Anyone remotely interested in the Saudi League?

TeaCider said:
English clubs were dominant in Europe before that 5 year ban because of fan disorder, and they returned to putting in strong showings after it was lifted.
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English dominance was slipped a little prior to the ban: an English club only won it once in the 3 seasons before the ban; before that, dominance was indisputable.

One reason for that slip was money, and players starting to play outside their home countries for the first time. They didn't come to England despite England being the strongest league. Platini went to Juve; Maradona went to Spain for a fee that wouldn't be matched in England for another 12 years. Keegan left Liverpool in his prime, at the height of Liverpool's dominance, to play for Hamburg; I don't know how much more they were prepared to pay him, but they were willing to smash the UK transfer record to get him. He may have moved on by then, but the result of Hamburg's aggressive spending was winning the European cup a few years later.

Players didn't come back to England because of history and tradition; they can back when the money was right.
 
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Frozen Horse said:
English dominance was slipped a little prior to the ban: an English club only won it once in the 3 seasons before the ban; before that, dominance was indisputable.
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They were banned in 85. Liverpool won the European cup in 84, Villa 82. Liverpool finalists in 85.
Everton won the cup winners cup in 85, Spurs UEFA 84. That seems pretty dominant to me.
 
The Card Cheat said:
They were banned in 85. Liverpool won the European cup in 84, Villa 82. Liverpool finalists in 85.
Everton won the cup winners cup in 85, Spurs UEFA 84. That seems pretty dominant to me.
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Not as dominant as the 6 consecutive european cup wins that preceded it.
Change was happening before the European ban.

Even during the period of absolute dominance, top players like Keegan and Brady were choosing to leave English football for more money.
 
Johnny Vincents Motorbike said:
yeah, i have.

the continued global development of football - a few of the old imperial leagues will be on a whine as their empires wobble and bragging rights go straight out the window about how rich they are - those most 'not bothered' are the ones making the most noise - but as in most things on planet earth when has it ever not been that way - i expect most of the better players to do a season at most, those not so good will be looking for a longer run and then move into the coaching side.

its all about establishing a football infrastructure with administrators and best facilities - the players are just hired workers.

at least the Scottish leagues will get some respite over perceived 'standards' of competitiveness and play - the english entitlement will have to shift to a different corridor.
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Okay fair enough but what about the sportswashing of human rights atrocities?
 
Why would I? There is currently so much footy on TV that I struggle to watch it all. Take the other sports into account and even if I wanted to watch some 2nd rate league played by 1st rate has beens, I couldn't fit it in.

However, if the champo', prem' and champions league stopped tomorrow, I still wouldn't watch it.
 
No. Hopefully it won't catch on in terms of popularity. I'm more likely to watch the 100 and apart from 10 minutes when it started I've not been remotely tempted.
 
Couldn't give a shiny shyte about their attempt to sportswash their blood tarnished hands. Wouldn't care less if every new Maradona, Pele, Messi or Ronaldo ended up following the trail of money there, I still wouldn't watch it.
 
To me it would be like watching a match from Gilead (in Handmaiden's Tale). Difficult to watch thinking abiut whose being executed/limbs chopped off earlier that day in the same City.

I remember seeing some games from the Old Soviet Union/Eastern Bloc in 1970s and 80s and 75% of the crowd would be in Army uniform. Sort of felt something wasn't quite right.
 
I'd like
Redwurzel said:
To me it would be like watching a match from Gilead (in Handmaiden's Tale). Difficult to watch thinking abiut whose being executed/limbs chopped off earlier that day in the same City.

I remember seeing some games from the Old Soviet Union/Eastern Bloc in 1970s and 80s and 75% of the crowd would be in Army uniform. Sort of felt something wasn't quite right.
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Most of the Eastern Bloc top teams were army or security services-controlled
 
There will be very little interest here, until they buy their way into the Champions League. That must be their long term objective.
I have absolutely no interest in this, apart from being annoyed at the obscene money being thrown at players to go there. I don’t mind the has-beens such as Henderson going, but it looks like they are going for our top players such as Salah.
 
SmogonOuseburn said:
There will be very little interest here, until they buy their way into the Champions League. That must be their long term objective.
I have absolutely no interest in this, apart from being annoyed at the obscene money being thrown at players to go there. I don’t mind the has-beens such as Henderson going, but it looks like they are going for our top players such as Salah.
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Interesting use of "our".

Salah is only in England because he's paid an obscene salary already.
 
No interest at all. Never really watched much from abroad other than Madid v Barca. Watched a recording of Kanes debut at Bayern and might watch his game this weekend.
Enjoy Champions league knockout part but wouldn't pay extra if they went that way. .
 
I don’t find the teams or players interesting at all. Ronaldo.. just seems to have dropped off the radar. Bit like the Chinese League..

I think there is an identity to football that just isn’t there.
ajel-english%2Fimport%2F2019%2F04%2FSaudi-Professionals-League.jpg


Ettifaq looks alright.. the rest would be a showing up in the TJFA!

I think you need homegrown players to make a league.. just an exhibition league otherwise.
Steven Gerrard with loads of past it show ponies against some non league teams.. why bother?
 
TeaCider said:
English clubs were dominant in Europe before that 5 year ban because of fan disorder, and they returned to putting in strong showings after it was lifted.
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You got me thinking about how strong English clubs were in Europe when we returned. I think your point must be based on English teams doing well in the Cup Winner's Cup on our return, which is fair enough: in the first 6 years back, English clubs won it twice.

However, it really was the 3rd rate European competition and (I had forgotten this) you only had to win 5 rounds to win it, unlike the other competitions. During the pre-ban years of English dominance, it was won by Scottish and Belgian clubs.

Our performance in the stronger competitions was abysmal.

In the first 6 seasons, no English club made it beyond the second round. For the last 2 of these seasons, English clubs "first round" was the group stage, but neither of our champions made it out of the group. Teams eliminating our champions included Rangers, Galatasaray, Legia Warsaw, Gothenburg and Rosenborg.

In those 6 seasons, a total of 13 teams entered the UEFA cup. The best English showing was a quarterfinal defeat, which happened twice. Teams lost 1st and 2nd round ties to the likes of Torpedo Moscow, Trelleborg, Trabzonspor, Volvograd and Brondby.

While we had our moments, I don't think it was a strong showing. When we faced Italian, Spanish, German or even Dutch opposition, we usually lost, though there are exceptions, notably Norwich beating Bayern. However, it's the fact that our clubs were frequently eliminated by Russian, Turkish and even Scandinavian teams that really tells us the standing of English domestic football at the time: we were middle of the pack, vertainly not amongst the strongest.
 
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