medjai:

Spain 6 vs Liechenstein 0. Spain have booked their place in next year's Euro championships.
Two goals from Negrodo to take his tally for Spain to 5 goals in 6 matches. Xavi scored from a freekick. Ramos poked home an Iniesta cross and Villa scored a brace which now leaves him one goal short of a half century for Spain.
[b][size=18pt]Torres didn't play. . .wasn't even on the bench. It's gonna be extremely difficult for him to get back into the starting line-up for Spain with the form Negredo, Llorente and Soldado are showing[/size].[/b]Thiago also made his first competitive game debut for Spain when he replaced Ramos in the 2nd half. This eliminates any chance of him ever representing Brazil or Italy.

dayokanu:

So do you now agree that Torres is a failure? If players like Negredo can be ahead of him

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/06092011/58/liga-sevilla-step-push-fairer-tv-deal.html

Sevilla president Jose Maria del Nido has stepped up his campaign to stop Real Madrid and Barcelona taking around half the audiovisual rights revenue by inviting all La Liga clubs except the big two to a meeting on Thursday.
Del Nido, one of the most outspoken critics of the current system under which Real and Barca collect about 50 per cent of the annual pot of around 600 million euros ($845 million), compared his campaign on Tuesday to the French revolution.

He said as many as 15 of the 17 other clubs in the top flight had confirmed they would attend Thursday's gathering at Sevilla's Sanchez Pizjaun stadium, which would be a chance for discussion rather than a forum for taking concrete decisions.

"This is an uprising by the rank and file," Del Nido, a lawyer by profession, told reporters. "We can compare it with the French revolution, and in the end look what happened to the king who was in charge in France.

"There is no going back here, as directors we cannot allow a situation where, because two clubs are very powerful, they bring about the demise of the Spanish league."

The difference in class and spending power between Barca and Real, the world's richest clubs by revenue, and their domestic rivals was underlined by their emphatic wins in their opening league games of the season.

Spanish and European champions Barca crushed Villarreal, who are competing in this season's Champions League, 5-0 at the Nou Camp, while Real demolished Real Zaragoza 6-0.

The results prompted the president of Villarreal to accuse the big two of killing Spanish football, while Del Nido said La Liga was "a load of rubbish" as only two teams had a realistic chance of winning the title.

Spain has yet to adopt the system of collective bargaining and income sharing used in other competitions such as the English Premier League and Real and Barca get a far bigger share of TV money than rivals in other major European leagues.

The pair brokered an agreement late last year with 11 other top-flight sides that would introduce limited revenue sharing from 2015.

However, analysts have said the deal, which Sevilla, Villarreal, Athletic Bilbao and several others refused to sign up to, was likely to cement the big two's advantage while helping the other clubs only marginally.

"We are going to open a debate to try to solve a problem on which we are all agreed," Del Nido said. "The television broadcasters will do what the league says.

"If the clubs decide to market their audiovisual rights collectively, it will be done by the body that we decide and that decision will be a majority one."

Real declined to comment on Del Nido's initiative, while Barca did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Miguel Guillen, president of Sevilla's city rivals Real Betis, was quoted as saying in local media on Tuesday that when clubs came to negotiate their new contracts with broadcasters they would try to end Real and Barca's hegemony over TV cash.

Most of the current deals expire around 2014.

"Talks on 2014 will be held at the appropriate time but one thing is for sure," Guillen said.

"When the clubs sit down to negotiate we hope that the rule that says 50 per cent of the money goes to Real Madrid and Barcelona disappears."

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/31082011/58/la-liga-find-league-ramos-tells-la-liga-critics.html

Sevilla should go and find another league to play in if they are unhappy with La Liga, Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos said in response to criticism from his former club of Real and Barcelona's dominance in Spain.
Sevilla president Jose Maria del Nido slammed the structure of the Spanish football league and said that only two teams could win the title after Real and Barca won their opening matches of the season 6-0 and 5-0 respectively last weekend.

"If he doesn't like this one, why doesn't he look for another," Ramos told reporters as he joined up for international duty with the Spain squad on Wednesday.

Del Nido described the league as "third-world" and "rubbish" because of the way Barca and Real took half of the total revenue earned from television rights, stirring up a debate on the state of Spanish football.

Villarreal president Fernando Roig, whose side were thrashed 5-0 at the Nou Camp on Monday, said Real and Barca were "killing Spanish football" and that changes had to be made.

Another Spain international, Sevilla striker Alvaro Negredo, sided with his president.

"He is one of the people fighting to change the competition and we support him," Negredo told reporters.

"It shouldn't just be about two teams. It's all about the income the clubs earn to be able to strengthen their squads and other teams can't do this. It's the main thing I would change."

Villarreal captain Marcos Senna, who helped Spain win Euro 2008, also sided with his boss.

"The superiority of Real and Barca is brutal," he said. " "I agree with the president that this has to change, to level things out."

Valencia, who have finished third the last two seasons 25 points behind second-placed Real in 2010 and 21 adrift in 2011, joined the debate.

"They need to find a solution for the league," Valencia's Argentine midfielder Pablo Piatti told reporters. "There is an enormous economic difference, and Real and Barca are a long way ahead of the rest."

European and Spanish champions Barca and Real, the world's two richest clubs by revenue, operated on budgets four times the size of their nearest rivals last season.

Barca sports director Andoni Zubizaretta brushed aside the criticisms and suggestions the league was a two-horse race.

"We have an extraordinary league with great players," he told a news conference on Wednesday.

"We have a national team who are world and European champions, the Under-21s are European champions, as are the Under-19s. This is, along with our great league, Spanish football."

dayokanu:

So do you now agree that Torres is a failure? If players like Negredo can be ahead of him

usbcable:

Torres is just having a poor run of form.
He is still better than negredo

coogar:


uefa should make barcelona and real madrid field their reserve players against the other clubs. the first team should only play in the el clasico.
what a farce of a league!

usbcable:

maka why?

medjai:

Failure ke? He's just on a poor run of form. . . it happens.
VdB contemplated dropping Villa when he was on a scoreless run where he scored one goal in 15 matches for Barca.

usbcable:

Torres is just having a poor run of form.
He is still better than negredo

dayokanu:

Poor run of form lasting for how many years?
Cos he has been on a poor run before the World cup and thats like 16months ago

dayokanu:

The excuse for his poor performance at the world cup was that he was just recovering from injuries that must have meant the injury was before the world cup.

After the world cup 9 goals in 23 appearances is as woeful as anything and they said his mind was already wandering away from Liverpool

A whole season without injury a striker managed 10 goals and 7 assists in 37 appearances

dayokanu:

Between those times, he spent 3 months summer break

After Allianz arena he was injured and lost his momentum

dayokanu:

Finishing what?

His finishing is soo good he has never been top scorer in any league

Torres is all hype no substance, He has never been good just another English media hype

Little wonder the country had to bench him to win the World cup, Now he is stuck deeper on the bench

dayokanu:

Does Adebayor takes free kicks or penalties?

Berbatov was the highest goal scorer last season he neither takes Penalties of Freekicks