Quote Originally Posted by LEF View Post I watched it on BBC purely because I couldn't be f*cked with the adverts, I bet a lot of others did for the same reason. That and can't stand Adrian Chiles. This
I know I'm probably in a minority on this one but I actually like Adrian Chiles, he's funny (a lot of the time unintentionally).
That's why I don't like him,forever trying to find a joke out of something. He shouldve turned over and looked at the pundits,Rio dressed like Lesley Crowther,Shearer like another 70s gameshow host and hansen like an undertaker.sure he'd have found a joke in there.
According to last figures I can find (2012) this being the amount of 'Licensees' as they are known being registered with a sporting club be it amateur/semi-professional/professional and affiliated to the relevant sports national federation are - 10 - Sub Aqua Marine Sports 9 - Canoe/Kayak 8 - Golf 7 - Rugby 6 - Handball 5 - Basketball 4 - Judo 3 - Equestrianism 2 - Tennis 1 - Football Strangely in the link there is no cycling in the top 20 and 'Petanque' is at number 11 but as stated this is numbers of members for each association and probably not every one who partakes in sport is a member of a club but to compete in local/regional/national competitions you have to be adhered to one.. Rugby is predominately bigger in the South with in the Top 14 only two of the teams are North of the river Loire in Paris (St Francais and Racing Métro)..
The one sticking point for me in the German system is Bayern's position, there way above anyone else financially and there doesn't seem to be any way for there rivals to change that. When you had a situation where the #1 team can essentially talent strip the #2 team of their best players(Lewandowski and Gotze) that's not healthy for a league long term.
Yet 4 or 5 of their team comes from their own youth setup. It's just a combination of luck and having good facilities and coaching at a young age, as well as players actually playing when they are 18-19. In England, 90% of the time a talented youngster is being send out to lower league clubs to play for a club for a few months, in a system that doesn't suit them against less talented but much more physical players, the only thing you learn there is not to break your legs. In Germany talented youngsters play in the Bundesliga, same goes for Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, Holland, ... But in England you need to have experience in English football, experience in the championship, experience in the Premier League with another team if you want to get some playtime with a top 8 team. It has improved over the past 2 years, but it's still not how it's supposed to be.
I do appreciate that pure numbers do play a part, but when you look at the number of players who came through the German system into this summer's WC squad (5 out of 23, 22%) and compare it to the proportion of children born in Germany with American parentage (obviously a lot less than 22%), it shows you how effective the German system is at churning out talent in comparison to the American one. If the American system could be anywhere near that efficient, you wouldn't need huge numbers. The population of Uruguay, for example, is just over 3 million.
Correct me if I'm wrong David, but I remember you posting somewhere on this site that your college football team (or was it basketball?), is one of the main teams that you support ahead of teams in other sports pro leagues as well. If my memory hasn't been hazy, then imagine if soccer teams would get even a fraction of the same passionate support in colleges etc. The reason I bring it up is because from what I have noticed, college football/basketball teams have large fan bases because not very state or major city has an NBA/NFL franchise, so that local passion that Europeans have for soccer, can be compared to these college teams. Plus, graduates from all over the country might retain a life long support and this sort of trumps the MLS imo. Yes, the MLS is furiously strong in the West, but I think a collegiate soccer league would be much more popular and attract much more fans, or maybe you could just expand the MLS with new collegiate teams. This interest should push that fraction of people into the sport and hence drive the demand for infrastructure and better training facilities. Its not implausible given that the Hispanic population is only set to increase. What are your thoughts David?
But this conveyor-belt didn't just happen. They realised something was drastically wrong following their Euro 2004 exit, and they worked at it and they changed it. Klinsman and Loew set up a system and ideology in terms of how they wanted the Germany team to play, and set about implementing it from the bottom to the top. Their FA helped by putting pressure on the teams in the top divisions to make sure their academies were decent and good young players were coming through. They also talked a lot with coaches and clubs about this. Ten years later, the changes they have helped to implement has seen them win the World Cup. People keep talking about the need for change and better coaches and an identity and blahblahblah, but the FA are actually working to address these glaring issues. We've got St. George's Park now, the standard of our coaching is improving and our Under 17s are the current European champions. Things won't improve instantly, and they obviously haven't, but issues have been addressed and the 2022 target doesn't seem that far-fetched.
In Germany are kids picked out at 8 and almost thrown into club academies and not allowed to play any other football?
A - The fact that S04 and Dortmund are not always up there with Bayern has been due to very bad management in the past 30 years or so, Dortmund are now rectifying that. In the past Bayern have always had one or two rivals, just not consistent rivals. Schalke and Dortmund are potentially massive if they are run properly. B - One player in a quarter of a century (Götze) is hardly "talent stripping" tbf, Lewa was out of contract and leaving anyway. What Man City have done to Arsenal is talent stripping.
I'll be more convinced when we're winning u-21 tournaments in style. u-17s are still at an age where physical prowess can make a huge difference, hence why African teams often do well at these age groups (notwithstanding them sending overage players). This article sums up my thoughts quite well. There's a lot of media-friendly bluster but I'm hearing nothing of concrete strategies, actual steps to be taken. It's all very political in nature.
http://www.dw.de/program/kick-off/s-12839-9798 Nice little film about fans watching the final around the world....
