Grand Prix Rejects

the Masked Lapwing wrote:Australia leads Japan. Overly optimistic commentators (that make our F1 guys look positively unbiased) are basically saying the Socceroos have done an excellent job to win (despite the fact they were shite). What happens next?

Japan equalizes from a penalty right on 90 minutes

If you ask me Australia should have joined CONMEBOL rather than the AFC. Sure the AFC is generally closer, but when you have to deal with matches against Iran and other countries on the other end of Asia, surely it would have been a better deal to face off against the South Americans on a regular basis, even if the tickets are more expensive?

I think Australia playing in CONMEBOL would have been a poor choice,

mostly due to logistic issues (travelling, expenses etc,) and would have little chance of qualifying.

Also, the Australian A-League is based with the winners being in the champions league. Its bad enough for teams to travel in Asia, let alone Sth America and the big time difference.

Regarding matches against Iraq, Iran, Oman etc. Its sort of in the middle between Europe and Australia so travelling is less of an issue for the players. Some players are based there anyway. Those clubs favour signing Australian players too as they do not require an overseas spot.

roblomas52 wrote:Is it me or is there something dodgy with the way Real Madrid are trying to sign bale?
Remember what happened with modric and ronaldo?

There is nothing dodgy about the way Real Madrid are trying to sign Bale because it is the way the Spanish do their business... Barcelona goes about the same way. Although I must say that wearing down the current club of the targeted player through constant media stories must be one of the most annoying football related tactics ever...

DanielPT wrote:

roblomas52 wrote:Is it me or is there something dodgy with the way Real Madrid are trying to sign bale?
Remember what happened with modric and ronaldo?

There is nothing dodgy about the way Real Madrid are trying to sign Bale because it is the way the Spanish do their business... Barcelona goes about the same way. Although I must say that wearing down the current club of the targeted player through constant media stories must be one of the most annoying football related tactics ever...

The Whole Spanish Press must really really hate Valencia then. Because every story I ever see about them is people trying to buy their players rather than vice versa!!

One of those stories which I hope are true? Adil Rami to Inter Milan. That would be a great transfer. For us, not for them, obviously.

Stramala wrote:The Whole Spanish Press must really really hate Valencia then. Because every story I ever see about them is people trying to buy their players rather than vice versa!!

One of those stories which I hope are true? Adil Rami to Inter Milan. That would be a great transfer. For us, not for them, obviously.

They don't hate Valencia. They just don't care about them and they obviously lack the power those other two have in said press. Besides, I never said that the Spanish press gave up on pursuing other stories. And then you still have to take into account the fact that Valencia is going through a financial crisis and had to sell many of their players for a few years now whence they can't really buy much. It is a favourite club to pick on by foreign teams.

Just found out that the prime minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat supports ac Milan. I think he supports better team in the city in teams of player quality

IMO Michael Mifsud should be PM!

David AGS wrote:IMO Michael Mifsud should be PM!

Anything is better than a Milanista...

David AGS wrote:IMO Michael Mifsud should be PM!

Well I'm not sure if Lawrence Gonzi has stepped down from nationalist party leader but if he has there could be an opportunity for Mifsud

I think Australia should be put back to OFC and OFC winner would be part of AFC from final round onwards.

AFC third round could contain 18 teams instead of 20 teams now. The teams would be drawn into three groups of six (best three advance) or six groups of three (winner advances, 2nd placed play head-to-head), so nine teams advances from that round. With an addition of OFC winner, this will go up to 10 teams, which would qualify as in current system.

I'm going to match between Finland and Belarus today.

Bleu wrote:I think Australia should be put back to OFC and OFC winner would be part of AFC from final round onwards.

AFC third round could contain 18 teams instead of 20 teams now. The teams would be drawn into three groups of six (best three advance) or six groups of three (winner advances, 2nd placed play head-to-head), so nine teams advances from that round. With an addition of OFC winner, this will go up to 10 teams, which would qualify as in current system.

I'm going to match between Finland and Belarus today.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have a West-Asian (Middle East + India) and an East-Asian (East-Asia and Oceania) league instead of an Asian and an Oceanian? Each of them then would have 3 teams that automatically qualify. The few top teams (Japan, South Korea, Australia) are East, but most subtop teams are Arabian countries, so this would be evenly split, in my opinion. And there's always a few surprises (like North Korea sometimes does)
I peronally hope Uzbekistan get qualified, it would only be the third former Soviet country to qualify for a WC (after Russia and Ukraine), it also looks like Kazakhstans decision to play in Europe instead might have been a mistake, if i remember well, they were usually close to the level of Uzbekistan, when they still played in Asia.


