During the quiet time of the summer we need some discussion points and here is one to give you something to chew on. I am asking your opinions on what needs to be done to bring the entire Football League back to sanity and my suggestions are just to get the ball rolling although they may appear to be very radical. Please don't shoot the messenger. Create a new European Super League to include the likes of Manchester Utd, Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea and one of Liverpool and some other possibles. Reform the English Football League with 4 divisions (no grand titles please) and the 3rd level to be geographically aligned with North and South divisions to save on travel costs and create greater regional derbies. 1st Division 22 teams 2nd Division 23 teams 3rd divisions 24 teams each All divisions to have squad limitations including overseas player limits complete with maximum salary caps and my thought here are that if players believe they are worth more money then prove it and get higher up the league based on your worth. Banning players agents would also be a great idea, to be replaced with some kind of player advocacy board to act on their behalf because I am fed up with hearing agents claim that their man is ready and more than capable of moving onwards and upwards when in reality they are just lining their own pockets and have no interest in the player or the damage, and bad blood, being created at his current employer. The teams that would go to the Super League currently complain about the number of fixtures that they have to play so limit their involvement in National competitions until the latter stages of whatever tournament is applicable. Most of those top teams basically operate 2 squads that allow them to field different teams for various competitions and so many wannabee players join those teams to just warm the benches or play for the reserves which depletes the other teams only playing in the National League, if you get my drift. Having watched the Football League evolve since my first days on the terraces of Aston Gate I have witnessed many major steps forward in the overall operation of the league but I think now we have gone beyond the point of sanity where the rich just get richer and teams like ours, and many others, suffer from their over indulgence. Gone are the days when any team had the possibility of winning something worthwhile because they have to break the bank, or even worse, to compete at the level that their supporters deserve. Don't take my points as being too radical as they are just intended to open up the lines of debate and get a good old discussion going on these boring days of summer, so over to you guys EH!
Clubs like Bristol City feed the machine. City vote with the EPL and tv. The football league and its clubs would have to stand up to the EPL tv and the FA. It would take government intervention to force reform. The Tories are pro free market and that is what you have in football. Control follows the money and foreign owned clubs and the EPL negotiate their own tv deal. Their cake nobody else's. Below that is crumbs off the table. Have a listen to the head of the EPL as far as he is concerned as long as the money continues to roll in nothing must and will change.
And thats basically where we stand hardly(probably none) any club in the Football league has the financial clout to start the revolt so nothing will change except more and more power will go to the EPL
As attendances inside and outside of the EPL are generally falling, and the cost of tickets and match day sustinance/travel/fuel generally increase, and while some clubs fight for their day to day existance, the 2 lowest tiers (ours included) should be regionalised into 2 divisions, namely a North and a South League 1 with promotion to the Championship from each league. It would have it's logistic headaches I know. For instance, the scenario of two northern teams in the Championship being relegated to L1 North that already has a full compliment of teams north of Watford is one, and I guess this realigning would have the greatest impact on teams in the Midlands potentially, but football in L1 and L2 should stop pretending everything is ok, because there must be some clubs who really will go to the wall one of these days. We've already seen the mess that Portsmouth, Coventry, Swindon and others have created and got out of, just! No one in their right mind should be condoning the likes of Torquay having to travel to Hartlepool in L2 (and vice versa) or Crawley going to Carlisle in L1. These games are watched by 2,000 - 4,000 people and the costs to the clubs must be astronomical. The EPL will never relinquish their greed for their millions from Sky and most Championship teams are big enough to take the hit.
At the end of the day money talks. I can see a Premier League 2 being created with 20 clubs having a bigger pot of tv money. There are some good points to that happening such as reducing the financial gap between the EPL and Championship, and reducing the number of games played in the second tier. However, it does mean that effectively 4 clubs would then drop out of the football league. Maybe it would then be time to go to 5 leagues of 20 with the bottom 2 leagues being regionalised? EPL - 20 teams EPL 2 - 20 teams FL 1 - 20 teams FL 2 South - 20 teams FL 2 North - 20 teams One draw back is fewer games means less gate revenue. Not saying I want this, just that it's a possibility?
Something like that was proposed a few years back to incorporate the league below L2, as it is now, Blue Square Premiership but that was rejected as it would probably mean FL2 N & S probably going part time plus EPL2 would probably be cherry picked from the biggest supported clubs in NPL, L1 and L2 regardless of which division they were in also the idea of all division of 20 clubs as it stands in 4 divisions would mean 12 clubs not 4 dropping out of the football league pyramid. I could see the benefit to clubs like Wolves, Sheffield Wed & Utd, Leeds & Birmingham for example but it would be bad news for most of the other clubs especially those with small gates currently in the NPC.
