I've just been reading up on what seems to being proposed for a restructure of the Football League. Reducing the size of the leagues to 20 clubs and increasing the number of divisions by one making it 100 clubs in the professional zone rather than 92. I can see some merits in cutting out midweek matches and especially in lower leagues. Travel is hard enough as it is but for working people to go away it is almost impossible. But that's about as good as it gets from where I'm standing. It would give me as a home supporter 4 less games a season. That would mean Argyle would have to reduce it's season ticket price for starters and 4 less opportunities for revenue generation. There is little enough money in the lowest leagues as it is. If this is something the premier league and football league want then are they going to hand over the dosh to make it worth the club's while to agree? Some probably but enoughI doubt. How would they decide what each club got as an incentive? If they gave all the clubs the same then Accrington should bite their hand off although their Chairman doesn't seem to like it. We get 5 times their gates so we would require 5 times the amount they get. Any bets that wouldn't happen. I would certainly not vote for this is given a vote. It's about time the lower league clubs told the premiership to feck off and mind their own business. They get mega money so why should they involve themselves with our leagues anyway.
I can't see how cutting the number of games helps in a situation where many clubs are already financially stressed, to put it mildly. Now combining Leagues 1 and 2 into League 1 North and League 1 South does make a lot of sense surely: more local derbies and less travelling for teams and fans.
A North and South divide was the way it was done years back.....you could develop a coming together of both for a play-off situation for those missing out on automatic promotion.....which might help to promote the strongest team from either north or south that missed out. I feel that some teams in the North might be deprived of some of the more lucrative financial games that Southern club fan basis would yield.......some of them have poor attendances even now......plus the pull of Rugby League in those areas. The Championship clubs would I feel benefit more than the Div 1....Div2....and a new Div3 league would ever see. The National League clubs left behind would then be seen as a little more inferior than at present and would end up more semi-professional than they are at the moment.
For Argyle it doesn't really matter if they play a London team or a Lancashire team to be honest. The travelling for us is massive whatever they do. Any club from Bristol onwards though is bound to be better off. As usual....
Not normally one to resist change but I think this fits into the 'if it ain't broken don't fix it' category. The only issue with the lower leagues is that some/most clubs struggle financially and as others have stated, I don't see how this improves this. Oddly I actually think that the lower leagues are healthier than they were 10 years ago-I don't have the facts but am pretty sure more clubs in the conference are now professional/semi professional which suggests that somehow they are financially sustainable. If the prem are so concerned about the lower leagues then all they need to do to is funnel more of the obscene TV money further down the pyramid.
I was thinking about the benefit to football as a whole rather than just PAFC. Being as we are on the brink of promotion, it would in some ways be disappointing to be playing the likes of Barnet & Stevenage instead of Sheffield United and Bolton! I know we're a long way from everywhere but better Newport and Shrewsbury than Fleetwood or Morecombe. The point is that some of these clubs get such tiny gates that it can't make sense to travel hundreds of miles each way to play there. I don't know where this idea came from but it's a damn poor one.
The only thing I can think of that benefits the premier league who seem to be puching this is that they actually do fill the vacant spots with B Teams. If that happens then I think supporters from below will kick off big time. I agree with you lyndhurst they need to be fairer with the money rather than feck about with who and why we play each other down in the depths. I only mention Argyle singularly notdistant because to us we are the only team the north and south thing matters little or less to.
I see there is a bit on the beeb from Adams about this topic. The headline I think makes it sound as if Adams would welcome this but reading what he actually says is a bit of a different interpretation. As a Manager preparing teams it would be easier on them. Course it would so can't argue with that. More time and less games for injuries. But he goes on to say about the financial implications of losing 4 home games which of course he doesn't think is beneficial. As we have pretty much all said. Overall without more cash being injected, and that can only come from above, then I don't think he favours it at all.
I see that the FA have undermined the smaller clubs and any financial gain they might get from having a great FA Cup run. From next season they have done away with replays at the quarter-final stage.......this can only benefit the big clubs who generally will still possibly be involved in European competition....reducing their workload if they are drawing at the end of 90mins in a Quarter-final tie....and going to extra-time and if needed a penalty shoot-out during that one game. Imagine a 1st or 2nd division or even non-league club in the quarter-finals ....playing at home against a top Premiership club and managing a draw after 90mins.....and looking forward to a lucrative replay in front of a 50/60/70,000 Premiership crowd......the finance will help pay the bills for that smaller club and even help to pay off substancial debt. But no the powers that be who always look after the big boys will stamp on that possibility next season and literally stamp on the minnows like a thrown away dog-end. Bigger and bigger pay-outs for Premiership clubs is the norm....but the hope of a big pay day for smaller clubs snuffed out.
Do you want to be in my gang my gang my gang.......well you can't so feck off back to the basement where you belong. Why is anyone surprised anymore.
