Bavarian 767 Posted May 3, 2015 The FIM should make this World Speedway League a competition for national teams meeting each other in a round-robin-tournament (team vs team meetings à la league or test matches). No problems about who rides for which country then. The top six national teams (Poland, Denmark, Australia, Russia, Sweden, Great Britain) plus a Rest of the World team would give most of the top riders a team to ride for. Three home and three away meetigns for each team, plus an end-of-season Grand Final (or a home and away final over two legs). This would be what I'd regard as a real WORLD SPEEDWAY LEAGUE, not the current Mickey Mouse club competition ! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Skidder1 7,637 Posted May 3, 2015 The FIM should make this World Speedway League a competition for national teams meeting each other in a round-robin-tournament (team vs team meetings à la league or test matches). No problems about who rides for which country then. The top six national teams (Poland, Denmark, Australia, Russia, Sweden, Great Britain) plus a Rest of the World team would give most of the top riders a team to ride for. Three home and three away meetigns for each team, plus an end-of-season Grand Final (or a home and away final over two legs). This would be what I'd regard as a real WORLD SPEEDWAY LEAGUE, not the current Mickey Mouse club competition ! Where would the 'Rest of the World' team hold their home meetings? Italy, Argentina, Finland or USA? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Humphrey Appleby 13,960 Posted May 5, 2015 Where would the 'Rest of the World' team hold their home meetings? Italy, Argentina, Finland or USA? Where would Australia hold their home meetings for that matter? Not very practical to hold them Down Under when it wasn't the speedway season there. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
uk_martin 1,606 Posted May 5, 2015 The FIM should make this World Speedway League a competition for national teams What's the point of doing that? They have the SWC for National teams...unless you are suggesting a revamp of the SWC format? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bavarian 767 Posted May 5, 2015 SWC is a 4-T-T, the World League should be Team vs Team Australia could use British tracks for their home meetings (isn't Poole their spiritual home from home in the UK anyway?) The "Rest of the World" team has plenty of options for their hoem meetings. They could very well rotate with one meeting each in Germany, Czech Republic, Latvia, Finland, Italy, etc Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Skidder1 7,637 Posted May 5, 2015 So it would be a World Speedway League in Europe then? Where have I heard that before? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Humphrey Appleby 13,960 Posted May 6, 2015 SWC is a 4-T-T, the World League should be Team vs Team Australia could use British tracks for their home meetings (isn't Poole their spiritual home from home in the UK anyway?) The "Rest of the World" team has plenty of options for their hoem meetings. They could very well rotate with one meeting each in Germany, Czech Republic, Latvia, Finland, Italy, etc There's not really enough countries with sufficient strength in depth to track full test sides, and I think there's also a danger that you undermine the primacy of the SWC with another national representative competition. For me, if you were going to do this, I think it would be better to run home and away test series over a rolling period (e.g. like the ICC Test Championship), which would make a clear distinction between the SWC as an event, and the 'World League' as more a ranking competition. It would also allow the costs of each trip to be amortised over 2 or 3 meetings (e.g. when GB visited Sweden they'd ride 2-3 tests, and vice-versa). Getting back to the original subject of the thread though, a Champions League will never really be credible with the current speedway set-up. It needs to be run more like the Super-15 in rugby union - i.e. a standalone competition between selected teams who sign riders specifically for that competition, ideally with some sort of rider sharing/draft. So for example - 4 teams from Britain, 4 from Poland, and maybe 3 from Sweden and 1 from Denmark in a regional conference type format ('British', 'Continental' and 'Scandinavian' focusing on 'local' derbies and reducing travel. Let's say home and away in each conference (6 matches), home against one other conference (4 matches) and away against the other conferences (4 matches). If you combined two inter-conference matches in each away trip, that would only require two long trips during the season. Winner of each conference + one wildcard go to the 'playoffs', which would ensure every country has a representative to maintain interest. We can argue about the exact make-up of the teams and the format, but this is more what speedway should be aiming at. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bavarian 767 Posted May 6, 2015 There's not really enough countries with sufficient strength in depth to track full test sides, and I think there's also a danger that you undermine the primacy of the SWC with another national representative competition. For me, if you were going to do this, I think it would be better to run home and away test series over a rolling period (e.g. like the ICC Test Championship), which would make a clear distinction between the SWC as an event, and the 'World League' as more a ranking competition. It would also allow the costs of each trip to be amortised over 2 or 3 meetings (e.g. when GB visited Sweden they'd ride 2-3 tests, and vice-versa). Getting back to the original subject of the thread though, a Champions League will never really be credible with the current speedway set-up. It needs to be run more like