- Location
- Colwyn Bay/Manchester
- Pronouns
- He/him
Whilst Juventus had historically had more success, without the Superga disaster would Torino's dominance in the 40s have translated into permanently becoming the bigger club in the city?
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Football PoDs and alternate possibilities.
- Thread starter Geordie
- Start date
A mockumentary about the EPL career of Al-Saadi Gaddafi, as Libyan state TV struggles to turn his sitting on the bench of his father's club and occasionally appearing late in blowout games doing absolutely nothing of significance save for keeping the real players from getting hurt into some sort of heroic epic.
- Pronouns
- he/they is fine
what if kansas ended up winning the national championship in 2007? do they become a more major player in the NCAAF?
Probably not, because A: they went from great to good to back to the usual terrible (more of a basketball school, and it shows) soon, and B: The college football national championship system is stacked in favor of the blue chip powerhouses and it was even more stacked in 2007[1]. So its doubtful they'd even play for the championship game.
[1]College football is the American sport with the most structural similarities to European socccer-lots and lots of teams, dominated by a few super-ones with more resources. It's to be frank a closed, arbitrary cartel.
Thinking of a bizarre what-if where Vatican City's team (which exists) is actually a substantive player in UEFA (meaning that they join San Marino and other microstates in being the victims of squash matches in continental qualifiers).
- Pronouns
- it/its (you'll get used to the third person thing)
- Pronouns
- he/him
For those of you with interest in footballing ahs. I'm talking your @Geordie, @Dom, @RyanF, @Fletch, @morbidteaparty, @BenC, @DocU, @Stateless etc.
I am collecting stories for a sports Ah anthology.
If you've got an idea or have written something previously that could be suitable then hit me up.
Any story in which newcastle do better will be auto rejected.
I am collecting stories for a sports Ah anthology.
If you've got an idea or have written something previously that could be suitable then hit me up.
Any story in which newcastle do better will be auto rejected.
I do have rough notes for a vignette where Keegan's "I would love it if we beat them" rant leads to him inadvertently making a deal with the devil.
The Whyte Knight.
There were moments of doubt. When Malmo equalised during the Champions League Qualifier with ten minutes to go, it seemed that Rangers European Adventure was set to come to a close. The Swedes had not countered for a moment of sheer magic from Nikita Jelavic who scored from an overhead kick in injury time, a goal which sent Ally McCoists side through to the Champions League Play-Off round against Dinamo Zagreb, a tie which saw the Govan men edge trhough after two goalless marches with a penalty shoot-out victory.
The delight on the face of the Rangers Chairman, Craig Whyte was plain to see. The £20 Million these results guaranteed was an obvious relief. Amidst the madness of the two Tax Cases, just how important these results were to be became apparent over the next two years.
Things became more joyful for the owner of Rangers as the club were joined by Dortmund, Genk and Zenit in their Champions League Group, a group which saw the club finish second, securing the Govan men another £5 millon, going out to Barcelona 3-0 on aggegate in the last sixteen.
Through these results, the club was to remain solvent for another year. In addition to this, it became clear that debt reduction was the goal of the new board, with Whyte announcing with a smile on his face on Valentines Day 2012 that the small Tax Case had been settled, when in reality the club had paid it in full. The only black mark hanging over the head of the club was the Big Tax Case, a case which was estimated to be to the value of some £56 million.
Domestically, the club was also heading from strength to strength and despite an early exit in both the League and Scottish Cups, the League was secured by two points over Celtic, a result which secured another season in the Champions League, something that was viewed as vital to the future of the club.
Realising that extra finance was required, Whyte declared in April 2012 that a new share issue would be made, something that he made clear the future of the club was dependant on, hinting heavily on the sword of damacles hanging over the head of the club that was the big Tax Case. The issue was a fantastic success, raising a further £23 million, albeit diluting the ownership of the Monte Carlo based business guru to some 55% from the 85% it was previously.
Of this money, Ally McCoist was told privately, little could go to him, but the expectations were clear. The signings of Ikeche Anya and Graham Dorrans for a combined fee of £5 million helped placate the support somewhat though. This was offset by the sale of Steven Naismith to Everton for £7.5 million.
There was some good news for Rangers in October as it was announced the BigTax Case had been won. This was tempered the following day when HMRC said they would appeal the ruling as far as they possibly could.
