Now thats soccerball Boxty!

I was an avid soccerball fan but am now largely disaffected - as distinct from Utd fans who should be disinfected ! For an hour tonight I watched the game I used to love, played as it should be played and it was good. An Arsenal team - and manager - who I have great regard for because they try to play the game - were absolutely hammered. Outpassed, outmoved, outthought, outmuscled, outoftheirdepth. (Oh and another beautiful thing - here was a Spanish (Latin) team whose manager has obviously instilled a bit of fair play into - no real diving or codding (still a bit though!).

Barca should have lead 5-0 at HT, The first 20 they were imperious. But then they stopped. But for a good while tonight - before 2-0 came that was as good as it gets .....

Premier league fearful after Sky ruling

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Sky Sports

Wednesday March 31 2010




The Premier League fear Ofcom's controversial Sky ruling will lead to the world's top players turning their back on England's top flight.
Sky will have to sell on Sky Sports 1 and 2 to rival broadcasters for up to 23% less than the current wholesale price, according to the ruling by the regulator.
The Premier League, who have just signed a three-year £1.782billion broadcast deal with Sky paying £1.62billion of that, are considering a legal challenge believing that the ruling will drive down the value of sport's broadcast rights.
Their biggest fear is that a drop in the money available to the clubs will stop the best players being attracted to the most successful league in the world - and have an impact on the cash it passes on to the rest of football.
A Premier League statement read: "Reduced income from rights sales will be rapidly reflected at every level of sport. It will be harder to recruit and retain top talent, youth development will come under pressure, investment in grounds and facilities will be deferred and, in the case of football, the ability to contribute to the rest of the game from the Championship to local parks will be severely diminished."
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore called the ruling an "ill-judged and disproportionate intervention in the broadcast market" and said it rewarded broadcasters who had shown little interest in bidding for sports rights but still wanted to show it on their platforms. He added: "We do not rule out a challenge to protect the interests of fans, clubs and the wider game."
The England and Wales Cricket Board, the Rugby Football Union and the Rugby Football League have also strongly criticised the ruling. Yet Sky's rivals such as Virgin Media say the ruling does not go far enough.
Ofcom began investigating the pay TV market in March 2007 after concerns were raised by BT, Virgin Media, TopUp TV and Setanta, which has since gone bust. Ofcom said the decision, after a three-year investigation into the industry, would ensure "fair and effective competition".
The regulator said today: "Ofcom has concluded that Sky has market power in the wholesale provision of premium channels. Ofcom has also concluded that Sky exploits this market power by restricting the distribution of its premium channels to rival pay TV providers.
"This prevents fair and effective competition, reduces consumer choice and holds back innovation and investment by Sky's rivals. The decisions are therefore designed to ensure fair and effective competition which should lead to greater investment, innovation and choice for consumers."

Press Association



Soccerball is fooked........

Boxty - I normally agree with your take on soccerball - but for 60 minutes tonight Barca were awesome ...

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Boxty - I normally agree with your take on soccerball - but for 60 minutes tonight Barca were awesome ...

I was passing through the servants quarters and our groom was watching this farce on the TV that I provide.
He emitted an howl of horror and I turned to the screen to see if there had been an explosion in Vilnius or some of his neighbouring towns but No.... The referee was giving a penalty kick to the London club for no reason that was evident to me. He then sent off a scraggly headed Spaniard (must have been a second yellow)...
Igor was distraught at these goings on and I made him a mug of cocoa with a drop of local brew in it to settle his nerves...

Soccerball is doomed...All in the UK equivalent of NAMA within 5 years...

Aye but for an hour it was as it should be - amen. And the United fans must have looked on and realised just how far off the mark they are. The Liverpool fans must have just .. switched to Fair City perhaps.

ps Have you seen that young Galwegian getting all righteous elsewhere. Strikes me he would be far more comfortable travelling the Kilburn High Road than the High Moral Ground ...

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Aye but for an hour it was as it should be - amen. And the United fans must have looked on and realised just how far off the mark they are. The Liverpool fans must have just .. switched to Fair City perhaps.

ps Have you seen that young Galwegian getting all righteous elsewhere. Strikes me he would be far more comfortable travelling the Kilburn High Road than the High Moral Ground ...

Naturally I didn't see any of this no doubt enthralling stuff....Never, Never and all that....

Yerragh ! Bags is only outa' the scratcher and facing a long night shift.. He's just putting things into perspective for those who like long threads condensed into a concise one-liner....*

* FAO Bags..Hey clown! Could you "bullet point" that thread for me when you get a tea break....Top man..

