Facts about football that shouldn't be true - but are

TheRedDevil'sAdvocate said:
Roberto Soldado is the only Spaniard who has scored a hat-trick in the CL in its current form (1992-).
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He's the only one who has scored two hat-tricks. Raul, Lucas Perez, Negredo, Morientes, Gerard Lopez and Joseba Llorente have one hat-trick each.


Here's a crazy one: Cristiano Ronaldo has scored four hat-tricks in the knockout stages of the Champions League since he last scored a hat-trick in the group stages (Malmö, 2015). Lionel Messi has scored five hat-tricks in the group stages since the last time he scored a hat-trick in the knockout stages (Leverkusen, 2012).
 
Red Stone said:
He's the only one who has scored two hat-tricks. Raul, Lucas Perez, Negredo, Morientes, Gerard Lopez and Joseba Llorente have one hat-trick each.


Here's a crazy one: Cristiano Ronaldo has scored four hat-tricks in the knockout stages of the Champions League since he last scored a hat-trick in the group stages (Malmö, 2015). Lionel Messi has scored five hat-tricks in the group stages since the last time he scored a hat-trick in the knockout stages (Leverkusen, 2012).
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True. I wanted to write more than one hat-trick but i missed it while preparing dinner and searching for a stream for the Barca game at the same time yesterday.
 
giorno said:
I am a 30 year old real madrid fan who remembers football since 1994.I have seen and celebrated my club winning more major trophies than anyone who isn't an older real madrid fan
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Which major trophies does this include then?
 
Christiano Ronaldo has scored 53 career hattricks. Only one of them was for Manchester United.
 
Dean Richards has had the questionable honour of twice playing for a team that were 3-0 up at half-time and ended up losing the game. What made it more special was that happened in a space of 7 months and that Richards scored in both games.

Everyone remember the 5-3 win over Spurs where Richards scored the first Spurs-goal.

But 7 months earlier Richards was playing for Southampton against Tranmere in the cup. Southampton were 3-0 up after goals from Richards, Tessem and Kachloul when a couple of former Everton-players turned the match around. Paul Rideout scored a hat-trick before Stuart Barlow scored the winner.
 
Still playing games without stopping the clock. Which leads to time-wasting and injury faking with players rolling around looking like babies. A new timing system would make the sport look more professional to the untrained eye.. and everyone else will get used to it.
 
TheRedDevil'sAdvocate said:
Cool, especially the second one!


A few more:

The longest name for a football club is the following: Nooit opgeven altijd doorzetten, Aangenaam door vermaak en nuttig door ontspanning, Combinatie Breda". It's the Dutch club NAC Breda and in case you're wondering if within the name are the instructions on how to get to Breda, the name can loosely be translated into: Never give up, always persevere, be pleasant, entertaining and useful. Which i think is awesome.

Norwich finished 3rd in the PL with a negative GD (61-65), the highest PL finish for a team with a negative GD. They were leading the table for much of the season too before their collapse towards the end of 1993. Huddersfield are the only team that has won promotion to the PL with a negative GD (56-58 in the league, three draws in the play-offs)

6 teams have won their respective championships with a negative GD: Coritiba (Brazil, 1985), Al-Nahyan (Qatar, 1984), POSCO Atoms (South Korea, 1986), Walter Ferreti (Nicaragua, 2001), Plaza Amador (Panama, 2005), Taipower (Taiwan, 2007).

AIK Stockholm won the Swedish League in 1998 with the worst attack among all teams on the league table.

In 1985, Trabzonspor won the Turkish league by scoring a grand total of 25 goals in 30 matches.

The longest period in which no European team has won the title in its country more than once is 11 years in the Netherlands from 42/43 to 53/54.

