Many of us are sceptical that UEFA's soon-to-apply Financial Fair Play rules will make any real difference. But the CEO of one of the Premier League's most financially sensible clubs -- Arsenal -- believes that they will make a difference, and that things are definitely going to improve, particularly because, like the Football League, the Premier League is moving towards introducing similar rules of its own. If you are interested, you can read the text of a recent Gazidis interview with Telegraph correspondent Jeremy Wilson at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/9541112/Arsenal-chief-executive-Ivan-Gazidis-on-why-he-expects-manager-Arsene-Wenger-to-lead-the-club-into-a-new-era.html The interview deals with more than just FFP, and there is a lot in it that supporters everywhere would do well to digest. Two comments to illustrate: Regarding criticism of the Arsenal board and the club's refusal to pay huge transfer fees and vastly inflated wages to retain players, however good: "Our board gets much maligned along the way, but what they don't do is treat the football club as a popularity contest." and "You go through the transfer window and there is a near hysterical environment created where the only measure of potential and success is how much a club spends on transfer fees. I don't want to say that's not relevant, it's one of the relevant factors in how a club can succeed. But a club's success is far more complicated and multilayered than how much you spend on transfer fees in a transfer window." Regarding the spiralling spending and resultant risk taking with the very existence of clubs: "What's the end game in just simply seeing ever increasing, spiralling spending. Many owners are saying, how can I stay involved? Owners are also finding that they cant find good custodians for their football club to come in. Who would want to get involved in an environment when you are going to have compete and, along the way, probably be vilified. It's not the most attractive proposition. At the end of the day I think I would rather be buying a season ticket. I do think the way football is moving, towards an environment in which you don't have to lose enormous amounts of money, where you can break even, means that we are more likely to have more local owners who can be involved [and] more interest from good ownership from around the world. I think in the longer term that will mean better ownership, more responsible ownership for football clubs. I think fans of the game will benefit from that environment. It's a really healthy development."
This guy seems to talk sense. Haven't got time to read to the article just yet as I've now got to deal with my SU who are screwing over some of us students and effectively stealing from the government/us students. But I fully intend to read this this. Cheers Robbie!
Bloody Students But in all seriousness, which students union are you talking about? I used to work for a Students Union and I still work within Higher Education sport and this might actually be something I know/need to know about...
I think wonky is probably referring to this: http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/172687-We-are-benefitting-from-the-Olympics-(OT)
Government gave fencing society money for equipment and coaching. Students Union took most of the money to pay off their debt. Bit unfair for us students as it's limiting the number of sessions with a coach we can get and what equipment we can get.
Bloody hell, this sounds all too familiar.... My job last year was at a students Union looking after clubs and societies (including budgeting etc.) and I had to do something similar with the athletics club (I hope we're not talking about the same SU??) The trouble with University clubs is that you can have a brilliant chairman who runs a tight ship is engaging and develops the club and then graduates.. and the next guy is a tool, does nothing and runs up debts and the club into the ground. So my question would be is the money they are taking to pay off debt of the club or the SU?.. Like I said I had to do something similar with the athletics club at the SU as they ran up an accommodation bill of 6K in a year which then tore in to their budget for the following year... leaving them a bit shafted for that academic year but ultimately still afloat. Also my new job is working for a National Governing Body of Sport who funds University clubs of that sport (Similar to how Fencing are funding you) so I am looking at it from both sides of the fence (pardon the pun) and each institution should have some service level agreement in place to ring fence that money so that it can only be used to benefit the club in raising participation and not on team transport costs or for any other club etc.. I hope that helps a little and I hope it all works out as University clubs are far more important that Universities give them credit and the there are quite a few barriers for participation in fencing and costs being quite a main one so I hope something can be worked out. Out of interest which University is this? As I'm hoping it's not the one I worked at or one that I am currently working with....
