It'll be so great if Bayern and Dortmund finish the job next week. While they obviously have great structures in place when it comes to training young players, the Spanish football authorities are so undeserving of success.
Tickets for both return games in Spain are twice the price of the first legs. In a country that today announced 27% unemployment and where 1,000 euro a month is considered a decent wage.
The time and day of fixtures is announced two weeks beforehand. Let's say I want to travel to an important away match in which my club might be fighting relegation, or for a Champions League place. In the unlikely event of me actually having a job, I don't know if the game will be on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
Once this obstacle is overcome, if the match is anyway important I can expect the home-team to capitalise on the complete lack of price regulation and bump up the ticket prices. Anyone who has ever watched Getafe play a home game will know they barely get 5,000 through the gates. Yet against Zaragoza last season the cheapest ticket for non-season ticket holders was 80euro. Getafe were comfortable in 10th, but Zaragoza were fighting for their lives.
If they had gone down they would have more than likely gone the way of many other big clubs and disappeared into financial oblivion like Oviedo, Racing Santander or Salamanca (hometown of Vicente Del Bosque) The latter's players haven't been paid for three months, and the captain has said he has had to borrow a bike to get to and from training as he can't afford petrol.
If a supporter finally gets to the stadium, he had better be on his best behaviour, because the fines given out are crippling. One person at a recent Salamanca match was fined 3,000 euro for displaying an offensive banner. The material in question: a picture of a hash plant that you would find on any Bob Marley t-shirt on the street. People have been fined up to 6,000 euro for having alcohol in the stadium.
As long as Real Madrid, Barcelona and the national team keep winning this apparently doesn't matter. The fact that over 50% of the teams in the top flight have either flirted with or gone into administration isn't an issue. The empty seats at any match not involving the big two is irrelevant, because 'Spain iz the best, and Haterz gonna Hate.' The sports news starts in an hour. If I turn it on, I'll see 20 minutes all about Real Madrid, 10 minutes about Barca, maybe one minute for Atletico Madrid, Valencia or one of the Sevillan teams and 3 minutes for all other sports, combined with 15 minutes of ads.
Tl;dr - Fuck you Barcelona, fuck you Real Madrid and fuck you Spanish football.
Tickets for both return games in Spain are twice the price of the first legs. In a country that today announced 27% unemployment and where 1,000 euro a month is considered a decent wage.
The time and day of fixtures is announced two weeks beforehand. Let's say I want to travel to an important away match in which my club might be fighting relegation, or for a Champions League place. In the unlikely event of me actually having a job, I don't know if the game will be on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
Once this obstacle is overcome, if the match is anyway important I can expect the home-team to capitalise on the complete lack of price regulation and bump up the ticket prices. Anyone who has ever watched Getafe play a home game will know they barely get 5,000 through the gates. Yet against Zaragoza last season the cheapest ticket for non-season ticket holders was 80euro. Getafe were comfortable in 10th, but Zaragoza were fighting for their lives.
If they had gone down they would have more than likely gone the way of many other big clubs and disappeared into financial oblivion like Oviedo, Racing Santander or Salamanca (hometown of Vicente Del Bosque) The latter's players haven't been paid for three months, and the captain has said he has had to borrow a bike to get to and from training as he can't afford petrol.
If a supporter finally gets to the stadium, he had better be on his best behaviour, because the fines given out are crippling. One person at a recent Salamanca match was fined 3,000 euro for displaying an offensive banner. The material in question: a picture of a hash plant that you would find on any Bob Marley t-shirt on the street. People have been fined up to 6,000 euro for having alcohol in the stadium.
As long as Real Madrid, Barcelona and the national team keep winning this apparently doesn't matter. The fact that over 50% of the teams in the top flight have either flirted with or gone into administration isn't an issue. The empty seats at any match not involving the big two is irrelevant, because 'Spain iz the best, and Haterz gonna Hate.' The sports news starts in an hour. If I turn it on, I'll see 20 minutes all about Real Madrid, 10 minutes about Barca, maybe one minute for Atletico Madrid, Valencia or one of the Sevillan teams and 3 minutes for all other sports, combined with 15 minutes of ads.
Tl;dr - Fuck you Barcelona, fuck you Real Madrid and fuck you Spanish football.
They're probably the best two commentators going now that Clive Everton is gone.
, 6
, 10
Comment