A better idea than the community shield?

ditpoker · 06-08-2008 2:22pm #1

The community shield is crap, we watch it as there is nothing else on. What i'd like to see is a North vs South All Star game like basketball, baseball in the states.

The obvious problem would be all star players mysterioulsy being injured the week before and it not being taken seriously, but no one takes the community shield seriously either. If you could make some rule whereby if a player pulls out of the north team, ie ronaldo for united, then he is given a presumptive injury suspension and cannot play the first game or two of the real season which should be ok if he is "injured". That way people will play, and if you dont you get punished. and fans will get on board with a north/south game im sure...

will never happen, but much more fun!

Mitch Connor · 06-08-2008 2:26pm

i like the idea in gneral and have thought about it before, but the injury suspension thing is a bad idea imo.

United are struggling for players for the game this weekend, should every player that doesn't play get suspended for 2 games as a result? Granted most of them would not make an all-star team. But Rooney for instance, would and he will not be fit for the game. Carrick would have a decent shout, as would Hargreaves, in most seasons but it looks like neither will play this weekend (Hargreaves might), should they recieve suspensions regardless of reasons?

Harpy · 06-08-2008 2:27pm

terrible idea.
a player gets punished for not wanting to play in the match by being suspended..
and you want to put your best players into a match which will mean nothing a week before the season starts where they will probably get the shins kicked off them..
not a good idea at all

ITT-Pat · 06-08-2008 2:38pm

ah you just want this cos spurs are never in the shield

dont worry though, berbatov will play in it next year;)

ditpoker · 06-08-2008 2:41pm

Tauren wrote: »

i like the idea in gneral and have thought about it before, but the injury suspension thing is a bad idea imo.

United are struggling for players for the game this weekend, should every player that doesn't play get suspended for 2 games as a result? Granted most of them would not make an all-star team. But Rooney for instance, would and he will not be fit for the game. Carrick would have a decent shout, as would Hargreaves, in most seasons but it looks like neither will play this weekend (Hargreaves might), should they recieve suspensions regardless of reasons?

thats kind of my point though. if rooney/carrick are too injured to play this weekend, then being told u cant play next weekend wont be THAT bad. i'd be SHOCKED if rooney and carrick are both not fit by first competitive game. put it this way, if ferguson was told "if u want carrick and rooney available for game day 1, they must be available for the all star game if selected". that would stop the game becoming the joke that the community shield is currently, as ferguson is just gonna say rooney is injured and then the week after he'll be fine for game day 1.

and so what if he gets his shins kicked off him in a north south game, it is MEANT to be competitive, not a meaningless friendly, thats why no one cares about the community shield, cos it is a meaningless friendly.

bohsman · 06-08-2008 2:47pm

So they play with casts on and literally dont move for 90 minutes - no suspensions, sky will be delighted.

Raytown Rocks · 06-08-2008 2:50pm

ditpoker wrote: »

The community shield is crap, we watch it as there is nothing else on. What i'd like to see is a North vs South All Star game like basketball, baseball in the states.

The obvious problem would be all star players mysterioulsy being injured the week before and it not being taken seriously, but no one takes the community shield seriously either. If you could make some rule whereby if a player pulls out of the north team, ie ronaldo for united, then he is given a presumptive injury suspension and cannot play the first game or two of the real season which should be ok if he is "injured". That way people will play, and if you dont you get punished. and fans will get on board with a north/south game im sure...

will never happen, but much more fun!

What if a guy actually is injured and needs that 1 extra weeks re-couperation before the season starts. Surely he doesnt deserve to have an injury suspension againt his name.

ditpoker · 06-08-2008 2:52pm

bohsman wrote: »

So they play with casts on and literally dont move for 90 minutes - no suspensions, sky will be delighted.

there's competitve matches week in week out that result in ZERO casts

ditpoker · 06-08-2008 2:54pm

chef wrote: »

What if a guy actually is injured and needs that 1 extra weeks re-couperation before the season starts. Surely he doesnt deserve to have an injury suspension againt his name.

very rarely will an ACTUAL injury only need a week. and if someone has been out for 3 months and that extra week will help him, well now he has an extra week on top of that... and if he was injured before hand, he wouldnt be selected for the all star team

bohsman · 06-08-2008 2:56pm

I dont get you, Im saying Fergie tells the players they have to play in thiis farce of a game so they bring deckchairs and sit on the pitch.

