League 2 General Chat Thread

[Gunit]

You sure yours didn’t just drop as you went L1 to L2? Surely the PL withholding cash would have been a huge story?

 

[Luke Imp]

I *think* the figure is £400k per Club the PL are currently withholding (in L1 anyway). Kieran Maguire mentioned it on Twitter not long back.

 

[Conker]

I don’t think it’s quite been clicked on yet how much trouble we could be looking at in the EFL if those PL payments are not sorted.

 

[iWomble]

That's the case with most clubs. We all rely on the owners funding our clubs.

#notallclubs We had to dig very deep as individuals to get the stadium over the line but for football operations there's no owner to fund us. And yet we still have some fans who would rather sell up and enter the same unsustainable dance with financial death that's going to kill a lot of clubs at this level.

 

[Optipez]

#notallclubs We had to dig very deep as individuals to get the stadium over the line but for football operations there's no owner to fund us. And yet we still have some fans who would rather sell up and enter the same unsustainable dance with financial death that's going to kill a lot of clubs at this level.

I did say most clubs. We did the fans Trust when we were effectively bankrupt and one of our many useless owners left us in the lurch. We stayed up but were treading water with at one point under 3000 for a night league match against Barnet. We were dying as a club.
It's a balancing act, nobody wants to do a Scunthorpe but without some success now and again the club goes under eventually through shrinking revenues and lack of interest.

 

[Gunit]

I *think* the figure is £400k per Club the PL are currently withholding (in L1 anyway). Kieran Maguire mentioned it on Twitter not long back.

Wow that’s shocking.

 

[Meadow]

#notallclubs We had to dig very deep as individuals to get the stadium over the line but for football operations there's no owner to fund us. And yet we still have some fans who would rather sell up and enter the same unsustainable dance with financial death that's going to kill a lot of clubs at this level.

We own shedloads in terms of interest to bond holders. We can pay this back. Better than selling out.

 

[coronakopite]

I *think* the figure is £400k per Club the PL are currently withholding (in L1 anyway). Kieran Maguire mentioned it on Twitter not long back.

It's a lot of extra money on offer and being delayed but not a simple flat amount per club.

As I understand it, on a per-club basis, each Championship side currently receives £5.19million in solidarity money, League One teams get around £780,000 each and League Two sides £520,000 each. (behind a paywall in The Athletic) https://theathletic.com/4957498/2023/10/16/epl-efl-explained-deal-english-football/

EFL are haggling over the total amount as well as some contentious elements in the deal - in particular more games for Prem Clubs U-21 teams in the EFL Trophy, retention of parachute payments for relegated Prem teams and a requirement to spend part of the payment on club facilities rather than transfers and wages (a good thing?).

The other new element is for the allocation to each club be based on league position not a flat rate for each division. Depending how it's calculated and whether it only applies to the new extra money, that could make those in the lower reaches of L1 and L2 a lot poorer relative to their already big spending rivals in the division.

It would worry me and I would prefer at least 50% on a flat rate per club basis and 50% with modest increases for higher league positions.

Premier League offers EFL extra £358m over three years – with strings attached

The Premier League has presented a plan to increase financial redistribution to the English Football League

www.theguardian.com

For L1 and L2, what is on the table as an offer appears to be 15% to L1 and 10% to L2 of an extra £88m this season rising to an extra £101m then an extra £169m. If my understanding and maths are right, on a per club basis (which it probably won't be) that would be a an extra:

	EFL L1 Clubs	EFL L2 Clubs
2023/24	£549,000	£366,000
2024/25	£630,000	£420,000
2025/26	£1,056,000	£704,000

This is crumbs from the table compared to what the Championship clubs are haggling over, let alone the Premier clubs. But it could keep Cambridge United and Barrow's owners able to compete for a few more seasons.

The threat hanging over the negotiators, particularly Prem league and championship owners, is that a Labour Government (and possibly even the current Government) could hand the decision over to the new Football Ombudsman. On balance, I'd expect a better outcome for lower league clubs if we could wait for that.

 

[Luke Imp]

There's also a disagreement over salary caps and how to implement it. I'm going off memory here so apologies if this is slightly incorrect but the PL (80% limit) are trying to fall in line with UEFA competitions (70% limit), which seems logical and makes sense, but they want to allow relegated PL sides to spend at PL levels, creating a situation where a relegated PL side can spend £110m but a normal Championship Club can 'only' spend £30m - widening an already wide gap.

Masters and Parry were in front of the Committee down in London a few weeks back and if you are sad like me and watched an hour or so, some of the suggestions from the PL are quite frankly frightening and should be a wake up call to Government.

 

[Luke Imp]

I've just found the transcript here (in two forms, depending on what your laptop/phone uses), it's not too long in written form that it seemed to be when watching it!

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committees.parliament.uk

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committees.parliament.uk

 

[Alfie]

Ex-AFC Wimbledon star, 34, dead as boyhood club chief shares emotional statement

FORMER AFC Wimbledon star Charlie Strutton has died aged 34. The striker last played for non-league side Chalfont St Peter. Strutton begun his career at the Buckinghamshire-based club and also ende…

www.thesun.co.uk

My condolences to all Charlie's family & friends.
RIP

 

[Meadow]

Yet another tough task for mansfield with one visit of inform salford, who’ve not lost since new year’s day apparently.

