While the Premier League struggles to convince English football fans and the wider community around the world that a 39th fixture would give its product greater popularity, La Liga has taken a similar initiative and gone one better. From the 2010-11 season, Spanish teams will play an extra fixture in a series of venues around the globe to promote its already familiar brand.
In a statement released today, Tonto De Abril, LFP spokesman, revealed that negotiations have been taking place during the last nine weeks with numerous football federations around the world and a series of agreements are now in place. As a result, the following cities will host a '39th game' (or 'El Juego 39' as it's known in Spain) at the end of the 2011 campaign:
Bogota, Colombia
Umtata, South Africa
Lahore, Pakistan
Libreville, Gabon
Seoul, South Korea
Stuttgart, Germany
Halifax, Canada
Indianapolis, USA
Tomsk, Russia
Taipei, Taiwan
The sheer variety in these locations is quite deliberate, according to De Abril.
"We want to bring Spanish football to the many people around the world who so far could only have dreamed it or watched on their TV's. 'El Juego 39' has been welcomed in countries from Russia to South Africa and we believe our different cultures will combine to bring excitement to the fans of our respective nations."
The surprising element to this announcement comes amid defiant resistance to the idea first put forward by Premier League Chief Executive, Peter Scudamore. It's thought the Spanish authorities were prepared to do much more to promote the game in the countries where their own version of the 39th Game will be played in direct contrast to the English representatives who seemed merely intent on showcasing the English game and nothing more.
Reaction to the announcement in Madrid has been mixed with many people pleased to see the Spanish League promoted around the world in preference to the Premier League, while others were noticeably against the idea.
The popularity of the scheme, however, may rest on the date selected for the final game of the 2010-11 Spanish season to be played on. The suggestion of April 1st is proving to be controversial and is expected to be reviewed in the interim period.
Showing posts with label La Liga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label La Liga. Show all posts
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
Friday, 25 May 2007
La Liga: Round 36 Preview
Written by Chris (B Squad)
With just three matches remaining, the title race has come down to four teams separated by a mere four points. The top four will all be playing at home this weekend, where they've felt quite comfortable and have the records to prove it.
Valencia is a side that, while only four points behind Real Madrid, will need to take the full nine points remaining in their season in order to keep the flame of their title hopes lit. They defeated Villareal 1-0 in the corresponding fixture in January. And while Valencia does sport an impressive home record, allowing only ten goals this season, Villareal have won five straight, including a win against Barcelona. Villareal will be well motivated for this match, as they are just one point out of the final UEFA Cup spot. Valencia have seen Joaquin and David Silva hit their stride in recent weeks and will hope David Villa can regain some of his early season form. Villareal, however, must rely on the inconsistent but occasionally brilliant Diego Forlan, who will need to have an impressive match if they are to take any points with them.
Prediction: Valencia to win 2-0
Sevilla, meanwhile, will be playing host to Real Zaragoza in what looks to be the most difficult match for the top four. Zaragoza is firmly entrenched in a UEFA Cup spot, and only seven points out of the fourth and final Champion's League spot. Sevilla is hardly out of the title chase, two points back, but will need some luck coupled with a few mistakes by Barca and Madrid. On average Sevilla concedes less than one goal a game at home, but Zaragoza is one of the better goal scoring teams on the road. They also took three points from Sevilla in January, winning 2-1. But Sevilla are still on course for a possible treble, and Freddy Kanoute seems to have a nose for goal in the dying moments of the match.
Prediction: Sevilla to win 2-1
Getafe will visit the Nou Camp just weeks after shocking Barcelona 4-0 and sending them crashing out of the Copa Del Rey. They will look to continue their good run of form and push toward the final UEFA Cup spot. Barcelona, on the other hand, has been wildly inconsistent, looking disinterest, unorganized, and at times outright lazy. Many, including myself, declared them to be dead and buried before last weeks 6-0 slaughter of Athletico Madrid. Getafe are not the most offensively minded side, having scored just 38 goals all season. And with Eto'o, Ronaldinho, and Messi looking as if they've awoken from their hibernation, one wonders if Getafe will be able to find the goals needed to match this newly tuned machine.
