Sorry for this long off-topic post. I simply had to tell this story in this thread.
It was a fascinating read Gerd, I didn't know any of this. Maybe I should rename this thread to the "lower league football thread" or the "local team thread". I found your post (which read like an article) more interesting than a 1,000th newspaper article about what Manchester United are "doing wrong" or what Arsene Wenger "needs" to do...
My favourite club were Belgian Champions in 1975 (i was 13 at the time) and a couple of years later they even played the semi-finals in the UEFA Cup. They lost to Athletic de Bilbao, who lost the final against Juventus.
I can't imagine that my team will ever play in a European competition... I imagine that's a very special feeling.
I was lucky enough to be given tickets to Liverpool v FC Basel once - when Gerard Houllier was manager (September 2002, so I was 18). It was a terrible game - Liverpool passed the ball very delicately from defence to attack and then back again, over and over and over, seemingly scared to make any attacking move and lose possession. It finished 1-1 and that was more than Liverpool deserved, but I remember seeing how every pass (no matter how loose) was controlled and brought down to the ground as if by magic, and thinking it was like watching PlayStation football.
My dad and I were laughing on the way home, because we spotted weeks before that Gerard Houllier used to say "we have turned a corner" after every game that Liverpool didn't lose, and I said "if he turns one more then technically, he's done a full circle" - and of course, during a local radio interview after the game, he said they'd turned a corner...
(RWDM which stands for Racing White Daring Molenbeek)
Interestingly, one of Tranmere's nicknames (and chants) is "Super White Army" - perhaps our clubs should twin up...!
I was gutted, but i was allright with the decision, because football clubs aren't above the law. Since then RWDM have climbed 5 divisions and go to matches fairly regularly. Two weeks ago they won the decisive match to become champions before an audience of 8.000 people...
8,000 is more than Tranmere have managed all season (except for the play-off semi final which was 10,000), that's pretty amazing! Tranmere's is a strange stadium though - it's a relic of where the club was 20 years ago.
It's a 16,000-seater stadium, and the average attendance is less than 6,000 - so there's a strange atmosphere to every game (and Tranmere fans are silent for the majority of every match, there's a constant expectation mixed with nervousness).
They've sold 12,000 tickets for the final at Wembley - pales in comparison to the Worthington Cup final in 2000, where 36,000 turned up, but... Still heartwarming...
Oh and just a postscript. My wife told me afterwards that some big clubs (Anderlecht, Standard de Liège and Club Brugge) also were fraudulent concerning their contribution, but all was settled. They payed a fine and they never lost their license...that is justice in Belgium.
That is justice
everywhere, I think. Look at UEFA trying to change the rules so that "little clubs" like Leicester can't qualify for European competition no matter if they win the league because "nobody wants to watch Leicester"... Look at big clubs poaching players from smaller clubs, with tribunals settling the matter by making the bigger club pay a transfer fee of buttons...
In-fact, look at
this news story, where a lower-league chairman states that the money being absorbed by the Premier League is killing all football beneath it, only for the Premier League to respond by threatening him. "We will be writing to Mr Holt to ask him if he wishes the Premier League to continue the support we currently provide for his and other clubs in the EFL." In other words, "you peasants are lucky that we feel sorry for you".
Justice isn't real, I feel...
