Europe's Laissez-Faire Industry: Soccer

Wall Street Journal ^ | May 4, 2014 | Gabrielle Marcotti

[C19fan]

It has been a long-standing irony that European soccer is, by-and-large, a laissez-faire meritocracy, while many U.S. sports leagues resemble a welfare state, where success is punished and failure rewarded.

Finish near the bottom in the National Football League or National Basketball Association and you get a high draft pick next year. Enjoy a stellar season and, not only do you get a low pick, but you're also likely to struggle to hang on to some of your better players, as they will want pay hikes and the salary cap (or luxury tax, in the case of the NBA) will make it difficult to hang on to them.

[C19fan]

Another article comparing socialistic-lite US sports leagues with European soccer. It would be nice if there was a European Super-League as for any country's league only about at most 4 teams really compete for titles consistently. Imagine if instead of the NFL there was the New England Football League with the Boston teams dominant and large slate of bad matches between say Boston and New Britain.

[safeasthebanks]

I’ve been making this point for years. One could argue Europe needs a little more “socialism” in its sports, and a little (a lot?) less in its politics. Though I do still like the idea of keeping “relegation” in the soccer leagues.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I actually like the European Soccer practice of relegating the teams who finish at the bottom of the standings to play in a minor league the following season.

Owners of the Pittsburgh Pirates could not have languished in 20 years of sub-mediocrity if THAT system were in place in MLB.

[dfwgator]

I tend to agree, when you look at how the English game was in the 70s, you had smaller market teams, like Leeds, Derby County and Nottingham Forest competing for titles. Forest even won two European titles.

There is no way that could happen today.

[safeasthebanks]

Peter Shilton, Viv Anderson, Trevor Francis, ah memories....

Looks like Forest stuck in the middle of the pack in the second division (or whatever they call it now) this year.

[dfwgator]

And the Greatest Manager England never had.

I got hooked on YouTube videos for the series “Match of the 70s” where they would go through the highlights of each season.

[SC_Pete]

New York would have to compete against itself. Maybe they could move the Dodgers and Giants back there.

[dfwgator]

Damn, Liverpool was cruising, and CP came all the way back.

Looks like City is going to win the title. They host Aston Villa on Wednesday.

And Chelsea is still alive, barely.

[safeasthebanks]

I was previously rooting for Liverpool to win the title - because it has been so long and kind of for nostalgia reasons (they were in their heydays in the 70s/80s when I first started following the English league). But I got to admit that when CP started coming back after the announcers where so over the top (in my opinion) about "let's see how many goals Liverpool can score", it made me pull for CP, especially considering CP was playing at home and had done a nice job in the league this year, relatively speaking.

Maybe Aston Villa can get it done against MC to really shake things up.

[dfwgator]

Champions.

[safeasthebanks]

They deserved it when all said and done. Kompany must be relieved his whiff vs Liverpool is forgiven.

[dfwgator]

Derby County reaches the Championship playoff final.

[dfwgator]

FA Cup Final about to begin......Go Hull!

[dfwgator]

GOOOOOOOOOAL!!!!! Hull 1 ARSEnull 0.

[dfwgator]

2-0!!!!! Arsenal’s getting their butts kicked.

[dfwgator]

Extra Time at Wembley: 2-2.

Come on, Hull.

[safeasthebanks]

Just recently watched replay of the Derby/QPR promotion game. Heartbreaker for Derby!