Prediction: Barcelona to win 3-1
And finally the team who now seems destined to take home the honors this season, Real Madrid, will host lowly Deportivo La Coruña. Depor has the worst goal scoring record in La Liga at just 26 goals, and only nine away from home. Considering the fine form Beckham, Guti, Robinho, and RVN have found, Depor will be lucky to leave with any shred of dignity. They have very little left for which to play and are coming off of an awful run of form. Real, in the meantime, have won five straight and look nothing short the future title holders.
Prediction: Real Madrid to win 3-0
With just three matches remaining, the title race has come down to four teams separated by a mere four points. The top four will all be playing at home this weekend, where they've felt quite comfortable and have the records to prove it.
Valencia is a side that, while only four points behind Real Madrid, will need to take the full nine points remaining in their season in order to keep the flame of their title hopes lit. They defeated Villareal 1-0 in the corresponding fixture in January. And while Valencia does sport an impressive home record, allowing only ten goals this season, Villareal have won five straight, including a win against Barcelona. Villareal will be well motivated for this match, as they are just one point out of the final UEFA Cup spot. Valencia have seen Joaquin and David Silva hit their stride in recent weeks and will hope David Villa can regain some of his early season form. Villareal, however, must rely on the inconsistent but occasionally brilliant Diego Forlan, who will need to have an impressive match if they are to take any points with them.
Prediction: Valencia to win 2-0
Sevilla, meanwhile, will be playing host to Real Zaragoza in what looks to be the most difficult match for the top four. Zaragoza is firmly entrenched in a UEFA Cup spot, and only seven points out of the fourth and final Champion's League spot. Sevilla is hardly out of the title chase, two points back, but will need some luck coupled with a few mistakes by Barca and Madrid. On average Sevilla concedes less than one goal a game at home, but Zaragoza is one of the better goal scoring teams on the road. They also took three points from Sevilla in January, winning 2-1. But Sevilla are still on course for a possible treble, and Freddy Kanoute seems to have a nose for goal in the dying moments of the match.
Prediction: Sevilla to win 2-1
Getafe will visit the Nou Camp just weeks after shocking Barcelona 4-0 and sending them crashing out of the Copa Del Rey. They will look to continue their good run of form and push toward the final UEFA Cup spot. Barcelona, on the other hand, has been wildly inconsistent, looking disinterest, unorganized, and at times outright lazy. Many, including myself, declared them to be dead and buried before last weeks 6-0 slaughter of Athletico Madrid. Getafe are not the most offensively minded side, having scored just 38 goals all season. And with Eto'o, Ronaldinho, and Messi looking as if they've awoken from their hibernation, one wonders if Getafe will be able to find the goals needed to match this newly tuned machine.
Prediction: Barcelona to win 3-1
And finally the team who now seems destined to take home the honors this season, Real Madrid, will host lowly Deportivo La Coruña. Depor has the worst goal scoring record in La Liga at just 26 goals, and only nine away from home. Considering the fine form Beckham, Guti, Robinho, and RVN have found, Depor will be lucky to leave with any shred of dignity. They have very little left for which to play and are coming off of an awful run of form. Real, in the meantime, have won five straight and look nothing short the future title holders.
Prediction: Real Madrid to win 3-0
Monday, 21 May 2007
Foreign Legions
How proud I felt recently as I drove to work, listening to the radio. Three English teams had qualified for the Champions League semi-finals with every chance of an all-English Final.
What a shame that the pride which was enveloping my whole body at a staggering rate came to a shuddering halt just as quickly. You see, it occurred to me that Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea weren't English teams in the true sense because the vast majority of their players were born elsewhere. English clubs, maybe, but not teams.
