Australia to leave OFC for Asian federation

[hamish]

A mixture of the net, being nerds, the aformentioned magazines, other magazines and books.

I'd NEVER call you guys/gals nerds. Just highly intelligent, witty and hugely intuitive, informed people. I can't think of a more horrible insult than to be called a nerd.

Still amazed how you all absorb all the data.

Guess that means you can't slag me ever again, Poor Student!!!!! :D

Cheers

Kindly old Hamish. :D

[anto eile]

id like to know more about the gibraltar/spain story.as far as spain is concerned gibraltar was stolen from them so id understand them being pi$$ed off at gibraltar trying to assert its "independence"

tibet is another example of a football country being blocked from competing in international football. china wont allow it. although greenland did play tibet 2 years ago- it was an unofficial friendly as far as uefa/fifa are concerned.the game was played on a council pitch,as all official stadia were barred from hosting the game by fifa. greenlands fa took a risk by even playing against tibet

if uefa had any balls the g14 clubs should be told to f*ck off unless they break up their cosy little cartel. the champions (and runner up/3rd placed/4th placed rich clubs) league would suffer in the short term, but that would be good for football in the long run

[davey]

Fascinating thread lads

I read an article about Guernsey wanting to join UEFA a couple of months ago in When Saturday Comes. Uefa have apparently been inundated with requests from "dependencies" wishing to join up. eg, The Isle of Man, Gibraltar etc.They've now stipulated that countries that wish to join up have to be soveriegn states. Obviously this won't be applied retrospectively so the Faeroes are safe. As are Wales, Scotland and Nothern Ireland :D

With the admission of Kazakhstan into Uefa (ridiculous I know). There does run the risk of qualifying tournaments getting too big. I certainly wouldn't call for any Pre-Qualifying tournament at the present - I'm as big a footie romantic as the next guy. However UEFA will be wary about who it admits in the future. There are parts of Moldova, Azbekistan looking for independence. Obviously if this happened, they would be rightfully looking for membership of UEFA (They might have more pressing needs first). I think this lies behind UEFAs reluctance with Gibraltar rather than any Spanish hostlity - although admittedly this wouldn't help.

BTW Gerrit, going a bit off-topic here, but I share your arctic obsession. Hve you read Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez? One of my favourite books

[hamish]

Great points Davey and anto eile. I've said it already but I think one biggest threats to football is the G14 bloc.

It looks like it's going to be a nightmare to organise groups with more and more regions becoming...er...independent. Isn't Kosovo another likely prospect in the future?

Maybe pre-qualifying groups might be an unavoidable option for UEFA/FIFA in the future. I really don't know how this will pan out.

Yeah, like you guys, love the sceals about the so called minnows. I understand a little more maybe 'cos of my age, lads, as I remember when WE were minnows and am of the generation that was involved in setting up leagues like Roscommon (founded only 35 years ago) and new clubs etc so have a real feeling for the people in Greenland etc who are basically doing the same thing as we did 35 to 40 years ago. Not boasting, here lads, honestly, just remembering the excitement.

There is a great sense of excitement and adventure when the above is happening and can you imagine how the people in say the Faroes felt when they first were admitted into UEFA competition and then to beat Austria 1-0 in their first game. Must have been like how Ireland felt when Euro 88 and Italia 90 enthralled us all.

What an amazing WORLD game football is? :) There is simply no sport or passion on this planet that could come near to it, despite all the game's problems.

Now, to spoil all the above, I read in the Guardian a few years ago, that football as a world industry has something in the region of a 400 BILLION turnover each year. Is that possible? Wonder who got those figures and how they worked it out. Just mentioned it to emphasise the SIZE of the sport.

[shedite]

who are you going to put in the Antarctica team ? :D


There's 3,687 people who ive in antarctica broken down into the nationalities as folows:

Argentina 302,
Australia 201,
Belgium 13,
Brazil 80,
Bulgaria 16,
Chile 352,
China 70,
Finland 11,
France 100,
Germany 51,
India 60,
Italy 106,
Japan 136,
South Korea 14,
Netherlands 10,
NZ 60,
Norway 40,
Peru 28,
Poland 70,
Russia 254,
South Africa 80,
Spain 43,
Sweden 20,
UK 192,
US 1,378


There's bound to be some good players therer :D

[hamish]

Wonder if any of them have Irish connections. I mean, with the current injury crisis and all...... :D

[davey]

There is a great sense of excitement and adventure when the above is happening and can you imagine how the people in say the Faroes felt when they first were admitted into UEFA competition and then to beat Austria 1-0 in their first game. Must have been like how Ireland felt when Euro 88 and Italia 90 enthralled us all.