This time, the route to the Champions League was more straight forward, defeating the champions of Finland and Switzerland to reach the group stages once more, this time facing a much more difficult group consisting of Barcelona, Arsenal and BATE Borisov. There was to be no such luck on this occasion, with the club finishing third bringing Europa League football, going out in the last 32 to Legia Warsaw.
More important was the money which the run generated. More controversially, January 2013 saw Nikita Jelavic sold to Sunderland for the fee of £10 million, a move which saw considerable anger amongst the support.
The funds for the transfer were important though as they secured the funding Whyte needed. In a shock move on the 31st January, a payment of £56 million was made to HMRC(later it was discovered a bank loan of £13 million from RBS had helped), the tax case was over. The club had survived.
The following day, Rangers FC were placed on the market by their chairman.
On the pitch, they did not fare so well, with a collapse in the second half of the season, seeing Celtic, managed by Mick McCarthy romp to the title with Motherwell finishing a point ahead of the blue side of the Old Firm.
This was to cost Ally McCoist his job, and as he packed his bags to leave the role, it was announced in Craig Whytes last move as the Chairman of Rangers, Rino Gattuso was to become the new player-manager.
On the 4th June 2013, Craig Whyte sold the majority shareholding of Rangers for £65 million to the American owner of the Basketball team the Phoenix Suns, Robert Sarver.
All of this after spending £1 of his own money.
Six months later, he was knighted for services to Scottish Football. The position he held at Rangers was to pave his way through the high society of Scotland, leading to the current day where he achieved his noted current role as the Governor of the Scottish Central Bank.
One can only imagine what he will do in this illustrious role to the new Kingdom of Scotland.
There were moments of doubt. When Malmo equalised during the Champions League Qualifier with ten minutes to go, it seemed that Rangers European Adventure was set to come to a close. The Swedes had not countered for a moment of sheer magic from Nikita Jelavic who scored from an overhead kick in injury time, a goal which sent Ally McCoists side through to the Champions League Play-Off round against Dinamo Zagreb, a tie which saw the Govan men edge trhough after two goalless marches with a penalty shoot-out victory.
The delight on the face of the Rangers Chairman, Craig Whyte was plain to see. The £20 Million these results guaranteed was an obvious relief. Amidst the madness of the two Tax Cases, just how important these results were to be became apparent over the next two years.
Things became more joyful for the owner of Rangers as the club were joined by Dortmund, Genk and Zenit in their Champions League Group, a group which saw the club finish second, securing the Govan men another £5 millon, going out to Barcelona 3-0 on aggegate in the last sixteen.
Through these results, the club was to remain solvent for another year. In addition to this, it became clear that debt reduction was the goal of the new board, with Whyte announcing with a smile on his face on Valentines Day 2012 that the small Tax Case had been settled, when in reality the club had paid it in full. The only black mark hanging over the head of the club was the Big Tax Case, a case which was estimated to be to the value of some £56 million.
Domestically, the club was also heading from strength to strength and despite an early exit in both the League and Scottish Cups, the League was secured by two points over Celtic, a result which secured another season in the Champions League, something that was viewed as vital to the future of the club.
Realising that extra finance was required, Whyte declared in April 2012 that a new share issue would be made, something that he made clear the future of the club was dependant on, hinting heavily on the sword of damacles hanging over the head of the club that was the big Tax Case. The issue was a fantastic success, raising a further £23 million, albeit diluting the ownership of the Monte Carlo based business guru to some 55% from the 85% it was previously.
Of this money, Ally McCoist was told privately, little could go to him, but the expectations were clear. The signings of Ikeche Anya and Graham Dorrans for a combined fee of £5 million helped placate the support somewhat though. This was offset by the sale of Steven Naismith to Everton for £7.5 million.
There was some good news for Rangers in October as it was announced the BigTax Case had been won. This was tempered the following day when HMRC said they would appeal the ruling as far as they possibly could.
This time, the route to the Champions League was more straight forward, defeating the champions of Finland and Switzerland to reach the group stages once more, this time facing a much more difficult group consisting of Barcelona, Arsenal and BATE Borisov. There was to be no such luck on this occasion, with the club finishing third bringing Europa League football, going out in the last 32 to Legia Warsaw.
More important was the money which the run generated. More controversially, January 2013 saw Nikita Jelavic sold to Sunderland for the fee of £10 million, a move which saw considerable anger amongst the support.
