AshleyGeorge wrote:
lomekian wrote:
And as soon as Dortmund became a threat the dirty tricks, exploiting every rule, started again relentlessly. Sure they did nothing wrong exploiting release clauses, but promising huge wages to players if they run their contracts down (Lewandowski) is technically against the rules. The one that did it for me was publicly releasing the information about Gotze's release clause activation they afternoon of Dortmunds CL semi-final to de-stabilise the club & make it difficult for Goetze to play.
That was really low. Purely to destabilise a rival in a game that didn't affect Bayern themselves.
Reminiscent of the kind of cheating indulged in on Football Manager back in the day. Which they're able to I suppose because they rule the roost. I think we've had similar sort of occurrences but you never remember them because they don't cause the same outrage. I am SORT of with Bernard in that you wish Arsenal were able to garner the same sort of advantages within the rules. The last advantage we had was the knowledge of the potential of young French players which lasted for a time.
I certainly wish Arsenal were more like Bayern in their commercial competence and their youth scouting, but in the same way I look at Chelsea and others, there is doing what you can to be the best and then there is going beyond that, which seems unnecessary and slightly immoral. Of course 75% of the way Bayern operates is a fantastic model, same with Barca, but both have power which they abuse. Its utterly ruthless, and we could do with rather more of that, but for me, both take it too far. I know my romantic ideals may seem unrealistic, but they are where I stand.
There is no doubt that Arsenal pushed the rules a bit regarding poaching kids for a brief while a few years ago, but not nearly as much as Chelsea, Utd or Liverpool and certainly nowhere near the amount as teams they poached from like PSG and Barca, the latter of whom have a disgraceful record of doing so in dubious and sometimes illegal circumstances, but always get away with a slap on the wrist.
Its in part because in other European countries, the sporting authorities are more interested in the glory of the biggest teams, particularly in European competition than in the competitiveness of the league. At least German ownership structures provide some needed balance, and the TV money is nothing like as bent as it is in Spain, but despite the financial dominance of certain clubs in England, the league applies both rules and financial reward far more fairly than any other major league (which actually undermines English teams in European competition as we have more competitive weekly fixtures and no help from the fixture lists).
Spain is so bent as to be a joke. In Germany, part of the problem is that Bayern are stupendously rich compared to every other team, and are quite willing to, like Mourinho;s Chelsea, buy players they don't need simply to weaken domestic rivals. Dortmund have sorted themselves out a bit, but still are miles behind Bayern financially.
Italy suffers from the TV money differential for European games being so vast that Juve can outspend all but Milan and Inter at will (and those two clubs are appallingly run).
France is PSG's money plus the odd good year for someone else.
In England, the league has only been dominated by Fergies Utd (richer, better manager and a better youth set up than everyone else) and Liverpool in the 80s (similar advantages). Bar that its always been the most competitive of the leagues, and thus less open to abuse by the most powerful.