Yeah, I watched most of this game. Absolutely wild. It definitely makes the table a little more interesting. Villarreal dropping points plus Elche gettin go 3 condenses things a bit.
One thing Real Madrid really suck at is defending la liga titles! They havenāt done it in many years and looks like their bid might be over this season. Incredible response from Barca to get back on top that fast.
Theyāll be hoping we do them a favour tonight. I canāt see it but you just never know.
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at some point Valencia need to start getting worried.
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6 points currently separate 11th place and 19th place. Such a crazy tight āother leagueā this year, with the exception of Sociedad who seem to still want to have a shot at Top 2, and seem almost certain to secure UCL slot.
Crazy to think that more than halfway into the season and the 19th placed team is still only 13 points away from the 5th placed team. Seems unlikely, but how crazy that Getafe still has any chance at Europa League while sitting in 19th.
And consider this your weekly reminder that weāre still only 3 points above 19th place and only 2 points above relegation. The feelings of team play are improving but our standing is still pretty fragile.
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And yāall wanna call ME crazy for thinking we canāt qualify for Champions League. TUH! 
An incredibly tight league indeed. Valladolid on the verge of going above us and putting us down to 15th. Theyāre currently winning 1-0 at Sociedad.
Champions League places out of the question for us I think but Europa/Conference League still up for grabs potentially if we can keep improving.
Iāll still maintain staying up (still in a lot of trouble) is the main aim and anything else is a bonus for us this season.
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By my reckoning we should have seen the return to training of both Tecatito and MarcƔo by now.
Tecatito did have a follow up surgery but that could only have been clearing the excess growth of bone tissue around the injury. With MarcƔo it was a complicated injury but not a complicated surgery. Get a move on guys.
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Barca have been very naughty and itās been revealed they paid refereeās consultancy for āinformationā for years, 33 payments in total, amounting to over ā¬1m. The payments, allegedly. went to a former vice President of the refs committee, the information is hazy so far and Barcelona say itās perfectly legal to pay for information on how referees think and interpret the game.
This has all come to light due to a discrepency in the accounts of the consultancy.
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If they had the bottle they would just drink it.
Actually, the press are outraged about it but theyāre pro Madrid so itās difficult to know how serious this is.
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They got away with their financial gymnastics over the summer, so why not this too?
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For Barca it is worth itā¦they will probably get a smack on the wrist and have to pay a small fine. Nothing compared to the money they earned from titles they earned. They won two titles in this timeframe. A measly 1.4 million in bribes, I mean consultant fees, was well spent. This is this years prize money breakdown.
| Pos | Team | Prize Money |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Real Madrid | ā¬158 million |
| 2 | Atletico Madrid | ā¬154 million |
| 3 | Barcelona | ā¬115 million |
| 4 | Sevilla | ā¬85 million |
| 5 | Real Sociedad | ā¬80 million |
| 6 | Real :poop: | ā¬77 million |
| 7 | Villarreal | ā¬73 million |
| 8 | Celta Vigo | ā¬73 million |
| 9 | Athletic Bilbao | ā¬66 million |
| 10 | Granada | ā¬65 million |
| 11 | Osasuna | ā¬63 million |
| 12 | CĆ”diz | ā¬60 million |
| 13 | Valencia | ā¬57 million |
| 14 | Levante | ā¬55 million |
| 15 | AlavĆ©s | ā¬54 million |
| 16 | Getafe | ā¬52.5 million |
| 17 | Elche | ā¬52.5 million |
| 18 | Huesca | ā¬50 million |
| 19 | Valladolid | ā¬50 million |
| 20 | Eibar | ā¬48.5 million |
Those years they won, they earned a greater share of the prize money. If it changed their position just a few spots, we are talking 100ish million. 1st vs 4th is quite different. Plus you add in their sales of tshirts and swag, plus the increased visibility from being one of the best teams. Remember when they sold off some of their TV rights this past year because of financial levers? Complete corruption.
I have little faith much of anything will come of this. It really shouldā¦Barca have been laughing in the faces of everyone else and get away with whatever they want. Now letās look at the crap Real Madrid are pulling. They are probably doing similar. The leadership of La Liga are as corrupt as they come. It is all set up to prop up RM/Barca to keep the āprestigeā of the league up.
GRRRRRRR!!!
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The press are now saying it was ā¬7m paid to the āconsultantā while he was still vice president of the referees. This, if punished correctly would mean that Sevilla receive 4 cups that Barcelona won, 2 Supercopas and 2 CDRās leading up to year 2018. I donāt ever want to win a cup in this way, just relegate the bastards.
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Has anyone seen anything that lays this situation out clearly. My initial reading was āevery club should be doing this, but either they are covering it better or simply too poor to afford the Cadillac packageā. Everyone seems to be assuming the corruption route, and I get it, but itās not clear to me that thereās really nay evidence of that so far. I guess the main thing is whether this guy was allowed to be contracting services out given his position, and whether there is sufficient backing that this was a legitimate consultant services agreement or whether there is evidence that some of the money may have been funneled to referees themselves.
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Girona 4-0 up and itās not even half time.
Almeria having an absolute nightmare defensively.
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With the Barcelona situation, if a club does something that warrants losing trophies, I think the teams that would have won them should be awarded a portion of the money the team that cheated got from winning that year. In this case, that would mean Barcelona would be fined x amount of money, giving it to Sevilla, etc
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Girona hit Almeria for six. 6-2! Crazy game!
Wellā¦I guess weāre not jumping them this week 
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Imagine if a Sevilla player said this. They would be banned for life. Remember last season against espanyol Delaney was sent off for telling the ref āmuy bienā. The double standards are crazy
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Now thereās talk about banning Vinicius for a couple/few games but itās definitely not the same as giving him a red card in the 34th min when the insult happened. It couldāve changed the game in Osasunaās favor so they were totally robbed by the corrupt RFEF.
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