Good manager, tricky side, not an easy game.

Time of year mansfield start fucking up.

Away win.

Ex-AFC Wimbledon star, 34, dead as boyhood club chief shares emotional statement

FORMER AFC Wimbledon star Charlie Strutton has died aged 34. The striker last played for non-league side Chalfont St Peter. Strutton begun his career at the Buckinghamshire-based club and also ende…

www.thesun.co.uk

My condolences to all Charlie's family & friends.
RIP

This has hit me quite hard. Due to injuries Charlie didn't play for us as much as he could have. He was a few months older than my eldest offspring who turned 34 last weekend. My heart breaks for his parents. No-one should experience the death of an offspring.

 

[Greenacres]

Our club Forum is currently disabled, haven't a clue why...would be wrong to speculate...I wonder how long it will take someone to notice and fix the thing?

 

[BarraMatt]

Our club Forum is currently disabled, haven't a clue why...would be wrong to speculate...I wonder how long it will take someone to notice and fix the thing?

Mustn't be windy enough in the server room.

 

[Greenacres]

Mustn't be windy enough in the server room.

Never tried a vegan diet...it is always windy!

Perhaps the solar panels blew off the roof of the South Stand!

 

[Master D]

Begging bowls are out at Salford. They've clearly realised the whole thing is never going to take off as the fanbase will never be there.

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[Conker]

Already got about 10 multi-millionaires and a billionaire on the books.

Just fold it.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Everyone knows the North West is far too saturated with football clubs as it is.

Salford's downfall was the fact that Wigan and Bolton experienced a financial crisis so dropped down from the Championship to the lower leagues. Couple that with the investment that's gone in at Stockport and Oldham and you've got four bigger and more established clubs competing with them for the same player pool within 30 mins of Salford.

It was never going to work and it seems a lot of the United fans they were appealing to can't be bothered with them either. Ground's a bag of arse to get to and it's just dead. Sooner they're out of the league, the better.

 

[Stocky]

Echo what has been said.

United fans I know don't even like Salford City, they think Gary Neville is a massive hypocrite and were delighted when we beat them in the Play off Semi Final last season.

You can't just grow a club from nothing. Neville would have been better off helping his Dad's team, Bury. Although I don't think that would have been plain sailing, Salford really was just something to do for them all. You can tell they've started to get a bit bored with their toy and have realised it's just a money pit for them in the FL now they're going toe-to-toe with decent sized clubs who also have pretty well off owners but also have the natural resources such as decent fanbase, history etc which Salford City do not have.

Sad thing is, with their profile, I can see somebody fairly rich investing again getting giddy for 2 or 3 years throwing big money at it. Rinse and repeat in 3 years time.

 

[AdamStag]

The other thing is with salford is that they’ve technically already massively increased their fan base from what it was a decade ago, and as others have said the north-west is the hotbed of english football.

I do have sympathy with the fans a little as there’s only so much you can do with owners like that and you’ve got to go along with the ride, from the few i’ve met they’re all aware they’ve peaked.

If the owners were still bothered they wouldn’t have let their main player go to wrexham in the window.

 

[Stocky]

Their fans are calling on the QatarI's and this Sheikh Jassim or whatever his name is.

 

[Conker]

Be difficult to get the word about with all 15 of them.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

Begging bowls are out at Salford. They've clearly realised the whole thing is never going to take off as the fanbase will never be there.

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They could do what the Railway did in the seventies and eighties and drag folks out of the pubs

 

[Conker]

What actually will another billionaire do for Salford? Pretty obvious funding been cut back from previous seasons but at the same time they will still bankrolled by the millions per season as it is.

 

[TrinidadsNumberOne]

Neville's been after a training ground since before COVID and not got one so he's clearly not that serious about making the Championship. They can't even make it to League One!

Ground and it's facilities are a joke for this level. 8 portaloos for a 1000+ following is simply abysmal. I know Neville was trying to move to the Rugby ground near the M60 but that fell through and he seems to have lost interest rapidly after that occurred.

Even with the "increase in profile", I'm not sure it'll tempt anyone to invest in a club like Salford. No catchment area, very little potential and they've already had their little documentary which has petered out so there's only one way they're going and that's hopefully down, down, deeper and down.

 

[Alfie]

Begging bowls are out at Salford. They've clearly realised the whole thing is never going to take off as the fanbase will never be there.

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ay-up club still ambitious !!!

 

[BarraMatt]

Strategic partners is an interesting term for supporters.

 

[Gladders]

Not quite Disney, but we have now made the big time too.

Watch All Town Aren't We | Prime Video

All Town Aren't We follows the club, known as The Mariners, as it competes across the season. It features appearances from Grimsby Town natives Lloyd Griffith, a comedian, and Gallow's Pole star Thomas Turgoose.

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[Master D]

Why has that taken so long to be released?

 

[Gladders]

Why has that taken so long to be released?

Been out for a while, was only on at the cinema in Cleethorpes for a while, then on Mariners TV, now amazon.