European Football Thread

[gunnar hendershow]

I think Low takes some time off and maybe misses World Cup 2022 but he'll be back at it with a nation in Asia, Africa, or the Americas that's trying to get over some metaphorical hump.

I have no idea who comes in to succeed him with the German national team. Does he at all have a right-hand man who makes the most sense? Or is there a U-20 manager they have that's well-regarded?

[Colly]

Is it just me who thinks the timing is a bit odd? Means whoever comes in gets less than a year to prepare for a World Cup which feels really harsh. Not Low's problem I guess, but I don't think I'd want to be the new boss.

[DavidMarrio]

He probably would have left after the Euros had they have been held last year. It does leave them in a weird situation so I imagine the next manager could end up being someone already within the existing set up taking charge for the World Cup and then it being a fresh start for an actual new manager or if the other person does a good enough job then they stay in the job. 

I do agree it would be hard for someone to come in and make any widespread or radical changes to a system with a tournament 

[Malenko]

Last summer I read an article claiming Low would be replaced by Hans-Dieter Flick after the euros. It's weird considering he had just signed a deal at Bayern a couple months before, but that article said Bayern were going to try a big name foreign manager. 

[gunnar hendershow]

Flick actually makes a lot of sense being his long tenure working with the German national side. Also he's more or less accomplished everything you can at Bayern, so he's deserving of another challenge. His contract with Bayern runs through 2023 but being that it'll have 2 years left when the German job opens up it's not outside the realm of possibility he departs and Bayern picks whatever manager it wants. Not like that's a hard job to fill.

[DavidMarrio]

It will be weird not seeing Löw during a major tournament and wondering where is he gonna scratch and sniff during a match 

[FLiam]

Sounds like all Belgian teams have voted in principle to merge their league with the Dutch league. Seems like a great idea to me.

[Lineker]

Foxy is doing a good BeneLiga FM save on Twitch. It's a decent idea.

[gunnar hendershow]

That's not a bad idea though like anything of this sort it means some of the smaller clubs in both nations will be left in the dust. Basically Anderlecht, Club Brugge, and Genk slide in to knock some of those Dutch clubs that fight for Europa League spots out of that conversation entirely. And it works down from there.

[Matt]

Maybe this opens the gate for merging the Scottish leagues with the North East Counties.

[Hobo]

16 hours ago, damshow said:

That's not a bad idea though like anything of this sort it means some of the smaller clubs in both nations will be left in the dust. Basically Anderlecht, Club Brugge, and Genk slide in to knock some of those Dutch clubs that fight for Europa League spots out of that conversation entirely. And it works down from there.

Yeah, my first thought was that it will benefit the big clubs most

[DavidMarrio]

The TV deals might lead to more revenue potentially for the perceived not big teams of either league but I think you're going to end up in a position really of the big teams from either league are just gonna compete with one another and then the rest of the teams scrapping with one another. 

It's got pros and cons really for both league's. It's an interesting idea but I don't know how it'd work on paper. Is it a case of you have to have so many Dutch and Belgium teams in the division each season, how does it effect qualifying for European competitions etc

[Hobo]

Makes me wonder if somewhere there will be calls for the Northern Irish League and the League of Ireland to merge.  In Ireland we already have All-Ireland competitions in GAA and Rugby.

[gunnar hendershow]

58 minutes ago, DavidMarrio said:

The TV deals might lead to more revenue potentially for the perceived not big teams of either league but I think you're going to end up in a position really of the big teams from either league are just gonna compete with one another and then the rest of the teams scrapping with one another. 

It's got pros and cons really for both league's. It's an interesting idea but I don't know how it'd work on paper. Is it a case of you have to have so many Dutch and Belgium teams in the division each season, how does it effect qualifying for European competitions etc

I don't think it'd be like a theoretical all British league or, how it is now, with Cardiff and Swansea lingering in the top 30 of all clubs playing in England. There'd be some decent mixing of clubs at the top, mainly because outside of Ajax (owing to their focus on young players) in terms of European competition the top Belgian clubs compete rather equally with the top Dutch clubs. 

But the biggest challenge is still what protections would be in place in the event the mid-sized Dutch clubs wind up shooting past the mid-sized Belgian clubs once a merged league starts. Then, of course, the smaller clubs that can't crack the top division in a merged league but would have been in the top previously potentially actually see revenues drop.

I do think this is the way the sport is going with increased consolidation and partnering among smaller and middle sized leagues to better pull in larger TV revenue. But all it really does it work its way to the bigger clubs and theoretically make them more competitive in Europe. Knock-on effect perhaps of improving the development of players on both national teams (but it's not like either nation is light-years behind the big dogs, they've both come pretty close to winning World Cups in the past decade).

[Lineker]

Xabi Alonso will take over as Gladbach manager this summer.

[Baddar]

A loss for the Sociedad B side. Fully expect him to manage the senior team there one day.

[Lineker]

Quote

Football’s financial fair play rules are to undergo dramatic change, with the key break-even measure declared “purposeless” by Uefa. With Covid-19 creating a crisis “very different from anything we have had to tackle before”, according to officials, they believe new rules should concentrate on clubs’ wage levels and the scale of fees in the transfer market.

