Good Morning. It's Tuesday 24th September, and here are the Leeds Utd headlines And the FIFA fair play award for 2019 goes to...... Marcelo Bielsa and the Leeds Utd squad!!!!! Well, we weren't expecting that, were we? Neither were BBC 5 Live Sport. Here were their reactions as the news filtered through. Bielsa's decision to let Villa equalise against them last season as one of the their players lay dying in agony (actually the Villa player got injured trying to foul a Leeds player) has earned him the prestigious award with the Worlds governing game. Here is their acceptance speech. What does this award tell you about football? Most professionals will play to the referee's whistle. The fact that Leeds were awarded this accolade, shows we were probably the only team in the World in the last twelve months to allow an opposition team to walk the ball into the net. If this is the case is it fair play or stupidity. Was Jansson's card marked from this moment onwards? Cooper and fitness coach Benoit Delaval accept the award! Ayling to be awarded new lucrative deal Luke Ayling will be the next Leeds player to be awarded a new lucrative contract at Elland Road. The former Arsenal trainee has 107 appearances under his belt with Leeds, and at 28, a long term deal will see out his best days of his career at Elland Road. Is Ayling good enough for the Prem? Can he stay fit? By awarding Dallas, Cooper and now Ayling with long term contracts, what does this tell you about Leeds ambition next season should they go up? Recently promoted Villa spend circa 100m in the Summer, yet they languish in the bottom three! So, does Ayling deserve a new long term contract? Leeds pundit Noel Whelan certainly thinks so:- “Wow, we’re really going for it. A new contract for Luke Ayling is absolutely deserved. He’s a key player, experienced, massive in the dressing room and proven in the Championship. “He’s been the first choice right-back when fit and available under many different managers, and Bielsa obviously rates him highly.” “You need strength in depth in your squad,” he said. “Stuart Dallas has done exceptionally well but you need to have your players pushing each other, and it’s great there is going to be a real fight for the right-back position. “Luke Ayling faces a battle to win back his place from Dallas, but that can only be a good thing for Leeds.” please log in to view this image
A fantastic article from Mike Thornton - @Mike_J_Thornton Thoughts? Why the EFL Stadium Sale Rule is Flawed Another Reason Why I’m Against Stadium Sales Reducing FFP Losses To further highlight the stupidity of the EFL’s change to FFP Profit and Sustainability Rules, consider this: The stadium sale rules apply to training grounds as well in exactly the same way; they are banned from reducing FFP losses by UEFA but allowed under the EFL’s latest interpretation. Let’s imagine a Championship Club in the north of England. Let’s imagine they buy a derelict piece of land from the local council; land that has lain unused for over 13 years because the council cannot afford to change it, land that is earmarked for sports use and is not attractive to developers, land that is in a run-down area. Let’s imagine that Club buys the land for, oh let’s say £1m for illustration. Let’s now imagine that planning permission is achieved to build a world-class training ground on the site; the value goes up accordingly. Let’s say developers who own land in the surrounding area get planning permission to build new houses and massively improve the area for residents. The council are delighted. Again, the value of the training ground increases substantially. Now imagine that Championship Club gets an independent valuation saying the land with its new planning permission, sitting in a newly developed, vibrant community is worth £21m. That Championship Club then sells the land to a group subsidiary located in Singapore and banks £21m cash and wipes out £20m FFP losses. Now lets imagine that Championship Club builds a new training building at a cost of, oh let’s say £5m for illustrative purposes. As any builder or property developer will tell you, a finished building is worth much more than it costs to build – that’s how they make their money, after all. So the Championship Club gets a valuation for the finished training ground of £60m and sells the whole training ground to their group subsidiary located in Singapore. This books a further £55m profit and instantly wipes out £55m of FFP losses. Remember none of this complies with UEFA rules nor with the principles of FFP but is now fully allowed by the EFL. This Championship Club gets a distinct advantage over other clubs and can spend massive amounts of money on players, making huge losses at the same time and gets NO SANCTIONS because the EFL have allowed them to book an extraordinary abnormal income as profit against FFP. Other clubs in the EFL might complain that the EFL have created a distorted financial market and a sporting event that is not equal and fair to all. They can complain all they like though because Derby County, Sheffield Wednesday and Aston Villa have all set the precedent. In my opinion this change by the EFL is a stupid, flawed idea. If the EFL want to prevent a free-for-all and a complete erosion of the principles of FFP then they MUST immediately withdraw the approval given to these three clubs and immediately issue them with the sanctions that FFP dictates. Mike Thornton – 20th September 2019
Morning all.It is no surprise to see that rules can be sidestepped when Bates placeman has been Chief Exec for so long.