As anyone will tell you, the modern game is a truly international one, bursting at the seems with star talent from all four corners of the world. The debate about whether an abundance of foreign players in our leagues is a good thing continues relentlessly, but when you look at the facts it's quite startling just how insignificant English players are becoming in their own country - particularly in the Premiership.
Just over a year ago, Alan Pardew (then manager of West Ham) openly criticised Arsene Wenger for fielding an Arsenal side in the Champions League that featured no English players. Wenger replied by calling Pardew a racist, yet even as this season ended Arsenal could boast only seven Englishmen in their squad of thirty-six - the joint-lowest number for any team in the Premiership.
So does it work in Wenger's favour to have a squad where English is just one of eighteen nationalities represented (and in such small numbers)? Some People Are On The Pitch decided to find out...
The Premiership
In terms of trophies won, Arsenal have nothing to show for this season or the last, yet an appearance in last season's Champions League Final, a Premiership title back in 2004 and numerous runs to the latter stages of the FA Cup all suggest quality gets you somewhere.
The same can be said of Liverpool. Winners of the Champions League in 2005 and finalists this year, winners of the FA Cup in 2006 and always a certainty to finish in the top four of the Premiership, Englishmen account for just over three in every ten in their squad.
But gaining success through foreign purchases isn't necessarily the way forward. Fulham have fought hard to avoid relegation from the Premiership in recent seasons, yet English players make up less than 22% of their roster. This season they won just one of their nineteen away games and a little over a third of their games at home.
Fulham, however, may just be a bad example - a team that's bought the wrong foreign players. Buying (or at least developing) English players has brought about the wrong outcome for Sheffield United, Watford and West Ham. All three can claim at least 60% of their squad are English, and yet they've all shared a season-long effort to avoid being on the relegation trapdoor when it mattered.
During the 2006/07 season, the overall picture showed that out of 653 squad players in the Premiership, only 282 were English. That accounts for about 43% in total and whichever way you look at it, that's got to be to the detriment of the national side. Yes, many of the foreign players coming to England bring with them the skills, work ethic and commitment that can rub off on the home-grown talent that needs such influence, but when Steve McLaren tells his team to play 'the English way', how many will actually know what he means?
Perhaps it would help to know where all the foreign players in the Premiership are coming from. The answer: seventy different countries. That's more nationalities than are represented in the top leagues of Spain, France, Germany or Italy.
Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales aside, Ireland, France, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, USA and Portugal are all big providers of players for the English top flight. Look further afield and some countries that barely even registered on the football ten years ago also show strongly. Jamaica, Senegal, Iceland and Finland can currently claim to make a healthy contribution to many squads in a bigger way than they ever have before.
And if it's sheer novelty value that lights your candle, you'll be wanting to know where the most obscure homelands are for some of the Premiership's playing multitude. If that's the case, look no further than Oman, Grenada and Sierra Leone.
But how does the Premiership match up with La Liga, Ligue 1, Serie A or the Bundesliga? How much do they rely on foreign players to bring success?
La Liga
Spain has been arguably the most successful country over the last few years in terms of providing the finalists for the Champions League and UEFA Cup, and yet it can claim over 63% of its players are from Spain itself - that's 20% more than the Premiership.
As for the number of nationalities represented in its teams' squads, well that's only 41 compared to 70 in the Premiership. Naturally enough, Spanish-speaking countries are among the biggest suppliers of players, although such novelties as Canada and Equatorial Guinea are also represented to a lesser extent.
Looking at the most successful teams of late, Barcelona have the lowest proportion of home-based players (just under 36%) and they're the 2006 La Liga champions. Seville follow a similar approach when it comes to foreign players. They've got lots of them, but it hasn't stopped them winning the UEFA Cup for the second year running or challenging Barca and Real Madrid for this year's league title.
The pattern matches England at the foot of the table, too. Two of the bottom three, Gimnastic and Real Sociedad, have a squad that's about three-quarters Spanish, but between them are Celta Vigo whose squad is about half Spanish, half foreign. That's more than twice as many as their equivalent, Fulham, in England.
