Beefy,Athletic only 5th in La Liga,some 6 points behind Valencia who are third.They generally play well but were excellent tonight despite having to juggle the team a bit without Amoerebieta.They were awful in front of goal though and should have killed the tie. The fans are great...all from Bilbao,same as the players.I was there last Sunday for the Basque Derby and it was electric. Great game of footy tonight. Quel,most of the clubs in Spain are really struggling and the initial jornada was postponed this season because the players went on strike.Lots of clubs have wage arrears and a few will go to the wall within the next three years. In the premier league the TV rights are spread evenly..this is not the case in La Liga with the big two taking the lions share of the dosh. They take 136m each,10 times more than their nearest rival and will only share if the league is reduced to 16 teams.Negotiations have so far proved futile with B and RM refusing to budge. Makes the Athletic Bilbao policy of playing Basque only players all the more commendable. It really is quite a club with a great history.
