All the crap you never needed

Revamping European Football schedule - a thought experiment

2011-11-03T16:56:00.000-07:00

The idea is simple - play one tournament at a time instead of multiplexing several tournaments through the course of the year.

Let's take the example of a typical top tier EPL/LaLiga club schedule and see how this can work. Competitions:
1 - League (=EPL/LaLiga/BundesLiga/SerieA, etc),
2 - Cup (=FA Cup+League Cup/Copa Del Rey, etc),
3 - European Competition (=UCL/UefaCup etc)

Assuming a 20 team league,
you will have 38 league matches
FA Cup + League Cup = ~10 matches (if you reach final)
European Competition = 13 matches (if you reach final in UCL)
Noise matches (Super Cups, World Club Cups/Intercontinental Cups/Intl friendlies, qualifiers, etc) = x [we will get to this later] = total of 61 matches!!!! (+x) ... That's a lot of matches!
Not to mention if you have to play in qualifiers for europe, had to qualify for the league, play in Europa, etc etc

Also, if you see, the season basically starts mid-August and runs till the end of May which is a duration of 9.5 months, therefore leaving 2.5 months of "rest" till the next season begins which includes actual rest + worldcup/euro + preseason tours/training.

I propose a simpler setup:
Have only league matches at a time, then have only the Cups, then have only the European competition - this will provide for a great buildup too.

With the normal schedule of playing an extra midweek game every other week, you get 1.5 games per week and for 38 league matches that's 25.33 weeks, basically 26 weeks, which in a 52 week year is basically 6 months. So if you start the league at the start of September, you end it with a league champion crowned at the end of February.

Now you have your 3 months for your local Cup competitions and subsequent European competition in May, both as proper self contained tournaments much like a World Cup/Euro Championship.

Now we can address the "x" matches, these matches should really be used as warmup tournaments for the start of the next season. These should be merged with "preseason". I mean really, no one cares about these competitions anyway so why don't we make them useful and use them as preseason warmups before the next season and as bonus the winners get a shiny trophy (which EVERYONE agrees is meaningless anyway). The other teams can schedule their own preseason matches every season with each other if they know they will not be involved.

I propose we also push ALL international football to the summer - anyway UEFA/FIFA hold their tournaments in the summer. Now there is less irritation between club and country. Yes I know this opens its own can of worms (maybe I should tackle this in a separate post)

Also, the transfer window should open only after the European competition ends and shut before the Leagues begin.

The benefits of this format:
1 - The HUGE benefit in this scenario is that a new exciting team like Borussia Dortmund which has a good season does not have to lose its best players to Real Madrid / Manchester City and then get thumped in the Champions League in the new season - fans get to see the same squad that won the league compete in Europe
2 - You also avoid the farcical situation where Liverpool won the 2005 Champions League but did not qualify for it (for the next year) through domestic qualification (finished outside the top 4) and so silly exceptions had to be made - basically the positive/negative effects of your results/performance in your local league in a particular season are immediate in Europe in the very same season.
3 - Another big win is that teams now don't have to sacrifice one competition for the other, they don't have to worry about resting their best players for the lowly premier league match against Norwich at the weekend so that they can keep them fresh for Barca during midweek - teams will be more inclined to play their best players on a more continuous basis; and really if they choose to "rest" some players, then the effects will only be felt in the current tournament/competition - you eliminate another tournament as an externality.
4 - The season is progressive and easy to follow (I know...this is basically a "meh" point :))
5 - A follow on point from 3 above is that this system makes it easier for teams with smaller squads to compete. Therefore City/United/Chelsea/Liverpool/Arsenal don't get any major benefit from using their money to have insanely huge squads. If a small squad can stay healthy, they can compete on all fronts in this system because frankly, its just one assault at a time right :)
6 - My hope is that with this format you could have the UCL be staged in a World Cup type of atmosphere where all eyes in Europe are focused intensely on this competition from start to end continuously - simply because all the matches will now be held in close succession and the tournament will be more condensed
7 - Now there is no longer the factor of players being transferred based on "guaranteed champions league football"; basically now in the new season you transfer to a club where you HOPE to get Champions League football. For example, as things stood at the start of this season, any player joining Arsenal knows that its quite likely they won't qualify for Europe (UCL) at the end but they still get to play in the Champions League THIS season (Arteta) - that will no longer be the case - conversely you don't get to wait to join a club once they secure Champions League qualification - you join only on the HOPE that they will
8 - Football Associations now don't have to worry about conflicts in the fixture list with another competition - they are given an appropriate timeslot in the year in which they can freely choose the schedule for their competition

