The Official Football Thread

[Bri]

Originally Posted by risingstar3110

i don't know, maybe i should stop watching football.

I means i thought it is a sport, and i means what harm could it do right? But there this whole incident with Qatar where thousands of workers are dying to get it prepared.


And just recently, Adidas just offered MU a 75 mil a year deal , 250% higher than the record fo Madrid. Really impressive really, and no doubt it gonna spark a bidding war where every clubs will demand more from their shirt providers.

But then you look at how these sportswear corporations got their profit from: operating sweatshops , laying off workers and denying them benefit. Nike is famous enough. Same to Adidas with that famous case in Indonesia where they laid off 3000 worker, and denied them up to 3mil in associated benefit. Now all that money where thousands of sweatshop workers should be entitled to, will go to some 18 years old kid like Januzaj or Jese to sit on the bench and occasionally come in to kick a ball. And we are not even talking about players like Rooney or Ronaldo who earned 4-6 times that amount

Unfortunately that money would never have gone to the workers. As with all multinationals, increases in profit are absorbed by the shareholders.

Who is to blame? Hard to say, TV deals have changed football forever. With global exposure football became far more interesting for advertising and sponsorship. With national associations having little power over the clubs, the money flows to the top end. If we want to stop that we should support our local teams and local leagues and not pay for any content or merchandise of the international top leagues or teams.

[Elo the Blue]

Even though I'm happy with the Debuchy signing, I really hope Wenger signs Serge Aurier as well. I know he probably won't but having that kind of talent pushing Debuchy would be amazing.

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by germanturkey

people are greedy and most athletes are overpaid. it is nothing new. i personally blame the foreign investors into european leagues. traditionally, Madrid would buy players for stupid amounts of money, but they were already established. the advent of chelsea, man city, and their ilk made it so you needed to have financial backing to play at the highest levels.

as for the shirt deal stuff, i don't know why adidas would pay that much. it boggles my mind. there is no guarantee that they'll even be in the champions league next year (or whenever the shirt deal starts) and their best players are getting old (namely RVP).

and a more off topic rant: Shaw: not worth what they paid for him. Lallana: also not worth his transfer price. its a stupid english premium. and they wonder why the english national team is so bad? no one wants to buy actual english talent because they're charged through the roof. so they import an equal, if not better, player. the most exciting english player was probably ross barkley. i hope he keeps his head and doesn't move from everton (see: Jack Rodwell).

Originally Posted by Bri

Unfortunately that money would never have gone to the workers. As with all multinationals, increases in profit are absorbed by the shareholders.

Who is to blame? Hard to say, TV deals have changed football forever. With global exposure football became far more interesting for advertising and sponsorship. With national associations having little power over the clubs, the money flows to the top end. If we want to stop that we should support our local teams and local leagues and not pay for any content or merchandise of the international top leagues or teams.

Before i kinda ignored it and thought all of these "commercial deals" are just some form of advertisement, you know? Like players wearing a shirt saying "Cocacola" and then while playing, advertise for the products in the same time.... Or Adidas showing their shirt, soccer balls being worn and kicked around by Messi or something, so football players will go and buy it when they want to kick around with his mate. Things like that.


Didn't realise how much sportswear companies actually earned and paid out to clubs. 75 mil a year? This is literally just a daylight robbery of football club fans, as who else buying MU or Real shirts but the fans? It's worse enough to hype and lure kids and guys to burn hundreds $$ of their saving into them, just for bragging right. But sportswear companies have to gain profit paying such massive deals, so they gonna cut cost else where, deny workers right, operate sweatshops...etc... as well

It's not like tennis, or maybe basketball, where fans won't (despite how much they may like to do it) dye a 80k stadium with Serena Williams outfits.

I means old 2009 news, and i expect the gap is widen nowadays. But you know if I pay dozens teenager girls $2 a day, to be my (non-sex) slaves, I will be seen around the world as most despicable human being. But going through a corporation machines, and in the name of sport, and the practices became safe again

[Shinndou]

Whoa. Juventus falling apart.

Great job, Marotta. :|

[ACertainStark]

very happy Liverpool got Lazar Markovic. Great get. I hope they land Moreno now that Bayern are being stupid with Shaqiri.

[germanturkey]

thinking about it more, i think arsenal would be okay if we didn't have wilshere. the guy gives off instability and immaturity in waves.

[LoveYouSaber]

Yeah. People frequently compare him to Ramsey and feel that he's going to have a similar breakthrough season. However, I always felt Ramsey as much more mature and willing to learn, and hence his breakthrough was thoroughly deserved. Can't say the same for Jack - immature in public, and on the field constantly throwing a tantrum for referees not rewarding fouls. I fear the original hype has gone into his head and he's going down the Rooney route.

