European Super League

[Leyther_Matt]

8 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

It would just mean Aberdeen and a couple of others would fill the gap. They'd all miss the money from attendees. 

I think some would be happy to see them gone, as some of us would if the big six had fucked off, but there is still the financial risk that the money moves with them.

It's more of a moral argument though.

The TV money would take a hit, no doubt about it. In terms of gate receipts, it’s been years since clubs have been allocating 6,000+ tickets to the Old Firm for one reason or another, so I think increased home interest from a more even competition would more than cover that. As you say, they’re quite similar arguments to the ESL six being fucked off really. 

[SatanGreavsie]

1 hour ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

I played in the Welsh Premiership/Konica for 2 seasons when it first started. It's shite. It's also a fckg long way/time to get to some of the away matches. Mold to Haverfordwest for a Tuesday evening match in November is no joke. I packed it in for that reason, dropped down a division, got promoted & so jacked it in there too.

Laughable grounds mostly, but rules force tiny teams with miniscule 'crowds' to have a stand & a minimum requirement for seats and other facilities utterly out of proportion to the scale. So you have an open field, with a railing barrier to the pitch but a tin shed 'stand' with 50 or so seats. They have to have number of officials in attendance and medics, first aiders etc. attend ... for, usually 150 or so people & their dogs. I just looked & the average league gate for LAST season, before it was abandoned, was 325.

But European money is available for the couple of clubs who attain it. Stupid amounts, so they can get beaten by a team from Malta or North Macedonia in July. The current 'big' club in TNS, or The New Saints. They use that name because Oswestry Utd. would reveal that it's actually in England. 

Being interviewed by S4C's commentators who, despite speaking perfect English in day to day activities suddenly break out into spitty Cymraeg as they shove a microphone under your nose and you stand like a rabbit in headlights, is a weird experience too.

Wankers. The competion should be closed down.

Rant over.

stop sitting on the fence mon, say what you really think about them 🤣

[Dr. Feelgood]

9 minutes ago, SatanGreavsie said:

stop sitting on the fence mon, say what you really think about them 🤣

I could go on !

[deane koontz]

2 hours ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

I played in the Welsh Premiership/Konica for 2 seasons when it first started. It's shite. It's also a fckg long way/time to get to some of the away matches. Mold to Haverfordwest for a Tuesday evening match in November is no joke. I packed it in for that reason, dropped down a division, got promoted & so jacked it in there too.

Laughable grounds mostly, but rules force tiny teams with miniscule 'crowds' to have a stand & a minimum requirement for seats and other facilities utterly out of proportion to the scale. So you have an open field, with a railing barrier to the pitch but a tin shed 'stand' with 50 or so seats. They have to have number of officials in attendance and medics, first aiders etc. attend ... for, usually 150 or so people & their dogs. I just looked & the average league gate for LAST season, before it was abandoned, was 325.

But European money is available for the couple of clubs who attain it. Stupid amounts, so they can get beaten by a team from Malta or North Macedonia in July. The current 'big' club in TNS, or The New Saints. They use that name because Oswestry Utd. would reveal that it's actually in England. 

Being interviewed by S4C's commentators who, despite speaking perfect English in day to day activities suddenly break out into spitty Cymraeg as they shove a microphone under your nose and you stand like a rabbit in headlights, is a weird experience too.

Wankers. The competion should be closed down.

Rant over.

[MickyD]

29 minutes ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

I could go on !

You could, indeed. 😀😀😀

[Leyther_Matt]

2 hours ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

I played in the Welsh Premiership/Konica for 2 seasons when it first started. It's shite. It's also a fckg long way/time to get to some of the away matches. Mold to Haverfordwest for a Tuesday evening match in November is no joke. I packed it in for that reason, dropped down a division, got promoted & so jacked it in there too.

Laughable grounds mostly, but rules force tiny teams with miniscule 'crowds' to have a stand & a minimum requirement for seats and other facilities utterly out of proportion to the scale. So you have an open field, with a railing barrier to the pitch but a tin shed 'stand' with 50 or so seats. They have to have number of officials in attendance and medics, first aiders etc. attend ... for, usually 150 or so people & their dogs. I just looked & the average league gate for LAST season, before it was abandoned, was 325.

But European money is available for the couple of clubs who attain it. Stupid amounts, so they can get beaten by a team from Malta or North Macedonia in July. The current 'big' club in TNS, or The New Saints. They use that name because Oswestry Utd. would reveal that it's actually in England. 

Being interviewed by S4C's commentators who, despite speaking perfect English in day to day activities suddenly break out into spitty Cymraeg as they shove a microphone under your nose and you stand like a rabbit in headlights, is a weird experience too.

Wankers. The competion should be closed down.

Rant over.

