How can we discuss this '95/'15 comparisons without even mentioning "what if" FIFA had changed the then proposition to increase the goal post dimensions? this took place in 1995/96! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Major League Soccer attempt to increase the size of the goal died a quick death Saturday in Rio de Janeiro, where world soccer leaders unanimously rejected the idea. The possibility of enlarging the goal had been raised last year in discussions by FIFA, which governs world soccer. MLS in February said it would be interested in experimenting with the concept. But worldwide reaction was so negative that the International Board, soccer's rule-making body, dismissed the idea at its annual meeting in Brazil. "The reaction was such that the board felt it was inappropriate to even consider the matter in more detail," said board member Graham Kelly of England, who added that it had never been more than a "tentative suggestion," to begin with. Since 1865, the goal has measured 24 feet wide by eight feet high. The suggestion had been to increase the width by 18 inches and the height by nine inches, but critics around the globe had ridiculed the idea as tampering with the fundamental nature of the game. "Similarly, we refused to discuss changing the size of the ball," said Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, FIFA's general secretary. MLS officials, in Rio de Janeiro lobbying for the change, were unavailable for comment. However, FIFA did announce several other changes, all of which will take effect July 1: --It modified the advantage rule, allowing referees to let play continue after a foul occurs, provided the victimized team gains an advantage. Referees can later stop play and award the free kick if the advantage does not materialize. "The best referees do this already," Kelly said, "but we want all referees to do it." --It increased the number of substitutes allowed on the bench from five to seven. Only three can be used, however. --It increased the responsibility of the fourth match official to include reporting disciplinary incidents to the referee after a match has finished. --It refused to allow television replays to overturn decisions made on the field. "Football is a human game and we have to live with errors; otherwise we would never finish leagues because we would have to play matches time and time again," Blatter said. "The board knows about existing technology. But football is played everywhere and we have to have one law for the game. We can't have one law for those who can afford technology and another for those who can't." --It approved continuation of an experiment in the Belgian second division, permitting the use of kick-ins instead of throw-ins. It discontinued an experiment with timeouts in the Swedish first division. The concept, Blatter said, "drew mixed results, so we're going to sit on this idea for a while." --It decided to rename linesmen "referee's assistants," in part because of the increasing number of female linesmen. http://articles.latimes.com/1996-03-10/sports/sp-45390_1_goal-size ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- @PuckVanHeel @Excape Goat @Pipiolo @celito @giles varley @unclesox @Estel @PDG1978 @comme can you imagine what effect it would have on football if the Yanks got their way? It is the only thing FIFA ever done I admire in its long history. Thumbs up for FIFA! Er...what?
Regarding the colored boots seemingly every player is sporting these days (even in amateur divisions) I wouldn't be surprised if in 20 years the top players will not be content anymore with wearing red or yellow boots (since everyone is doing that). Thus individualized jerseys will be developed by the marketing departments for the top players that make them really stand out from the rest. Albeit individualized in a way that it would still be recognizable which club they play for, of course.
The Yanks were trying to make soccer into gridiron football with feet, good thing FIFA told them to f-off promptly.
95% of the time they hold the ball in their hands, yet they call it ...football? they can't even get the terms right, no wonder why FIFA told them to F-off!
I don't know about the size of the goal. In 1995, I really liked the idea of a realtime game clock displayed on the field. Soccer, I felt, was the only sport in the world where no one but the ref knew exactly when the game ends(I know nothing about rugby). I did not know how many times I felt that a ref had cheated the game clock. Then, they started to use the realtime clock in MLS. Suddenly, I realised it sucked.
I think many hadn't expected that the Champions League would be so profitable for the big teams, both in a direct and indirect way. Though that was already touched on by some here, including that now a 4th place in a league provides entry. Similarly, the Europa League (successor of both UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup) only becomes profitable after teams get out of the group stage; before the group stage (the qualification rounds and play offs) the teams are actually losing money. Of course not an issue for leagues/teams who qualify directly and bypass the play offs (under new/old rules; the 2012-13 and 2015-16 format changes).
-Spain won Euro then World Cup then Euro then got knock out of World Cup -France won World Cup then Euro then get knock out of World cup -Greece won Euro -Netherlands couldn't qualify for the World Cup 2002 -A player who can break several goal-assit records -7-1 so on
In 1995, Ajax won the Champions' League. Kluivert was the star and that was probably the height of his career. A midfielder playing in the second division who was born on the same day as Kluivert would become the star striker for Holland in that generation. The birthday part is the unbelievable part.
I knew next to nothing about the bet. I saw a few headline saying that Obama would honor his bet with the Belgian Prime Minister.
In the U.S. politicians will often engage in friendly wagers during national championship games. For example, if a team from Florida was playing a team from California in the World Series, Super Bowl or NBA Finals, the mayors of the two cities involved will wager something local, like Florida oranges against California wine. Monetary bets are never made (or rather, never reported about if made ).
It is arguable that it was the height of Kluivert's career but he was not a starting player back then. I'd like to know how long Nistelrooy played at midfield (in 2nd Div.), when it has changed . If you Excape Goat or someone else can tell, it would be appreciated. Thank you.
