Still, the Memorandum targets specifically soccer for the reasons I posted. Hockey isnot considered a European cultural heritage, so still this is irrelevant to the Pro/Rel discussion. Only soccer has that title of European cultural heritage.
For who? How does this victory hurt FIFA? They won! Do you think they give two shits about how they look!?! If they did they wouldn't have awarded Qatar the world cup my friends.
Organization of the Austrian soccer competition: What precisely doesnot square with the memorandum? We're discussing soccer Pro/Rel, not another sport. When precisely has the special status of soccer been denied, by me or by someone else? I've been beating the "soccer's special status" drum for how long now? And what exactly is the relevance of that notion of selectivity for our discussion? What part of all member states of the EU are part of the co-signers of the Memorandum don't you understand? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...sed-european-premier-league-could-illegal-eu/ Exclusive: Proposed European Premier League could be illegal under EU law, says leading sports lawyer Closed leagues without promotion and relegation could be regarded as anti-competitive By Tim Wigmore 21 October 2020 • 6:02pm
Its bad enough that numerous Brits wanted out of the EU because they didn't like the ECHR making decisions about British law. Of course the ECHR was created a decade and a half before the EU primarily using British lawyers, and includes twice as many countries. I thought a Nederlander would know better.
I read the article. Did you read the article about how they lost the case. Do you think concacaf will let them play in the gold cup? Let me clue you in to concacaf, they won't do anything against FIFA. Again there is no particular victory only plain ole victory for FIFA.
I would also argue the poster of the article as well. I don't see anything in the article he posted that does any damage to FIFA. Including TnT in the concacaf gold cup draw is nothing more that just a procedural thing. Concacaf can easily eliminate them (as they probably will) if FIFA seems them still in error.
Well everyone's a rival I guess, what I'm trying to say is that they're no more a rival than say Spain or Italy (though they perhaps are more of a rival than say Mexico or US for example?). The biggest rivalries for the English are the Scots and the French (in my opinion), isn't it often the case in this world that your closest rivals are your nearest neighbours, eg Spain & Portugal, Holland & Germany, US & Canada or perhaps Mexico? Perhaps anybodies biggest rival is the team they face next?
Have you forgotten the wars (WW1&2, not 100years), 1966, 1970, 1990 and 1996? And I can't imagine celebrating a victory over France like we did the 5-1 win in the Olympiastadion.
We've been on and off at war with France for a thousand years! They 'look down' their Gaelic noses at the English at every opportunity and always have! They're the neighbours from hell! ! It's funny but I always feel there is far more respect between England and Germany than there has ever been between us and the French. As for the Scots, in 1986 when England played Argentina in the World Cup quarter final the Scots all bought Argentinian football shirts!! Four years after Scots were killed by Argentines in a war with them! And that just about says it all! European relations eh! It's a complicated thing! :-D
The French have a soft spot for the English as the English have a soft spot for the French. And both hate Parisians.
8 or 9 games to go on MLS and Cincinnati and LA Galaxy are the only teams not than a win off the admittedly expanded playoff spots.
What do you mean by "8 or 9 games to go"? Most teams have 3 to 4 scheduled games left in the regular season.
The Italian Baseball League discontinued pro/rel in 2009. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Baseball_League
With only 10 of 28 teams being eliminated during the regular season that’s hardly an accomplishment, more an indication of just how banal its regular season is.
To be fair this year as a one time (at least as of now) expansion of the playoffs to deal with the weirdness of the 2020 COVID situation. It would normally be 14 teams, not 18. (Which arguably isn't a significant change to your point) Also its 26 teams this year not 28.
I understand it’s a one off but it’s the kind of stunt you end up with without pro/rel to create an incentive from the bottom up. Even 14 would be NBA -style craziness or worse.
If you accept that the only point of a sporting season is to see who wins it all, okay. But if you approach the regular season with an interest is seeing a lot of a very competitive matches, then it's engrossing. It is less predictable. While Seattle and toronto have made the playoffs their bitch, the SS race is pretty fascinating, and less predictable. I mean, right now, Philly? The playoffs, essentially, become a league cup, though one that's tacked on to the end of the season and is taken very seriously by everyone. I prefer the regular season, but I prefer group stages of tourneys, so that's just me.