Champions League 2016/17: Playoff Round - Steaua Bucharest

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

is Bern easy to get to then?

My preferences are based on the the whole club i.e. players and fans and travel issues as well as quality of oposition and chances of getting through etc. In terms of travel alone Monaco is best followed by Bern then Roma then Bucharest (purely on flight distance and transport links), Rostov is a nightmare for the club and the fans.

In terms of quality of oposition that is also simple - Roma are very good, Monaco less so. Youd expect YBoys to be a resonable outfit and the others complete unknowns!

 

[SWP's back]

On the plus side its about 15 minutes walk from the airport.

It's nice you two are getting along again.

 

[117 M34]

Reckon city will have the money from people on the scheme by tea time tomorrow

 

[cptaidan88]

Is this not a contradictory statement? Surely if draws are "weighted" for TV then doesn't that mean that there has been some engineering which amounts to the draw being rigged.

No. Its just a separate seeding system in effect but there is no intentional consequence to it.

 

[SWP's back]

To be honest we should comfortably beat any of those teams over two legs on paper. If we dont we only have ourselves to blame for last seasons results and the performances over the two legs.

People are saying Monaco will be a tough game yet they finished 31 points behind PSG last year.

We have some proper fannies on here haven't we.

We should progress easily against any of them or we shouldn't be anywhere near the competition.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

Is this not a contradictory statement? Surely if draws are "weighted" for TV then doesn't that mean that there has been some engineering which amounts to the draw being rigged.

That comes down to whether you think commercial needs count as rigging.

It's well known that the 4 English sides are paired up, so two are drawn for each day to maximise TV coverage. There is also a split of groups, 4 on each day, so 2 English sides will usually be on each day (assuming 4 qualify of course....)

That's a very different rig than heating the City ball so you know when to draw it, and is not really a secret.

 

[andy h]

Points taken from C88 and MMA. Thanks for that.

I am not one for the conspiracy theories but it is hard to explain how some teams get consistently tough draws and others get easier ones.

 

[bugsyblue]

Points taken from C88 and MMA. Thanks for that.

I am not one for the conspiracy theories but it is hard to explain how some teams get consistently tough draws and others get easier ones.

Not really, it's luck.

 

[LHarper]

Some paranoid people on here once again I see. The UEFA draws aren't rigged, but because of TV are often weighted to be disadvantageous to us. This could be avoided if we had won the league in either of the last two seasons.

http://www.skysports.com/football/n...opean-draws-fixed-by-using-hot-and-cold-balls

 

[MillionMilesAway]

Points taken from C88 and MMA. Thanks for that.

I am not one for the conspiracy theories but it is hard to explain how some teams get consistently tough draws and others get easier ones.

PB played with some numbers over that, and yes, the %ages are quite low for some combinations. Bugsyblue's answer is difficult to disprove however.

There may be some more dodginess going on, but it's astonishing that the only 'evidence' to date is Blatter's ramblings (and even then, he may have been chuntering about international tournaments rather than club tournaments).