The Premier League must put more of the £5.14bn raised from the sale of the domestic TV rights back into grassroots football and into reducing ticket prices, leading politicians say. Sky and BT Sport agreed a record deal for live rights for three seasons from 2016-17, a 70% increase on the current £3bn contract. Labour's shadow sports minister Clive Efford told BBC Radio 5 live it would be "nothing short of criminal" if the extra money was not invested into grassroots. Sports minister Helen Grant described the Premier League as "a great British success story" but said the TV deal should bring "increased benefits to clubs lower down the football pyramid"
Will the money roll down to grassroots and the Football League? This issue is one of the most emotive. The Premier League was very quick out of the blocks to say it will invest £168m in "facilities and good causes" and build 152 3G pitches. It will also point to the huge tax revenue from players' wages and argue that more than a sixth of its overall income is distributed beyond the 20 clubs. But the reality for Football League clubs is that only around 5% of the Premier League's income filters down to grassroots. All of those contributions should also be seen against the backdrop of Premier League clubs paying agents £115m between October 2013 and September 2014. FC United of Manchester, for instance, are attempting to raise money to fund their new stadium, which would be used as a community hub, centre for kids and youth club. That could be paid for with the amount of money Sky or BT is paying to broadcast one live match. One can only hope it does Nordic
I like your ideal Stu, by the way. I think the way forward would be associated clubs, feeder clubs and so on. The big clubs should be using competitive football a lot more than just solely relying on u-21's coaches to internally develop their players. If for example a talent such as Ravel Morrison or Paul Pogba is being brought through the academy at my club, the entire focus on the U-21 squad then centres around getting those two players up to scratch, using the other U-21's as pawns essentially. To get a repeat of 'the class of 92' I think football needs to revisit older methods of development, coincidentally still employed by teams in the lower leagues, with the work ethic 'Graft hard and get stuck in about them', instead of dreaming about which Ferrari they're going to own when they pass their test. What I'm saying is, big clubs should allocate this money internally and create a new branch within the club to help associated teams, rather than feeding it down through the leagues to be managed the wrong way. The funds could come from players being sold on by bigger clubs, with a proportion of the sale (minimum 25% for example) going to the team which helped develop the player. If they don't sell him, then after eg. 100 first team appearances said feeder club gets a pre-agreed fee. Your theories got me thinking and I accept there has to be a give, but it should be managed properly and certainly not by the FA.
The term grass roots is along way off what we both think it means Terry ,grass roots to me is amateur status not connected to the top leagues what so ever its the base of the pyramid not anywhere near the point of it.
I was talking about lower clubs in the football league. If we are talking about grass roots, then as far as I'm concerned, no amount of money will fix it. Kids did not fear being stabbed by other children, or snatched by *****philes when I was growing up. You had your mates who you'd play football with, it didn't involve sitting in a bedroom playing a kid in China at some stupid football 'game' it involved getting down the park and playing or playing headers n volley's against some old dear's house/garage door. This country is ****ed, it's naive to think that 'initiatives' funded by sky money will get the problem solved. The bigger clubs have to be proactive and offer an incentive for kids to want to get off their playstation, where they can feel safe and that's where I can see an idea growing. Watching all the sad old sacks from back in the day thinking they can put a few cones down in a community centre and find the next Bryan Robson, is quite frankly embarrassing.
For me the area of grass roots football that should be reformed is with the kids. Fa academy's ran through schools, collages and Uni style scholarships which coach football to talented kids twinned with a full academic education plan to keep the clubs off the kids too early and keep their head out the clouds. Then when they end the term they turn 19/20 years old conduct a draft where the pro teams can obtain them with the responsibly of aiding the player to finish their education of an alternative degree.
