http://www.marca.com/edicion/marca/futbol/1a_division/otras/es/desarrollo/657508.html Blatter was saying today that Fifa now has the power to reduce leagues to 18teams. This means that La Liga will be affected as it has 20 teams. I'm not too sure on the Spanish FA's stance on the matter, however, through the English FA I heard that Fifa can not impose this rule and it can only be implemented by the 20 teams in the respective league. I'm not in favour of the idea. Blatter says that it will allocate more time for the national teams but I see this as discrimination against minnow teams who don't have any players of international-level quality. These concessions are being made to the big players so the little teams must suffer. Also I prefer the national domestic leagues to international football so I will be disappointed if the calender is cut short. Your thoughts?
I had a thread going about this topic a month ago (The Spanish Contraction) and I have some of my controversial opinions on it, but this is good news for all of football around the world and I hope no one is stupid enough to challenge it.
FIFA has been saying this since Christ was a corporal. FIFA wants to reduce the league fixtures so they can pack on meaningless friendlies. There is no money on friendlies and the money is in league play. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting to see the RFEF reducing the liga to 18 teams anytime soon. The bottomline is that these guys are professionals earning millions and if they don't want to play 60-75 matches a year they can become dishwashers or God forbid soccer correspondents for any of the Spanish sports rags that only spew out lies day after day after day! Viva Er Beti Manque Lopera y Sus 53% De Acciones!! Er Pichi
Pichi is pretty jealous of the Oscar Serranos and the Ludovic Delportes of the world. I think they should reduce the amount of teams because there will be better matches on a more regular basis, the quality of players will improve and they will be more fit to play less games in the end. About the football correspondents, I hope you're not taking aim at Michael Robinson or some of the good ones. Michael tries so hard to speak perfect Spanish and he's a pretty interesting analyst. On the other hand, Michel has no right to be providing colour commentary anymore for TVE, he completely sucks and is boring. I'm not sure what his name is, but the reporter with the mustache that hosts Estadio 2 on Saturday evenings and does some on field reporting is one of the best football journalists in the world.
EPL have already said that they aren't going to reduce the league. I'm pretty sure the LFP will join them.
I think that they should reduce La Liga to 18 teams. The teams will perform better in matches and there will be a smaller gap in quality between teams. I really don't see what four more rounds will do so 34 should be fine.
I must agree here. Fifa is a joke and has it's own agenda much like ALL political and business organizations.
IThe amount of teams/regular leaugue games is fine as-is -- dozens of club and national team tournaments around the world every year (many of them meaningless) is what makes things congested.