2016/17 UEFA Champions League Qualifiers

Politics basically, they alienated themselves in the late 60's early 70's with war, so were excluded from the Asian competitions after teams refused to play them. In the 80's they went from being in the European qualifiers to the Oceania then finally back to European in the early 90's and it's stuck since.


I've clearly googled this before :smiley-laughing002:

Infact I just looked at it again, my memory wasn't quite correct. They have alienated themselves in the late 40's and alot of Asian teams were against them up until they were excluded in the 70's

 

Cheers.

Suppose it's safer all round them not playing other clubs/countries in that region. Imagine Israel v Iran, I don't fancy a ticket for that match. :smiley-laughing002: Still doesn't feel quite right their teams playing in European competitions though.

 

Mate, Turkey, the land Turkey inhabits is European. In every way; think of Turkey as the end of Europe and the start of Asia, the last European country so to speak. Countries like Georgia and Kazakhstan are Asian, no two ways about it.
I bet the main reason is oil money, but I'm not exactly sure how they are playing in a European competition.

 

Probably political at the end of the day. As, like Kazakhstan, it is most definitely an Asian country.

 

We basically took them in cause no * would play them. They "qualified" for the 1958 World Cup without playing a game cause noone would play them and FIFA arranged a playoff with Wales(who won) so it wasn't such an embarrassment. They also won an Asian cup n the 60's, which they hosted. But it's a bit tainted seeing as most of the teams pulled out :smiley-laughing002:

 

As I've said, Kazakhstan is partly in Europe. It's a Transcontinental country, like Russia, like Turkey etc.

 

That's not true. The Asia-European border is pretty undefined, but in most understandings of it Kazakhstan is partly in Europe. That's a fact.

Also Istanbul is seen as one of the worlds only Transcontinental cities.

 

That's true. Galatasaray represent the European half of the city while Fenerbahce are the team of the Asian half. That divide is possibly the main reason for their rivalry being so violent.

 

I would say that, geographically speaking Russia to the Ural's and their southern border at the Caucasus and Turkey's border with the same are Europe.
I'm thinking more historically though, in like ancient terms. Anatolia, or Asia Minor, despite the name, was predominantly Greek/Roman until the Turks gradually conquered it but the people there, down the centuries have remained largely a mix of Greek, Turkic, Italic, etc. Not to mention the political stuff down the years too.
The Caucasus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, etc and anything south and east from that is Asia for me.

 

Well, geographically speaking The whole area to the east of Istanbul is the Anatolian peninsula which is considered Western Asia. We still consider Turkey european despite that. Part of Kazakhstan falls west of the Urals, putting it in Europe. It's a small area, but it's still in Europe. Part of Georgia is north of the Caucasus range. Also, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia are all part of the Council of Europe.

This is from wiki:

Article 4 of the Council of Europe Statute specifies that membership is open to any European country, provided they meet specific democratic and human rights standards. Nearly all European states have acceded to the Council of Europe, with the exception of Belarus, the Vatican City, predominantly Central Asian Kazakhstan, as well as some of the states with limited recognition.

The fact Kazakhstan is even mentioned there tells you that a small part of it is in Europe, despite most of the country being Asian.

 

Yeah from what I gather a small bit of it east of the southern section of the Ural River that runs through it is in easternmost Europe. But even at that, for me, when they used to compete in the Asian confederation and the fact that only a small part of their country is also only just in part of the area that makes up the ragged frontier of Europe; they shouldn't be in UEFA for those reasons. It's stupid. I'm just a bit salty about the fact we have to travel to a country who's capital is closer to Tokyo than Britain.

 

It's crazy and I think it's mostly a security thing with regards NATO. The more European countries, or countries brought closer with membership to the CoE, even if they are in Asia, all the better for NATO overreach in an attempt to strategically encircle Russia.

 

That small part of Europe gives them the right though. Israel are a freak, an oddball, but the other ones have a stake for various reasons.

Lets just be thankful that Luch-Energiya are stuck in the 2nd division in Russia and we'll probably never have to play them.. :smiley-laughing002:

If you haven't heard of them, google map them, they're in Vladivostok.

 

oft! Imagine that though.

 

It'd be a * nightmare :smiley-laughing002:

 

Kazakhstan was part of Russia until a few states left them.
Russia is still part of Europe so that is more than likely the reason that the Kazakhs are in the Champions league.

 

Whatever the rights or wrongs it is pretty mad that this is our third trip in a year to what most people consider Asia - Azerberjain, Asia Turkey and now Kazakhstan. Great experiences as an away fan that, Turkey aside, we probably wouldn't experience otherwise.

In qualifiers we have a superb record against teams from further east - Spartak Moscow, Dynamo Moscow, Karagandy and Qarabag we've knocked out.

 

I'd be looking to play this formation v Astana





When is it do we know yet?

 

Brown and bitton in the same team. Nope.
Mcgregor on a wing. Nope.
One up top. Nope.

Should play the way we did last night, perhaps though with a stronger back 3 or a flat four.
Brown and mcgregor in the middle, Roberts on the right, two up top.

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

 

Wednesday at 3