Sorry, I did not do enough research. My memory failed me. I thought that he was the top scorer that season, but he wasn't. And yes, it was nit his peak, but I supposed that he did not really live up it.
Yes, it's kinda remarkable that Kluivert was finished in 2004 while RVN could maintain his level until 2010.
God has a sense of humour. They were born on the same day. One found stardom as a teenager while the other was a later bloomer. When I said RVN was a late bloomer, I meant that Manchester United had some doubts about his fitness on his first transfer and he did not play in his first big international tournament until he was 28 years old. Kluivert started to fade around the same time RVN started to reach superstardom too. They probably managed to play two seasons together where both were considered the best in Europe.
RvN played sometimes as a forward in his final season for Den Bosch (1996-97) but was converted for good into a striker at Heerenveen (1997-98). He entered the club with the belief that he was a midfielder but the trainer F. de Haan convinced him that striker was his best position. There were also others who said that (to him) like his youth idol Van Basten, with whom he fell out later when MvB was national team manager. RvN made the move to ManUnited one or two years later as planned, because of two consecutive knee injuries. He missed euro2000 because he forced his re-entry, and injured his knee again (incl. a loud shriek that has been filmed on camera). Meanwhile, Kluivert was joint topscorer of euro2000. An own goal by Yugoslavia (an attempt that was possibly on target; cf. Ronaldo vs Costa Rica in 2002) robbed him of an extra goal. I think some are too harsh about Kluivert. He was always more like a set-up man or dummy guy (and doing the things that for ex. Rivaldo clearly refused to do). I believe he was a wonderful football player. RvN was much more of a striker or poacher (except when he played in the UCL perhaps, hence his good assist record in the UCL). On Sunday there was a documentary centered around him, when it was 20 years ago that he scored the winner. Three things really damaged him: 1) his mentality or attitude. As a newspaper article wrote: "After travelling around the world Kluivert reprimanded the Netherlands for not being the type of country to nurture an elite sport mentality, a sensible wisdom, but Kluivert himself had not that mentality either." 2) the car accident; that is a deep scar in his life as was again shown on Sunday. 3) in 2003-2004 his knee cartilage was permanently damaged by a piece of shit called Gabriel Milito - pure and typical filth. RvN his elite career also ended very soon after his knee cartilage and meniscus (not: the ligaments) took a severe hit in 2008. It was the same for Van Nistelrooij.
It can be said that the 'closed shop' was already materializing in the Summer of 1995. It can be said that by 1995 they were already trying to move to that direction. Two days before the Champions League final of that year, UEFA changed the rules which turned the national champions of France and England into seeded teams; Scotland and Netherlands lost seeded status (unless being holders). They were pressurized by the big media companies to do so and create a beneficial snowball effect (cf. that song contest nonsense; where it is less successful for them). A few years (1998) later Lennart Johansson pointed out that five countries were responsible for 90% of UEFA his money, hence the seeding and participation of non-champions (http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-7851562.html). Which was on the first page of this thread bracketed as one of the 'unbelievable' things, but maybe they were already trying to move to that direction. For more details about that 1995 case, one can read this: http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads...do-as-best-ever.2016490/page-30#post-31870956 http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/frozen-out-by-uefa-but-not-by-gazza-1.678913 http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/goal-that-matters-most-to-rangers-1.667235 http://kassiesa.net/uefa/forum/view.php?archive=2006.Q2&topic=20060625130956.xml Spoiler (Move your mouse to the spoiler area to reveal the content) Show Spoiler Hide Spoiler
With Liverpool now finally winning it, it makes one wonder in what sort of time Milan can do it again. One extra difficulty is here Milan currently having less than half of the revenues of Juventus. Liverpool was never this far away from Manchester United. More like how Inter is now behind Juventus. The final game of the 'great' Milan was this match (the 38th round of the league). This was the end of the 1987-2012 period. (absurdly low ratings by Gazzetta by the way, some of these make little sense just by watching the individual highlights and match highlights) After this match Gattuso, Nesta, Inzaghi, Seedorf, Thiago Silva, Ibrahimovic (plus Zambrotta, Cassano, Pato, Van Bommel) were all gone. Milan had finished 2nd in the league, four points behind Juventus and two behind their own points total of 2010-11. Three of the four players involved in setting up the two goals (Cassano his square ball for Flamini; Seedorf his slick assist for Inzaghi's winner over the top), after 0-1 behind, didn't make it to next campaign (this was comically Inzaghi his only goal the entire season in all competitions... friendlies included). Funnily, the next season (2012-13) with a very underwhelming starting team they still finished 3rd. Eight points less as the campaign before, and 10 points less as the title winning 2010-11 but not an immediate drop-off to the depths and sufficient for a 2nd place in the previous two seasons. It was 2013-14 where they dropped to 8th and cannot go to 70 points since (most likely also not this season, unless they win all of the remaining 10 games).
George Weah won Ballon d'or in 1995. He was involved in politics. So I won't be surprise in 1995 that he would become the President of Liberia, right? And then, this was written in 2015. I would not be shocked in 1995 that VAR exists in 2020. In the 1990's, video technology had been used regularly in other sports. "Why not for the biggest sport in the world," I always thought.