Considering that the Netherlands has a population almost 50% larger than Belgium's (17m vs 11.5m), the Belgians should be bloody delighted with that split.
The huge population difference would be reason enough on its own for the Dutch league to have higher commercial value. It helps as well that it's all in one language too (i.e. less complicated to televise).
One language? That'll be news in Wallonia. Dutch/Flemish might be the majority language, but there's a sizeable French-speaking contingent (4-5m?) to cater to that tends to be outspoken on matters concening identity and politics that doesn't feel quite in step with the rest of the country. Worth bearing in mind that an All-Ireland league might have to broadcast in English, Irish and Ulster Scots to satisfy similar local sensibilities.
Hello, hello? What's going on? What's all this shouting, we'll have no trouble here!
- E Tattsyrup.
Let's ignore too that 10% (or whatever it is) of Holland is Moroccan
Fairy nuff.
The point was though that you can't really call anywhere monolingual these days.
That's just a weird point to make - unless you're claiming that none of them can speak Dutch and it commercially devalues the Dutch league as a result.
12% of the population of Ireland was born elsewhere. That doesn't mean they all can't navigate through life in English.
Has Gemma O'Doherty stolen your keyboard ?
Not really. Your point was that it (whatever "it" is) was "all in the one language". I (and Eminence Grise) just wanted to counter that lazy assertion.
Wiki says that 25% of Holland isn't Dutch - ok, a lot of them are going to be Belgian/German/Luxembourgish, but still, a lot of them would not have Dutch as their first language. It'd arguably be more noticeable there than here because Dutch is such a relatively obscure language compared to English. I would say there's a sizeable portion with Arabic as their first language for example.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 08/04/2021 at 2:59 PM.
This is starting to feel like someone pedantically trying to pick an argument. So let me clarify to hopefully save everyone that pain.
The Dutch League is broadcast within the Netherlands in Dutch (again - let's agree to ignore SC Heerenveen and the minority Frisian language, least you try to have a row over that too ) . The linguistic uniformity of Dutch broadcasting therefore makes it easier and cheaper to broadcast than the Belgian League, which involves two very separate large languages (meaning different commentary and commentators for games etc). And by splitting the audience for the Belgian League into 2 different large linguistic groups, not only is it more complex/expensive to broadcast, but it's commercial value is also reduced. As it's more expensive to advertise to, and you have to duplicate resources in 2 different languages. And that's all in addition to the more significant issue that Belgium just has a much smaller population than the Netherlands.
Happy now ?
P.S. The number of people who speak Moroccan in the Netherlands is utterly irrelevant to any of this btw. Doubly so as Moroccans are ironically a bigger portion of Belgium's population than they are in Holland. But hey - pedants gonna ped...
Last edited by EatYerGreens; 08/04/2021 at 4:22 PM.
Well this is what happens when your original posts are as clear as your pyramid structure unfortunately...
Oh man, having the AIL covered in Ulster Scots is going to be a nightmare.
Or to put it more accurately, och no, haven the AIL happed in Ulster Scoots will be a puure nightmare
Last edited by Mr A; 08/04/2021 at 5:23 PM.
#NeverStopNotGivingUp
And if that all wasn't enough, there's quite a variety of languages spoken in Morocco. A few variations of arabic, french. and several berber languages as well as spanish in the north.
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