You know what really grinds my sporting gears?

[Burgey]

The French Rugby team.

14 phases, get the ball to within about 5 metres of the Australian line, forawrds dominating. Push for the try?

Nah. Take a shot a drop goal from 10 out. And miss.

****ing hopeless.

 

[Langeveldt]

The French Rugby team.

14 phases, get the ball to within about 5 metres of the Australian line, forawrds dominating. Push for the try?

Nah. Take a shot a drop goal from 10 out. And miss.

****ing hopeless.

 

[cpr]

No Englishman is ever offside, deal with it

Nor has one ever dived

(proof is with the Olympic team, such a lack of men who dive have to use 14 year old boys)

 

[Magrat Garlick]

The French Rugby team.

14 phases, get the ball to within about 5 metres of the Australian line, forawrds dominating. Push for the try?

Nah. Take a shot a drop goal from 10 out. And miss.

****ing hopeless.

Decent 60-metre ping tbf.

 

[ripper868]

was a good ping that one from 48 or so...couldnt believe how long it took to get awared though

 

[masterblaster]

Ian Healy's commentary

 

[Langeveldt]

People who think the Premier League has Four teams in it
This is especially the case in SA, okay people are shunning the local leagues in favour of some faceless multi billion rand franchise they have never even seen in the flesh, fair enough.. But get an education before you start faking passion.. I asked someone who had a complete flame rant at a load of ManUre players what "WBA" stood for.... She asked if it was something to do with basketball..

 

[sledger]

People who think the Premier League has Four teams in it
This is especially the case in SA, okay people are shunning the local leagues in favour of some faceless multi billion rand franchise they have never even seen in the flesh, fair enough.. But get an education before you start faking passion.. I asked someone who had a complete flame rant at a load of ManUre players what "WBA" stood for.... She asked if it was something to do with basketball..

Am very fond of the Wagga Basketball Association tbh.

 

[Jono]

People who think the Premier League has Four teams in it
This is especially the case in SA, okay people are shunning the local leagues in favour of some faceless multi billion rand franchise they have never even seen in the flesh, fair enough.. But get an education before you start faking passion.. I asked someone who had a complete flame rant at a load of ManUre players what "WBA" stood for.... She asked if it was something to do with basketball..

The Premier League is really made of four teams. The whole thing is a shambles.

 

[Johnners]

The Premier League is really made of four teams. The whole thing is a shambles.

Nah

 

[masterblaster]

The Premier League is really made of four teams. The whole thing is a shambles.

Considering that Blackburn have been the only other team to win the English Premier League in recent times, I'd say you are right.

 

[Jono]

Nah

Haven't seen too many Wigan jerseys on the back of people outside the UK tbh.

 

[Johnners]

It's the same for just about any sporting league thats world renowned though.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Considering that Blackburn have been the only other team to win the English Premier League in recent times, I'd say you are right.

TBF when Blackburn won the title the "big 4" hadn't really crystallised yet. In the early days other teams used to finish in the top four fairly regularly. When ManUre won the first EPL in 1992/3 their main rivals were Villa & Norwich City (!!) were leading at Xmas and ultimately finished third. It wasn't really until 97/98 when the big 4 started to dominate proceedings.

 

[Goughy]

The Premier League is really made of four teams. The whole thing is a shambles.

Yeah. The Prem and football, in general, both bother me.

I was born and raised on football, my first shoes were boots, my old man was an ex-(low level) pro, my old man worked at a League club when I grew up and I played on the club's pitch everyday, it was the first sport I coached for a living and I was not a bad player during my prime (built like Heskey, speed like Owen, guile of Le Tis, mental strength of Marco Boogers, injury proneness of Anderton, tackling ability of Paul Scholes and temprament of Bellamy. )

However, now I dont watch the sport unless Im in the pub having a beer and dont even check the results after a weekend.

Despite the quality of play improving, I just have no interest. I dont like the way the game is played, I dont relate to the players, I dont 'get' the culture and I hate talking football as 99% of football fans know **** all about the game.

I keep my head down and ignore it unless Im playing (which I do 3-4 times a week) or coaching.

Football is a massive part of who I am but I dont care for it any more. Like divorcing someone you gave the best 20 years of your life to.

 

[GIMH]

Haven't seen too many Wigan jerseys on the back of people outside the UK tbh.

Don't really see that that has any relevance whatsoever tbh. Wigan are the worst supported club in the Prem, because they are a traditionally small club (smaller even than my mighty whites) but all clubs in the Prem get good attendances, games are usually sold out, and games like Sunderland V Fulham attract a lot of viewers on a Sunday afternoon. It might only be the big four that get followed overseas, but that's kind of natural. In England, there are 92 full-time professional clubs (well probably a few more actually as most conference clubs seem to be these days). Even the smallest of these clubs would generally get 2,000 people to a game, sure that's a relatively low figure, but the amount of people who watch non-top four clubs in England far outnumbers those who do.

