Iāve given that post a like as I found myself nodding in agreement with nearly all of it. I think the Champions League has become like the mooted European Super League that lots of STAKEHOLDERS are up in arms about. Itās more or less a closed shop at the knock-out stage with a dozen or so sides there every year and a few others skipping in & out. I was sitting on my couch on Tuesday night & didnāt bother to turn the TV on. Last night, I turned on Premier Sports at 9pm & caught the last 20 minutes of the Arsenal-Manchester City game (I saw Haaland score another non-decisive goal, 3rd in a 3-1) but I wasnāt bothered switching over to the CL ties. Itās gone very stale.
this round of 16 had some suprises though with Club Brugge, Milan (AC) making a return and Eintracht Frankfurt
The liv golf is unwatchable itās just shit even though thereās loads of very good players.
There is always a tipping point in sport when the money ruins it. Club football has reached that unfortunately.
if it bothers you that much you could attend a South of Ireland amateur championship, amateur. Or go watch Janesboro vs Pike (amateur*)
if amateur lads getting paid bothers you, you can go and watch dromore celtic vs weston villa B in 3A.
What are you on about ?
youāre forever moaning about money in sport and continually watching same said sports
Those two posts were 10 minutes apart
I suppose what iām saying is fuck up moaning about it and go away and support amateur sports if youāve such a problem with money
1 Like
I can comment on what I want when I want.
evidently.
A lot of the games in the World Cup were a dismal standard but the players genuinely cared. Thatās what makes it good.
Pep and Haaland are only at Man City because of money. Messi is only at psg because of money. It takes the sting out of things.
I think the problems with the Champions League at the moment are similar to the problems that beset the Heineken Cup from the early years of the 2010s on.
The Heineken Cup passed out of a particular era that made it, which was the era of that Munster team, Leicester, Toulouse, Llanelli, Wasps, and into the era of the sterile, plastic moneybags Leinster, Toulon and Saracens. The era of great grounds like the old Thomond Park, Donnybrook, Stradey Park and Kingsholm disappeared.
The Champions League is now passing out of the era of Messi, Ronaldo, Suarez, Modric etc. It has passed out of the era of special Nou Camp nights like that one when Messi destroyed Bayern Munich in 2015. It has passed into the era of the dominance of the plastic clubs and Premier League dominance over football as a whole. It has passed into the era of āspecial nights at the Etihadā, which are fucking shit, because Manchester City are a plastic club of cheating cunts with a pathetic support and their stadium is a soulless shithole with no atmosphere.
The problem is not with the traditional big guns getting to the latter stages. The problem is where the plastics become the big guns. A future where the big guns in Europe are not Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester United, AC Milan and Bayern Munich, but Manchester City, the team formerly known as Newcastle United, Chelsea, PSG and Red Bull Leipzig.
The money men and the spivs got involved in the Heineken Cup and ruined the thing. They rebranded it, messed with the format and gave the TV rights to BT. Thatās the route the Champions League has decided on too.
Presentation matters.
The French Top Quatorze is sweeping all before it in rugby and making the Heino a second tier competition. The Premier League is sweeping all before it in football and the Champions League now feels now like the second tier competition.
Leinster are like Bayern Munich, Toulouse are like Real Madrid, isolated pockets of competitiveness outside the main arena.
LoLz
What are you talking about?
Napoliās second goal 
2 Likes
Beautiful
I thought that was a very harsh red card for Kolo Muani.
1 Like
Yeah it was a split second incident
Me too. Very harsh
Yeah, agree.
Bit late more so than reckless. Yellow
Beautiful goal but the defender did some statue act as the ball passed him when it looked like he might have had a sniff of blocking the shot.