Football Governance

[Abacus]

I would say that is a significant kick to the premier league's knackers.

[Ben]

What is our current wage bill ? 

 

Edit* it looks like it's about £65 million, so we should have a few quid to spend.

 

£10 million ffs.

 

 

Edited July 25, 2021 by Ben

[Yorkie]

But honest Steve says we've got no money? 

 

I really have no clue how English football's money situation - where finances become constantly inflated and clubs spend beyond their own means, thanks either to ambitious owner-benefactors or through overspending just to keep up - will ever be repaired.

 

There's no such thing as a silver bullet or even a 'path of least resistance' when every proposal results in your hypercapitalist model becoming collectively less lucrative (net); it's just a total contradiction. The modus operandi is to make more and more money and the existing model works just fine for that as far as I can see, so why would the Premier League have any interest in reform? Is there literally a single person involved in either the governance or membership of the Premier League who would have an appetite to switch to the La Liga model, where the 'big six' (vom) lose their competitive edge against Champions League opponents, and the other 14 are no longer allowed to spend the necessary amounts just to keep pace in the league? What benefit would anyone get from imposing caps? More sustainability? Allegations of unsustainability are based on nothing as far as I can see; we've been saying since about 2004 that 'the bubble will eventually burst' but all I see is it having got stronger and stronger.

 

The time to put a lid on it was a couple years after Abramovich arrived and the writing was on the wall; they didn't and here we are, far too far gone. I fear that the financial habits at the top of the English game are here to stay; might as well put efforts into other things like improving fan engagement, ensuring the rest of the pyramid has proper support, and improving the safeguards around things like preventing dodgy owners in the lower leagues and not letting community assets fall into disrepair/liquidation.

 

Oh and maybe we could have a look into the obviously corrupt nature of the Owners and Directors process, where it's clearly structured in a way to enable external forces to have an influence. There's something profoundly unfair about having a model that enables unlimited investment, but only if you're certain clubs. If we're gonna stick with this way of doing things then at least open the shop doors so everyone can have a stab at it. 

[robbo_11]

Good post by @Yorkie above. I was just thinking the game has gone now from a financial point of view, but not just in the UK it seems to be across the European leagues too. It almost seems like the ESL is going to be inevitable within a year or so due to the vast spending specific clubs can achieve in comparison to the rest of their own domestic league.

 

Inter Milan are facing serious financial problems and struggles over the next couples of years. Perhaps across Serie A some of the major clubs are close to drastic measures like Lazio, Roma and AC Milan just to keep up. Ligue 1 is facing a crisis and effectively will become a one club league due to PSG having vast amounts of money. 

 

There is 100% a nostalgic effect when looking back at the growth of the game from the 90's, but serious concerns moving forward if there will be any point/fun outside of 5-6 clubs within Europe. It will become a desire "to get a result" whether that is (a) not a hammering (b) a draw or (c) a shock win should the current effects of the pandemic continue.

[The Prophet]

Other than Bayern and PSG. English clubs really should take the piss in Europe over the next few years.

 

Financially, La Liga and Serie A are an absolute mess. The Bundesliga is self sufficient, but in being so the better players are leaving for riches elsewhere.

 

Meanwhile in England, the football pyramid is under threat, but the Premier League gravy train rolls on. We're still seeing obscene investment and the bubble doesn't look emotely close to bursting unfortunately, especially for the 'big six' who will be protected at all costs.

[Stifler]

All of the football authorities in this country need to be regulated. It is quite telling that a Tory government that were weighing up if they could get away with letting up to a million people die and were shamed into feeding children by a footballer are the ones who are planning it.

I’m not just saying this because of our situation with the takeover either. The FA are only a few years out from trying to sell Wembley so that they could give the money to grassroots football like they should have done from the start. They have taken no control over football. Whilst every other nation is taking control and providing academies for young people to play, these fuckers are getting a chocolate company to do it under sponsorship whilst charging people to use the facilities.

Every other country is training officials and coaches free of cost, these guys are asking for people to pay for expensive courses.

 

The EFL took action which allowed and facilitated in Bury and Macclesfield going bust, whilst allowing Bolton at the same time to survive because they are a bigger name. They allowed Charlton be owned by a guy who asset stripped the club. Blackpool be owned by convicted rapist, gangster, and asset stripper. Wigan to be bought out by a man who they knew was going to place them into administration for a bet, then gave them the points deduction so he won the bet and they got relegated. They teamed up with the top 6 clubs that aren’t even in their football pyramid to sell out their own member clubs and the whole of football for the money they were already owed because the chairman is a Liverpool fan.

 

The Premier League were involved in the discussions to sell out football for the top 6 without the others being invited to or aware of the discussions. We also reasonably suspect they knew about the ESL proposals as well. The head of the organisation was interviewed by the top 6 clubs and no one else. His right hand man is heavily involved with a broadcaster, nearly bankrupted a bank, in doing so he almost single handedly started the global recession of the late 2000’s, and is now in charge of another bank who have just become under investigation for their fraud prevention management.

