I know a certain person that will be very disappointed with this decision and will now want them sacked !
468 goals is very impressive. But it also says a lot about La Liga. Shearer and Rooney might have scored that many each (or more) if they'd spent their whole careers playing in Spain, for one of the top Clubs.
The lack of effort or interest of social media platforms in stopping trolling of all kinds, including racist abuse, is unacceptable. THEY are giving sad sick trolls the means to spread their poison to millions. THEY should stop it happening, or be liable for all damages and reparations related to it. Fbook, Twatter and all the others should be prosecuted for every racist rant that gets posted on their platforms. Unless those things are instantly removed every time, and the posters shopped to the rozzers.
Parachute money itself is a symptom of the inequality the PL has created in English football. A prime example of the Premier League acting against the principle of competition, and undermining the football Pyramid. The best financial outcome for the Premier League is that all 3 relegated Clubs are promoted straight back again the following season. The money it saves if this happens is then shared out to the 20 "elite" PL clubs. So the PL pays the 20 Clubs more if clubs that are relegated always return after just one season out. So much for the PL helping the rest of English football. If that parachute money was re-assigned to the EFL or to the Non-league tiers, it would do many times more good than it does just being added to the bumper TV money the elite 20 Clubs already get. The Parachute money from 3 Clubs over 2 seasons probably adds up to around £100 million. Even if you spread that out over every Club in tiers 3 to 8, it would still be about £400,000 per Club. Imagine what a difference that kind of money would make to a Club struggling in a regional tier 8 league. Even if that payment was less in some seasons (or does not come at all, in seasons where no relegated PL clubs are promoted again immediately). Even if only 1 relegated PL Club goes straight back up in a season, the 'saved' parachute money could equal a windfall of maybe £100,000 for every Club in tiers 3 to 8 the following season. That money could pay for essential repairs or upgrades to buildings or facilities, running costs etc. It could make a massive difference. And there could be safeguards put in place to ensure it does not go straight into the back pockets of dodgy owners, or get splurged on a player the Club could not otherwise afford to buy or pay. That money could mean that small non-league Clubs have a chance to better themselves, and improve the quality and opportunities of non-league football. More jobs. Better grounds. More fans going to games. Truly, strengthening the foundations of the English Football Pyramid. But instead, it just gets spread around the 20 Elite Clubs. Having a system where the snouts already in the trough all get more if relegated teams always bounce straight back is not much better than having a Closed League with no relegation at all. Practices like this only make the gulf between the PL and the EFL leagues even wider. And that - in effect - is gradually making the Premier League a de facto Closed competition. An English Super League. This recent furore around the European Super League has perhaps convinced the Premier League money men that their product is universally loved by all football fans in this country. Certainly the propaganda coming from Sky has been as pro-PL as it has been anti-ESL. But the love that many fans have for English Football and its traditions does NOT include adoration for the mega-wealthy Premier League. The PL behaves as if it is the be-all and end-all of English Football. From the fawning coverage they get on Sky, you'd think Football was invented in 1992, and that all the other leagues are of no interest to anybody. The way they see it, the English football Pyramid exists only to serve them, and it is little more than a nuisance - ever more so the lower down it you go. The PL sh*ts on the EFL and non-league football, offering it just a few scraps off its table. Then pretends to be loved by all football fans as the Greatest League in the World. Wrapping itself in the cloak of outrage at the ESL, as if it is the good guy. This "fan led" review of English Football the Government is conducting will expose the truth - IF it is a real exercise. I strongly suspect that in fact it will be a pro-Premier League whitewash. Nothing will change regarding ownership of PL Clubs. Hey ho. Still plenty of good things to enjoy about English football
By the way, I thought it was good to see some fans back inside Wembley for the Cariboo Cup Final (shame it was between two of the dirty half-dozen) But I was not pleased to see the fans had been told to wear masks for the whole game. That put a big damper on whatever atmosphere they might otherwise have created. If they say fans returning to the Valley in August will have to wear masks during the match, I won't be going. Folks can choose to wear them by all means. But it should not be compulsory.
Does anyone still believe that the so-called "trickle-down effect" actually works? It's fine in theory, but there are too many ways for the richest of the rich to preserve their huge wealth. "You cant make the poor richer by making the rich poorer" was a slogan in the 80's and 90's which was often trotted ahrt, and still seems to have a foothold in our way of thinking.
I've always thought the 'trickle down' theory is a patronising insult by the Haves to the Have-nots. In all its forms, not just in football. The complacent, uncaring notion that if you have a big enough community of ultra-rich fat cats making themselves ever wealthier, that everybody else in society is automatically going to be better off as well. And the even more complacent argument that there is no better way to distribute wealth in a society than 'trickle-down'. It's a Big Lie. Always has been.
Being interested in politics from an early age, I went to see Enoch Powell speaking in Kilmarnock in the 1964 Election campaign. He spoke for 30 minutes without notes, explaining very eloquently without notes why he believed that the trickle down effect worked for everyone's benefit. He was very convincing, but times have changed since then. There was not the same exodus to tax havens for the richest, they had to pay their taxes. In fact there was a cross-party consensus pre-1979 that if you needed more money for public services you raised taxes. Whatever the rate of tax people are always going to moan about it, but now there is the chance to do something abahrt it for some.
