PL shit that doesn't need it's own thread.

[Abertawe]

I'm busy, with a life of my own, and I don't have time for your ego. No.

Nice to see you're insecure too. I don't take the Internet so seriously.

As expected you can be rude & confrontational when under the safety blanket of the internet but when it comes to real life you melt like a cheap candle. Don't attempt to converse with me on here again.

 

[Nostracarmus]

As expected you can be rude & confrontational when under the safety blanket of the internet but when it comes to real life you melt like a cheap candle. Don't attempt to converse with me on here again.

Bless. Such a special snowflake. I'd feel bad if you hadn't spent the afternoon trolling.

 

[SALTIRE]

Thread locked for today - Abertawe you are just back, watch yourself.

 

[Super_horns]

Seemed like the top 6 sides want to have a greater share of the overseas TV rights..

Just make the gap bigger and bigger between the haves and haves not.

 

[johnnytodd]

Seemed like the top 6 sides want to have a greater share of the overseas TV rights..

Just make the gap bigger and bigger between the haves and haves not.

who are top 6 in England?

 

[Jockney]

A LOAD OF WHITE BOYS PONTIFICATING ABOUT WHAT DOES OR DOESN'T OFFEND BLACK BOYS, FML...

That includes you as well innit.

Look at where idpol gets you eh.

 

[Abertawe]

That includes you as well innit.

Look at where idpol gets you eh.

I'm welsh gold.

 

[Benji]

who are top 6 in England?

Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Swansea, Arsenal and Tottenham.

 

[Abertawe]

Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Swansea, Arsenal and Tottenham.

This guy knows the football game.

 

[SALTIRE]

You can see the pov of the top six; they are the ones that more than help generate the huge coverage and payouts from the TV companies, its certainly not the likes of Stoke or West Brom. I do think they will have a hard time getting this through though as the other teams will understandably want as much as they can as well.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

The top clubs are only the top clubs because they have the rest of the league below them, and for every glamorous hyperbolic game between two of the big boys, there's several maybe lower quality but entertaining games between Swansea and Watford or whoever. If Man City played Man United every week, it would quickly lose it's audience, interest and prestige. For the soap opera and hype machine of the top clubs to function it needs the smaller fish.

Now whether you could justify cutting the cake slightly differently to weight a little more towards the top clubs - perhaps. You'd have to do it based on final league position, not some vague notion that these 6 specific clubs are more deserving than the rest. And that keeps the door open for over-achievers reaping financial rewards of breaking the cartel once in a blue moon.

I'm not at all surprised they're pushing for it, I'm only surprised it's not happened sooner. But screwing the smaller fish over to the point where it becomes impossible to be at least vaguely competitive on a given day - would be the top clubs cutting their nose off to spite their face in terms of the competitiveness and thus interest in the league.

 

[Bilo]

The top clubs are only the top clubs because they have the rest of the league below them, and for every glamorous hyperbolic game between two of the big boys, there's several maybe lower quality but entertaining games between Swansea and Watford or whoever. If Man City played Man United every week, it would quickly lose it's audience, interest and prestige. For the soap opera and hype machine of the top clubs to function it needs the smaller fish.

Now whether you could justify cutting the cake slightly differently to weight a little more towards the top clubs - perhaps. You'd have to do it based on final league position, not some vague notion that these 6 specific clubs are more deserving than the rest. And that keeps the door open for over-achievers reaping financial rewards of breaking the cartel once in a blue moon.

I'm not at all surprised they're pushing for it, I'm only surprised it's not happened sooner. But screwing the smaller fish over to the point where it becomes impossible to be at least vaguely competitive on a given day - would be the top clubs cutting their nose off to spite their face in terms of the competitiveness and thus interest in the league.

I agree with all of this except the top clubs perhaps having a point. 25% of the domestic TV rights are already based on league position, differing well over a million per position. That's well enough.

The major concern with modern football today, imo, is that fewer and fewer clubs are competing for the top honors. Last season when the semi-finals came around in the CL, it just felt a bit meh, didn't it?

A possible wage cap is obviously undoable currently, partially because it'd be incredibly hard to get every league on board and even then the difference in revenue between the leagues themselves would be the problem. England have a shitload more money than any other league and the only reason the Prem isn't completely dominant is because there are a few select clubs in the other leagues that can match it (and are better at using the money). So the problem would essentially remain the same.

What we need to do, in every possible way in every relevant league, is spread, spread, spread the riches. Because right now we're absolutely sprinting towards a future where the coming 20 CL champions will be no more than five different teams, if that, and the semi-finals will with the very odd exception consist of the same teams over and over again.

The US figured this shit out years and years ago but they do have the advantage of having one league in each sport that financially trumps any competitor a million times to one, even with a wage cap.

