In regards of the possible BeNeLiga, what are your thoughts?

chimichurri

chimichurri

Non-League
17 April 2021
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.el...-paises-bajos-fusion-beneleague-2025-11587479

The BeNeLiga would basically be a league played by the best clubs from the Netherlands and Belgium, basically it being a new professional league which would be the result of a fusion between the Eredivisie and the Jupiler Pro League.

It seems like a cool concept but honestly I don't know, I mean it would be great to create more competitiveness between clubs from those countries (*cough* Ajax 13-0 Venlo *cough*) but at the same time I don't know, at the same time it would kinda kill the whole idea of national leagues.

But honestly I think it's interesting. Who knows? Perhaps this is a kickstart for other countries to do the same with neighbor countries (imagine an Iberic league having the 3 portuguese giants playing against the best spanish clubs? Or how many of you have dreamed of seeing Celtic and Rangers at the Prem?) which would be interesting while at the same time it might kinda kill some clubs from my POV. Like, clubs that are giants in their own countries might struggle in leagues like that.

I don't know. There's tons of stuff that seem better as a concept than as something real.

But I'm curious to see your opinions on this proposed BeNeLiga.
 
Some people have floated around this idea, what would happen if Uruguay's top two teams (Nacional or Peñarol) joined the Argentinean league.. This comes from the fact that these two teams have won like,over 90% of their championships in Uruguay and joining with the Argentinean league could make it more competitive for them. It's more of a thought experiment than anything else. I think in Uruguay's case, these teams are so entrenched in the identity of the locals, that doing this would be impossible.

I think it really depends on the circumstances, though. Although I'm not familiar with the Dutch or Belgian leagues, I think it could happen if there is too much domination of a few clubs. I mean, I think 2-3 clubs dominating an entire history of titles can get a little boring, or perhaps discouraging for fans of other teams.. I can't really imagine what it's like for a fan of a club outside the Big 3 in Portugal, for example, or outside Celtic and Rangers in Scotland. Must be quite tough.

Basically I think the major advantage would be increased competitiveness like you mention.. But it would also go against the whole idea of national identity, a national league, so I can see it both ways..

Interesting post! :BEER:
 
We're getting it in the UK now with talk of a British Super League. All it is, really, is Celtic and Rangers joining the English league set up.

I have mixed feelings as an Aberdeen fan. We were the last team outside Celtic and Rangers to win the league at that was 1985. To win it again would be a bigger upset than Leicester winning the Premier League. They also dominate the cups, too.

If they were to leave for England, it could create a really competitive league. Aberdeen and Hibs would fancy their chances, Hearts and Dundee United if they get their act together. Motherwell perhaps. But it would be devalued if it's won without Celtic or Rangers. It's a quandary.

I'm not sure why anyone in England would want Celtic or Rangers in the league. I think both, over time, have potential to become Champions League sides, so the bigger teams wouldn't want them. And they'll take two spaces in the league, so smaller teams wouldn't want them. If they were to join they should join at League Two at best.

I'm not against the idea of regional leagues, necessarily. It's certainly a lesser evil than the Super League. But first and foremost I'd like to see how the football landscape would settle if money was distributed more evenly. The Champions League, especially, skews the whole thing.
 
BeNeLiga makes a lot of sense to me, I'm just worried that Dutch teams will dominate it too hard. Not sure what the power balance is there, can best Belgian teams like Anderlecht and Club Brugge stand up to them?

Aside from that, it just clicks because both countries have a lot in common. Eredivise always struck me as that league with bottom that just can't keep up, either cut the size down to 16, maybe even 14 teams, or...add some Belgium? At some point the power levels are so different it's just easier to separate those teams. Venlo or Volendam would fare better in stronger 2. BeNeLiga compared to just being owned and decimated in Eredivise.

I am cautiously in favour of that. Definitely not the same as ESL. I just hope it will be an even competition and not Ajax dominating it endlessly.