Speaking on Thursday at a meeting between Uefa and European Union officials, Andrea Traverso, Uefa’s director of research and financial stability, said a solution was “not easy” and there should not be an assumption that new rules would be more relaxed.

“Covid 19 has generated a revenue crisis and had a big impact on the liquidity of clubs,” he said. “This is a crisis which is very different from anything we have had to tackle before. In such a situation obviously clubs are struggling; they have difficulties in complying with their obligations.

“I think in general rules must always evolve. They have to adapt to the context in which clubs operate. The break-even rule, the way it works now it looks backwards: it performs an assessment of a situation in the past [looking at profit and loss over three previous seasons]. The pandemic represents such an abrupt change that looking to the past is becoming purposeless.

“So maybe the rules should have a stronger focus on the present and the future and should definitely have stronger focus on the challenges of high levels of wages and the transfer market. The solution of this is not easy.”

Uefa has begun consultation on how to reform FFP, with Traverso saying he expected an “expedited but careful” process to be completed by the end of the year. “Those that are saying that the rules will be abandoned or relaxed are just speculating,” Traverso said. “Rules can be different, sure, but this does not necessarily mean that the rules will be less stringent. On the contrary, when severe situations occur often those necessitate stronger measures.”

Traverso’s remarks follow statements by the president of the European Club Association, Andrea Agnelli of Juventus, in which he said clubs should have the ability to adjust player contracts in the event of a financial crisis such as Covid and called for regulations to look not at profit and loss but to focus “on the balance sheet and having those criteria met medium and long term”.

 

[Lineker]

These feel worth posting, especially now: 

 

[The Lusophone]

Had a chance to look at the 2024 UCL format and it's... interesting? I guess. Feels a bit Super League-y but at least it's sortof based on merit, just over a longer period:

Quote

Qualification for the Champions League will continue to be open and depend on a club’s final position in the previous season’s domestic league competition. The additional four slots available in 2024/25 will be allocated according to three different criteria:

• Slot one: awarded to a club from the country placed fifth in UEFA’s national association coefficient rankings. Each association's coefficient is based on the results of its clubs’ performances in five previous Champions League and Europa League seasons.
• Slot two: awarded to the domestic league champion with the highest club coefficient among all other domestic champions that have not automatically qualified for the Champions League’s league stage.
• Slots three and four: awarded to the two clubs with the highest club coefficients that have not qualified automatically for the Champions League’s league stage, but have qualified either for the Champions League qualification phase or the Europa League/the Europa Conference League (due to start in the 2021/22 season).

So based on this, for 2016/17 to this season, the additional teams are as follows:
Slot One:
16/17 Portugal - Braga
17/18 France - Lyon
18/19 France - Marseille
19/20 France - Saint Etienne
20/21 France - Lille
Slot Two:
16/17 Switzerland (12th) Basel (22nd) (over 11th Czech Republic, Viktoria Pizan 49th)
17/18 Switzerland (12th) Basel (18th) (over 11th Austria, Red Bull Salzburg 28th)
18/19 Netherlands (11th) Ajax (20th)
19/20 Austria (12th) Red Bull Salzburg (29th) (over 11th Turkey, Galatasaray 64th)
20/21 Ukraine (12th) Shakhtar Donesk (18th) (over 11th Scotland, Celtic 46th)
Slots Three and Four:
16/17 Schalke (5th) and Man United (5th)
17/18 Arsenal (5th) and Man United (6th)
18/19 Sevilla (7th) and Arsenal (6th)
19/20 Sevilla (5th) and Man United (6th)
20/21 Arsenal (8th) and Spurs (6th)

I have almost definitely messed up slot 2 there I think, because I haven't taken into account instances where the UCL and UEL winners qualified via their league formats and thus bumped up some league winners to qualify automatically.

[DFF]

14 minutes ago, MadJack said:

Had a chance to look at the 2024 UCL format and it's... interesting? I guess. Feels a bit Super League-y but at least it's sortof based on merit, just over a longer period:

So based on this, for 2016/17 to this season, the additional teams are as follows:
Slot One:
16/17 Portugal - Braga
17/18 France - Lyon
18/19 France - Marseille
19/20 France - Saint Etienne
20/21 France - Lille
Slot Two:
16/17 Switzerland (12th) Basel (22nd) (over 11th Czech Republic, Viktoria Pizan 49th)
17/18 Switzerland (12th) Basel (18th) (over 11th Austria, Red Bull Salzburg 28th)
18/19 Netherlands (11th) Ajax (20th)
19/20 Austria (12th) Red Bull Salzburg (29th) (over 11th Turkey, Galatasaray 64th)
20/21 Ukraine (12th) Shakhtar Donesk (18th) (over 11th Scotland, Celtic 46th)
Slots Three and Four:
16/17 Schalke (5th) and Man United (5th)
17/18 Arsenal (5th) and Man United (6th)
18/19 Sevilla (7th) and Arsenal (6th)
19/20 Sevilla (5th) and Man United (6th)
20/21 Arsenal (8th) and Spurs (6th)

I have almost definitely messed up slot 2 there I think, because I haven't taken into account instances where the UCL and UEL winners qualified via their league formats and thus bumped up some league winners to qualify automatically.

Did I read somewhere that they would limit the overall number of teams from one nation competing in Europe overall? So, say Arsenal and Spurs gained those spots in 20/21, it would remove two slots from UL, UC?