Serie A
Milan have been at the forefront of Italian football over the last few years. They played Liverpool in the Champions League final of 2005 and will do so again in the 2007 Final. They've also done well to reach third place in Serie A with two games remaining although the 32 point gap between themselves and top-of-the-table Inter is, to be reasonable, one they'll struggle to close.
This season, Milan can claim the largest number of Italians playing in a top-division side, but then they have the largest squad too - a whopping forty-six players. It works out that their squad is about two-thirds home-grown, which happens to be on a par with Ascoli and Messina who are already relegated to Serie B.
Torino's squad is 95% Italian, yet they've been struggling to avoid relegation until recently. In addition, Reggina have dropped into the bottom three and their squad is almost 88% home-grown.
Of the nationalities accounted for in Serie A squads, South America provides its share with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile all prominent. France also appears high on the list with a number of central and eastern European nations, while at the other end of the scale, Siena can claim to have made the bold move of securing the services of someone from Liechtenstein. You won't be surprised to hear they could still be relegated too...
Bundesliga
Germany's success in European club competitions is no longer the formality it used to be and when it does come, it's difficult to tell who'll achieve it.
Of those teams that have recently reached the latter stages of the Champions League or the UEFA Cup (and indeed those near the top of the Bundesliga at present), their squads are more or less a fifty-fifty split between Germans and foreigners. A fair and even split, perhaps, but one which isn't bringing them much in the way of glory on the continent.
Of the three teams to be relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga this season, Alemania Aachen stands out as they have the highest proportion of German players in any squad - 72%. The other two teams going down - Borussia Mönchengladbach and Mainz both have a half-and-half split, more or less.
Back in the top division, the Bundesliga draws on 59 countries outside of Germany for its playing staff. Brazil is again a big provider, but no corner of Europe is seemingly left unsearched as it strives to unearth the stars of tomorrow. Why, there's even an Englishman on the list - one Owen Hargreaves of Bayern Munich... but for how much longer?
Ligue 1
Finally we come to France and here's where all logic seems to go out of the window where foreign players are concerned. At the top of the tree, as has been the case for some time now, are this season's champions Lyon. Their squad is about two-thirds French - slightly above average for the whole league - yet only seven nationalities are represented amongst them.
Those figures are almost exactly the same as for Sedan, yet they've just been relegated. In third place at the moment with one game remaining are Lens. Their squad is 55% French and have eleven nationalities on their roster - figures which almost exactly match Troyes, one of the other teams dropping down to Ligue 2 next season.
In French football, the concept of a 'foreign' player is perhaps less significant than anywhere else in Europe as even those that were born overseas generally come from French-speaking countries anyway. It's not uncommon to see squad members deriving from places like Algeria, Cameroon, Senegal and the Ivory Coast, so maybe that explains the middling success of those teams from Ligue 1 in Europe?
Summary
So what can we tell from all this statistical analysis? In short, the French are struggling because most of their best talent is playing abroad in places like England and Spain. English clubs are better off because of that and the influx of players from many other parts of the world, yet the national team aren't benefiting from it.
Spanish clubs are fiercely loyal towards developing talent from their own country and have worked it to their advantage, but once again the national team continue to struggle. The Germans, conversely, have a strong national team at the moment yet their clubs can't find a winning formula no matter how many foreign players they employ.
Then there are the Italians. World champions and providers of some of the best club sides in Europe such as Milan, they follow the same approach as Spain and yet have worked it to their advantage.
A model, therefore, for every discerning country in the world to follow, and they achieved all that as well as a considerable amount of fan violence and corruption at the highest level. You've got to admire the Italians...
(BONUS MATERIAL! For more graphs and stuff relating to this article, click here to download a PDF containing all the info you need.)
What a shame that the pride which was enveloping my whole body at a staggering rate came to a shuddering halt just as quickly. You see, it occurred to me that Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea weren't English teams in the true sense because the vast majority of their players were born elsewhere. English clubs, maybe, but not teams.
