League Restructure

[AnglianRed 6,320]

On 10/12/2020 at 9:59 AM, estonpidge said:

Just read this piece on the beeb, what are peoples thoughts?

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54502459

As others have said, its nothing more than the top PL clubs trying to increase their power and control, over both the PL and indirectly the EFL.

They're basically throwing breadcrumbs at the EFL while they're in dire straits and desperate for any money at all.

They're also trying to create the footballing equivalent of whats going on in F1, where the top teams have all the power and influence in the decision-making processes. Only West Ham seem to have been smart enough to see this.

Only 2 automatic relegation places and the 3rd bottom team has to take part in Championship play-offs...wtf?

No parachute payments...just serves to widen the gulf between the PL and Championship and makes it even riskier for clubs who get promoted. Basically they'll be too scared to spend substantially in order to stay up, in case it doesn't work out, so promoted clubs are more likely to go straight back down. Reduces the competitiveness of the PL even further.

Nine clubs given "special voting rights"...basically a cartel that makes the rules for everyone. Who decides who is in this cartel?

A paltry ONE OFF payment of £350 million (£250m for the EFL and £100m for the FA), when the last PL TV deal (2019 - 2022) was worth £5 BILLION, really is just taking the ***.

 

[Redcar Rioja 5,975]

Behind every scheme there is a schemer or in this case half a dozen or so schemers. Its another Trojan Horse only disguised as Rick "three points" Parry. 

[AnglianRed 6,320]

13 hours ago, BillyWoofs_shinpad said:

Over the last 5 years, Everton, Wolves, Leicester and Villa have all spent more than Spurs.  Everton are ever presents too aren’t they? Man City certainly aren’t. 
 

edit. even Brighton have spent more than Spurs. 

Its probably based on which chairman go to the right clubs and know the secret handshake. 😉

 

[oldman 155]

15 hours ago, Changing Times said:

It doesn't cost that and hasn't done for some time.  The simple issue is, if he doesn't want to do it, then he doesn't have to.  He owns the club because he wants to.

The last filed accounts for the club are for the year ended 30th June 2019 and show the amounts owed to Group Companies rising by £11.5 million pounds. Even with cost cutting the 2020 accounts, when filed, are very unlikely to show any improvement on that situation. So yes, Steve Gibson by way of his shareholding in Gibson O'Neill is putting in around £1million a month to keep the club going.

[Redcar Rioja 5,975]

4 minutes ago, AnglianRed said:

Only 2 automatic relegation places and the 3rd bottom team has to take part in Championship play-offs...wtf?

That is a similar concept to our 1988 victory over Chelsea when they had to play off against the third, fourth and fifth placed sides in the old second division sides after they finished fourth bottom of the old first division.

[AnglianRed 6,320]

2 hours ago, Downsouth said:

Most people do not embrace changes, prefer the way things were before, but then accept them once in place.

How much has football changed (not the playing side, though it has) over the last 20 plus years.

In fairness, the people who really should matter (the fans) have had very little say in the matter.

Sure we have lots of big shiny stadiums and have got to see some world class players wearing the shirts...but look at all the negatives that have come with it.

I'm not sure its so much acceptance as resignation.

[ScarBoro 856]

great article by Henry Winter in Times:-
Yes, Joel Glazer, I saw you. I saw your contempt for English fans. I was there outside the main entrance at JJB Stadium in Wigan on May 11, 2008. I was chatting to Manchester United supporters an hour and 20 minutes before kick-off, genuine football people whose life revolves around this great club you’re privileged to own, proper football souls who care for the greatest game as well as their beloved club. And you swept past, smiling smugly.

Yes, Joel, I saw you, you ambitious ruler of the English game. I saw your bouncers pushing United fans out of the way, your fans. I saw your look, your sense of self-entitlement. I saw how out of touch you were with English football, the passion, the flaws, the glory, and you still are. As now, I saw then that you don’t understand the responsibility of being guardian of Manchester United, the absolute honour, and the opportunity for leadership for club and sport. You’re not fit to spend a second in the distinguished company of Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton, legends who have given so selflessly to club and sport.

We know your game, Joel. Your game is simple, fistfuls of dollars. Fair enough. Money’s your business, turning sport into business, into dollars. Sadly, you don’t have any emotional connection with United. Your game is the Bucs and the bucks.

But hear this: we don’t want Joel Glazer running English football. Fans, government, clubs don’t want the representative of a family who have taken almost £1 billion out of Manchester United deciding who is a fitting owner of another club, deciding how much other clubs should receive in broadcast money, restricting opportunity for those wanting to challenge him and his Gang of Six in this disgraceful, doomed “Project Big Picture”.

Welcome to English football: behind closed shops? No chance. We’ll fight the cabal. We don’t want Joel Glazer, or John W Henry at Liverpool, deciding that two places are to be cut permanently from the vibrant, competitive Premier League, that two places are to be cut permanently from the historic, passionately supported EFL?