Denmark shocked the world in 1992 by winning the Euro. They were an excellent team with some top-class players. Still, they shouldn't have been there in the first place since they had initially failed to qualify.
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That was in 1980. The even crazier thing is that in 1979 they won the league by conceding 7 goals in 30 games. Seven.
 
van der star said:
The coefficient system actually makes sense. The quality of the CL would be greatly reduced if all the teams that win their leagues were granted automatic qualification.
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They’re talking about another European competition, Have just champions from every European league in the champions league, 2nd to 3rd in uefa league and have 4th in the new competition, simple

The coefficient system stinks always having same teams,

Could have champions right in eg Celtic, Man City, Barcelona then 2-4th qualifying with just one draw so could have Real Madrid v Spurs then group stage same again one draw.... Man City Barcelona Real Madrid Bayern Munich so it’s no the same teams every year

That way we would be able to buy players right away knowing we’re guaranteed that £25m n not starting season at start of July
 
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MC89 said:
They’re talking about another European competition, Have just champions from every European league in the champions league, 2nd to 3rd in uefa league and have 4th in the new competition, simple
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Title winning teams from certain eligible leagues won't be good enough to play 4th/5th placed teams in certain other leagues. Which is why there's a coefficient system in place. The Champions League isn't about the title winning team from each league, it's about the best teams competing.
 
MC89 said:
They’re talking about another European competition, Have just champions from every European league in the champions league, 2nd to 3rd in uefa league and have 4th in the new competition, simple

The coefficient system stinks always having same teams,

Could have champions right in eg Celtic, Man City, Barcelona then 2-4th qualifying with just one draw so could have Real Madrid v Spurs then group stage same again one draw.... Man City Barcelona Real Madrid Bayern Munich so it’s no the same teams every year

That way we would be able to buy players right away knowing we’re guaranteed that £25m n not starting season at start of July
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Yeah, because everyone would be rushing to watch real madrid take on the champions of malta while man city play the champions of san marino. It would end up being one of the dullest tournaments ever designed, and as a result it would have little prize money as no one would really care how many goals Juventus can score against the champions of armenia. Also given all the champions of those small leagues 25 million would completely unbalance them forever, how would a team in Malta compete with whoever won the league and then got 25 million the first time, it would ruin half the leagues in Europe.
 
van der star said:
Title winning teams from certain eligible leagues won't be good enough to play 4th/5th placed teams in certain other leagues. Which is why there's a coefficient system in place. The Champions League isn't about the title winning team from each league, it's about the best teams competing.
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Pish, it’s called the champions league for a reason, look at the winners Liverpool, they shouldn’t have even been there in the first place can’t even win they’re own pishy league, there’s probably more champions in the uefa league, the champions leagues for losers
 
MC89 said:
Pish, it’s called the champions league for a reason, look at the winners Liverpool, they shouldn’t have even been there in the first place can’t even win they’re own pishy league, there’s probably more champions in the uefa league, the champions leagues for losers
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Go on then, tell us how you REALLY feel.
 
ninjaskill said:
Yeah, because everyone would be rushing to watch real madrid take on the champions of malta while man city play the champions of san marino. It would end up being one of the dullest tournaments ever designed, and as a result it would have little prize money as no one would really care how many goals Juventus can score against the champions of armenia. Also given all the champions of those small leagues 25 million would completely unbalance them forever, how would a team in Malta compete with whoever won the league and then got 25 million the first time, it would ruin half the leagues in Europe.
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The champions from Malta n Armenia deserve to be there before Real Madrid, Spurs Dortmund be they were good enough to actually win their own league and become champions
 
MC89 said:
They’re talking about another European competition, Have just champions from every European league in the champions league, 2nd to 3rd in uefa league and have 4th in the new competition, simple

The coefficient system stinks always having same teams,

Could have champions right in eg Celtic, Man City, Barcelona then 2-4th qualifying with just one draw so could have Real Madrid v Spurs then group stage same again one draw.... Man City Barcelona Real Madrid Bayern Munich so it’s no the same teams every year

That way we would be able to buy players right away knowing we’re guaranteed that £25m n not starting season at start of July
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Didn't Celtic play 3 champions from other Leagues in the qualifiers but got knocked out by the champions of Romania?