As anyone will tell you, the modern game is a truly international one, bursting at the seems with star talent from all four corners of the world. The debate about whether an abundance of foreign players in our leagues is a good thing continues relentlessly, but when you look at the facts it's quite startling just how insignificant English players are becoming in their own country - particularly in the Premiership.
Just over a year ago, Alan Pardew (then manager of West Ham) openly criticised Arsene Wenger for fielding an Arsenal side in the Champions League that featured no English players. Wenger replied by calling Pardew a racist, yet even as this season ended Arsenal could boast only seven Englishmen in their squad of thirty-six - the joint-lowest number for any team in the Premiership.
So does it work in Wenger's favour to have a squad where English is just one of eighteen nationalities represented (and in such small numbers)? Some People Are On The Pitch decided to find out...
The Premiership
In terms of trophies won, Arsenal have nothing to show for this season or the last, yet an appearance in last season's Champions League Final, a Premiership title back in 2004 and numerous runs to the latter stages of the FA Cup all suggest quality gets you somewhere.
The same can be said of Liverpool. Winners of the Champions League in 2005 and finalists this year, winners of the FA Cup in 2006 and always a certainty to finish in the top four of the Premiership, Englishmen account for just over three in every ten in their squad.
But gaining success through foreign purchases isn't necessarily the way forward. Fulham have fought hard to avoid relegation from the Premiership in recent seasons, yet English players make up less than 22% of their roster. This season they won just one of their nineteen away games and a little over a third of their games at home.
Fulham, however, may just be a bad example - a team that's bought the wrong foreign players. Buying (or at least developing) English players has brought about the wrong outcome for Sheffield United, Watford and West Ham. All three can claim at least 60% of their squad are English, and yet they've all shared a season-long effort to avoid being on the relegation trapdoor when it mattered.
During the 2006/07 season, the overall picture showed that out of 653 squad players in the Premiership, only 282 were English. That accounts for about 43% in total and whichever way you look at it, that's got to be to the detriment of the national side. Yes, many of the foreign players coming to England bring with them the skills, work ethic and commitment that can rub off on the home-grown talent that needs such influence, but when Steve McLaren tells his team to play 'the English way', how many will actually know what he means?
Perhaps it would help to know where all the foreign players in the Premiership are coming from. The answer: seventy different countries. That's more nationalities than are represented in the top leagues of Spain, France, Germany or Italy.
Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales aside, Ireland, France, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, USA and Portugal are all big providers of players for the English top flight. Look further afield and some countries that barely even registered on the football ten years ago also show strongly. Jamaica, Senegal, Iceland and Finland can currently claim to make a healthy contribution to many squads in a bigger way than they ever have before.
And if it's sheer novelty value that lights your candle, you'll be wanting to know where the most obscure homelands are for some of the Premiership's playing multitude. If that's the case, look no further than Oman, Grenada and Sierra Leone.
But how does the Premiership match up with La Liga, Ligue 1, Serie A or the Bundesliga? How much do they rely on foreign players to bring success?
La Liga
Spain has been arguably the most successful country over the last few years in terms of providing the finalists for the Champions League and UEFA Cup, and yet it can claim over 63% of its players are from Spain itself - that's 20% more than the Premiership.
As for the number of nationalities represented in its teams' squads, well that's only 41 compared to 70 in the Premiership. Naturally enough, Spanish-speaking countries are among the biggest suppliers of players, although such novelties as Canada and Equatorial Guinea are also represented to a lesser extent.
Looking at the most successful teams of late, Barcelona have the lowest proportion of home-based players (just under 36%) and they're the 2006 La Liga champions. Seville follow a similar approach when it comes to foreign players. They've got lots of them, but it hasn't stopped them winning the UEFA Cup for the second year running or challenging Barca and Real Madrid for this year's league title.
