Other Domestic Leagues 17/18

[HajdukSplit]

Dinamo Zagreb reclaim the Croatian league title without kicking a ball until tomorrow after both Rijeka and Hajduk drew their matches. Dinamo were unbeaten until the winter break and they have been shaky since the restart but Rijeka and Hajduk offered little resistance

 

[Savi]

if Gala and Fenerbahce are tied, then Gala will be champions unless Fenerbahce manages to overturn a -7 goal differential

Fenerbahce won their game 7-0 today

 

[sabremike]

Fenerbahce won their game 7-0 today

Any of you guys familiar with the Turkish league know if I should be cynical about that result (IE: did a suitcase full of money change hands)?

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Ultra's invaded Sporting's training ground and attacked players and staff. To the point of stabbings apparently.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

Ultra's invaded Sporting's training ground and attacked players and staff. To the point of stabbings apparently.

Why would any players want to play for them now? I don’t blame players for wanting out and UEFA should step and in force the club to let anyone who want out, out.

 

[ecemleafs]

Double Treble for Celtic. 2-0 win over Motherwell in the Scottish Cup today.

 

[Savi]

Turkish league seems set for a crazy final day as well. Galatasaray are in first place on 72 points, Basaksehir have 69, and if Fenerbahce beat the last placed team tomorrow they will be on 69 as well.

Galatasaray have a tricky away game on the final matchday as they travel to 6th place Goztepe. Both Basaksehir and Fenerbahce have winnable games at home.

If Galatasaray lose, a couple of scenarios are possible; (1) if Gala and Basaksehir are tied, Basaksehir wins the title; (2) if Gala and Fenerbahce are tied, then Gala will be champions unless Fenerbahce manages to overturn a -7 goal differential in their final two games; (3) in case of a three-way tie, Fenerbahce will have the best head-to-head record amongst all three teams and win the league

No drama tonight as Galatasaray win their game 1-0 and win their first title since 2015. Fenerbahce finish 2nd and will go to CL qualification. Besiktas and Istanbul Basaksehir go to the EL.

 

[HajdukSplit]

Quick round up of the Croatian league which concluded today...

- Dinamo Zagreb win their 12th title in 13 seasons though it was less than vintage. After an unbeaten first half of the season they managed to lose 6 of their final 8 matches in the league but luckily for them both Rijeka and Hajduk shot themselves in the foot many times. Dinamo also went through 4 different managers this season and remember didn't make the group stage of a UEFA competition for the first time in over a decade. However despite all this they can still win the double

- Rijeka, Hajduk and Osijek round out the top 4 which are EL qualifying spots. Rijeka couldn't replicate last season's magic (lost too many key players + their signings were mostly busts) plus they had the added games of Europe to contend with. Hajduk saw slight points improvement in their 3rd place finish plus can still win the cup but the concern is their awful record against the 'top 4' especially at home. Osijek is the opposite, their record against the top 4 is incredible even away from home but they dropped way too many points amongst the bottom half teams, though that is maybe expected with their style of play

- Rudes is probably the story of the season, the team competing in the top flight for the first time ever survived rather easily, despite going through 3 different managers. Rudes won only 3 games in the first half of the season, however they were one of the inform teams in the league, winning 7 of their last 10 matches, including wins over Dinamo, Rijeka, Hajduk and Osijek

- Cibalia relegated after 2 seasons, was only a question of time, the club is in horrible financial state and barely survived last season, kind of upsetting as the team does have a fanbase and is being replaced by a team with no fans. Istra 1961 were less crap and will have a playoff to survive, another team in financial mess and relegation could see them drop all the way to the third tier

- The winners of the second division are HNK Gorica (Velika Gorica), a Zagreb suburb. While the city has seen first division football before this club was founded in 2009 after Radnik Velika Gorica went bankrupt. NK Varazdin will compete with Istra in a two-leg playoff. Varazdin had a rich tradition in Croatian football with a club called Varteks but they went bankrupt in 2015. Varazdin are considered the successor and have swiftly climbed the Croatian leagues but the hardcore fans aren't happy with the clubs management and support a club named Varteks currently in the third tier...confused?

