General Football Discussion

[aveslacker]

Qatar have stated today that there has been zero deaths in the construction of the infrastructure....

As they say in English "You're having a laugh"........

It's a bit more insidious than that. They said that there were no deaths in the construction of World Cup stadia (which are still a long ways away from being completed). All those deaths were from other construction projects (like the skyscrapers in downton Doha that are half-occupied or the high rises built at the reclaimed land on the Pearl).

Considering that there is still a lot of construction to be done for the World Cup, there will undoubtedly be many deaths to come.

[Orange14]

The bigger issue is that they are building all these arenas that will never be used after the WC. It was a travesty in South Africa as all that money was spent and the facilities are lying unused. Of course there is the wonderful stadium in Manaus Brazil who don't even have a club team. How long before that is torn down. There was report in the last week or so about FIFA sucking up all the revenue from the WC and the countries getting minimal tourism dollars and the post-WC loss of interest. This is really a cancer that needs to be excised. To me it makes sense to have the WC in a country that already has existing infrastructure so that carrying costs are minimal. This is why the 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles were so successful from a financial perspective (as was the 2006 WC in Germany). Los Angeles only had to build a cycling velodrome and swimming arena, everything else was already in place.

[aveslacker]

Similarly, I lived in Greece during the Olympics and while it was a high point for them at the time, all the money the government spent on the Olympics contributed significantly to their situation today. Now, a lot of the stadia they built for the Olympics are sitting empty. There's a reason why only two bids were submitted for the Winter Olympics. Nobody wants to waste money on that kind of stuff anymore, and nobody wants to put up with the bullshit of the IOC/FIFA.

[Orange14]

Ajax are ranked number one in Europe for financial stability with Arsenal #2 according to a report that was sumarized in the Financial Times today: http://tinyurl.com/pyds86g

[rjf1]

Ajax are ranked number one in Europe for financial stability with Arsenal #2 according to a report that was sumarized in the Financial Times today: http://tinyurl.com/pyds86g

So how many points towards this year's title does that earn us.

[Van basten]

Decent squad eh? http://www.squawka.com/news/just-look-a ... ers/423878?
p.s. Never realized,that Filipe Luis was at Ajax at some point.

[Orange14]

According to Wikipedia Felipe Luis spent the 2004-5 season with Ajax but never played a first team match.

[Van basten]

Nice gesture http://copa90.com/ajax-heroes-surprise- ... gest-fans/?

[Tom_]

Not sure where to post this. Ajax Life are using Opta stats this season for their match reports. I reckon it adds something to the reports when the author tries to back up their point with a statistic, even if we all know stats can be cooked. Anyway, here's the report of the AZ game for those who haven't seen it: http://www.ajaxlife.nl/updates/tete-dru ... azaja-1516

[afcajax73]

im not sure if this is the right section or not, but... has anyone seen this?

why is it that Ronald can think and see this issue but Frank cant?

http://www.football-oranje.com/sanogo-h ... o-de-boer/

not only has he seen straight away that Sanogo has nothing to offer us, he can also so see that we have no strength, depth or speed throughout our whole squad.

[Orange14]

Dimiter Berbatov is still available on a free transfer! Even though he's 34 he is better than Sanogo. There were some other older strikers that could have been had such as Didier Drogba and Kevin Kuranyi but their salary requirements were probably too high. It doesn't help things that our mediocre US/Canada league is wildly overpaying for older players.

[SPL]

first impression of Sanogo he looks as useless as Siggy.Ronald de Boer today saying 18 year old Jamaican winger Leon Bailey is fast and a great talent.We have been looking at him for a year but he is joining Genk. Moses Daddy a Nigerian winger looked at by us now at Gent and is highly rated. We are stuck with an injury prone German winger and a non descript Arsenal reserve striker.

[souras84]

first impression of Sanogo he looks as useless as Siggy.Ronald de Boer today saying 18 year old Jamaican winger Leon Bailey is fast and a great talent.We have been looking at him for a year but he is joining Genk. Moses Daddy a Nigerian winger looked at by us now at Gent and is highly rated. We are stuck with an injury prone German winger and a non descript Arsenal reserve striker.

