FC Krasnodars new stadium.
It features a 360° screen round the ground
One hell of a stadium for an 8 year old club. FFP* compliant no doubt
*Funded from Petroleum
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One hell of a stadium for an 8 year old club. FFP* compliant no doubt
*Funded from Petroleum
Talking of Bruma, we're linked with him. Has he lived up to his very early hype out in Turkey?
nope to be honest. Was loaned to Sociedad last season and wasn't exactly a sucess, but is having a great beggining of season on turkey. enormous talent
There are just too many teams participating nowadays, many of which are of questionable quality. Belgium played Gibraltar yesterday for example... completely pointless. A waste of everyone's time. Too many weak countries these days participating in the qualifying rounds, giving us all these boring matches where you already know what the outcome is going to be. Look at the group England is in for example, or Belgium... so weak, so predictable in terms of who will win it.
Obviously this is not just the fault of the UEFA/FIFA, because the break-up of the Soviet-Union and Yugoslavia forced this upon them. And despite the fact that countries like San Marino and Liechtenstein are completely pointless to have on the footballing stage, they do have the right to try to qualify imo. Still, you do wonder whether they can't do some kind of preliminary play-off rounds to already make a selection before some of these weaker teams join the main qualifying groups. They do it in the CL and EL, why not here?
Obviously this is not just the fault of the UEFA/FIFA, because the break-up of the Soviet-Union and Yugoslavia forced this upon them. And despite the fact that countries like San Marino and Liechtenstein are completely pointless to have on the footballing stage, they do have the right to try to qualify imo. Still, you do wonder whether they can't do some kind of preliminary play-off rounds to already make a selection before some of these weaker teams join the main qualifying groups. They do it in the CL and EL, why not here?
Completely agree. It's an absolute joke when you have teams that celebrate scoring a goal like it was a win.
Never earned both promotions either.
Owned by a billionaire businessman who's wealth has nothing to do with oil or the mines. At least he is going about it the correct way and not trying to buy success through highly paid imports ala Anzhi.
I think I read a few years back they only had 10,000 fans.
He has built the club up nicely really. Invested a lot in a youth academy too.
Is it just me or are most of the better players on the bench?Onomah starting for U21s.
This has always been the case, it hardly a new phenomenon. I remember England battering Turkey by 8-0 in the eighties. Scotland walloped 6 past Yugoslavia in the mid eighties too. If those games were played today, the UK lot would get buttfucked from here to next year. Only by playing against better teams did these diddy countries get any better.
Look at any World Cup or Euros over the past few decades. Very few "favourites" ever came unstuck in qualifying and very few ever will. Making San Marino play Liechtenstein in a qualifier won't make it any less likely that Belgium will finish top of a group.
Also, it was only a couple of days ago that England only beat Malta 2-0 at home. Thirty years ago, maybe 10-0? They got beat by Iceland recently too. These are teams that wouldn't be in with a hope if you had to separate the wheat from the chaff in qualifiers. However, now punching above their previous strength.
Finally, look at the leagues in the CL and EL and tell me you can't predict the qualifiers from those to about 90% accuracy. Goons, PSG, Basel and Ludogorets? Toughie. Man City, Barcelona, Celtic, Borussia M? Hmmmm, I wonder.... every competition is the same.
Those teams didn't get better from playing solid sides with traditions, they've got better because they decided to become more professional - build better facilities, invest money in youth academies, etc. After the break up of the USSR you also saw top quality players flooding the crappy European leagues for peanuts (I remember my local side nearly signed Pavel Nedved for 150K before Euro 96).
Most of those countries took a professional approach to football and invested in their national teams. The UK group (of national teams and football associations) didn't move an inch professionally wise since. It's ridiculous the impressive (yet sometimes depressing) level a PL side is run as compared to the muggy English national team and FA. the FA did not move past the year 1990
I agree that investment helped. I disagree strongly that it had nothing to do with playing better sides. In any walk of life, spending time in competition, or being mentored by, someone better, generally improves performance.
What would be the point in the likes of Turkey investing in their infrastructure, thirty years back, if they weren't going to be able to test themselves against better sides?
San Marino, Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Andorra ... those teams can play as many top teams as you like, they are never going to be anywhere close to international standard.
I don't believe that's true. I do believe they deserve the chance to prove you wrong.
I agree it's unlikely they could ever become a superpower of the game, but there's absolutely nothing to stop any of these teams improving to the extent that Wales and Iceland have over the past decade, leading to them being a regular third place in the group kind of team.
Didn't the Faroes draw with Scotland and only lose 1-0 to Italy quite recently? I get what you're saying but it's a bit harsh to deny these members (and their fans) the opportunity.