You may be pleased to know that TNS got dicked 4-1 at home to Connah’s Quay yesterday. Connah’s Quay - featuring Neil Danns, no less - are three points clear at the top.  

[Dr. Feelgood]

1 hour ago, Leyther_Matt said:

You may be pleased to know that TNS got dicked 4-1 at home to Connah’s Quay yesterday. Connah’s Quay - featuring Neil Danns, no less - are three points clear at the top.  

I quite like an English club winning the Welsh league tbh.

Connah's Quay ... in reality a bunch of Scousers.

Like Flint Town where had the pleasure of playing against Ian Rush's brothers, who were famous for .... being Ian Rush's brothers & f'call else (enormous noses notwithstanding).

Edited April 25, 2021 by Dr. Feelgood

[DavidLeesMullet]

1 hour ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

I quite like an English club winning the Welsh league tbh.

Connah's Quay ... in reality a bunch of Scousers.

Like Flint Town where had the pleasure of playing against Ian Rush's brothers, who were famous for .... being Ian Rush's brothers & f'call else (enormous noses notwithstanding).

Never understood why Welsh clubs are in the English football league, shouldn't they be in the Welsh leagues?

[Tonge moor green jacket]

10 minutes ago, DavidLeesMullet said:

Never understood why Welsh clubs are in the English football league, shouldn't they be in the Welsh leagues?

Only 2 (3 to an extent) that can realistically be professional and of any size. They are obviously much, much bigger than anything else and as such it would bring huge disparity to their league.

At least in Scotland, there are enough cities and towns to support professional clubs, even if most aren't particularly big.

The league structure at least separates them into similar sizes/abilities with the relevant promotion and relegation to allow evolution and decay to occur.

[Sweep]

15 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Only 2 (3 to an extent) that can realistically be professional

Until reasonably recent times there were four of course, and that's their ceiling, nowhere else in Wales could get close to sustaining a decent level of football. I don't tend to follow jumpers for goalposts football, so I don't know if there are any Welsh teams (other than Wrexham) who prefer to play on the English league pyramid, rather than join the Welsh league

[Dr. Feelgood]

17 minutes ago, DavidLeesMullet said:

Never understood why Welsh clubs are in the English football league, shouldn't they be in the Welsh leagues?

The Welsh FA run the Welsh league & in their over excited days following the creation of Blair's Welsh Assembly had grandiose ideas but, as pointed out above, the main 4 clubs would utterly swamp any combined Welsh League. When the Assembly began the pyramid teams were pressurised to join 'a Welsh League for Welsh Clubs" (I kid you not. Royston Vasey nearly joined). It was really quite unpleasant. The 'big 4' got pressure too but turned them down flat.

Cardiff only became the capital of Wales in 1955. Prior to that it was Machynlleth !! Liverpool acted for it at times.

You also have to look at lanscape an population. The border, quite different than the Scottish one is populated quite heavily and is extremely porous. People work & live on both sides. So the politics & attitudes are quite different. Football wise, in North Wales most people see Wrexham as their "as well" club whilst supporting, usually, Everton, with some oddballs following Red wearing teams. Cardiff & Swansea wouldn't swap their past 20 years for the joy of playing Rhosneigr or Camaes Bay, or Cefn Druids or British Aerospace.

 

[Tonge moor green jacket]

5 minutes ago, Sweep said:

Until reasonably recent times there were four of course, and that's their ceiling, nowhere else in Wales could get close to sustaining a decent level of football. I don't tend to follow jumpers for goalposts football, so I don't know if there are any Welsh teams (other than Wrexham) who prefer to play on the English league pyramid, rather than join the Welsh league

You are correct, though I was wondering how huge have Newport ever been?

 

[MickyD]

9 minutes ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

The Welsh FA run the Welsh league & in their over excited days following the creation of Blair's Welsh Assembly had grandiose ideas but, as pointed out above, the main 4 clubs would utterly swamp any combined Welsh League. When the Assembly began the pyramid teams were pressurised to join 'a Welsh League for Welsh Clubs" (I kid you not. Royston Vasey nearly joined). It was really quite unpleasant. The 'big 4' got pressure too but turned them down flat.

Cardiff only became the capital of Wales in 1955. Prior to that it was Machynlleth !! Liverpool acted for it at times.

You also have to look at lanscape an population. The border, quite different than the Scottish one is populated quite heavily and is extremely porous. People work & live on both sides. So the politics & attitudes are quite different. Football wise, in North Wales most people see Wrexham as their "as well" club whilst supporting, usually, Everton, with some oddballs following Red wearing teams. Cardiff & Swansea wouldn't swap their past 20 years for the joy of playing Rhosneigr or Camaes Bay, or Cefn Druids or British Aerospace.

