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Are the days of big clubs in wee countries coming to an end?


Thermopylae

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As television money begins to become the most important thing in football how can the small leagues compete? Already we have seen Holland feeling the chill beside Germany and Portugal beside Spain and it's hard to see the transfer of wealth from small to large not continuing as more sky boxes are bought.

I suppose the big tipping point is when the televised product becomes so much better than the domestic one that the next generation of up and coming fans just don't want to go to games in their own country and it may not be as far away as we think

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It's been the case for more than a decade now.

Some clubs like Benfica, Ajax and a few others have done very well to keep competing at the top (CL and EL) despite not very much interest or money in their leagues.

Others are suffering badly and this will be the norm for some time sadly.

England is top dog as always in the money league and when you consider a club like Everton who have never competed in the Champions League can go out and spend almost £30 million on one player it’s very telling.

The days of a Porto or a Rangers getting to a European final are over IMO.

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It hit home to me how bad it's getting when I attended my nephews 10th Birthday party in Kilmarnock.

It was one of those days where he rents out a 7's park and has a football party.

+20 kids there, nearly all wearing football kits...... Man Utd, Barcelona, Real, City, Chelsea were all represented..... only 1 scottish kit on show.... Kilmarnock.

Unthinkable to host that in Ayrshire even 10yrs ago, and not see any Rangers or Celtic kits.

It used to be when I was a kid you had Rangers and then second to that an English team but we really ae heading towards the unthinkable than future generations may see their English or even foreign club as their first one

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It hit home to me how bad it's getting when I attended my nephews 10th Birthday party in Kilmarnock.

It was one of those days where he rents out a 7's park and has a football party.

+20 kids there, nearly all wearing football kits...... Man Utd, Barcelona, Real, City, Chelsea were all represented..... only 1 scottish kit on show.... Kilmarnock.

Unthinkable to host that in Ayrshire even 10yrs ago, and not see any Rangers or Celtic kits.

How many youngsters watch Scottish football these days?

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How many youngsters watch Scottish football these days?

Not many.

Even at pubs and such around town ect it's always English or Spanish games they show...no one gives a fuck about Scottish football now.

I'm just glad when I was growing up I had Gazza, Laudrup, Albertz ect to watch every week.

Must be brutal being a youngster and watching guys like Law, Templeton ect...I can't say I'm suprised that it's gone down this route with the kids.

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Not many.

Even at pubs and such around town ect it's always English or Spanish games they show...no one gives a fuck about Scottish football now.

I'm just glad when I was growing up I had Gazza, Laudrup, Albertz ect to watch every week.

Must be brutal being a youngster and watching guys like Law, Templeton ect...I can't say I'm suprised that it's gone down this route with the kids.

Watching us could be a chore or a naughty corner punishment to them, unless we improve the quality on the pitch.

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Watching us could be a chore or a naughty corner punishment to them, unless we improve the quality on the pitch.

It's not going to improve anytime soon unfortunately,a clueless management team,a squad of absolute dross,a board with no ambition or money to invest,we're a complete shambles from top to bottom

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Watching us could be a chore or a naughty corner punishment to them, unless we improve the quality on the pitch.

I'd never force my kids to watch us in the current state, if they would rather sit and watch the EPL ect then who am I to stop them?

Football should be entertaining...our games would put a insomniac to sleep the majority of the time.

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2002/03 was probably the last season you had a rangers and celtic team with decent/ high quality players who were happy to play and make a career for themselves at rangers or celtic with exciting title challenges and regular european football guaranteed. It was roughly after this season both clubs began changing their policies and accepting that in order to attract players they had to sell themselves as a stepping stone to the promised land of the premier league for any player.

then of course in recent years you have had our issues being the main talking point of scottish football and the shocking way it has been handled by the football authorities in the country has created the barren land of scottish football we are witnessing right now.

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It hit home to me how bad it's getting when I attended my nephews 10th Birthday party in Kilmarnock.

It was one of those days where he rents out a 7's park and has a football party.

+20 kids there, nearly all wearing football kits...... Man Utd, Barcelona, Real, City, Chelsea were all represented..... only 1 scottish kit on show.... Kilmarnock.

Unthinkable to host that in Ayrshire even 10yrs ago, and not see any Rangers or Celtic kits.

