Q for the Euro fans

It's a trade-off, I think.
In a non-playoff system, every match is meaningful - you can conceivably lose a championship by having a bad stretch in the beginning of the season, whereas under a playoff system, regular season matches have less significance, especially after the seeds are determined.

Plus, you still have teams fighting relegation and playing for places in Europe, so there are actually very few "meaningless matches" at the end of the season.

While I appreciate the appeal of seeing the best teams go head to head in a playoff, I wouldn't call the non-playoff system boring.

 

RENSEBRINK... OP DE PAAL!!!!

 

Maybe it's just because I'm used to it, but I prefer the straight league system with no play-offs at the end. Yes the play-offs lead to some high drama games at the end of the season, but the league system is definitely a fairer way of doing it.

I think it depends on what you are looking for, dramtic games at the end of the season or a system that shows who are the best team. I mean, last year in England, Arsenal finished first. Aston Villa finished eighth. If Villa then have a great couple of weeks in the play-offs and win the championship, does that mean they are the best team? Certainly not in my book.

As for teams letting other sides win because of rivalries, I remember a few years ago when Blackburn went to Liverpool needing to win to make sure of the championship. They lost at Anfield which could have meant that Man U. won the league. They only drew at West Ham, so Blackburn won. Now there is no love lost between Liverpool and Man Yoo and as Liverpool had no chance of winning the league, they could have let Blackburn win to make sure Man Yoo didn't. It's down to the integrity of the players involved I suppose, match fixing has happened in England in the past, but the instances are few and far between.

 

Errrr... since when do European players care? Are there any left (maybe a few) that really feel connected with the club they play for?

 

The one player who really comes to mind is Alan Shearer...that man is black and white through and through. He'd go to war for Newcastle.

 

The same goes here in many situations but media and the management consider sportsmanship more important.

 

I never said they care about the club, although even if they are not from the area or didn't come through the youth team, they may still have strong ties with the club. Ian Wright is an example who can often be seen at Highbury on match days. I said they had integrity, professional pride if you will. Obviously there is some home grown talent at every club (like Alan Shearer mentioned above) who will go above and beyond the call of duty.

 

I don't like the one table everyone plays each other twice format because for example, Manchester United should play Manchester City more times than they play lets say oh a Southhampton. You need to play your regional and geographic rivals more times than you play a team thats on the other end of the country.

 

One question - WHY?

Do you have any comprehension as to how big England is?

Who are Southampton's regional rivals?
Portsmouth (div1), Bournemouth (div3)?

We have a compact little country here, which is why the home and away format against ALL teams works so well.

Or should we go over unnecessarily to the US sytem of events? Where one side of the country plays entirely different teams from the other side - then meet at the end of the season to decide who's best? Our (and others) system works well and provides a resultant table that people can trust as to which teams are the best in the country.

Yet again sportboy, you've excelled yourself.

 

not just England I meant all countries. I don't think LA Galaxy should play Metrostars the same amount of times they play SJ for example. Europe too.

 

The US splits things up for the sake of ease due to the size of the country.
Europe as a whole is about a similar size, so by that reasoning Europe is regionalised into groups - they are called countries.
The Italian/German/Spanish/Dutch etc etc leagues are already regionalised within Europe.
It doesn't need to be further regionalised.
The single league format tells everyone - without argument - who is the best team in a league.
Without that format there will always be arguments and as there are European places at stake, this is an important issue.

 

Well I never said they should have playoffs. I just want to see Arsenal and Tottenham play each other more times than they play Bolton.

 

Aaarrrghhh!!!

But that would mean the end results of any league table would be skewed.

Everyone needs to play everyone else the same number of times to result in an end of year table that can be relied upon to tell people who is the best team in the country.

If (for example) England was regionalised as per your point. Bolton would have to play more difficult teams more often than Leeds would have to. So Leeds would supposedly be higher in the table, simply because they've had 'lesser' opponents.
The key to any league table is consistency - otherwise the proceedure is pointless.

 

I think its just what you are used to. In all Australian sports there are end of year finals - top 4, 6 or 8 depending on the number of teams in the comp.

All that matters all year is getting into the finals. Top position is irrelevant (except that you get home ground advantage in the finals). Noone remembers who finished the year on top of the league ladder.

Unless you have promotion/relegation and Euro competitions etc to qualify for to keep interest going - the straight league system gets pretty boring.

