....... something is done to help EFL and all 'non league' clubs. Whether it be the Government, Premier league or whoever something must be done to avert changing our national game forever. It just doesn't sit right the club like Chelsea, I could choose other clubs, can spend north of £200million in the last window and see other clubs and their communities go to the wall. Paulton, Yeovil or even Bristol Rovers are as important to the very fabric of football as Manchester United.
I still remember when we were down and almost out in 1982, the 'blessed ones' tried to buy Ashton Gate on the cheap for £5ook, they didn't give us any offers of help back then, I wish them everything they wish us. Yeovil,Paulton, Dorchester, WSM anytime.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the gas, along with many other clubs, go under if something isn’t done to help them. I dislike them intensely mainly because of how they tried to do us over when we were at our lowest point. I do however genuinely feel for the game in general and feel somehow something should be done to help. There should be a clause though that they aren’t included in anything designed to save lower league clubs.
The likes of the National League plus the North and South tiers under it are struggling badly. The National League is due to restart on Saturday but that was on the proviso that some spectators would be allowed. Now that's been scuppered too so not sure if they will kick off or not. Heard this morning that the Highland League in Scotland won't be restarting until November 28th at the very earliest and they were one of the first to end their season. There is some debate as to whether the Premier League should help out L1/L2 and beyond, but a pundit pointed out that if there were a string of restaurants on a High St and one was successful and three were about to go tits up, would the 3 that were failing expect help from the successful one ? The answer of course was no. Not a perfect comparison to football I know but it made me think that there is probably no obligation from the Prem to help anyone but themselves and at the end of the day it could well be the survival of the fittest and they actually have the biggest outgoings and only Sky/BT revenue coming in with no paying fans. It's a terrible state of affairs whichever way you look at it and that's without the issues facing travel, tourism, hospitality and everything else.
Angelic, restaurants are like you say, not a perfect comparison. Football, like it or not, is on a different level with fans all over the country. You, nor I, could support anyone other than City but restaurants are 2 a penny. There isn't one politician and probably most wives who get why we support our club, some travel the length and breadth of the country just to watch 90 minutes of quite often turgid rubbish. I really believe the Premiership should count their blessings and support clubs up and down the land. It'll be for 1 season only, the vaccine will be here next summer. Is it that much to ask ?
Quite agree, and you wouldn't have thought that it would be too much to ask, but the Premier League is full of greedy clubs supporting greedy players and even greedier agents all of who are feeling the pinch with multi-millionaire players having to take pay cuts and wealthy clubs laying off admin staff and tea ladies. So in theory it would of course be nice to see British football come together as a family in this time of need and uncertainty, but will it happen ? I wouldn't bet on it and even if it does, it won't be done willingly.
It's going to be a tough time for football - while the money has flooded in and the industry has swelled alongside it, there have never been any significant controls put in for if the opposite happens. With the nature of football contracts going on for years, it's not an industry that lends itself to being able to scale down easily. ITV Digital should have been a warning sign back in the day but if anything the income has just grown and grown since. It'll never happen, but there should be some sort of process to ensure that cash is kept back to allow a club to run for X number of months in the event of a major loss of revenue. Whether that's through holding cash reserves, or even making player contracts reduce to 20% temporarily if you're earning a 7-figure salary, something like that, I'm not sure. It's not really feasible at all I know but I'm not sure where we go with this. The EFL have shown themselves to be useless even during the good times with their fit and proper test. I just hope we don't lose too many clubs from this.
Any business that is not able to generate sufficient, or perhaps any revenue for any length of time, is going to be at serious risk of going under and staying there, and football clubs are no different. The amount of TV revenue given to clubs outside the Prem dwindles significantly the further down the pyramid you go. Personally I've always been slightly in awe of how the tiny football league teams like Macclesfield (until the end of last season) ever survived on gates for league matches of around 1,800 people. There are far better supported teams in the National League with the likes of Notts County and Stockport being there. And yes, the EFL are about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.
There is a good argument the PL should help lower league clubs in these difficult times as they obviously have enough money to spend on buying players despite having used the furlough scheme to pay many non playing roles. However the lower league clubs main source of income is gate receipts, and food/drink purchases and it’s the government that is outlawing them from earning money in this way, so the government should take responsibility too.
Surely the same thinking should go for my local grocery shop, perhaps Sainsburys or Tescos could bale them out .
And that's sort of where the restaurant comparison came in. Yes it would be the right thing to do for the PL to help out, but will that be enough to see some action and a help package ?
you need to ask ALDI .. THEY ARE PLANNING A FURTHER 100 stores … being small and compact will decimate smaller corner shops and upgrading a further 100 shops something like a £1bn investment plan which also includes on line delivery!
And the likes of Tesco are already on the back foot and have been for some considerable time. Unfortunately they've also cut their range of products and brands just to try and price match Aldi. Whist cheap shopping is good for most peoples household budgets, it harms UK farmers and other producers who are forced to accept extremely low prices for their goods from the supermarkets, and in Tesco's case the result is actually less quality and just more quantity. When I was there on Monday, Tesco staff had to stop a guy at the checkout who wanted to buy 5 x 3 litre containers of cooking oil and told him he could only have 3. What is the matter with people ? There are already gaps appearing in the toilet roll, dried pasta, and bleach areas and we don't even have it bad here ffs.
I got stopped in Carlisle Tesco a few years ago for buying 10 … allowed me after I explained IT WAS FOR A PIG ROAST ….not. CARLISLE is 280 miles my doblo used to get 10 miles to the litre and ducato 6.5miles to the litre .. on diesel of course....
I don't see it as the responsibility of the Premier League clubs to bail out the smaller clubs, to be honest. Why isn't the pressure on Sky/BT Sport to give a greater share of the TV money to the lower leagues? This is where the financial inequality is during a lockout of fans. I haven't seen anyone getting on their case. In doing this, it will effectively be the Premier League clubs giving to them, as it will reduce their slice of the pie. No one is asking Amazon to pay the costs of the small retailers out of business as nobody could get tot he shops, do they!
It's sad although it has been inevitable for some time. They've been wound up for owing £500k or around 2-3 weeks wages to someone like Raheem Sterling, which brings it all home just what polar opposites there are between the top and the bottom of the English football pyramid !