Boxtyeat wrote:Premier league fearful after Sky ruling

• 
  

Sky Sports

Wednesday March 31 2010




The Premier League fear Ofcom's controversial Sky ruling will lead to the world's top players turning their back on England's top flight.
Sky will have to sell on Sky Sports 1 and 2 to rival broadcasters for up to 23% less than the current wholesale price, according to the ruling by the regulator.
The Premier League, who have just signed a three-year £1.782billion broadcast deal with Sky paying £1.62billion of that, are considering a legal challenge believing that the ruling will drive down the value of sport's broadcast rights.
Their biggest fear is that a drop in the money available to the clubs will stop the best players being attracted to the most successful league in the world - and have an impact on the cash it passes on to the rest of football.
A Premier League statement read: "Reduced income from rights sales will be rapidly reflected at every level of sport. It will be harder to recruit and retain top talent, youth development will come under pressure, investment in grounds and facilities will be deferred and, in the case of football, the ability to contribute to the rest of the game from the Championship to local parks will be severely diminished."
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore called the ruling an "ill-judged and disproportionate intervention in the broadcast market" and said it rewarded broadcasters who had shown little interest in bidding for sports rights but still wanted to show it on their platforms. He added: "We do not rule out a challenge to protect the interests of fans, clubs and the wider game."
The England and Wales Cricket Board, the Rugby Football Union and the Rugby Football League have also strongly criticised the ruling. Yet Sky's rivals such as Virgin Media say the ruling does not go far enough.
Ofcom began investigating the pay TV market in March 2007 after concerns were raised by BT, Virgin Media, TopUp TV and Setanta, which has since gone bust. Ofcom said the decision, after a three-year investigation into the industry, would ensure "fair and effective competition".
The regulator said today: "Ofcom has concluded that Sky has market power in the wholesale provision of premium channels. Ofcom has also concluded that Sky exploits this market power by restricting the distribution of its premium channels to rival pay TV providers.
"This prevents fair and effective competition, reduces consumer choice and holds back innovation and investment by Sky's rivals. The decisions are therefore designed to ensure fair and effective competition which should lead to greater investment, innovation and choice for consumers."

Press Association



Soccerball is fooked........

correction, English soccerball is f****d......The standard of the league is dropping, United and Chelsea playing tecnically very poor football to watch.....This new tax law means that all the best foreigners will want to go to spain and the other European leagues....The EPL is in decline and La Liga is where it is at....

Watching Madrid and Barcelona at the moment is like theatre....

[quote="The Puke"][

correction, English soccerball is f****d....[/quote]

When Kevin Kilbane retires the whole thing will fall apart......

From the text commentary on BBC website there seems to be an encore presentation on tonight.

what a display from Messi I must say he probably will be,if not already the best

Probably the best individual performance I've ever seen from Messi, a little genius. If he continues at this rate it's hard to see how he won't be up there as the best ever, still only 22 for gods sake!

Restores your faith in soccerball .... played as it should be by Barca ... and adorned by a genius ... Messi !

I don't think Jose will give Messi as much time on the ball the next day. I can see Inter man marking him and I can see their tackling being hard but fair all over the park. Jose's tactics could win the tie against Barcelona but it will be a tough test.

Much to Boxty's disappointment there will be no English representative in the Champions League semi finals for the first time in 7 years. Liverpool - a quite ordinary team - didn't make the last 16. Chelsea were dumped out by the Mourinho factor and a relatively ordinary Inter team. Arsenal were outWengered, outpassed and totally outclassed by a superb Barcelona - head and shoulders above anything else in Europe imo - even if they have Ibrahimovic. And tonight the Glazers must be choking on their peanut butter as they consider another loan to compensate for lost revenue. 3-0 up after 40 minutes to a hard working but ordinary Bayern side and United contrive to lose! Ferguson again underachieves in Europe. I have made this point before and have been scoffed at for it. Go back at look at the teams United have had over the years, go back and look at who knocked them out of Europe - in seasons when Spain, Italy and Germany were weak. Look at all his domestic titles - and his two European Champs Leagues - 90th min smash and grab and penos. A great domestic manager - but not good enough in the European arena.

So has the balance of power shifted? No I don't think so. Aside from Barcelona the other three sides are ordinary enough. But it will be entertaining to read the tabloids over the next few days for the post mortems. And it will be interesting to see what effect the loss of revenue etc has on the cash cow.

I reckon Jose's tactics could help his team against Barcelona and they could win that one.

Yes a very ordinary side Bayern. Defence poor and just a few top class players further forward. Sad to see Sir Alex resort to a racial type moan afterwards. Barca great but maybe Jose might just outwit them.Remember Chelsea (without Jose) drew twice in last years semi with Barca.