Morning all Firstly the Fifa award was deserved and when you look at these Fifa awards they reward the very best of everything football, from players of either gender, coaching, stadium, managers, directors, fan safety etc. In other words they are showcasing the very best within the Football industry and all in the name of attracting kids to play the game. They awarded Bielsa this this honour and pundits working for the BBC decided to laugh and joke. Our media did the same, but surely this highlights problems within the game from all start at the very top be it from racism to greed. The EFL are a joke and not fit for purpose and because of their ineptitude Leeds have a black mark against them and are branded as cheats, even though they admit we didn't break any rules. Leeds were then fined a crazy £200k for not breaking a rule. Bielsa highlighted a huge flaw in the game by doing what he did. Players are supposed to play to the whistle but they started throwing themselves to the floor to stop the game. This is cheating but the EFL/FL/Premier league did nothing about it. In this particular case a Villa player injured himself trying to foul a Leeds player and Leeds went on to score. Massive player protest causing mayhem and a poor ref who lost control of the game. Bielsa ordered his team to allow a walk in goal to stop the moaning and then subsequently said that Leeds utd will only ever stop playing for a head injury or to the refs whistle. So I'm pleased Bielsa has been recognised for being the bloke he is but angry as hell at the reaction by our so-called guardians of the game and they can all fooook off for me. I have also been kicking off for ages about bent owners and the way they cheat the system and do nothing about it. The FFFP rules are not fit for purpose for the reasons Mike T states but one thing hits you right between the eyes. We are under EUAFA rules yet the EFL disregard that and introduce their own rules, which must mean they break the ruling body rules and therefore should be sanctioned. hierarchy: Fifa in overall control of world football (Award Bielsa) EUAFA and then down to each countries own body, but we have 3 bodies and they stand back and watch clubs being raped by dodgy owners and go into administration whilst they make rules up to suit themselves. Mike T told me once that EFL is like a trade body as its sole purpose is to maximise profit for owners, so has no interest in fans or their views..... How the hell can this be acceptable
Villa spent £100m but didn't spell well. Ayling like Dallas is good enough back up in the prem, mind the way Dallas as started this season, he could well be good enough to start.
Still seething mad over Saturday so to get me kicking off over the EFL is not good for my health, have a nice day all.
Have been invited to ER tonight to collect a ' goodie bag ' which apparently is too big to fit in the post. Will report back if it contains anything of interest.
If Ken Bates can be judged by the EFL to be a fit and proper person to own a football club is their anyone who could be ruled out? living or dead.
For those of you that don't frequent the politics thread, I thought you'd still want to see this post. These guys are so inventive & quick off the mark .....
Crikey is he still alive ??? Seriously though, when he's fit would you have him back in the squad as cover ? Guess what I mean is, would there be any harm in letting him benefit from training with the 1st team.
I'm guessing he would be a distraction for the training team. Best he can hope for is the kids. It's not an animosity thing, it's just that time is precious & best spent on those that have a future with us. He doesn't. That would be my position & I'm guessing it might be the official standpoint too. Do you think he should join in with 1st team squad training?
Still pi**** off after Saturday,so i'm gonna tell a joke what have Leeds United & Santa Clause got in common,-----------------------------------------------------------awe you've already guessed .
Evening All. One. The EFL is basically a members club run by the clubs (so club director / owners) which had a dodgy lead in Harvey. Two. Is Mike Thornton suggesting this is what we could do with the building of the new training ground?
Totally agree wtih everything you have said. I didn't agree with letting Villa score and at least it won't happen again. The fact that Villa didn't receive any punishment whatsoever says it all to me especially when they attacked our players and were let off scott free!