I remember I was excited when I read about then saw the highlights of this game. And I'm not Faroese! The Faroes are incredible really. They rarely get hammered and have taken points of some decent teams in the past. Thats why I'm a little worried about next Wednesday :eek:

[Gerrit]

There's 3,687 people who ive in antarctica broken down into the nationalities as folows:

Argentina 302,
Australia 201,
Belgium 13,
Brazil 80,
Bulgaria 16,
Chile 352,
China 70,
Finland 11,
France 100,
Germany 51,
India 60,
Italy 106,
Japan 136,
South Korea 14,
Netherlands 10,
NZ 60,
Norway 40,
Peru 28,
Poland 70,
Russia 254,
South Africa 80,
Spain 43,
Sweden 20,
UK 192,
US 1,378


There's bound to be some good players therer :D

None of them are permanent residents, these are people that are there for a couple of months for professional reasons. The same happens in islands like Kerguelen and South Georgia-South Sandwich, Nova Zembla, ... Actually, the weather station Grytvyken on the South Sandwich Islands is permanently populated (scientists come and go) so some tend to see it as a real town.



About Greenland: SirHamish, people have been playing soccer there since ages. Very popular sport, huge attendances (100 people for a game in a town divided by 5 clubs and only 1000 people living there !) and they were playing it probably much earlier than in some European countries.



As far as I know FIFA has certain rules regarding the "dependencies" of non-sovereign states, basically oversea territories more than x miles away from the mainland state + with organised FA, would in theory be allowed in (e.g. Bermuda, Guam, Faroes, ...). In theory, cause reality shows that once politics are involved it sometimes turns out differently (e.g. Gibraltar).

But basically there are many potential members: St-Helena, Falkland Islands, Cocos Islands, Greenland, ... All of them are non-sovereign but have independent FA's and are thousands of kilometers away from homeland.

If only sovereign states would be allowed in we can still expect some day to welcome Tuvalu, Nauru, Vatican City, Monaco, ...Actually, Tuvalu and Nauru both play friendlies already (though with Tuvalu sinking they'd better hurry up :D ) and Vatican City is already more or less preparing affiliation. I don't know however who will play for them, as most inhabitants of the Vatican are either involved with the Church or either lifeguards etc, and most of them keep their native nationality. But Vatican City has an FA, has a league (a 5-a-side league) and is sovereign, so FIFA cannot block their membership ; and Vatican City has already shown huge interest in affiliation, so membership is near.




Politics will probably always keep Tibet and Northern Cyprus out of the FIFA (unless Turkey gets someone on Sepp Blatter's chair ;) ), though in the past FIFA have shown more character. They allowed China to re-enter FIFA under the strict condition that Taiwan could remain an independent member. It was a "take it or leave it" thing but China (who had left previously after a disagreement) were begging to get in and up to date still accept Taiwan as an independent football nation.




As how I get all that info: books, internet, forums (bigsoccer.com is excellent !), fellow foot maniacs/obsessives, papers, ... I don't mind being called a nerd as well, so go ahead :) I bear my name with pride :D

[Poor Student]

Guess that means you can't slag me ever again, Poor Student!!!!! :D

Cheers

Kindly old Hamish. :D

Hamish I'd never dream of doing that. :eek: My mother taught me to respect the elderly. :D

[Gerrit]

Hamish, he is at uni so he is supposed to be a smart guy :D ;) (and no that's not an insult, being smart is "cool" to use a trendy teenagers word :cool: )

[hamish]

Hamish I'd never dream of doing that. :eek: My mother taught me to respect the elderly. :D

Sensible lady - you keep listening to your mother or I'll be round with my walkin' stick!!!! :D :D :D

[hamish]

Gerrit - knew there was something to tell you that will really interest you.

The two countries rated the bottom two in FIFAs rankiings held their own alternative world cup final during the 2002 World Cup.

It was organised, I think, by a number of Dutch fans and I've seen the film on something like the Discovery channel a few times. It's brilliant. Huge crowds and terrific scene all round. It would make your day to see it as it ties in with evrything you've said about football beyond the big guns,
I wish I could remember the teams and the programme. I'm sure there's a DVD of it somewhere. Sorry I can't remember the details - I've a terrible memory.

