Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Football/Fully professional leagues/Archive 35

Italian women's league to be professional ???
Just heard some news that the Italian women's Serie A will be going professional by 2022 with a couple of sources being here and here. Is that possibly enough to have a end date for the league not being professional? HawkAussie (talk) 06:13, 26 June 2020 (UTC)
 * I've read that too. I think that, for the time being, it's best to keep things as they are. Professional doesn't necessarily mean "fully-professional", it may very likely be that it's "not amateur". I would wait for 2022 to see what the wage figures, for example, will be. Nehme1499 (talk) 06:17, 26 June 2020 (UTC)
 * A better question is are players on the team notable. We talk about professional and fully-professional ... but really the question is notability. If we can make always GNG cases for every player on every team, and they are semi-professional ... then one could probably make a case that the league should be listed. We worry too much about the FPL thing - I'm yet to see a player in a top Honduran team with a dozen starts go to AFD and not be kept. Yet evidence has always been that the entire league isn't fully professional. There can be huge disparities within leagues. Playing for Glasgow Celtic is not the same as playing for Ross County (WTF ... how did Hearts get relegated!)) Nfitz (talk) 16:18, 26 June 2020 (UTC)

Syrian Professional League
I think that seriously needs to be amended in the list, the league hasn't been fully pro in a long time, teams can't afford to pay wages to players, most games are played in nearly empty stadiums. Govvy (talk) 08:11, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Agreed. GiantSnowman 11:19, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
 * A very important variable to be taken into account for Asian countries is whether or not their clubs participate in the AFC Champions League. Unlike UEFA's format, the AFC "divides" countries based on professionality: if your league is professional, your clubs play in the CL, if not, they play in the AFC Cup. There is no overlap: if a Lebanese team plays in the AFC Cup, we can be sure that there isn't a Lebanese team in the Champions League. And IF there is overlap, it's in the form of one or two clubs participating in the CL playoffs (meaning that we would have to investigate further, as it may just be that only those two clubs are professional, whereas the other 10 or so in the league are not). Now, it seems that no Syrian club has passed the AFC licensing requirements (see 2020 document) since the 2008 edition (and I'm not even sure that the licensing procedures were implemented back then). Pretty much, the Syrian league, for the AFC, has the same status as other non-professional Asian leagues (such as the Lebanese or Bahraini ones). Nehme1499 (talk) 11:32, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
 * 2003 is the date given when they were professional, but that probably ended 2010 or 2011, 2011 is the Syrian civil war, no football was played in that period, so? Govvy (talk) 11:41, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Based on the above I'd be happy to say it should be considered fully-pro between 2003 and 2011 only. GiantSnowman 11:44, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
 * I would say between 2003 and 2008, since no Syrian team participated in the AFC Champions League from 2009 onwards. Nehme1499 (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 11:46, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Scrap that, in 2010 and 2011 there was a Syrian team in the play-offs (meaning that they passed the requirements; Lebanese club Safa were eligible, for example, in 2009 but didn't pass the licensing). I would say 2003 to 2011 as well at this point. <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 11:52, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅ GiantSnowman 11:55, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Cheers, Sadly due to the war and years later they have failed the criteria to qualify, shame what happened in Syria, there where probably some good footballers that got lost in that war. Govvy (talk) 11:57, 14 July 2020 (UTC)

I'm going to take a look at Category:Expatriate footballers in Syria, making sure that the player isn't notable solely because they played in Syria pre-2003 / post-2011. Is there a way to "subtract" articles from categories? Basically, I would like to see the articles that are in Category:Syrian footballers but that are not in Category:Syria international footballers (as I would like to do the same thing for Syrians). The category Category:Syrian Premier League players only has 5 articles, which is why I'm asking this. <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 12:11, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes, you can use WP:CATSCAN. GiantSnowman 13:47, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Nice, thanks! <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 14:09, 14 July 2020 (UTC)