Theres something fundemantally wrong with an idea when you have to think of a punishment for people not taking part before you finalise the actual plan.

pickarooney · 06-08-2008 3:08pm

Where do you draw the North-South line?

citytillidie · 06-08-2008 3:23pm

The community shield is a charity match should be left the way it is Premier League winners V FA cup winners

yahoo_moe · 06-08-2008 3:23pm

Some kind of All-Star game, maybe.

'Presumptive suspensions' to make a non-club match competitive? A million problems too many for me.

Fratton Fred · 06-08-2008 3:28pm

I think there are something like 4000 tickets still available if anyone wants to go.

~Rebel~ · 06-08-2008 3:32pm

ditpoker wrote: »

very rarely will an ACTUAL injury only need a week. and if someone has been out for 3 months and that extra week will help him, well now he has an extra week on top of that... and if he was injured before hand, he wouldnt be selected for the all star team

actually i would say very very Often players will just miss one week due to a groin or thigh strain. Very regular that someone plays a match, pulls or strains something, and misses the next game, but is fine for the following one.

Gerrard right now for instance, got a strain yesterday, reported as a 1week recovery time, and that its very hit and miss whether he'll make the first leg against standard liege but will be fine for the following games.

Whatever way its done, its still only a tiny step above 'pre season friendly' category and this isn't going to change so long as its played just before the start of the season.

KrazeeEyezKilla · 06-08-2008 3:33pm

It wouldnt make any sense. The NFL and NBA have all-star games because they have two different Conferences, East/West or NFC/AFC. Maybe a Premier League v Serie A or La Liga would be better?

Guy:Incognito · 06-08-2008 4:47pm

pickarooney wrote: »

Where do you draw the North-South line?

Birmingham would be a decent geographical divide. Would mean London, Birmingham, Portsmouth etc Vs Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield , the Tyne & Weir clubs etc

Bounty Hunter · 06-08-2008 4:56pm

does money from the community shield go to the community? or is that why its no longer the charity i.e they pocket the cash

Bubs101 · 06-08-2008 5:24pm

What I'd like to see is the League winners against a Premiership XI chosen by football writers and managed by the England coach. There'd be a massive incentive for Man Utd or whichever team wins because it would be seen as saying that their team are better than all of the others put together. For the players on the Premiership XI they'd have a chance to put the favourites for the league down a peg, a chance to play under a new coach, it would give some of the players from useless teams to play in Wembley and the fans would almost certainly like it.

BTW, given the amount of teams in London a north south divide would be impractible

Vokes · 06-08-2008 5:32pm

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I think there are something like 4000 tickets still available if anyone wants to go.

On general sale anywhere?

~Rebel~ · 06-08-2008 6:13pm

tbh it seems like looking for change for changes sake.

If it wasn't the way it is now, everyone would be saying "how about league winner versus cup winner, the two biggest domestic competitions champions facing off!", because it makes the most sense.

A match at that time of the year will never be important enough to get 100% effort and committment from both teams as its simply not worth it with the competitive stakes so high these days.

The only way i could see this match being more then it is at the moment, is if it were shifted to being further into the season and more publicised as something that matters. But noone would agree to that as the last thing any big club needs is another match crammed into the season. What might also work is moving it to a week after the FA cup final, or slightly later if 1 of the teams is involved in the CL final, so that passions will still be high and its not just dealing in 'last season' as it is now.

DSB · 06-08-2008 6:17pm

I think this is a terrible idea. One reason being the fact that a high proportion of the fans of the Premiership clubs don't come from the local therefore area and therefore wouldn't care about north vs south.