If anything, he should actually be very worried about his future and work hard to fight for a place (our midfield is overflowing with talent, and Jack definitely should not be a starter right now instead of partying in Las Vegas...

[Bri]

Originally Posted by Shinndou

Whoa. Juventus falling apart.

Great job, Marotta. :|

Well, not that it's any consolation but at least Allegri won't be the next manager of the NT...

Shame to see Conte leave, he was really building something impressive. I hope the rejuvenation of the squad and it's current play style will continue. Is Moratta the person to blame or did Conte's ambitions outpace the Juventus budget? I thought Moratta is credited with a lot of the successful signings in the last few seasons.

[Shinndou]

Originally Posted by Bri

Well, not that it's any consolation but at least Allegri won't be the next manager of the NT...

Shame to see Conte leave, he was really building something impressive. I hope the rejuvenation of the squad and it's current play style will continue. Is Moratta the person to blame or did Conte's ambitions outpace the Juventus budget? I thought Moratta is credited with a lot of the successful signings in the last few seasons.

It's a bit of both. Marotta is "only" the Sports Department CEO and even though he takes most of the crucial decisions in the end it's the owners who dictate the guide lines to follow.

The way I see it Conte probably asked the club two months ago if they could do their best and try keep both Vidal and Pogba since they are both two key players. Now that apparently both of them are likely going to be sold Conte likely got fed up with Marotta and the others not being honest with what were the real intentions and left the club.

The fact that Allegri got appointed (ALLEGRI goddamnit, he's like an italian Moyes) tells you a lot about the fact that both owners and CEO don't really care about the club's results and ambitions and they're just interested in making profit out of the players they own.

I somehow sensed this. All I can say is that I am really disheartened, I am tempted to just stop supporting the club until the current owners don't get their shit together and realize that this club has no future if they don't show any real ambition to better themselves within each year.

[risingstar3110]

Yeah a real disappointed, as only Juventus showed similar standings to those in Spain, Germany, or dare I say England, in CL ground. They were the most likely the next Italian team to win CL before OCnte departure (unless Benitez do his cup magic again with Napoli)

But now they lsot their talisman coach, probably gonna just sell Vidal and Pogba for peanuts and replace by ones with lesser quality (i don't follow Juventus markets so i'm not discriminating against their buying, but the trend always like that). And then you will see them struggling even inside Italy despite brush everyone aside last 3 seasons


The questions is, which of the big club gonna fire their manager first to get Conte. If he left earlier last season, he could have been courted by City, Chelsea, Real, Barcelona and even MU. Now, most of the big clubs seemed to already got their long term managers in place

[Blaat]

Conte to the Azzurri seems the way to go, unless there is a manager position opening up amongst the European top (or subtop) clubs I'm not aware off.

[Shinndou]

I think Conte probably would like to keep coaching clubs before assuming the role of a national team coach, but as you guys pointed out all the big clubs already have their coaching positions filled.

I would love to see him coaching Italy but I think he's going to decline the offer.

[germanturkey]

we nabbed Debuchy too. i would have rather us gotten Aurier, but i guess that'll come in a few years.

[SuitUp]

So, Real presented Kroos today, and has Kaylor Navas tied up, the only thing left to resolve i'ts if they will manage to get James this season, wich I hope won't happen, since there are rumors already that if James is indeed hired, Isco will be loaned, and that's a definitive no, I wan't Isco to stay in Real


UPDATE: So, it's official now, Morata it's going to Juve (18m euros, Real keeps a rebuy clause of 30m), I wonder what they see in him...

[germanturkey]

sanogo nets 4 against benfica. good for him.

[Irenicus]

The quadruple is on.

*Emirates Cup not included

Though I think we have to be a bit wary of Stoke and Bojan carrying them to the title.

[kayote]

How many here play Football Manager. I love the game.

found this article about the game helping clubs find info about potential signings

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...bs-buy-players

[Se7enSword]

That article was good.

Last year some guy was hired who played FM for 10 years for a manager position. His results were better than other experienced managers who applied for that club.

[Irenicus]

Arsenal on track to the quintuple. 1 (English champions) down, 4 to go!

Originally Posted by kayote

How many here play Football Manager. I love the game.

found this article about the game helping clubs find info about potential signings

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...bs-buy-players

lol.

Didn't Everton or some other Premier League club have a license with SI to use the database? Maybe that's why Martinez committed so hard to Lukaku. He knew he's gonna a beast in a few years according to FM.

[SuitUp]

Originally Posted by Shinndou

I think Conte probably would like to keep coaching clubs before assuming the role of a national team coach, but as you guys pointed out all the big clubs already have their coaching positions filled.

I would love to see him coaching Italy but I think he's going to decline the offer.

And almost exactly a month later, Conte just accepted the offer to coach the italian national team... Still, the italians should be throwing a parade to celebrate the fact that they managed to avoid Mancini taking over the national team