1945-46 FA Cup
Following on from the discussion here, what's the deal with players who never made an appearance in a fully professional league, but who did make an appearance in the 1945-46 FA Cup? For example, Jimmy Campbell made an appearance for Leicester City in the 1945–46 FA Cup, but never made an appearance in a fully professional league. The Football League didn't return until 1946–47. Beatpoet (talk) 17:55, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
 * If two teams from fully professional leagues play against each other in an official competition, the players involved pass WP:NFOOTY. So, assuming both Leicester and the opponents were part of fully-pro leagues, Campbell is notable. <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 18:31, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Yeah, he played for Leicester City versus Chelsea. I'm just wondering if the rules are different because the Football League remained suspended during the 1945-46 season? Both clubs were members of the Football League prior to the suspension early in the 1939-40 season, plus they've been ever-present members of the FL/PL since. Beatpoet (talk) 19:21, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
 * I personally think that, under these specific circumstances, although they weren't actually participating in a league, Chelsea and Leicester were de facto professional football clubs. <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 19:28, 19 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Is it any different (really) to MLS is Back Tournament or other similar one-off tournaments/competitions in unusual times? GiantSnowman 20:15, 19 July 2020 (UTC)

Date ranges
Is it possible to add date ranges for the leagues on the list? Govvy (talk) 11:31, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Yes, it's on my 'To do' list to convert it all into a table. GiantSnowman 11:43, 23 July 2020 (UTC)
 * k, a lot of season pages popup in new page feed, then you get those that are created for 2014, 2006 and to any year. I think that will be very helpful to check against. Cheers. Govvy (talk) 11:48, 23 July 2020 (UTC)

OBOS Ligaen
Just had a look at the Norwegian First Division, and it appears to be fully professional. As most of these sources seem to put the Eliteserien and the OBOS Ligaen together in terms of minimum wage and professional status, I think it's only fair to either list neither of them as fully professional, or both of them. Davidlofgren1996 (talk) 21:19, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
 * This source from Lovdata states that (rough translation) "The 1st division men consists of 16 teams in one division. The clubs must have a license as a professional club" under section 12-7.
 * This source is very helpful in that it clarifies that (rough translation) "ALL THE 32 clubs within the top football umbrella of NTF - 16 in the Eliteserien and 16 in the OBOS league - are by all read and adopted definitions top clubs in Norwegian football. They must have players on contracts. They have to pay their players."
 * This source directly from Norwegian FA itself states that (rough translation) "The following requirements apply to players in the NFF OBOS league: Player must be 15 years of age at the start of the calendar year and have a professional contract. any change of this will be announced in a separate letter."
 * This source that speaks mostly about hockey in Norway also mentions that (rough translation) "In football, you have a minimum wage in the Eliteserien, Obosligaen and Toppserien."
 * This source states (rough translation) "When clubs in the Elite Series and the Obos League sign players on a professional contract, the clubs use the Norwegian Football Association's standard contracts for professional players. ... "What must be followed when it comes to job percentage and salary, is the minimum salary of 4104 kroner a month, set by NFF."
 * It doesn't look fully-professional to me. 'Professional contract' is often used to differentiate from amateur status and does not mean a full time wage. The minimum monthly wage stated (4,104 kroner) is definitely not a full time wage – it is equivalent to around £350 or $450 a month. Around half the clubs in the First Division have crowds of under 1,000 (three have average attendance of less than 500), which is the usual benchmark for clubs sustaining a full-time squad. Number   5  7  22:00, 24 July 2020 (UTC)


 * Right sorry I forgot to edit the first paragraph after I’d found the minimum wage section. But my last point was that, if this (very low) minimum wage also applies for the Eliteserien, surely neither league is fully professional? Davidlofgren1996 (talk) 22:06, 24 July 2020 (UTC)
 * There are sources that explicitly state that the Eliteserien is a fully-professional league.. However, we have nothing of the sort for the First Division. This states "While the Adeccoligaen is officially a professional league, a fair proportion of the players within it are semi-professional." However, it is a few years old. This one from Ranheim Fotball in 2017 mentions that most players in the division are full-time professionals, but they themselves were part time. The question is what proportion is "most". Most players in the National League are full time pros these days, but the league has enough semi-pro clubs for it not to be considered an FPL. Number   5  7  22:31, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

