The Beautiful Game Thread, 11/12

[davet010]

I think I'm top - that won't last long

What is this Head-to-Head of which you speak ?

[fsquid]

Man City in Pot 3 for the group stage draw. No one wants them in the group

[fsquid]

Man City draw in with Bayern and Villereal so far. That will be a tough group.

Edit: Add in Napoli into that group. holy crap

[davet010]

Not worried - Villareal looked bobbins when I saw them on TV this week, and I reckon City have a better squad than any of them. I was still trying to work out why City couldn't go into the same group as AC Milan and Barca, summat to do with red and blue groups and TV apparently.

Arsenal looked like an easy group before Dortmund came out of pot 4.

Man U get their usual easy draw.

1740: Group F: ARSENAL, Marseille, Olympiakos, Borussia Dortmund

1739: Group B: Inter Milan, CSKA Moscow, Lille, Trabzonspor

1738: Group E: CHELSEA, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Genk

1737: Group H: Barcelona, AC Milan, BATE Borisov, Viktoria Plzen

1736: Group D: Real Madrid, Lyon, Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb

1735: Group C: MAN UTD, Benfica, Basel, Otelul Galati

1734: Group G: FC Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Zenit, Apoel FC

1734: Group A: Bayern Munich, Villarreal, MAN CITY, Napoli

[10spro]

Look forward to Milan-Barca, still the Bayern group will be tough to deal with.

[fsquid]

Milan-Barca won't be in any danger of placing 3rd though which makes it a bit of a yawner.

[toonarmy]

Newcastle eeked out a win in overtime of their Carling Cup match versus c***. Taylor with yet another beautiful free kick goal over the wall to tie it in regular time, then Ameobi with an awesome game-winning strike to seal the deal. Newcastle looked like trash for much of the match and missed quite a few easy chances.

[10spro]

Nasty collision between Norwich's keeper Ruddy and D. Drogba who left in a stretcher. Boas's team in the end won the match.

[pk500]

The Drogba head-knocker. Lights out.

[davet010]

Tottenham 1 Man City 5...and Spurs goal was a mile offside.

That smell, Harry ? Weeeellll, it's either the rotting carcass of your integrity, or the new arsehole that you've been ripped. Big gangling 'no way a Premiership striker' (per Ian Wright) Edin Dzeko scores his 3rd of the season, then decides that he likes White Hart Lane so notches his 4th, 5th and 6th on top. Michael Dawson shows his credentials as an England defender by allowing Sergio Aguero to beat him all ends up and score as well - Nasri only managed to nick 3 assists on his debut.

Humourous moment on the commentary provided by that sad, second-rate ex-Chelsea bitter lemon Craig Burley - "City have picked Tottenham's pockets". No they haven't, you bile-filled jocko, they've walked up to them, smashed them in the face, beaten them unconscious in their own backyard and then emptied their pockets.

Any bets on the number of deals Redknapp tries to swing before end of the window ? I'll start the bidding at 10...Friedel didn't play too badly. He should be praying that Chelsea still want Luca Modric, because anything more than £10m for him would be a scandal.

[wco81]

What are the relative payrolls of those clubs?

[davet010]

I'll start to care when they draw up the League Table on payroll.

[wco81]

Isn't "Financial Fairplay" suppose to be imposed at some point?

Whenever the Yankees or the Red Sox win the world series, most baseball fans consider it to be expected, since they spent about double the next closest team.

[davet010]

FFP - aka 'Let's keep the big clubs exclusive, so that no one can break up our cosy cartel'

That could, perhaps, be the reason that any issues about what is fair or not are connected to revenue, as opposed to debt. After all, we couldn't have any negative impacts on Man U (estimated debt and debentures - about £750m, before they refinance themselves again), or the Serie A clubs (tax debts in the orders of hundreds of millions of pounds, spread out by a 2003 law which was sponsored by the President, Berlusconi...and described by the Head of the Italian accounting body as 'a disgrace'), now could we.

Chance of FFP standing up if anyone ever took it to the European Commission court - 0.001%

[RobVarak]

FFP - aka 'Let's keep the big clubs exclusive, so that no one can break up our cosy cartel'

That could, perhaps, be the reason that any issues about what is fair or not are connected to revenue, as opposed to debt. After all, we couldn't have any negative impacts on Man U (estimated debt and debentures - about £750m, before they refinance themselves again), or the Serie A clubs (tax debts in the orders of hundreds of millions of pounds, spread out by a 2003 law which was sponsored by the President, Berlusconi...and described by the Head of the Italian accounting body as 'a disgrace'), now could we.