Some very good talking points Mike. Ideally you'd like to see more money trickle down the divisions, to keep the grassroots healthy, but as discussed in a previous thread, the EPL isn't going to go for that. And sadly, that means that whatever happens isn't going to be good for the lower leagues. If things stay as they are, each season, proportionally more money will go into the EPL and less to the leagues below. I think it likely, within 5-10 years, that an EPL2 will be proposed. Good for the clubs that get into that, and as Hawk has suggested, that would almost certainly include the clubs outside of the EPL with the biggest earnings/TV potential, so there's your Wolves, Leeds, Sheff U etc. Given their average attendances, possibly even Pompey? Anyway, that would take out more money and more gate revenue from the teams left out, and less crumbs from the top two tables too. Economically, it would make sense to go back to the old geographically based third tiers north and south, which were abolished I think in the early 60's. Going back to the elite, the Champions League is just the long mooted "European Super League" in all but name. But could it go a step further and become a proper league, where the elite opt out of their domestic leagues and play each other week-in week-out? It's clear that for the likes on the Mancs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Barca etc etc, the priority is to win the Champions League, not the domestic league. And international TV gobbles up Real v Inter, Munich v Man U and all the varying permutations of the glamour clubs. I suppose if something like this happened, the elite would retain their domestic status and just play their reserves domestically and the first team in Europe? One suggestion of Mike's that I would disagree with - letting the elite (Mancs, Arsenal, Chelsea, whoever else) join the domestic Cup competions later in order to ease their fixture congestion. Absolutely not. They join the League Cup at Rounds 2 and 3, and the FA Cup in Round 3. It would be unfair to everyone else to let them come into the FA Cup at R4 for example, which would give them more chance to win the competition (as if, 8 years out of 10, the elite don't win those Cups anyway). If they want to take part, they come in with everyone else. Every year we hear about Man U, Chelsea or whoever complaining about too many games, yet whenever they get a free weekend or midweek you read they've played a friendly in the Middle East or Asia. Aside from regionalising what is currently L1 and L2, you can be sure that whetever changes take place in our game, they'll be what the EPL wants and to make more money for that level only. Oh, I also agree that it would be nice to do away with the greedy, parasitical Agents, but that isn't going to happen. Those pigs have their snouts firmly in the football cash tough and sure as hell won't be getting them out. Sorry, one last edit, and I apologise it's not Football League but Europe again. Do away with that stupid rule that allows the third placed, non-qualifying team in the League stages to go into the Europa League. Great, reward failure and let whichever elite teams who weren't good enough have another bite of the money-laden cherry. Again, its unfair to the teams who were in from the start to sudden;y get Chelsea, Benfica and whatever other "failures" get dropped on them halfway through the competition. Pure bloody greed, nothing more. Bahh! Off my soapbox now, no more additional edits, promise!
I have long held the belief that the only way to stop salaries and in turn ticket prices going through the roof is to have a cap on the size of a 1st team squad, and limit it to say 18 -20 players, and go back to only being able to name 3 subs, and only allow a team to augment any shortfalls in the 1st team squad from theirU21/youth squads. This would make players want to move to clubs to get game time rather than sit on the bench on exorbitant wages paid by the fans, and this should then spread the wages as the really big clubs cannot have 25 or so players on hugh wages in their squads. Of course the Prem teams would never allow this, so we will never know
If you limited squads to 18 players wouldn't take too many injuries to cripple a team and sometime you get injuries in batches last season we had 11 players out at one time with injuries, plus Albert off in the ACON that would lead to a club having to play 6 U21 players who might not be ready and you could ruin their prospects plus the financial ruin to a team who might then get relegated as a result squads of 22 should be fine cover for every position then bring in young players if you need cover, As for subs I would probably say 5, again to cover for injuries during a game.
Sorry, one last edit, and I apologise it's not Football League but Europe again. Do away with that stupid rule that allows the third placed, non-qualifying team in the League stages to go into the Europa League. Great, reward failure and let whichever elite teams who weren't good enough have another bite of the money-laden cherry. Again, its unfair to the teams who were in from the start to sudden;y get Chelsea, Benfica and whatever other "failures" get dropped on them halfway through the competition. Pure bloody greed, nothing more. Bahh! Off my soapbox now, no more additional edits, promise![/QUOTE] Just a thought on that just how many of the finalists in the Europa cup have been from teams parachuted in from the champions league I wonder.
