Is Britain the Greatest sporting nation on Earth?
Discussion
dazwalsh said:
I would agree with a lot of what OP says apart from the football,
I would barely put them in the top 10 in the world at the moment.
FIFA says England are 15th so not sure why you'd even think to put them top 10. And the league is overplayed massively. It's as competitive as any other major league with a handful of potential winners and then the rest. It has the most money though, and consequently more foreign players which in turn make England worse.I would barely put them in the top 10 in the world at the moment.
FIFA also put Scotland at 28 which is clearly b
ks. Maybe someone at the SFA bunged Blatter a case of Scotch.technodup said:
dazwalsh said:
I would agree with a lot of what OP says apart from the football,
I would barely put them in the top 10 in the world at the moment.
FIFA says England are 15th so not sure why you'd even think to put them top 10. And the league is overplayed massively. It's as competitive as any other major league with a handful of potential winners and then the rest. It has the most money though, and consequently more foreign players which in turn make England worse.I would barely put them in the top 10 in the world at the moment.
FIFA also put Scotland at 28 which is clearly b
ks. Maybe someone at the SFA bunged Blatter a case of Scotch.But the UK is right up there with anyone in sporting terms both in quality, certainly in depth and undoubtedly in terms of support.
Premier League quality doesn't really reflect on the English national side though, does it? Is the Premier League the 'best' because of the amount of money swilling around from Rupert Murdoch and Russian oligarchs to pay for the best players and coaches from around the world? Where's the home-grown talent, which is what we're really talking about here if you want the country to claim any credit.
Thankyou4calling said:
The Premier League is widely accepted to be one of the most competitive and highest quality leagues in the World.
50% right. It's widely accepted to be competitive, but the quality isn't very high. Although it's higher that it would be due to top foreign players.The Mad Monk said:
As a nation considering our size and relative wealth, we underperform.
To make such a statement - you have to set a benchmark for what constitutes performance against which we should be measured (and against which GB could be said to be underperforming against).Looking at the website I posted earlier - during the 2012 olympics GB came:
- 23rd out of 84 nations in terms of total medals per capita
- 11th out of 53 nations in terms of gold medals per capita
- 42nd out of 84 in terms of total medals per GDP
Could GB do better - probably. But do they underperform relative to the average - I wouldn't say the data necessarily supports such an assertion.
By comparison - the USA appears in the second half of the table by all three measures (coming 48th, 27th and 68th respectively).
Edited by Moonhawk on Sunday 28th June 16:18
Dblue said:
FIFAs rankings are rubbish. Exhibit A your pwn quoting of England and Scotlands relative positions right now. I would pt England at about 10th, and the Premier League has at least 4 and possibly 6 potential winners. Thats miles ahead of Spain and especially Germany right now. Serie A is miles off now and no other league compares. Its also the most popular worldwide because it consistently produces the most entertaining games.
5 have won it in its history, and I think we can safely discount Blackburn now which leaves four. In any given season there are usually two or three max in with a chance. If you're including Liverpool, Spurs or Everton I think you're only kidding yourself.The distance from 1st to 4th in England and Spain and to a lesser extent Germany were quite similar, I can't see the difference.
And for England to be 10th best in the world would put them ahead of Italy and Spain...
But I agree rankings are useless and the UK punches well above its weight in sporting terms.
We're pretty lousy at baseball, American football, AFL, ice hockey and haven't had a world beating chess player since Howard Staunton in 1851.
I quite like our amateurish approach to sports and I thought the whole hubris and medal counting hoo haa around the Olympics was a bit sinister in a Soviet sort of way.
I quite like our amateurish approach to sports and I thought the whole hubris and medal counting hoo haa around the Olympics was a bit sinister in a Soviet sort of way.
The Premier League is irrelevent really, as is the top flight league in most European coutnries as they are simply about money and which teams can pay the best players in the world to play for them. The majority of the Championship however, are British players and the Championship is the most competitive and skillful "second tier" league in the world.
The National team is ok, those lamenting its lack of success have short memories. Spain, Italy, Russia and Portugal were all knocked out in the group stages of Brazil 2014.....
The National team is ok, those lamenting its lack of success have short memories. Spain, Italy, Russia and Portugal were all knocked out in the group stages of Brazil 2014.....
pablo said:
The Premier League is irrelevent really, as is the top flight league in most European coutnries as they are simply about money and which teams can pay the best players in the world to play for them. The majority of the Championship however, are British players and the Championship is the most competitive and skillful "second tier" league in the world.
The National team is ok, those lamenting its lack of success have short memories. Spain, Italy, Russia and Portugal were all knocked out in the group stages of Brazil 2014.....
And Brazil, the home team didn't cover themselves in glory either.The National team is ok, those lamenting its lack of success have short memories. Spain, Italy, Russia and Portugal were all knocked out in the group stages of Brazil 2014.....
Football is often won or lost on the tiniest decision and only one team can win.
Our national teams are OK and will be very competitive at the Euros.
Wimbledon, the Open Golf, Henley all great British events are coming up, we've even won the Tour de France!
Women's footy, they're in the semis of the World Cup.
so called said:
I enjoy the fact that we invented many of the most popular global sports.
Them pesky victoriana were a dynamic bunch backing the 1800"s.
Quite amazing.
The reason the sports the Victorians played are the most popular global sports is that we proceeded to accumulate the largest empire the world has ever seen with the express purpose of teaching them all to play cricket. Them pesky victoriana were a dynamic bunch backing the 1800"s.
Quite amazing.
Not much investment at grass roots level means the results in the international game are far lower than they could be.
In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, kids seem to be born and bred into a rugby or cricket team and the results in the international game speak for themselves (especially considering the results per capita). I'm certain if they were bothered with "soccer", they might actually start achieving on that field too.
In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, kids seem to be born and bred into a rugby or cricket team and the results in the international game speak for themselves (especially considering the results per capita). I'm certain if they were bothered with "soccer", they might actually start achieving on that field too.
Thankyou4calling said:
Football is often won or lost on the tiniest decision and only one team can win.
England must've been very unlucky, that so many tiny decisions have gone against us in the last 49 years, and we've won fk all. And here's me thinking it was because we were utter st!Gassing Station | Sports | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff