There are some points of your previous statements that I don't get the point:ngfsmg wrote: ↑Wed Apr 17, 2024 06:10 One game with zero shots can happen everywhere, but the number of goals per game is the highest in decades, and higher than other top-10 leagues. The attendances in Portugal are way lower than Premier League, Bundesliga, etc..., no one is denying that, but unlike what you said even those have been recovering slightly this year, with an over 12 thousand average for now, while it was under 10 thousand a few years ago
The financial difficulties are a real issue even if you list has most of those teams having their problems outside the top division (and are therefore not affected by the number of teams there) and you're really forcing some of those "strugglers" (Tondela and Rio Ave missed one payment and were punished, but they're not in a systemic bad situation), but the thing is they're an issue basically EVERYWHERE outside the richest leagues, we're not the exception. Look at Romania, look at Rangers in Scotland, which was one of the top clubs in a 12-club league like what you propose, and in a way is even more serious than problems in a few lower teams
a) number of goals as to measure if the league is competitive or healthy. If we expand the league, or the teams become weaker and we get more 4-0, 5-0 results, the number of goals per game will increase right? And in completely amateurs levels (and I mean something like Inatel with 40 years old guys) its very common results of 8-2, 8-5, and a team winning by 4 and losing by 5 the next one. Is this the most competitive league in the world or the number of goals hasn't relevance or at least by itself to measure how competitive a league is, even less, how healthy and sustainable it is?
b) Does "look at A league or B league they aren't better" argument is valid? If you have a problem, lets say your house is on fire, its valid that the firemen say "House A and house B are also on fire, some way worse so just chill and do nothing"? How having leagues with problems makes my league OK and I don't need to make changes to prevent decline and to make it more sustainable and competitive?
Getting into the discussion, I looked at the attendances numbers and first of all, two considerations: league still on going so numbers will still change especially with big games still to play, and secondly the overall sum means little.
I went to ligaportugal website and the data about attendances is very different from what you posted above. So far the average is 12,0001 while past season the overall average was 11,621, so an increase of 380 spectators per match. But as I said, an overall average tells you very little.
Now if you look at the individual attendances of each club you will notice that attendances at sporting increase 9,097 per match, the second biggest increase is Boavista with 2,341. 9 clubs have increased, 7 with values between +50 and +786. 6 clubs have decreased and 3 are new.
And whats the value of attendances?
6 clubs below 3000 people per match. And in this value and next we must take account that at least when they receive benfica their attendance is really high with porto and sporting also above average, so this mean that and average of 3000 in fact means a lot of matches around 1000-2000 people, in I Liga.
More 5 between 3000 and 5000 on average. 11 of 18 clubs don't have an average higher than 5000 people, knowing what I ve stated just above. And the 12th club average is just 5,017 (now).
Boavista 8k, Braga15k, Gumarães 16k and than Porto 37k, Sporting 38k and benfica 56k.
That is the full pictures of the league. Doesn't look a competitive league with people filling the stadiums, generating revenue for the clubs and sponsors does it? Most of the matches are of low quality and thats why they are in empty stadiums and clubs get barely no money for those matches (ticketing or tv). The numbers of benfica, porto and sporting are so big that they by themselves make the average look good comparing to the other leagues.
When new tv deals were signed (some by Meo some by NOS) at the start of the season there were 2 clubs with no agreement: one refused the low valued proposed, and the other didn't get any offer. Only before the 2nd matchday the last one got a deal. One was Moreirense and I can't remember the other https://www.guimaraesdigital.pt/index.p ... elevisivos
Getting back to clubs getting bankrupcy: most if not all got their porblems when in I Liga. Of course they were keeping running, increasing the debts and since they were in I Liga they would get loans to finance their unsustainable business. When they got demoted, they don't get access to more credit and they fall but the problem wasn't the relegation, the problem was years and years of spending more than the revenues. And whe you say that Rio Ave only missed a few payments, you are really clueless about the situation: they would shut down the doors this season if money wasn't injected. They were at the end of the line: https://www.ojogo.pt/1070201398/preside ... nvestidor/
The problems of Rio Ave started in 2018 when the company of former president entered bankrupcy, so Rio Ave has been problems paying wages and taxes since 2018, with EL qualifiers participations amid. Tondela got several transfer markets bans due to debts and unpaid wages. Its not just a few payments. Académica, Setúbal, were know for only paying the first months. Guimarães has been on and off on unpaid wages, most clubs have 2-3 months of delay. This is the picture of our league. Yes with lots of goals, whatever does that means (bad defense) with lots of people following 3 clubs and 10 clubs just waiting to fall.
A good picture:
https://maisfutebol.iol.pt/estudo/anali ... ra-da-uefa