Interesting Article On German Football

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Biscuit

Native Creative
Jul 8, 2003
22,319
Brighton
Shit article IMHO. All that does to me is highlight key points that Germany have got right. i.e ""High attendances, low ticket prices, free travel on match days, a majority of club shares have to be in the hands of supporters’ groups and you can even stand and have a pint. Best of all, unlike our own game, nobody goes skint because common sense rules.""

The stuff against seems weak at best and to be honest, even if it's not as wonderful as many think, it's clearly 100 x better than the English model.
 


Ninja Elephant

Doctor Elephant
Feb 16, 2009
18,855
I think the German Bundesliga is vastly superior to our Premier League, in every way except for the football. And the only reason the football isn't so good, is because they refuse to pay the stupid wages that English clubs do, so all the good and greedy of World football end up over here. One of the few reasons I retain ESPN season after season is because they show the German football and whilst it might not be as exciting as English football, it is far more honest and watchable.
 




Gritt23

New member
Jul 7, 2003
14,902
Meopham, Kent.
I think the German Bundesliga is vastly superior to our Premier League, in every way except for the football. And the only reason the football isn't so good, is because they refuse to pay the stupid wages that English clubs do, so all the good and greedy of World football end up over here. One of the few reasons I retain ESPN season after season is because they show the German football and whilst it might not be as exciting as English football, it is far more honest and watchable.

Apart from the football? Aren't Bayern one game away from being crown European Champions, ahead of Man Utd, Barca, Real Madrid etc ..... that would suggest teh football is pretty good.

As for the article, I absolutely love Martin Samuels writing, but teh last couple of weeks, I think he's articles have really dropped off.

"Yet for the really big bucks, go right to the top. For while no Bundesliga team have become insolvent, quite a few have had a fair tilt at it, only to be bailed out in a way that English clubs simply are not.
Take Hansa Rostock. Bottom of Bundesliga 2, with debts of £6.81m, ..."


Oh Martin, that is neither “right to the top”, nor “big bucks”.
 






Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
62,684
The Fatherland
What will Herr Tubthumper have to say about this ?

Well, the very obvious thing which jumps out at me is that the list of teams gone bust is not "comparable to the Football League (Liga 3 and Regionalliga) and Conference (Oberliga plus various regional leagues)." in the slightest. The first 3 in the 2012 list had average attendances last season of 391, 101 and 277 respectively. He is comparing English League 1 and 2 teams with county league teams. It is nowhere near the like-for-like comparison he suggests. The entire list seems to be heavily skewed towards very very small regional teams which if anything actually counters his argument i.e. he could not find any teams comparable to L1 and L2 which actually went bust.

He also states 3 Bundesliga clubs came close to financial difficulties but, er, did not. Am I missing something? This comes across as someone with an argument who cannot find the data to support it.

The nearest railway station to The Emirates is closed on match days but in Munich they upgraded all the rail stations and the motorway; this is confusing me because I presume this paragraph is to back his argument that German football is not all it is cracked up to be. Surely having upgraded facilities is better than having a closed station? Again, am I being really really stupid here?

Also the paragraph about free travel is arcane to say the least and totally disproved by the fact Brighton have free transport across myriad providers.

This article is basically riddled with nonsense, and I cannot be arsed to unpick it any further.
 


Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
62,684
The Fatherland
I think the German Bundesliga is vastly superior to our Premier League, in every way except for the football.

Can you expand on this? The 14 international finals and Bayern's Champions League pedigree and recent exploits suggest otherwise.
 




Oct 25, 2003
23,964
Can you expand on this? The 14 international finals and Bayern's Champions League pedigree and recent exploits suggest otherwise.

plus they got to the world cup semi final (destroying england and argentina on the way) with a team of bundesliga players.....i would say the quality of football in germany is actually fairly high
 




Herr Tubthumper

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
62,684
The Fatherland
I've been thinking about this article more. It really is total crap, and no doubt agenda driven. First, Turkiemspor Berlin was formed in '78 by a Turkish youth club and have spent most of their time bumping around the Berlin leagues. In the past 10 years their gate has never been over 500 and they were based in a municipal athletics stadium. How can they be compared to a pro L1, L2 or Championship club? Second, the Berliner Olympiastadion is a multi-use state owned listed building which Hertha use along with other organisations. It's pretty unlikely they will pay for improvements I'd say.

The article comes across as a very lazy attempt to discredit the Germans. What next? 10 reasons why a Vauxall is better than a Merc?
 




Lethargic

Well-known member
Oct 11, 2006
3,511
Horsham
Samuels is an ex News of the World jorno and supports Wet Sham what does he know about decent football, looks like a jingoistic rally cry for the premiership ahead of the Euro Cup final.
 






Ninja Elephant

Doctor Elephant
Feb 16, 2009
18,855
Can you expand on this? The 14 international finals and Bayern's Champions League pedigree and recent exploits suggest otherwise.

German players are much better than English players, as a rule. But the English Premier League is better ro watch because of the foreign influx, as I said in my post, our clubs aren't concerned by staying within budget whereas German clubs, rightly, are. I just think English football is better because the standard of player is higher.

I certainly don't mean to belittle German football, or German people or the country. I love Germans and I love Germany.
 


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