THE BRITISH THREAD II

I'll leave it to a footy expert like Walter or Spendius to answer your questions DP. But if a team looses consistently I think they are called the West Ham.

I'm not going to answer that question either .... the next would be to explain 'off-side', I suppose .... but are you sure about "West Ham"?

I'd thaught, the correct term was "The Canaries" :wink:

dp wrote-




Man U play in the top league which is called The Premiership. There are 20 teams in it. Thus they play, home and away, 38 matches in a season.

Three points go for a win and one point for a draw. The team with the most points wins the Title. The three bottom teams are relegated into The Championship; a title which flatters them somewhat. The three top teams in the Championship (24 teams) are promoted to the Premiership in their place. The three bottom teams in the Championship are relegated to the 1st Division and are replaced by the top three teams in that division.

In the event of equal points goal difference settles the rankings. That is the difference between total goals scored in the season set against total goals conceded.

The three teams at the top, Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal have become separated unofficially from the rest due to money and their ability to monopolise the best players.

The top three teams then qualify for next season's Champion's League, the big one, and the main source of this money. Winning that is worth a lot of money. £80 million or thereabouts. It depends on advertising revenue.

The fourth team also qualifies but has to play in a preliminary round with the fourth team in other countries.

There is also the UEFA Cup which is a second string Euro competition for the teams finishing next highest. The rules are fairly complicated but Wikipedia has the info. There are continual changes as UEFA seeks to maximise profit.

Posted in remembrance of Anzac Day.

Walt-

Offside is easy to explain. The difficulties arise with the adjudications which have to be accepted whether correct or otherwise. Camera technology is inappropriate for football except after the event in regard to disciplinary action and fevered argumentation.

Very good spends. And what about the second division in the championship? Are they also Championship material? Well not Macclesfield obviously.

I was trying to keep it simple for dp.

The real action is the top of the Prem and the Champions League

Going from about 4th or 5th down in the Premiership the players are more like journeymen. In any other sport players so low in the rankings would be unknown to the masses. Like the stragglers in the cross country stuff. The top three, maybe four if you count Liverpool, have a stranglehold.

The squads of Man U. Chelsea and Arsenal together is about 70 odd. As these pay most everybody wants to play for them so they get the best 70 players available. More or less. They are really only in competition for players with the top clubs of Italy and Spain. Portugal's best player was in Manchester in his teens. Very few of the French national team play in France's domestic leagues. Chelsea have been known to turn out with no English players. It's about Brand names. And marketing and money and betting and human deviousness within the law of the land, kicking and brawling excluded, and the laws of the game for those who want to stay in the system. The fines for breaking those are a major source of income right down to the local leagues. That's a fact refs have to bear in mind. Be over-lenient and you'll be refereeing on a municipal park soon.

But it's a lot more complicated than that. Or this on relegation and promotion.

Bottom three in Premiership go down to Championship. The top two in the CH. promoted automatically and the third place is decided in play-offs between the next four. In the play-offs the 3rd plays the 6th and the 4th plays the 5th in two semi-finals. The winners of those play a "final" and the winner joins the the 1st and 2nd in the Premiership next season.

The bottom 3 in Ch. go down and they are replaced from League 1 in the same way as above.

The bottom 4 in FL 1 are relegated to be replaced by 3 automatics (the top 3) from FL 2 and the winner of the play-offs between 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th.

The bottom 2 in FL2 are either re-elected or replaced by teams from the minor leagues but I don't know by what process. I think The Conference is the most senior league of those so it may be from there.

Macclesfield don't really play at football. They run around a field chasing a ball which they are not allowed to touch with their hands. Except accidentally with the ref the sole judge of whether it's accidental. As in all matches.

I know one thing. Chelsea and Man U players will be quite knackered come next Thursday. I don't know about Barcelona. Liverpool players will be fresher and with few injuries. And Barcelona played Rooney out of the game the other night. Passing the ball to him was, in effect, giving up posession.

What a sterling effort from Spendy explaining all that stuff. Top hole, old chap.
Did you explain about automatic promotion and the play-off places?

And how come dp doesn't know about this? Surely Oz works on a similar system in all its many sports?

Sorry am a bit pissed, been out on the sauce.

I find it extremely difficult to believe that Spendius has in the course of a few hours submitted the best two posts of his existence on A2K.


Well done, a credit.

Try and keep it up.

That's what I'm sayin'. I scoff in his general direction.



We could tell, McT. No need to explain ...

