Is Football about to cross the Rubicon?
With Man City now suing the PL, it feels to me as if we are at a point of massive division at the top of the game, and something may have to give.
Even if City are punished by relegation, they will get back in the PL and pull the same nonsense. It does have me wondering if the best option is for Arsenal, Man United and Liverpool to breakaway and form their own top flight with promotion/relegation to the EFL, as they are still much bigger clubs than Man City. Most clubs would want to join them, and perhaps the new league could at least make a tiny stab at sustainability rules? That would leave the likes of Man City, Chelsea and Newcastle to either stay in a zombie PL shorn of it's big names, or perhaps be given allowance to join a Euro league with the likes of PSG, Barcelona, and Madrid.
All a bit melodramatic, I know, but I personally think the next few years are going to be seismic for the game.
Comments
If City did get away with a relative slap on the wrist it could definitely lead to a breakaway.
It feels a bit like no-one cared about City's conduct when it was only a couple of giant clubs affected, but now others are starting to realise that a one off champions league or Europe place is that much less likely. Not to mention watching them hoover up most of the pots.
Surely just a pre-emptive strike that they can climb down from in exchange for some weak justice. Notable Newcastle who also want to be able to spend whatever they like didn't join their action apparently despite being asked. They agreed to the rules and knowingly bent and broke them , too late now to say it's all unfair.
Regarding any breakaway the oil barons need to be playing Liverpool, Utd etc for any legitimacy and fan £ to come in. See why Monaco and Silverstone are still tolerated in F1.
Sounds like someone preferred it when Man Utd were buying everyone's best players and winning the league every season
Personally, though I have never been a fan of any PL club, I think the dominance of the red clubs was more acceptable (despite the fact I can never quite warm to Liverpool), as they are all massive clubs who can spend money because they have so many fans and can attract realistic sponsorship deals as a result. So the dominance felt more "earned", in a sense. Man City, Newcastle and Chelsea are more products of spending money far beyond the limits of the club's actual size, and it all feels artificial as a result. That is before we get to the actual issue of state-owned clubs and sports washing.
As a neutral, any of the three red clubs playing each other will always feel like a bigger game to me than Man City and Chelsea being involved. Obviously others may feel different, but to me, Man City's name on a trophy feels like the football equivalent of the sheet on a legal document that says "This page intentionally left blank".
Jack Walker ploughing money into his boyhood team, and Blackburn Rovers beating the mighty Man Utd to win the league was genuinely brilliant.
FFP means that can never happen again. I think if someone wants to give money to a club then they should not be prohibited from doing so (with the caveat that it should not be in the form of loans, and that they are obliged to fund the club for a X number of years should they decide they no longer want to be involved)
What really really shouldn't be allowed is what the Glazers did with their "leveraged buyout" (ie borrowing the money to buy the club but then piling that debt onto the club leaving them (the club) with eye-watering interest payments whilst they (the Glazers) walk away with astronomical dividends year in year, letting the stadium be run down to ruin and not spending a penny to fix/improve it etc etc
That what they did was allowed but what Jack Walker did wouldn't be I find completely staggering
Definitely agree on the Glazers!
Personally if the self-appointed big club want to f off to their elite super league they can. I don't watch Premier League so won't miss it. The cash is poisoning the top two leagues and where once the trap door was only at the highest level, not it is second tier too. I can't believe we will be much worse off. We should severe all ties with those clubs, so no more getting youth players on the cheap, you want our top 16 year old you are paying top dollar my old friend.
Its a cess pool of their own making and they can go and drown in it. Playing Juventus every 6 weeks will be amazing for them.
I’d be happy to put a tarrif on cash injections, sliding scale starting at 10% for six figure sums, 20% for £1-10m, up to 50% beyond that. Proceeds to go to govt fund for sporting infrastructure. Since the clubs stopped sharing gate receipts in the 80s it has been more and more about spending anyway, let’s just acknowledge that and create some benefit off the back of it.
Oh it’s not a cash injection it’s a loan. It’s not a cash injection we’ve purchased the image rights. It’s not a cash injection we’ve bought their training ground. Etc etc etc Bigger the rewards bigger the cheating.
You'll be saying that the 100s of "barber" shops that pop up all over the place and never seem to have anyone in are dodgy next.
Got a new barber shop near me, doing all the fancy eyebrow stuff, fades and other jazz, staff and clientele alike the sort that you will see in the supermarket paying with their mobile phones yet they only accept cash at the barbers. Doesn’t seem dodgy at all ;)
Maybe the 3 or 4 customers a week pay very very well for a fancy haircut.