Edit: For the record, my suggestion would be this: 25 players can be registered full stop, that's all you can use across all competitions. 16 have to be homegrown in the country based on the current set of rules, and from those 16 players 8 have to be homegrown in the club.

Can't be rounded by financial wizardry á la Neymar, and will go a very, very long way towards giving more than a few select clubs a chance.

 

[Abertawe]

It's time to acknowledge that the likes of Nike, Adidas, New Balance own football. Even the richest clubs like Yernited are just commodities for these huge corps. Expect to see superstar players being moved around the maximise revenue. Neymar, sponsored by Nike, moves to PSG, where shirt rights are held by Nike. Pogba, sponsored by Adidas, moves to Yernited, shirt rights held by Adidas. It makes sense for the clubs capable of producing most revenue to stay in the limelight so if TV can help with that it'll inevitably happen.

 

[johnnytodd]

It will never happen, if it did it would last maybe 2 seasons and the attraction would be gone. In England in anycase, who can afford to go to Barca one week and Milan the next.

If people supported their home town clubs and only their home clubs we wouldnt be having this debate.

I dont get for example why a person from say Scoterland would support a England club team like say Liverpool or why somebody from sveden would support Liverpool, where is that from?

mamma mia !

 

[Abertawe]

 

[BigDaveCUFC]

Isn't Spain now ditching their 'big clubs take most of the cash' approach to tv revenue due to fact the bigactually two w*nkfest over there doesn't actually make the league appealing to a wider audience and thus want more competition?

Think the larger resource clubs are just worried that the riches other top flight clubs now get makes it harder for them to poach their better players

 

[Super_horns]

UKIP cannot even come up with their own logo it seems.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknew...e-badge/ar-AAsCkV3?li=AAmiR2Z&ocid=spartanntp

 

[Pagnell]

JohnnyTodd.

 

[Laker]

Not sure where to put this but sad news about Emmanuel Eboue today. :-(

 

[Bilo]

Not sure where to put this but sad news about Emmanuel Eboue today. :-(

Indeed. On the bright side however, HIV is very treatable nowadays and he'll live a perfectly normal life.

 

[Pagnell]

Has it been confirmed yet? I read the issue from all the mainstream outlets was still being listed as 'abnormal blood values'.

 

[ThisTinpotLeague]

If people supported their home town clubs and only their home clubs we wouldnt be having this debate.

Fair point

 

[Nostracarmus]

I never got that argument once. I'm lucky to live in Manchester and support United, but if I met another fan from Zimbabwe or Kazakhstan it doesn't make them any less of a fan.

Try not to forget that out of towners pay much more to see their club, have to travel the furthest and don't do it just because they were born in a place, they've seen something that they identify with and support it with all their hearts. How anyone can see that as less than a fan leaves me absolutely bewildered, as they put in far, far much more effort to turn up to games than I, a resident united fan from Manchester, will ever have to do.

I say support whoever the hell you want, for whatever the reason you feel, because that's what keeps football interesting. If that kind of person genuinely gets you angry, then I'd stop looking at them and start looking at yourself, there's a reason we came out of the caves and joined the larger society, it's called being civilised.

Even glory seekers, I might give out a bit of banter about it, but I have no right to dictate what you're allowed to like or support, the world just doesn't work like that.

 

[johnnytodd]

I never got that argument once. I'm lucky to live in Manchester and support United, but if I met another fan from Zimbabwe or Kazakhstan it doesn't make them any less of a fan.

Try not to forget that out of towners pay much more to see their club, have to travel the furthest and don't do it just because they were born in a place, they've seen something that they identify with and support it with all their hearts. How anyone can see that as less than a fan leaves me absolutely bewildered, as they put in far, far much more effort to turn up to games than I, a resident united fan from Manchester, will ever have to do.

I say support whoever the hell you want, for whatever the reason you feel, because that's what keeps football interesting. If that kind of person genuinely gets you angry, then I'd stop looking at them and start looking at yourself, there's a reason we came out of the caves and joined the larger society, it's called being civilised.

Even glory seekers, I might give out a bit of banter about it, but I have no right to dictate what you're allowed to like or support, the world just doesn't work like that.

Easy to say from your ivory tower i suppose. Try looking at it from the local clubs viewpoint though as the buses and cars leave every weekend from their small towns to travel to 100's of miles to watch Man United etc.

I agree oot's are as much a fan as someone who lives in the next street, they pay their money etc but if they did support their own clubs i think football would be in a better place.

 

[Nostracarmus]

Easy to say from your ivory tower i suppose. Try looking at it from the local clubs viewpoint though as the buses and cars leave every weekend from their small towns to travel to 100's of miles to watch Man United etc.

I agree oot's are as much a fan as someone who lives in the next street, they pay their money etc but if they did support their own clubs i think football would be in a better place.

You what mate? I support two clubs because of my family. United and Doncaster. My family also support Hyde FC.