the Super-15 in rugby union - i.e. a standalone competition between selected teams who sign riders specifically for that competition, ideally with some sort of rider sharing/draft. So for example - 4 teams from Britain, 4 from Poland, and maybe 3 from Sweden and 1 from Denmark in a regional conference type format ('British', 'Continental' and 'Scandinavian' focusing on 'local' derbies and reducing travel. Let's say home and away in each conference (6 matches), home against one other conference (4 matches) and away against the other conferences (4 matches). If you combined two inter-conference matches in each away trip, that would only require two long trips during the season. Winner of each conference + one wildcard go to the 'playoffs', which would ensure every country has a representative to maintain interest. We can argue about the exact make-up of the teams and the format, but this is more what speedway should be aiming at. I agree with the above 100% - I'd love to see this happen - these would be great competitions for future speedway Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
uk_martin 1,606 Posted May 6, 2015 So for example - 4 teams from Britain, 4 from Poland, and maybe 3 from Sweden and 1 from Denmark in a regional conference type format ('British', 'Continental' and 'Scandinavian' focusing on 'local' derbies and reducing travel. Let's say home and away in each conference (6 matches), home against one other conference (4 matches) and away against the other conferences (4 matches). If you combined two inter-conference matches in each away trip, that would only require two long trips during the season. Winner of each conference + one wildcard go to the 'playoffs', which would ensure every country has a representative to maintain interest. I said something similar to this some years ago...let's say 4 EL teams (Belle Vue, Wolverhampton, Kings Lynn & Poole to represent north south east and west) bringing meaning back to the term "Elite" and the rest of the "old EL" teams plus the PL teams (and maybe some NL teams) combining to form a 2 division professional British League. The NL may then have to merge with the MDL etc and then go semi-pro / amateur. HOWEVER we will then have a real European League, with British representation, one race night, and one rider per team. Pan-European television rights are now a viability now that EuroSport are in the game. The problem is that if the FIM don't control it themselves as a neutral body (which they don't like doing) then the control will probably pass to where the money is coming from, namely Poland...and we can guess how the British authorities will react to that prospect. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Humphrey Appleby 13,960 Posted May 7, 2015 HOWEVER we will then have a real European League, with British representation, one race night, and one rider per team. Pan-European television rights are now a viability now that EuroSport are in the game. The problem is that if the FIM don't control it themselves as a neutral body (which they don't like doing) then the control will probably pass to where the money is coming from, namely Poland...and we can guess how the British authorities will react to that prospect. Wouldn't need to be controlled by the FIM. Sign up a group of teams or promoters' bodies to run the competition. The British authorities would likely be persuaded if there was reasonable money on the table, but otherwise ignore them and just get with it. Ultimately, the group should aim to take control of the promotional rights of the SGP and SWC as well, so the profits come back to speedway. If the FIM don't like it, then breakaway as it's very difficult to understand how their involvement actually benefits to the sport, although I'd prefer the groups to come to an arrangement like between the FIA and the F1 teams. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
uk_martin 1,606 Posted January 1, 2016 Interesting article here - http://m.sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/569778/polska-firma-z-10-letnia-umowa-na-organizacje-ligi-mistrzow-jaroslaw-hampel-amba I wonder which will be th "exciting new country"? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Noodles 1,337 Posted January 1, 2016 (edited) Interesting article here - http://m.sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/569778/polska-firma-z-10-letnia-umowa-na-organizacje-ligi-mistrzow-jaroslaw-hampel-amba I wonder which will be th "exciting new country"? That early in the season and on a Friday I suspect it will be Belle Vue in 2017 Official FIM press release here http://www.fim-live.com/en/article/fim-team-player-management-wsl/ Edited January 1, 2016 by Noodles Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Daniel Smith 5,666 Posted January 1, 2016 http://www.fim-live.com/en/article/fim-team-player-management-wsl/ "Polish and English fans could also enjoy the opening of speedway season with the First International Pre-Season Speedway Cup in Kings Lynn. The second edition of this highly successful tournament will be held on the 20th of March 2016 in Kings Lynn" Looks like we're (King's Lynn) having a season opener the same as last season. Great stuff Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DutchGrasstrack 804 Posted January 1, 2016 I think the 'exciting new country' will not be somewhere we are used to.... especially when the website has an option to translate it in Arabian. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
uk_martin 1,606 Posted January 1, 2016 I think the 'exciting new country' will not be somewhere we are used to.... especially when the website has an option to translate it in Arabian. Oh well...Germany it will be then, judging by the number of Arabic speaking refugees setting up home there now. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
