Yes, well spotted. You'd make a good assistant referee!Quote:
Originally Posted by St. Robbie
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Yes, well spotted. You'd make a good assistant referee!Quote:
Originally Posted by St. Robbie
The second video says only two and a half minutes of injury time had been played. Which is it?
99. The game got stopped for a while because of a crowd invasion. This channel obviously stopped the time aswell then restarted it but the other channel kept it going.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mrtankthreat
Our friends over in Hannover aren't too happy about how German football and their club is being run apparently.
Any update on this from outpost Hannover??
Quote:
Issues looming for Germany's footballing landscape
Reviewing 2014 seems easy. In footballing terms, this has been the most successful year for the German game since 1980, when the national team won a title and three Bundesliga sides reached European finals.
However, football is not just the game played between the lines. Some things which happened off the pitch during the past 12 months considerably blur what appears to be such a rosy picture.
In terms of football culture -- currently one of the Bundesliga's strongest selling points abroad -- there have been worrying developments this year. One is the accelerating erosion of the so-called "50+1 rule," the much-envied cornerstone of how football is being organised in this country.
Another, not at all unrelated, development is a growing dissatisfaction among supporters with the sanitising and the commercialisation of the game. That's nothing new, of course. This process began many years ago, in the early 1990s, but it has now reached the point where the footballing landscape in Germany is being reshaped for all to see.
Let's begin with this fan unrest. NDR, the regional television channel for northern Germany, broadcast a documentary four weeks ago which followed supporters who were turning their backs on their teams. Not in the sense of booing the players, demanding the coach's head or hurling insults at the chairman. No, in the sense of actively walking away from the club they have supported all their lives.
The documentary, "Escape from the Curve," looks in particular at Hamburg (HSV) and Hannover 96, two of the most prominent clubs from NDR's broadcasting area. The reasons for the fans' discontent and the form of their protests are different in those two cities, but the underlying sense of alienation is the same.
In Hamburg, the club members' decision back in May to turn the professional football division into a limited company was the final straw. A few hundred supporters, among them some of Hamburg's most vocal and dedicated fans, came to the conclusion that this was no longer their club, and if they still wanted what they refer to as "an emotional home," they had to turn their backs on HSV and form their own team.
In July, these former HSV fans set up HFC Falke. The name harkens back to FC Falke 1906, one of the three clubs which merged in 1919 to create the modern HSV. Today, some five months later, the new club already has about 350 members. True, that's not a huge number, but we know how quickly such clubs can grow.
This is not the first time that disillusioned or angered fans have disassociated themselves from a big club to set up their own. A few weeks ago, 80 members of HFC Falke travelled from Hamburg to Manchester to visit F.C. United, formed by Manchester United fans in 2005.
There is a similar club in Liverpool. And, of course, in southwest London, where erstwhile Wimbledon FC supporters literally took matters into their own hands when their beloved club moved to Milton Keynes in 2002. They started AFC Wimbledon, now playing fourth-division football, only one tier below the MK Dons.
Perhaps the best-known fans' club on the continent is Austria Salzburg. The team came into being in 2005 when the original Austria Salzburg was bought up by Red Bull and renamed after the company's energy drink. Although the supporters' team is only nine years old, Austria are competing in the third division and narrowly missed out on reaching the second level in the promotion playoffs in June.
Clubs like Red Bull Leipzig are finding ways around Germany's 50+1 rule, which is supposed to prevent an individual or commercial enterprise from owning a club.
Clubs like Red Bull Leipzig are finding ways around Germany's 50+1 rule, which is supposed to prevent an individual or commercial enterprise from owning a club.
Which bring us to 50+1. A month before Austria failed to win promotion across the border, RB Leipzig moved up to the second level of the game in Germany. The club has been the subject of this column numerous times in the past, because its unstoppable rise is anxiously monitored by many German football fans.
The 50+1 rule says that 50 per cent of the shares in a club's professional football division plus one share cannot be traded and must remain in the possession of the non-commercial, non-profit parent club. The rule was created to prevent clubs from being owned by an individual or a commercial enterprise. But it no longer reflects reality.
When RB Leipzig were promoted to the 2. Bundesliga in May, there were faint hopes the club would be barred from playing at this tier, because Andreas Rettig, one of the two league chairmen, is an outspoken advocate of the 50+1 rule.