I remember hearing about plans for some sort of Balkan league years ago (I think ex-Yu and Hungary?), that wouldn't be the worst too.
 
Flipper the Priest said:
We're getting it in the UK now with talk of a British Super League. All it is, really, is Celtic and Rangers joining the English league set up.
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I'd be OK with that (after all Swansea and Cardiff already do that), but at one condition: it shouldn't be limited to the "big two" of Scottish football (no offence meant).
After all the UK is a single nation (even if actually the "home nations" are still separated in some form as far as I remember, like Scotland having its own parliament) so I don't see why it can't have a single league system or a "super league" sitting at the top of the current pyramid.

In the first case, it goes without saying... All the teams from the 4 home nations would join a single league system and there would be no limits of any kind to promotions/relegations.
This could turn into a league system where the best placed Scottish teams end up playing in League 1 after some years.

Otherwise there could be a "British SuperLeague" made, say, of... 10 English teams, 4 Scottish ones, 3 Welsh teams, the 3 best teams from Northern Ireland.
This would have relegation and promotion to the "already existing" national leagues.

This would mean that year after year 4 Scottish teams would always be featured in this SuperLeague, but also that if for example Rangers, Aberdeen, Ceitic and Hearts ended up in the top 4 places of such league, Hearts (the team ending up 4th) would get relegated to the Scottish PL and the Scottish PL champions would take their place.

Would it be fair? I don't know.
 
*aLe said:
I'd be OK with that (after all Swansea and Cardiff already do that), but at one condition: it shouldn't be limited to the "big two" of Scottish football (no offence meant).
After all the UK is a single nation (even if actually the "home nations" are still separated in some form as far as I remember, like Scotland having its own parliament) so I don't see why it can't have a single league system or a "super league" sitting at the top of the current pyramid.

In the first case, it goes without saying... All the teams from the 4 home nations would join a single league system and there would be no limits of any kind to promotions/relegations.
This could turn into a league system where the best placed Scottish teams end up playing in League 1 after some years.

Otherwise there could be a "British SuperLeague" made, say, of... 10 English teams, 4 Scottish ones, 3 Welsh teams, the 3 best teams from Northern Ireland.
This would have relegation and promotion to the "already existing" national leagues.

This would mean that year after year 4 Scottish teams would always be featured in this SuperLeague, but also that if for example Rangers, Aberdeen, Ceitic and Hearts ended up in the top 4 places of such league, Hearts (the team ending up 4th) would get relegated to the Scottish PL and the Scottish PL champions would take their place.

Would it be fair? I don't know.
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Yeah this is a point I come back to often. If Brighton, for example, can be in the Premier League, so could Aberdeen. Are Brighton better and wealthier than Aberdeen right now? You bet. Much so. That's something talkSPORT drones can't grasp - it's not about right now. Right now Aberdeen is probably League One standard. Granted you could say this about plenty of English teams, but Aberdeen has a fanbase, a history, and commercial potential that could put them in that bracket.

It'd work for me as I'm a little tired of the same old, same old. But there's a few sticking points. European qualification would go from almost every year to not at all. There are the away days - good luck getting to Portsmouth for under £150.

Let's not forget this has been spoken about, as recently as this week: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport.../celtic-hold-atlantic-league-balance-23947294
 
Flipper the Priest said:
Yeah this is a point I come back to often. If Brighton, for example, can be in the Premier League, so could Aberdeen. Are Brighton better and wealthier than Aberdeen right now? You bet. Much so. That's something talkSPORT drones can't grasp - it's not about right now. Right now Aberdeen is probably League One standard. Granted you could say this about plenty of English teams, but Aberdeen has a fanbase, a history, and commercial potential that could put them in that bracket.

