Football League Meeting

[BCFC_Dan]

This seems to have slipped through fairly unnoticed (by me, at least):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/danroan/2010/04/football_league_set_for_crunch.html

It looks as though the Premier League is trying to further bias things in favour of the top clubs under the guise of generosity.

It's a tough one for City as they probably stand to benefit more than most clubs (apart from the relegated Premier League clubs who will be at a huge advantage with increased parachute payments), but bad for the league in general.

If it goes through and City can manage a promotion in the next couple of seasons, that combined with the new stadium should give City a pretty good chance of avoiding a return to the lower leagues and make the gap with the likes of Rovers almost insurmountable. Whether that's a good thing for football or not is debatable.

[sephjnr]

It'd be fairer to give £1.5m to L2 clubs, £1.25m to L1 then £1m to the Champ teams.

[chinapig]

This seems to have slipped through fairly unnoticed (by me, at least):

http://www.bbc.co.uk...for_crunch.html

It looks as though the Premier League is trying to further bias things in favour of the top clubs under the guise of generosity.

It's a tough one for City as they probably stand to benefit more than most clubs (apart from the relegated Premier League clubs who will be at a huge advantage with increased parachute payments), but bad for the league in general.

If it goes through and City can manage a promotion in the next couple of seasons, that combined with the new stadium should give City a pretty good chance of avoiding a return to the lower leagues and make the gap with the likes of Rovers almost insurmountable. Whether that's a good thing for football or not is debatable.

I recall there was a thread about this when the Prem first suggested it. A step towards a 2 division Premier League as a number of posters suggested at the time. Bad for the game as a whole imo but no doubt the big boys will get their way. However, if the trend of financial mismanagement (viz Portsmouth, Hull, West Ham) continues a number of clubs will need their parachute payments to pay off in whole or in part their huge debts and may not benefit in a playing sense at all. Arguably the temptation will simply be to overspend even more.

[Guest Rubes]

Most people are getting wise to free internet streaming, so I can't see why anybody would bother paying for Sky TV subscriptions.

Give it a few more years and satellite TV will go the same way as the music & film industry. Then the PL money river will dry up completely.

[Spud55]

Just heard on radio 5 that now the fl have not agreed to this, the PL are saying that unless they ratify it within 3 weeks the solidarity payments that the PL give out the the other 72 league clubs will be stopped.

Just another example of the ways that sky and the Premier League are destroying football in this country.

[chowie]

Shocking, FL is being bullied BBC

[chinapig]

I suspect SL won't mind if our solidarity payments almost triple. Mind you it hasn't even been ratified by the PL clubs yet. That nice Mr Scudamore eh?

[CliftonCliff]

I've been keeping an eye on this issue over the last week or so and share all the concerns expressed here. Depressing and deeply worrying. The money men will doubtless get their way in the end, as they invariably do, but when you look at the state they've got the game into thus far, you fear for the future of football in this country.