I think it was Bhutan or Nepal where it was held. Not sure and I think it was an small island nation from the Caribbean region was the visiting country. The mix of cultures and sharing of experiences was awesome. Everything that's good about football was there.

[Gerrit]

Bhutan vs Montserrat : 4-0

"The Other Final" as they called it. I'd have watched it instead of France vs Brazil (the real WC final) if only it was broadcasted live. Unfortunately, football romantics such as me and the ones that agree with my statements here, are such a minority that we will never see these games on TV if a big one plays. Same for the European cups: I'd much much rather see two teams I still have to discover, e.g. Dinamo Tbilissi vs Skopje, rather than watching Real and Juventus playing each other for the thousandth time... Unfortunately, the TV blokes seem to think everyone is drooling with the idea alone that two rich teams full of overpaid stars are gonna play each other once again just like every season...

[hamish]

Bhutan vs Montserrat : 4-0

"The Other Final" as they called it. I'd have watched it instead of France vs Brazil (the real WC final) if only it was broadcasted live. Unfortunately, football romantics such as me and the ones that agree with my statements here, are such a minority that we will never see these games on TV if a big one plays. Same for the European cups: I'd much much rather see two teams I still have to discover, e.g. Dinamo Tbilissi vs Skopje, rather than watching Real and Juventus playing each other for the thousandth time... Unfortunately, the TV blokes seem to think everyone is drooling with the idea alone that two rich teams full of overpaid stars are gonna play each other once again just like every season...

Was it 1998?? Did you see the video/DVD? Wonder if it's available?

My best European memory is Athlone's first against Valerenga - 20 years ago. The excitment - over 4,000 at an afternoon game in Mel's Park.

Norwegian football was below Irish at that stage and I remember being somewhat disappointed that Athlone only drew 1-1 away. How times change.

On the subject of Norway, bought 4 4 2 yesterday and see Rosenburg are in fifth or sixth place. Early days yet but that is a surprise. Since they have won the last 10 or twelve Leagues up there would be good for Norwegian football for a new club to win.

Agree with you - Eurosport used to show a lot of UEFA games between the smaller clubs a few years ago but, sadly, not now.

People unfairly decry the Moldovas of this world. England played them a few years ago - it wasn't packed but there was a good sized crowd. When one consuders that it costs a months wages for Moldovans to attend that game it amazes me that there was any locals there at all. It must be the same when a Moldovan or Slovenian or Rumanian regional club gets into Europe. Even if they only draw 2 or 3 or 4 thousand to the home games, given the peoples' finances, that's a major crowd.

[hamish]

I remember I was excited when I read about then saw the highlights of this game. And I'm not Faroese! The Faroes are incredible really. They rarely get hammered and have taken points of some decent teams in the past. Thats why I'm a little worried about next Wednesday :eek:

Actually, davey, you have me digging up 1980s copies of World Soccer.
They used to show the Faroese leagyes before they had grass pitches. Hope I can find the mags as the team names were very strange.

I'm doing this from memory and making up examples but the teams used to be called B1157 or Y2150 or something like that. If I get the real names I'll post. I never recall an actual club name being used just letters and numbers. I'll et back to you on this.

[davey]

Actually, davey, you have me digging up 1980s copies of World Soccer.
They used to show the Faroese leagyes before they had grass pitches. Hope I can find the mags as the team names were very strange.

I'm doing this from memory and making up examples but the teams used to be called B1157 or Y2150 or something like that. If I get the real names I'll post. I never recall an actual club name being used just letters and numbers. I'll et back to you on this.

I think it must be a Danish thing - I seem to remember a Danish team called B930 Copenhagen many years ago.

BTW, I don't know how many of you here have heard of the Island games. These are held every 2 years by a bizarre assortment of islands and are of a general sporting nature. They include a football tournament which was won in 2003 by Guernsey. The event will be held this year in Shetland. They're taken very seriously by the participants as evidenced by the huge fight that took place after a crucial Guernsey v Rhodes game :eek:

Anyway here are the participating islands

Aland
Alderney
Bermuda
Cayman Islands
Falkland Islands
Faroe Islands
Froya
Gibraltar
Gotland
Greenland
Guernsey
Hitra
Isle of Man
Isle of Wight
Jersey
Orkney
Prince Edward Island
Rhodes
Saaremaa
Sark
Shetland Islands
St. Helena
Western Isles
Ynys Mon


Btw, Gerrit, if you love northern places, you could do a lot worse than Shetland. Not the arctic but you get the midnight sun and even the Northern lights at the right time of year. You can even go to Foula, easily the remote inhabited part of the British Isles

[Poor Student]

When one consuders that it costs a months wages for Moldovans to attend that game it amazes me that there was any locals there at all. It must be the same when a Moldovan or Slovenian or Rumanian regional club gets into Europe. Even if they only draw 2 or 3 or 4 thousand to the home games, given the peoples' finances, that's a major crowd.