Meanwhile belgiumwinslol

Personally, Asia and Oceania should combine their leagues - the only two good teams from Oceania would be Australia and New Zealand (and even then its a bit of a stretch), and the rest havent even come close to getting into the World Cup anyways.

Yes, that would be appropriate for Australia and NZ to go in asia, but I dont think it would happen. Unless FIFA open up another direct spot or so.

However, it wouldnt be 'fair' for the other countries playing in Oceania. Its easy to forget that in 2004-2005, the Kiwi's were so poor, that Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands were ahead of them, and Tahiti won the last Oceania Cup!

Which brings me to a trivia question. Which World Cup winner was a former Oceania Footballer of the year? Should be easy to some.

I was fortunate to attend Australia's 4-0 win over Jordan in Docklands, Melbourne. Ive been to many sporting events, but thats high up there in terms of atmosphere, expecially when Bresciano scored the first.

'The Local Boy Comes Good, again!'

Oceania should get an automatic spot, if Australia returned in my opinion.

On a slightly different note, I was playing 2010 FIFA World Cup on PS3 as the USA (trying to qualify and win with a team from each condederation), and Vanuatu qualified for the World Cup.

andrew2209 wrote:Oceania should get an automatic spot, if Australia returned in my opinion.

On a slightly different note, I was playing 2010 FIFA World Cup on PS3 as the USA (trying to qualify and win with a team from each condederation), and Vanuatu qualified for the World Cup.

Who the heck did they beat from South America??? Bolivia??

JeremyMcClean wrote:

andrew2209 wrote:Oceania should get an automatic spot, if Australia returned in my opinion.

On a slightly different note, I was playing 2010 FIFA World Cup on PS3 as the USA (trying to qualify and win with a team from each condederation), and Vanuatu qualified for the World Cup.

Who the heck did they beat from South America??? Bolivia??

They were in a inter-continental playoff with Oman, and they won 2-0 at home and drew 1-1 in Oman.

Whoops, it's North and South America facing each other off and Oceania and Asia facing each other off... with Europe and Africa left without intercontinental playoffs. Got that mixed up.

I could see a team like Oman losing to Vanuatu...

My upteenth "second favorite team" Rayo Vallecano might get into the Europa League if Malaga are rejected (check), they win their own court case (pending) and then their three sided stadium gets approved (no chance).

TheBigJ wrote:My upteenth "second favorite team" Rayo Vallecano might get into the Europa League if Malaga are rejected (check), they win their own court case (pending) and then their three sided stadium gets approved (no chance).

http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_pi ... leda.shtml

three sided it aint

roblomas52 wrote:

TheBigJ wrote:My upteenth "second favorite team" Rayo Vallecano might get into the Europa League if Malaga are rejected (check), they win their own court case (pending) and then their three sided stadium gets approved (no chance).

http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_pi ... leda.shtml

three sided it aint

I think he was talking about Rayo's Stadium.

This wrote:

roblomas52 wrote:

TheBigJ wrote:My upteenth "second favorite team" Rayo Vallecano might get into the Europa League if Malaga are rejected (check), they win their own court case (pending) and then their three sided stadium gets approved (no chance).

http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_pi ... leda.shtml

three sided it aint

I think he was talking about Rayo's Stadium.

Oh shite

Talking about stadiums, Zulte Waregem has finally found a stadium to play their CL-qualifying games, they'll play at the stadium of Anderlecht (who will defenitely get some money from it)
So why not Gent? They don't want a different team opening their new stadium. Why not Brugge? They already have two professional clubs playing in it. Why not Antwerpen? Well, that is politically difficult.
Why not their own stadium? Well, the city doesn't look like willing to spend money on the stadium. Well let's see what they can manage.
Also on stadiums: KV Mechelen clearly looks to have planned the ugliest stadium ever (just check their plans), it's from the same architects that designed the STVV stadium, so expect some weird disproportioned Belgianness. When it comes to stadium designs, Belgium is quite a mess. I must say that the lego stadiums a built as a kid, were quite realistic compared to the real stuff we got here.