Who are the leaders? Not you. “The fact that our two greatest clubs are showing leadership at a time when the game is crying out for it is fantastic,” Rick Parry, chairman of the EFL, told the Daily Telegraph. Parry’s right, the game is crying out for leadership, but not the type of commercial opportunism masked as altruism from Glazer and Henry.

Where have all the real footballing leaders gone? The men and women who thought of the interests of their sport first, themselves second? The people not seduced by the power, the inflating of their egos and, occasionally, bank balances? Where are those like David Dein and David Sheepshanks? Owners and administrators who cared.

Richard Scudamore kept the 20 Premier League owners in a line, which Richard Masters has failed to. Adam Crozier was a leader of the FA, too strong for the internal politics, but an undeniable leader. Ian Watmore walked away from the FA, exasperated by the agendas. English football is too riven with self-interest. Gordon Taylor at the PFA loves the game, genuinely, but fails to lead properly, sadly.

So a message to Glazer and Henry as you try to seize leadership of English football. Some humility, please, some respect for this great game, for this footballing country that nursed into life and codified this wonderful pastime that already provides you with such profits.

Please, some acknowledgment that fortunes, footballing and financial, fluctuate. Special status? How entitled you are. Know your history. Big six? Leicester and Leeds have won the title since Spurs have. Villa have won the European Cup more than City, Arsenal and Spurs. This is not to decry any of those magnificent clubs, simply to apply the big picture.

So, Joel and John, you don’t offer the leadership English football craves, the sense of financial probity and community. They do exist within football. I’d trust Mark and Nicola Palios at Tranmere Rovers and Steve Lansdown at Bristol City to lead the EFL better than Parry. Port Vale’s Carol Shanahan would represent and work better for the EFL than Parry; she cares for her club and community, and runs a hugely successful business.

I’d trust Matthew Benham at Brentford to do a better job with the maths than Parry, who is trying to sell football’s soul for £3.5 million a club. I’d trust Tony Bloom at Brighton to get the figures right without wronging anybody. I’d trust Clive Nates at Lincoln City, Andy Holt at Accrington Stanley and Simon Sadler at Blackpool to be more in tune with balance sheets and fans’ concerns than Parry.

There is more along the same vein, but I think the extract says it all really.

[Changing Times 12,339]

3 hours ago, oldman said:

The last filed accounts for the club are for the year ended 30th June 2019 and show the amounts owed to Group Companies rising by £11.5 million pounds. Even with cost cutting the 2020 accounts, when filed, are very unlikely to show any improvement on that situation. So yes, Steve Gibson by way of his shareholding in Gibson O'Neill is putting in around £1million a month to keep the club going.

The last accounts also showed a profit for the year.  If the amounts owed to Group Companies has gone up then I'd suggest it's because Gibson has chosen to do that for whatever reason.  Similarly, when the business is running at a big loss, it's because Gibson has decided to do that.

[oldman 155]

4 hours ago, Changing Times said:

The last accounts also showed a profit for the year.  If the amounts owed to Group Companies has gone up then I'd suggest it's because Gibson has chosen to do that for whatever reason.  Similarly, when the business is running at a big loss, it's because Gibson has decided to do that.

Sorry but profit does not always equal cash. Particularly when you factor in intangibles and depreciation. If you pay back your creditors this also reduces cash. Cashflow in football is unusual, when players are bought on the drip.

[Changing Times 12,339]

1 hour ago, oldman said:

Sorry but profit does not always equal cash. Particularly when you factor in intangibles and depreciation. If you pay back your creditors this also reduces cash. Cashflow in football is unusual, when players are bought on the drip.

Yeah I know that, we borrow against things like future transfer payments.  I know profit doesn't equal cash but I've yet to see a business making a profit that HAS to be propped up.  The cashflow might require some extra liquidity but that's not the same as Gibson having to sink millions in because the company is making losses.  More to the point, when we have made losses, it's been precisely because of decisions that Gibson made.

[TLF10 4,496]

Sorry if this been posted but Article in Daily Mail where Steve Gibson backing the new proposal. Says the £250m is essential .

Sorry i dont know how to post links.

[Changing Times 12,339]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8836695/STEVE-GIBSON-accept-Project-Big-Picture-power-shift-save-EFL-clubs-oblivion.html#comments

[TLF10 4,496]

Cheers @Changing Times. Its not an article. Its a column he written for Daily Mail.

Speaks positively of Rick Parry too. I guess they differences are in the past

[Changing Times 12,339]

GIBSON OUT!

[TeaCider24 12,638]

It's unsurprising. 

Not seen a single EFL owner back the parts of the proposals that people actually have problems with, but they're all desperate for the money to trickle down.

I get the League Two and One clubs doing so, the Premier League is functionally irrelevant for most of them, but I think it's very telling how little of a problem Steve Gibson has with a proposal that makes it harder to get promoted, easier to get relegated and likely permanently solidifies the hierarchy at the top of the table.

Edited October 13, 2020 by TeaCider24