The funds for the transfer were important though as they secured the funding Whyte needed. In a shock move on the 31st January, a payment of £56 million was made to HMRC(later it was discovered a bank loan of £13 million from RBS had helped), the tax case was over. The club had survived.
The following day, Rangers FC were placed on the market by their chairman.
On the pitch, they did not fare so well, with a collapse in the second half of the season, seeing Celtic, managed by Mick McCarthy romp to the title with Motherwell finishing a point ahead of the blue side of the Old Firm.
This was to cost Ally McCoist his job, and as he packed his bags to leave the role, it was announced in Craig Whytes last move as the Chairman of Rangers, Rino Gattuso was to become the new player-manager.
On the 4th June 2013, Craig Whyte sold the majority shareholding of Rangers for £65 million to the American owner of the Basketball team the Phoenix Suns, Robert Sarver.
All of this after spending £1 of his own money.
Six months later, he was knighted for services to Scottish Football. The position he held at Rangers was to pave his way through the high society of Scotland, leading to the current day where he achieved his noted current role as the Governor of the Scottish Central Bank.
One can only imagine what he will do in this illustrious role to the new Kingdom of Scotland.
- Pronouns
- he/him
I've always enjoyed that story, such a nice bit of irony and reflection on the thin margins of success and failiure.
It's too short for the purposes of the anthology, but something along those lines with a bit more meat to it would be happily welcomed.
Pete U
Temporary Gentleman Of Leisure
- Location
- South Notts
I had a thing on the other place based on Newton Heath FC (as was going bust), rather than being saved and renamed. But I'm not sure football without Man Utd is interesting enough
I'll do a proper version of it.
morbidteaparty
Putting the moron into oxymoron
- Location
- Westcombe Park
- Pronouns
- he/him
I have a couple of ideas floating around that I might get about to w r i t i n g
How about a story about this?
'What if?' - The story of India's lost opportunity at the 1950 World Cup
Known as a cricketing country around the world today, India's football story would've been vastly different if only they made the trip to Brazil in 1950. Art by Onkar Shirsekar. Many among the capacity crowd in National Stadium, Delhi heaved a sigh of relief when the referee blew his halftime...
www.footballparadise.com
No, India Did Not Withdraw From The 1950 FIFA World Cup Because They Did Not Want To Wear Shoes
It has become folklore that Indian players wanted to play without shoes in the tournament.
www.indiatimes.com
And the main one was their fateful flawed decision to value the Olympics over the World Cup. Unfortunately for India though, the conditions at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki weren't in their favor, and they'd go on to be defeated in the first round by Yugoslavia, by a heavy score of 10–1; most of their players' decision to continue playing barefoot, in spite of the unseasonably chilly and rainy conditions, played a key role in this defeat. And at the subsequent 1956 Melbourne Olympics football tournament, where all their players had shoes and the conditions were far more favorable to them, they went on to achieve their greatest result in a competitive tournament, finishing in fourth place after losing the bronze-medal match to Bulgaria 3–0. So I reckon the idea I think I'll go with, and attempt to write myself, is going to be a story set in a TL where the AIFF decided to prioritize the FIFA World Cup over the Summer Olympics Football Tournament rather than the other way round, and went to the 1950 World Cup.
8yrs later, having successfully qualified for the '54 World Cup (taking the place of OTL's South Korea, and unlike SK, successfully avoiding the worst performance of any team at any World Cup, albeit still going out in the group stages with zero points), the Indian Golden Generation have successfully defeated Israel and Wales in the qualification play-offs to get there, and advanced to the quarter finals in Wales' stead. Facing off against the young Pepe's Brazil, whose star will rise ITTL? And can the victors of this quarter final, as IOTL, go all the way to lift the World Cup ITTL...?
- Location
- Auckland via London
- Pronouns
- He/him
Good time for someone to write about women's football not being banned, init?
Pete U
Temporary Gentleman Of Leisure
- Location
- South Notts
Been thinking about this a bit more - something about Newton Heath's first Wembley appearance, written from the view of a fan travelling down on the train. But it's the FA Trophy final in 2021. That would work as a vignette I think
Think that futsal/some other variant of limited-space indoor soccer would be more prominent and popular in a timeline where basketball (which was after all meant as a winter indoor sport) was never invented?