The Flaws as I see them:
1 - There is no real football to look forward to for the bottom tier of teams after February is there? They have no chance in the cups (early exits), they don't play in Europe and then they get to start only in September, this is a 6 month break (between official matches) for their players which might be unacceptable, but like, it works for the NFL right?
2 - An add-on to the previous point which is that these long breaks between season end and season start could be economically unviable for the smaller clubs, maybe I don't know/understand the reasons for why football clubs have based their business on running year-round
3 - It seems based on the current schedules that the weekend belongs to the national leagues and European competitions are restricted to midweek (only the final is held on a weekend, and that too has happened only in the last 2 years); not sure if there is a reason for this restriction (probably just historical - each country had its own league, and it was natural for players to play on the weekend when everyone has time to watch...over time the extra competitions were accommodated midweek)

Note: I know, football is only growing more and more popular (televised, live, etc) and there is no need for this format - again I say that I recognize all that but what I want to say is that it seems that inspite of how amazing things are at the moment, I see problems which I argue are because of the way matches are scheduled and tournament entrants are decided; and further I feel that with the new format, these problems can be eliminated.

I don't know if there are others out there who like me are not fans of the European football schedule the way it is right now - I think its just a sorry mix of too many competitions
This post does not take into account several realities of the way clubs and football associations decide fixtures and work with local governments/authorities to arrange them, in that respect yes its remarkably naive.
Basically think of this more as a thought experiment rather than a genuine, well thought out, well reasoned and well planned post
Also, when I say European Football I am basically thinking of the Premiership and La Liga; and when I say Premiership and La Liga, I basically mean the Premiership :P

Premier League Wrapup

2010-05-12T22:45:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Chelsea FC for a well-deserved Premier League championship, as noted many times, they beat United, Liverpool and Arsenal home and away: Yay for them!

I feel bad for United because this was their chance to:
1 - Knock Liverpool off their perch by becoming the winningest English club (they are currently tied with Liverpool for 18 top division titles)
2 - Win an unprecedented 4th straight title
3 - Move on from the loss of CRonaldo and Tevez who have scored some 60 goals between them this season for the bottomless coffers of Real Madrid and Manchester City

I feel particularly bad for Arsenal though because this was a great chance for a young and exciting team to prove they were upto the task of fighting the big boys, sadly comprehensive defeats to United (2-1, 3-1), Chelsea (3-0, 2-0) and Barcelona (4-1) proved they are a level below and losses to Blackburn (2-1), Wigan (3-2) and Spurs (2-1) showed they didn't have the bottle to pull a rabbit out of the hat when it really really mattered.

Key statistic from the season-run-in-listed-on-my-wall-using-post-its:
With 10 games to go, Arsenal were on 58 points, United on 60 and Chelsea on 61. At the end of the season, Arsenal only scored 17 points out of 30, whereas United and Chelsea scored 25 each - therefore Arsenal didn't have the mental fortitude to last the season, United were impressive as usual but paid for an indifferent first half of the campaign and Chelsea were able to put their slump behind with a strong finish, all credit to them.

Congratulations to Spurs for breaking the top4 stronghold with an impressive season featuring regular scintillating forward runs by their array of attacking talent throughout the year.