Mathos, The Mighty Mouse, wrote-



Give over. They're not in the top 20,000 mate. Acronyms are harder than that.

It looks like refinery workers are replacing the miners as leaders of the working classes.

It wasn't Mrs Thatcher who defeated the miners. That's a myth. It was oil and gas. She picked fights with groups which were already on the skids due to economic forces. A bit like kicking a guy on crutches. Iron Lady bollocks. Grand larceny of the northern regions and my how it has paid off.

"Steal a little and they throw you in jail,
Steal a lot and they make you King."

Bob Dylan.

Shut it 'gobby'

You're acronyms are crap, always have been, you can't get past knickers and elastic.

Somewhat akin to one of those pimply faced 1960's schoolboys, with grey drainpipe pants at half mast, white socks, beetle-crushers, brylcreem and a ten second stiffy when he saw the girls knickers during the PE lessons.

That's me. An accurate snap-shot apart from the pimples, the brylcreem and the decimal coinage.

Unfortunately the exigencies of time have led me to having to have a serious talk with myself.

I prefer the bloomers of mature intellectual ladies with blank expressions these days. Ornithologist types. Vicar of Dibney stuff. Come in to the garden Maude dispensations.

Do you know any Mathos? Phone numbers, secret locations. Anything of that nature.

No leagues (to the best of my knowledge) in Aust have this system. That, my inebraited friend is why I asked.

AFL (the major aust football league) has 16 teams. The 16 teams play against each other in 22 rounds between late March and early September in a non-divisional format. These matches are followed by a series of finals matches which culminate in the two best teams playing off for the Premiership in the AFL Grand Final, the best attended domestic club championship event in the world no relegation occors.

The AFL has tight controls over the player lists of each club. Each club can have a senior list of 38 players plus up to six rookie or veteran players. From 2006, up to two international rookieswww.realfooty.theage.com.au are also permitted. Clubs can only trade players during a "trade week" at the end of each season and can only recruit new players through the AFL Draft. The rules for the draft have changed every few years since it was introduced in 1986, but the basic philosophy remains in that players are selected by clubs in the reverse of the order of their positions on the ladder at the end of the preceding season. That is, the club that finished last has first draft selection, then the club that finished second last. However, this philosophy has been compromised by giving priority picks to clubs which win fewer than four matches during the season and by allowing clubs to select sons of former players under a "father - son rule" which itself has been varied over the years. There are a few fine tuning rules that affect how rookies (first year players) and players in the last year or two of their career are treated in relation to the salary cap.

A salary cap (known as the Total Player Payments or TPP) is also in place as part of the league's equalisation policy.

In 2007, this is A$7 million per club. Salaries of draft selections are fixed for two years. Salaries for senior players are not normally released to the public, although the average is estimated at A$200,000www.realfooty.theage.com.au and the top few players can expect to earn up to A$1,000,000 a yearwww.realfooty.theage.com.au.

Infringements by clubs in relation to exceeding the TPP, not informing the AFL of payments or draft tampering are severe and can include large fines, loss of premiership points and exclusion from the AFL draft. However, the AFL has not yet penalised clubs premiership points for a breach of the salary cap.

No relegation occors. Draft camps (where uncontracted players display their talent) are attended by club scouts. this generally ends up with most players being ranked anywhere from 1-150 (Best to not so best player). so the bottom side in the league generally is able to pick the most talented player.

Because of the salary cap No club is able to offer (in general terms) vastly different (larger) player payments for any particular player than any other club.

Each club has a second string side (sometimes called the reserves) that plays in a lower level competition. If a senior team player is out of form, coming back from injury or not required for a particular match he is dropped to the reserves until recalled to the senior side.

This is our game
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=X_hqosNvv5E

This is the international rules game we play against the oi-rish. A combination of Gaelic and Australian Football.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Oxaks9YfKCU&feature=related

Those guys are gonna feel that when theyre fifty.

It sounds a bit wimpy to me at first sight. I'll read it again tomorrow.

But I must say I expected a note of thanks for my efforts in answering your questions dp.

My most profound apologies Mr spendius.

I do indeed owe you a vote of thanks for your efforts in explaining the relegation system.

A stirling effort by your good self and much apprecited.

Treat yourself to an ale on my behalf.

"Tomorrow night, will you say those lovely things you said tonight?"

Bob Dylan.

Auzzie rules (god help me) football is a lovely, scary, manly, crazy adaptation of the pure game, and I am not surprised the Irish are involved...

It was a staple years ago of ESPN before they figgered sh*t out.

RH