Just seen this in the B.B.C. websight. At first I thought it was a joke but then saw that 4-5 of our Premiership clubs are owned by people who actually want to scrap relegation from the Premiership - in all there are 10 Premiership clubs under foreign ownership. My questions are: What are the legal definitions of 'Club Status' and do clubs like Chelsea, Man.City etc. still qualify under this description ? In Germany the definition of 'Verein Status' appears to have a much more stringent meaning ensuring that all but one German club are in German hands. In some cases as in Hamburg SV. the clubs are partly state funded. My second question is this, if these vultures are successfull in changing the competitive nature of the English game in this way then how should the rest of the league respond ?
It all sounds like they are heading the way of a Super League where they write the rules and if your name is not on the list your not coming in! As you say it is only the chosen few that are in foreign ownership, the bread and butter clubs should tell them to keep in line but as usual money talks. This could go either way, I would like to be more vague but I can't!
Would like to think that, but this is no time to be an ostrich! Personally, I don't care about the EPL & wouldn't want us to be promoted there again. But I'd be a lot happier if the 'big clubs' who agree with this idea were to b*gger off and play in Europe or wherever else they are welcome. Always with the proviso that they can't access FL players of course Not to mention no invitation to International football!
I'm not sure they would be welcome in Europe, because all but a small handfull of clubs know that their futures lie in their respective countries. Besides which, the issue of foreign ownership is not such a problem in other European countries - so a club like Bayern Munich know that any move to a European super league would automatically jeopardise their place in the Bundesliga and their supporters would leave in droves if that happened. My problem is not foreign ownership as such but rather that all of them seem to come from non traditional footballing countries ie. from America, Arab Countries the far East or the Russian Mafia and therefore have no real idea of the strong roots between Club, area and traditional fan base which exist here or in more traditional footballing nations such as Germany or Italy. Why do other European countries seem to be better able to protect themselves against this sort of predatory capital ?
Fingers crossed it goes that way and straight to a European Super League with the big games being played in Dubai, Singapore, Beijing, Moscow etc. They will all chase the TV money around the world...good effin' riddance!
I'm all in favour of stopping relegation from the Premiership - but at the end of the very next season that Watford manage to get into the Premiership. We could have done with such a rule in 2000 or 2006.
The FA has a veto. If the government makes it a criminal offense to play a professional football match without the authorisation of the FA, the threat of a breakaway is zero.
It's unlikely this will ever happen, but with this being muted, as well as the Liverpool guy stating they want to negotiate their own deals, i can see a European 'Super' league on the horizon - and would love Sky to sod off with them. For me, this would be perfect. Get rid of the dominant clubs, and this will give the FA the opportunity to start all over again! I'd like them to bring in new rules, such as wage caps, maximum transfer fees, money split more evenly across the divisions, more emphasis on home-grown/academy players, and more accountablity for clubs with huge losses/debts. Try and make it a more even playing field, and make teams earn their place rather than buy it Obviously this will never happen as the FA are all codgers with no balls, but the structure needs a serious rethink as teams have to gamble on their future just to try and get to the top league, and then to try and stay there!
Well said Kev. When i first heard about the super league i didn't like the idea one bit. But the more i hear about it, the more it seems like the best way to go. And if the FA had the guts, a shake up for the rest of us with a bunch of new rules seems a very sensible option.
Well, if I'm honest, I'm just getting a bit fed up of football at the moment (not Watford, just in general). It's becoming more and more about the money, and the haves and have-nots. We have some great youngsters at the club but feel the need to play the older, experienced players just to survive as relegation would be so costly to us. If it was less about money and more about developing players, people wouldn't mind us getting relegated while we still developing our own players - but then if all clubs had to develop their own, we would be far more competitive anyway! I think clubs Academys should have more protection, such as a youth player cannot leave the club until he is 21 (unless the club lets him go). I also think transfer fees should be abolished, but if a club does produce a player, they get a 'development' fee, but only if that player has gone through the academy, for maybe 2/3 years, or in trade with another player . I actually think the NFL has got it right with their draft system, the 'lesser' teams getting first pick on new players - but this wouldn't really work as it would steal players from club's academies, but say if there was also a centralised National Academy that England's coaches worked with who weren't affiliated with individual clubs, but maybe played against club Academies.
With you on the last post Kev! also with you on let the big boys bugger off on a super league ,make sure they know there is no going back! Then use the opportunity to shake up and reorganise the rest ! In the old days you had div3 s and div3n which would save some travelling costs! Would make the FA cup regain some of its status! as for the founder members of a super league across europe where big clubs are state funded, can countries like spain continue to afford to bank roll Barcelona and Real Madrid,can italy continue to subsidise Juventus and the Milan Teams! If the Eurozone goes bust then this superleague would lose a lot of money and some "big clubs"might get their fingers burnt!
Wigan chairman Dave Whelan insists he would pull his team out of the Premier League if promotion and relegation was scrapped in the English top flight. "It's the most stupid suggestion I've ever heard in my life," Whelan said. "If it was to happen I would resign Wigan from the Premier League and go back and play in the Football League. It would ruin and kill English football." what a top man!
This idea will never take off as long as the FA have the right to veto such a proposal. The problem is that soon it may come the case that there are more then 20 clubs who you could consider as having considerable financial clout, thus making the whole idea unworkable in that certain clubs and owners would miss out. From a personal perspective, the removal of relelgation would destroy the excitement of the Premier League for me. Instead of one team getting the title, 3 go down so more excitement is guranteed. How many final-day dramas have occurred in relegation as opposed to the Premier League? RE The European Super League. 10 years ago it was vaguely possible with an establish elite. However, with a change in the power of European football with the emergance of Paris SG, Malaga and Manchester City (and more guranteed to come) it simply won't happen.
World football already has a fairly dim view of how the EPL is run. Can't imagine UEFA and FIFA allowing this sort of thing. If they do it anyway then it really will be NFL style and pretty much confined to this country. How many players would the teams attract without European football and potentially international football. That said, many footballers could care less about actual honours in the game so who knows.
Although the F.A. have the right to veto such a proposal I still find it unsettling that the owners of 4-5 unnamed clubs support such an idea (and why are they unnamed ?) - what security do we have that this 4-5 cannot become 10-11 with the present lack of regulations regarding the buying and selling of football clubs ? I can only presume that we are talking about clubs like Blackburn or Fulham here who, having climbed the ladder themselves have owners who want to protect their investments by knocking the ladder away again. We need stricter regulations in the future to make sure that these types of speculators don`t find it so easy to buy up our national sport. On the subject of a future European Super League filled only with a few English, Spanish and Italian clubs (Bayern Munich have rejected the idea) possibly totalling no more than about 9-10 clubs. It would lack any real international interest - spectators would become bored with seeing the same teams against each other every week - so, let them try and a club like Liverpool would very soon realize that they need Everton more than they need Real Madrid
Yes, and who would be able to afford to attend away games on a regular basis? The atmosphere at matches would surely suffer, probably making them a less attractive proposition for tv viewing. What am I saying? - let them go ahead and do it!!
