Love Barnsley Hate Football.

That would be even worse. Teams would be winning the premiership by default from less competition, TV deals would be worth less, so the money trickling to the lower leagues would likely be much less too and they aren't enough as it is.

 

The other day you were saying folks shouldn't be judged just because they had been in prison and now here you are allowing the Premier League to try and blackmail their way through life and prevent free speech.

 

I honestly couldn't give a toss about money. It would make wages more realistic it would give the competition back it's sporting integrity. Teams who win the championship bow are doing so at least in part because the competition is stacked in their favour. Share the money that's left out. Bring back shared gate receipts.

Bring it on.

Crowds would dwindle in the European super League and they would end up letting people in for free ot would be like a football version of the Harlem globetrotters. Banned from national competitions that they dont take seriously anyway.

 

Bang on.

Man Utd v Barca to determine the top of the super league fair enough. However Porto v Club Brugge mid table ? be still my beating heart.

 

Be surprised if Club Brugge were invited to join. Anderlecht possibly from Belgium but doubtful they are big enough. It'd end up with Arsenal, Man City, Man Utd, maybe Liverpool, Spurs or Chelsea, Barca, Real Madrid, Juventus and Inter Milan, plus a couple of others with games played around the world.

 

Local rivalries keep football alive and passionate in this country. I reckon without them any UK clubs would eventually wither and die (in terms of support if not finance) those that don't go would still watch em on tele those that do would eventually go somewhere else the travelling would get knocked on the head first then the home games.

I just wish they would just piss off. You are right about Bruges though.

 

You'd have a point if football started in 1992, but I remember a time when the game looked after itself for what was known as "the greater good". It wasn't flawless by any means, in some ways the administration of the game was pretty amateurish, and clubs still went out of business.

But, gate receipts were shared (minus costs and a small levy to the Football League) in both league and cup games, it promoted a more even competition. Look at the club's that won the title, European trophies, or came very close - Nottingham Forest, Ipswich, Southampton, Derby, Aston Villa etc. Chelsea were a yo-yo club, as were Manchester City. The sands started to shift in the mid 80s when the big clubs lobbied and succeeded in gradually reducing shared receipts. Ironically, when the game had enough money coming in to help every club in the four divisions, when the Premier League founded itself, the authorities abandoned completely the mechanism for redistribution of wealth.

The Premier League was founded on principles of greed with little, if any, consultation with those outside of the Boardrooms. Not my words, but those of the England manager of the time, Graham Taylor. Premier League suits do not care what happens to the teams in the Football pyramid. And it's to the shame of Graham Kelly and others at the FA back in the early 90s that they didn't either. There's a collective discharge of responsibility between the PL, the FA and the Football League in my opinion, albeit the Football League were pretty much shat on.

I can't argue with clubs generating their own revenue via merchandising and such like, but it's morally repugnant for 80-90% of revenue generated from outside of the game, especially at the current scale, to go to 20 clubs. £41million went to an agent as part of the Pogba deal. How does that money help the game in the broader sense, the grass roots? It's completely lost to the game.

That's why I find your opinion a bit flippant, with all due respect, and completely get what Andy Holt means. I simply cannot look at football as a business, a transactional relationship. The game used to mean so much to so many people. There was a love, a passion, deep emotions, frustrations, all bundled into the package of supporting your football team. And there was also widespread hope. Hope of success, promotion, a cup run. Hope that was reset prior to the start of each season. Hope is dwindling for many. And when it's gone, to me, so has the game I used to love. The cause is bloody obvious.



Sent from my SM-T710 using Tapatalk

 

Accrington Chairman Andy Holt shows no regret for his original statement regarding the obscene fees paid to agents
and has apparently told the Premier League to please themselves when it comes to spending their millions.
His original criticism was over Pogbas agent Mino Raiola who trousering £41 million when his protege joined Manure and prompted a heated response from the PL who said that it supports all clubs in the EFL with solidarity and other miscellaneous payments.
The PL have said they are to write to Mr Holt to ask if he wishes the Premier League to go on supporting his and other clubs in the EFL.
He has stated on Twitter " I have not said anything illegal or improper took place. I did say that the Premier League should be ashamed about this largesse when the pyramid is so stretched outside the top tier.
The PL threatened to stop funding for EFL clubs. I class this as a threat too far. My response is that they can please themselves with their funds."
His stance is allegedly supported by Peterborough Chairman Darragh MacAnthony who has told the BBC
" Football is in crisis. The lower league is struggling and I'm not the only Chairman who feels like this."

