Word: tiered
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Since the Soviet Union collapsed 17 years ago, Washington in particular has deluded itself into believing that it was somehow a real competitor to Russia in the southern tier of the former Soviet Union - that is, the eight states that make up the Caucasus and the former Soviet Central Asia. Washington acted as if these states were truly independent and sovereign, immune from the influence of the old metropolitan center, Moscow. Washington deliberately ignored how Russia had held on to its military bases in the southern tier, how the successor to the KGB stayed more plugged into intelligence from...
...NATO, stop the flow of arms into Chechnya and take control of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the only important export route from the Caspian that does not pass through Russia. For it is oil that will give Russia all the more leverage over the southern tier...
...disastrous form saw the club miss out on Champion's League qualification. The resulting loss of projected revenues forced an emergency sell-off of star players, but that failed to avert a financial collapse, and the once mighty Leeds United now languishes in England's third-tier league. Just as wealth and success on the field go hand in hand in today's pro soccer, so can disaster on the field bring disaster at the bank...
...share of the television rights: in the English Premiership, this guarantees even the bottom clubs $50 million a year, and a lot more for those in its top tier. The clubs that finish highest in all of Europe's domestic leagues also get to play midweek games in the European Champion's League, qualification for which is worth a further $20 million at least...
...recent years established a lock on those four slots. But they have to win consistently to get there, and failure to do so can be financially disastrous. Things are as treacherous at the lower end of the league, from which the bottom three clubs are relegated to the second-tier league each season, losing their $50 million share of TV revenues to the three clubs who are promoted out of that league...