As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
SteveO 35 wrote:You can't get tickets for home games against the likes of Southampton and Hull without a bit of a struggle but look at the gaps there tonight
The match was sold out Steve, there certainly were a lot of gaps at the Upper tier North bank though would they be season ticket holders that didnt sell on
Sold out....eventually. Next season (providing we're in the Be All and End All trophy) take a look at the ticket position 2 weeks before the kick off and compare it to ticket sales for a category C PL game like Hull or Southampton.
I went to the Saints game on Saturday and there was barely a gap......so what makes the season ticket holders appear for that but not for Marseille? Plain and simple - the format is tired and boring, nothing is decided on the night and sometimes coming into Matchdays 5 and 6 everything has been decided anyway. All tournaments need revamping from time to time and for me this boring Group stage just drags and drags. Fuck me we played Marseille away on 18 Sept, and we're still fucking about with the bloody group on 11 December ? Is that supposed to be entertaining? We could have played 3 knockout rounds of 2 legs by now where every game had something riding on it
Have to agree.
For me the group stages in the CL are a stinking pile of boring shite. Particularly the latter couple of games as usually (as SteveO says) everything has been decided by then or can't be decided on the night. You get the odd all or nothing game at that stage which can be a cracker and have real drama, but they are very rare.
The European Cup was a far better competition. Knock out, only the champions of each league in it, no bloated boring mini-league group stages, no fucking teams getting into it on the merit of being 4th best in their league after possibly finishing their domestic season 18 fucking points behind the champions.
We will never go back to a proper cup format for the CL because the poxy moneywhores in FIFA and UEFA and various FA's are now so obsessed with money and TV rights and marketing they couldn't give a flying fuck about the quality of the games or the wishes of the fans. Cuntwounds every one of them.
We have played in possibly the most competitive group since the year we had Barca and Fiorentina at Wembley, and it has made a difference. The system is boring, dated and creates false impressions. Twice in the last ten years clubs that have finished fifth in Premier League football were deemed the best in Europe. That is fundamentally flawed, it's like the "money spinning play offs", teams get rewarded for failure in the leagues by getting the opportunity to play in a Wembley final, complete with Wembley suits, Cup and medal presentation , on pitch celebrations followed by open top bus parade. All a reward for failure in their league.
The old two legged system also threw up false impressions, Panathianikos and Malmoe played in European Cup Finals in the 1970's.. Aston Villa won it in the 1980's , but there was excitement about it. Maybe a system that could work is the Champions of the top leagues do not have to take part in the group stages. For example, the German, Spanish, Italian, English champions along with the holders (if they are not in the previous four ) join the competition in December or February when the serious knock out begins.
