For those of you that don't know, Sonja is a sports journalist for BBC Radio 5 and will also be on Channel 4 for their coverage of the Paralympics. She's well respected and I follow her because usually her view on things is normally pretty good.
Now granted - there's no clear definition as to what she's actually comparing the football to, and I'll caveat this whole article based on me maybe jumping the gun the little. So I've presumed that she's comparing the end of the football league to that of the rugby Premier League and maybe having a pop at the playoffs and how it's maybe anti-climactic. If I have made one presumption too many then Sonja, I apologise!
So whilst Sunday's action was devilishly exciting and had me off my seat screaming "OH MY GOD!", and in general it has been a very entertaining season. It was but one season in many that has been that exciting. Recent history shows that the football league has been decided BEFORE the last game of the season. So this would be a bit of a one off.
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| Utd players looking a little upset about their swing in fortunes! |
Now, on Saturday I had the pleasure of watching (mainly from behind a cushion) a thrilling, intense, exciting game of rugby which was the Quins v Northampton semi-final playoff. From what I hear the Leicester v Sarries match was equally enthralling with Leicester keen to exert a measure of revenge. Next up Leicester v Quins in the final, at Twickenham in front of a bumper crowd sounds like a pretty exciting affair - especially given the last meeting between the two sides.
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| Quins players at the final whistle versus Northampton - was that game not exciting enough ? |
What I struggle to see is how Sonja could not find this exciting? And we get this more or less every year - not once every so often where a team who have shelled out hundreds of millions in transfer fee's and salaries have failed to take advantage of their financial muscle (another slight at the footballing world!).
Lastly, it would be a little unfair to simply just have a league system as it punishes those teams that supply a lot of international players during the autumn tests and six nations competitions. Take Leicester for example who earlier in the season were closer to the bottom then they were the top of the league, no easy ride for them to finish in the top four. With four "winning" places up for grabs rather than one it also ensures that more teams stand a chance of gaining a place and thus making the last few games of the league equally exciting.
There - rant over. I'm back!
Excellent blog.............but not wanting to sound too 'devil's advocate', but what you've effectively described the situation at Twickenham as is a cup final - which Football already has, and has steadily been devalued by other stuff (European qualification, American lager companies moving the kick off etc). The thing about a 'last day' that's really exciting is how stuff happening off one particular pitch can affect so much what the result on that pitch means. I think that the team which finishes first at the end of the league season not being able to celebrate as champions is anticlimactic.
ReplyDeleteIt is a fair point. But how often does the (football) title race come down to the last day of the season and have that as exciting ending ?
ReplyDeleteRugby too has a domestic cup competition which has been heavily devalued by the league competition and H-Cup competitions. Probably more so than football to be fair.