http://www.anderlecht-online.be/article.php?id=1966&lang=eng&from=home Two politicians, Ivo Belet and Dirk Claes, both Belgian politicians for CD&V (= Flemish political party), want to make some changes to the league structure. Increase Non-EU Wage: from 61.632 to 154.080 euro. OUCH! Change Non-Belgian player tax structure: Bring the taxes equal to those of Belgian players. OUCH! The plan is to increase development of Belgian players. With that in mind, "at least 6 players from the A-team (18 players) has to be trained in the country to which the club belongs. At least 3 with the club itself, and at least 3 with another club from that same country." As a non-European guy, I'm not happy about this - but its good for the league.
Good for the league but mostly good for our own youth players. I know for a fact that a lot of decent Belgian footballers never get a chance at a Belgian club because it is cheaper to get a foreign player!
The way of the world....buy low, sell high. I wonder how much old Basko Balaban is making at FC Brugge? I wonder how much he'll make next season.
It's a good initiative and strange because it comes from politicians. The original proposal actually came from Herman Wijnants, the owner of Westerlo, but the politicians used it for a big part. Another interesting discussion might be how to change the league structure in terms of number of clubs. The proposal from Wijnants goes like this: Two professional leagues with 24 clubs each. The leagues are divided into two sub-leagues, 12 teams each, that are chosen randomly. After the winter break the leaders of each sub-division (8) play for European football, the next 8 play for intertoto football, the other 8 against relegation. Clubs can't be relegated out of the second division, new amateur clubs can join the league if they have the required structure (like in the Dutch professional league). Like this you get more clubs in the two first divisions, so that when you need votes for the plan, also the minor clubs will agree. This is a proposal from Herman Van Holsbeeck (manager of Anderlecht): After they gave up on the Atlantikleague and the Beneleague plans, they have decided that a competition with 14 clubs would be much better. That way the clubs can generate more funds, more top matches will be played, and the level of the competition will get higher. This is something I had in mind: There should come a union between the Belgian league and the Dutch one (the Beneliga-proposal). The stats of the last 10 years will be taken into account and the 6 clubs that come out best in each country, get to play in this competition. The recent first divisions will continue to exist and the six teams that go to the Beneliga will be replaced by their reserve-teams. That way these teams can educate talented youngsters and give them enough playing time on high level. The last one of each country of the Beneleague will be relegated, and their place in the league will be taken by the first team of the domestic competition. Their reserve team disappears and is replaced by the reserve team of the club that won promotion. Now, this ofcourse also implies that things like these can happen: Anderlecht is relegated out of the Beneleague, but Anderlecht B becomes champion in the domestic competition, which means that all things remain the same. As soon as a player has played five matches for the A team, he won't be able to play for the B team anymore, but a player from the B-team can go to the A-team anytime. This gives a team the chance to let a quick developping youngster play at a higher level. But how does it work for the European places? I believe that if you combine the two leagues you have 4 (does Holland have 2 or still 3?) CL and 4(?) Uefa cup tickets (6-2 from the cups) All 4 CL tickets go to the Beneliga, 2 Uefa tickets go to the domestic leagues (one for each) and the other 2 Uefa tickets are for the Beneliga. This means that the first 6 clubs of the Beneliga are sure about European football + 1 ticket from the cup (that can also go to the domestic league ofcourse). Now, in what aspect do the clubs of the domestic leagues gain? They don't have to fight against the strong competition of clubs like Anderlecht, Ajax, Club Brugge,... and like that get a chance to play European football. The reserve teams from the Beneliga clubs obviously can't play European football (I believe it would not be allowed by UEFA) and can't promote unless their A team is relegated. Other thing is that all intertoto places go to the teams from the domestic competition. IMO this would be a really good way of improving the level of the leagues and young talents get loads of chances in the B-teams (a bit like in Spain). The big clubs are happy because they get more income, the smaller clubs should be happy because they can get a European ticket more easily. Only minor point might be that the smaller clubs aren't happy about losing their matches against the top teams. There will also be a special cup in which the winner of the Domestic competition plays against the first team of their country in the Beneliga. --------------------------------- I know this is a really long read, but I'm very interested in how you people look at this, and how you would solve the problems.
Begium definitely need to improve their quality and it's an obvious that they bring such changes. Good luck to Belgian soccer
My thought: I like the 14 team league idea and the larger 2nd division. I would also like to see Anderlecht, Brugge, etc have their reserve team or U21 teams play in the 2nd division. If they could play at a smaller stadium it might work. Not keen on the Beneliga. Maybe a Cup competition, but not a league.