Hamish Slovenia is not comparable to those countries. It is the richest of the EU acession states aside from Malta and Cyprus with a better road infrastructure than our own. When Olimpija Ljubljana played Liverpool after knocking out Shels in the UEFA Cup a few years ago their 15k stadium was jam packed. Probably had more than the capacity.

[Macy]

Hamish Slovenia is not comparable to those countries. It is the richest of the EU acession states aside from Malta and Cyprus with a better road infrastructure than our own.
Yeah, Slovenia probably don't really need to join the EU. More a political thing than an economic one in their case.

[hamish]

[QUOTE=Poor Student]Hamish Slovenia is not comparable to those countries. It is the richest of the EU acession states aside from Malta and Cyprus with a better road infrastructure than our own. When Olimpija Ljubljana played Liverpool after knocking out Shels in the UEFA Cup a few years ago their 15k stadium was jam packed. Probably had more than the capacity

Point taken Poor Student. Sorry about that. I meant to replace Slovenia as I knew it was a bad example but it was half twelve in the morning so the two brain cells weren't in full working order. :D I forget to correct it and have no excuse as I know well that Slovenia is one of the more progressive nations. Still you know what I mean in general re small clubs/countries etc. Crowd wise their clubs don't get regular large attendances = isn't that true???
The again isn't the population something like Dublins?

I could have chosen Ajerbijan (you can spell it right for me) or suchlike.

Just occurred to me. Remember when Liam Buckley's Pats were beaten 5-0 home and away by a Moldovan club a few years ago. I recall that this club had spent a week or two at a training camp in Switzerland leading up to the game. Remember thinking at the time - where did they get the finance to cover all that given Moldovas impoverished state.

[Poor Student]

Point taken Poor Student. Sorry about that. I meant to replace Slovenia as I knew it was a bad example but it was half twelve in the morning so the two brain cells weren't in full working order. :D I forget to correct it and have no excuse as I know well that Slovenia is one of the more progressive nations. Still you know what I mean in general re small clubs/countries etc. Crowd wise their clubs don't get regular large attendances = isn't that true???
The again isn't the population something like Dublins?



No prob Hamish. :D It was always the most economically advanced region of the former Yugoslavia so upon independence it was able to establish itself as well doing little nation. The population is somewhere between 1.9-2.1 million. Attendences are highly sporadic ranging from low hundreds, to thousands for derbies and even over 10k for massive European games. Soccer ranks quite low in terms of priorities of people and is seen by older people as a Yugoslav sport belonging to those of Serb or Croat origin. The capital city has suddenly found itself without a club in the last few weeks with the death the shtting down of Olimpija who couldn't get a licence and the relegation of NK Ljubljana. Slovenian football had a sort of golden age of football from the late 90's to 2002 where they qualified for Euro 2000 and World Cup 2002 and Maribor qualified for the CL in 99/00. But now they're having huge licencing difficulties with the clubs and the national team is crap again so interest has heavily waned.

[Poor Student]

It's Azerbijan by the way Hamish. :D

[Gerrit]

Hamish, you're right, The Other Final was in 2002.


The Island Games are known to me yes, incredible that even Sark (600 inhabitants) formed its own football team ! Somehow they got 11 guys together and though they lost every game with nearly 20-0 they are entering the competition again... Class, respect ! That's the true spirit of football.



We also have another alternative WC this year with non-FIFA affiliated countries hoping to get attention and backbone in their struggle to enter FIFA. Amongst the participants: Tibet, Greenland, Lapland, Vatican City, Monaco, ... Probably also Northern Cyprus, Falklands, maybe Western Sahara.

(There's also the World Cup for gay men this year, but since that has nothing to do with this topic I limit my comments to the other alternative WC)

[Gerrit]

On the subject of Norway, bought 4 4 2 yesterday and see Rosenburg are in fifth or sixth place. Early days yet but that is a surprise. Since they have won the last 10 or twelve Leagues up there would be good for Norwegian football for a new club to win.


