Off Topic Champions League and other crap

Anyone else just sick to the eye teeth of the CL and all its associated bull?

It's like the social divide perfectly manifest in football; the rich get infinitely richer whilst the vast majority try to pick up whatever scraps of wealth are leftover. Players are now like houses, vastly overpriced and being hoovered up by those with a lot of money, then rented out for profit.

Last nights results included Chelski 6 v 0 European Infidels, Scottish Paupers 0 v 5 Paris Saint Qatar, Money Utd 3 v 0 Basil Fawlty. What on God's earth was the point of any of it? Leicester's brief foray into Europe has led to them.....doing the square root of eff all. It's like winning the lottery then going shopping with Mike Ashley, Philip Green and Richard Branson.

Mourinho was moaning. He moaned because, against ludicrously inferior opposition and 3-0 up, the players dare to try to provide entertainment. They tried a few flicks and played some risky passes. Jose was not impressed. I'm not entirely sure what's worse - the fact this curmudgeonly overhyped pritt-stick is moaning, or the fact a BBC Sport Headline was devoted to his self-obsessed mumblings. We already know he's going to say something contrary, that's his way, but is anyone buying it anymore no matter how hard the red top press try to sell it?

It's all just so predictable, banal and tiresome. The fans are becoming increasingly numb to it; there is a complete expectancy that these rich clubs will play in and win most of their matches, the experience of what football is - the excitement its supposed to generate - has been lost on a computer-game fixated generation of fans who need and expect a win. Certainly in this country at least. This is not a rant to signal the end of football - it won't, it still has infinite possibilities and whole new worlds to conquer - it's just a moan about how bland and forgettable the whole thing has gotten.

 

I agree with what you are saying by and large, but god I would love us to be back in it!

It's not so much the hype of it that gets me. It would just be so much better if it didn't lead to the inequality that it does. How much better would it be if it was like it used to be, with different clubs qualifying all the time and not just four from six as it mostly is now.

 

i agree, lets get rid of all league football and make sure football clubs only play each other within each county and make sure all footballers play for a club where they were born within 20 square miles.

They will be paid in food from the clubs closest pub and on non-training days they must be forced to rake the fields

 

Something tells me you're not taking this seriously Bobby.......

 

it's the communism of football and hopefully this will enable us to get back to supporting England and international football which should really be the pinnacle of our national and global sport.

If we prevent teams from buying all the best players, we can then marvel at them when they do come together in the internationals

 

Champions League is great but not enough quality games in the Group Stages now as its grown too big. Could reduce it down to 16 teams in 4 groups playing for 8 quarter final places and have much stronger groups. Only league champions and cup winners from top leagues (england, france, italy, spain, germany) qualify for group stages. Rest can all come through a qualifying knockout for the remaining 6 places. Could include 3rd and 4th teams from top leagues in qualifying knockout if you want.

 

The CL is quite simply a competition to enable the rich to get richer.
No chance whatsoever of reducing the number of games, as they would lose out financially.
Other clubs aspire to get there, but, all they do, is service the bigger clubs.
Football needs radical change, but, it will never happen, as the rich and powerful have too much too lose.

Personally, I don't watch the CL as I have no interest in the competition at all.
I'll stick with Newcastle, Gateshead and England, where I find my passion.

 

Communism or self-preservation?

I do think football needs to be wary of it's current trajectory of allowing the rich to get richer while the grassroots gets further and further marginalised. At the moment your lot are in the exclusive group of the elite, but the way things are going there will be an even smaller group of super-elite forming with the likes of Man City, Barcelona and PSG etc escalating prices even further and buying up more and more of the game's best players. There is a trickle down effect, but that effect just re-emphasises the same process on a national scale at different levels. The top 6 or 7 clubs nationally fight over the European places. Further down the scale, championship clubs have to start spending more and more to reach the promised land of the Premier League.

I don't think it is all bad or that the game will collapse. There are encouraging signs with the way non-league is becoming more vibrant and the way the pyramid system is allowing more and more teams to start challenging to become Football League clubs. I do think it should be tweaked though to allow for a fairer distribution of funds throughout the game. I also think changes need to be made to the loan system to discourage the very top clubs from accumulating so much on the off chance that they fulfil potential, rather than setting the system up so that every club has a responsibility to develop the next generation of players.

 

Love football of any kind, legends 6-a-side, grassroots, vanarama conference to the CL and WC. Doesn't matter whos playing or where. If its on I'll watch it and love it!

 

Good - cos we have all clubbed together to buy you a ticket for Sunderland-Cardiff at SOL on 23rd September. That should be a real test of your enthusiasm. Don't forget your bedsheet - just cross out Pardew and add Short or Grayson.

 

I can't say I love football the way I used to. I'd love to use the family time excuse or something like that, but the reality is it just doesn't float my boat the way it used to. The game now is becoming so far detached from what I fell in love with that I can't really say it stirs the same passion.

Football to me is like that girl you meet at 17-18 who is beautiful, with flawless skin and the perfect hourglass body. Then you meet her parents and think "****ing hell, how did you come from her!" You can see a resemblance but its quite far detached. 15-20 years later you run into that girl and she has become her mother, no longer beautiful, haggard leather face, and the hourglass has become a massive ****ing dome, almost unrecognisable from that stunning 17-18 yr old you were over the moon to be riding.

The games gone soft, there is too much rolling around and feigning injury. Bookings are ridiculous. Its getting to a non contact level at the highest level (it seems worse the higher the level due to the scrutiny they're under). We have a load people more bothered about what boots a player is wearing and what he does with his hair instead of how good he. Note I don't include the word 'she' here. Not because I'm a sexist pig, but because the money and the disease it spreads doesn't appear to have hit them yet.

Yeah I'm getting older and I'm sure some think "its you who has become detached not the game". I don't mind progress and understand things constantly develop and move forward. I just don't think football has done so in a way which continues to harness the pure beauty of it. And yeah, I'd still like to be riding the 17-18 yr old.

The CL is even less of an interest as we are not in it

 

The only time I've ever been interested in it was when we were in it.

As I've said on here before, it gives elite clubs in the Premier League even more of an unfair advantage by giving them another revenue stream. They should play domestic football OR European football, not both. Makes everybody too much money though so it will never change.

 

Home End or Away? Wear my black and white stripes regardless but just need to know if I need to go armed to the teeth with toothbrushes and body wash for them?

 

Home End. Don't think you will need to worry about their BO and bad breath. Looks like you all have 10 seats to yourselves.

 

You can sod off i'v just got it back.

 

I like football, but I love Newcastle a whole lot more.
You won't see me celebrate a ManU or Chelsea goal in the CL final anywhere near the degree I celebrated Joey Barton's ****ing consolation against Stevenage, never mind the rest.
I'll watch it cos its there, easy reason for the pub n all that, but if Sky ever gave the option to watch Newcastle and only Newcastle all season, they'd finally get me on their subscription list

 

I bet there is people who would die for a life like yours mate I know would.

 

At every level of the game there is the best and most well resourced teams even down to local Sunday league. Its just the reality. Sometimes the less well resourced teams come good because they get a few mint players / good manager etc. I personally enjoy European football but I do agree that it would be good to level the field. I think the football associations need to do more to cascade the money down through the different leagues in each country.

 

In fairness, if Newcastle were regularly in the Champions League and one of the elite teams in the Premier League we wouldn't even think about complaining.