LondonLax Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Yeah, it's actually been more competitive recently than it was 5-10 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Lyon! Remember Lyon? Where are they now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFCforever1991 Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 (edited) I think they built or are building a new stadium and had to cut back a bit, and inevitably fell off the pace a bit. And now they are down in 10th... Remember they days they had these players: Juninho, Govou, Malouda, Essien, Abidal, Cris, Diarra, Kallstrom, Fred, Ben Arfa, Wiltord, Benzema! Edited December 31, 2013 by AVFCforever1991 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danwichmann Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Where does football sit in terms of popularity in French culture? I know Paris isn't really a football town, and tennis seems to be the most popular sport in the north of the country but I think football is still probably #1 overall, even if it isn't absolutely dominant like it is in England and Scotland and places like Italy and Brazil. In Marseille and the surronding area football is the dominant sport at least as much as it is in England. I don't think it's different in other areas. Up until PSG won the lottery the french league was fantastically open and competitive, but big money ruined that before this law got the chance. Last few years it's been open (5 different winners in 5 years, Bordeaux, Marseille, Lille, Montpellier, PSG ), but didn't Lyon win like 7 Ligue 1 titles in a row? Up until 2008 That's true, and I should have qualified my response a bit more. It was around 2008 that I started to support Marseille and get into French football, and the period between Lyon dominating and PSG (and now Monaco) buying the league is what I was really talking about. I guess it's a short time in football terms, but had the money not come in I believe the league would have continued to be open and exciting for years to come. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 (edited) As I always point out to my colleagues in Paris, France is a non-football country that just happened to get lucky in the 90s. Better left to their rugby and petanque. They didn't exactly have a bad team in the 80s... Edited December 31, 2013 by Dr_Pangloss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 How will this kill French football exactly? Immoral amounts of money have hardly improved the game have they? It'll likely kill it on a European scale. I'm sure the French league will continue to exist perfectly fine and probably more idealistically (or in a more 'pure' state) than it is now. But they can kiss goodbye to the Zlatans of the world or of being as competitive as they are now. That's the context of the word 'kill' that I took. Yeah, it's what I thought too but I don't subscribe to the fact that what we have now is better than it was, say, twenty years ago. Sky will always beat the drum about how football today is better than ever, just look at the famous interview with Matthew Syed from this summer but the money in the game today is pricing fans out of the game and made it so that even throwing a hundred million at a team is not enough for anything other than an upper mid table finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted December 31, 2013 Moderator Share Posted December 31, 2013 Yeah I agree with all of that. But unless the whole of Europe took a stand together (fat chance), it must currently suck to be a regular Ligue 1 fan. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam_ Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 I disagree with the Paris comment, went there in the summer and there were people in PSG shirts absolutely everywhere and kids playing football in the streets..... I think the takeover has brought the popularity within Paris back. As someone has said, it's all down to what's popular locally more than nationally..... for example football isn't the most popular sport in Gloucestershire, it's Rugby and I'd say Cricket is up there too (I'm not into either!). It's all to do with the quality of the teams/individuals aswell (Cheltenham Town the top team and they are in League 2, whereas in Rugby, Gloucester are in the top league and have won the Aviva premiership a couple of times in the last 10 years). All depends on the owners of PSG and Monaco and whether they carry on ploughing cash in...... those 2 teams will continue to be decent within Europe but the quality of the rest of the league would probably be the equivalent of the Scottish league! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted December 31, 2013 Moderator Share Posted December 31, 2013 Isn't it doubly worse on Monaco? I could be wrong but I believe there is severe pressure on A.S. Monaco to conform to French tax rules if they want to continue playing in the French League and that it's (soon to be) no longer acceptable to remain a tax haven. That means their players will not only have to start paying tax that they haven't been paying, but that they'll lose 75% of anything over €1m. I suppose the one benefit is that by being a haven, their basic wage; by virtue of being tax free; will have naturally been a lower number and therefore less of it is exposed to the new rate. Still stinky though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam_ Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Yes, forgot to add that to my post! I thought there was something going on with Monaco and if that becomes the case, they will probably have to get rid of many of their players too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewiek2 Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 This may be why Monaco are talking to Chelsea about Falcao?! Get him off the books perhaps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted December 31, 2013 Moderator Share Posted December 31, 2013 I'd say that's just as likely to be Chelsea wanting a top striker because they don't own one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danwichmann Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Isn't it doubly worse on Monaco? I could be wrong but I believe there is severe pressure on A.S. Monaco to conform to French tax rules if they want to continue playing in the French League and that it's (soon to be) no longer acceptable to remain a tax haven. That means their players will not only have to start paying tax that they haven't been paying, but that they'll lose 75% of anything over €1m. I suppose the one benefit is that by being a haven, their basic wage; by virtue of being tax free; will have naturally been a lower number and therefore less of it is exposed to the new rate. Still stinky though. The FFA tried to change the rules so that Monaco had to register their offices in France and therefore come under this ruling. Monaco challenged this in court. I'm not sure what the outcome of this was, or if it has even been to court yet. In any case, it is certainly a bit more complicated in Monaco's case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted December 31, 2013 Moderator Share Posted December 31, 2013 I get the impression it's an inevitability and that something will happen over time whether it be a compromise or complete conformity. The days of A.S. Monaco playing in the French League whilst entirely having their own tax rules are numbered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted December 31, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted December 31, 2013 The way I feel at the moment, I would love to see football implode completely. It's like all this shite about file sharing killing music. No it isn't, it's just killing big businesses. People will always make music, and they will always play football. I'd be quite happy if both went right back to a local/amateur level. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danwichmann Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Football needs to implode. Just look at the Lerner threads, everyone throwing their toys out of the pram because we can't spend billions just to play in the champions league. The sooner it all goes tits up the better. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 I disagree with the Paris comment, went there in the summer and there were people in PSG shirts absolutely everywhere and kids playing football in the streets..... I think the takeover has brought the popularity within Paris back. PSG took just three fans to Ajaccio today. Three. Now I know it's a long way (Ajaccio is on the island of Corsica and the only practical way to get there is to fly, but it does have it's own airport and direct flights to/from Paris) but three away fans for a league game? Could you ever envisage a situation where a Premier League team, even Fulham, would take as few as that? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 that makes me wonder 3 things - arent there any PSG fans in corsica who are desperate to see PSG play there every year is it some kind of PSG protest so none of them went? but that would take some organisation and i dont see what they can be unhappy about dont they have any kind of away day organisation? it looks like those 3 didn't even travel together, i think my lions club have at least 10 people got to every game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted January 11, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted January 11, 2014 Travelling to away games is not exactly a universal thing in the world of sports... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davkaus Posted January 12, 2014 Share Posted January 12, 2014 (edited) If Fulham had an away game in Jersey, the attendance would be close. Edited January 12, 2014 by Davkaus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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