Tackles, balls and Seaman - The footie thread

[Izzy]

but I was under the impression he was under investigation for betting on matches last season (in a separate investigation from the four clubs who face relegation)?

Thats true - he's so stupid he even paid the money into his regular bank account!

[Izzy]

When the Italian clubs are all relegated and their players have to be sold to balance the books it will like the biggest sale in football history - can u imagine the feeding frenzy that would begin?

Chelsea, Real Madrid, Inter and Barcelona will end up with a squad of about 200 players each!

If they are relegated that will be the end of Italian football - teams like Lecce aint excactly going to be gunning for Champions league glory and u can only imagine the effect relegation would have on those teams youth acadamys

With attendences down by 1 mill last season Italian football needs to punish individuals not teams - why should the fans and the players be punished for the crimes of a handful of muppets. Send the crooks to jail and leave the clubs be

[Danny Top Hat]

Dude...refs were BRIBED!? Juventus BRIBED referees and WON THE LEAGUE!! ? If that doesn't warrant relegation I dunno what would.


And to answer your question: I want Buffon, Yaya and Saviola (to take the pressure off Henry, who will be exhausted next season if he's playing every game like he did last season).? I don't really want Beckham to sign because, as the Judge said, he just wouldn't suit Arsenal's style of play.? Plus, we already have a free kick expert.

[Jamie]

Congrats to Italy on winning the World Cup

[Miz]

Dude...refs were BRIBED!? Juventus BRIBED referees and WON THE LEAGUE!! ? If that doesn't warrant relegation I dunno what would.

It's pretty sad really when you consider that, out of the 22 players who started the World Cup Final tonight, 6 are current Juventus players. Over the course of the game, two more came on, and possibly two of the greatest players in the world (Zidane and Henry) are former Juve players. Now I don't know how far back the matchfixing supposedly goes (i.e. whether it was going on when Zidane was there....i guess Henry was before it started) but you have to admit football is in a sad state when with the caliber of players Juve has, they still need to cheat to win the league.

Eight current Juve players played tonight, with people like Ibrahimavic, Nedved, Emerson et al filling in the rest of the team sheet how can they need to cheat? I really like Juve but this makes me sad...


On the topic of Buffon, if you're not Real (cassillas), Liverpool (reina) or Chelsea (cech) then you should be after him. He is by far the best keeper in the world, only an idiot wouldn't want him in their team.

[2NaFish]

i wouldnt take him at Hearts and i mean that.

and juve didnt NEED to cheat to win the league, they did cheat and won the leage. there's a difference.

[Izzy]

Punishing the clubs is pointless - punish those directly involved - none of the players were, none of the fans were - so why punish them, how does relegating Juventus punish Moggi?

Leave the clubs alone and fine/jail those running them

How would benefit from these relegations? No one, it will destroy seria a - advertising revenue will dry up, the best players will leave and the youth academys will be decimated - they will never recover

I suppose if ur an Inter or Roma fan u must be happy - with no competition left they can share the league between them for the next 10,000 years

They are purusing this to improve the Italian game - quite how destroying their best teams would do that i dont know

I have never really enjoyed the opening rounds of the champions league (Sparta Prage - who cares?) To remove the Italian teams would turn the entire thing into a yawn fest - Chelsea and Barcelona would share the trophy for the next decade

[2NaFish]

destroyed forever? not in the slightest. in a few years everything will be back to normal.

Anyway, it'll be a good test of who the real fans are. AND not to relegate teams that have manipulated fixtures would be hypocritical as marseilles were relegated for the same thing, and and it didnt take long for marseille (nowhere near as big a team as juve, etc) to get back in to the top league.

Serias B and C are pub leagues, its not like in britain where clubs would struggle somewhat if they had to start from the bottom, any club thats relegated will be right back up each season.

[Izzy]

destroyed forever? not in the slightest. in a few years everything will be back to normal.

Anyway, it'll be a good test of who the real fans are. AND not to relegate teams that have manipulated fixtures would be hypocritical as marseilles were relegated for the same thing, and and it didnt take long for marseille (nowhere near as big a team as juve, etc) to get back in to the top league.