You want some spicy Belgian news? Well, things are quiet at the moment (except for Standard fans intimidating Duchatelet, but that's hardly a surprise, any sanefootball fan would try to non-violently intimidate such a man) That's what you get when a ulta-liberal politician buys a team where fans are used to waving Che Guevara flags, that's never going to go right I'm not saying all Standard-fans are communists, but it's above average, and RD was the guy who started the political party Vivant (so called progressive liberals, but that was a failure). So yeah, i expect some action this season, and it's not going to be sporting action, that's for sure!
Also the 'new Beerschot' has got more than 2000 subscriptions, so that means the stadium of Wilrijk is too small, and they'll be going back to the Olympic stadium. 2000 people to see a team that is renamed after another historic club while playing in first provincial division, that doesn't sound right to me, but if they feel that it is the real thing, i guess it's their money...

Meanwhile Down Under,

Melbourne Victory (my team!) is chasing down Giorgos Karagounis, whos now 36!

Its a long shot of getting him down here, but hes not a washed up old man looking for a big paycheck, I still think hes got a lot to offer, still fit (still in Greek national squad, and had a good solid season for Fulham last year)

If it does happen, I think it would be a great move. Couple key points: He would suit our team well, sort of need a CM/DM, also our manager Postecoglu has a Greek backround, so there wont be any language issues too.

Also, would be a key marketing move. There are a lot of Greek/Australians expecially in Melbourne, so they would be tapping into that market even more.

This wrote:Talking about stadiums, Zulte Waregem has finally found a stadium to play their CL-qualifying games, they'll play at the stadium of Anderlecht (who will defenitely get some money from it)
So why not Gent? They don't want a different team opening their new stadium. Why not Brugge? They already have two professional clubs playing in it. Why not Antwerpen? Well, that is politically difficult.
Why not their own stadium? Well, the city doesn't look like willing to spend money on the stadium. Well let's see what they can manage.

Gent's reason was really dumb, but I think Zulte will end up playing there if they get through their 1rst round tie.

You want some spicy Belgian news? Well, things are quiet at the moment (except for Standard fans intimidating Duchatelet, but that's hardly a surprise, any sanefootball fan would try to non-violently intimidate such a man) That's what you get when a ulta-liberal politician buys a team where fans are used to waving Che Guevara flags, that's never going to go right I'm not saying all Standard-fans are communists, but it's above average, and RD was the guy who started the political party Vivant (so called progressive liberals, but that was a failure). So yeah, i expect some action this season, and it's not going to be sporting action, that's for sure!

There was also some action this season, hae a look at what the Ultras did vs Cercle Brugge at the start of the season on Youtube. In fairness "VIVANT" wasn't Duchatelet's worst idea (he has a lot of awful ideas), and politically he is far less hated than Didier Reynders, the so-called "Standard" fan who moved to Brussels to forward his political career. It's just the fact that he is at Standard to make money out of the club. He's a crook.

roblomas52 wrote:

This wrote:

roblomas52 wrote:

http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_pi ... leda.shtml

three sided it aint

I think he was talking about Rayo's Stadium.

Oh shite

Beautiful!

Braga's stadium only has two sides and it still looks pretty neat

Shock value is high - a football stadium necessarily doesn't have 4, or even 3 or 2 or 1 sides....some here are just used to waay too good! :p

Meanwhile, keep going with the 'meanwhile in Belgium' episodes, they're extremely entertaining lol

Didn't they even play some EURO games there, back in 2004? Besides, stadia with just two grandstands are handy in seperating home from away fans

Ferrarist wrote:Didn't they even play some EURO games there, back in 2004? Besides, stadia with just two grandstands are handy in seperating home from away fans

Yes they did

Stramala wrote:Braga's stadium only has two sides and it still looks pretty neat

I would have gone there a couple of years back when we were in the Europa League if I had the money. Obviously being a student means you won't have the money to do that, so I had to resort to ESPN/ITV4/Channel 5

TheBigJ wrote:

This wrote:Talking about stadiums, Zulte Waregem has finally found a stadium to play their CL-qualifying games, they'll play at the stadium of Anderlecht (who will defenitely get some money from it)
So why not Gent? They don't want a different team opening their new stadium. Why not Brugge? They already have two professional clubs playing in it. Why not Antwerpen? Well, that is politically difficult.
Why not their own stadium? Well, the city doesn't look like willing to spend money on the stadium. Well let's see what they can manage.

Gent's reason was really dumb, but I think Zulte will end up playing there if they get through their 1rst round tie.

