Since Khan bought the team I was one of those who assumed he, and the league, were earmarking them for London. Assumed they were waiting for the Spurs stadium to get finished. Not sure how far along they got but assuming Covid put the breaks on any serious planning. Guessing it won't happen, and if it does I wonder if the new #1 candidate isn't the Chargers?
This drifting from pro/rel soccer in North America; but... I don't think the NFL to London is that serious. It is used as bait to get public money for stadium funding. NFL owners love expensive stadiums. The new 17 game schedule, however, is designed largely for neutral game sites. American grid-iron football has a tradition of neutral game sites, college football does it quite often too (think Army v Navy played in various neutral stadiums since WW2, or bowl games). Now the NFL can still guarantee 8 home games to a team and still play a game overseas. I think you will see a lot more overseas or neutral site games in the next many years.
Burnley in trouble financially as the leveraged buyout means the club owes most of the £65m the new owner borrowed when buying the club. Leveraged buyouts have to be stopped. They also have nine senior players out of contract and no manager. On the plus side: parachute payments.
My Burnley friend fan Nick must be distressed about their relegation and financial troubles. However. when I met him, Burnley were in what is now England's League One.
You're probably right but I could see a world where Spanos and Kroenke have a falling out. They already don't like each other and are only sharing a stadium because the NFL is making them play nice, and the Spanos family can't afford to build their own. So if Kroenke forces the Chargers out of his building. He is a notoriously litigious guy who would prefer to not have the Chargers as a tenet so that's not that far fetched, where do they end up? Realize this is way off topic for the thread discussion soooo... Pro/Rel for the NFL!
The Jags weren't going to be moved. Khan has spent too much money on the training facility and the area around their stadium to move the team. If anything, the NFL wants to put an expansion side in London and start with a clean slate.
Gla When I was a child, there hadn't been an expansion in my lifetime. When playing in my backyard, I would pretend to have a game for promotion to the NFL. I'm not an anti-pro/rel zealot.
I forget to report that I watched a relegation thriller (because of Marsch) over one of the title implication games on the last day of the PL season. My official Pro/Rel Dude welcome packet didn’t arrive yet, though.
Did you just want some merch to wear, or were you expecting Rocco-bux? The I-9 process for that is tricky, we need 2 lower league ticket stubs from different seasons. If you have 1 or none, then we need two items from the following categories: screen shot of your twitter block from one of: Grant, Alexi, current or former USSF board member, MLS communications account, or Merrit Pauslon; photo of you at an MLS game with a ProRelForUSA sign; receipt for the plane and banner that flew ProRelForUSA over an MLS stadium while a game was in progress; proof you voted for Eric Wynalda in the USSF president election.
As a fan of a couple of mediocre college football teams, I'm all for Georgia and Alabama moving out and up to the NFL.
Two playoff finals for teams from the same town this weekend. Personally, I'm hoping that Nottingham Forest spoil their fun and get promoted to the Premier League: https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ague-challenge-cup-championship-playoff-final
Great Twitter thread about how money has turned the CL into the Superleague in all but name. And also how winning the PL is essentially now a two city race (London/Manchester). NEW: ahead of Champions League final, we need to talk about financial disparities in football.For decades the sport has been quietly having its "frog in a pan of water" moment, and it feels like we’re approaching boiling point.My column https://t.co/lfunC7p4v0And a thread:— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) May 28, 2022 A couple of highlights: It’s now exceptional when a club from outside the big five leagues reaches the last-four, and when they do their stars are gobbled up by the superclubsIn a typical season, *three quarters* of UCL semi-finalists now come from just six cities, let alone countries (HT @KuperSimon) pic.twitter.com/8QRVZ7Rzu5— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) May 28, 2022 Here’s another view of the same data.In the 5 years ending 1987, *18* different clubs reached the semis, including Steaua București, Dundee United, IFK Göteborg & Widzew Łódź.Today, it’s a safe bet that 2-3 of this year’s final four will be in next year’s semis, too. pic.twitter.com/ErypTyaoCw— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) May 28, 2022
I think Liverpool might ask which of those two cities they are in. Leicester, Blackburn and Leeds are the only winners from outside London, Manchester and Liverpool in the last 40 years. Derby (twice), Leeds, Nottingham Forest, and Aston Villa managed it in the 10 years before that though.
Somewhat surprisingly Grimsby eliminated Wrexham in the semifinal today. So you'll have Reynold's $$$ to compete against next season.
I mis-phrased the claim, my bad. Its actually claimed to be a two region race, London and the Northwest, not two city (London/Manchester). That would cover Liverpool.
The overall gist is correct though, in that every change in the game in the last 30 years or so has had the effect, maybe even the intention, of making it easier for the richer clubs to maintain their strength.
What a game it was too. Wrexham ahead 1-0. Grimsby go 2-1 up. Wrexham then 3-2 up. Grimsby them 4-3 ahead. Wrexham equalise, but Grimsby nick the winner in the 119th minute. A Hollywood script for the game, albeit without the ending the audiences usually prefer. When Ryan Reynolds came over to see his first Wrexham game (at Maidenhead) a mate of mine was at the game, and turned round to see a Hollywood celeb a few rows behind him. He took a picture and put it on his "friends and family" type Twitter account, only to find his noticifications going mental. The night ended with his photo being shown on the national news, creditted to him underneath.
It's been like that for a long-time. 93% of Champions since 1975/76 have been from London or the northwest. 82% of champions since 1930 have been from London or the northwest. London teams weren't much of a factor before 1930.
Here's the specific claim The geographical shift here is striking ,too.English football was a ~flat landscape up until the early 1980s. Title winners from the north, south, east, midlands.Today it’s bimodal. Heaps of money and talent in London and the north-west. Everyone else fighting over scraps. pic.twitter.com/fke8OdTqZv— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) May 28, 2022
There's a lot of cherry picking of apples and oranges going on there. For instance in 1961 Tottenham scored 115 goals (42 gms) compared to City's 99 this season (38 gms). By 1972 tactics had become a lot more defensive with 4-4-2 replacing 2-3-5 and the offside trap coming into effect, plus there were only 2 points for a win. And he's comparing the distribution of teams in the late stages of the European Cup, a knockout competition with one team from each country, with the Champs League. I'm not disagreeing with his conclusions, only his selective use of statistics.
And Blackburn It's odd that - Brian Clough aside - the Midlands hasn't had a top team in over 50 years. Villa were one season wonders and you have to go back to Wolverhampton Wanderers to find another team that was competitive for a period of time.