The fencing club is new as of February and the committee are excellent, just a bit gutless when sorting this issue out. The money they are taking is to pay off the debt of the SU. The SU appears to have a lot of debt and is not as well established as other SUs. This resulted in the SU academy, the nightclub, to be be closed down. I think need to find a way of seeing the invoice of the grant to establish what the money was actually given for, to see if the SU appropriated the money fairly or not. As the fencing cclub is new and we have a good committee our funding is under control at the moment and most of what has happened is quite positive. The university is ARU in Cambridge. Thanks for your help. Hopefully I will be able to look into it today.
Just had a brief chat with one of the committee members. They are as pissed off as I am, understandably! However, they fear that if a complaint was made that we would lose funding elsewhere. Are you aware if a committee member is allowed to see information of grants for their sports club from their SU! Thanks for your help!
Bugger me, I applied for a job there in the summer as well! It seemed like a bit of a tin pot type of organisation. The secretary from your committee (as well as the chair) are well within their rights to have access to view the accounts so you can tell where the money was (originally) payed in too. It's also worth sitting and having a chat with your Student Activities Co-ordinator (which was nearly me -bloody glad it's not though) and I believe she's called Alexis (I know of her and she seems alright) so you can find out the nature of the funding and what the details set out by British fencing were and ask to see any correspondence between British Fencing and the SU, so that you can personally contact British fencing yourself if you have any issues with where the money has gone. It may be worth speaking to your 'Experience Officer' (I think that's what they're called at ARU) who is a former student and is payed to do very little but represent the student clubs and Societies and sit in meetings etc. so that might be the next person to speak too after the Student Activities Coordinator Also you shouldn't lose any funding for complaining (a complaint should be made to the Experience officer if anyone) and I would personally lodge it as a 'concern' if you don't get the answers you want when you speak to Alexis - Hope that helps
Thanks! That's excellent! Appreciate it! Just need to convince the fencing club president, secretary and treasurer to do what you mentioned! Doubt the SU will let me see anything as a standard member.
OK, own up. Is this you, wonky, or is it King_of_Portaloo_Road? http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news..._norwich_to_help_her_keep_competing_1_1652418
No problem wonky. Sounds as if your SU is behaving much like the corrupt government of a third world country siphoning off overseas aid funds. The terms on which the grants are given should be in the public domain and therefore accessible; it could be that your club had to have a certain amount of funding guaranteed by the SU in order to qualify for the grant, in which case the SU would be in breach of the terms and conditions if it tried to remove those funds and just leave you with the grant. You certainly shouldn't let things drop. I wouldn't think the powers that be at URC would be less than impressed as well if there's a sniff of misappropriation of public funds.
Certainly not me, never been/done (whatever the adjective is) fencing and probably never will, my experience of the Fencing club at the University I went too and the one I worked at was that they were a bit flaky and some quite up their own arse (No offence Wonky I know you're not all like that there are some genuine good people involved in Sports like fencing) it was just the more vocal were the ones that competed at a high level and had names like Quentin and Tarquin etc. and didn't like fencing in the sports hall as the floor needed to be swept thoroughly (But of course they were not offering to sweep it themselves) I often took/take an interest in the less mainstream sports as they are so under represented throughout our lives, a radio 5 show (My boss and some of my colleagues were on it) went over the topic of how the Olympics opened so many doors to new sports but as soon as the football season started it's 'business as usual' on all the newspapers and TV channels as there is blanket coverage of football and the sports we fell in love with over the summer are simply forgotten. In fact my job at the moment is to try and forge a (non Mainstream) sport into Further and Higher Education but it's difficult because it's not a sport that children are exposed too in PE curriculum and therefore the majority of University clubs are made up of international students as the sport is huge worldwide... Just not in the U.K. instead we play Football & Rugby (sometimes Badminton & Basketball) in the Winter and Cricket & Tennis in the summer (If you're posh you play Hockey) and there are no realistic alternatives within school education so we simply aren't as knowledgeable, experienced and skilled as our European counterparts in so so many sports
Too true. And not just when it comes to sports, sad to say. At this rate we'll soon be able to reconstruct wonky's lecture timetable from the hours when he never posts! No skiving now wonky!
Back on topic, reason to be cheerful, I got a pay rise today ...... reason not to be cheerful, gas and leccy prices going up 8% tomorrow, so much for the bloody pay rise ..
