Football/Soccer Season 2013/2014 Thread

[Kerou 犠牲]

lol Milsap forgot two of the biggest British ones

I'd love to educate you on some NFL rivalries (some are outside of their divisions), but this is not the place for that.

Yeah plus Peyton lol

[Milsap]

Milsap forgot two of the biggest British ones

Walsall v Shrewsbury and Boston v Gainsborough?

[Awkward Squirtle]

Don't forget Blackpool v Fleetwood

Everyone's anticipating the next donkey derby

[Kerou 犠牲]

Walsall v Shrewsbury and Boston v Gainsborough?

Celtic v Rangers
Newcastle v Sunderland

Also Man Utd v any London team

[Milsap]

I was doing clubs with more than one rivalry to be honest.

[Kerou 犠牲]

I was doing clubs with more than one rivalry to be honest.

Newcastle v Boro

Tyne-Tees derby

You're welcome

[Spriter]

still missed out on Stoke v Port Vale

So, Southampton dumped out of the cup thanks to a Craig Gardner belter, and Jovetic and Nasri put Chelsea down...

But today, Arsenal v Liverpool again but at the Emirates. Only 8 days after the 5-1 drubbing.

[Kerou 犠牲]

Pretty much expecting Arsenal to win

[Milsap]

The Everton game is pretty decent. Traore's goal is a decent little backheel.

[Kerou 犠牲]

Pretty much expecting Arsenal to win

In GL we trust

[Awkward Squirtle]

I'm not too worried about losing it tbh, more worried about trying to get 4th. FA Cup is always nice, but I can live without it.

[Liam]

So Fulham are doing well lmao

[Kerou 犠牲]

Felix Magath is one crazy fella LOL

[Milsap]

City have parked the bus, but not enough it seems

Rooney's just put pen to paper on a 300k a week deal. United must be desperate to keep him.

So this got me thinking- With Real Madrid forking out all that money for Bale, and Rooney and Ronaldo picking up extortionate wage packets each week. It's made me think it's about time football took a leaf out of the American sport systems and impose a salary cap and maybe a trade system.

Here's how it works: The salary cap for the NHL (As an example) is $60m. Meaning that you only really get one (if not two) real stars at a team. $60m is also a hard cap, meaning that once you're over it, you will have to trade players with other teams to balance the books.

So the trade system. In football this would have to be within the leagues (Prem, Championship, League One, La Liga etc). If Liverpool find they've got a surplus of defenders and not enough midfielders, they can trade amongst other teams. So let's say Liverpool need a midfielder, and it just so happens that Newcastle are in the market for a defender. Liverpool reckon Daniel Agger is surplus to requirement and they say "We'll give you Agger in exchange for Ben Arfa". Newcastle would consider it, Agger's okay, but they might be reluctant to give up a decent player. So they'd go "No, but in exchange for Agger we'll give you Sissoko and Obertan" Sorted.

The total wage value of Sissoko and Obertan is £1m (say), which would push Liverpool over the wage cap. But since Agger was on 3mil a year, it gets rid of a surplus player who was being paid a lot, got two extra players AND it frees up 2m on Liverpool's wage bill.

"But what if a team in the Prem wants a player from the championship/league one?"

Draft system. At the beginning of each season, each team in each league picks players from a lower league, or an under 21 player from the same league. The league winner (in the prem) or in the case of the lower leagues, two playoff losers based on league position pick last, and the three/four promoted teams pick first with the rest of the teams pick in order of league position reversed. Relegated teams will pick after promoted teams.

Ideally, this way the playing field will be leveled, and it means all the teams have a realistic chance of getting a shot of winning the title. Also stops the richer and bigger teams winning every year and lessens the gulf between the bigger and smaller teams.

More importantly, it stops the smaller teams going bust. Football for all.

Obviously, it will take a smarter man than me to implement this, there's a few holes but at least the concept exists. Imagine someone like Van Persie playing for Leicester? The league owns the players, not the clubs. So if a trade happens, it happens. No givsies backsies.

[Kerou 犠牲]

Trade system wouldn't work, said for a while a salary cap should be imposed because teams will find loopholes in the UEFA FFP ruling or whatever it is

City didn't park the bus against Barcelona until the red