The point is, Jack, that the defenses of those days were probably no better than what you'd see at any average club. You criticise Spanish defenses now, but even average sides now are better than some of the best now. It's understandable given the training they're allowed, but it's still the case in my opinion.

And by the same yardstick are you also suggesting that the England World Cup is not worth the brass/silver/cr@p it's minted out of. Since at 'that' time the competition in general was crap. They should probably tear down Bobby Charlton's statue while they're at it, and erect one of Wes Brown or something.

Erm no...the owners can't donate money....I've obviously read a different article then.

Three-quarters of the Premier League's clubs will need to reduce significantly their spending on players' wages if they are to qualify for European competitions after Uefa's "financial fair play" rules are introduced tomorrow. The European governing body's executive committee is set to approve the regulations, which will require clubs to break even, not make persistent losses, from 2012-13.

In 2008-09, the most recent year for which the Premier League's 20 clubs' accounts are published, 14 made substantial losses. One other, Blackburn Rovers, made a £3.6m profit but were subsidised with a £5m loan from the club's owners, which will no longer be permitted.

Most clubs in the Premier League are funded by owners, most spectacularly at Chelsea and Manchester City, where Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour subsidised losses of £47m and £93m respectively. Owners will, according to the rules, be permitted to invest in clubs, via permanent shares rather than repayable loans, to build solid infrastructure such as training grounds or youth development facilities, but not overspending on wages or transfers.

Uefa has taken more than three years to develop the rules since the organisation's president, Michel Platini, warned of the "danger to football" posed by debt, overspending and "rampant commercialism". They will be phased in, with club owners allowed to subsidise €45m (£38m) losses over the three years from 2012-13, reducing to €30m in total over the next three years.

Platini has described the need to staunch overspending as "a question of survival for our sport". In the Premier League, besides Chelsea and City, Aston Villa, subsidised by the club's owner, Randy Lerner, lost £46m in 2008-09, while Sunderland lost £26m. Liverpool lost £55m, principally because they had to pay £40m interest on £250m borrowed from banks. Manchester United made a profit only because of the £81m sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid; in previous years since the Glazer family took over what was then the world's most profitable club and ladled huge debts on to it, United have sustained losses.

The Premier League had argued that clubs should be allowed to be continually subsidised by owners, but was overruled, as Uefa insisted it wanted to steer clubs across Europe to a more sustainable existence. Yesterday a Premier League spokesman acknowledged the clubs will have to rein in their spending in order to comply.

"The vast majority of what is being proposed is common sense, and has already [been], or is about to be, incorporated into Premier League rules," a spokesman said. "If the regulations are introduced as reported, we envisage a difficult period of adjustment for our member clubs who play, or aspire to play, in European competitions."

Source: Guardian Online (guardian.co.uk)

how do you get from clubs being forced (albeit gradually) to live within their means to compete in europe to Platini making sure it's a game for the rich?

Goal-line technology will not be on the agenda when football's law-makers meet in Wales later this week, contrary to indications by FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

The technical sub-committee of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) will meet in Cardiff on Wednesday, but as planned back in May, there will only be one item on the agenda and that will be the continuing experiment with additional assistant referees.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter announced during the World Cup finals that goal-line technology had to be discussed once again at the 'first opportunity' and indicated that would take place this month.
How can that not be a goal? Frank Lampard's effort for England against Germany at the World Cup was ruled out

However, it is not now expected to be on the agenda until a more formal meeting in October.

A FIFA spokesman said: 'The meeting this week is purely to ratify any requests that have come forward over the implementation of the assistant referees experiment, which was used last year in the Europa League.

'The first formal meeting where that discussion [goal-line technology] could take place is in October.'

Wednesday's meeting will instead concentrate on the member associations who have taken up the opportunity to use additional assistant referees after IFAB agreed in May to launch a two-year experiment to test the effectiveness of the initiative.

IFAB, which comprises representatives from FIFA and the four home nations, rejected the notion of goal-line technology in March on the grounds of cost and the possible disruption it would bring.

However, calls for the introduction of technology intensified after England's Frank Lampard was denied what would have been an equaliser in the World Cup second round clash with Germany when his shot rebounded off the underside of the crossbar and dropped over the line, but unseen by the match officials and was not given.

Mexico too suffered as they were dumped out of the competition by Argentina with the help of a blatantly offside Carlos Tevez goal.

Speaking in Johannesburg last month, Blatter said: 'It is obvious that after the experience so far in this World Cup, it would be a nonsense to not re-open the file of technology at the business meeting of the International FA Board in July.'

So, there's a story in L'equipe this morning about the French NT and new coach Laurent Blanc. France play a friendly against Norway on August 11 and Blanc has said he's not likely to call up ANY of the guys who went to South Africa. (Serves them all right).

Sepp Blatter says Fifa is considering scrapping draws at the group stage of future World Cup finals by introducing penalty shoot-outs after 90 minutes.

Blatter, president of world football's governing body, is known for voicing radical ideas on changing the game.

He wants to put an end to defence-minded teams playing to get a draw.

"If there is no winner at the end of 90 minutes of play, we would proceed directly to penalty kicks," he told German magazine Focus.

"We are considering doing away with draws in the first round... and also ending extra-time play."

Another possibility, according to Blatter, would be to revive the "golden goal".

Under that rule if a match is a draw after normal time then the first team to score a goal in extra-time is the winner.

It was used in the 1998 competition in France but was abandoned four years later when the finals were held in Japan and South Korea.

Blatter feels the changes could make the tournament more interesting, insisting teams "above all do not want to lose - that makes for a boring game".

The next World Cup will be held in Brazil in 2014.

Blatter also reiterated Fifa's efforts to examine goal-line technology, which will be discussed at October's International Football Association Board meeting.

"As soon as we have a safe, fast and uncomplicated goal indicator, we will use it," he said.
BBC Sport

Hmmm.

This 'no draws' thing sounds very American and I don't like it. It'd also make for very boring football with bad teams playing a 10-0-0 formation and trying to win it in a shootout.

I think having a shootout after every group game (regardless of the result) to be used as a tie-breaker instead of goal-difference if teams finish on the same points would be okay. Big no to Golden Goal.

Why would introducing penalties make any difference?! So a team like North Korea would put 11 men on their goal line and wait for 90 minutes hoping they could win on penalties!

The only way to guarantee more action and attacking displays would be to like Rugby, if a team puts say a difference of 3 goals past their opposition they get a bonus point + the usual 3 points they'd normally pick up.

I think the Golden Goal in the knockout rounds is great though.