Serias B and C are pub leagues, its not like in britain where clubs would struggle somewhat if they had to start from the bottom, any club thats relegated will be right back up each season.

Juve have a wage bill of ?88 million a year - they would have to sell their sqaud to survive - they wouldnt be able to rebuild

I assume AC Milan and Berlesconi's billions could survive just about anything - they could be be back in seria a with the same squad in 2 seasons top, even with a points deduction

Lazio and Fiorentina have struggled for a while now, they wont be able to recover

This just wont help anyone

[Judge Dredd]

^ Haven't Serie B and C got a salary cap?

[Izzy]

^ Haven't Serie B and C got a salary cap?

I think a salary cap is illegal under EU employment law....breaches free market principles apparently

[Judge Dredd]

^ Haven't Serie B and C got a salary cap?

I think a salary cap is illegal under EU employment law....breaches free market principles apparently

Hmm, they've got one in the rugby league Super League in the UK.

When this story first broke, I'm sure someone mentioned this as it was going to be a major factor if any of the clubs got demoted. Unless the players accepted drastic pay cuts, they'd have to be sold. Maybe I misheard.

[2NaFish]

come on, do you think people will just sit and watch this happen.

Each one of the clubs that gets fucked will have enough rich fans to keep the clubs afloat. Added to that the simple fact that players will come to the clubs simply cos they are that big.

When my club hearts were in danger of going under we manged to get together nearly 2 million in less than 3 months. Imagine what juve, etc will be able to get. Once they've sold off their big players they'll be fine.

[Izzy]

When my club hearts were in danger of going under we manged to get together nearly 2 million in less than 3 months. Imagine what juve, etc will be able to get. Once they've sold off their big players they'll be fine.

But if they sell - they wont be the same club anymore

the name wont do them much good for very long - its the players they currently have that brings in the money, not what thet once had

[GNR_Green]

Fiorentina were dumped into Serie C (or B?) and came back pretty quickly.

Izzy, imagine if Man Utd did it I bet you'd love to see them get hammered by the authorities - it's the same thing for rivals of Juve etc. ?Cheating like that should be punishable by moving clubs out of the league, it should be treated as a sport and not as business.

[MadmanDan]

http://www.football365.com/news/premiership_news/story_188316.shtml



Well this put a big smile on my face ! The only guy that makes Crough look world class 

[2NaFish]

emile heskey. nah. doesnt ring a bell.


And izzy, put it in english terms. Man Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool go down. How many millionaire fans do you think would stump up a sizeable chunk of money for 2 or three years to bridge the gap. Remember the teams dont have to be completely ripped apart; just take away the huge earners (and they get money for selling those players) And its not like they'll make a gigantic loss on the players real value as there will be a frenzy. So put man utd's, etc youth team plus half a dozen good prem players into seria C or B, which is effectivly the vauxhall conference. They'd walk it.

And so will Juve et al.

[Miz]

^ Haven't Serie B and C got a salary cap?

I think a salary cap is illegal under EU employment law....breaches free market principles apparently

Hmm, they've got one in the rugby league Super League in the UK.

When this story first broke, I'm sure someone mentioned this as it was going to be a major factor if any of the clubs got demoted. Unless the players accepted drastic pay cuts, they'd have to be sold. Maybe I misheard.

They'd need to take the pay cuts because the team would lose their ?40m from TV revenue and the ?15 from champions league revenue. I find it unlikely that anyone would want to sponser them either on the shirts or around the pitch when you get about 7 people watching Serie C games since all the players are part time.

[2NaFish]

they'll still be able to afford a good enough standard to get them through the lower divisions as seria b and c a of a pretty low standard. And big clubs that have had similar thing happen to them still draw a good crowd. Even man city got 25,000 in the old second (the third in really old money).

[Slashead]

Marco Materazzi (I love that guy!) and Alessandro Del Piero were onstage with The Rolling Stones yesterday night!