Its great that Liverpool completely crashed out of everything this season, with pathetic displays and not bad luck the main reason - yes much as I hate to admit to a spot of schadenfreude, I take particular pleasure in their downfall this season (only this season though, am no Liverpool-hater) because of their poor attitude last season when they failed to give United due credit (oh we had too many draws and that's why we lost - yeah right!). Hehehehehehehe, its so funny its tragic: Rafa proclaiming a charge to the title this season on the back of last season's showing to backtracking to a "unrealistic expectations" defence was particularly sad. I feel bad for Fernando Torres, he's spending the best years of his life winning nothing. I hope he goes somewhere else to be rewarded a bit better. But if its loyalty that he values most, then well, all the best. The only reason I don't wish Gerrard left too is because he's won everything with Liverpool except the league and maybe just maybe if that does happen someday, it would be something very very special.

Sad end to the season for City, Fulham and Villa - maybe next time :)

Yes I am becoming a little lazy now, so I will stop right here!

Bring on 2010-2011!!!!

Nice reply to stupid Australian Govt

2009-12-06T19:01:00.001-08:00

This is from a slashdot mail digest I get every day:

An anonymous reader writes "Australia refused to give Rebellion's new
Aliens Vs. Predator game a rating, effectively banning it in the country.
Rebellion says it [0]won't be submitting an edited version for another
round of classifications, however. (As [1]Valve did with Left 4 Dead 2.)
They said, 'We will not be releasing a sanitized or cut down version for
territories where adults are not considered by their governments to be
able to make their own entertainment choices.'"

Brilliant! What an idiot they've made the aussie govt look :P

Cool new show - Community

2009-11-20T00:36:00.000-08:00

One of the main reasons I watch Community - very funny!

Yahoo tracking my typing?

2009-09-08T10:47:00.000-07:00

Hi, Aditya!

Your left hand does 56% of your typing.

I got this when I signed into Yahoo IM today

Is Yahoo messing with me? If not, how do they know this?

Frog in Pepsi Can

2009-09-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

http://www.smh.com.au/world/strangebuttrue/man-opens-pepsi-can-finds-frog-in-it-20090904-faan.html

I am not going to drink any more Pepsi from any more cans

wishlist

2009-08-31T22:14:00.000-07:00

psp
berserk dvd set
follow a star movie cd
batman comic collection...in progress
the dark knight comic
macbook pro ultimate big one
desktop gaming setup
handheld gps

m3
911 turbo
evoX
m5
veyron
ferrari
lamborghini gallardo spyder (conv)
aston martin

v for vendetta graphic novel...done
portable hard drive...done
fancy slr camera...done
apple iPhone 3.0...done
auto magazine subscription...done
michael jackson poster...done
london boys music cd...done

(will continue to update this)

Waking up from a dream

2009-03-29T09:49:00.000-07:00

My trip in India was an amazing one. So much fun, and so relaxing; with no work to do and tons to eat, I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the company of my loving family in our new home. The dream is over now and I am sadly back to the real world of my life as another software engineer in the valley stumbling through code by day and dreaming of world domination by night :)

What's your favourite Iron Maiden song?

2008-02-15T22:36:00.000-08:00

Part of the NWOBHM ( ignoramuses can go ahead and google that :P ), Iron Maiden have rocked for a long time, with many brilliant compositions (yes compositions, as intricately crafted as any symphony you philistines - the cadence of mcbrain's drums, the richness of dickinson's voice, steve harris's incomparable lyrics and I will stop before waxing lyrical about the guitars of Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Janick Gers....man!).

So what is your favourite Iron Maiden song? I ask because frankly I don't think I have one, and I doubt if its possible for me to single any one out. (get it -- "single"? I use it while referring to songs? mmmpff :D, k, never mind)

(wrt the inaugural blog post which was in keeping with the spirit of this webpage, I thought I might as well clear the air regarding the only thing meaningful in the whole piece - the title)

Mxyztplk

2008-02-02T22:35:00.000-08:00

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