How is being gumped 5-0 at home in front of a handful of fans fun for anyone?
Also, it’s professional football, not a fun day out.
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[Football] Andorra vs. England
- Thread starter GT49er
- Start date
How is being gumped 5-0 at home in front of a handful of fans fun for anyone?
Also, it’s professional football, not a fun day out.
Because quite simply they are shite, and waste everyone's time, in this day and age when we are trying to reduce our carbon footprint across the globe, why even bother going to San Marino or the likes, complete waste of time and energy. so localise the shite teams together, makes perfect sense, plus they will have something meaningful to play for with a chance of improving playing against other shite.
Oh ok, they do not need a motive or target, it is just the taking part that counts, is that right ?
Choo... Choo...here we go all aboard the no such thing as winners or losers train....
Yeah well thats probably how countries feel about playing England as well. Germany before the semi-final in 1996 could have just shrugged and said "what is the point in playing this game...".
Strangely despite not winning the tournament, plenty of England fans say they have great memories from that tournament. Why cant Andorrians get similar memories from things such as watching their national team play on Wembley?
And, yes taking part is what counts to some. Is that a problem? Does it offend you somehow?
I can imagine its very fun to be able to watch some of the best players in the world. Unlike England, the Andorrian or San Marino fans are not expecting to win every game, cup and tournament so they most likely see value in other things, such as being able to watch top class footballers.
They didn’t come close to selling out, think there was more England fans there?
Yes, I imagine it is; it's no fun for the rest of us though. International tournament football should be about competition, not playing what are effectively exhibitions games for the benefit of a few thousand. Besides if the Andorrians want to watch top class football they're not exactly a million miles away from good-quality teams - international and club.
Insel affe
HellBilly
Nowhere near the same thing losing in extra time or penalties or whatever than losing 25-0 in six games is it against Andorra or San Marion 42-1 over seven games, come on them is not apples v apples.
Nope, just pointless
Why would it, Why would you suggest it would ?
Again I just think they are pointless games and too suggest 42-1 is anything other than pointless is just being pedantic.
It is just an opinion, like yours, don't look for things that are not there...
With "the rest of us", I assume you mean people living in large countries.
Why should international football be about competition? Cant it be about football and people enjoying football?
Not every country reason "if the Saudi government can buy me a title I'll take it because its all that matters". Luckily.
The game will, hopefully, never be adjusted to match your mentality that only great teams should get great football experiences.
Pavilionaire
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 31,269
I'm sure at the turn of the next century 90-year old goatherds will be telling their great-grandchildren of the day they got to see the legendary Conor Coady play in the flesh.
Maybe not Conor Coady but perhaps Harry Kane. I have no doubts there's a fair amount of people from Andorra with memories of watching Ronaldo playing there in 98, and I think a lot of Sanmarinese people still talk about Davide Gualtieri scoring against England in 93.
Pavilionaire
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 31,269
Kane was an unused sub, as was Tyrone Mings. The Pyrenees hasn't witnessed double despair like it since the The Great Avalanche of 1897.
To answer your points:
Yes. I amended my post to say international TOURNAMENT football. (I amended it quickly but you beat me!) I've no objection to teams playing friendlies, to 'spread the word'. But all competitive football needs some kind of seeding, that's why we have different divisions in domestic leagues to stop Liverpool say from playing a one-sided game against Lewes. (And our FA Cup has various different entry points for the various levels).
No, agree about the Saudis. However I'm not sure why you mentioned it in reply to my post? if for nothing else because we're talking about international football.
'Adjusted to my mentaity?' Eh? I never said 'only great teams should get great football experiences', nothing remotely like that. How on earth did you read that into it?
There is a seeding system in the WC qualifiers as well. If there was 736 nations (like there's 736 teams in the FA cup) in the European qualifiers to the World Cup, it might have had a system more like the FA Cup, but this is not a case. Instead there are 55 teams and with the number of "minnows" it means you play very small teams (usually) once or twice a year. I dont see how it is a problem. Yes, it might be "boring" and "pointless" for those with the advantage of living in a big country but how about just go do something else when England are playing against Andorra or San Marino then?
