They do and it's based on the previous three years of that division's clubs' performances in the CL and EL using some statistical coefficient I can't understand.
Its Aston Villa v Derby in the Championship Playoff final after Derby beat Leeds 3-4 on aggregate tonight, it was 1-0 to Leeds from the first leg and the second leg tonight was mad, all Derby's four goals came in the second half plus both team reduced to 10 men, it was possibly the best Playoff match I have ever seen.
Ajax won the Eredivisie tonight too, for the first time since 2014.
Leeds pulled a Leeds thanks to the King of Corwen and the Prince of Pen-y-ffordd.
Great result for Derby; I was harshly skeptical about Lampard being parachuted into that job but they've had a good season and played some brilliant football.
Looks like Graham Potter is off to Brighton from Swansea as they have agreed to pay the £2 million compensation, Potter will now have talks with Brighton.
Bayern Munich are Bundesliga Champions for the seventh consecutive season, they beat Frankfurt 5-1 with Ribery and Robben scoring on their final appearances for the club.
Anyway, interesting note. All the top-seeded teams in the league playoff semi-finals either lost their home match or the tie on aggregate, or both. The only one not to lose on aggregate was Charlton, and they lost on the night too. Portsmouth and Leeds both lost at home and on aggregate, West Brom won on the night but lost on aggregate, and both Forest Green and Mansfield drew to lose on aggregate.
It's 🤬 that Henrikh Mkhitaryan is not able to play in a continental final due to the Armenia-Azerbaijan territorial and diplomatic dispute.
There's no problem with taking these big games to new countries, I am perfectly fine with that, but politics should never interfere with play; don't host it somewhere where it's going to cause a problem.
It's 🤬 that Henrikh Mkhitaryan is not able to play in a continental final due to the Armenia-Azerbaijan territorial and diplomatic dispute.
There's no problem with taking these big games to new countries, I am perfectly fine with that, but politics should never interfere with play; don't host it somewhere where it's going to cause a problem.
I agree that politics shouldn't interfere and that the situation is problematic.
However, the final decision was made by Arsenal - Henrikh Mkhitaryan could have played in the final.
I agree that politics shouldn't interfere and that the situation is problematic.
However, the final decision was made by Arsenal - Henrikh Mkhitaryan could have played in the final.
Azeri state textbooks in schools call Armenians bandits, traitors and hypocrites. Both the President of Azerbaijan and the Mayor of Baku have publicly declared their hatred for Armenia and Armenian people and their wish to see Armenia falter, decrying it as both a "colony", a land of no value and a place where Azeris will one day live again without Armenians.
It's not just that Armenia is bad, in Azeri anti-Armenian racism there is no distinction between Armenia the country, Armenia the government or Armenia, the people. Considering the indoctrination is basically a state policy enforced in schools and widely encouraged in society and media, they can take their "assurances" and do one. There's no telling what kind of hostility would face Mkhitaryan for just being in the country, never mind being at the football ground; Azerbaijan regularly denies entry to not only Armenian citizens but ethnic Armenians from other countries and even people who are not Armenian but whose names might sound Armenian. It's insane.
Like I said, taking these games to other nations is great, I really like the idea of allowing other countries' fans to see these big opportunities on the big stages but something like this should not happen. It should be a precondition of selecting a host city/country. Let's put it another way; Armenia and Azerbaijan are both members of UEFA. One of UEFA's own members prohibits another UEFA member from even setting foot on its territory and does everything it can to vilify them. Irrespective of the Azeri FA's stance, I don't know what it is, UEFA should not award such a member state a valued final. They're not allowed to be drawn together in both club and international competition it's that bad. I'd go so far as to recommend that they are put in different confederations if they really don't want to play each other.
And let it be clear that there is anti-Azeri sentiment in Armenia as well. It isn't totally one-sided but anti-Armenian racism and atrocities are better documented.
There are plenty of other "lesser" nations within UEFA that do not have such a problem with any other UEFA member states and could host a Europa League final but hey, Azerbaijan's money clearly talks. I don't know what the price of a kickback or bribe is these days.
Whatever reason they see fit. Some political, the rest not political.
I tell a lie on Azerbaijan and Armenia being kept separate, I could have sworn that was one of them, but there are some as outlined here that cannot be drawn together in the same group under any circumstance.
