So sounds like the top teams in Belgium want to start a new league. I like the idea, but ny thought is to take the top 6 teams in Belgium and top 10 from the Netherlands and make one league. Then have the remaining teams play for the bottom two finishers in each country. Well more to discuss
This has been talked about before. It seems as though the Nederlanders on this board were not to keen on it. From where I'm sitting it doesn't look like a bad idea. There would have to be promotion and relegation though for me to approve. That's a difficult thing to work out unless you combine the lower divisions too.
No problem for me either. I don't think it would be a problem with promo/rele inside the countries. Example: FC U is the low Dutch team, but there is 4 Belgian teams lower - FC U gets dropped, and one Belgie team goes down. Would be better if we just unified both leagues, but that might be a problem if we ended up with 18 Dutch teams in the league.
why would they want to do this? to improve competition? i know only like 3 teams in holland compete for the league each year really, is it the same in Belgium? and how are the quality of the top Belgian teams?
Personally I don't like the idea. There's very little to be gain from this. Even if the talks do get to an advanced/serious level, it'll never happen. The saga of Limburg FC is prove in itself.
Well, if you look at the all-time champions of the Belgian League you could probably pick out what the top teams are: http://www.wsoccer.com/champions_stats/belgium.htm
The top teams from Belgium are still below the top 3 of Holland. Maybe such a league would bring a little more money to the (sub)top clubs of both leagues, but probably not even worth the hassle. Not that UEFA would let this happen in the 1st place
hell the way soccer is being run today, if Anderlecht offered Lennert a few pieces of chocolate, we would have a new league.
Friendly played this wednesday in Turkey: Club Brugge (Bel) - NEC 2-4 Friendlies don't say much, but it gives you an indication. Brugge is one of Belgium's top teams.
I'm of the opinion that friendlies don't say anything at all. DC United beat Newcastle and suddenly people thought MLS was level with the EPL.
Re: FIFA regulations? Fifa isn't - we have Canadian teams in the A-league. I think UEFA is, particularly Lennert Johannson. I still think if they can prove the game is suffering, which it is, and that this would remedy the dilemma, Lennert gives it the okay.
Friendlies don't say much, but you won't see a mid-table team from Belgium beat Ajax like that anytime soon in a friendly or a real match. Plus this result can't be blamed on the 'there was no motivation' factor; what the Germans are to the Dutch, the Dutch are to the Belgians. The game isn't suffering in Holland, attendances are still rising every year. The program that shows recaps of the games every weekend has broken their ratings record (at least) 2 years straight. Interest in the Eredivisie has never been better. If the main reason is that Holland can't compete with the big leagues financially...they never could in the first place. Merging with the Belgian league won't change that at all anyway. The real problem is top teams that aren't in the big 4 leagues that want more money than they already make.