Ultimate Football/Soccer Thread 2015-2016 + Euro 2016 Finals

[Banguela]

Awtch, that was indeed a pretty painful one for someone who's in a stadium on a bi-weekly basis (although it should've been pretty clear what game I was looking forth to). To be fair, it wasn't really a good game - a by far weaker Man C (C, yes indeed) than hoped for. Admittedly, playing Real is always difficult but they stood no chance.

Next thing to look forward to: the first Vince Lombardi trophy for Stephen Curry

[Auremena]

Awtch, that was indeed a pretty painful one for someone who's in a stadium on a bi-weekly basis (although it should've been pretty clear what game I was looking forth to). To be fair, it wasn't really a good game - a by far weaker Man C (C, yes indeed) than hoped for. Admittedly, playing Real is always difficult but they stood no chance.

Next thing to look forward to: the first Vince Lombardi trophy for Stephen Curry

Didn't he win one last year when his San Francisco Giants won the NHL?

[Liventia]

Dinamo Bucharest's Patrick Ekeng has died after collapsing on the pitch during a match against Viitorul tonight. The game was played to an end, 3–3.

[Auremena]

Welp Toon are pretty much down...
Place your bets on Wijnaldum, Townsend, Krul, and Mitrovic are going to end up.

[Val Halla]

Welp Toon are pretty much down...
Place your bets on Wijnaldum, Townsend, Krul, and Mitrovic are going to end up.

Probably on the mediocre teams or France

[Auremena]

Welp Toon are pretty much down...
Place your bets on Wijnaldum, Townsend, Krul, and Mitrovic are going to end up.

Probably on the mediocre teams or France

I thought I saw Soton and West Brom say they'd trigger Townsend's release clause. Wijnaldum I could see going to Italy, as with Mitrovic.

[Azrea]

I don't know in how far people over here are following the Major League Soccer, but are there some good information sources you could point me to? A good website, blogs, twitter feeds, ... Many thanks in advance!

Unrelated - how do the prospects for Man U look to you? I've got my fingers crossed for a magical Kevin De Bruyne moment whilst hoping it's not a 100% Ronaldo. Although he's still top level at 90%.

Catch up with their subreddit (/r/mls) and follow their Twitter as well. If your looking for a team to support but aren't sure exactly who - there's plenty of new clubs coming in. Atlanta, LAFC, Minnesota are all coming into the league within the next 3 seasons.

[Val Halla]

I don't know in how far people over here are following the Major League Soccer, but are there some good information sources you could point me to? A good website, blogs, twitter feeds, ... Many thanks in advance!

Unrelated - how do the prospects for Man U look to you? I've got my fingers crossed for a magical Kevin De Bruyne moment whilst hoping it's not a 100% Ronaldo. Although he's still top level at 90%.

Catch up with their subreddit (/r/mls) and follow their Twitter as well. If your looking for a team to support but aren't sure exactly who - there's plenty of new clubs coming in. Atlanta, LAFC, Minnesota are all coming into the league within the next 3 seasons.

Is the MLS split into conferences like the other big American sports.

[Auremena]

Catch up with their subreddit (/r/mls) and follow their Twitter as well. If your looking for a team to support but aren't sure exactly who - there's plenty of new clubs coming in. Atlanta, LAFC, Minnesota are all coming into the league within the next 3 seasons.

Is the MLS split into conferences like the other big American sports.

Eastern and western, I believe. Once again, the champion is in a playoff format. Evidently Americans like that, my dad frequently criticises the leader wins the trophy method used by... the entire world by the US.
I don't see what's wrong with it. The team that performed best over the season deserves to win a title. In american football, where only 16 games are played a season, perhaps that's a little bit short, in hockey the NHL used to be just 6 teams at one time, hence the playoff, and no one has changed it, as for the rest, I don't know...

[Val Halla]

Is the MLS split into conferences like the other big American sports.

Eastern and western, I believe. Once again, the champion is in a playoff format. Evidently Americans like that, my dad frequently criticises the leader wins the trophy method used by... the entire world by the US.
I don't see what's wrong with it. The team that performed best over the season deserves to win a title. In american football, where only 16 games are played a season, perhaps that's a little bit short, in hockey the NHL used to be just 6 teams at one time, hence the playoff, and no one has changed it, as for the rest, I don't know...

Tbh the playoff format is probably mostly in place for commercial reasons. You can sell regular season tickets for say, $30, but with post season excitement you can get $50, plus the extra games, TV rights, etc.

[Auremena]

Eastern and western, I believe. Once again, the champion is in a playoff format. Evidently Americans like that, my dad frequently criticises the leader wins the trophy method used by... the entire world by the US.
I don't see what's wrong with it. The team that performed best over the season deserves to win a title. In american football, where only 16 games are played a season, perhaps that's a little bit short, in hockey the NHL used to be just 6 teams at one time, hence the playoff, and no one has changed it, as for the rest, I don't know...

Tbh the playoff format is probably mostly in place for commercial reasons. You can sell regular season tickets for say, $30, but with post season excitement you can get $50, plus the extra games, TV rights, etc.