I mentioned the Saudis because these attitudes towards the game are the exact same attitudes that makes people accept them taking over Newcastle. "Its about being competitive!", "Whats the end game? If you cant win, why participate?"
"It is also identitical to the ESL thinking. "**** playing all these Swiss or Greek teams in the Champions League, they never go anywhere - complete waste of time. Why should a mighty club like Tottenham have to through all that pointless hassle? Nah, better make a tournament where all the powerful clubs are already qualified so you dont have to play those pointless games."
It was a natural step from the development in the 90s when no longer every national champion were allowed to compete in the European Cup. A natural development of the idea to not allow bad nations to play against good would be to simply allow the top 32 ranked nations to qualify for the tournaments without qualifiers and then have a couple of teams fight for the scraps. Unfortunately for the elitist, entitled people in big, fancy countries there are some democracy in international football compared to club football, meaning Jack Grealish and all his fans are likely to continue live in fear that he might mess up his haircut or get a scratch on his finger nail while facing some Andorran truck driver.
Nobby Cybergoat
Well-known member
- Jul 19, 2021
- 8,625
If there were less pressure on the football calendar, I would agree with you. Some fixtures at some stage will have to be reduced so ones where there is little public interest (as evidenced by poor attendances and numbers of TV viewers) are probably as good as any.
As for democracy in international football. Well yes there is some and this is clearly what is driving the continuation of w/c qualification in the existing format, but it's pretty questionable that a federation that represents no professional players, has no (or a highly limited) domestic league system and has a country with a population of a large town has the same voting rights as a country with 10's of millions of football fans.
I support the growth of the international game, but there are some "countries" which have no chance of significant improvement. If i'm wrong, and Andorra, San Marino etc suddenly get their act together they can prove it by winning pre qualifiying and mixing it with the big boys. Nobody is talking of banning them from playing at all
There aren't actually 736 nations in the world, but never mind! Ok, we're not going to agree. I think getting the smaller nations to go through the equivalent of the FA Cup qualifying rounds will make the competitive matches more, er , 'competitive' and you think the Andorrans should just be able to wander down to their local ground and see the top players as of right. (Even though the Andorrans don't appreciate it as the matches don't always sell, but maybe that's just because it's against England). Fair enough.
Al I can say is when Brighton were a little, third tier team when we battled through to play a big side in the FA Cup it was always a big deal because we knew we'd earnt it. We knew that when we started the competition against clubs our own level that if we did well there was a chance of getting one of the Big Boys; it was a reward. It wouldn't have been the same if the FA said they had to play us, just so we could get the chance to see the top players.
Uter
Well-known member
I quite like these games even if a lot don't.
Worth noting that our two previous visits to Andorra were only won three nil and two nil. Comfortable I guess, but not exactly thrashings.
Would it have been such a stroll for us this time had we not had Foden, Sancho and Grealish at our disposal? Doubtful in my opinion.
Watching the U21s labour to a 1 nil win last night showed how hard it can be to pick off a team of limited players if they are sitting back, well organised and aggressively closing down if you don't have a skilful creative midfielder with exceptional close control to call upon.
The U21s drew 3-3 on their previous visit, so at least they improved on that.
Worth noting that our two previous visits to Andorra were only won three nil and two nil. Comfortable I guess, but not exactly thrashings.
Would it have been such a stroll for us this time had we not had Foden, Sancho and Grealish at our disposal? Doubtful in my opinion.
Watching the U21s labour to a 1 nil win last night showed how hard it can be to pick off a team of limited players if they are sitting back, well organised and aggressively closing down if you don't have a skilful creative midfielder with exceptional close control to call upon.
The U21s drew 3-3 on their previous visit, so at least they improved on that.