Re: General 2008/09 Ligue 1 Discussion [R] I saw this and I really hope its not true. Report Suggests Mass Overhaul For France’s Ligue 1 http://www.goal.com/en/news/90/fran...rt-suggests-mass-overhaul-for-frances-ligue-1 16 teams and playoffs is not the answer. We all know the problem is the DNCG and the high employment taxes. How about trying to remedy that ? Reducing the number of teams and adding playoffs sounds like cheap gimmick and is not a legitimate solution. A 24 team Ligue 2 is another dumb idea. How about making the National fully professional for christ sakes ? If this stuff happens I will lose interest.
Re: General 2008/09 Ligue 1 Discussion [R] i'm not sure if this reported was actually ordered by the LFP but if so they would have done better not to address themselves to consultants who don't seem to understand football either as a sport or a business, nor france as a country. let's start with the two insoluble paradoxes in their suggestion: just how many dates is a 30 game regular season plus "american style playoffs" going to trim from the schedule? and if moving to a 16 team league is good for L1, how is going to 24 teams good for L2? the idea of going to 18 teams has been discussed, and was even once implemented. but going to 16 puts france in a perceived class with scotland and the netherlands rather than lift it to german levels (where it already is). new scoring system? nebulous, but different conjectural analyses have shown such would have no effect on standings. sunday afternoon kickoffs? if they looked at the real statistics that are on hand for just that they'd probably find this would have the opposite effect both at the stadium and on TV. with the Coupe de la Ligue they're on a right track but come to the wrong conclusion. the answer is? get rid of it!
Re: General 2008/09 Ligue 1 Discussion [R] I would like to see Ligue 1, 2, and National all with 18 teams each and National fully professional. 54 professional clubs. The Dutch already tried playoffs and they realized it was bad and they already scrapped it. Here's why playoffs is so bad. Lets say you have a larger budget team vs a smaller budget team and the smaller budget team beats the larger budget team in a playoff and gets the European spot. Then you dont have your best teams respenting you in Europe and thus you have very little chance of succeeding. The teams with the more money and those who finish higher have a greater chance of winning. If OM play Toulouse in a playoff for example and Toulouse win then they go into Europe and get massacred while at least OM could compete and respesent a lot better. Get rid of the league cup makes sense but thats how PSG got into Europe this year and they are doing well so getting rid of it doesnt make something like that possible.
Wondered what the reaction to this was? http://www.goal.com/en/news/90/fran...rt-suggests-mass-overhaul-for-frances-ligue-1 Seems like a 16 team league is proposed with 'US style' playoffs? It would be a bit unlikely, but then French league football is in such decline, radical suggestions have to be considered I suppose.
The FFF has already moved the calendar back to August to enable the french clubs to go on "summer tours" and starting branding the clubs more. http://www.eurosport.fr/football/ligue-1/2008-2009/reprise-le-8-aout_sto1873846/story.shtml I think the 16 club restructure is a good idea. Since the tax structure cant be reformed the clubs need more money to give to the players to be able to draw them from abroad. Less teams in Ligue 1 means more TV deal money to go around.
I gave my reaction in another thread. I dont like 16 teams or playoffs. I'd cut Ligue 1, 2 and National all down to 18 teams each and make National fully professional. TV money divided by only 16 teams means more money around sure but its still not enough to make a huge difference so I say dont bother. Its best to just wait until Europe makes changes first(European DNCG?)instead of France reacting now. If Europe never changes then so be it I can live with it.
this was indeed talked about in the general discussion but deserves its own thread (thanks DAS) so i copied the germaine posts here. 16 team league and playoffs is a lot of fixing for something that is not broken. ligue 1 in decline? it depends on how you look at it. with 4 clubs (from the biggest markets) in the hunt for the title, 3 more hot after european spots, and 12 still not assured of staying up (only nice has a boring string to play out) this season is as exciting as any for a good while. france may have no one left in the CL, but those were tough rows to hoe, and the UEFA results show from top to bottom there is a certain quality. back when OM and PSG were winning european silverware, and french teams were as successful as any, the playing field was much different. the slide (and any slide is only in comparison to the three biggest leagues of today) coincides with a financial revolution which has probably done the game no good at all, and which the powers that be are presently trying to find ways to counteract. OL is not allowed to run things like liverpool (as an example). but i for one don't want them to. a club managed from halfway across the world? a team with no local players? ticket prices i can't afford? no thank you on all counts.
I read an article in 'when saturday comes' a while back about French clubs looking on at English clubs in envy over things like marketing. I think the first stadium in France to be sponsored is opened soon or recently (le mans ? my memory isn't with me today). So my conclusion is that plans to change Ligue 1 are some naive attempt to rake in money for the clubs. I don't see how a 16team league would improve the quality of play/players, and I don't really see how US style playoffs would do much other than attract TV money. I don't know if Ligue 1 is in decline, but it could certainly be improved. too many quality French players leave clubs too young and too early, hoovered up by the big bucks in England/Spain/Italy. I think perhaps guignol has it right; its not necessarily that the French league has declined, it's more that 3of the others have accelerated far ahead of it. I hope French football won't sacrifice it's identity and more 'local' feel in order to compete with the top dogs in the champions league.
I still think PSG is the one French club that needs foreign ownership the most. They already are owned by an American company but could benefit greatly with some major Arab investment. I dont think its necessary for them to gave local ownership especially since its proven that there are no Parisian billionaires who want to buy teams.
Yes its the upcoming MMArena in Le Mans which hasnt opened yet. Only problem is that its a small stadium (25,000) and the amount of sponsorship dollars for the naming rights isnt that great. I think its a safe bet that the new stadiums in Lille, Lyon, Nice, Strasbourg, etc. will all have corporate names when or if they ever get built.