Courtesy of exiled on CI... So instead of a sunny Saturday out at Oakwell or relaxing at home with a beer (or three) in some beer garden, I was pre-booked to attend the Football Supporters Federation and Supporters Direct conference at wembley. So I know the drill, early start, train to Euston Metropolitan line to wembley park. Yawn all now sooo familiar to me. The conference was well attended and included hundreds of delegates from around Europe with an excellent spread up and down the leagues. I was booked to appear on a panel to relate the trials and tribulations of the name change saga but more of that later. Poignantly the summit was opened with remembrance for the two NUFC fans that perished on the Malaysian Airways flight as if cementing the bond which fans have with their clubs and when it comes to things that REALLY matter with each other. That their benevolent fund was started and is being orchestrated via Facebook by SUFC fans says all we need to know really. Their is a new mood among fans and allegiances and alliances seem to be cropping up everywhere. The keynote speeches by Malcolm Clarke (FSF) and Robin Osterley (SD) seemed to have shifted from prior years. Instead of niche campaigns and discreet subjects like safe standing and away ticket pricing, their words struck a much deeper chord about the very fabric and sustainability of football itself. Greg Dyke sent his apologies and also a video in which he answered some 'difficult' question about the state of the game. I have to say they weren't VERY difficult at all and the general impression left by the comments of the delegates was one of being very underwhelmed. His main focus from what came across in his film was solely the success of the England Senior team on the pitch. Whilst many in the hall sympathised with the nobility of his cause for many it seemed a world away from the things fans wish he was doing. In a comment reminiscent of his infamous 'the bbc is hideously white' quote he effectively said the same of the FA and accused it of being predominantly white middle aged men administering a game that had an entirely different playing demographic. This had the journalists scrambling for their twitter accounts and unfortunately will probably overshadow other important messages from the summit. In an amazing section of his video diary he suggested that the most enjoyable experience he had in Brazil was "getting to hang out with ordinary England Fans at the tournament" - cut to a shot of Greg and 'ordinary fan' hanging out with said fans on a yacht!! Cue howls of derision from the hideously working class audience in the hall. One imagines if this is what passes for real life on planet dyke then no wonder some of the hair-brained stuff like league 3 seems like a good idea. Malcolm Clark commented and also made some barbed comments about ex-pros talking as if they have a mandate to talk on fans behalf. Stand up in shame Danny Mills suggesting Hartlepool would rather play Man Utd B than Torquay. Malcolm called it correct when he said pro players have too little insight to what it's like to be a fan. CTWD was mentioned in the keynote speech and CTWD and City fans were warmly applauded in the opening session as a benchmark for fan activism and for a thoroughly modern and professional approach to the campaign. It was amazing to see German fans standing and applauding and allowed me to personally thank clubs there that had visually supported us. Workshop one was regarding clubs heritage and much was made of our situation, the issues at Cardiff, and the European fans gave interesting insights and perspectives on their leagues in that many have, in order for clubs to be given a license, have incorporated in their legal structure things which enshrine their place in local culture. One delegate from Sporting Lisbon detailed how this is at the heart of every Portuguese club. Where they play, colour of shirt, name, etc. It was generally felt that the FA needs to work urgently to strengthen and detail further it's rules. Clive Efford - shadow minister for sport - fence sat about legislation suggesting we don't want MP's getting involved but as with many of the issues of the day it seems that despite their urging parliament is having little effect on the running of football. Mark Harris the chairmen of the northern premier league spoke well but as with many at that level he doesn't have the mesmerising effect of massive TV revenue to encourage him to forget his local customers in pursuit of the new territory TV punter / sponsor. It is fair to say that without the debacle at our club and at Cardiff this subject may not of been on the agenda but it is a mark of how much fans feel about it that it was by far the best attended session. The Cardiff crew seem to be taking a leaf from the CTWD 'play book' and have shifted from old school protest and into counter-commerce. They showed a rather fetching blue club shirt which have in one week already sold 2,000 copies. It seems fans want to express their disdain if not marching or sounding off on soapboxes. Should make their TV coverage interesting. The afternoon main session was a review of the FA commission report which from an analysis point of view is a great piece of work. It highlights the problem for English Players starkly. It basically concludes that if you are a young elite English player you can expect decent development until 18-21 then frankly you will be lucky if you ever get a game at a top professional club. Of course there are easy and numerous counter examples to this rule but that in general they are in the whole scheme of things isolated. When looking at the required numbers to produce top talent the numbers and trends today point to it getting much worse. Currently Spanish and German young players will have played roughly three times the number of high level competitive games than their English counterparts. The league three answer is of course the wrong answer but you