posted Oct 8, 2008

Just an extra note to your bit about how much of a clubs revenue stays in British football - I agree with you there, I wrote an artice suggesting that PL teams should have to donate a % of their revenue to local teams in lesser leagues, or donate in general to the football league.

I also think one way around the perceived lack of English youngsters in the game would be to allow to top teams the chance to play a reserve team in League 1 or 2, but then stipulate that at least 6 players must be homegrown.

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posted Oct 8, 2008

alan-hansen,

at the present moment season by season the entire EPL is being brought up by overseas investers, i do not have any issues with this .

but the FA needs to safe guard british football becuase the overseas investors will not do this unless they are forced to do this by regualation.its business to them.

if the clubs are given guide lines which will force them to run within viable business plans ,it will not harm anyone,just make the businesses more effiecient and bring all british clubs who are competing in the EPL on to more leval playing field.

the clubs will be forced to look at the most efficient ways to bring in income so that they can compete.

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posted Oct 8, 2008

alan hansen.

exactly our clubs are tens of millions of pounds each year on players ,but very little of this money is staying in british football.

ITS WRONG!

the clubs should be obligated to as you have rightly said to investing in local football academies & a certain % of the yearly transfer budget on homegrown players.

its not as if the FA have a poor product ,where it would difficult to bring such measures.

im not suggesting the FA should advise on a major percentage ,but 10/20 per cent .leaving 80% to be used as theyt see fit.

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posted Oct 8, 2008

This is no more than the desparate attempts of someone who dislikes England having 4 teams in the CL. Let's just look at a few points:

Is the debt crippling? Of course not. The PL clubs turn over far more than £3b so the debt is less than one year's income. How many people have a mortgage that exceeds one year's income? How many businesses have debt exceeding one year's income?

Is debt a bad thing? Take Arsenal - they have a similar level of debt to Liverpool but this is because they have invested in a new stadium which enables more people to see the football (and generate more money) so why punish them for expanding?
Who decides the level that is unacceptable? We could have the situation whereby one team can't play in CL because they are waiting for a cheque to clear - seriously this is the case.
What do we want to see - good football or a team with no debt? I am sure Barcelona will be delighted to be drawn against Hull simply because they have low debt!!!

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posted Oct 8, 2008

".. i think it is quite incredible that the most succesful football league in the world has a crippling debt burden of 3 billion pound..."
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The above is a sweeping and rather simplistic statement. Debt is not necessarily a bad thing and must be looked at in relation to a company's assets. Look at the Debt/Equity Ratios, Gearing, Leverage, etc and compare with other organizations in the same industry. We need to see the club's balance sheets before we panic over the level of Debt. I believe Man Utd has a strong balance sheet at least from what i heard last year. We have not borrowed more than we can handle..

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posted Oct 8, 2008

There is a power struggle going on between the PL and Uefa. It's behind the scenes mostly but Blatter and Platini can't help themselves.

They really do not like English clubs and our success in Europe and will look for any way to undermine that success.

There's a reckoning coming and a breakaway is still on the cards I believe. Maybe a few years away but it could happen.

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posted Oct 8, 2008

cherrysouthernred ,do you feel that the FA should bring in regualation tackling the issues i have raised.

sweeping ,simplistic statements,?

i understand that debt need not be a bad thing, but never the less the EPL has 3 billion of debt attached to it ,and the majority of money generated in the EPL is not staying in the british game .

dont you see the point that as more and more overseas buyers take over the epl clubs ,it would be wise for the FA to protect the british game.

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posted Oct 8, 2008

at some point something will give,
break away league.

i think the catylist could come when the clubs obtain the situation to televise direct there own matches direct to the customer.

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posted Oct 8, 2008

The posters comparing the £3B debt to a mortgage are wrong. At the start of a mortgage you have no house, at the end of a mortgage you have a house. Clubs are going in to debt to fund running costs - a very different scenario.

Man Uniteds debt has risen from, roughly £650M to £750M in the last year. This is in a year when they have won the league and the champions league.

Unless they continue to have unparraleled success - and no sporting team has ever done that - income may well fall in the future.

Reducing income and increasing debt can only result in adminisitration.

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posted Oct 8, 2008

Please find below something that I posted elsewhere earlier this evening. I think it sums it all up nicely...


The thing that I find ironic about Blatter & all his cronies, is that they love to make noises about not letting clubs in debt, into European competition, and then in the next breath they are allegedly trying to get the English club's that monopolised last season's latter stages of the Champions League, to give back some of the prize money that is legitimately theirs - How are they supposed to attempt to balance the books, when Fifa/UEFA wants to cap the amount that one league can get, when it doesn't suit their own political agendas.

I think that it is sour grapes because the Premier league is too successful for some people's liking. It is perceived that it might become too strong for the rest? Unfortunately for them it already is and they want to try to handicap us. I don't recall the same outcry when good old Real Madrid, were cleaning up.

I see also on Sky tonight that Platini is threatening to quit unless he can drive all the foreign ownership out of English football.

Can we have that in writing please?

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