amms 0 Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 But at least they generally make the group stages, they don't often fall foul of the Maribors and Malmoes. It's not ideal for them either but what is the alternative? I think RFC could when we are debt-free keep a group together long enough to give ourselves a fighting chance: we won't ever do that if we just rely on signing 'experienced' mercenaries. Yeah, I agree that Dutch club football is better than Scottish club football currently, that's been the case for pretty much 40 years or so. I'm less optimistic than you that we could keep a 'golden generation' together these days if we were lucky enough to nurture one. Realistically we are struggling to match the salaries of Championship clubs in England far less EPL ones. We'd need to mine a very rich seam to produce a team that could compete at that level. The alternative is to change the game, lobby the SFA and in turn UEFA to properly distribute finance. It's farcical that at this juncture in history, when the amount of money being pumped into football has never been higher that clubs like Rangers and Feyenoord can go to the wall. It won't be easy but if all of the smaller nations, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Scotland, Sweden, Austria, Croatia, Serbia, Greece, Poland and even France came together and decided to create a voting pact then UEFA would have a problem and the big 4 leagues would need to listen. This financial fair play rule, if it is properly applied, might go some way to helping equality again. Bosman has been the biggest problem, not the ability to leave at the end of a contract but the inability to limit 'foreign' players at clubs. Since the Bosman ruling only 10 clubs have won the European Cup/Champions League and only 6 countries have actually contested the final. Of those six two of them, Portugal and France competed in the same freakish final 2004 when Porto beat Monaco, since that final only four countries have provided finalists. In the 16 years before Bosman 13 different clubs won the European Cup/Champions League and the finalists came from 10 countries. If equality in finance can't be imposed then a minimum amount of home bred players should be. The larger countries will still have an advantage simply through bigger populations but it will mean that every now and then an Ajax or a Red Star Belgrade or a Porto or indeed a Rangers could put a team together that could compete, really compete not just make up the numbers. All this requires political will, there are vested interests at play who are diametrically opposed to these types of changes, but that doesn't mean change can't be brought in. The big clubs in the big leagues are always going to have an advantage, I accept that. But the gap is so large now that competition no longer exists. Aspiration is being taken away, that's the life blood of football, without why bother? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
amms 0 Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 It's easy enough to say that amms, but Ajax play in a far tougher/more competitive league than we did in the SPL, yet they've still managed to win 4 league titles and 4 cups in the past decade. It's not a two horse (or one horse) race. The Champions League is a different kettle of fish these days and it's a bit unfair to expect a team like Ajax to compete really well in it when you take into account what a club like Real Madrid have managed to do in that competition in the past decade. Well Holland is a three horse race with one of the horses falling badly a couple of years ago and a new horse having a couple of good seasons. The point I'm struggling to make Zappa is why should Ajax bother to rear players if they are simply going to leave before they turn 21? In the past they had a chance in Europe now they've none.How long do we allow that to continue for before we all pack it in and become Man Utd fans? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete 2,499 Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 Well Holland is a three horse race with one of the horses falling badly a couple of years ago and a new horse having a couple of good seasons. The point I'm struggling to make Zappa is why should Ajax bother to rear players if they are simply going to leave before they turn 21? In the past they had a chance in Europe now they've none.How long do we allow that to continue for before we all pack it in and become Man Utd fans? The day I die no matter if they demote us to the amateur leagues. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
54andcounting 0 Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 Scottish football had a big grip on Europe before the Dutch moved in....now they have as much (of a less) chance of winning the CL as Scotland. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete 2,499 Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 Scottish football had a big grip on Europe before the Dutch moved in....now they have as much (of a less) chance of winning the CL as Scotland. 4 teams out of Europe with Ajax in a very hard group. Ajax are total crap at the moment. Heerenveen should have humped them yesterday. BUT!!! As the old saying goes the champions come in strong at the end. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 (edited) Well Holland is a three horse race with one of the horses falling badly a couple of years ago and a new horse having a couple of good seasons. The point I'm struggling to make Zappa is why should Ajax bother to rear players if they are simply going to leave before they turn 21? In the past they had a chance in Europe now they've none.How long do we allow that to continue for before we all pack it in and become Man Utd fans? Well I think you made the point brilliantly in the post you were just about to post when I posted mine. For me, it's a really complicated subject because even although you'd think it could be all so simple, there's so many different factors. For example, why shouldn't the biggest share of global broadcasting income go to the clubs who attract the largest amount of paying global customers/subscribers? It's not just about the individual clubs either, it's about the overall attractiveness of the fixtures in European competitions from the broadcaster's point of view. Sky (for example) only care about money. They only really care about the size of their subscriber base and that's why they've invested far more money into the top leagues. Is it fair? No, it's not at all and I don't even think the financial fair play rule will rectify the situation because UEFA can't tell Sky how much money they should pay into a particular league for broadcasting rights. UEFA only govern the national associations and the clubs, they don't govern the broadcasters. In fact, if anything, it's the other way around with the broadcasters governing the whole of football essentially and these days they are fixing the game of football in such a way that they can maximize their revenue from their potential subscirber base. That's a massive problem, because it's created a situation where football as a competition basically isn't fair any more. Edited September 3, 2012 by Zappa 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete 2,499 Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 Anyone thinking youth can beat Sky money is missing a cog. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 Anyone thinking youth can beat Sky money is missing a cog. Exactly pete and that's why Ajax (for example) aren't competing in Europe with the top clubs from the top leagues these days. Sky are basically chucking money at La Liga, the EPL, Serie A and the Bundesliga, but Dutch (and French) teams can't compete with that sort of money in the game. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
54andcounting 0 Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 Exactly pete and that's why Ajax (for example) aren't competing in Europe with the top clubs from the top leagues these days. Sky are basically chucking money at La Liga, the EPL, Serie A and the Bundesliga, but Dutch (and French) teams can't compete with that sort of money in the game. An unarguable fact..been that way 15 years or so now. Will it implode? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 An unarguable fact..been that way 15 years or so now. Will it implode? I doubt if it'll implode (or burst) any time soon, but never say never! 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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