Football 54 has been placed on garden leave

[Nas!]

Pending investigation of charges of transfer irregularity.

[Alcibiades]

So UEFA is cooking up this funny idea to do away with international friendlies and create some kind of League structure with promotion and relegation. I suppose this would take up all of the international fixtures that aren't currently Wold Cup or European Championship. Most interestingly, here is what the initial divisions could look like:

First division Spain, Germany, Holland, Italy, England, Portugal

Second division Russia, Greece, Croatia, Sweden, France, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Third division Ukraine, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Hungary, Czech Republic

Fourth division Republic of Ireland, Serbia, Norway, Slovakia, Turkey, Israel

Fifth division Slovenia, Austria, Romania, Montenegro, Poland, Finland

Sixth division Scotland, Armenia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus

Seventh division Wales, Northern Ireland, Albania, Iceland, Lithuania, Macedonia

Eighth division Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Kazakhstan

Ninth division Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands, Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Gibralta

I think that Portugal and England would have to be relegation favorites in the first season. Belgium would likely get promoted pretty quickly. I think that Greece would be relegated from division 2. But regardless, I doubt this will ever happen. It's tough to gin up interest in a new competition. If it were to happen, I'd be bummed by how much harder it would be for the United States to ever see a UEFA side in a friendly.

[Nas!]

I think I am going to send my resume to UEFA. It seems like the kind of organization in which a donkey might rise through the ranks pretty quickly.

[Ser Eric]

Decent idea on paper but good luck to UEFA in convincing any of the bigger countries to go through with this.

Will never happen.

[mormont]

Awful idea. Won't happen.

[Alex.]

More City news. The Etihad is to be expanded to 61,500 capacity making it the third largest stadium in English domestic football. Season tickets are to be priced at £299 to expand our Gold Value thing. Should bring back the parts of the old crowd that were priced out and be affordable for new members.

Edit: ooh! Just realised that the away fans will be in triple tiers as well rather than being hidden away. Great for the atmosphere.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/manchester-city-etihad-expansion-plans-6170099

Also, the Academy and the attached school and 5-6000 capacity EDS Stadium are to open in 2014.

This is how it feels to be City, this is how it feels to be small...

Holy shit.

[baxus]

So UEFA is cooking up this funny idea to do away with international friendlies and create some kind of League structure with promotion and relegation. I suppose this would take up all of the international fixtures that aren't currently Wold Cup or European Championship. Most interestingly, here is what the initial divisions could look like:

I think that Portugal and England would have to be relegation favorites in the first season. Belgium would likely get promoted pretty quickly. I think that Greece would be relegated from division 2. But regardless, I doubt this will ever happen. It's tough to gin up interest in a new competition. If it were to happen, I'd be bummed by how much harder it would be for the United States to ever see a UEFA side in a friendly.

this is pretty much the system they have in place for ice hockey competitions.

it makes sense there, because there is pretty much no way that lower division team would present a worthy oponent to top teams and it would end with 30, 40 or 50 goals blowouts.

in football, that's not nearly the case.

it would hardly be a surprise for belgium to beat england, portugal or netherlands, would it?

and still they are ranked 2 tiers below them.

[Antonius Pius]

I don't understand. If it's not supposed to replace the existing Euro championship, then what's the point? Other than raising money for the national FA's?

A tiered qualification for the EC and WC would be beneficial, IMO. Let Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino, Malta, Cyprus etc. have their own competition and let the winner participate in the regular qualifications. Also never going to happen of course.

[Renasko]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOj06CgcHbA

Great little video of Nakamura and Kagawa. :)

[Grand Moff Mithrandir]

Hehe Sam Alardici, funny man that Big Sam.

[polishgenius]

Ukraine beat Poland. We're therefore out of the WC, and this makes a win against Montenegro vital for England- Ukraine have San Marino in the last game, so aren't going to drop any points there. And since Montenegro have Moldova, a loss would almost certainly put Montenegro out entirely.

So, for probably the only time this season, come on Jovetic!

[Renasko]

What a weird game this Ireland-Germany match has been. Germans have just made it 3 in the 90th minute. Stokes had two glaring chances, as well. Lacked composure.

[Rorshach]

Norway has changed head coach, and continue to be sub-mediocre. But in a more attacking manner. Losing 3-0, but the game was more watchable (to me) than our previous one- and two-goal losses.

Oh, well. Next time..

[Horza]

What a glorious day for football in Australia: Sydney FC are top of the table and Holger Osieck has been sacked as Socceroos coach.

[Järv]

So UEFA is cooking up this funny idea to do away with international friendlies and create some kind of League structure with promotion and relegation. I suppose this would take up all of the international fixtures that aren't currently Wold Cup or European Championship. Most interestingly, here is what the initial divisions could look like:

I think that Portugal and England would have to be relegation favorites in the first season. Belgium would likely get promoted pretty quickly. I think that Greece would be relegated from division 2. But regardless, I doubt this will ever happen. It's tough to gin up interest in a new competition. If it were to happen, I'd be bummed by how much harder it would be for the United States to ever see a UEFA side in a friendly.

In the next European Championships 2016 in France 24 countries out of 54 UEFA countries will participate.

When 45% of all member countries take part, what's the point in conducting the qualifications? They will get utterly boring, at least for people from the larger countries, where most of the fans live. TBH, they are already boring. Matches like Germany vs. San Marino are simply a joke.

A League structure could make international matches outside of championships much more interesting IMHO.

[The Winged Shadow]

What a glorious day for football in Australia: Sydney FC are top of the table and Holger Osieck has been sacked as Socceroos coach.

Aussies got absolutely crushed by France it seems. Disappointing but not unexpected. It will be interesting to see who gets the job now that Osieck is gone.

Another great goal from Del Piero, what a class that guy. I completely forgot that the A-League started yesterday. Let me know if you reckon we got a good squad this season, so I know when to join the bandwagon :P

[Jon AS]

Matches like Germany vs. San Marino are simply a joke.

A League structure could make international matches outside of championships much more interesting IMHO.

They are a joke if you live in a country whose qualifying record is equalled only by Brazil, but not all of the big names qualify for every World Cup. More importantly, they are not a joke to countries like San Marino. Football draws a lot of its strength from its root at the lowest level, so just like it would be stupid to exclude clubs from the lowest leagues from a national cup competition, it would IMO be stupid to keep smaller countries from competing with the biggest ones.

[Ser Eric]

2013 and we still haven't gone past a Lampard and Gerrard midfield two :bang:

They are a joke if you live in a country whose qualifying record is equalled only by Brazil, but not all of the big names qualify for every World Cup. More importantly, they are not a joke to countries like San Marino. Football draws a lot of its strength from its root at the lowest level, so just like it would be stupid to exclude clubs from the lowest leagues from a national cup competition, it would IMO be stupid to keep smaller countries from competing with the biggest ones.

I think the real question is, does getting beat 8-0 each time they play the bigger guns help San Marino in any shape or form? If the answer is yes the there's no problems with the current structure but if as I suspect the answer is no then UEFA should take a look at alternate solutions.

[Jon AS]

I think the real question is, does getting beat 8-0 each time they play the bigger guns help San Marino in any shape or form?

It's not really about helping San Marino (though they presumably get a lot more TV money from games against England or Germany than if they were confined to facing Andorra and Liechtenstein), they have the population of a small city. It's that they should be accorded respect and not simply pushed into the fourth or fifth rank.

[Andriy Czarchenko]

Basketball had the tiered division system for some years and it was awful for those teams that just missed the cut when it was installed. On the other hand in basketball the smallest countries actually do play in a completely different league but it´s their own choice.