jones wrote:
I'm pretty sure most of that isn't true. Most times when an English team gets thrown out of the CL or EL it's to a team from abroad, in fact it's Spanish teams who are more often kicked out by their contemporaries. I remember reading a while ago Spanish teams won some 46 out of their last 48 knockout ties against non Spanish teams. Can't seem to find it but this is a decent summary
What's true in your post is that foreign FAs are more accommodating to rearranging fixtures, that's down to the FA to fix however. European teams aren't more savvy in planning their season what is that even supposed to mean, you think they're throwing league matches when they're playing in European knockout ties? The level of direct competition demands etc being higher in England than elsewhere is the usual Sky nonsense.
It simply means there are more PL clubs that make it to the UCL knock-out stages than from any other domestic league, as seen this season with 3 of the 8 clubs in the Q/Fs. No dispute with most being knocked out by the Euro Elite, nor with La Liga dominating the Finals in both UEFA comps.
Savvy in planning being that their season is possibly more about doing well in UEFA comps being of greater importance than for PL in terms of revenues and prestige, whereas the traditional view of the league being of greater importance than UEFA comps. I also think the European clubs prioritise UEFA comps when it comes to the knock-out stages, and their respective FAs enable them to do so, as does the lack of competition in depth within their domestic leagues.
The PL season is the longest/has the most games with only recently including a short winter break. The PL is not dominated by a single 'super' club and La Liga is the only other top5 domestic league to have more than 1 such club in it's domestic comp.
