by ivor_the_injun » Mon Sep 04, 2006 12:38 pm
1. Should the Premiership be allowed it's opening month to be free of International game disruptions?
The point people are missing here is that many of the leagues in Europe, particularly eastern Europe, don't necessarily operate during the same period that the Prem does. Example: the Russian league ends at the end of November. We can moan that these leagues are minor compared to the Prem, La Liga and Seria A, but being "fair" to us would mean being unfair to the lesser teams, who - let's be honest - struggle against the bigger nations when their leagues are in full swing.
To be honest, my main gripe with the international calendar is how the competitive fixture lists are organised. England have 2 qualifying games in 5 days, then 1 next month, and then there isn't one until next March. F*cking madness.
2. Should 3rd placed teams from the group stages of the CL be allowed into the UEFA Cup.
As things stand, absolutely not. It's just a cynical way of attracting more attention to the lesser competition, and it completely devalues it. That said, there are teams that will always get through to the group stages of the CL, but will then always be underdogs to get any further - Celtic are a good example. I've always felt that they're better suited to the UEFA Cup.
There's no real happy middle ground though. I'd be happier allowing the losing teams in the last games prior to the group stages to go into the first round of the UEFA Cup, but this would leave the Celtics, the Anderlechts and the Panathinaikoses in a weird sort of limbo, no chance of winning the CL, but no opportunity to compete in the UEFA.
Maybe the UEFA Cup should start later in the season, be more compressed, and the 3rd and 4th placed teams in the group stages should play one another so that just 2 or 4 of them, as opposed to 8, were allowed into the UEFA?
3. Should there be a maximum number of players that a premiership team can have on their books ?
I'd love there to be a salary cap, but it's an idea that people are floating 15 years too late. It should have been brought in when Sky got their mitts on the Prem. The financial gap between the Chelseas and the Watfords in the Prem is so wide that any cap would be meaningless to the lower sides - it'd have to be a figure that would be well out of their reach anyway.
4. Can you see any of the top four teams appointing a British Isles manager within the next ten years? If so, who would be the likely candidates?
Alan Pardew I think has a great future ahead of him, possibly Steve McLaren or Roy Keane as future Man U boss. Martin O'Neill would always be in the frame for any of the four. Other than that you're struggling.
5. Should the punishment for the Italian match fixing teams been much harsher?
To be honest the punishments were utterly shocking. There's all this talk of legal loopholes, and UEFA not having the legal authority to exclude teams, but to be honest football should be self-regulating, and I'm disappointed that the other major European clubs didn't club together and threaten to boycott. It's the biggest scandal to hit football in years, and it just smells of the faintest slap on the wrist now. In three-to-five years, all the clubs involved will be in a strong enough position to try exactly the same thing all over again, and to me that's not a punishment.