What's new?

[Amol]

I just read about this case which FIFPro is going to fight for -

http://www.theguardian.com/football/201 ... a-brussels

I don't know what this will do to European Football is they succeed. Will it completely demolish the leagues in the smaller countries or will the effect be the opposite?

[Orange14]

I just read about this case which FIFPro is going to fight for -

http://www.theguardian.com/football/201 ... a-brussels

I don't know what this will do to European Football is they succeed. Will it completely demolish the leagues in the smaller countries or will the effect be the opposite?

Interesting article but I think the only real thing that can come of this is the limit on the number of players under contract. I think Chelsea have about 30 contracted players on loan to various leagues throughout Europe and this is in addition to the 28 or so that they have on their first team squad. It's not clear to me that capping this at some level is legal under EU law. I also don't know how they get rid of transfer fees. Such fees are only an issue if the player is still under contract to the club and certainly there is no way that any agreement will do away with contracts as this clearly would not be legal. If I'm a lightbulb engineer, Philips certainly have a vested interest in keeping me under contract in Eindhoven and would fight long and hard if the EU decided to do away with contracts for lightbulb engineers.

The tricky part of this is what happens to a player in his last year of a contract when he refuses to extend. The club banishes him (e.g., Boilesen) from the first team. While this is unfortunate for the player I think the club has a right under law to do this. It's not like Boilesen is being kept captive, but rather that no other club wants him.

The only way competitiveness is evened out over the EU is by common sharing of television revenues which is the biggest driver of inequality. You can all hold your breath waiting for that to happen and this would certainly give England yet another reason to leave the EU!!

[Orange14]

Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid were both handed transfer bans for child trafficking in underage players. The bans are similar to the one Barcelona received and cover the next two transfer windows. According to reports, Real had brought in 25 underage Chinese footballers and Athletico had 21 underage foreign born players in their youth academy. Both teams also received monetary penalties. Looks like Paul Pogba won't be moving to Madrid any time soon.

[SPL]

Lots of comments about this idiot who hung a doll of Vermeer with a noose over the balcony last Sunday. He was arrested banned from the Arena and faces criminal action .

Not sure what more Ajax can do but talk of points deductions ,games with no fans. I fail to see why this should apply because of the action of one fan.

Meanwhile all these anti Ajax people should be asking why ADO have not been fined ,points deducted and been made to play behind closed doors as a result of a few 100 fans chanting racist chants at Bazoer.

The behaviour of our fan was disgusting but was one person . ADO's ground should be closed to fans for 2 home games as there is no room in sport for racism and indeed in society.

[Ayman]

Since PSV were knocked out of the knock out stages/preliminary round of the CL, what implication does this have on the Eredivise for the 2 slots for the CL position, I read that Holland are out of the top 8 but still in the top ten and only if they slip out of the top 13, they would lose that extra slot for the CL. Anybody knows?

[Cruijff]

Next upcoming season we still have the Eredivisie champion directly qualified for the Champions League and the number 2 of the league playing qualifications.

Russia and Ukraine are higher on the UEFA ranking now, but the Dutch clubs must start performing before also Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Greece, Cyprus and some others will overtake us.

[souras84]

Greece isn't overtaking anyone. Don't worry

[Cruijff]

Greece isn't overtaking anyone. Don't worry

Haha well especially Olympiakos Piraeus is performing a lot better in Europe than Ajax, lately.

[souras84]

Greece isn't overtaking anyone. Don't worry

Haha well especially Olympiakos Piraeus is performing a lot better in Europe than Ajax, lately.

That is something I cannot accept! I always argue with my friends, how a bunch of mercenaries (olympiakos) perform better than us every year

[Orange14]

The feel good story of the year is Leicester City's improbable run towards the EPL championship. 5000-1 odds against at the beginning of the season and they are only 12 points away with seven games to play. I've been watching their matches and they are resolute in their defending and winning lots of 1 goal victories.

[SPL]

Its great to see a little side doing so well. I think Leicester will do it now.

[Orange14]

Watching Liverpool/Dortmund EL match. Why can't Ajax play like Dortmund????