The pattern matches England at the foot of the table, too. Two of the bottom three, Gimnastic and Real Sociedad, have a squad that's about three-quarters Spanish, but between them are Celta Vigo whose squad is about half Spanish, half foreign. That's more than twice as many as their equivalent, Fulham, in England.
Serie A
Milan have been at the forefront of Italian football over the last few years. They played Liverpool in the Champions League final of 2005 and will do so again in the 2007 Final. They've also done well to reach third place in Serie A with two games remaining although the 32 point gap between themselves and top-of-the-table Inter is, to be reasonable, one they'll struggle to close.
This season, Milan can claim the largest number of Italians playing in a top-division side, but then they have the largest squad too - a whopping forty-six players. It works out that their squad is about two-thirds home-grown, which happens to be on a par with Ascoli and Messina who are already relegated to Serie B.
Torino's squad is 95% Italian, yet they've been struggling to avoid relegation until recently. In addition, Reggina have dropped into the bottom three and their squad is almost 88% home-grown.
Of the nationalities accounted for in Serie A squads, South America provides its share with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile all prominent. France also appears high on the list with a number of central and eastern European nations, while at the other end of the scale, Siena can claim to have made the bold move of securing the services of someone from Liechtenstein. You won't be surprised to hear they could still be relegated too...
Bundesliga
Germany's success in European club competitions is no longer the formality it used to be and when it does come, it's difficult to tell who'll achieve it.
Of those teams that have recently reached the latter stages of the Champions League or the UEFA Cup (and indeed those near the top of the Bundesliga at present), their squads are more or less a fifty-fifty split between Germans and foreigners. A fair and even split, perhaps, but one which isn't bringing them much in the way of glory on the continent.
Of the three teams to be relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga this season, Alemania Aachen stands out as they have the highest proportion of German players in any squad - 72%. The other two teams going down - Borussia Mönchengladbach and Mainz both have a half-and-half split, more or less.
Back in the top division, the Bundesliga draws on 59 countries outside of Germany for its playing staff. Brazil is again a big provider, but no corner of Europe is seemingly left unsearched as it strives to unearth the stars of tomorrow. Why, there's even an Englishman on the list - one Owen Hargreaves of Bayern Munich... but for how much longer?
Ligue 1
Finally we come to France and here's where all logic seems to go out of the window where foreign players are concerned. At the top of the tree, as has been the case for some time now, are this season's champions Lyon. Their squad is about two-thirds French - slightly above average for the whole league - yet only seven nationalities are represented amongst them.
Those figures are almost exactly the same as for Sedan, yet they've just been relegated. In third place at the moment with one game remaining are Lens. Their squad is 55% French and have eleven nationalities on their roster - figures which almost exactly match Troyes, one of the other teams dropping down to Ligue 2 next season.
In French football, the concept of a 'foreign' player is perhaps less significant than anywhere else in Europe as even those that were born overseas generally come from French-speaking countries anyway. It's not uncommon to see squad members deriving from places like Algeria, Cameroon, Senegal and the Ivory Coast, so maybe that explains the middling success of those teams from Ligue 1 in Europe?
Summary
So what can we tell from all this statistical analysis? In short, the French are struggling because most of their best talent is playing abroad in places like England and Spain. English clubs are better off because of that and the influx of players from many other parts of the world, yet the national team aren't benefiting from it.
Spanish clubs are fiercely loyal towards developing talent from their own country and have worked it to their advantage, but once again the national team continue to struggle. The Germans, conversely, have a strong national team at the moment yet their clubs can't find a winning formula no matter how many foreign players they employ.
Then there are the Italians. World champions and providers of some of the best club sides in Europe such as Milan, they follow the same approach as Spain and yet have worked it to their advantage.
A model, therefore, for every discerning country in the world to follow, and they achieved all that as well as a considerable amount of fan violence and corruption at the highest level. You've got to admire the Italians...
(BONUS MATERIAL! For more graphs and stuff relating to this article, click here to download a PDF containing all the info you need.)
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