I am Rosenborg fan since 12 years, the early stages of their 13-in-a-row success. I hope of course that they'll add a few more to this series, though apart from the Rosenborg support (mainly based in Trondheim area + this lad who somehow fell for the team) everyone is hoping for another team to win.
Valerenga are rivals, Molde are even enemies - couldn't stand them grabbing the crown. The only other club I sympathise with is Tromso, Europe's northernmost top flight team (if you don't include Qanaaq from Greenland's league). My ideal ranking would be Rosenborg champions and Tromso runners-up :)

Rosenborg always start slowly, we're a diesel :D Once the engine starts to roll (usually just before halfway the season) we're like a rocket launched sky-high to the top of the Tippeligaen. We just like to give Molde false hopes I guess :D

[hamish]

Just thinking Gerrit, when Athlone played Valerenga the spelling on our programme was Valerengen?? This was September 1975, Even the papers spelt it Valerengen,???

Probably a spelling/translation error or did they change their name slightly?. Silly question I know. :o

I've no excuses poor Student as I read a lot of what you stated on Slovenia somewhere recemtly - damned If I can remember where - I have a book, among others, by David Goldblatt called DK Football Yearbook, 2003-04 edition. I'm just looking at it now and, yeah, it hasn't a great deal on Slovenia, just a map with some clubs and the date they were founded and little else. Must start going through the other books I have as I'm sure I have better than that.

By the way still appreciate all the information on Slovenia you posted.

It's very good for the big countries but even it's detail on France is not complete. There were some French Cup ties on Setanta and Eurosportrecently and I couldn't find much on some of the lower leagues clubs playing.

[shedite]

I haven't actually contributed anything at all to this thread really but it is one of the most interesting I have read on any football forum. Keep it up lads...

[Poor Student]

I've no excuses poor Student as I read a lot of what you stated on Slovenia somewhere recemtly - damned If I can remember where - I have a book, among others, by David Goldblatt called DK Football Yearbook, 2003-04 edition. I'm just looking at it now and, yeah, it hasn't a great deal on Slovenia, just a map with some clubs and the date they were founded and little else. Must start going through the other books I have as I'm sure I have better than that.

By the way still appreciate all the information on Slovenia you posted.



Hamish feel free to ask me anything. I have great time for the elderly. :D

[hamish]

Hamish feel free to ask me anything. I have great time for the elderly. :D

Young Pup.

Spell in the army do you a power of good I say.

In my time, young people........(contd. page 94)

:p :D

[Poor Student]

Young Pup.

Spell in the army do you a power of good I say.

In my time, young people........(contd. page 94)

:p :D

You're good craic Hamish. :D

[hamish]

You too young man. :)

Love the banter but usually, correction always, outwitted by you smart young things - certainly better than the dentist thread :eek:

Actually, to get back on theme remember that Celtic tournament in the RDS a good few years ago.? I think there was a Breton team in it - didn't Didier Six play in it? - I always felt that kind of competition had great potential but better held in say Inishowen and in conjunction with a festival of music/culture etc.

How about, say, the FAI Junior Cup Winners plus the best similar clubs/teams from Brittany, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Scotland, Norn Iron, Wales etc.

There could be an under age element too plus womens tournament.

The reason I picked Inishowen is that there is/was a plethora of big tournaments up there so might be a good spot but I'm sure there are loads of other places it could be played in Ireland.

[Poor Student]

Also along the little country trend. I see FC Vaduz are once again in the playoffs to reach the top division in Switzerland. They drew the first leg of the playoff 1-1 away and they play Schaffhausen at home on June 12th. They lost a bit of ground when they played their 2nd team in the league to play in the Liechtenstein Cup which they won yet again to secure their place in the UEFA Cup next season. I've always been interested in the progress of this club as they are a sort of oddity. They could well be in the Swiss top division next year. :eek:

[hamish]

Now that you mention it PS, Jesus same initials as THAT other thing :eek: didn't the champions of the Cyprus league qualify for the Greek First Division once??????

May be totally wrong about this but I seem to recall something about it in the past.

Be great to see Vaduz in the Swiss First Divisiion - kinda keep an eye on them as well.

[Poor Student]

Hmmmm. Not a clue Hamish. That's one for Gerrit. :D I do know San Marino have a club side in Serie C 1 or 2.