Jayo Cluxton wrote:Much to Boxty's disappointment there will be no English representative in the Champions League semi finals for the first time in 7 years. But it will be entertaining to read the tabloids over the next few days for the post mortems. And it will be interesting to see what effect the loss of revenue etc has on the cash cow.

Armageddon looms for Soccerball .....well in U.K. anyhow...
Salvation may come for them in some blitz type tournament later in the year. i.e. during the Championship...Hoopla!!!!!

Real Kerry Fan wrote:Sad to see Sir Alex resort to a racial type moan afterwards.

Most out of character for the man who is usually a gracious loser.....

It's all about class and deportment - not abundant around OT and certainly not in the manager's office. I would rather have seen them get to meet Barca again where they would have been stuffed.

Bayern were awful and I hope Derry City are not tempted to sign Ribery, absolutely useless.

Fergie's record with United in Europe is abysmal but mostly the fault of the board. While they can fool the fans that winning the league is a big thing they refused to spend the money for Ronaldinho and Essien to win in Europe. Now they have no money.

Fergie was always great at getting the best from a host of mediocre players like Cole, the Nevilles, Yorke, and merging them with a few good players.

However now he only has mediocre players and Rooney, so the system is all about hard work, and a 5 man mid field full of runners and no creativity. Hence the reason he cannot indulge Berbatov. Now when he bought Berbetov he knew what he was buying, but I don't think he expected to lose Tevez.

By (ab)using Tevez and Rooney as workhorses he was able to indulge Ronaldo.

But any decent team would have been about ten up against bayern tonight. At 2-0 I joked we would be here all night as it would go to penalties. As they scored the third I then said they could yet regret this as Bayern were terrible.

But United's defence ois also terrible, and age has caught up with Fergie's better players.

Now he by and large only has the mediocre ones.

Ol' Whiskeynose is seething here....

patrique wrote:Bayern were awful and I hope Derry City are not tempted to sign Ribery, absolutely useless.

Fergie's record with United in Europe is abysmal but mostly the fault of the board. While they can fool the fans that winning the league is a big thing they refused to spend the money for Ronaldinho and Essien to win in Europe. Now they have no money.

Fergie was always great at getting the best from a host of mediocre players like Cole, the Nevilles, Yorke, and merging them with a few good players.

However now he only has mediocre players and Rooney, so the system is all about hard work, and a 5 man mid field full of runners and no creativity. Hence the reason he cannot indulge Berbatov. Now when he bought Berbetov he knew what he was buying, but I don't think he expected to lose Tevez.

By (ab)using Tevez and Rooney as workhorses he was able to indulge Ronaldo.

But any decent team would have been about ten up against bayern tonight. At 2-0 I joked we would be here all night as it would go to penalties. As they scored the third I then said they could yet regret this as Bayern were terrible.

But United's defence ois also terrible, and age has caught up with Fergie's better players.

Now he by and large only has the mediocre ones.

Could tonight's result be the catalyst for change in English soccer?

That Man United team showed tonight it is in a clear need of an upgrade, if the Glazers wish to maintain their current levels of income to service their debts. It appears though that they can't afford such an intervention, coupled with the soon decreases in Sky tv money, it could make the business an non-viable option for the Yanks.

This in turn bring could pressure from the Green and Gold brigade (not Leitrim) to force a sale. Those merchant bankers involved say they will give the supporters trust a 25% in the business after a number of years. If that does happen it will be in part, a club again. If a large team is owned (if only a small minority) by the supporters then surely that egalitarian style of ownership would spread to smaller teams too?

Tonight's result could even make English soccer interesting to follow!

I see now why beating City in the semi of the Carling meant so much to United fans. It will be the only trophy in Old Trafford this season ....

Jayo Cluxton wrote:I see now why beating City in the semi of the Carling meant so much to United fans. It will be the only trophy in Old Trafford this season ....

Very true, i think the time is right for old Whiskey Cheeks to hand over to someone else!

On another note, good win for Leeds the other day Jayo! I thought they'd blow it after giving away a goal but they held out.......for a change!! Hopefully they can push on from that and get the automatic spot!

bald eagle wrote:On another note, good win for Leeds the other day Jayo! I thought they'd blow it after giving away a goal but they held out.......for a change!! Hopefully they can push on from that and get the automatic spot!

Yes indeed. I'd hate to see the season go belly up the way the other United's has ....

clash-of-da-ash wrote:I reckon Jose's tactics could help his team against Barcelona and they could win that one.

I doubt it, Barcelona taught Inter a lesson in the group stages at the Camp Nou, Barca are playing far better stuff now than they were back in November while Inter are stuttering in Seria A....Inter just don't have the players to keep the ball and create against Barelona....Barcelona wil win at home and probably draw in Inter....


Barcelona are currently 5/6 to win the Champion's League, akin to buying money