 

Is British Aerospace the new name for Airbus or are they still a team?

[Dr. Feelgood]

1 minute ago, MickyD said:

Is British Aerospace the new name for Airbus or are they still a team?

Yes. Sorry. Airbus, Broughton.

Chester basically.

[Sweep]

13 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

You are correct, though I was wondering how huge have Newport ever been?

 

I think they've always been a bit shit, but they once got to a Q/F of the UEFA Cup once I believe (or it might have been the old Cup Winners Cup) -  I'm not sure if they've ever achieved anything else of note though

[DavidLeesMullet]

1 hour ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Only 2 (3 to an extent) that can realistically be professional and of any size. They are obviously much, much bigger than anything else and as such it would bring huge disparity to their league.

At least in Scotland, there are enough cities and towns to support professional clubs, even if most aren't particularly big.

The league structure at least separates them into similar sizes/abilities with the relevant promotion and relegation to allow evolution and decay to occur.

Over the years there have been a total of six Welsh clubs in the football league, Aberdare Athletic, Cardiff City, Merthyr Town, Newport County, Swansea City and Wrexham.

Also Berwick Rangers should technically be in the English and not the Scottish League.

[deane koontz]

Boot them out so they can make a Welsh Super League.

[DavidLeesMullet]

5 minutes ago, deane koontz said:

Boot them out so they can make a Welsh Super League.

Agree, the only way Welsh football will improve is to play against better opposition.

[Leyther_Matt]

3 hours ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

The Welsh FA run the Welsh league & in their over excited days following the creation of Blair's Welsh Assembly had grandiose ideas but, as pointed out above, the main 4 clubs would utterly swamp any combined Welsh League. When the Assembly began the pyramid teams were pressurised to join 'a Welsh League for Welsh Clubs"

It was well before that, 1992ish I think. UEFA had threatened the Welsh FA that they would no longer be allowed a national side without a recognisable national league. 

At the time, Bangor City, Caernarfon and others were playing in the English leagues and were determined to stay there, even playing a year or two in exile (at Northwich, I think) before eventually given up on their court case and joining what was when the League of Wales.

Colwyn Bay had been an established Northern Premier club for donkey’s years but chose to join the Welsh system two or three years ago. 

Wrexham could of course be upwardly mobile in years to come depending on their investment from Hollywood. 

[Zico]

1 hour ago, DavidLeesMullet said:

Agree, the only way Welsh football will improve is to play against better opposition.

Are the Welsh really arsed? 

Knew some lads from Colwyn Bay who'd all moved to Manc and they all supported random English teams 

One to be fair did Follow Colwyn Bay through the lower (English) leagues and Wales in Europe but was also a Liverpool fan who used to support Utd 

They all enjoyed the Euros when Wales qualified, but non of them give a fuck about the Welsh leagues as none of those who play there doesn't represent the national team 

[MalcolmW]

Merthyr Town still play in the Southern League in the English pyramid.

[MalcolmW]

Both Newport and Merthyr have appeared in the old Cup-Winners Cup, Newport reached the QF.

[leigh white]

I worked in Wales, and they all sounded like Welsh people in the pubs, so annoyed I went back to my digs early.

[Dr. Feelgood]

2 hours ago, MalcolmW said:

Both Newport and Merthyr have appeared in the old Cup-Winners Cup, Newport reached the QF.

As have Wrexham, I watched them defeat Porto, with Mickey Walsh (ex Blackpool). I would expect Cardiff & Swansea have had similar highlights.

When the Welsh FA started getting ansie they gave these clubs the option of playing in the Welsh Cup with their high chance of winning & hence Cup-Winners Cup action, or the English with the probability of not winning & no Europe.the "refusniks', to the shock of the WFA, chose the 'English' Cup.

They were briefly readmitted but UEFA then re-established the take-it or leave-it approach.

Merthyr have gone through serious ups & downs, to the delight of the WFA. Bangor, Barry, Colwyn, Rhyl & more all, eventually caved.

The Welsh are wankers.

Edited April 25, 2021 by Dr. Feelgood

[DavidLeesMullet]

2 hours ago, Zico said:

Are the Welsh really arsed? 

Knew some lads from Colwyn Bay who'd all moved to Manc and they all supported random English teams 

One to be fair did Follow Colwyn Bay through the lower (English) leagues and Wales in Europe but was also a Liverpool fan who used to support Utd 

They all enjoyed the Euros when Wales qualified, but non of them give a fuck about the Welsh leagues as none of those who play there doesn't represent the national team 

I've seen Colwyn Bay play in the late 80s when they played my hometown team. We beat them 4-1 even though we were decidedly average.

Think we still had Kevin Hector playing for us at the time and a bit later on a certain Neil Whatmore