losing interest in CL football

thebaz

I had a bit of a rant in another thread about losing interest in the Champions league , and this is re-inforced today with the possible and probable transfer of Falcao to Monaco for 60 million - sorry , I've now lost all interest in a league , where money seams to be no object to a select few - city/chelsea/psg/ real madrid and now monaco - I still love playing football , but today can relate and enjoy so much more local LoI ,or the Championship across the pond , rather then the pampered super rich elite of the Champions League. I was a fan for years , but hardly watched any this year , left me numb for the game I love.

Richard Hillman

This years and last years were the best CL's in years IMO

I welcome the investments City, Chelsea, PSG and now Monaco are making into football. City and Chelsea are making the EPL competitive and making the CL more competitive. PSG and Monaco are bringing top players to France and will make the CL more competitive over the next few years.

Motivator

This seasons Champions League was the best for a long time. The 2 best teams got to the final & it goes to show that money doesn't equal success in Europe. What I do think needs to change is the Europa League format. How is it fair that the likes of Chelsea & Benfica fail miserabley in the Champions League yet they are able to contest the Europa League final? Teams such as Newcastle started their Europa League campaign in August & after playing 10+ games in the competition were beaten by a team who shouldn't have even been allowed in the competition in the first place.

Morzadec

Dortmund got to the final this year. They showed you can still achieve things without money.

CL is very interesting imo. A couple of years ago it was less interesting, where it seemed Barca were big favourites every year.

Now you have Barca, Madrid, Bayern - I expect the English teams to improve next year and to have a shout. Juve might have an outside shot.

Chelsea and Liverpool have shown that you don't even have to have a great squad to win it.

CL is still hugely entertaining.

Next year should be really interesting and competitive.

Boskowski

The good thing about football is that while money certainly helps a lot it cannot actually buy you a trophy.
Look at Dortmunds net spend over the last 4 years and compare it to City's. And yet City didn't know what hit them when Dortmund came to Manchester and in the end they went out on a whimper while Dortmund reached the final.

Of course in a league over 34 or 38 matches its a different story compared to the CL format but at least the Bundesliga brings out a surprise champion every few years.

Lets also hope that the financial fair play rules work as intended, too. I understand its not designed to prevent big spending but big spending when there is no substance behind it and its all just sugar daddy.

Let's wait and see.
I think the last few years of CL have been good. We saw Barcelona running away with it with their new style and now others have caught up. I don't think the Europa League is a full blown success but the CL is great.

Oat23

Morzadec wrote: »

Dortmund got to the final this year. They showed you can still achieve things without money.

What both teams showed everyone is that you can still achieve everything possible in club football while remaining financially self-sufficient.

Boskowski

Oat23 wrote: »

What both teams showed everyone is that you can still achieve everything possible in club football while remaining financially self-sufficient.

Exactly. Its not like Dortmund have no money and spend no money. You do not assemble a CL finalist side with no money. Its just that they don't spend money carelessly (Torres, Carroll, 250k wages, etc). Same for Bayern.

rightyabe

I'm in Australia 2 years and I got foxtel in my house to watch the premiership..I'm not getting it next year cause the PL in my opinion is just a money grabbing league. I knew when I left I would miss the championship and L1 L2 more so. So I've decided to just get setanta sports next year that shows the championship.

jmayo

Boskowski wrote: »

Exactly. Its not like Dortmund have no money and spend no money. You do not assemble a CL finalist side with no money. Its just that they don't spend money carelessly (Torres, Carroll, 250k wages, etc). Same for Bayern.

It is not so long ago that Dortmund were in very serious financial trouble, through bad management.
They were on the brink of bankruptcy in 2005 and had sold their ground.

I think their success if anything shows what shrew management both on and off the pitch can achieve.
If some of the English clubs, that have had massive budgets dwarfing that of Dortmund, were managed as well they would be dominating both home and Europe.

Maybe Dortmund is yet another example of Germans cutting their cloth to suit their measure.

Bayern have lots of money, but they do seem to be wise spenders.

The one thing that the champions league seems to throw up every so often is the way some teams appear to be destined to win, I could say almost favoured.
For instance you could call me cyncial but it appeared that this final was destined to go to Bayern as they had lost a couple over the last few years.
And lo and behold they had the good fortune that ensured their centre half, even though found to have given away a penalty by kicking an opponent in the guts, was not given a deserved yellow card which would have seen him sent off.

You can find equally dubious decisions going to other sides down the years.
It is things like and seeing the well known UEFA heads in the stands that makes me question the CL.

SlickRic

the fact that it is still a cup competition means that the money is actually less influential than in a league setting.

the leagues around Europe were shít this year in terms of excitement.

the Champions League was epic.

if what was on offer in the Champions League did not appeal to you, then I don't know what to say.

it's still the best competition about.

thebaz

SlickRic wrote: »

it's still the best competition about.

technically it is the best competition , no doubt , but due to the overinflated salaries of the stars , and players , the circus atmosphere , I just can't relate , certainly not the game I grew to love , which I guess had a more local feal , rather than todays global superstardom

Lennonist

Where are Monaco getting their money have they got middle eastern oil tycoon backing as well?

