Tonight’s game 8pm ko….cockney royalist bubbles bastards v art galleries 11

Originally Posted by elhombre

You’re right

And the champions League final was always on a Wednesday night 😎

The CL being moved from midweek was the start of the comp going downhill imo.

That tune is a midweek, evening thing.

What was the Intertoto? Didn’t they do it in the summer?

So what's a goblin?

Originally Posted by AK14

I agree on CWC being above the UEFA, but wasn’t it if you finished second and won the cup the team that was runner up in the cup went into the CWC?

Probably an element of bias given CWC was the trophy we won. In reality, the English sides that competed via the FA Cup in the 70s/80s were typically mid table or lower (Spurs, Ipswich, Everton, Coventry, Wimbledon etc), while by the time the 90s came the competition was in decline and on verge of being retired altogether when it was absorbed into UEFA (winners like Zaragoza, Bremen, Mechelen, pre Qatar PSG etc). One issue may have been divergence of esteem we hold FA Cup in vs standing of Coppa Italia for example.

Intertoto was an odd competition. Remember it for the shame of Juve being involved.

In hindsight the financial transformation of the game can probably be traced back to the mid/late 90s with these changes. Never really the same since.

The real reason that the Cup Winners Cup went into decline, and was eventually £#%&!ed off, is that it had limited scope for expansion.

After the initial success of the Champions League, UEFA realised what they had on their hands. Their vision was to rake in money by making the European competitions bigger and better, and the way to do that was gradually involving more and more teams - ideally the biggest teams.

They didn’t have that option with the Cup Winners Cup, so they very quickly realised that it wasn’t something they wanted to pursue in the long term.

Originally Posted by Jack Duckworth

So what's a goblin?

Ffs

Am sure it was always European Cup > UEFA Cup > CWC.

Anyway, at least West Ham had a decent turnout for winning something. Compare and contrast to when the Stockport Magic Bus @#%&!s won the actual league a few days ago.

https://twitter.com/skysportspl/status/1666877742283997184?s=46&t=Otbphvg3J89z5ic2-GdV9g

https://twitter.com/maxmufc7/status/1660008274907877382?s=46&t=Otbphvg3J89z5ic2-GdV9g

Haven't forgiven them for 1995, but I've enjoyed seeing football fans genuinely being over the moon and enjoying the game as it would have been before money changed everything.

Originally Posted by Arnold Muhren

Anyway, at least West Ham had a decent turnout for winning something. Compare and contrast to when the Stockport Magic Bus @#%&!s won the actual league a few days ago.

WHU are a proper club, that's why. Made the point a few weeks ago that tickets for Alkmaar were fetching double on secondary market as tickets for City end at Bernabeu. Likewise the finals .. a lot more expensive to get tickets for yesterday than it will be for the European Cup final. WHU have a top-10 attendance in Europe .. get more fans through the gates than Arsenal or Spurs.

City are just .. I'm not sure how to describe them. Parochial? Timid? For very grey family types? Very middle-england. Vapid. They're less supported than a Sunderland in Tier 3 of clubs, let alone the Tier 2 clubs like Newcastle, Everton, WHU etc. City belong in that Leicester City, Southampton type category. The nothingness of nothing.

Originally Posted by Jack Duckworth

So what's a goblin?

How long you gonna be mate?

Officially, the cwc followed the ec in terms of stature but everyone knew the uefa was harder to win because you had the 2nd and 3rd runners up, so, next best all over Europe after the champions. There was also at least one extra round of games to play in the uefa. Don’t recall any regular pattern of when matches were played, Tuesday/Wednesday because we didn’t have tv dictating the order.

Just for clarity. From wikis page:

The Cup Winners' Cup was regarded by UEFA as the second most prestigious European club competition, behind the European Cup and ahead of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (later the UEFA Cup).

Originally Posted by Ethers

What was the Intertoto? Didn’t they do it in the summer?

Sponsored comp that nobody took seriously

Originally Posted by elhombre

You’re right

And the champions League final was always on a Wednesday night 😎

The final was but there was no uefa Tuesday/ec Wednesday as far as I remember

Originally Posted by believe

Just for clarity. From wikis page:

by uefa but not by clubs due to higher quality of competition in the uefa. Was regarded as harder twin. Little if any difference in terms of prestige for the winners

Originally Posted by Ethers

What was the Intertoto? Didn’t they do it in the summer?

I seem to remember West Ham being in it one year and I’m pretty it started in June or something ridiculous

Wasn’t that just a type of qualification process for the UEFA cup for teams that had good disciplinary records from the previous seasons?

Anyway

Well done West Ham

At least there are still some simple pleasures in the game

Good to see fans happy and grateful for success in whatever form it comes