[Poor Student]

And moving closer back to the topic title ever so slightly a New Zealand team plays in the Australian league. Aukland Kingz isn't it? Despite them having their own league.

[hamish]

They seem to have money behind them too = some player from an English club joined them recently - they offered better terms but can't recall his name.

I remember too the old NASL when Canadian clubs played same league as US clubs.

Also isn't the Los Angeles club Chivas(?) a spin off of a Mexican League club?

[Gerrit]

Cross-border playings as far as I know (round-up, some of them were named already) :


- Derry City: Northern Irish team in the Irish league
- Liechtenstein clubs : all 7 of them in the Swiss leagues
- Campionese : Italian enclave's team playing in the Swiss leagues
- San Marino: has its own domestic league but one semi-professional teams plays in Serie C in italy
- Andorra: has itw own domestic league but one semi-professional team plays in Spanish third division
- Auckland Kingz: New Zealand's only professional club plays in the Aussie league
- one Chinese team plays in the Hong Kong league, not sure of the name of the club though
- 5 Canadian semi-pro clubs playing in the American leagues (incl. Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and I think Calgary and another city)
- all clubs from Finland's off-coast Aland Islands play in the Swedish lower divisions because the islands are Swedish-speaking
- three Welsh professional/semi-pro teams (Cardiff, Wrexham, Swansea) playing in the English leagues
- one English team playing in the Scottish leagues (Berwick ??)
- one or two English teams playing in the Welsh league, not sure of the names though
- the only club in Brunei competes in the Malaysian league



Never heard of a Cypriot team in the Greek league systems. Would surprise me a lot as well as it is a seperate country with a well-organised league.

In the past the two only Luxembourg ladies' teams competed in the Belgian leagues, until other girls teams were born and Luxembourg formed its own league. I never could verify the two teams that used to play cross-border but I got the info that it was true from a more or less reliable source, so see this info as 80% chance to be true !! One of the teams would be Troisvierges (which would mean "Three Virgins" :D ) but this is just the town's name and nothing to do with the girls on the pitch ;)

[Sheridan]

Never heard of a Cypriot team in the Greek league systems. Would surprise me a lot as well as it is a seperate country with a well-organised league.
Sirhamish's memory serves his faithfully - I believe this arrangement was in place from the late sixties to the early seventies.

[Gerrit]

Just to add: Jeunesse Sportive de la Massira from the Western Sahara competes in the Moroccan highest division (but is this really to be seen as cross-border ?!)

And SirHamish, Kosovo has already played Albania twice. Check this site for all results of every national team ever, including friendlies from small islands with only unofficial FA's: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~mcruic/recordss.htm
Incredible piece of research. Incredible to see which islands and places have national teams... Even the Shetland Islands, Inner Mongolia, Palau, Christmas Island, Saar, etc have a national team or used to have :eek: How they got a game between Inner Mongolia and Sao Tome-Principe (African islands) organised in China is a mystery to me, but they did it !

[Snoop Drog]

- Auckland Kingz: New Zealand's only professional club plays in the Aussie league


The Kingz will compete in the new Australian A-League (league starts last week in August) under their new name "New Zealand Knights". Not only will the play outside of their own country but when Australia joins the Asian Federation (remember, that was what this thread was all about once upon a time :p ) they will play outside of their own federation!

[Poor Student]

They seem to have money behind them too = some player from an English club joined them recently - they offered better terms but can't recall his name.

I remember too the old NASL when Canadian clubs played same league as US clubs.

Also isn't the Los Angeles club Chivas(?) a spin off of a Mexican League club?

True about the NASL however if I recall correctly they were never recognised as an official league by FIFA. Yes they are called Chivas USA they are a spin off of Guadalajara Chivas the Mexican club. The idea was or is to capitalise on the large Latin American population in LA. However they bizarrely went and appointed some European as coach when the idea should have been to appoint a Mexican to play some flair Latin football. As far as I know the MLS is quite a boring style league which often employed conservative style European coaches. They have since sacked the European guy Thomas Rongen. They're bottom of the MLS Western conference. I am not entirely sure of the relationship between Chivas USA and Guadalajara Chivas but they are not their B Team.

Gerrit the Canadian teams playing in the US you mentioned play in the A-League which is the level below the MLS. It's kind of odd though, there is no connection between it and the MLS really. No relegation or promotion. It has teams in areas MLS doesn't and gets similar crowds I think. There's no Canadian teams in the MLS however.

Wait a minute. I never considered this. Will leaving the OFC mean Australian clubs will not play in Asian continental competitions? This would be an interesting implication as Aussie clubs were nearly guaranteed access to the World Club Championship with their domination of Oceana continental competition. Imagine the travel expense burden. :eek:

Gerrit Berwick are the club in England playing in Scotland. However I read before the Berwick used to be in Scotland until a slight border change. No idea when that was.

Also, dooesn't the Basque country play one "international" every year in Bilbao?

[holidaysong]

Check this site for all results of every national team ever, including friendlies from small islands with only unofficial FA's: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~mcruic/recordss.htm
Incredible piece of research. Incredible to see which islands and places have national teams... Even the Shetland Islands, Inner Mongolia, Palau, Christmas Island, Saar, etc have a national team or used to have :eek: How they got a game between Inner Mongolia and Sao Tome-Principe (African islands) organised in China is a mystery to me, but they did it !

Jesus what a site! :eek: Love it.


Also, dooesn't the Basque country play one "international" every year in Bilbao?

From http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~mcruic/EUSKADI.htm Played every year since 1993:

29-12-2004 - Euskadi 2 - 0 Honduras - Friendly
27-12-2003 - Euskadi 2 - 1 Uruguay - Friendly
28-12-2002 - Euskadi 1 - 1 Macedonia - Friendly
29-12-2001 - Euskadi 3 - 2 Ghana - Friendly
29-12-2000 - Euskadi 3 - 2 Morocco - Friendly
29-12-1999 - Euskadi 5 - 1 Nigeria - Friendly
22-12-1998 - Euskadi 5 - 1 Uruguay - Friendly
26-12-1997 - Euskadi 3 - 1 Yugoslavia - Friendly
26-12-1996 - Euskadi 3 - 0 Estonia - Friendly
22-12-1995 - Euskadi 1 - 1 Paraguay - Friendly
23-12-1994 - Euskadi 1 - 0 Russia - Friendly
22-12-1993 - Euskadi 3 - 1 Bolivia - Friendly

Also beat us 4-1 in 1979.

[hamish]

True about the NASL however if I recall correctly they were never recognised as an official league by FIFA. Yes they are called Chivas USA they are a spin off of Guadalajara Chivas the Mexican club. The idea was or is to capitalise on the large Latin American population in LA. However they bizarrely went and appointed some European as coach when the idea should have been to appoint a Mexican to play some flair Latin football. As far as I know the MLS is quite a boring style league which often employed conservative style European coaches. They have since sacked the European guy Thomas Rongen. They're bottom of the MLS Western conference. I am not entirely sure of the relationship between Chivas USA and Guadalajara Chivas but they are not their B Team.

Gerrit the Canadian teams playing in the US you mentioned play in the A-League which is the level below the MLS. It's kind of odd though, there is no connection between it and the MLS really. No relegation or promotion. It has teams in areas MLS doesn't and gets similar crowds I think. There's no Canadian teams in the MLS however.

Wait a minute. I never considered this. Will leaving the OFC mean Australian clubs will not play in Asian continental competitions? This would be an interesting implication as Aussie clubs were nearly guaranteed access to the World Club Championship with their domination of Oceana continental competition. Imagine the travel expense burden. :eek:

Gerrit Berwick are the club in England playing in Scotland. However I read before the Berwick used to be in Scotland until a slight border change. No idea when that was.

Also, dooesn't the Basque country play one "international" every year in Bilbao?

I think PS, that the owner of the Mexican club also owns theLA based club and obviously is trying to tap in to the huge Latino comunity there.

Yeah, read about the problems you mentioned with Chivas in some footie mag azine.

Thank God, with you brainboxes, glad I know a little of something that's going on.

Would the Inner Mongolia game Gerrit mentioned have some connection to China's political forays into Central Africa and area in the past??

[hamish]

Sirhamish's memory serves him faithfully -

That makes a fcukin' change!! :o :D

[Sheridan]

Our man Andy Selva scored for San Marino today, in a 1-3 home defeat by Bosnia-Herz. Malta got thumped 0-6 in Sweden, they've really regressed in recent years.

