I'm not too sure to be honest, although either way that's a fortune of money to be playing around with in a division where almost every single club showed net debts in the tens of millions at the close of the last fiscal year (http://www.insidermedia.com/insider/national/146216-championship-club-club. Most striking stat of all is that total Championship debt broke the £1billion mark for the first time last season). The average wage bill seems to be around £30m per annum. So in essence, a relegated club will climb down to the Championship with enough money already to cover their wages for the year ahead without incurring much debt as long as they can maintain reasonable gate money (something that Blackburn found out the hard way); same goes for the following year and the year after that too - basically handing them 2-3 seasons to make a shot at returning to the the Big Time, which I'm sure you'll agree is generally more than enough to do so. The worry is that these 'parachute' payments will increase so drastically that the 15+ clubs in the Championship who are unlikely to achieve promotion as things stand already, will be almost permanently frozen out as the vast fiscal discrepancy effectively creates a two-tier system within the division: the top 6-8 'haves' who stumble across the PL for one lousy season of embarrassingly bad football but-who-gives-a-toss-now-we're-loaded, and the 15-18 'have nots' who never see the promised land and subsequently fall further and further into mountains of debt. I sincerely hope the FA are going through this new 2016-19 deal with a finecomb and a microscope suffering from OCD. If they don't, I fear that football in this country will become so top-heavy, that grassroots level will simply shrivel up and die a slow and painful death. If they had any sense, a portion of the TV money would be spread through the lower divisions in order to maintain their long-term health, on the basis of an understanding that the Premier League isn't particularly 'Premier' if the secondary and tertiary leagues cease to exist. Here's a detailed analysis of the TV deal while it's on my mind: http://www.totalsportek.com/money/premier-league-tv-rights-money-distribution/
It was a relegation six pointer when BT chose to show the fixture. Now it's as meaningless as it can get with 7 games still to go.
Both sides should take it as an opportunity to blood youngsters and try something different. I doubt either will, though.
I know it's April 1st, but... http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crim...rystal-palace-bald-eagle-mascot-a3213486.html
Pretty good. Took 80+ minutes to get a red card and given a standing ovation as he left the field. I guess when you are that far adrift, everything's relative.
Massive result for Norwich today. A colleague of mine was at the game and apparently Mitrovic was superb. We can pick him up for peanuts if they go down.
My Newcastle mates say he's a bit of an enigma. Brilliant occasionally and then utterly anonymous. Very card happy too. As you say though, if we can get him on the cheap it might be worth a risk, if Poch can drum some sense and consistency into him then he'd be an asset.
I really hope the refs haven't bought into the Leicester story, but I fear they might have. Which ref would want to be the one to give a major decision against them now? I think this might mean them being more amenable to penalty claims as well, for which we know they've had quite a lot more than other teams already. Not hopeful.
Title taking a huge step towards Leicester. They are showing no signs of them messing things up like toon did all those years ago.
Leicester must be the luckiest team alive. Nailed on pen and sending off for me and then score with there only shot
What's new then? None of that will be mentioned by the pundits afterward though. I thought the refs wouldn't be strong enough to go against them, but was hoping to be wrong.
Just got home from a nice day out and see the usual 1-0 to Leicester score and Saints being denied a nailed on penalty. It just isn't going to happen for us is it.
Another penalty appeal. Give Leicester credit though, they did have four shots on target which is quite a lot for them. Didn't get over 50% of the possession though, as usual.