Gent are becoming a little arrogant now they have a new stadium and are debt-free. Still, they have 0 titles, oops.
If Zulte makes the CL group phase (small chance), then i think the Heizel stadium will be the most realistic one. If they get to the EL, they still have some time to get their own stadium going. They are now playing in Anderlecht for the qualifying phase (you can't change venues during the qualifying, you can only change a few times per season), but if they make it, it might be difficult to play there too, as Anderlecht are already forced to play all their JPL games on sunday for some reason.

giraurd wrote:Shock value is high - a football stadium necessarily doesn't have 4, or even 3 or 2 or 1 sides....some here are just used to waay too good! :p

Meanwhile, keep going with the 'meanwhile in Belgium' episodes, they're extremely entertaining lol

You got to check the stadium of KV Oostende then, they have stands in not 4 but 7 different building styles. And there's room for one more of them, too. Also an absurd one is that of AFC Tubize, where 4000 of the 8000 places are behind one goal, leading to the most disproportioned stadium in professional football (and no fans) But thankfully (sarcasm) AFC Tubize is also bought by Roland Duchatelet (yes, he will buy everything, one day he will probably buy and ruin some F1 team, or sorry, i better don't give him any ideas) And for our Standard fans, i'm not laughing about it, i'm an STVV-fan, so i know how he screws up things.
And other stadium news: well the stadium of Charleroi (used in Euro 2000) is now downgraded to 15000 seats, as parts of the stadium have been illegally built. Sure, they don't need a 25000 stadium (originally 30000, actually, as one part has been demolished earlier), and it was very disproportioned, but still it had its charms. Yet somehow, no plans of this downgrade seem to exist, it's still a mysterious team.

This wrote:You got to check the stadium of KV Oostende then, they have stands in not 4 but 7 different building styles. And there's room for one more of them, too.

Sorry, but Italy has a trump card in this department.

Welcome to the jigsaw puzzle that is Stadio Artemio Franchi - Montepaschi Arena. Home stadium for AC Siena, where you'll need binoculars to see the action.

East Londoner wrote:So, what do you make of this Stramala?

Sounds like Celtic all over again. John Barnes was the coach and Kenny Dalglish the 'director of football'. Barnes was undermined by Dalglish, did poorly, got sacked and replaced by Dalglish. Not going to end well. Its Ashley's way of trying to make Pardew quit without cancelling his contract.

Stramala wrote:

This wrote:You got to check the stadium of KV Oostende then, they have stands in not 4 but 7 different building styles. And there's room for one more of them, too.

Sorry, but Italy has a trump card in this department.

Welcome to the jigsaw puzzle that is Stadio Artemio Franchi - Montepaschi Arena. Home stadium for AC Siena, where you'll need binoculars to see the action.

I love that ground. We went to Tuscany on our honeymoon and spent most of our time in Siena. I walked round the whole ground, amazed it all. We were going to go to a match against Sampdoria but decided not to in the end (good job, it was a 0-0 draw) although the nature of the ground means that there are bits where you can see in from the outside so we got to see some of the match in any case!
It's a crying shame that the ground is apparently going to be pulled down. Mind you, AC Siena will probably follow the route of most teams relegated to Serie B and go bankrupt anyway....

On our honeymoon we also took in Pisa's Arena Garibaldi and Lucchese's lovely little ground.

Stramala wrote:

This wrote:You got to check the stadium of KV Oostende then, they have stands in not 4 but 7 different building styles. And there's room for one more of them, too.

Sorry, but Italy has a trump card in this department.

Welcome to the jigsaw puzzle that is Stadio Artemio Franchi - Montepaschi Arena. Home stadium for AC Siena, where you'll need binoculars to see the action.

In the scale of 'Belgian stadium chaos' this would be sub-top. It's indeed quite a puzzle, but there is still too much logic behind it. Also you don't have the almost obligatory prefab or permanent bar/restaurant on the side of the pitch, that nearly every belgian stadium has. + lot of other surrounding football-related small buildings that are chaotically built. And yes, building grandstands over the athletics infrastructure is a common thing here too (Zulte, Leuven, etc.), and don't forget the sponsor logos (usually Electrabel) placed over the seating places (meaning an obvious loss in capacity)
Oh and yes, we still have a lot of wooden seats, the infrastructure is equally old as the Italian (which is prehistoric). And then there are the permanently closed grandstands (like Mons), and there's also the 'fish bowl' type of stands for the rich people, placed strategically so the players face a big empty wall (Antwerp for example)

Stramala wrote:

This wrote:You got to check the stadium of KV Oostende then, they have stands in not 4 but 7 different building styles. And there's room for one more of them, too.

Sorry, but Italy has a trump card in this department.

Welcome to the jigsaw puzzle that is Stadio Artemio Franchi - Montepaschi Arena. Home stadium for AC Siena, where you'll need binoculars to see the action.

