Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Sat Apr 28, 2012 7:46 am  

I think "home advantage" could work against Bayern. They don't normally play in front of 20,000 away fans and a bunch of neutrals. It will be a completely different occassion to their usual home matches, which they could find disconcerting.

It could easily turn into the sort of match that works against the home team. Presumably the bloke on the tannoy who conducts their fans will be missing. I wouldnt be surprised if their fans are outshouted by the Chelsea fans and their manager ends up complaining about too many prawn sandwich eaters, or whatever is the German equivalent.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Sat Apr 28, 2012 9:35 am  

Roddy B wrote:

But surely the CL final - probably the biggest event on the club footballing calendar - requires a bit more planning than quick arrangements? Clubs/cities have to prepare to host the thing, tickets will be dealt out to 'neutrals' (I assume), flights will be booked and local hotels/accommodation will already have taken bookings and so on.

It's not particularly fair and I can understand Chelsea's frustrations, but I imagine it's not as easy as having a 'plan B' (oh lord, not this again...).

UEFA makes champions league final tickets available in Feb, like you say, many fans would have booked flights, hotels etc. It shouldn't matter where it is.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Sat Apr 28, 2012 10:44 am  

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:

Yes, because one club getting home advantage in a CL final is clearly ridiculous.

There's no way anyone can say it's right that one team gets to play in their own ground for a CL Final.

What about World Cups or European Championships??......Should one team (or occasionally two) have the obvious advantage of being at home?

To be fair to Bayern, they've had to come through a 12 game period before they could take advantage of being at home.....When teams like England and France won their respective World Cups, they had the advantage from match 1 right through to the final - By your argument, this makes their acheivement a lesser and unfair one?

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Sat Apr 28, 2012 11:17 am  

Dita's Slot Meter wrote:

What about World Cups or European Championships??......Should one team (or occasionally two) have the obvious advantage of being at home?

To be fair to Bayern, they've had to come through a 12 game period before they could take advantage of being at home.....When teams like England and France won their respective World Cups, they had the advantage from match 1 right through to the final - By your argument, this makes their acheivement a lesser and unfair one?

It is obviously a lesser achievement to win a World Cup in your own country than it is to win it in a foreign country. It's an even greater achievement if you win a WC in a different continent, one with a vastly different climate. The truth is that if England didn't host the '66 tournament, we probably would have never won it.

Clearly host countries are going to have an advantage in WC's and Euro's. There's no way around that and everyone knows about the favourable conditions for the hosts. But that doesn't mean CL hosts should receive similar advantages when it would be easy to have alternate stadiums if one of the finalists was the one originally slated to host the final.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Sat Apr 28, 2012 11:21 am  

Roddy B wrote:

But surely the CL final - probably the biggest event on the club footballing calendar - requires a bit more planning than quick arrangements? Clubs/cities have to prepare to host the thing, tickets will be dealt out to 'neutrals' (I assume), flights will be booked and local hotels/accommodation will already have taken bookings and so on.

It's not particularly fair and I can understand Chelsea's frustrations, but I imagine it's not as easy as having a 'plan B' (oh lord, not this again...).

The supporters of the finalists have to make arrangements really quickly, why are quick arrangements beyond the neutrals who want to go to the game?

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Sat Apr 28, 2012 11:37 am  

McClennan wrote:

Even though that's an honourable and agreeable approach, logistically it wouldn't work. It's not just the corporate freeloaders to consider it's the infrastructure that supports it; UEFA having to pay to hold a booking for one stadium that they won't be using, selling tickets within the host country, arranging/negotiating television deals/coverage, hotel availability, the labour planning that goes into every single business that supports the event (e.g. bars, restaurants, airports, trains, cameramen, escorts) and all that within a month? I'm not sure one city would book out it's city's hotel rooms, conference space etc if it was a 50/50 call that it wouldn't get it and who would insure them against such odds?

You're right in saying it's silly but if UEFA want to hold these events in iconic cities it has to run the risk of a home team appearing. The only solution is to avoid the obvious contenders like Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester, Munich, Milan and plump for no-hopers in places like Scandanavia, Austria, Greece, Albania, Poland or go for less obvious choices if they want it in one of the former medieval empire countries e.g. Malaga, Hamburg, Turin, Newcastle, Birmingham, Scotland.

There's two weeks between the quarter finals and the semi finals. Clubs and supporters can make arrangements in a fortnight for hosting semi finals, but the final absolutely has to take place in one stadium and that cannot possibly change?

Why? Because the neutrals who are able to get their hotel rooms earlier and cheaper might be inconvenienced? **** neutrals. If a neutral who was going to go to the CL Final in Munich isn't prepared to switch his plans and go to Paris, Amsterdam or Milan then surely his ticket would be better off going to someone else anyway. There's way too many tickets going to neutrals in the first place.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Sat Apr 28, 2012 12:49 pm  

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:

About the CL final being played at Bayern's home ground.

It doesn't bother me much.

Then why do you keep posting about it?

Chelsea may or may not cause an upset but as far as im concerned it all points to a bayern win. Especially with terry suspended.

Personally i hope chelsea lose on penalties, again.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Sat Apr 28, 2012 1:07 pm  

Southampton in the prem then. Reckon they'll hold their own up there too they have a decent team and won't come straight back down. Least West Haaaaaaaaaam haven't gone up!

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Sat Apr 28, 2012 1:54 pm  

Gandy wrote:

Southampton in the prem then. Reckon they'll hold their own up there too they have a decent team and won't come straight back down. Least West Haaaaaaaaaam haven't gone up!

Made up about West Ham not going up (yet), cant' stand the whole wide-boy 'we won the world cup' 'we deserve to be in the Prem' nonsense.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Sat Apr 28, 2012 1:55 pm  

Wilbred T Pricklepop wrote:

Especially with terry suspended.

I read he's going to be able to lift the trophy if they win it