Question to hardcore soccer fans

I cant think of a better word but N.American sports are far more socialist than Euro sports. Euro sports are full on cut throat.

The revenue sharing in the NHL is kinda BS. Teams like the Leafs , Canucks or Canadians should have some financial advantage over say , the Carolina Hurricanes. Instead of subsidizing them to beat you year in year out. Revenue can be shared but it should be a sliding scale.

Funnily enough, the old English Football League First Division (the precursor to the Premier League) at various points in its history had a maximum wage and a degree of revenue sharing. The former (rightly, I'd argue) was abolished because it was determined to be against workers' rights. The latter was abolished because the richest clubs agreed with the exact rationale you cite above.

With that, the slow march towards the enshrined inequalities of the Premier League began.

As others have mentioned, the appeal of supporting a promoted team in the EPL can be of seeing some of the best players and visiting some of the best stadiums in the flesh for the first time. If, like Ipswich this season, it's your return to the top flight after 22 years, then there's an opportunity for a whole new generation of fans to experience that communal pleasure.

Yes, Crystal Palace has never won a major trophy. But imagine what joy their fans have gleaned from more modest victories, such as when they reached the 1990 FA Cup final by winning a semi-final against a Liverpool team that had beaten them 9-0 earlier the same season in the league. Or when they achieved promotion to the Premier League in 2013, having gone into administration only three years earlier. Or their 2016 return to the FA Cup final - which they briefly led.

And if they win the Cup this season, imagine what their celebrations will be.

Perhaps life is about 'winners' and 'losers'. But language operates on consensus, so there's scope for groups of people to agree that they'll reject definitions of those two words that strike them as being inappropriately narrow if doing so improves their experiences.
 
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My team has only been as high as fourth in the Romanian league twice since 1920 when it was established. I've seen them relegated twice, and gone and seen them play fourth division after going bankrupt a couple of years ago. Two years ago they finally won the league, before settling again in the relegation zone where they've been most of my life. It was all worth it.
 
My team has only been as high as fourth in the Romanian league twice since 1920 when it was established. I've seen them relegated twice, and gone and seen them play fourth division after going bankrupt a couple of years ago. Two years ago they finally won the league, before settling again in the relegation zone where they've been most of my life. It was all worth it.

Yeah. I thought I would only ever see Union play in the first division if I could wealthy enough to finance it, every season they stay up in the first division is a blast...nevermind what it was like getting cheated by Real in the CL.
 
Yes, Crystal Palace has never won a major trophy. But imagine what joy their fans have gleaned from more modest victories, such as when they reached the 1990 FA Cup final by winning a semi-final against a Liverpool team that had beaten them 9-0 earlier the same season in the league.

That first 1990 final match was amazing. Replay not so much. What a sub performance by Ian Wright, really changed his career.


Some nice details about the sides (Wikipedia):

-This was the first time Crystal Palace had appeared in an FA Cup final, and they had just completed their first season back in the top flight after nearly a decade away

-The 1990 Crystal Palace team was the last all-English team to play in an FA Cup final, while the Manchester United team was the last team to be composed solely of players from the United Kingdom to win the FA Cup final.

-Manchester United did not play a single home game during their successful FA Cup campaign – this is the only time this has happened in the history of the FA Cup

-The month before the final, Uefa had announced that the ban on English clubs in European competitions would be lifted for the 1990–91 season

-It also proved to be the turning point in Manchester United's history after a few lean seasons; over the next 20 years they collected a total of more than 20 major trophies
 
tbh I wouldn't expect either of these teams to do enough this window and next season to stay up.
While I think it's not an automatic the promotees will inevitably go back down, because there's enough recently counter-examples, I think the jump is getting tougher and it's starting to trend that way. Teams without Forest-levels of investment are generally going to have a very rough time. And then those teams, due to their yo-yoing and parachute payments are pretty tough to break past for other clubs in the Championship. I see the EPL composition just getting more and more static at this point.
 
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While I think it's not an automatic the promotees will inevitably go back down, because there's enough recently counter-examples, I think the jump is getting tougher and it's starting to trend that way. Teams without Forest-levels of investment are generally going to have a very rough time. And then those teams, due to their yo-yoing and parachute payments are pretty tough to break past for other clubs in the Championship. I see the EPL composition just getting more and more static at this point.
I agree 100% we are trending towards more of the same clubs yoyoing up and down.
 