I could understand if you got knocked out by a 2nd or 3rd placed team but if Celtic can't get past Cluj then they more than likely wouldn't have did well in the group stage anyway.

The restructuring you propose would likely lead to less money in the Champions League. The main reason the Champions League is so lucrative and you can get £25M from the Champions League group stage is largely because of all those big clubs from the top leagues who finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th taking part.
 
MC89 said:
The champions from Malta n Armenia deserve to be there before Real Madrid, Spurs Dortmund be they were good enough to actually win their own league and become champions
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UEFA would lose too much money and the number of viewers would decrease dramatically, in that case, which is why it's never going to happen.
 
stevoc said:
Didn't Celtic play 3 champions from other Leagues in the qualifiers but got knocked out by the champions of Romania?

I could understand if you got knocked out by a 2nd or 3rd placed team but if Celtic can't get past Cluj then they more than likely wouldn't have did well in the group stage anyway.

The restructuring you propose would likely lead to less money in the Champions League. The main reason the Champions League is so lucrative and you can get £25M from the Champions League group stage is largely because of all those big clubs from the top leagues who finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th taking part.
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That’s my point, shouldn’t be champions having to qualify,

Folk say who wants to watch the champions of Malta/Armenia?, my argument is who wants to watch the same teams playing each other last 16 onwards?

Having a open draw would mean there would be a fair chance the so called big teams who can’t win their own league or even a cup, would fail to qualify or would be out the first round, and would give the wee teams( the same wee team that’s done what your Man City’s and your PSG’s haven’t ever done, the treble treble win one unbeaten) more exposure and money
 
MC89 said:
That’s my point, shouldn’t be champions having to qualify,
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There are over 50 professional leagues in Europe but the Champions League group stage consists of only 32 teams. So yes some champions will always have to qualify even if the competition was changed to be champions only.

But seeing as Scotland is still just about in the top 20 leagues in Europe i assume you would be ok with that as long as Celtic get straight in?

MC89 said:
Folk say who wants to watch the champions of Malta/Armenia?, my argument is who wants to watch the same teams playing each other last 16 onwards?
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Seemingly lots of people mate, tens of millions in fact as the ratings for the Champions League have grown exponentially over the last 20 years since the competition took its current format with 2nd, 3rd and 4th place teams from the major leagues entering. With those ever increasing ratings sponsorship money has grown with it which is why it is now so lucrative and has become the biggest club competition in the history of football.

MC89 said:
Having a open draw would mean there would be a fair chance the so called big teams who can’t win their own league or even a cup, would fail to qualify or would be out the first round, and would give the wee teams( the same wee team that’s done what your Man City’s and your PSG’s haven’t ever done, the treble treble win one unbeaten) more exposure and money
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Just my opinion mate but if a team plays in a league that is so weak that they can win 3 trebles in a row despite not being a great side. Then perhaps that team doesn't need more money as that gap between them and the rest of their league would only increase.
 
Ok if there over 50 pro leagues in Europe jst have the champions of the 50 leagues in qualifiers, with open draws so could have either Barcelona or Man City not qualifying

It’s not working the way it is the now,

Always the same teams getting straight in /out the groups

Some champions having to play 4!!!! Qualifiers and team finish 4th get in Scot free, it stinks
 
A player can go to training with a ball 3-4 times a week for years. In training they can play all kinds of mini drills, maybe even play with some great talents. Yet the players passing ability and basic control under pressure does not seem to improve.
 
There are only 5 clubs from the south of England that have won the 1st division/Premiership
 
This one doesn't get old and probably somebody said it before. David Moyes was the manager of Manchester United.
 
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Well, what I’ve gathered from this thread is that there really aren’t many “facts about football that shouldn’t be true, but are”.
 
Stockport's stadium, Edgeley Park, is the closest football ground to the river Mersey.

West Brom's the Hawthorn's sits at the highest altitude in the UK
 
I think I posted this in another thread but Stewart Downing without a single goal or assist was selected for Euro 2012
 
Teddy Sheringham is older than the retired player he was signed to replace, Eric Cantona
 
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