For the years 2014/15: 17 out of the top 30 world teams came from the premier league. Newcastle at no17 with 169.3 million revenue and Villa at no23 with 148.8. West Ham whilst still playing at Upton Park at no20. So have SKY and BT done a great job by massively increasing clubs incomes and showcasing them to the wider world (merchandising) or completely and utterly ruined our national game?
Ruined it. I think that football in England would be far better if the top six left for a European league.
We need a US football style model to prevent money always buying success. Irrespective of what Leicester did.
Both. Sky putting money into the game hasn't in itself ruined it but the misuse of the money put into the game and the financial mismanagement by pretty much all owners and boards as well as immoral leadership by the fact has.
I think that it is a bit more complex than has been suggested. When the major changes in football were being contemplated, English football was losing talent to other leagues outside Britain. If we stepped back to the way the game operated 30 years ago, the best players in Britain would be playing elsewhere and in England, we would be watching a second class game in dilapidated stadia. In fact, there might not be a game at all because the cost of bringing stadia into the modern era after Hillsborough would have just been too much for most football clubs without the trickle down of the money from Sky, and without the foreign investment seeking a Sky return on their investment. That is not to say that everything is OK. It definitely is not. The sport of football is now a business and the businessmen who run it are seeking a return on their investment. As a result, even though the money for Sky has gone through the roof, club's still want to screw their customer base. The ones who turn up week in and week out, whatever the weather and who were turning up before big business and big money got involved. Naturally, the fans who have spent a lifetime supporting their clubs are a tad unhappy about developments, and here lies the dichotomy. Big business became involved because of the potential returns on their investment. The fans became involved because it is their club in their town. In the middle we have the players. Now the players love the game, of that there is no doubt. But they also want as good a life as they can have after they retire, and that means money and that means that you have to follow the $. To summarise :- Sky are in it because they want to make money. The owners are in it because they want to make money. The players are in it because they want to make money. The fans are the only ones not in it to make money. They are in it because they love their team. Guess who is the vulnerable party in this. I am old, and I can remember when football was a game. I can remember when the 92 stuck together, when home attendances were shared, when one league did not go off on its own because it was not getting a big enough share of the pie. If the fans had stuck together and said no, we want a league that looks after one another, then greed would not have taken over. But they didn't, and they didn't because they were greedy as well. Look who is laughing now, and there is no way to put the genie back in the bottle.
To summarise :- Sky are in it because they want to make money. The owners are in it because they want to make money. The players are in it because they want to make money. The fans are the only ones not in it to make money. They are in it because they love their team. Guess who is the vulnerable party in this. I am old, and I can remember when football was a game. I can remember when the 92 stuck together, when home attendances were shared, when one league did not go off on its own because it was not getting a big enough share of the pie. If the fans had stuck together and said no, we want a league that looks after one another, then greed would not have taken over. But they didn't, and they didn't because they were greedy as well. Look who is laughing now, and there is no way to put the genie back in the bottle.[/QUOTE] Is this not a synopsis of poltics - The people making money are the tories and when attendances were shared these are the socialists?