Something else I find interesting is that in football, shirts, leagues, cups, and the like have sponsors, but in the US, it's generally the stadiums. Not something you really see, exceptions for the Emirates and the Etihad, and for Leicester, their shirt sponsor and stadium named after King Power, however that's their owner. The only stadia I can think of that don't have a sponsor in the US are Fenway Park, Lambeau Field, Soldier Field, Madison Square Garden (though they might have a sponsor, as well, I have no idea) and that's about it.
Granted I'm not sure how it'd go over here, considering a lot of sponsorship in the PL in particular is betting companies, illegal outside of the state of Vegas, I believe.
Granted also American football is 60 minutes of gameplay with 2 hours of commercials thrown in, whereas football is 90 minutes of play and 10 minutes of commercials tops in the interval. The NFL would get that money rather than having to resort to asking a bank to take their naming rights.

[Val Halla]

Tbh the playoff format is probably mostly in place for commercial reasons. You can sell regular season tickets for say, $30, but with post season excitement you can get $50, plus the extra games, TV rights, etc.

Something else I find interesting is that in football, shirts, leagues, cups, and the like have sponsors, but in the US, it's generally the stadiums. Not something you really see, exceptions for the Emirates and the Etihad, and for Leicester, their shirt sponsor and stadium named after King Power, however that's their owner. The only stadia I can think of that don't have a sponsor in the US are Fenway Park, Lambeau Field, Soldier Field, Madison Square Garden (though they might have a sponsor, as well, I have no idea) and that's about it.
Granted I'm not sure how it'd go over here, considering a lot of sponsorship in the PL in particular is betting companies, illegal outside of the state of Vegas, I believe.
Granted also American football is 60 minutes of gameplay with 2 hours of commercials thrown in, whereas football is 90 minutes of play and 10 minutes of commercials tops in the interval. The NFL would get that money rather than having to resort to asking a bank to take their naming rights.

See, I've noticed that in American sports, they try and squeeze sponsorships into everything. Gatorade is everywhere, oh it's the top assist of the game presented by State Farm. Half time entertainment presented by the new Ford Focus.

Football doesn't really have that. I mean, obviously you have sponsors on shirts and sidelines, but that's about it. No "Missed call of the game sponsored by Pukka Pies". Maybe it's just an American thing, but I can't remember seeing the forced in sponsors from watching MLS

[Auremena]

Something else I find interesting is that in football, shirts, leagues, cups, and the like have sponsors, but in the US, it's generally the stadiums. Not something you really see, exceptions for the Emirates and the Etihad, and for Leicester, their shirt sponsor and stadium named after King Power, however that's their owner. The only stadia I can think of that don't have a sponsor in the US are Fenway Park, Lambeau Field, Soldier Field, Madison Square Garden (though they might have a sponsor, as well, I have no idea) and that's about it.
Granted I'm not sure how it'd go over here, considering a lot of sponsorship in the PL in particular is betting companies, illegal outside of the state of Vegas, I believe.
Granted also American football is 60 minutes of gameplay with 2 hours of commercials thrown in, whereas football is 90 minutes of play and 10 minutes of commercials tops in the interval. The NFL would get that money rather than having to resort to asking a bank to take their naming rights.

See, I've noticed that in American sports, they try and squeeze sponsorships into everything. Gatorade is everywhere, oh it's the top assist of the game presented by State Farm. Half time entertainment presented by the new Ford Focus.

Football doesn't really have that. I mean, obviously you have sponsors on shirts and sidelines, but that's about it. No "Missed call of the game sponsored by Pukka Pies". Maybe it's just an American thing, but I can't remember seeing the forced in sponsors from watching MLS

Well they have the Land Rover tactics session, and I forget who is the man of the match...
I haven't watched MLS in a long while, the only shirt sponsors I can remember are Microsoft sponsoring Seattle (and is headquartered there too, kinda like Soton and Veho) and Herbalife sponsoring LA.

[Osarius]

The team that performed best over the season deserves to win a title.

The team with the best regular season record in MLS does get a trophy though... they're just not necessarily the season's champion. But it makes perfect sense.

In a country as large as the US, splitting into geographically defined conferences makes sense (even if it's less relevant these days, and doesn't really affect things as much anymore). And in any system with multiple conferences, a playoff is pretty much inevitable if only one winner is to be crowned. So this makes sense to me. I'm not really a fan of it, but I get why it happens.

Of course there are commercial reasons, and those are probably the main reasons now... But thinking logically, that probably wasn't the original reason. It likely stuck because of familiarity. That's why you don't see a European style league with promotion and relegation etc etc. It just wouldn't be familiar to American fans, and wouldn't sell. Equally, while a US-style league designed to maximise parity and operates under a collective arrangement which effectively protects clubs from financial meltdown would probably actually benefit many European nations... it won't happen because it's too unfamiliar to fans. We probably wouldn't accept it.