 

I am a child of the 50’s and my first visits to Oakwell date from the early 60’s. In many minds, this is the golden age of football. There was a maximum wage for players and they were not allowed to leave a club, even at the end of their contract. Gate receipts were shared so that the rich clubs automatically supported the poor. It meant that the game was fairer, more equitable, or at least that is the trick that our memories play on us. The truth is that there was only a fraction of the money in the game that there is now.


I watched my football from my place on the terraces and beheld a game that was in trouble. The ground was covered for only the lucky few on 3 sides towards the back of the terracing. Those at the front, and everyone on the kop was open to the elements. We all got soaked when it rained. In fact, the kop was terraced only at the front. The rear was a hill of cinders that was occupied only rarely. Grounds cast only a passing nod towards health and safety. The loss of life at Hillsborough and Valley Parade were not the first, and large crowds carried the constant danger of crush injuries. There was no money in the game. There were no funds to bring our grounds up to 20th century standards, never mind 21st century standards.


Back in the 60’s, the demise of the business model of football was signposted when John Charles, Jimmy Greaves and Denis Law left England in order to seek better pay in Italy. It was the humble beginnings of the globalisation of football. An indication that the best players could seek fame and fortune around the world. An elbow in the ribs of the Football League which meant that they had to put their house in order or risk losing the soul of the game to foreign competition. They had to seek ways of increasing the money in the game. The Sky billions are simply the logical final step in that process. Of course, it did not have to lead to the formation of the Premier League and a less equitable division of the money, but if the best players in the world were going to play in England, the new money that was coming into the game had to be concentrated. The Premier League saw itself as being in competition for the world’s best players with the best leagues of other major footballing nations. It saw a global market for TV rights and once again it saw that it was in competition for those global TV rights with the best leagues of all other major football nations. The formation of the Premier League was a logical response to a global battle for not only the soul of the game, but also the long term viability of the game.


The Premier League is not a fair competition. The club that spends the most over a long period is likely to win it. The top of the league has become predictable. It is a closed shop that only the richest can join. But the fans seem willing to put up with a rigged competition, simply because they are happy for their club to be one of the chosen twenty. They are just happy to be there, even if being competitive is always going to be denied to them. It is just so much better than slumming it in the Football League, down amongst the dead beats and losers. It is an illusion, but it beats the alternative.


Of course, the Premier League has done untold damage to the Football League, and particularly the Championship. It has created vast inequality, even within the same league. Even greater inequality than that which operates within the Premier League. No longer can I dream about a seat at the top table if luck goes our way. It is beyond us, and we are forced to cut our cloth around mere survival and the inevitable descent back to the lower leagues at some future point in time. Not only are we forced to compete for talent in global markets, we are forced to compete in rigged home market, with almost every club at our level able to spend more than we can. It is grossly unfair but it could be solved if there was a will. We could cut off the link to the Premier League and have fixed maximum budgets for player wages to be decided annually by a democratic voting process, if there was a will. The problem is that there is no will, because every club wants to have its chance in the sunshine and every fan wants that appointment with destiny, and the way to get there is to spend more than your rivals over a long period. We are all greedy. We could settle for life beyond the bright lights, but every fan wants to see their club’s name in lights, and they are willing to mortgage the future for that chance. It is a deal that we have done with the devil. So do not blame Sky. Do not even blame the Premier League, because their decisions have all been logical and profit/market share driven. Blame only yourselves for wanting more than you can reasonably expect.

 

Spot on bud. I remember those halcyon days well. You walked down to the ground chatting to that days opposition fans
and it was not unusual to see players getting off public transport with their boots in a carrier bag and entering the ground.
I don't know if imagined it but every team seemed to have a star man and the games were usually very close.
Jimmy Hills tenure as PFA representative revolutionised the players pay structure and the rest as they say is history.
The game has unfortunately sold its soul. I was reading the other day that Man Utd could be weighing up a deal to take Griezmann from Atletico Madrid to Old Trafford for a fee of £150 million whilst paying him £300 k a week.!!!!
My immediate thought was how could my team ever hope to compete with that.?
Simple answer is we probably can't .