Exactly. One can adequately follow Jahn Regensburg from the USA if one tried hard enough. You won't get streaming matches, but there's enough out there on Jahn Regensburg to stay current. Of course you are right on.
Dude, drop me a line. I'm always willing to help. I wasn't saying you could understand everything. WTF do you think I mean?? Shit, I still don't understand too much about this language....... I intend to go to Regensburg to see a match this season when BVB II plays there.
I know your intentions are always good, dude! I expect no less from you! And no, I really cannot understand everything.
I have done that in the past, and it is fine. Streaming matches are always best though... But the likelihood of THAT for 3.Liga is slim-to-none.
Here we go again, graveyard part II: Goslarer SC has announced today that they will withdraw from the Regionalliga immediately - however, according to the latest news the club has now agreed to play "at least the next two games". After the city of Goslar decided not to spend money on building a new stadium the club didn't see a chance to continue. Currently they are renting the 25.000 seat stadium in Goslar, for 300 people per game so far, which is a financial disaster for the club.
The reasons for this desaster come from the missmanagement of the club. That happens when small clubs with (not big) private investor try to grow too fast and politicans broke their word. Sad for Goslar, nice city with great Christmas market btw.
Well - the current requirements do not allow small clubs to play Regionalliga at all. The club could have decided no to go up at all - since they were the only club in their league that wanted to go up last year this would have made things even more depressing. Goslar doesn't have a particularily expensive team for their league, btw. Mostly young players from Northern Germany, no one who played higher than Regionalliga before, so no expensive ex-pros like you see in some other clubs (*cough* Red Bull!) - if we don't count their second keeper who made two appearances for Eintracht Braunschweig during his career, and probably isn't on the "expensive" side of things anyway.
Now the DFB has intervened and intends to make sure that there's a solution to the problem all parties can live with (meaning that Goslar at the very least will finish the season). I don't really see them as the white knight here, though - now they are trying to save face (they gave Goslar a license despite them not having a stadium after all) and try to prevent lawsuits (from the other clubs losing one homegame) and yet another club going belly up in their shiny new, awesome Regionalliga.
Now it seems as if the DFB will allow Goslar to play (most games) in their own stadium again, which before the season was seen as not suitable for the Regionalliga. Two things about this: - while I'm generally in favour of lifting restrictions (seriously, a club with an average attendance of under 500 does not need a modern stadium with a capacity of 5000+, as it is required now)... - ... this decision really gives a few other clubs the finger who didn't get/didn't apply for a license BEFORE the season because they didn't have a stadium.
Goslar is a fantastic town, pity the football side of things isn't more solid. The RL is certainly looking like a graveyard for RW Essen.
Ok, after some time of no news here's the latest on Goslar: the club's main sponsor has withdrawn his support from the club. It's now almost certain that the club will go down after the season, even if a miracle run would get them out of the relegation zone. There's still the danger of them not finishing the season and going out of business entirely, though - as now their situation is actually worse than it was when they announced their withdrawal for the first time.
A WDR TV report on financial difficulties in the Regionalliga (highlights, among others, Goslar, Kickers Emden, Altona 93): [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjAPoqe2imI"]YouTube - WDR Sport Inside - Aufstieg unerwünscht (Amateurvereine verzichten auf Regionalliga)[/ame]
Rip In the German Oberliga striker Maurizio Greco of Güldenstern Stade collapsed and died during a league game this weekend. http://www.tageblatt.de/main.cfm?DID=1583835
I agree with the original issue of smaller more established clubs lanquishing in the RL and competing with reserve squads..simply, let RL be for the reserve squads and expans the 3.Liga into a Nord and Sud league, thus duobling similarily how 2. Bundesliga was in the 80's. Maybe this would increase revenues for the smaller established clubs and move them a step up to the 2. Bundesliga. I played in germany from 1979-81 and the system has changes so much I do not recognize it...it is a tremendous system in terms of teams, competition and opportunities, but like most major leagues, certain big clubs dominate and influence the overall system far too much. I doubt the DFB would expans the 3. Ligas I mention, but having reserve squads in the RL without a chance to be promoted does not create or enhance competition and rivalries.
There is now way back to a third division with two groups (after all, in all but name only we had a system identical to the old 2. Bundesliga North/South until 2 years ago). It was the clubs themselves who wanted the change, and while things still aren't perfect, the 3. Ligaisn't too bad for the clubs involved. The Regionalliga is the big problem... on the other hand, the media, and the situation of amateur clubs, have changed as well since the 1980s. Fan interest in the lower divisions is down (below the third), and attendances/TV viewership for the 40 or so biggest clubs in Germany is way up. Just ten years ago clubs like Celle or Göttingen had average attendances in the 4-digits (today it's around 200). While attendances for Bundesliga clubs, and also clubs like Osnabrück or Braunschweig in the 2nd or 3rd division, have skyrocketed since the 1990s, for many small clubs it's been way down. When I started following football clubs like Norderstedt or Ditzingen, who had some of the worst attendances for clubs in the old 4-tier RL, had average attendances that would put them in the upper half or third of the current Regionalliga...
I have had little to anything to do with Fussball in Germany since the late 80's and I am discouraged to hear this about the RL..so it appears as the smaller indepednet clubs fold and/or get demoted, eventually the RL will be filled with just reserve squads thus dete ring clubs from trying to push for promotion to 3. liga, etc? In many ways I think the DFB priority extends as far as the 3. Liga which is not good for all teams below it who are not affiliated to the big clubs.
I think there will be a reform. The DFB is well aware that many clubs in the 4th and 5th division are in financial difficulties now. Last season more clubs have been relegated from the RL for fianncial reasons then for performance on the field (although this includes clubs who finished on a relegation spot, but didn't have/apply for a new license anyway). This season we have the Goslar case already (btw, Emden, now in the fifth division, are close to bankruptcy now. The club has decided into going into insolvency so far, but they have stated that they are close and might not survive the season), and I doubt that this will be the only club, usually trouble starts after the winter break. Sooner or later even the DFB will see reason (especially as the clubs themselves speak out against the current set up of the pyramid, as in the video I posted recently).
5th division side OSC Bremerhaven seems to have a new logo: http://www.osc1.de/ Might soccer finally go the way of German ice hockey and basketball - meaning pseudo American (and sometimes rather questionable) team names (a trend that brought us highlights like Grizzly Adams Wolfsburg, Wired Minds Tübingen, Magdeburg Virgin Guards, and the delightfully racist logo of the Landshut Cannibals)?
Don't blame that shit on us. We don't have teams named like "Grizzly Adams", "Wired Minds" and "Virgin Guards". The "Reds" yeah, but not the others......