Table of contents 1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................3 1.1. Moments of Glory.........................................................................................................................5 1.2. The short history of Communism .................................................................................................6 1.2.1. The importance of October Revolution .....................................................................................6 1.2.2. Why did communism fail?.........................................................................................................7 1.3. The history of football under communism....................................................................................8 1.3.1. One republic, at least one club...................................................................................................8 1.3.2. Ministry of Defence vs. Ministry of Internal Affairs.................................................................9 1.3.3. Frozen in the moment of The Miracle of Bern ........................................................................11 1.3.4. Two times runners - up ............................................................................................................11 1.3.5. Two times third ........................................................................................................................12 1.3.6. Albania and Moldova...............................................................................................................13 1.4. Football in Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism ...........................................................13 1.4.1. Changes in the business of football in the West ......................................................................14 1.4.1.1. The birth of corporate arenas - The Taylor Report ...............................................................14 1.4.1.2. TV Money - The emergence of Premier League ..................................................................14 1.4.1.3. Transfer changes - Bosman Rule ..........................................................................................15 1.4.1.4. From UEFA European Champions Cup to UEFA Champions League................................15 1.4.2. Collapse of revenues in the East ..............................................................................................16 1.4.2.1. The highway to capitalism and its effect on football............................................................16 2. What is a League?..........................................................................................................................19 2.1. The idea behind creating a football league .................................................................................19 2.2. Competition and co-operation as the basics for the formation of the league..............................19 3. The objective of the Central Eastern European Football League (CEEFL) ..................................21 3.1. What is the Central Eastern European Football League? ...........................................................21 3.2. The common denominator for all domestic premier leagues in CEEFL region? .......................22 3.2.1. Market Potential.......................................................................................................................22 3.2.2. Competitive Balance (CB).......................................................................................................25 3.2.2.1. The influence of the spending power on the competitive balance........................................27 3.2.3. Club’s different objectives.......................................................................................................28 3.2.4. Attendance ...............................................................................................................................31 3.2.5. Incapability of keeping qualitative players within national leagues........................................33 3.2.6. Increased Clubs’ Revenues ......................................................................................................34 3.2.7. Increased value of domestic players ........................................................................................37 3.2.8. Revival of clubs brands and prevention of Internationalization ..............................................37 3.2.9. Preserving existing rivalry between the domestic clubs ..........................................................37 3.2.10. Geographical distance............................................................................................................38 3.2.11. Improvement of infrastructure ...............................................................................................38 3.2.12. Benefits for National Associations ........................................................................................40 4. Stakeholders, expectations and benefits.........................................................................................41 4.1. UEFA ..........................................................................................................................................41 4.2. Fans .............................................................................................................................................43 4.3. Leagues/National Associations...................................................................................................44 4.4. Clubs ...........................................................................................................................................44 4.5. Media ..........................................................................................................................................44 4.6. Governments ...............................................................................................................................45 4.7. Sponsors......................................................................................................................................45 4.8. Financial Institutions...................................................................................................................45 4.9. Players/Coaches ..........................................................................................................................46 Central – Eastern European Football League: Dream or Reality? 5. Conclusion .....................................................................................................................................47 5. 1 Recommendation: CEEFL – Adriatic Division ..........................................................................49 5.1.2 The market ................................................................................................................................49 5.2. The structure of CEEFL – Adriatic Division..............................................................................50 5.3. Promotion and relegation:...........................................................................................................52 5.4. Encouraging facts and numbers ..................................................................................................53 Bibliography.......................................................................................................................................56 Appendix 1.........................................................................................................................................59 Appendix 2.........................................................................................................................................66 Appendix 3.........................................................................................................................................68 Appendix 4.........................................................................................................................................71 Appendix 5.........................................................................................................................................72 Appendix 6.........................................................................................................................................73 Appendix 7.........................................................................................................................................74 Copyright FIFA Master 2006/2007 Edition Page 2 (Jaka Lucu, Mico Petcovic, Mihai C. Tudoran & Victor Vasiliev) Central – Eastern European Football League: Dream or Reality? 1. Introduction It may very well be that communism was the most sincere attempt ever to make human society fair and, especially in Yugoslavia, at some stage it even worked decently well. Sport as the only meaning known to human being where countries can lead wars without armoury involved, was the best agent of social and political change spreading around the world after the Second World War. Sport, of course, has the far reaching influence on the rest of the world and fitted perfectly well with Lenin’s view of building socialism in praxis: retain power, modernise, and build socialism. Sport and physical culture in general were therefore used to build fitness for productivity, to promote modernisation of the society, to promote unity and the collective culture