GavRedKing

Lennonist wrote: »

Where are Monaco getting their money have they got middle eastern oil tycoon backing as well?

Russian dude worth about 9 billion is the majority shareholder.

Richard Hillman

One thing about Monaco that can't be said is that they don't represent the local community

GavRedKing

Some of the guys moving to Monaco may want to take out a small loan, property isnt exactly cheap even by millionaire footballer standards, prices for property in Monaco is insane.

Just an example.

http://www.jamesedition.com/real_estate/monaco?text=Monaco&order=pd

dsmythy

GavRedKing wrote: »

Some of the guys moving to Monaco may want to take out a small loan, property isnt exactly cheap even by millionaire footballer standards, prices for property in Monaco is insane.

Just an example.

http://www.jamesedition.com/real_estate/monaco?text=Monaco&order=pd

They could always get fancy cars and drive from commuting communities.

Neil3030

dsmythy wrote: »

They could always get fancy cars and drive from commuting communities.

Plenty of far more desirable places to live along the Cote d'Azur, imo. Monte Carlo is actually a bit of a kip.

DerekDGoldfish

Neil3030 wrote: »

Plenty of far more desirable places to live along the Cote d'Azur, imo. Monte Carlo is actually a bit of a kip.

They might not get thier 0% tax if they reside outside of monaco. While I'm not an expert on the French system if you are ordinaraly resident (which you would be after a few years) in Ireland you are liable to tax on your worldwide income.

losthorizon

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I welcome the investments City, Chelsea, PSG and now Monaco are making into football.

They are not investing more on football. They are spending more on buying players. Two totally different things.

As for Monaco most French clubs hate them as the tax rules for them are totally different and most of their players pay little tax if any at all. Hardly something to be praised.

The group stages weren't too exciting overall but the knockouts were fantastic.

Richard Hillman

losthorizon wrote: »

They are not investing more on football. They are spending more on buying players. Two totally different things.

As for Monaco most French clubs hate them as the tax rules for them are totally different and most of their players pay little tax if any at all. Hardly something to be praised.

Prince Albert is fine with his residents not paying tax so I don't know what there is to complain about.

GLaDOS

rarnes1 wrote: »

The group stages weren't too exciting overall but the knockouts were fantastic.

Quite often the case I find, though the KO rounds were particularly entertaining I thought this year.

McGrath5

A lot of my mates didn't have much of a interest in the CL once all the english teams had been knocked out.

I thought it was fantastic overall, seeing Dortmund reach the final is a great football story.

LuckyLloyd

thebaz wrote: »

technically it is the best competition , no doubt , but due to the overinflated salaries of the stars , and players , the circus atmosphere , I just can't relate , certainly not the game I grew to love , which I guess had a more local feal , rather than todays global superstardom

The European Cup / Champions League hasn't been a homespun competition with a local feel for a very long time now tbh. This thread is a bit of a head scratcher for me - there is nothing sudden about the way football has evolved and Falcao to Monaco is hardly some sort of tipping point.

losthorizon

Richard Hillman wrote: »

Prince Albert is fine with his residents not paying tax so I don't know what there is to complain about.

Thats fine but they play in the French League and so gain huge benefits from having different rules to every other French club.

weldoninhio

losthorizon wrote: »

They are not investing more on football. They are spending more on buying players. Two totally different things.

As for Monaco most French clubs hate them as the tax rules for them are totally different and most of their players pay little tax if any at all. Hardly something to be praised.

Man City are investing heavily in football. They are building all sorts of community projects and schools for the communities in Manchester. They also want their academy to compete with La Masia.

MD1990

Monaco spending alot of money is good for football imo
good to possibly see two very strong French teams in a few years

NIMAN

I would sort of agree with the OP in that I find the CL from Sept to March pretty boring and predictable, it only comes alive in the knockouts.

Seaneh

Odds are the club owns a block of flats for the players to live in while they can still have "weekend" houses somewhere close by in France or Italy.

wandatowell

I used to watch as many Champions League games as I could but nowadays I just support my own team and once they are knocked out of tournaments my interest fades.


Being an Arsenal fan this is usually around February*





*Unless Sp*rs get a bit cheeky and start talking about Champions League football

Mr Alan

SlickRic wrote: »

the fact that it is still a cup competition means that the money is actually less influential than in a league setting.

the leagues around Europe were shít this year in terms of excitement.

the Champions League was epic.

if what was on offer in the Champions League did not appeal to you, then I don't know what to say.

it's still the best competition about.

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

The European Cup / Champions League hasn't been a homespun competition with a local feel for a very long time now tbh. This thread is a bit of a head scratcher for me - there is nothing sudden about the way football has evolved and Falcao to Monaco is hardly some sort of tipping point.

I suspect the OP is a Utd fan. And he is essentially in a mood that Utd failed against Europes best sides.

Giggsy11

Mr Alan wrote: »

I suspect the OP is a Utd fan. And he is essentially in a mood that Utd failed against Europes best sides.

Or maybe a Liverpool fan who doesn't give **** about the cup as they are not in it anymore.

I think he is a Everton fan.