Chance of FFP standing up if anyone ever took it to the European Commission court - 0.001%

(C) Manchester City Football Talking Points Guide (Translated From Arabic)

[davet010]

Mais non, Monsieur !

http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2011/07 ... =BP_recent

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... ester-city

But you know I am right

[fsquid]

I love me some Dzecko and so does my fantasy team

[wco81]

Heard a podcast about various articles on the finances in the game. First Eto'o is being offered $32 million tax-free by some Russian club. It's in some town a thousand miles from Moscow, in a region which is unstable so players for those clubs fly in for home games and then leave. Eto'o might fly in from Italy rather than stay in Russia.

But in exchange for the pre-tax equivalent of as much as $75 million a year, he'd be going into football oblivion, though the club may qualify for CL out of the Russian Premier League.

On the opposite end, Fabregas is actually paying Arsenal 1 million Euro out of his 4 million Euro salary to play for Barcelona. Is Catalan identity worth a million Euro per annum? He could buy a lot of cava in London with that money, if he's homesick.

Then another story about how Tevez's "economic rights" have been traded between Russian and Georgian oligarchs (kleptocrats) for most of his career. It's not just the high-profile oligarchs who are into buying clubs and trading players. Some Russian clubs are owned by the secret police! Well given Putin, maybe not so surprising.

[Jimmydeicide]

Yeh whatever with all that whens the next game?

[fsquid]

Eto'o has already signed, played, and scored for Anzhi in the Russian Premier League. That team also has Roberto Carlos (he's still playing?) on it. I don't know if the region is unstable, but it is near other teams like Terek and Spartak Nalchik.

[pk500]

Eto'o has already signed, played, and scored for Anzhi in the Russian Premier League. That team also has Roberto Carlos (he's still playing?) on it. I don't know if the region is unstable, but it is near other teams like Terek and Spartak Nalchik.

I heard on a podcast that Eto'o's team lives and trains in Moscow and only travels to its home stadium in Dagestan for home games. There was talk that Eto'o would continue to live in Milan and commute to Russia for training and games.

Crazy. As in logistics -- and money.

Dagestan sounds like a fictional republic that will be the setting for a "Borat" sequel. I never even heard of this republic before Eto'o signed for the club. So if the desire of signing such a global superstar is to attract attention to the region, consider me a very small part of a wider success story.

[Naples39]

Eto'o has already signed, played, and scored for Anzhi in the Russian Premier League. That team also has Roberto Carlos (he's still playing?) on it. I don't know if the region is unstable, but it is near other teams like Terek and Spartak Nalchik.

I heard on a podcast that Eto'o's team lives and trains in Moscow and only travels to its home stadium in Dagestan for home games. There was talk that Eto'o would continue to live in Milan and commute to Russia for training and games.

Crazy. As in logistics -- and money.

Dagestan sounds like a fictional republic that will be the setting for a "Borat" sequel. I never even heard of this republic before Eto'o signed for the club. So if the desire of signing such a global superstar is to attract attention to the region, consider me a very small part of a wider success story.

I read something recently that every single KHL club loses money and basically the existence of the league is propaganda and a plaything for the oligarchs. I suspect this soccer team is the same thing.

[fsquid]

just read that they do live and train in Moscow, that is unbelieveable.

[wco81]

So provide a town or region with a football club but very little else?

Why wouldn't they just have a half dozen teams in Moscow and other big cities? Potential fan base has to have more money in a big city than some town in the middle of nowhere (maybe not quite Siberia?).

Sacto Kings thought they could draw better and get better TV ratings in LA/OC than they could having Sacto all to itself.

[pk500]

So provide a town or region with a football club but very little else?

Why wouldn't they just have a half dozen teams in Moscow and other big cities? Potential fan base has to have more money in a big city than some town in the middle of nowhere (maybe not quite Siberia?).

From Wikipedia:

"On January 18, 2011, the club was purchased by billionaire Suleyman Kerimov,[6][7] but later it was found out that the President of Dagestan Magomedsalam Magomedov met Kerimov and gave him 100 per cent stake in the club, including 50 percent of the shares of the former owner of the club Igor Yakovlev, in exchange for financial support.[8] Kerimov is planning to invest over $200 million in infrastructure, of which a substantial amount will go in building a new stadium with a capacity of more than 40,000 spectators, which will meet all UEFA requirements.[9]"

The Dagestan government wants to promote the region, which borders the Caspian Sea. So it gave the club to Kerimov in return for a promise of massive cash infusion to the club, which has allowed it to buy players like Eto'o and Roberto Carlos.

Manchester may not be in the middle of nowhere, but greater Manchester's population is one-quarter of that of greater London. Yet Manchester United is the richest sports franchise in the world, a brand known around the globe.