We can't put that on paper' Play! 01:04 You need to have the Adobe Flash Player to view this content. Please click here to continue. Investigations team 29 September 2016 • 9:45pm A Belgian football club offered itself as a conduit to help a fictitious investment firm own players in England, in an apparent breach of Fifa rules banning the practice of third-party ownership. Jimmy Houtput, the chairman of Oud-Heverlee Leuven (OHL), said that the club would be willing to pose as the owner of footballers whose economic rights would actually be held by the fake company.