League sources say NBA teams have been informed they would likely be allowed to bring (roughly) 35 players/coaches/staff into a "campus" environment if the 2019-20 season, as increasingly expected, resumes in JulyIn normal circumstances, team travel parties routinely exceed 50— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) May 22, 2020
THE BUNDESLIGA IS BACK AGAIN, BABY! Week two, and they’re still playing football in Germany. A big part of The Fiver, the part that doesn’t answer the door to anyone selling positive news, assumed there would be a load of positive tests after last weekend’s matches. We thought we’d be spending Friday night watching a repeat of a rewatch of a replay from the 1990s. Instead we’ll have our peepers fixed firmly on the Berlin derby, Hertha v Union, which kicks off another weekend of Bundesliga action. The Fiver has been a huge fan of the Bundesliga ever since we were seven days younger than we are now, so imagine our excitement at the prospect of such a rare event: only the second ever top-flight derby between teams from west and east Berlin! The first occurred earlier in the season, when Union won 1-0, and to be completely honest we can’t think of a single funny thing to say about it. There are quite a few exciting games on Saturday, though. Gladbach v Leverkusen is third v fifth, if you’re into the whole positional thing. Leaders Bayern are at home to Eintracht Frankfurt, while second-placed Erling Haaland Team face a slippery trip to sixth-placed Wolfsburg. Not that everyone is a fan of the goal machine that is Alf Inge Jr. Bundesliga chief suit Christian Siefert, when asked about Haaland potentially moving to Spain, decided to channel his inner Gerard Ratner. “Any great player leaving is a loss. But I’ll ask you: if he’s so good then why is he at Dortmund?” blurted the boss of a league in which Dortmund are possibly the most marketable team. Siefert later clarified his comments by saying that he wished Roy Keane had sorted out both le … sorry, that: “It’s easy now to admire a player who is already at the focus of worldwide attention. The hard thing is signing him before that happens. Dortmund did that, again doing an excellent job.” The Bundesliga has certainly made an excellent job of doing unto football as Justin Timberlake did unto $exy. The German template will surely be followed by other major leagues, assuming they don’t tell everyone else to naff off and get their own hygiene concept. Sure, there are subtle differences between countries – governmental competence, governmental compassion, tens of thousands of additional deaths, questions from Robbie Savage – but the Bundesliga’s tentative success has made The Fiver grudgingly acknowledge that, when it comes to the return of the Premier League, good news might be round the corner. We’re still not answering the door, though. https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-bundesliga-erling-braut-haaland-berlin-derby
People in Germany are turned off by the TV rights discussion. Amazon, DAZN, Sky. You have to pay three providers thte same prices to watch an inferior product. The initial plan to show matches for free was cut short to just a few matches last week and this week on simulcast and then it's curtains for everybody that isn't willing to pay all this cash for this. The product on the field doesn't justify anybody paying the same price they paid back when these providers did nba, champions league, serie a, la liga etc. etc. Paying all this money just for Bundesliga is a bad investment to me. I'll be back on board with DAZN when the Spanish League is on, which sounds like it's going to be around the same time the NBA is returning. .
I wouldn't watch Bundesliga even if it was the only football to be shown for the next year. Madrid, some important UCL and national teams matches is all that I can make myself care wbout.
The kind of Bayern hatred that existed toned down considerably (they used to get pelted by objects at Kaiserslautern for example), and many popular teams became pawns or dropped to second division or even lower (Stuttgart, Werden Bremen, HSV, Kaiserslautern), only to be replaced by quick money teams pushed ahead like Redbull and Hoffenheim. Cottbus was also a "cultural" experience for as long as it lasted. The decline of 1860 München, that was a fun derby. Teams used to play against Bayern like it was the world cup final at times. I've grown detached from the League despite having amazing memories with it, mostly because the entire country has not only accepted Bayern's dominance, kids are born into Bayern fandom across the country now. You have to congratulate Bayern for their excellent work but the League is less fun to me now. I watched a documentary yesterday about indoor sport in Germany, and handball, basketball, and icehockey can't survive without fans. Even the wealthier teams can only exist for another season without fully operational stadiums, since ticket sales present at least half the income. If this goes on longer, pretty much everybody is going bankrupt and the Leagues go belly up.
Can’t you say that about every country though? If anything, Germany was just a bit late with that. Just cuz you live in Germany you will notice it more, but Spain has been like since pretty much forever.