USL Second Division
Was the USL Second Division a fully professional league> It does not seem to be on both lists. Thanks, User:Das osmnezz.
 * If you're creating a player who played in that league, I'd be on the safe side and make sure WP:GNG is met. SportingFlyer  T · C  22:54, 24 July 2020 (UTC)

Greece
Can someone with good knowledge about Greek football please clear up the current situation? Prior to the 2019–20 season, the top two divisions were Super League Greece (level 1) and Football League (level 2). Now, with the formation of the Super League Greece 2 (level 2), the Football League shifted to level 3. Do we assume that the top 2 levels in Greek football are fully-pro? Meaning that, Super League and Super League 2 (2019-present) are fully-pro, whereas Football League was fully-pro only until 2019 (when it got demoted to level 3)? <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 00:24, 10 August 2020 (UTC)
 * I'd be willing to assume that interpretation as correct for now. SportingFlyer  T · C  01:08, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

Southern League (late 1800s to 1920 ish)
On this recent AfD there is some discussion whether Southern League is fully professional or not. I feel we should evaluate that a bit. Govvy (talk) 11:55, 12 August 2020 (UTC)

Ascenso mx vs Liga de Expansión MX
Will the Liga de Expansión MX still be considered fully professional under wiki guidelines? As the league as dissolved the Ascenso MX and the new league would be considered the replacement for it. Acorona619 (talk) 07:09, 26 August 2020 (UTC)

China League One
Does anyone have anything to say it is/is not a professional league? This source seems to think it is, and given the money and players in the league (Yaya Touré played in it last season), I'd assume it would be. This source seems to think professional contracts are given out too. I know nothing I've said is really concrete, but I'm sure somebody must know either way. NouveauSarfas (Talk page) 23:04, 28 August 2020 (UTC)
 * , I agree that this league has to be fully pro, but there heve been discussions about this league before that did not come to any conclusions. thanks, Das osmnezz (talk) 01:42, 6 September 2020 (UTC)

Denmark's Elitedivisionen
Came across this article, saying "Hjorring are fully professional year round, enabling Riley to build a life in Denmark, play in the Elitedivisionen - which is a fantastic league - and build her skills towards the 2023 World Cup." and "Over here in Denmark, it's professional all year round, and that was something that was hard to get in Australia, with the W-League running only in the later parts of the year," Would this be enough to list the Elitedivisionen on this FPL list? --SuperJew (talk) 04:05, 6 September 2020 (UTC)
 * That indicates the club is professional only, not the league. GiantSnowman 07:07, 6 September 2020 (UTC)
 * From my reading it seems to be implied the league is fully pro. I'll try later looking for more sources about it. If anyone here knows Danish and can look that would be useful ;) --SuperJew (talk) 08:42, 6 September 2020 (UTC)

