Liverpool to defend trophy (12 Viewers)

[madlawyer1]

++ [ originally posted by chxta ] ++
Couldn't have said it better myself. Welcome back mad one. Where have you been?

Men, I've been back at Law School in a village named Bwari in Abuja. There's no electricity, and no way to go on-line. Besides, I gotta crushing workload here. It's almost as if they want to bury us students alive, but we'll show them.

 

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[Chxta]

++ [ originally posted by madlawyer1 ] ++


Men, I've been back at Law School in a village named Bwari in Abuja. There's no electricity, and no way to go on-line. Besides, I gotta crushing workload here. It's almost as if they want to bury us students alive, but we'll show them.

Now that is the part of school I don't miss!

 

[madlawyer1]

Amen to that brother.

 

[SobatPadi]

UNFAIR !!!!!!!

what is so special about liverpool, that they must defend the title..
the english fa should do something, not uefa....

 

[madlawyer1]

++ [ originally posted by SobatPadi ] ++
UNFAIR !!!!!!!

what is so special about liverpool, that they must defend the title..
the english fa should do something, not uefa....

fully agree with you mon ami

 

[Henry]

the FA should have figured things out, but from what I have read Liverpool has not kept another team from entering, which is a good thing. Fenerbahce actually skip a round as a result

 

[swag]

++ [ originally posted by madlawyer1 ] ++
Amen to that brother.

Ahhh ... graduate degrees. Part eduation. Part hazing ritual.

 

[swag]

++ [ originally posted by SobatPadi ] ++
UNFAIR !!!!!!!

what is so special about liverpool, that they must defend the title..
the english fa should do something, not uefa....

In some ways, I give the FA credit here. They held steadfast to the rules and their convictions, and they didn't knuckle under. It was as if they played a game of chicken with UEFA... wanting to see who might blink first.

UEFA obviously blinked big time, bending over to sentimentality and appeasing a team with a larger, more vocal fanbase and support group. (Treatment that a Red Star Belgrade, for example, would never get.)

 

[swag]

Actually, it makes sense to me why the FA would win the chicken game over the UEFA. The answer really comes down to money.

The FA has little to gain whether they decided to put Everton or Liverpool in the CL. The UEFA stands to benefit more by generating more TV viewership, distribution rights leverage, etc., by having Liverpool in it to "defend their title" (quotes added to emphasize delusion and detatchment from reality). And even better for them if they can find a way for five EPL clubs to make it in the tournament qualifications somehow.

And a Red Star Belgrade? How much viewership, economic support, and game attendance would that represent relative to the English economic market experiencing their first CL victory in ages?

It's really just all about money. The UEFA is just pimping out the smaller clubs with this decision.

 

[Torkel]

As usual the big teams win with UEFA. How I miss the old CL from the early nineties. The fact that "big" football countries have 4 or 5 spots while a whole lot of (quite big) countries haven't gotten any teams that are directly qualified make me want to puke.

I think that the reigning champion should get a spot, but at the expense over a team from their own country.

 

[Tom]

I agree that its a farce that any nation can have 5 representatives in the "champions league" - also the fact that an 8th or 9th place team can feasibly get into Europe is rather a joke

 

[Bjerknes]

++ [ originally posted by Emma ] ++


Andy stop being such a whiny little shit and dont bother posting towards me if that is all you have to say all the time. Stick to suck up posts towards the people you admire here, you are good at them.

I'm sorry....I won't state the obvious next time.

Greg summed it up rather nicely.

 

[Nicole]

Emma and Andy remind me of a married couple, you guys gonna hook up or what?

 

[Bjerknes]

lol I would say probably not.

Perhaps she would favor Burke instead..

 

[baggio]

++ [ originally posted by Andy ] ++
I just feel for the smaller clubs that could have made it into the CL and now will face their demise against the Champions of Europe.

But somewhere down the line, isnt that the point of the tournament anyway? A place for the elite.


PS: I personally feel Liverpool must have the right to defend their trophy. Given, that it maybe against the rules, i guess Uefa have been rather shortsighted on this issue. However, it also seems like a situation, that wouldnt really need to be accounted for. How often would a team placed fifth in their league actually go out there and win the Champions League? Nobody i guess, thought it possible, and now that it happened, the shit has hit the ceiling. And i just feel, the final decision, has been made giving the benefit of the doubt, to the champions, in what is fairer than what most of us would consider.

 

[Henry]

um swag.......why the quotation marks on "defend their title"??? how would they not be defending their title?

 

[swag]

++ [ originally posted by HWIENIAWSKI ] ++
um swag.......why the quotation marks on "defend their title"??? how would they not be defending their title?

Now your Liverpool fandom here is pretty obvious, Henry. And I intend to take nothing away from Liverpool's CL victory this season, which I feel was well deserved.

But there are two major reasons why I put "defend the title" in quotes:

1) The realistic, practical merits of any notion that Liverpool is capable of truly defending their title.

If you look at the period in the CL since Bayern Munich defended a CL title in 1975-76, only Milan of 1989-90 has actually successfully defended their CL title in today's modern era of the European sport. And the Milan of 1989-1990 was a completely different machine than Liverpool is today. Granted, the Sacchi-era Milan of Van Basten, Rijkaard, and Gullit did not win the Scudetto in either of those years (placing third to Inter and Napoli in '89 and then second to Napoli in '90). But they were the only squad in almost the past 30 years to truly defend their CL title, and yet they were entirely capable of it back then. The Liverpool of 2004-5, sentiment aside, is not anywhere close to the Milan of 1989-90 in terms of being considered a true champion of Europe capable of repeating.

So any concept of Liverpool "defending the title" next year is a rather moot point or exercise with little more than symbolic value.

2) The qualification rules.

By not even finishing in the first four EPL slots, which is arguably the first qualification round for any determination of teams in the next season's CL, Liverpool had effectively failed to defend their title before they had even won it in the first place.

 

[Maher]

i hope they will be knocked out before they reach the group stages

 

[Emma]

++ [ originally posted by Andy ] ++

I'm sorry....I won't state the obvious next time.

Greg summed it up rather nicely.

Shadowfax made the same point, so I guess I'm right.

 

[baggio]

++ [ originally posted by swag ] ++
So any concept of Liverpool "defending the title" next year is a rather moot point or exercise with little more than symbolic value.

But that was the case this year too. They are as strong or as weak going in to the defense of their title, which they have won by beating arguably superior teams. So that isnt really a point of contention.