But while the Leipzig club -- created and run by Red Bull -- certainly violates the spirit of the rule, it doesn't actually break the letter of the law. (RB Leipzig don't issue shares, they simply prevent non-Red Bull employees from becoming members.) So Rettig's hands were tied and now it's just a matter of time until RB will be yet another team in the top flight which, despite the 50+1 rule, is individually owned or controlled.
Pretty soon, there could be no less than five such clubs in the Bundesliga, almost a third of the league. Leverkusen and Wolfsburg have always been operating under an exemption from the rule. Then, a week before Christmas, the league allowed long-time Hoffenheim patron Dietmar Hopp to acquire a controlling interest in the club next summer.
The reason Hopp can do this has to do with another loophole in the rule, one devised and enforced by Hannover 96's president, Martin Kind.
We have covered this man's crusade against the 50+1 rule before. In the end, Kind didn't manage to abolish it altogether but succeeded in having the rule amended to say that any person or company that has been supporting a club uninterruptedly and substantially for a period of 20 years will be allowed to become the club's owner.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a group of investors headed by Kind will use this passage in the rules to take over Hannover 96 during the 2017-18 season. And if Fredi Bobic, the former director of football at VfB Stuttgart, is right, the other clubs will eventually follow this model, too.
In an interview with Kicker magazine, published last week, Bobic said: "In the future, there will be no 50+1 rule but only PLCs. Perhaps even owners, which is common practice in other European leagues. We're a bit late, but sooner or later we are going to slaughter this sacred cow."
Which is what Kind has been demanding all along. He's never hid the fact that he isn't a football fan but a businessman and intends to run a football club like a business. As Bobic says, this is perfectly normal in many leagues around the world. Not, however, in Germany. Here, sport is not considered a part of the entertainment industry. Here, clubs are supposed to serve regional, even local communities, not customer bases.
Hannover 96 president Martin Kind has designs on becoming owner of the club by 2018.
Hannover 96 president Martin Kind has designs on becoming owner of the club by 2018.
It's one reason why Kind has repeatedly clashed with his own club's supporters. The tipping point was the derby away at Eintracht Braunschweig in April. Citing security reasons, the club told the fans they couldn't travel to the game individually but only in a police-escorted bus convoy photographed here.
In the wake of what the NDR documentary calls "the first enforced mass transportation in German football," some 800 fans, a substantial number for a club of this size, finally had enough and decided to stop supporting the Bundesliga team.
They returned their season tickets for the arena -- but they haven't stopped supporting their club. Because now they watch football in the fourth division, cheering on 96's reserve side in the intimate Beekestadion in south Hanover.
Christian Brehm, the former chairman of the umbrella organisation of Hannover 96's fan clubs, told the NDR filmmakers why he and many others gladly traded the glamour of the professional game for a more grassroots experience: "I have the feeling that here I can breathe football the way I like to. For me, football means emotion and passion, it is not a regulated marketing tool."
A few days before Christmas, I was invited to London for an event called "Greatcoats for Goalposts." It celebrated the 1914 Christmas Truce and looked at the role of football in a modern society. Also on the panel was Birgitt Glockl from the German Academy for Football Culture.
The moderator introduced us as coming from a "paradise" for football fans, a place where tickets are cheap and the game can be watched on free-to-air television, where fans stand on terraces and clubs are owned by their supporters.
When he asked Glockl why German fans still have all this, she said: "We are talking about these things all the time, every day." By which she meant German fans have been fighting for them for a long time.
And despite this year's grave setbacks, they will surely continue to do so in 2015. As one of the "Greatcoats for Goalposts" speakers put it (though he wasn't talking about football culture): The fight is never completely won -- but it's never completely lost, either.
We need to get a Pats german fan club going :D
Robbie?
Bray back in trouble.
http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-30935340.html
Bray's response to the report:.Quote:
Originally Posted by kksaints
http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/irish...ai-probe-bray/
Sounds like Limerick haven't a pot to piss in now (episode 237 of a neverending series). Struggling to get their ground ready to host any kind of match and their squad looks to be a bunch of kids and nobodies.
