Week 9 Malaga v Granada 74 13th January 2008

Balance
Profit €225.25

Result Boavista 2(Marcelao 40,Jorge Ribeiro) Sporting Lisbon 0

Not a good weekend with Boavista beating favourites Sporting 2-0 at a big price of 4/1.Goalscorers were Brazilian Marcelao from a corner and a nice finish from journey man Jorge Ribeiro after a quick break against the run of play.Sporting had plenty of chances in the second half to draw the match.An equalizer would have been no use anyway for the HT FT bet I placed.Ribeiro aged 26 had played for seven clubs before he joined Boavista.He has appeared for Benfica and Dynamo Moscow and has had loan spells with Santa Clara,Varzim,Gil Vicente,CD Aves and Spanish club Malaga.
Nice goal

Malaga this weekend take on Liga BBVA (Segunda) new boys Granada 74.Malaga are currently on top of Liga BBVA and are looking good for promotion back to La Liga after relegation two seasons ago.At home they have won seven,drawn one and lost one with a plus 14 goal difference.Granada 74 are currently in ninth position and recently only lost 3-2 on aggregate to Atletico Madrid in the Copa Del Rey but the top teams treat that competition in a similar vain to the way the top teams in England treat the League Cup.Malaga's last home game in the league was a three nil win against Sevilla Atlético Club(Sevilla FC's reserve team) who lie in fourth position.Malaga should be good enough to beat Granada 74 with the -1 handicap.Bet365 offer 3/1 on this and I'll have €50 on Malaga to beat Granada by more than one goal.
Granada 74 so who are these new boys?It sounds like a TV station.Well football purists will be sad to hear that they are a sort of footballing franchise.Yes, franchising football teams has hit Europe.This is the Andalusians first season in Liga BBVA and they didn't even get promoted or relegated;they bought their place in Spain's second tier of football.New rules in Spanish football allow purchased clubs to change name and move home.So when Ciudad de Murcia's(a relatively new club) owner had enough of the day to day struggle of keeping his club afloat in a city were Real Murcia have a stronghold he decided to put his club up for sale.
After negotiations with a number of potential buyers 74 won out and jumped from a regional league to Liga BBVA,bypassing third division team Granada Atlético and Segunda B team Granada CF.Granada 74 owner Carlos Marsá for a fee of around €20m has bought a club,changed it's name to his own clubs name and left Murcia with it's players(if they wanted to leave ,their option) to head to a multi-use stadium in Granada;there you have it a football franchise.
Or a safety net for the big clubs?Let's imagine Real Madrid had a Moggiopoli and like Juventus were relegated,there would be nothing to stop them trying to buy their way back into La liga.Hopefully common sense will prevail and the rule will be changed before clubs with tradition are tempted to throw in the towel and sell up to a franchise with a sugar daddy of an owner.
The last laugh could be on Granada 74,with average attendances of less than three thousand and with Granada CF the citys real club they could struggle just like the club they consigned to history Ciudad de Murcia.
http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/current/aveesp.htm

STATS
Malaga in the Liga BBVA
P19 W12 D3 L4 F31 A14 pts 39

TRIVIA
Football relocation has happened in Scotland,Meadowbank Thistle changed name and relocated.Who are they now?
Last weeks answer the great Alfredo Di Stéfano.