 

[HajdukSplit]

Legia Warsaw win the Polish league title, well they will, they were beating Lech Poznan 2:0 then the Lech fans started throwing flares on the pitch which stopped the match. Legia are also the double winners in Poland. Teams which will compete in the EL: Jagiellonia Bialystok, Gornik Zabrze, Lech Poznan. The two teams going down are Sandecja Nowy Sacz (after 1 season) and Termalica Nieciecza (after 3 seasons)

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

To sum up Sporting's last week:

• They failed to qualify for the Champions League;
• Team got attacked by 50 "fans";
• News about corruption within the club surface;
• Most players have expressed their desire to leave the club;
• Most of the board quit;
• Against everything and everyone the president doesn't quit;
• And now with the chance to save what was a poor season they lose ( fairly ) to Aves, who finished 13th in the cup final.

 

[Savi]

Belgian league season almost finished as well; Club Brugge already won the league last week and qualify for the CL group stage where they will be in pot 4. Standard Liege finish second and go to the CL 3rd qualifying round where they will be drawn against one of Ajax, Basel, Benfica or Kiev. Anderlecht finish a very disappointing season in 3rd place but have an EL group stage ticket in their pockets. Gent ended their season with two huge wins over Anderlecht and Brugge to take 4th place and go to the EL 3rd qualifying round. Genk finished 5th and will host the winner of next wednesday's game between Zulte-Waregem and Lokeren in the EL playoff final; the winner of that game qualifies for the EL 2nd Q round.

 

[Albatros]

Legia Warsaw win the Polish league title, well they will, they were beating Lech Poznan 2:0 then the Lech fans started throwing flares on the pitch which stopped the match.

Obviously to keep their arch rivals from celebrating on their pitch.

 

[les Habs]

Fantastic goal by McGregor in the Cup Final against Motherwell.

 

[sabremike]

Obviously to keep their arch rivals from celebrating on their pitch.

This and what happened in Hamburg are the reason why hell will freeze over before MLS allows flares at matches. Just the potential for lawsuits alone makes it a non-starter.

 

[maclean]

What do you mean "allow"? Are there really places where flares are "allowed"? Here everyone is always searched going in, flares are not allowed, but people get them in other ways, so of course they are present, but I would never say they are allowed.

 

[Savi]

FC Midtjylland have won the Danish League, their 2nd title in the past 4 years

Brøndby actually should have won their first title since 2005 but they choked in spectacular fashion. They won 3-2 at Midtjylland in the playoffs, and had a 3 point lead with 3 games to go (2 home games) but then lost at home to Midtjylland 1-0 on a 83rd minute goal. Next game they were up 2-0 at AC Horsens, the playoffs' worst team, going into injury time but then conceded twice including the 96th minute tying goal. And today they only managed a 1-1 home draw v Aalborg which in the end didn't even matter anymore because Midtjylland won their game.
So basically in the final 3 games of the season they went from a 3 point lead to a finishing second, 4 points back

Reigning champions Kopenhagen finished almost 30 pts behind Midtjylland, so not a very good year for them. Although I believe some poster said, a while back, that Kopenhagen lost like half of their team last summer

 

[sabremike]

What do you mean "allow"? Are there really places where flares are "allowed"? Here everyone is always searched going in, flares are not allowed, but people get them in other ways, so of course they are present, but I would never say they are allowed.

That's fair enough but in much of Europe when fans set off flares I rarely see the authorities intervene so it is in a sense de facto accepted. If you do that at an MLS stadium security will swarm the section and arrest the people who set it off (and often arrest people who were only guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Philly some dope in our section lit a smoke bomb and ran, and the Gestapo just grabbed some poor guy who had the misfortune of being near where said dope dropped it).

 

[Albatros]

A huge manipulation scandal in Ukraine involving 35 clubs:

Ukraine match fixing: 35 clubs accused following raids

Although 2/3 of all professional clubs in the country are involved, the biggest two appear to have no role. The five Premier League sides suspected are Vorskla Poltava (3rd), Zorya Luhansk (4th), FC Oleksandriya (7th), Olimpik Donetsk (9th), and Zirka Kropyvnytskyi (10th).

With so humongous corruption and lack of integrity it is clear that competition results are largely meaningless.

 

[sabremike]

Does their league get sanctioned by UEFA by getting kicked out of CL/Europa League because it was essentially as legit as WWE? In theory teams "earned" their way into continental competition through worked matches which seems like it could be problematic.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

Belgian league season almost finished as well; Club Brugge already won the league last week and qualify for the CL group stage where they will be in pot 4. Standard Liege finish second and go to the CL 3rd qualifying round where they will be drawn against one of Ajax, Basel, Benfica or Kiev. Anderlecht finish a very disappointing season in 3rd place but have an EL group stage ticket in their pockets. Gent ended their season with two huge wins over Anderlecht and Brugge to take 4th place and go to the EL 3rd qualifying round. Genk finished 5th and will host the winner of next wednesday's game between Zulte-Waregem and Lokeren in the EL playoff final; the winner of that game qualifies for the EL 2nd Q round.

