Gary Neville
“They’ve even managed to unite Boris Johnson & Jeremy Corbyn!”
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You thought Neville went off on one yesterday!
And I agree with every word
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If they cannot be chucked out of the the prem,then some clever scheduling could be applied
Cups games at weekends so that prem games land midweek
The big six always gets Monday / Friday games in the prem depending upon ESL fixtures prefers in the same week
Fines for not fielding the strongest teams in the cups
Make cup entry a condition of memebership
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This is very reminiscent World Series Cricket…
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So one of the justifications spouted by Perez (Real) and, with more merit, also mentioned by journalists this morning is that younger fans are less interested than before and those that are, follow players more than clubs. TV audiences are declining among the younger ages apparently.
I am too old to understand if this is true but if youngsters don’t often watch hour long TV shows in one go any more - which is the case I think - I can make sense of this.
Surely making the games LESS compelling, with limited risk, no promotions, and no fairy-tale Leicester stories will only make this worse? 
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The reason it is not as popular with younger generations is that less of them have been exposed frequently to live matches. I turned my nephew into a Saints fans by taking him to games (much to his Dad’s disgust).
But the cost is prohibitive for a lot of people - if they have a beef with falling younger audiences look there. Kids are quite happy to watch Stampy Longnose on Minecraft for hours at a time.
Perez is just casting about for reasons to justify this - its got fuck all to do with less popularity with the young - It has everything to do with the fact that he runs a shit business model and spunks £500k a week on one players wages or coughs up £30m to an agent to get a deal through
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Yes not under illusion re Perez.
But if the journos are right and youngsters are less interested then cost / engagement has to be tackled
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A quote from somewhere - “Big clubs want more money to clear debts”.
The logic of everyone agreeing to this (if they did!) is beyond me.
In syphoning got up most of the money from leagues and cups, they incur debt, so should be given more money to incur more debt, and everyone else gets less money?
I don’t think so.
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This isn’t about debt, this is about enterprise value. These owners don’t care about the debt providing they can service it. It is classic leveraged buy out mentality
Buy a club for £1bn - 100% debt financed
Increase club value to £2bn and sell
Pay off loan principle and that £1bn profit in the old sky rocket
There are two ways to increase the value - win loads of stuff - doable but risky and will likely result in increasing the debt and reducing future profits
Or find a way to grab a greater slice of the pie by guaranteeing future earnings
These clubs have realised that the first path is no longer sustainable therefore they have to go down the second path
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And looking at your last paragraph, what then gives these clubs the right to take steps to guarantee their future earning to the detriment of the rest of the football world.
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Arf
BREAKING: Arsenal have decided to not participate in the European Super League. They are starting their own breakaway league with just themselves. The bookies currently have them as second favourites to win it.
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James Corden nails it for American audience
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At the time(2 weeks ago) this looked “odd”.
Now it lsimply ooks crooked.
Surely some investigation is needed, surely insider trading?
Isn’t this how the Premier League started?
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There are comparisons with the formation of the Premier League in 92, although I appreciate it is not strictly the same. For me though, and although i agree with Gary Neville on his stance, it seems a little strange when Sky paid presenters are so vociferously against these proposals when their business model has funded the few at the expense of the many. They fed the baby too much sugar, telling it that is was great and brilliant and expecting it to follow in the family business, but now it’s reached early adulthood they are mortified that the bloated, spoiled fat bastard wants to eat more sugar than the family can provide and so wants to go and work for someone else.
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