[Snoop Drog]

This would be an interesting implication as Aussie clubs were nearly guaranteed access to the World Club Championship with their domination of Oceana continental competition. Imagine the travel expense burden. :eek:


Couple of good points there PS- First up, the issue of almost automatic qualification as Oceanic champions. Certainly there has been many advantages: Australia will play in the Confederation Cup this month, Sydney FC look likely to secure the Oceania place in the World Club Championshps (& guarantee themselves US$1 million). But this has been negated by the total lack of success in the World Cup and Australia realises that joining Asia will lead t oa more equitable qualifying process. Australia has more registered 'soccer' players than players of aussie rules, rugby union & rugby league combined so if they can break through & qualify for Germany, the commercial impliactions are huge.

Plus an Aussie team in the Asian Champions league will also lead to a financial windfall.

An interesting commercial deal happened this week in Sydney. basically Australia has the opposite of the stadium situation in Ireland- They have multiple stadia & multiple cities all vying to host the oceanic qualifier vs the 5th best South American team in November. Sydney's telstra Stadium (the olympic stadium) won out (due in no small part to the unavailability of the MCG due to the Commonwealth games). NSW government estimated that this will lead ot a windfall of AU$20 million for the city & as such they paid $$$ to secure the tie in Sydney. I am unsure at this stage exactly how much they paid for the right to host the game (certainly in 7 figures though). I find this interesting compared to our own current stadium farce.

[Gerrit]

I know that the MLS is not allowed to accept non-US based teams, so the Canadian teams cannot get higher than the A League. Montreal though gets 11000 spectators in average, only one American club (Des Moines) has the same nr in the A League. A Canadian professional league is being formed and will hopefully start soon.

And for the record: most MLS fans absolutely disgust Chivas USA because they still see it as a Mexican team.

Interesting at that site to see the results of some of those non-FIFA-affiliated islands. Shetland played quite often until the late sixties and suddenly it stopped. Why would that be ?! They still have a domestic league (recently won by the local bank staff team) so they could just as well form a team I guess... If Sark and its 600 inhabitants can, why wouldn't Shetland (20000 inh.) do so ??

[Réiteoir]

I know that the MLS is not allowed to accept non-US based teams, so the Canadian teams cannot get higher than the A League. Montreal though gets 11000 spectators in average, only one American club (Des Moines) has the same nr in the A League. A Canadian professional league is being formed and will hopefully start soon.

And for the record: most MLS fans absolutely disgust Chivas USA because they still see it as a Mexican team.

Interesting at that site to see the results of some of those non-FIFA-affiliated islands. Shetland played quite often until the late sixties and suddenly it stopped. Why would that be ?! They still have a domestic league (recently won by the local bank staff team) so they could just as well form a team I guess... If Sark and its 600 inhabitants can, why wouldn't Shetland (20000 inh.) do so ??

The Shetland Islands send a team to the NatWest Island Games every other year

[Réiteoir]

Draws for this year's games - which take place in Shetland:

2005 Men's Football

Group 1
Isle of Man
Shetland
Saareema
Aland
Falklands

Group 2

Guernsey
Ynys Mon (Anglesey)
Western Isles
Orkney
Greenland



========================

2005 Women's Football

Faroes
Guernsey
Isle of Man
Bermuda
Aland
Shetland

[hamish]

Just a question guys. I have a sticker on my fridge for Canberra Cosmos. I got this from an Aussie bloke in 1999.

Can't seem to find anything about them now. Did they fold or amalgamate with another club for the new Aussie set up? Just curious.

[Poor Student]

Just a question guys. I have a sticker on my fridge for Canberra Cosmos. I got this from an Aussie bloke in 1999.

Can't seem to find anything about them now. Did they fold or amalgamate with another club for the new Aussie set up? Just curious.

Not too up on my Aussie teams, never actually heard of them. However I do know some teams folded/were amalgamated to make way for the new Aussie soccer league.

[Snoop Drog]

Not too up on my Aussie teams, never actually heard of them. However I do know some teams folded/were amalgamated to make way for the new Aussie soccer league.

Cosmos was the most recent club to try & break the Canberra market. They had little or no success. Formed in the mid 90s they never really captured the Canberra sporting public's attention (unlike the Raiders rugby league team & ACT Brumbies rugby union team, both of whom play at the top level) They always seemed to languish at the bottom of the league (a bit like the Drogs in the 90s :D )

I think there final season was 2001 (I think) & from what I recall, most of their local players joined Belconnen Blue Devils, who play in the NSW Superleague (they lost in the final of the NSW Cup last week).

Canberra will not be represented in the new A league.