That's not really a new thing. It was like that fifteen, twenty years ago when I was in school. It was just an unwritten rule that you didn't wear Scottish football tops. When you think about the amount of advertising and brand orientated things that are shoved at kids now, it's no surprise. And unfortunately, these days football is all about brand recognition and merchandising.

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That's not really a new thing. It was like that fifteen, twenty years ago when I was in school. It was just an unwritten rule that you didn't wear Scottish football tops. When you think about the amount of advertising and brand orientated things that are shoved at kids now, it's no surprise. And unfortunately, these days football is all about brand recognition and merchandising.

It is true that kids want to be different I had a dynamo kiev top as a kid but i think the big difference now is that because of television the kids can see their foreign team every week now and that does make a difference

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I'd never force my kids to watch us in the current state, if they would rather sit and watch the EPL ect then who am I to stop them?

Football should be entertaining...our games would put a insomniac to sleep the majority of the time.

Rangers is our thing though ... as with everything in life we will probably only really realise what we had when it's gone

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Rangers is our thing though ... as with everything in life we will probably only really realise what we had when it's gone

Of course.

But you and me have grew up with the bad and good times.

The kids just now only know the bad, I doubt any of us ever went through a period as dark as this when we were growing up.

I feel for young supporters and fear we are going to lose a generation of them tbh.

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Of course.

But you and me have grew up with the bad and good times.

The kids just now only know the bad, I doubt any of us ever went through a period as dark as this when we were growing up.

I feel for young supporters and fear we are going to lose a generation of them tbh.

I get what your saying and agree to an extent however guys of thermos generation and above knew hard times as well

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Money's killing football.

It's been the case for more than a decade now.

Some clubs like Benfica, Ajax and a few others have done very well to keep competing at the top (CL and EL) despite not very much interest or money in their leagues.

Others are suffering badly and this will be the norm for some time sadly.

England is top dog as always in the money league and when you consider a club like Everton who have never competed in the Champions League can go out and spend almost £30 million on one player it's very telling.

The days of a Porto or a Rangers getting to a European final are over IMO.

Porto won the Europa League not so long ago. Unless you mean the CL final.

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Money's killing football.

Porto won the Europa League not so long ago. Unless you mean the CL final.

The CL.

Although now the EL have automatic CL entry for the winner there slittle chance a club like Porto will win it again IMO.

For years the bigger clubs treated the Uefa cup/ EL as a joke.

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The CL.

Although now the EL have automatic CL entry for the winner there slittle chance a club like Porto will win it again IMO.

For years the bigger clubs treated the Uefa cup/ EL as a joke.

I agree with the general gist of what you've been saying in this thread, but Spanish clubs take the EL seriously for one and I would take a good Spanish team to beat a top four EPL team at least half the time. I don't think Spurs could win the tournament even if they were genuinely busting a gut to do so.

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I agree with the general gist of what you've been saying in this thread, but Spanish clubs take the EL seriously for one and I would take a good Spanish team to beat a top four EPL team at least half the time. I don't think Spurs could win the tournament even if they were genuinely busting a gut to do so.

It's the teams who drop out from the groups of the CL that I think will take it more serious now.

You make very little money in a EL run and getting a CL place is far more valuable to teams so they concentraded more on the league (bigger clubs). Now that automatic entry is ensured that will be different.

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It's the teams who drop out from the groups of the CL that I think will take it more serious now.

You make very little money in a EL run and getting a CL place is far more valuable to teams so they concentraded more on the league (bigger clubs). Now that automatic entry is ensured that will be different.

It's a good change but it will still depend on how the teams are doing in their leagues, if they're already well on the way to getting a CL place domestically they'll probably still not take the Europa that seriously.
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It's the teams who drop out from the groups of the CL that I think will take it more serious now.

You make very little money in a EL run and getting a CL place is far more valuable to teams so they concentraded more on the league (bigger clubs). Now that automatic entry is ensured that will be different.

True, but then I'd imagine many of the big teams that finish third in the groups would still qualify for the CL anyway by finishing in the top four in the league.

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True, but then I'd imagine many of the big teams that finish third in the groups would still qualify for the CL anyway by finishing in the top four in the league.

The likes of Milan, Inter, Valencia, Spurs, and some of the German teams can't count on that IMO so this will be taken far more seriously...which is what Uefa were going for.

Teams like Rangers will never get anywhere near a final again IMO (if football continues like this)

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