Belgian league still confuses the hell out of me.

 

[maclean]

That's fair enough but in much of Europe when fans set off flares I rarely see the authorities intervene so it is in a sense de facto accepted. If you do that at an MLS stadium security will swarm the section and arrest the people who set it off (and often arrest people who were only guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Philly some dope in our section lit a smoke bomb and ran, and the Gestapo just grabbed some poor guy who had the misfortune of being near where said dope dropped it).

Ah, I see OK. Here they just ask people over the loadspeakers not to use pyrotechnics Or if it's too much the club will get a fine. If security tried to swarm the fans section that would just be chaos and there's no one they'd be able to pick out the people who did it (which I guess is the case there too but here people would not stand for that at all).

 

[darko]

Quick round up of the Croatian league which concluded today...

- Dinamo Zagreb win their 12th title in 13 seasons though it was less than vintage. After an unbeaten first half of the season they managed to lose 6 of their final 8 matches in the league but luckily for them both Rijeka and Hajduk shot themselves in the foot many times. Dinamo also went through 4 different managers this season and remember didn't make the group stage of a UEFA competition for the first time in over a decade. However despite all this they can still win the double

- Rijeka, Hajduk and Osijek round out the top 4 which are EL qualifying spots. Rijeka couldn't replicate last season's magic (lost too many key players + their signings were mostly busts) plus they had the added games of Europe to contend with. Hajduk saw slight points improvement in their 3rd place finish plus can still win the cup but the concern is their awful record against the 'top 4' especially at home. Osijek is the opposite, their record against the top 4 is incredible even away from home but they dropped way too many points amongst the bottom half teams, though that is maybe expected with their style of play

- Rudes is probably the story of the season, the team competing in the top flight for the first time ever survived rather easily, despite going through 3 different managers. Rudes won only 3 games in the first half of the season, however they were one of the inform teams in the league, winning 7 of their last 10 matches, including wins over Dinamo, Rijeka, Hajduk and Osijek

- Cibalia relegated after 2 seasons, was only a question of time, the club is in horrible financial state and barely survived last season, kind of upsetting as the team does have a fanbase and is being replaced by a team with no fans. Istra 1961 were less crap and will have a playoff to survive, another team in financial mess and relegation could see them drop all the way to the third tier

- The winners of the second division are HNK Gorica (Velika Gorica), a Zagreb suburb. While the city has seen first division football before this club was founded in 2009 after Radnik Velika Gorica went bankrupt. NK Varazdin will compete with Istra in a two-leg playoff. Varazdin had a rich tradition in Croatian football with a club called Varteks but they went bankrupt in 2015. Varazdin are considered the successor and have swiftly climbed the Croatian leagues but the hardcore fans aren't happy with the clubs management and support a club named Varteks currently in the third tier...confused?

My old man is not happy. Rijeka fan.

 

[sabremike]

Did anyone see the video from IIRC Croatia (was somewhere in the Balkans) where a team celebrating a title on an open top bus set off flares and unfortunately set the bus on fire? Thankfully nobody was hurt.

 

[HajdukSplit]

Did anyone see the video from IIRC Croatia (was somewhere in the Balkans) where a team celebrating a title on an open top bus set off flares and unfortunately set the bus on fire? Thankfully nobody was hurt.

Serbia

In Croatia, Zagreb specifically, they don't even celebrate titles anymore because nobody cares. On the final day of the season Dinamo had to give away free tickets and t-shirts just to get 5K people in the stadium

When Rijeka won it was a huge party, if Hajduk ever win it, Split might explode, in Zagreb basically the players/club officials celebrate on their own

 

[Savi]

On the final day of the season Dinamo had to give away free tickets and t-shirts just to get 5K people in the stadium

That's pretty bad. 5k in a 35k stadium?

Belgian league still confuses the hell out of me.

Even for us it's not always clear Did you know that you can qualify for the Championship playoffs and end up with nothing, while a team from the Second division can theoretically can qualify for the Europa League? That about sums it up.