 

I thought in Australia, the BOTTOM 8 advance! Get it, down under, har, all that!?

 

I'm just wondering, what is your day job? Are you perhaps considering giving it up? I'd advise against it.

 

Too much eggnog.

 

That's a damn fine job you have there. And to think I'd questioned American's claims that theirs was the land of opportunity. How do I get a green card so I can go over there and get paid to drink?

Of course I've got no idea where you are, nor do I care. You may be in America, you may be hiding in the hot water tank in my loft. And if you are up there then get out, damn you, get out! How dare you take up residence in my hot water tank. I don't want to know that every time I take a shower I'm showering in water that you've been soaking in, and god knows what else. It's not hygenic. For all I know you could be coated in new germs that are currently unknown to man or beast, but then again most beast lack even a rudimentary knowledge about germs. Take my dog for example. Actually no, don't take my dog. I don't want him with you up there in my hot water tank. He can't swim for a start. I should know, I've been taking him down the local swimming pool every day for three years and trying to teach him to swim. Can't even do the doggy paddle, proving what a misnomner that particular swimming stroke is. And his diving is hopeless. But then again he's only Scottish terrier and trying to get him to climb the ladder even to the lowest diving board is nearly impossible. Trying to get him to split the atom is completely impossible. I know, I've tried. As dogs lack an opposable thumb they find splitting the atom to be a feat of dexterity that they are just unable to achieve. And they also tend to get the atoms caught up in their matted fur. Every time you cut the fur of a dog you are unknowingly cutting away untold amounts of botched canine atomic experimentation. Not many people know that. Even less dogs know it. Dont even get me started on bloody dolphins. People say dolphins are smart. Crap I tell you. Dolphins are stupid. When was the last time you say a dolphin get a university degree? Never. Never happened. Man has been to the moon but dolphins haven't even been to the shops, and you can get there on the bus, so don't you try and tell me that dolphins are clever. Ever played a dolphin at chess? Totally useless. Ever seen a dolphin at a karoake bar? Even worse. The words are there, clear as day, on the screen and all they do is click a lot. I'm sorry free willy, or whoever you bleedin well claim to be, but the words are in English, not that East African clicking langauge. It makes my blood boil. I tell you what really makes my blood boil, scrunching myself really small and climbing inside the microwave and cooking myself for 4 minutes. I wouldn't recommend it. Apart from anything else I hadn't cleaned it properly and I got a bit of last night's pizza welded to my face. That was a bit embarrassing. I went to a nightclub and people kept calling me pizza face, which is bad enough when you've just got loads of spots, but when you really have got a margherita topping across your face is just annoying. You might be wondering why I didn't try to take the pizza off my face. Well the thing is I was kind of hoping that there'd be a lot of girls down there who really liked re-heated pizza, and they'd be keen to have a combined snog and snack. And you know what? I was wrong. Girls seemed to more flee in terror, which was not quite the reaction I was hoping for. Perhaps if it had been a more exotic pizza, something like a Hawaiian ham & pineapple or something like that, then it would have appealed to the girls more. But that might not have worked as they might have seen the ham & pineapple & cheese and tried eating it using those little cocktail stick things which would have really hurt. They could have had my eye out. Well that's probably not quite true. My eyeballs are kind of attached and it'd take more grip than you'd get from a small cocktail stick to be able to pull one of my eyeballs out of my head. Maybe if they'd had something like an adjustable spanner they could have gripped my eyeball and pulled it out, but then again girls don't tend to have adjustable spanners on their person. Probably because their hadbags are too small. If they had larger handbags they could probably bring a whole tool box with them, but that's not very feminine I suppose. The thing is though I might go out again and try and find a girl with a large handbag with a toolbox in it then I'll bring her home. I'll probably give the eye pulling a miss though. But once inside we'll be straight up into the attic. Well clearly we'll have to go up the stairs first. You can't get straight into the attic from my front door, not unless I'd specially installed some kind of pulley system allowing me to be pulled straight up into the attic. But to do that would have required consulting an architecht, seeking planning permission as I'd have to modify a supporting wall, and then got a builder to do it, and let's face it, going up the stairs is easier. So we'd be up those stairs and in the attic and we'd be banging on the hot water tank shouting "get out, get out of my hot water tank you git", and, providing you are a decent kind of guy, I think you'd agree to leave. And in that case I think we could say no more about it.