The 39th Game

[oldtimernow]

What do Scudamore and Alex Salmond have in common?


They will keep coming back till they get their own way.

Tossers

[fredm]

In relation to the "Magic weekend" in Rugby League, this is an additional match to the season - and is usually a derby.  It is different in that the League leaders are not the champions at the end of the season, there is a play off series of knock out matches which determines the Grand Final winners who are then regarded as champions.

On another note, I see there is a move afoot to set up "competitive" matches abroad in pre-season so that the top clubs can tap into their world wide audience.  Wasn't there 80k at a match Liverpool played and over 100k for the Man U v Real Madrid match both in the US this pre-season?

[Pete3206]

OS News: Leicester game switched

Villa's Barclays Premier League home game against Leicester City has been moved to The Sports City Stadium in Dubai

This mouth watering clash against the Foxes has been switched for our football family friends in The Middle East.

The game is included with your season ticket and flights are bookable through the ticket office with fares from only £399

Those supporters unfortunate enough not to be able to afford the trip, can basically go fuck themselves.

[cdbearsfan]

One advantage of playing abroad: we might be able to recover some of the footballs we lost when Tonev was playing for us.

[curiousorange]

Many years ago when the idea of a breakaway European Super-League was first suggested I was totally against it. Now, I wouldn't be that bothered if it did happen.

I think by the time the next TV deal is being discussed, there'll be more chatter about it. Seems inevitable.

[fbriai]

Scudamore and his cronies absolutely beggar belief. Having had his 39th game nonsense blown out of the water he comes back with an even more ridiculous idea of having one of the existing fixtures played elsewhere. It's a pity fans can't get together and organise a mass boycott of one weekend's fixtures to show him what it means when you want to pursue the foreign TV buck at the expense of real fans. What with this and the likelihood of an enforced winter break to accommodate the corrupt Qatar 2022 World Cup bid, people running the game now have completely lost touch with reality. This, allied with the the iron law of oligarchy for the top 4 clubs, Sky dictating when games are played, players wages sprawling out of control for even average players, the downgrading of the most historic cup competition in the world, all combine to make me fucking hate everything about modern football. I sometimes wish I wasn't hooked on Villa so I could just walk away

CJ, you have written my thoughts exactly.

[fbriai]

It would start with one game, then become two, three, etc.

The day they introduce this is the day football - at least top flight football in England - ceases to become what it once was and just becomes a circus.

[cdbearsfan]

Many years ago when the idea of a breakaway European Super-League was first suggested I was totally against it. Now, I wouldn't be that bothered if it did happen.

I think by the time the next TV deal is being discussed, there'll be more chatter about it. Seems inevitable.

European Super League won't happen. It's not in the interests of the likes of the English clubs, Bayern Munich and Real/Barca to allow other clubs access to the same sort of money they have. In a pan-European competition, the likes of Ajax, Porto, Celtic, Zenit St Petersburg, Galatasaray and so on would be able to compete for the World's top players on a fairly equal footing. There's no way the current domineering leagues in Europe would allow that.

I can see some sort of supra-national leagues below Champions League level happening though. There was already talk of a joint Czech-Slovak League and a similar one for clubs from Russia/Ukraine (although I assume that has now been sidelined, for obvious reasons).

I can foresee maybe a joint Belgian/Dutch League and perhaps similar leagues for Scandinavia and Austria/Switzerland.

Wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, IMO. Might make those clubs able to demand more for their TV rights and make them more competitive in the Champions League. Seeing as Villa have no intention of ever qualifying for it, I want anything that makes it more difficult for scummy clubs like Chavski and Manure to win it.

Regarding the actual European Super League though, I just can't see it. They've been going on about it for some time, and it never happens...

"The scene is almost set for new achievements by the Villa. Never before has the future held such glittering possibilities. The F.A. Cup, the League Championship (long, long overdue), the European Cup and perhaps, in the not so distant future, membership of a European Super League."

"Aston Villa" - Peter Morris (1961)

[lovejoy]

I think we just to need face the fact the English football is entirely money driven and run by people who have little interest in fans who actually attend the games. If it has taken this overseas game idea to make you realise this then where have you been hiding in the last 20 years?

[cheltenhamlion]

There is lots that has gone on since Sky invented football that is shit but it is a combination of those factors that make modern football crap.

This is the first proposal in that time where a line in the sand seems to have been crossed with supporters.

[fbriai]

There is lots that has gone on since Sky invented football that is shit but it is a combination of those factors that make modern football crap.

This is the first proposal in that time where a line in the sand seems to have been crossed with supporters.

I agree, CL.

For me, who loathes much of what the Premier League has done and stands for, they cross the Rubicon with this proposal.

[cdbearsfan]

I'm assuming the clubs would be consulted before this was introduced so can anyone tell me who to email at Villa Park to ask that they don't vote for it?

Don't say Nicola Keye...

[Dr Butler]

I travel a 240 mile round trip to home games, if this is a starter then with all the changes to dates and timings for games  that already strain my love of football(not the Villa you understand) then I will probably give up my season ticket.

It's just too much about the money and not the fans or the game anymore.

UTV
The Doc

[Tom_Mc9?]

If it happens, I will bid you all adieu and find another way to spend my weekends.

Scudamore can shit off.

[Clampy]

Changing the subject slightly, I was reading in the Daily Mail yesterday how Monday night TV games are affecting away attendances. Apparently, Premiership clubs are given £500k (i'm not sure if that's each) to help subsidise fans who travel and seemed to proudly announce that Chelsea only charged their fans £10 for the official travel to a Monday night game at Burnley. A club as rich as that and despite being given a grant couldn't even make it free like we sometimes do.