Is Azerbaijan fully-pro?
brought up the discussion at WT:FOOTY, using this source as an example. The report states that each of the eight clubs pay, on average, 2.1m euros in salaries to their players. Assuming that there are about 22 players per team, this means that the average player in the Azerbaijan Premier League earns about 100,000 euro per year, well above the (gross) average annual salary of about 20,000 (see source). Thoughts? <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 13:54, 9 September 2020 (UTC)
 * I think the issue is that the figure is an average and could be highly distorted by one or two clubs (the fact that Qarabag were in the Champions League in 2017–18 is likely to have given them a huge income boost that other clubs in the league would not have received). Number   5  7  14:18, 9 September 2020 (UTC)
 * The author in this article basically states "while I don't know exactly how much a footballer earns in Azerbaijan, they earn figures comparing to the President of the country. This shows the big gap between footballers and the average person in Azerbaijan". In this other article says that Michael Essien earned 300,000 euros at Sabail FK, whereas his teammates only earned 2 or 3 times less (about 100k, the same figure as the article Ludost Mlačani shared). Note that Sabail, who were promoted from the second tier in 2017–18, finished 7th out of 8th that season and in 2019–20 (so not really a top-tier club). <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 15:07, 9 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Also, the two sources already provided don't really say much about the status of the league. One is just a ranking prediction for the 2017–18 season, while the other talks about how football in Azerbaijan is growing. <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 15:24, 9 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Any other thoughts? <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 13:19, 14 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Like N57 says, I am concerned that the big clubs are inflating the average. GiantSnowman 13:30, 14 September 2020 (UTC)
 * What about the yeniavaz.com article, and the one about Sabail FK? <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 13:33, 14 September 2020 (UTC)
 * You can be a lower league club funded by a wealth individual. Look at Anzhi in Russia, or look at various clubs in the English lower leagues that are professional purely down to external funding and not self sufficiency. We need something which talks about the league as a whole. GiantSnowman 13:41, 14 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Of course the league is professional, everyone knows that, just look at the club budgets, but with the systemic bias on this project it will never be added to list. And do not ping me for this any more, I do not have the nerves to participate in any of those pfl debates. Ludost Mlačani (talk) 17:24, 14 September 2020 (UTC)

Azerbaijan's economy has skyrocketed in the last 20 years with a 2019 GDP of $189.050 billion. They are an oil-rich state and the growth level there presents a new elite-system. This in turn brings powerful players (club owners) to the football game, and I think there is some evidence to support professional level football with the noted articles above. I wouldn't be surprised if the top league is fully-pro. If it has been fully-pro that can of only been in the last few years. UEFA supports it's credence with this article. After saying all of that, we need evidence and that azernews.az news article seems fairly solid, Govvy (talk) 18:37, 14 September 2020 (UTC)
 * This article, in 2013, shows that the budget of the worst club is of 1 million euro (on average, the budget of Azerbaijani clubs is around 5.5 million). It also states that an average Europa League team, in 2013, had budgets of around 5-10 million (PAOK, Shakhtar, etc.) This article in 2015 also confirms similar figures, and states that Azerbaijani clubs have budgets comparable to Europa League teams (so, very comfortably pro-clubs). <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 19:01, 14 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Based on that info it is likely fully-pro. GiantSnowman 19:49, 14 September 2020 (UTC)

why did you add "(since 2015)"? <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 13:46, 16 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Simply because of the last article you posted which is dated 2015 which sets a safety bar in my opinion. Unless you feel you want to change to it 2013. :/ Govvy (talk) 13:49, 16 September 2020 (UTC)
 * I would put ~2013. <b style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:80%;color:#000080">Nehme</b><b style="font-family:Verdana;color:#27B382">1499</b> (<b style="font-size:80%;color:#a9a9a9">talk</b>) 14:00, 16 September 2020 (UTC)
 * I think that will be okay hopefully, you okay with putting 2013 as a start date for this? Govvy (talk) 14:30, 16 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Saying 'from 2013 season' is fine. GiantSnowman 14:32, 16 September 2020 (UTC)

Question
Would captaining an underage (U17, U19, etc) national team be enough for an article to be kept up?

Im asking because one of my recent pages (Joseph Colley) was nominated for deletion, and im trying to figure out ways to try to save it from deletion. Have a great day, ShadowBallX2 (My talk page) 19:32, 29 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Please see WP:NFOOTY where it states "Players who have played in... a competitive senior international match at confederation level regardless of whether or not the teams are members of FIFA" So no, Colley would not be notable right now. --ArsenalFan700 (talk) 19:39, 29 September 2020 (UTC)
 * A player can be notable if they pass WP:GNG, regardless of WP:NFOOTY --SuperJew (talk) 20:19, 29 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Playing youth football - even as captain - is not enough to meet NFOOTBALL. You would have to demonstrate GNG is met for the page to be notable. GiantSnowman 21:22, 29 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Agreed. It looks like his best chance to get GNG will be when he makes his first appearance with A.C. ChievoVerona. ColeTrain4EVER (talk) 18:42, 30 September 2020 (UTC)