Well the ground is nothing to do with them really, they're just tenants there, but the squad does look awful
I thought they bought the ground from Bord na gConQuote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
....Just checked that on Wiki
Quote:
Future use
The JP McManus foundation purchased the Market's Field with the intention of allowing Limerick F.C. return there for the 2015 season.[4] During late 2013 Limerick Enterprise Development Partnership (LEDP) redeveloped the pitch, investing €400k in a brand new playing surface.[5] In early 2014 after the granting of planning permission for the ground redevelopment the government announced €1.1m of funding. It is now thought that the newly redeveloped ground will open at the end of 2014,[6] with a capacity of over 3,000.[7] The refurbished main stand will hold 925 spectators including 25 spaces for the disabled.[8
What do people think of Cabinteely coming into the league? It seems crazy that a team from the lower LSL can apply and play first division but I suppose no one else wanted to so best of luck to them. I played for Cabinteely from U11 to U18 and at this time they didnīt even have a senior team. They are a well run club but I fear the worst for them now financially. Look at other clubs that have formed and gone (Fingal, Dublin City) and that was with moderate success, an FAI Cup and a promotion respectively.
Brave move but as I said I canīt see it lasting.
Go give them this season and next season before they go bang unfortunately, hopefully they prove me wrong
Eoin Doyle sold to Cardiff for Ģ500,000
Interesting team news for Shels.
http://www.extratime.ie/fixtures/detail/27477/0/
Bohs 3-0 up away to Limerick after an hour
Alan Mathews quits at Bray. That whole club is in total turmoil.
And Bray beat Sligo. How much longer will they put up with Heary?
Not long I'd guess. Can't see him lasting there. They'll probably go foreign again.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Redstar
Probably true, and part of what's wrong with football these days
Yes and no. I'd agree in general that managers should get some time, but sometimes it's clear that a bad appointment has been made (not necessarily saying this is the case with Heary, though he wouldn't convince me) I'd offer Jeff Kenna as evidence. I think it was pretty clear from early on in his reign (first game arguably) that it was a disaster in the making.
Nice one Rusty! Scum blew a big chance there. Cudda been worse - only equalised in 86th min.
Don't you mean better ? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Paddydillon
Yeah! Haha! Better for us!Quote:
Originally Posted by Redstar
Went to Cabo vs Shels last night. For a team that were hoping for promotion at the start of the season Shels are muck. They won 1-0 but were very poor. I love seeing $hels struggle, it's brilliant.
Going to go Bray vs Derry tonight, Derry really need a win, in real relegation trouble.
Robbie, are you the new Tom??;)Quote:
Originally Posted by St. Robbie
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richsaint
sometimes, this forum needs a like button..lol
But it does have a thanks button. I can hear Ollie whirring in his grave:DQuote:
Originally Posted by sixtiessaint
Nice draw for Ddalk and Cark.
We're on a roll. We're gunning for these guys. Time for a Ddalk wobble methinks. They have Bray, Lford n Derry. I predict they'll draw one of those. Two points gone. We beat them. 5 gone. Bohs draw with them after that. 7 gone. Suddenly it's a different race.
Away to Rovers, away to Ddalk and home to Cark are 3 VERY big games for us over the next 6 weeks or so.
Tried to put together all the bits and pieces about Bray. It was tough work
http://www.balls.ie/football/what-is...nderers/300789
Trojan work to put all that together! Well done.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
Hmm. So it begins. They may even draw two.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paddydillon
Would LOVE to be in the Brandy-Brandywell next Friday.
G'wan the Rusty! Limerick on a roll....
Nice results tonight. Homeless beaten, Bohs only draw.
Sean Hoare and Lee Desmond both starting for Ireland under 21s against Norway at the RSC at the moment
Former Cork City tramp Roy O' Donovan acting the tramp in Oz. Some loaf in fairness.
http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-34340088.html
credit where its due, his timing was spot onQuote:
Originally Posted by Gaz
Bohs will look class away this season:
http://www.shop-bohemianfc.com/colle...ew-away-jersey
How vile is that?
Oh dear oh dear oh dear that is horrible it could easily take a place among the crazy and strange premier league jerseys of the early 90s
booo to changing the colour of a crest for a jersey too
And I complained that our away strip looks like a training top............ :)
Awful, awful effort from Bohs, and I second Dodge - Boo on changing the crest colour as well!