swag said:
....unless, of course, it's past the group stages against Spain. :rolleyes2
Cheap shot
But then everyone knows the Dutch. They know about Totaalvoetbal. And despite the coverage of the Eredivisie, it's certainly a well-known wellspring of talent and interesting play. Portugal isn't even on the map for that matter (part of that their own doing). Nor have they ever been. Nor has there been much of any pretention of there being anything on the map for a nation that doesn't even top 10 million citizens. Their all-time NT scorer is virtually a walk-on from the Azores, an archipelago so remote that they still speak a form of 14th-century Portuguese left by the original settlers there.
Yes, but it doesn't matter who
knows Dutch football. What matters is who is willing to pay for broadcasting rights (which incomes are channelled to the clubs of course). In case of the Portuguese Superliga, the income through broadcasting rights (and attracted foreign sponsors that would never think about investing in the Eredivisie) is much higher than that of the Dutch Eredivisie. If the Portuguese would even bother to channel those funds in the right directions, they would wipe the floor with us (more so than they currently do

) and easily catch up with the German Bundesliga.
For failing to fulfil precisely that potential, I refer to Portugal as Europe's Inter. Not because their national team keeps failing but because the failing of their national team is related to their failure in fund managing, in marketing of their national league and in training youngsters (and you're not telling me Dutch kids are generally more talented than their Portuguese counterparts).
The Dutch, on the other hand, are at their top. Sixteen million people make up pretty much the entire global audience, in reality as well as potential. Broadcasting rights create much fewer income than is the case in surrounding leagues in England, Germany, France and even Portugal. The big international sponsors that matter stand to gain too little from investing in the Eredivisie to give it a shot. Yes, the Dutch keep failing and falling short. But they have fulfilled their potential: this is as good as they can get.
But after watching Spain completely collapse to a gasping France squad tonight (a squad of 30-year-olds that plays like they're going on 50), I don't think you need to look any further for Europe's Inter.
Let's not get into a wholly different discussion on exactly
why Spain was eliminated
