french league proposals

ullu

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,1723982,00.html

The French league is definitely the worst/most tedious in Europe given the quality of the other leagues with a similar population base (England, Italy, Spain, even Germany).

Do you think these proposed changes would work? I was only a kid when they changed the standard points for a win to three, was that regarded as revolutionary or natural progression?

ctrl-alt-delete

They seem a bit over the top to me! but would be interesting to see, somebody with more time and patience than me should apply it to the premier league so far this season and see how much of an effect it has on it, Obviously you can't allow for penalty shoot outs, but maybe should share them out evenly.

Rikand

Hidalgo's six suggested options are:

1 Keep three points for a win but award two points, rather than one, for a score draw. 'The idea is to get rid of the 0-0,' said Hidalgo. 'Coaches and players are too negative and this is one way to encourage them to be more attackminded.'

2 Give the team scoring first in a draw two points. 'That would discourage all those teams who go away from home thinking a 0-0 would be a good result,' said Hidalgo.

3Ban draws by bringing in penalty shootouts, with the winners receiving two points and the losers one point. 'With a penalty shootout you add suspense, a sort of magic.'

4 Award extra points for teams winning by two or three goals - winning by two goals would earn four points, not three. But also give one point to a losing team that scores.

5Award only two points for winning by one goal and make gaining three points dependent on winning by at least two goals.

6.The points system to remain unchanged but award an extra point to the team who 'win' on aggregate in home and away fixtures against the same team during the season, with away goals counting double in the event of a draw.

options 1,3 and 5 arent too crazy, hehe

Benedict XVI

I think the Charlton executive Peter Varney was the one making most sense in the article.

'There's no magic answer to what to do about the fact that the majority of Premiership clubs know they have no chance of winning it, such as changing the points structure

The problem is not with individual games but the gap between the rich and not so rich.
The fact is that as long as Chelsea have Obramovich's backing and no other teams strike it lucky with a billionaire owner then no one other than Chelsea will win the league.
Having teams like Livepool, United and Arsenal (to name a few) fighting for 2nd place and below a month into the season is sad beyond belive.

dr zoidberg

It's amazing but the country that produced the likes of Zidane (born in Marseilles whatever about him being Algerian) and Henry is not a strong football country at all. Rugby is really the French national sport and most Ligue 1 games average attendances of only 10-12,000. They need to do something to get football into the national mindset, and these changes could do the trick. It won't affect who wins it but it could make games more enjoyable and accessible to an indifferent public. They need to do something to give the game there a boost anyway.

iregk

Benedict XVI wrote:

I think the Charlton executive Peter Varney was the one making most sense in the article.

The problem is not with individual games but the gap between the rich and not so rich.
The fact is that as long as Chelsea have Obramovich's backing and no other teams strike it lucky with a billionaire owner then no one other than Chelsea will win the league.
Having teams like Livepool, United and Arsenal (to name a few) fighting for 2nd place and below a month into the season is sad beyond belive.

Well I think to be fair the premiership has been very boring for a long time. Its either been United or Arsenal, which is great if you follow those but to the rest of us its been crap. Now its just Chelsea and yes thats even worse. The prem is nothing more than a glorified SPL.

Spain and Italy on the other hand usually (this season being an exception) have a handfull of teams going down to teh final month or two so they are really exciting for the race to the title.

French footie is a bit strange. They have a good standard and good teams. You cannot look at Lyon and say they are crap because they are not at all, they are an excellent side. I think there is still too big a divide between rugby and football in france though.