 

Previous referees have came out and claimed that they are instructed to give an advantage to the bigger clubs and pretty much admitted to a form of match fixing in the process. Every supporter of the non top 6 clubs, and before that top 4 clubs have known this since the Premier League started. Now they have even came out and said that they don’t want smaller teams like Leicester winning the league.

With us we are prevented from having a takeover which would help our club and bring much needed investment into our region because the top 6 don’t want the competition, and Hoffman wants a bit more money from BeIN and his Qatari pay masters who have been proven to be corrupt, and bought the World Cup bid through bribery and corruption.

 

The government should just nationalise the football authorities. Place wage/spending caps to turnover ratio of clubs. Introduce affordable ticketing. Introduce an affordable streaming platform. Prevent teams from the far North travelling to the South Coast or visa versa on a Monday night or boxing when it’s hard to get home and theirs likely no public transport. Give more money to grassroots. Offer coaching and match official courses free of charge. Open up academies that they run in each region and offer more affordable football playing facilities. Give fans some sort of board like control. Allow them to kick out owners and boards who run clubs poorly and ban anyone with criminal conviction from being in control of a club.

 

It’s honestly not fucking hard and should be the bare minimum.

 

 

Edited August 8, 2021 by Stifler

[leffe186]

15 hours ago, Stifler said:

…

 

The government should just nationalise the football authorities. Place wage/spending caps to turnover ratio of clubs. Introduce affordable ticketing. Introduce an affordable streaming platform. Prevent teams from the far North travelling to the South Coast or visa versa on a Monday night or boxing when it’s hard to get home and theirs likely no public transport. Give more money to grassroots. Offer coaching and match official courses free of charge. Open up academies that they run in each region and offer more affordable football playing facilities. Give fans some sort of board like control. Allow them to kick out owners and boards who run clubs poorly and ban anyone with criminal conviction from being in control of a club.

 

It’s honestly not fucking hard and should be the bare minimum.

 

 

 

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that would actually be really fucking hard.

[nbthree3]

 

[gjohnson]

6 hours ago, leffe186 said:

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that would actually be really fucking hard.

Try impossible.

 

As some very rich would possibly stand to lose money, many lawyers would appear like flies round a cow pat and tie it up in court forever. 

 

Hell, look hard enough and there's still a fair few making money trying to overturn the Bosman ruling

 

 

[Consortium of one]

1 hour ago, nbthree3 said:

 

Keith is into this now, right?

[nbthree3]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/uefa-plans-salary-cap-and-luxury-tax-for-teams-who-breach-it-5vrwf8cm7

 

"Under the planned system, clubs in European competition would be limited to spending a fixed percentage of their revenue — possibly 70 per cent — on salaries. Any clubs breaching the cap would have to pay a luxury tax, under which the equivalent or more of any overspend would go into a pot to be redistributed."

[Robster]

Re-distributed as prize money in the CL no doubt.

[robbo_11]

 

Very murky. Nice mention of fun88 in among the numerous companies involved. It isn't just the Premier League that are not upholding the values expected, but clubs need the money and not enough questions asked. Note about Burnley is really interesting given the value is almost all of the turnover, although not sure if that is post takeover from ALK Capital.

[ikri]

1 hour ago, nbthree3 said:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/uefa-plans-salary-cap-and-luxury-tax-for-teams-who-breach-it-5vrwf8cm7

 

"Under the planned system, clubs in European competition would be limited to spending a fixed percentage of their revenue — possibly 70 per cent — on salaries. Any clubs breaching the cap would have to pay a luxury tax, under which the equivalent or more of any overspend would go into a pot to be redistributed."

 

Utterly meaningless when the state-owned clubs can just arrange for a new half-time orange sponsor to bump their revenue enough to meet any cap.

[Lazarus]

2 hours ago, nbthree3 said:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/uefa-plans-salary-cap-and-luxury-tax-for-teams-who-breach-it-5vrwf8cm7

 

"Under the planned system, clubs in European competition would be limited to spending a fixed percentage of their revenue — possibly 70 per cent — on salaries. Any clubs breaching the cap would have to pay a luxury tax, under which the equivalent or more of any overspend would go into a pot to be redistributed."

 

I take it this is what the ESL clubs have negotiated as FFP is too restrictive?

[robbo_11]

 

Welcome back to the 'Heart of Football' membership to the clubs that tried to takeover...https://thesuperleague.com/index.html they can save on the domain when the 'new Champions League' seems really familiar!

[ToonArmy1892]

Fuck the lot of them.

[Raconteur]

So everyone except Barca, Juve and Real Madrid is forgiven?

[Decky]

What are Barca, Madrid and Juventus hoping to even do with the Super League when they can't get anyone to join it? Certainly not anyone decent it seems. Its absolutely laughable too that UEFA have allowed those 3 clubs into the CL this season. All three should be told to fuck off until they bin the SL off. 

[Ben]

 

[Lazarus]

[Guest neesy111]

Shambles.

[Superior Acuña]

[Kimbo]

I’m happy to just sit back and enjoy the show with regards to this power struggle. We have nothing to lose.

[Consortium of one]

i wished they would go and play in their own private sandbox.  Then they could find out exactly how self serving and short sighted it was.  Would have loved to have seen them ask back into their respective leagues 5-6 years down the road.