It seems that the danish FA + the Club Assosiation have just about argeed on a new stucture plan starting the after the next season Raise the number of clubs from 12 to 14. (15/16 will have one demotion and three promotions) Everyone plays each other twice (Home&Away) for a total of 26 matches, after which the league splits in the top 6 and the Lower 8, keeping all points Top 6 plays each other twice (Home&Away) for a total of 10 matches sorting out the top spots with medals, a champions league spot and 1 of the Europa League spots Lower 8 is split in two groups (A and B) of 4 playing each other twice (Home&Away) for a total of 6 matches two lowest teams in each group goes into a 4 man knockout round, (A3-B4, and A4-B3, and the losers meeting each other and the winners meeting each other), Winner of the minitournement stays clear in top league while the ultimate loser getting a direct demotion and number 2 and 3 goes into playoff with 3 and 2 from 1st Division. the winners of A and B plays top team 3 and 4 for a Europe league spot in a similar 4man knockout tournement. Depending on the Team they might play as few as 32 matches (ending on A2 or B2), to 36 (1st, 2nd, 5th or 6th, or the rest of the lower teams) and up towards 40 (3th and 4th). while its a bit confusing to figure it out I do think that it would help quite a bit as it would make the season much more interesting deep into the last matches since teams would play, and other than a slight concern that 3rd place might lose their EL spot to whom would effectively become 7th, which would be somewhat counterintuitative, and the initial protential for confusion it looks very interesting
Not quite ... as you were writing the lower 8 teams are split into two relegation groups (7, 10, 11 and 14 in group A and 8, 9, 12 and 13 in group B), not starting from scratch, but taking all the points earned so far into the group stage. In the end the top-2 teams of each relegation group all escape relegation and face each other in two home and away Semi-final play-off's (1st placed in group A against 2nd placed in group 2 and so forward). The two Semi-final play-off winners then face each other in a final home and away play-off to decide who are to play the lowest placed Europa League team from the top-6 group home and away, for a second chance to win the last Europa League spot. The two bottom teams of each relegation group also face each other in two Semi-finals ... the two Semi-final winners face each other in two play-off games for a spot in the Superliga and two play-off games against the 3rd placed team in 1. Division for a second spot in the Superliga, while the two Semi-final losers face each other in a play-off where the loser is relegated and replaced by the top 1. Division team, while the winner face the 2nd placed 1. Division team in two play-off's for the last spot in the Superliga...
... but I agree that the top-6 group stage and all the decisive home and away play-off games will make the last league games more intense and interesting...
Btw ... the new league structure is now a done deal ... The 2015/16 seaon that is about to start, will go on as usual with 12 teams playing 33 rounds, but at the end of the season only 1 team suffer relegation while 3 teams win promotion from 1. division, so that the new 14 team league structure mentioned above, will be fully implemented for the 2016/17 season ...
The official Superliga website where you can find the latest statistics, official player of the month and highlights (højdepunkter) from all the games : http://www.superliga.dk/forside.html Unfortunately their official Superliga magazine is only in Danish : http://issuu.com/superliga/docs/alkasuperligamag_indmad_web Fixtures, line-up's and other stats in English : http://www.football-lineups.com/tourn/Danish_Superliga_2015-2016/Fixture/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015–16_Danish_Superliga Some info and interesting links in English about the Danish Champions and league leaders FC Midtjylland : http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/climbing-the-mountain-bob-bradley-at-stabæk.1999012/page-68#post-32521713 Superliga news websites (in Danish): http://www.tv3sport.dk/fodbold/ http://www.bold.dk/ http://www.tipsbladet.dk/nyhedens-kategori/superliga http://indkast.dk/index.php http://ekstrabladet.dk/sport/fodbold/dansk_fodbold/ Official Danish Superliga stats : http://www.danskfodbold.com/index.php
With only 9 rounds left to play, Hobro is hopelessly stuck at the bottom of the Superliga and are as good as sure to take the only relegation spot this season ... they have only managed to pick up 1 point i 6 games after the winter break and are now 14 points behind Esbjerg that even got a game in hand ... and 15 points behind an AGF Aarhus team that has not been able to win any of their games after the winter break, but on the other hand only have lost one game, so they keep collecting 1 point a game on average, even vs the top teams including against FC København that now are the favorites to become champions. Just below FCK at the very top of the league, AaB Aalborg, FC Midtjylland and SønderjyskE seem to struggle with equally poor form, though they have still been slightly more consistent than Brøndby and OB Odense ... Randers on the other hand struggle with internal probles, after Christian Keller stole the wife of his team-mate Jonas Borring .... to complicate the issue, Keller is a personal friend of the Randers managing director Michael Gravgaard, who refuse to do anything about Keller, but instead offered Borring a leave of absence, which in the end made Borring leave the club, while Randers experienced English manager Colin Todd stripped Keller of the captaincy as well as Keller being dropped from team, according to Todd, as long as he is the manager ... so in other words Todd do not agree with his club director about how to handle this issue... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...team-mate-s-wife-calls-stay-club-dropped.html http://www.bold.dk/fodbold/danmark/superligaen/ In the Danish 1. division, Lyngby is heading for the Superliga, while Horsens seem in a good position with 2 games in hand, but also Vejle, Silkeborg and Vendsyssel are in the close battle for the 3 promotion spots for the Superliga : http://www.bold.dk/fodbold/danmark/1-division/
To make the league more competitive .... Most experts and the Danish NT coach have agreed for a very long time that 14 teams would be the perfect choice for the Superliga and also the 1. Division , but also that 26 rounds is to little, while 33 rounds or more would be perfect ... so they chose the 33 rounds and 12 teams ... now they finally found a solution to the problem ...