In Spain there is at least the choice between Barca and Madrid. Germany right now is like a universe where Barca and Madrid are one team and the next best is Atleti and Valencia once even 8 years or so.
Not really a choice, but yeah 2 is slightly better than 1. Only slightly though. Still same shit more or less.
BREAK - Sanchez also confirms that tourists and non-residents will be able to return to Spain from July onwards.— Football España (@footballespana_) May 23, 2020 8 June is the date whereby La Liga can officially resume, although much more likely that start date will be 12 or 19 June (Friday nights). Likely to be confirmed by La Liga president Javier Tebas in coming days.— Football España (@footballespana_) May 23, 2020
I don't know how it is in Spain but I can barely imagine a Real Madrid store outperforming an Athletic Bilbao store in Bilbao.
For Atlético fans, this era under Simeone has been their best in several decades. And strongest in their history in CL. Gap is still significant financially compared two RM and Barca, but Atlético are a pretty good third team and a contender in CL. As for Bundesliga, Dortmund were top class from 2011-14 under Klopp. They are still a good team, but losing key players pretty much every year have affected them like with Atlético. Though I feel they should be less predictable in CL still and has lacked that mental edge since Klopp left which Atléti still retains with Simeone. Best era for Bundesliga in last 30 years was definitely 97-02. Bayern we're a big threat in CL and Dortmund and Leverkusen were pleasant surprises. Kaiserslautern also won in 98. 03-09 had unpredictability with Bremen, Stuttgart and Wolfsburg winning. But unlike 97-02, quality at the top was missing. Strange days when Bayern we're in Europa League and got smashed by Zenit in semis. They returned to being top quality in 2009-10. PL actually became a global brand through great marketing in 90s when Utd had no consistent challengers until Wenger came alone. It was mostly a two horse race before Roman's oil money came in. Marketing is so strong that media and Utd fans would rave about how Fergie got the better of Keegan with mind games like it was an epic battle of equal powers when the financial difference in real was like RM vs Real Sociedad side in La Liga 2002-03. PL made sure to build a brand with what they had then. You'd know about Newcastle vs Utd "epic battle", Blackburn's win through various PL produced shows in early 2000s. I doubt La Liga even has a season recap in English when Atlético won in 96 or Deportivo in 2000. People sort of remember Valencia since they also were CL finalists back to back. RM with Galacticos and Barca's Dinho were the reasons why both teams got significant fanbase outside Europe( Messi, Ron era amplified it later) amidst PL brand marketing while no effort was made from LFP until Thebas came in. And to their credit, that paved the way for Chelsea and City petro dollars takeover and adding more contenders to the league though it probably killed Arsenal as a contender too with them becoming 4th or 5th choice for players moving to PL as opposed to 2nd behind Utd during first 6-7 years of Wenger. Arsenal never had the financial power of Fergie's Utd, but weren't like 5th in PL wagelist like now.
Euroleague Basketball had their meeting with the players. The vast majority of the players doesn't want to play, and this was their standpoint in the meeting. Results expected tomorrow. Barca actually put together the most expensive basketball team in european history for a cancelled season.
Apparently it will go down to the teams but only 5 want to play, amongst them Barca and Real Madrid. Some players are being downright disrespectful though. My honest opinion. Not being sure about the health issues is ok, but refusing to work because "basketball is not important" sucks to me. At some point, what is important?
Thüringen's Prime Minister who belongs to Die Linke/The Left party, wants to remove all limits and return to how things were before starting at the 6th of June. Meaning, no masks, no limits, everything is open. The response is has been as expected. Extremist and protesters celebrating, everybody else responding with scepticism and bewilderment.
Watching Mainz v Leipzig now. Great (fake) crowd noise. Makes it easier to watch for sure. Curious to see what happens if/when Mainz scores...
I think if it's done right like this, adding crowd noise can make it feel like you're watching a regular game on TV (outside of the empty seats, of course.) This Bundesliga match on FS1 sounds much better than I expected it would. pic.twitter.com/yjtcD2KdSE— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) May 24, 2020
Some leagues already meddle with color contrasts to make the grass look greener so adding "fake noise" is the next step. I can't recall which Spanish broadcaster it was but they removed during the CDR final between Farca and Bilbao they removed the whistling and booing during the Spanish anthem and replaced it with regular stadium noise.