ahemps Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 Is football ever going to be genuinely competitive at league level again? Is there any point in playing out the Serie A, Bundesliga or Ligue 1, Juventus, Bayern, PSG are all champions in waiting if Monaco didn't win the league 2 years ago these teams would all be going for 8 in a row like Celtic. Even when Monaco did win the league and got to the semi finals of the champions league where they had a great side instead of going again the following year they had a firesale for the big clubs with their players and PSG come in and LOAN Mbappe (with a clause to buy him to get round the fair play rules) Celtic fans are wanting 10 in a row as winning 1 league title is not really that much of an achievement to them and even when someone breaks their dominance it will and only can be Rangers. They have won the last 35 league titles between them. The Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch leagues are only really a 2 horse race every season (Atletico, Feyenoord and Sporting can't really genuinely compete regularly). Even in the Azerbaijan league BATE Borisov are going for 13 in a row as they occasionally get Champions league money and therefore can totally outspend everyone else which keeps them winning their domestic league and having a chance at qualifying again for the group stage which continues the cycle. In almost every other sport things are in place to create competition. F1 change the engine, tyre, pit stop rules to try and stop dominance. The American leagues all have some type of wage structure. Horse racing make the horses carry weighted saddles to make them all the same. Boxing has weight categories etc etc. I know there are exceptions, the EPL is fairly competitive even though it has a 'top 6' but even then Leicester have won the league more recently than Arsenal, Liverpool and Man Utd . Can anything be done to create a level playing field or should we just accept that most domestic football leagues are not going to be competitive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northboy Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 You've raised a very good point. The Old Firm (or more recently, Celtic) dominance of our top division is probably the most blatant example in Europe but it is clear that most other leagues are dominated by a small number of teams. My feeling is that we are moving in the direction of a European league before too long although I'm not sure who might be in this. Ironically we may just be looking at one of the most competitive seasons in Scotland for some time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan Vojáček Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 55 minutes ago, ahemps said: Even in the Azerbaijan league BATE Borisov are going for 13 in a row as they occasionally get Champions league money and therefore can totally outspend everyone else which keeps them winning their domestic league and having a chance at qualifying again for the group stage which continues the cycle. I'd be surprised if that was the case, given they're Belarusian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahemps Posted September 4, 2018 Author Share Posted September 4, 2018 Ha ha thanks for the correction. I knew some of my statements weren't 100% correct was just putting out a general statement about lack of competition at various league levels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiegoDiego Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 It is indeed a problem all over Europe. It's essentially because humans are by and large glory-hunting scum.In Turkey it's terrible, I went to Ümraniyespor last week and there were numerous folk wearing a Beşiktaş/Fenerbahçe/Galatasaray top and an Ümraniyespor scarf. The media bias is even worse than in Scotland, Kasımpaşa are clear at top of the league, similar to Hearts, but you have to scour the newspapers to find anything about them.Similarly to Scotland, when you do meet a genuine fan of Ankaragücü/Karabük/Boluspor without a "big team" you can assume they're a pretty decent individual.Humans are c***s. So are UEFA but they're only responding to incentives provided by cunty humans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
effeffsee_the2nd Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 In every country there are big teams that dominate , that is nothing new . For us in Scotland the old firm are not just big but are "misfits" i.e. they are disproportionately big clubs for the league they play in , their support is drawn from across the whole country & beyond rather than being primarily from Glasgow . You can't change peoples behaviour with team loyalty unfortunately. I'd imagine that at some point in the next few years UEFA will give the go ahead for cross border leagues as pressure from nations outwith the big 4 will increase as they find themselves less and less competitive with each year that goes by. People have mentioned them playing in England for years but I can't see that happening as they already have a very popular product and don't need to piss off the very big clubs in the championship to slot in our ugly sisters. So with that in mind , where do they try to bugger off to? I'm assuming they go together as part of a potential package and that rangers will eventually get themselves , if not equal to celtic at least a comfortable second and well clear of every other club . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northboy Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 14 minutes ago, effeffsee_the2nd said: I'd imagine that at some point in the next few years UEFA will give the go ahead for cross border leagues as pressure from nations outwith the big 4 will increase as they find themselves less and less competitive with each year that goes by. People have mentioned them playing in England for years but I can't see that happening as they already have a very popular product and don't need to piss off the very big clubs in the championship to slot in our ugly sisters. So with that in mind , where do they try to bugger off to? I'm assuming they go together as part of a potential package and that rangers will eventually get themselves , if not equal to celtic at least a comfortable second and well clear of every other club . Like you I can see a cross border European league in the no so distant future. There will be 2 drivers for this . Firstly, the current big teams will look to develop a set up where they are playing each other with the associated financial benefits. Secondly, the "big fish in small ponds" will look for a piece of the action leading to a multi-division structure. Apart from the Old Firm there are numerous teams around Europe who would fall into this category (eg Ajax, Galatsaray). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacksgranda Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 3 hours ago, ahemps said: Even in the Azerbaijan league BATE Borisov are going for 13 in a row as they occasionally get Champions league money and therefore can totally outspend everyone else which keeps them winning their domestic league and having a chance at qualifying again for the group stage which continues the cycle. 2 hours ago, Ross Forbes said: I'd be surprised if that was the case, given they're Belarusian Azerbajain, Belarussia, they're both faraway countries of which we know little... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry Ferguson's Hat Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 Hearts will win the treble this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highlandcowden Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 PSG won't be going for 8 in a row,the year after getting all that Emirates money they were beaten to the title by Montpellier. I can see your point&feel your frustration at the way footy is at the moment but the facts need to be correct.football is getting more and more polarised between the haves and have nots but the reality is that this has historically been the case once certain teams established themselves&became "big fish" in their particular pond;for example,in Portugal only 2 teams have EVER won a championship out with the big 3& those were solitary occasions. In Italy juve have swept all before them of late but that's as much to do with massive bottle crashing by Roma&napoli as it is to do with their overbearing domination In Germany Bayern are most certainly king pins but are regularly enough challenged by the likes of Dortmund or Stuttgart. England's had,I think,. 6 different winners since the EPL came into being,also about 50% of the current top 4 divisions have been at the top table Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahemps Posted September 4, 2018 Author Share Posted September 4, 2018 6 hours ago, Jacksgranda said: Azerbajain, Belarussia, they're both faraway countries of which we know little... Have you seen the UEFA league coefficients? Scotland is sandwiched between these two nations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thekorean Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 They could institute tax for bigger clubs and distribute it to clubs with lower revenues coming in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightmare Posted September 4, 2018 Share Posted September 4, 2018 13 hours ago, ahemps said: Can anything be done to create a level playing field or should we just accept that most domestic football leagues are not going to be competitive? Some sort of salary cap idea like you get in the States would probably help after a few years, but it's totally unworkable in modern football. It's possible that UEFA could launch some sort of tiered "Super League" system where all the Champions League regulars break away to form their own league, which could bring back some competitiveness to the top level domestic leagues. Of course, the issue doesn't just impact on the top level of leagues: just about every league in Europe is won before it begins, or at the very least is a race between two or three teams to win it; from Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain down to Flora and Levadia in Estonia. So even if UEFA come in with this kind of system, there will still be smaller leagues all over Europe (probably including our own) which are dominated by the same teams. There are a couple of leagues in Europe where you see a variety of winners. Romania has had 7 different champions in the 12 seasons since it re-branded as "Liga 1" (although even then, Cluj have won 4, Steaua 3, and the other five teams once each, so it's still a couple of teams winning regularly). Sweden has had 10 in the 17 years since the turn of the century, which is impressive disparity. There seems to be f**k all else out there, with mostly everywhere else a closed shop. It's pretty shite, but can't really see much changing any time soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottmcleanscontacts Posted September 5, 2018 Share Posted September 5, 2018 It's especially difficult in this country for any side outside Celtic and Rangers to even come close to winning the league. That will not change any time soon.The solution? Who knows?If you look at the sides who have finished 2nd/3rd (Rangers in Premiership dependant) then in theory it would point to a plethora of different league winners if the OF were elsewhere. I think in this decade alone we'd have saw Motherwell, Saints, Aberdeen and possibly ICT and United (??) crowned champions. Scottish football is amazingly competitive, away from the OF, and it's a product that would only benefit from them both doing one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LinkinFighter Posted September 5, 2018 Share Posted September 5, 2018 I honestly couldn't care less who wins any league. I'll watch my team live and watch the rest on TV for entertainment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Priti priti priti Patel Posted September 5, 2018 Share Posted September 5, 2018 Market economics. It's bigger than football. Yes, league football can be competitive again, but not without pre-emption by mass social change external to the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsr Posted September 6, 2018 Share Posted September 6, 2018 Would a European Sooper League really be that attractive to the big-but-not-that-big clubs such as Ajax, Porto, Celtic etc? They would never even get close to winning it and if they weren't winning games almost every week they'd lose a significant portion of their support and thus income. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
accies1874 Posted September 6, 2018 Share Posted September 6, 2018 Celtic's ego would require they take part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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