No not quite randomly, it was according to how they finished last season, so that if you got the Champions at home, you got the Silver medalist away and so forth ... but that is past history now ... Hobro suffered relegation, while 11th placed Esbjerg escaped relegation .... Lyngby, Silkeborg and Horsens won promotion to the new 14 team Superliga ... btw FC Vestsjælland that suffered relegation from the Superliga last season, went bankrupt during this season, so they became the only team that suffered relegation from the Danish 1. Division.
Brondby finished with a 1-1 draw at home in the Derby against Copenhagen today. They have a pretty balanced attacking team this season and could be a solid contender for the league title. Pukki, Mukhtar, Hjulsager, and Wilczek all off to a high scoring start. After 7 match days, Brondby are top of the league table. Currently leveled on 15 points with Copenhagen and Aalborg but leading overall on goal differential.
Brøndby have a good team no doubt, but it's still a level from what FC København have too offer, so in the long run, over a whole season, FCK are going to win the Danish Championship, not least because the FCK squad has far more depth than all the other teams in the league ... so when the other teams suffer injuries and the yellow cards start piling up, the other teams are going to suffer, while FCK are not, because they are able to field two teams of about equal quality, so they are far from as vulnerable during a season .... The only weakness FCK have, is their lack of good international strikers : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.C._Copenhagen#Current_squad
True, FCK do have more formidable attacking and defensive depth options overall. Although Delaney is set to leave them in January and could be a factor later on. Which is why the midfield comparisons I think are pretty similar. It might be too much to ask for Pukki & Co to continue at their high scoring rates in the long run. But Zorniger does have this Brondby team functioning on a balanced playing system. Hope they can continue operating at this form as long as they can and strive for a competitive run. Like Midtjylland and Aalborg from the 14/15 & 13/14 seasons.
Defence might end up being Brondby's main weakness though. The late goals conceded against Horsens and Midtjylland on match day 3 & 4 which ended up in draws and dropped points were an early warning sign.
One thing FCK are good at ... and can afford to do ... is to keep their key players longer and sign their replacements before they are sold ... in the case of Delaney who is leaving in January 2017, they had already signed Slovakian international Ján Greguš to replace him ... they also have William Kvist who can play a leading role in midfield. The next player to leave FCK, besides Delaney, is going to be the centre back Mathias "Zanka" Jørgensen, which is why they signed Jores Okore from Aston Villa a few days ago ... in this way they are far ahead of the other teams in the Superliga, because they are able to sign replacements ½ a year before they plan to sell a player ... while the other clubs sell a player when they get a good offer ... and then need to find a replacement ... my review of the FCK summer transfers you can find here : http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads...-2017-champions-league.2033391/#post-34503894
Rafael van der Vaart got his Superliga debut for FCM in the 2nd half against Viborg and though the match finished 0-0, FCM should have won and he got a very promising debut .... highlights (please let me know if you are able to watch outside Denmark) : http://www.superliga.dk/kamp/2016-2017/august/viborg-ff-fc-midtjylland Interview after the match :
Highlights .. let me know if you are able to watch outside Denmark : http://www.superliga.dk/kamp/2016-2017/august/brondby-if-fc-kobenhavn .
interesting accent he has. Hard to place it. Sounds like 2 years at Spurs left a big effect (though to be fair) i hadn't listened to his English prior to that). He def doesn't sound like a typical Dutchie to me.
The Danish TV stations are usually very strict about this, which is also why you wont find much on youtube ... but apparently the Superligas own website have no problem showing highlights to people living abroad ... you are even able to download their highlights and they have no less than 1,200 Superliga highlight videos on their website, from all the way back to 2009 .... http://www.superliga.dk/klubber http://www.superliga.dk/kampe/2016-17
Pretty incredible scenes from the Brøndby stadium. I'm planning a possible trip to Europe next year, hopefully I'll get a chance to visit. https://www.instagram.com/p/BJp8SJOB8xv/
When you get to Denmark and Copenhagen ... remember also to visit the 'European Capital of Culture 2017' : http://www.visitaarhus.com/ln-int/aarhus/aarhus-europaeische-kulturhauptstadt-2017
I've always enjoyed visiting northern port/coastal cities. How is the weather like around April/Easter time?
Have a great time. I've only spent a few days in Denmark (back around sept2011) and it was just Copenhagen. I liked it. Decent weather and the folks seemed okay. Though i'm biased as I had lived in sweden for a few years haha so maybe I compared them way too much. Danes seemed taller and seemed to smoke non-stop.