It'd work for me as I'm a little tired of the same old, same old. But there's a few sticking points. European qualification would go from almost every year to not at all. There are the away days - good luck getting to Portsmouth for under £150.
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That's a good point actually. Certainly at the moment I think the Scottish Premier is largely Lge One standard because there's been a lot of players signed from Lge 1/2 to go play in the Scottish Premier. We've had a couple in recent years. Adam Barton to Partick who couldn't get in our team, Brandon Haunstrup to Kilmarnock last summer, again far from a regular and we had Jaydon Stockley on loan who moved to you at Aberdeen and he wasn't great. We also had Curtis Main who was awful for us although I think he's done better elsewhere. I also seem to remember Rangers signing a couple of players from Accrington too, Josh Windass and another I think.

But as you say, give them time in a league where they can bring in a lot more money and they'd be able to compete surely as well and beyond the likes of Brighton, Palace and so on.

As for getting to Portsmouth, it'll still be quicker than getting in by car on a Saturday afternoon! People forget it's actually an Island and there's only three roads in and they are all clogged on a Saturday.


The problem with joining leagues together initially is going to be who gets to be in what league. You can't really just say top half from the previous season in each league will be Div 1 because of the varying standards. Maybe the first season you have one big league and they just play each other once? Top half becomes Div 1 the following season, bottom becomes Div 2. Same for both 2nd Divs, which then become Div 3 and 4. Then you can have regular promotion/relegation after that.

I can't see how Celtic and Rangers could join the Premier League. Not a chance of clubs voting for it at their own expense of a place in it. Increase it to 22 teams and then you'll have complaints from Championship clubs. I think they'd have to start in League 2 if it were to happen at all. Would certainly help income in League 2!
 
I don't like it.Mixing countries and shit...too unrealistic.Every country has to have it's own championship.
 
Countries are arbitrary lines scribbled on maps for political reasons, I see no reason to divide sporting competition by them. As long as the competitions are merit based (unlike the Super League) this kind of idea is fine by me as long as logistically it makes sense for teams and fans.

Using countries you get ridiculous stuff at either extreme, like the Russian games with 10,000+ mile round trips for "domestic" games and then small nations where one or two clubs totally dominate and the league will never attract enough players/viewership (and money) to compete with their neighbours just because of the geography of the country limiting the league.

Belgium + Netherlands seems fine to me - the longest away day trip still wouldn't be as far as Plymouth to Carlisle even if they combined the entire league structure.

Lines have to be drawn somewhere obviously, but I think it'd be more interesting if the leagues covered a similar geographical area and/or population where possible. Both the "domestic" and continental competitions could become more competitive.
 
Maybe it's just because we barely got over the whole ESL thing, but this seems like a bad idea to me.

IMO the solution for the Eredivisie could be to simply reduce the number of teams in the first division. 12 to 14 would be ideal, i think, or mess around with the format.

And in the case of Jupiler, why bother? Their league is visibly more competitive than the Eredivisie. In just the last 15 seasons or so, we've had not only Anderlecht and Brugge, but also Gent, Genk, Standard Liège and even Zulte Waregem (!!) as contenders for title. Obviously, Zulte Waregem was an one-off and Liège haven't won a title in more than 10 years, but not only have they come close in as recent as 17-18, but we also have Gent and Genk, who showed to be great competition for the referred "big two".

If the dutch have a problem, then fix it themselves, don't ruin another nation's league, instead try to think the format better maybe?
 
To be honest this is kinda true, some of the European leagues seem to be too large. Also never knew Belgium was this balanced, I was expecting it to be Anderlecht vs Brugge every year.

Poland has the same problem, 16 teams feels like too much to me (there's always 3 or 4 that struggle with money or infrastructure) but it's gonna be 18 starting from next year. That's so wrong though. Will be even more of a shitshow than it is now.

EDIT:

rojofa said:
Using countries you get ridiculous stuff at either extreme, like the Russian games with 10,000+ mile round trips for "domestic" games and then small nations where one or two clubs totally dominate and the league will never attract enough players/viewership (and money) to compete with their neighbours just because of the geography of the country limiting the league.
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2027. Energija Vladivostok win Russian Premier League and qualify to Champions League.

Their first game is against Benfica. It will take a week to get there lol 🐑
 
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