 

[Jono]

Don't really see that that has any relevance whatsoever tbh. Wigan are the worst supported club in the Prem, because they are a traditionally small club (smaller even than my mighty whites) but all clubs in the Prem get good attendances, games are usually sold out, and games like Sunderland V Fulham attract a lot of viewers on a Sunday afternoon. It might only be the big four that get followed overseas, but that's kind of natural. In England, there are 92 full-time professional clubs (well probably a few more actually as most conference clubs seem to be these days). Even the smallest of these clubs would generally get 2,000 people to a game, sure that's a relatively low figure, but the amount of people who watch non-top four clubs in England far outnumbers those who do.

I deadset chose Wigan at random, and had no idea they were the smallest club.

I'll replace them with Ipswich. Actually, let's go with Hull or Portsmouth.

And you're missing the point. Its not about how many people in England watch, because there is a huge support base for their own clubs. That's great.

I've argued about this countless times on these boards and EPL and soccer fans in general get amazingly defensive about this. Let me ask, what are the chances of Portsmouth winning the EPL in the next decade?

The ads on ESPN-Star (in Asia) for the EPL actually only have the "big four" club logos on the ad, and consists of four guys (one of them a famous Bollywood actor) kicking the ball around, each wearing one of the big four's jerseys.

EDIT: Just found the ad here.

That ad signifies everything wrong with the EPL.

Its ****. Equalise the league FFS. And this goes for the Spanish and Italian leagues too. Because I understand that if one league has a salary cap all the money hungry gun players will go to other leagues. Hence... its a shambles.

Enjoy one of Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal or Man U winning the league in 2008/09. I'm sure it'll be great when one of them win it in 2009/10 as well.

 

[Langeveldt]

Yeah. The Prem and football, in general, both bother me.

I was born and raised on football, my first shoes were boots, my old man was an ex-(low level) pro, my old man worked at a League club when I grew up and I played on the club's pitch everyday, it was the first sport I coached for a living and I was not a bad player during my prime (built like Heskey, speed like Owen, guile of Le Tis, mental strength of Marco Boogers, injury proneness of Anderton, tackling ability Paul Scholes and temprament of Bellamy. )

However, now I dont watch the sport unless Im in the pub having a beer and dont even check the results after a weekend.

Despite the quality of play improving, I just have no interest. I dont like the way the game is played, I dont relate to the players, I dont 'get' the culture and I hate talking football as 99% of football fans know **** all about the game.

I keep my head down and ignore it unless Im playing (which I do 3-4 times a week) or coaching.

Football is a massive part of who I am but I dont care for it any more. Like divorcing someone you gave the best 20 years of your life to.

Whilst continuing to put the ball in the back of the net 3-4 times a week

 

[Goughy]

Whilst continuing to put the ball in the back of the net 3-4 times a week

true.

I hadnt thought of it like that. Divorced friends with benefits

 

[Jono]

It's the same for just about any sporting league thats world renowned though.

Really? I'm not even an NBA fan, but check out the last 10 NBA championship finals:

2007-08 Boston Celtics def Los Angeles Lakers
2006-07 San Antonio Spurs def Cleveland Cavaliers
2005-06 Miami Heat def Dallas Mavericks
2004-05 San Antonio Spurs def Detroit Pistons
2003-04 Detroit Pistons def Los Angeles Lakers
2002-03 San Antonio Spurs def New Jersey Nets
2001-02 Los Angeles Lakers def New Jersey Nets
2000-01 Los Angeles Lakers def Philadelphia 76ers
1999-00 Los Angeles Lakers def Indiana Pacers
1998-99 San Antonio Spurs def New York Knicks

I count 11 different teams making the Championship finals over the last decade.

Let's try NFL now.

January 31, 1999 Denver Broncos (2) 34–19 Atlanta Falcons
January 30, 2000 St. Louis Rams 23–16 Tennessee Titansc[
January 28, 2001 Baltimore Ravensc[›] 34–7 New York Giants
February 3, 2002 New England Patriots 20–17 St. Louis Rams
January 26, 2003 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 48–21 Oakland Raiders
February 1, 2004 New England Patriots (2) 32–29 Carolina Panthers
February 6, 2005 New England Patriots (3) 24–21 Philadelphia Eagles
February 5, 2006 Pittsburgh Steelers (5)c[›] 21–10 Seattle Seahawks
February 4, 2007 Indianapolis Colts (2) 29–17 Chicago Bears
February 3, 2008 New York Giants (3)c[›] 17–14 New England Patriots

I count 15 different teams there!

I'd love to know the "top 2" of the EPL over the last decade, and how many teams have made it in that period.