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I have been getting more and more into soccer over the years. From the World cup and now playing FPL.

So I was wondering, what is the thrill for promoted teams , from the championship to the premier league in English football for example ? Southhampton got promoted last year and basically became a punching bag for the rest of the premier league for a whole season only to be demoted again. What was the point ? Do fans think there's always a small possibility that an sheik from Saudi Arabia will show up with blank checks to sign players and make the team the next City ?

And anyone outside the big 6, is there always a dream that you might become the next Leicester circa 2016 ? In an alternative universe, Forest could have been that team this year.

Honest questions.
Avid football fan from Canada. Personally, I agree with you which is why I primarily follow leagues that are competitive (Ekstraklasa, LPF Argentina, Championship). Actually, many fans of lower league teams do dislike getting promoted to the top league because it is a hopeless endeavour. The big clubs are so damn big that major trophies are restricted to teams that can spend $100+ million.

I predict major changes are coming to European football leagues. Team debts are getting worse and the days of small clubs winning are dying. It's now a myth in most major European leagies. Ligue 1 and Bundesliga used to be much more competitive. now both are a joke. Fans are going to wake up to this more and more it will hurt the leagues' popularity. Already American sports are becoming more popular abroad and their parity is a huge reason.
 
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Avid football fan from Canada. Personally, I agree with you which is why I primarily follow leagues that are competitive (Ekstraklasa, LPF Argentina, Championship). Actually, many fans of lower league teams do dislike getting promoted to the top league because it is a hopeless endeavour. The big clubs are so damn big that major trophies are restricted to teams that can spend $100+ million.

I predict major changes are coming to European football leagues. Team debts are getting worse and the days of small clubs winning are dying. It's now a myth in most major European leagies. Ligue 1 and Bundesliga used to be much more competitive. now both are a joke. Fans are going to wake up to this more and more it will hurt the leagues' popularity. Already American sports are becoming more popular abroad and their parity is a huge reason.
Kind of funny that you had a rant about people being glory hunters, and you are a Canadian fan of the San Jose Sharks
 
money and playing with the big boys

although sometimes what you describe happens and they get pounded and go back

One of the fun parts of FC / FIFA is taking a team from the 2nd division to 1st to Championship to Premier League. I'll never forget when I took a lowly team in the 2nd division of English football and they won the Premier League a few years later :laugh:
 
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Avid football fan from Canada. Personally, I agree with you which is why I primarily follow leagues that are competitive (Ekstraklasa, LPF Argentina, Championship). Actually, many fans of lower league teams do dislike getting promoted to the top league because it is a hopeless endeavour. The big clubs are so damn big that major trophies are restricted to teams that can spend $100+ million.

I predict major changes are coming to European football leagues. Team debts are getting worse and the days of small clubs winning are dying. It's now a myth in most major European leagies. Ligue 1 and Bundesliga used to be much more competitive. now both are a joke. Fans are going to wake up to this more and more it will hurt the leagues' popularity. Already American sports are becoming more popular abroad and their parity is a huge reason.
Funny enough (and I'll probably get hate), if you want to watch a league that has a lot of internal competition,  Messi Major League Soccer is right there for you. Yes, the quality isn't at the level of the big 5 leagues, but it's closer to on par with the next tier of leagues (Eredivisie outside of Ajax, PSV. Feyenoord, Liga Portugal outside the top 3, much of the Belgian Pro League, etc...).

But yes, the $$$ versus sporting merit gulf has increasingly widened and it's become a lot harder to succeed on just the latter. That said, even the top 5 leagues are relatively competitive after the top few clubs (even the EPL). I tend to do a lot more of my watching and following in those tiers.
 
Avid football fan from Canada. Personally, I agree with you which is why I primarily follow leagues that are competitive (Ekstraklasa, LPF Argentina, Championship). Actually, many fans of lower league teams do dislike getting promoted to the top league because it is a hopeless endeavour. The big clubs are so damn big that major trophies are restricted to teams that can spend $100+ million.
What lower league fans are you talking about? While I agree that there is plenty of fun to be had following more competitive leagues (I'd throw the J-League in your list), at the end of the day the goal is to gain promotion to to next division.

As many have said here already, your club may only have brief moments of glory, you embrace them when they happen.
 
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