Reminds me of the old Brighton and Hove Albion ground but on a much larger scale

This wrote:

Stramala wrote:

This wrote:You got to check the stadium of KV Oostende then, they have stands in not 4 but 7 different building styles. And there's room for one more of them, too.

Sorry, but Italy has a trump card in this department.

Welcome to the jigsaw puzzle that is Stadio Artemio Franchi - Montepaschi Arena. Home stadium for AC Siena, where you'll need binoculars to see the action.

And then there are the permanently closed grandstands (like Mons)

How about permanently closed stadiums? Here we go with Italy again, and this time, the Stadio Is Arenas, "home" to Cagliari. When I say home, I mean a pre-fab stadium that failed every council safety inspection it had, despite being promised to be a permanent structure it was built very cheaply with materials designed for temporary stands, the team owner was sent to jail because of it, and the club ended up playing most of its "home" games either in front of an empty stadium, or at other stadiums like Stadio Ennio Tardini (in Parma), the Stadio Olimpico (Torino), and the Stadio Nereo Rocco (Trieste).

Stramala wrote:

This wrote:

Stramala wrote:Sorry, but Italy has a trump card in this department.

Welcome to the jigsaw puzzle that is Stadio Artemio Franchi - Montepaschi Arena. Home stadium for AC Siena, where you'll need binoculars to see the action.

And then there are the permanently closed grandstands (like Mons)

How about permanently closed stadiums? Here we go with Italy again, and this time, the Stadio Is Arenas, "home" to Cagliari. When I say home, I mean a pre-fab stadium that failed every council safety inspection it had, despite being promised to be a permanent structure it was built very cheaply with materials designed for temporary stands, the team owner was sent to jail because of it, and the club ended up playing most of its "home" games either in front of an empty stadium, or at other stadiums like Stadio Ennio Tardini (in Parma), the Stadio Olimpico (Torino), and the Stadio Nereo Rocco (Trieste).

Oh yeah, Cagliari, the stadium within another stadium. That's what i'm talking about!

Yeah, the Italian stadiums look very nostalgic, have to remember that id say a lot of stadiums were built for I guess Italia 90, and due to off field issues refurbs have been put aside.

But I like em. What you dont want to do is loose history. Also depends on finances I guess too, and state of your club. For example, some of the lower league clubs in England have some small but great stadiums, which just eough for those. I guess a team like Fulham have an old type stadium with light updates. I like how the tunnel is sort of where the corner flag is.

What sort of amazes me is having lived in Australia in the 90's, our Aussie rules grounds (MCG, SCG, Docklands etc) have acres of space, but are at the heart of the city/cbd with not many houses nearby. There were yes but are knocked down for high rise apartments etc.

Go to England, sports stadium could be literally your next door neighbour. Having been to the Emirates (my only English football stadium ive visited) was surprised to see the tube station a small distance away, and a nice environment park very close too.

Great Stuff!

David AGS wrote:Yeah, the Italian stadiums look very nostalgic, have to remember that id say a lot of stadiums were built for I guess Italia 90, and due to off field issues refurbs have been put aside.

Italian clubs have this somewhat unique situation where they don't even own their own stadium, like other major clubs in the world. Even the biggest teams rent their stadiums from the council. Yep, Stadio San Siro is owned by the city of Milan, Stadio Olimpico belongs to the government of Rome, etc. Teams are paying rent to play there. They don't have much control over stadium revenue, which is becoming a crippling problem in Italy.

Notice how Juventus have dominated Italian football for the past two seasons. What was the coincidence here? Their new stadium was just finished. Which the club themselves own outright. They don't have to pay huge rent fees, it was a one-off cost paid by investors, and now they will get all of that sweet sweet gate revenue to themselves. Even the big clubs can't do well without people coming through the turnstiles after all...

Also, more Italian ridiculoussness just announced today. The town of Sassuolo, literally a few miles up the road from Ferrari HQ in Maranello, should theoretically play host to newly promoted to Serie A club U.S. Sassuolo Calcio. Not so. Having spent the past few seasons at Stadio Alberto Braglia, which they shared with Modena F.C. (which make sense, given the stadium is in Modena...), they will now be renting the stadium of Reggiana, in Reggio Emilia, instead of bothering to finish the refurbishment of their own stadium Stadio Enzo Ricci. Now, you may be thinking, this is normal, sometimes teams have to do this for a single season when their new stadium is being completed. Sure...except Stadio Enzo Ricci has been "closed for refurbishment" for five years now. Except, as far as I'm aware, they never bothered to start improving it. They seem to have just given up playing the location of their team. They might as well rename themselves "Emilia-Romagna Globetrotters".