[Azrea]

I think too many teams will hurt MLS. The commissioner wants 28 where many leagues around the world have 20. I believe only Argentina has more..

[Auremena]

I think too many teams will hurt MLS. The commissioner wants 28 where many leagues around the world have 20. I believe only Argentina has more..

The MLS is the smallest American sports league in the US; the NFL has 32 teams, the NHL, NBA, and MLB 30 each. The MLS commissioner likely wants to keep pace with those leagues as football gains ground in the US. Since there's no promotion and relegation, and the league is divided into conferences as with the rest of American sports, there's not really that much point to limiting it to 20 teams for scheduling reasons; like it's not like they have to play a home and away game to every team in that format.

[Eastfield Lodge]

Bye bye Premier League.

[Auremena]

Bye bye Premier League.

Have fun with the summer firesale!

[Eastfield Lodge]

Bye bye Premier League.

Have fun with the summer firesale!

Arsenal might finally bother to buy Sissoko.
But yeah, not looking forward to the gutting.

Or the Spurs match, for that matter.

[Osarius]

But yeah, not looking forward to the gutting.

Ehh... not sure how much "gutting" you'll have. Similar position to Villa in that sense. Except you're slightly better overall than us.
You'll probably lose a few players, but the majority of the first team will be intact, I reckon. Should be favourites to win the Championship.

[Commerce Heights]

So, it’s possible that Liverpool and West Ham could finish tied for sixth or seventh place in the Premier League, which may or may not necessitate a play-off.

I think the scenario for a play-off is actually more complicated than what the BBC describes. If Liverpool qualifies for the Champions League by winning the Europa League, that shouldn’t prevent the need for a play-off. If Liverpool were to finish in a Europa League place, their place would not be passed to the next-best team in the Premier League—instead, England would have 5 entrants to the Champions League and only 2 to the Europa League. If Liverpool did not finish in a Europa League place, then England would have 5 entrants to the Champions League and 3 to the Europa League.

Thus,

• If Liverpool and West Ham are tied for sixth in the Premier League, Liverpool wins the Europa League, and Crystal Palace wins the FA Cup, a play-off would be needed to decide whether West Ham finishes sixth and enters the Europa League third qualifying round, or finishes seventh and fails to qualify.
• If Liverpool and West Ham are tied for sixth in the Premier League, Sevilla wins the Europa League, and Crystal Palace wins the FA Cup, a play-off would be needed to decide which team enters the Europa League third qualifying round.
• If Liverpool and West Ham are tied for sixth in the Premier League, Liverpool wins the Europa League, and Manchester United wins the FA Cup, a play-off would not be needed. West Ham enters the Europa League group stage.
• If Liverpool and West Ham are tied for sixth in the Premier League, Sevilla wins the Europa League, and Manchester United wins the FA Cup, a play-off would be needed to decide which team enters the Europa League group stage, and which enters the third qualifying round.
• If Liverpool and West Ham are tied for seventh in the Premier League and Crystal Palace wins the FA Cup, a play-off would not be needed (regardless of whether Liverpool or Sevilla wins the Europa League). Neither team qualifies for the Europa League.
• If Liverpool and West Ham are tied for seventh in the Premier League, Liverpool wins the Europa League, and Manchester United wins the FA Cup, a play-off would be needed to decide whether West Ham finishes seventh and enters the Europa League third qualifying round, or finishes eighth and fails to qualify.
• If Liverpool and West Ham are tied for seventh in the Premier League, Sevilla wins the Europa League, and Manchester United wins the FA Cup, a play-off would be needed to decide which team enters the Europa League third qualifying round.

[Commerce Heights]

FIFA has admitted the Gibraltar Football Association (just nineteen years after its application was submitted!) and Federata e Futbollit e Kosovës as member associations, and allowed them to enter the European qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018.

I would presume they’ll be drawn into the two groups that currently only have five teams (Groups H and I), and that Russia’s “centralized friendlies” against the teams in Group H will be cancelled. But it will be interesting to see how the UEFA qualifying format is adapted for future World Cups—when the World Cup is not held in Europe, there will be 55 teams competing, which is one more than can fit in the current format of 9 groups of 6.

I’m hoping that the admission of Gibraltar signals the end of Sepp Blatter’s “independent state recognised by the international community” barrier to new FIFA members, and that we may see Bonaire, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Northern Mariana Islands, Réunion, Saint-Martin, Sint Maarten, and Zanzibar (all of which are already members of their continental confederations) join in the coming years. But I won’t hold my breath.

[Eastfield Lodge]

Stretford End and Sir Alex Ferguson stand at Old Trafford evacuated minutes before United-Bournemouth kickoff.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36297390
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/35946670

EDIT: Update - match seems to be abandoned.

[Val Halla]

Newcastle beating Tottenham. Bit late for that

[Liventia]

Stretford End and Sir Alex Ferguson stand at Old Trafford evacuated minutes before United-Bournemouth kickoff.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36297390
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/35946670

EDIT: Update - match seems to be abandoned.

The editor of the club fanzine is saying he's been told it's a mobile phone device.