Milan thrashed Austria Wein 5-1 today. Will be interested to see if they make a deep run in this competition. I think they can finish third in Serie A but would be nice to see four Italian teams back in the CL. If Juve, Napoli, Roma, and Milan all made it next season that would be great for Italian football and surely Milan has as good a chance as any in the Europa League.
Europa League 14 Sept
- Thread starter kaz7
- Start date
i kne albert davy
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 29 Aug 2010
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- 11,276
Somewhere in Russia and they ain't going back for em.
has he borrowed Susan Boyles hair?
stonerblue
Well-Known Member
Bugger. Had that pic in my head all night and it kept me awake.
M
M
mat
Guest
Like scousers it will never be their fault. They'll fine arsenal a fiver whilst Mendy farts into a camera on match week two and we get fined €2,000,000.
Gary James
Well-Known Member
I wrote this about Arsenal-Koln on my facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/GaryJames4/ ) this morning. Hope it makes sense.
I hope UEFA get to understand why AFC v Koln was so important and why the needs of fans must be at the forefront of their thinking. This was Koln's first Euro game for years and their fans were naturally keen to see it and be heard. This matters. Football shouldn't be about the same old elite protecting their interests and limiting the opportunities for others, it should be about ambition, hope and passion. Koln, a proud club for many, many years with its own history and h...eritage had finally got to play against one of the clubs that has been viewed as part of Europe's elite. By playing in the Europa League - a competiton that most clubs and fans around Europe would be pleased to win (look at what it did for Ipswich in the 80s and MUFC this year) - AFC felt they had failed. It wasn't their nirvana.
I'm sure some connected with Arsenal would like to have a closed shop Champions League (as would many executives of the elite clubs in Europe I believe) where income is guaranteed but opportunity limited to the lucky few. The CL is already a relatively sanitised product where, inevitably, the same old teams tend to progress and if any new kid arrives they're either thrown into a group of death (the seeding system is designed to give new arrivals less opportunity of progressing than past winners - what hope do they actually have?), threatened with FFP which protects the establishment, or simply told off if their fans dare to boo the the UEFA anthem. Rather than listening to understand why they boo, they threaten fines and bans. Most football fans want opportunity and seeing the Koln fans so keen to see a game that, it seems, a large number of Arsenal regulars felt meant little is refreshing and good for the future of the game.
There were clearly issues last night that have to be investigated - policing, ticket touting, segregation and so on, but the biggest lesson we should learn from last night is that fans are people who want to see their clubs have opportunity and hope. They don't want a sanitised product that protects the elite and limits opportunity.
I hope UEFA get to understand why AFC v Koln was so important and why the needs of fans must be at the forefront of their thinking. This was Koln's first Euro game for years and their fans were naturally keen to see it and be heard. This matters. Football shouldn't be about the same old elite protecting their interests and limiting the opportunities for others, it should be about ambition, hope and passion. Koln, a proud club for many, many years with its own history and h...eritage had finally got to play against one of the clubs that has been viewed as part of Europe's elite. By playing in the Europa League - a competiton that most clubs and fans around Europe would be pleased to win (look at what it did for Ipswich in the 80s and MUFC this year) - AFC felt they had failed. It wasn't their nirvana.
I'm sure some connected with Arsenal would like to have a closed shop Champions League (as would many executives of the elite clubs in Europe I believe) where income is guaranteed but opportunity limited to the lucky few. The CL is already a relatively sanitised product where, inevitably, the same old teams tend to progress and if any new kid arrives they're either thrown into a group of death (the seeding system is designed to give new arrivals less opportunity of progressing than past winners - what hope do they actually have?), threatened with FFP which protects the establishment, or simply told off if their fans dare to boo the the UEFA anthem. Rather than listening to understand why they boo, they threaten fines and bans. Most football fans want opportunity and seeing the Koln fans so keen to see a game that, it seems, a large number of Arsenal regulars felt meant little is refreshing and good for the future of the game.
There were clearly issues last night that have to be investigated - policing, ticket touting, segregation and so on, but the biggest lesson we should learn from last night is that fans are people who want to see their clubs have opportunity and hope. They don't want a sanitised product that protects the elite and limits opportunity.
cleavers
Moderator
Great post Gary.
I don't understand our media's faux outrage reaction to it either (other events today took it out of the news sadly).
What the 1FCK fans did last night was brilliant, firstly so many getting here is quite an achievement, and the organisation to get them all together in C London, even more incredible despite social media, and the marching to the stadium was mightly impressive too.
Like many football fans, with what appears to them is a "big" game in their history, they managed to source enough tickets to get into the stadium (remember Blackburn blues, or even Lokeren), and they should be applauded for it.
From what I've seen today it was mostly very well behaved, which given the numbers, is remarkable, they pretty much took a part of Central London over for the afternoon, took over the Emirates for the night, took the lead, but ultimately lost, and then went home peacefully (just a very small % of arrests).
Yes there should be an inquest into elements of it, the polices lack of preparedness, and organisation, and Arsenal for not being more cautious about who got hold of tickets, touting etc, but the fans should for me be applauded for their efforts.
Dave S
Well-Known Member
Excellent post. UEFA members should be made to read that although they are well aware that they are protecting their beloved elite clubs. Sadly, nothing will change though.