could sense the desperation and hence stabs in the dark for solutions. It was hard for me to listen to much of the complaining about lack of pitches, the cost of developing and paying good coaches as I have another perspective from other elite sports but in essence it seems that football is acting like it expects amateurism and volunteering at its grass routes to save the professional game and the elite players. The commission was super myopic in that it only considered football and cited foreign development models but considered nothing from other sports that have made that two decade journey from crap to world class. As I said this was all very interesting but cellars for many fans it was the last thing on their minds. The next workshop I attended was on Financial Fair Play and disappointingly the delegate from FIFA didn't show. it was not nice to hear our club being used alongside the Leeds Utd's Portsmouth, QPR, PSG et al as a benchmark for all that's bad in the game with regard to FFP. Some examples from clubs in Europe that have already been censured showed a worrying tendency for the 'big clubs' to receive a slap on the wrists but the smaller clubs to be banned completely from competitions. I couldn't ask the UEFA bloke directly about our case but a Times journalist suggested that we were 'almost certainly in breach' and mused out loud that we would be likely to be banned from next years competitions. Not the end of the world to many but I for one don't like my club being labelled 'cheats' and mentioned in the same case studies as that lot from Bell End road. The Chief Financial Officer of Italy's Serie B gave some great insights into what they had been doing as a league to make football at that level more sustainable and he was also able to scotch some myths. The biggest that EU legislation will not allow a salary cap. They have a salary cap in serie B and any domestic league can do so because it is precisely a domestic league and not pan European. He said that their salary cap has been the single biggest factor for getting clubs back to a sustainable model. Other interesting rules are no club can spend more than 60% of revenue on player costs and that a large part of the TV money that comes from Serie A is distributed according to how good your club is at player development. There were lots of other workshops and sessions but those were the two I thought closest to the situations we find ourselves in at Hull City so there you go. My overall impression is that despite the success of the game being a fan or a young player is not getting any easier - it should be getting easier though shouldn't it ?
Saw this the other day http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jul/18/arsenal-withdraw-backing-fanshare-scheme Its all very laudable FSF and supporters direct but at the end of the day it comes down to money.
Rather depressing in a number of ways, big thanks to exiled for the write up and yourself for posting it.
Yes. Remember when the investigations were being carried out that led to Man City and PSG getting their restrictions? At the same time it was widely reported that we (and Liverpool) were only escaping investigation/punishment because despite being outside the regs we couldn't be investigated by UEFA last season as we weren't in a UEFA competition. We're not likely to have turned the finances around to ensure that over the last 3 seasons we've only lost about £5M when we're spending at the rate we are.
It will be such a bitch if we manage to qualify for Europe again next season. Just imagine if we won the Europa league this season, the despair would be intolerable.
We're bound to be in breach of FFP as we spent a lot getting promoted, and then again through last season. In contrast the money you gain from the Premier League (and Europe) doesn't just come in instantly. Our books at this point last year likely showed tiny income compared to what they should show 12-24 months from now. If the past 3 years are looked at our numbers will be bad. If we stay in this league the same investigation conducted 2 years from now would include a much higher revenue and look better.
The last thing we need is for the name of our club to be further tainted after the name change fiasco. This financial chicanery us the kind of bent business that they specialised in over there in WY.
There's not a lot of comment to make, it's a very interesting read, but whoever wrote it seems to sum everything up nicely.
Seem to remember Exiled and the CI experts and the AN experts said we wouldnt be allowed to play in Europe this year cos Allams ****ing useless and doesnt know how to run a club etc etc How did that work out then?
UEFA decided to not apply the fair play rules to any club who were not playing in Europe last season, so it only applies from next season.
When i posted, my comment it was the 7th post after 26 hours, more importantly the number of views was also low compared to other threads. Even the thread about F1 ( yawn zzzzzzz ) was more popular. There are so many points worth debating in there, here's one for starter's Greg Dyke was supposed to be something of a new broom when appointed but he seems to be the same as all the previous heads of the FA. Just re-read it, the twat did'nt even turn up.
First I've seen of this thread , Would have replied sooner but it took 3gours to scroll past the OP re quotes lol ��
The last I read about City's situation in Europe was that the owners would have to convert some of their loan into equity by the end of the year in order to stay within the rules. Have things changed since then?
Yes, UEFA decided to give a seasons grace and the rules will now apply next season and should we again find ourselves in the Europa League, our owner would have to actually have to convert some of his loans to equity, which would be interesting. Though the chances of us making the Europa League again next season are fairly slim, so I doubt it's keeping him up nights.