UEFA
Based on UEFA Executive Committee decisions valid at the time of the draw, the following teams could not be drawn into the same group:
Gibraltar/Spain
Bosnia and Herzegovina/Kosovo
Kosovo/Serbia
If such a clash was to occur, the team drawn was placed instead in the first available group in alphabetical order as indicated by the computer.
Those are just the prohibited team clashes. The rest of the page outlines the teams kept separate, maximumed to two per group, for reasons of not being able to play each other in the winter or not being able to play each other due to the excessive travel costs involved.
The Faroe Islands, Finland and Iceland cannot play home games at all in November and March and additionally Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia and Ukraine are fixtured so that they they play as few home games in November and March as possible.
Of those ten teams, only two can be in the same group.
Iceland, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan each have a list of teams they cannot be drawn against more than one of because it is too expensive or too far for them to travel.
Kazakhstan
Andorra
England
France
Iceland
Malta
Northern Ireland
Portugal
Scotland
Spain
Wales
Iceland
Armenia
Cyprus
Georgia
Israel
Azerbaijan
Iceland
Portugal
Those three can only be drawn against a maximum of one of those listed teams.
I don't see how the reasoning for that type of segregation translates well to the case we're discussing though.
I'm sure you can find good reason to exclude every possible venue if the criteria for doing so is the subjective security concerns of every individual player involved in the tournament.
I don't see how the reasoning for that type of segregation translates well to the case we're discussing though.
I'm sure you can find good reason to exclude every possible venue if the criteria for doing so is the subjective security concerns of every individual player involved in the tournament.
None that I know of. But in this case an exemption to such restrictions have been made, and they've guaranteed his safety, so the only thing that's holding Mkhitaryan back is his own/his employer's concerns.
Spain and Gibraltar can't be drawn together.
Kosovo was unable to go into Serbia or Bosnia and Herzegovina too.
Azerbaijan and Armenia is one.
Russia and Ukraine is another.
These are political clashes between neighbouring countries which would cause unnecessary tension between fans. It would be similar to North and South Korea being drawn together, there would just be too many issues.
Spain dispute the existence of Gibraltar and want the UK to give it back.
Kosovo is a country of limited recognition, which Serbia refuses to acknowledge and still claims it is part of Serbia. Bosnia and Herzegovina has a large population of Serbs, which explains that one too.
Azerbaijan and Armenia generally hate each other, not helped by the Nagorno-Karabakh republic situation, of a large area of Armenians in Azerbaijani territory which Azerbaijan refuses to cede to Armenia, despite it basically operating as a separate country with no outside help.
Ukraine and Russia obviously have the war that started in 2014 and the whole Crimean controversy.
It's all a mess that this has to happen, but it does make sense when you look at the reasons why. If, say, Croatia invaded Hungary tomorrow, would a Hungary vs Croatia game be advisable? Obviously, in the main tournaments it gets harder to avoid tension clashes, especially if the final two countries ended up being enemies, but if you can avoid confrontation without much fuss, why not.
That said, you have to feel sorry for Mkhitaryan because it's not his fault at all and he misses a massive game in his career.
The Play-off finals are this weekend. League Two Play-off final is tomorrow between Newport and Tranmere, League One Play-off final is on Sunday between Charlton and Sunderland and the Championship Play-off final is on Monday between Aston Villa and Derby.
Lots of rumours and reports tonight of a takeover at Newcastle for £350 million, the new respective owner is the half-brother of the Qatari billionaire owner at Man City.
Man United legends beat Bayern legends 5-0 in a 1999 Champions League final charity reunion match at Old Trafford yesterday. the likes of Neville, Stam, Beckham, Yorke, Cole, Scholes, Butt and Schmeichel all played, Jaap Stam was still bulldozing through players and Beckham whipping in beautiful crosses, it was like they had never been away!
Lots of rumours and reports tonight of a takeover at Newcastle for £350 million, the new respective owner is the half-brother of the Qatari billionaire owner at Man City.
Man United legends beat Bayern legends 5-0 in a 1999 Champions League final charity reunion match at Old Trafford yesterday. the likes of Neville, Stam, Beckham, Yorke, Cole, Scholes, Butt and Schmeichel all played, Jaap Stam was still bulldozing through players and Beckham whipping in beautiful crosses, it was like they had never been away!
The richest game in world football, and flag-drop for the proper football season, has finished 2-1 to Aston Villa. Just the moneyball politicotrinkets left to play for now.