Are you now going to tell me Donny or Hyde is an ivory tower and that it's easy? No, that would be nonsense. I mention my family because they share my view on this, even though they support their local team.

There's a reason most local clubs aren't doing as well, you can't just expect local support without any other reason. It's a woeful business model, the ones that do well are the ones that don't just expect people to show up because they live there. They do family events, lower prices for kids.etc

If dicky Derek from Donny wants to be a United fan, that's not United or Derek to blame. Donny isn't doing enough to keep Derek (as someone who has been this season and supports Donny).

I mean christ, even Millwall has its famous fight club, anything can work.

 

[AnkleBiter]

Maybe I'm a traditionalist but a clubs fans being from the local area is a big part of the clubs identity. If we score the winning penalty at Wembley and I'm surrounded by people from Zimbabwe and Kazakhstan, I'm not convinced it'd feel the same. You naturally feel more of a passion for your hometown.

 

[Nostracarmus]

Maybe I'm a traditionalist but a clubs fans being from the local area is a big part of the clubs identity. If we score the winning penalty at Wembley and I'm surrounded by people from Zimbabwe and Kazakhstan, I'm not convinced it'd feel the same. You naturally feel more of a passion for your hometown.

I can get that sentiment, I do understand what you mean but I just don't share it.

Maybe I'm just used to it, we've had that global support since I can remember so I don't know any other way to compare, I do love it about my club though

 

[Football Unfiltered]

We preview and predict matches from all leagues and tournaments on FIFA 18. We hit 6 out of 10 last weekend in the PL and even hit some of the scores

 

[Bilo]

As a Swedish Liverpool supporter I'm not sure I can add much that hasn't been said, but here's my view on it.

I grew up in a 100k town in Sweden where icehockey was the dominant sport by miles, as the second most successful club in the country comes from my hometown. Me as a football nerd started attending football matches when I was four or five. At first my dad took me, but from about the age of seven I started going on my own. However, my local team was at the time in the Swedish third tier, which needless to say wasn't televised at the time. I missed a handful of games in total from those years up until I was 17 or 18 and other priorities got in the way, although I still attended 80% of the home matches at least. I travel pretty much constantly nowadays and my only permanent home is in Stockholm, but I still renew my season ticket every year to support the club. They did spend 12 years in the top tier but are now in the second tier, which is still kind of above their weight. Their average attendance a good year is 3k-ish.

Parallell to this I've supported Liverpool for pretty much as long as I can remember. There's a bunch of reasons for that but the main one would be that while my local club and their rivals never, ever were on the telly, Liverpool were on every single week, more so than any other foreign club in the world. So from around the same age as I started attending football matches in real life, I made a habit of watching on the telly as well and that was Liverpool or the Swedish top tier. I had zero affiliation with either, so choosing to watch Liverpool was kind of the same thing as choosing Bayern vs Barcelona over Moscow vs Maribor in the Champions League.

It took a while longer to develop any kind of support for Liverpool but it developed pretty much in the same way it did for my local club. You watch, you get to know the players, you listen to analysis and you start feeling affiliated with the club. Now when I'm older, I wouldn't say I feel any more for my hometown club than I do for Liverpool, but the feelings are different. My first memory in life is from the stands in my hometown, not in Liverpool. But to feel affiliated with a club you follow isn't very strange, and at the age of 7 or 8 you grow fond of things very easily. Nowadays I'm not as passionate for either as I could be when I was 16 or 17, but I see no reason to stop following and supporting either. I genuinely don't think I could.

 

[ThisTinpotLeague]

I never got that argument once. I'm lucky to live in Manchester and support United, but if I met another fan from Zimbabwe or Kazakhstan it doesn't make them any less of a fan.

Try not to forget that out of towners pay much more to see their club, have to travel the furthest and don't do it just because they were born in a place, they've seen something that they identify with and support it with all their hearts. How anyone can see that as less than a fan leaves me absolutely bewildered, as they put in far, far much more effort to turn up to games than I, a resident united fan from Manchester, will ever have to do.

I say support whoever the hell you want, for whatever the reason you feel, because that's what keeps football interesting. If that kind of person genuinely gets you angry, then I'd stop looking at them and start looking at yourself, there's a reason we came out of the caves and joined the larger society, it's called being civilised.

Even glory seekers, I might give out a bit of banter about it, but I have no right to dictate what you're allowed to like or support, the world just doesn't work like that.

Great post but utterly irrelevant to the discussion. If fans weren't concentrated around five or six clubs then good players and money wouldn't be either. It doesn't make football interesting, it kills the excitement and gives us Steve Mcmanaman earning yet more millions to tell Burton to "just have a go" at Anfield, and little Derek from Doncaster is a school boy bitch who needs to man up and learn that instant gratification isn't what we "left the caves for" and it isn't going to help him on the mean streets of his northern town.