How to fix football?

[Medway Blue]

Get rid of parachute payments for good and introduce compulsory relegation wage reduction clauses into player contracts, and outlaw things like goal and clean sheet bonuses.

 

[camden shrimper]

Get rid of parachute payments for good and introduce compulsory relegation wage reduction clauses into player contracts, and outlaw things like goal and clean sheet bonuses.

Not one agent would agree and it is not legally enforceable

 

[Kestrel]

Not one agent would agree and it is not legally enforceable

Ban parasitic agents and have a central body who deal with transfers

 

[southendkid]

Ban parasitic agents and have a central body who deal with transfers

At our level they're kind of needed because their clients aren't known names, how many players have signed for us that we'd never heard of? Agents are the guys that convince clubs to give their players a trial, if it was up to the players to sort stuff like that out their general lack of charisma would mean they'd never get a look in unless they were tearing up trees in non-league. I agree it would be nice to ban the top agents that care more about money than their clients but how could you actually enforce this? Players don't know the first thing about contract negotiations so if you banned agent fees they'd just hire agents as consultants anyway to look through the paperwork.

 

[ms brush]

I would do 3 things.

Firstly, I would introduce a tariff for all clubs with a £15m + annual turnover to help fund the lower leagues, regardless of where they are in the pyramid. It would be impossible to get agreement to salary caps, as that rewards the mediocre, but a better version of the fair play rules that genuinely benefits the lower divisions would be manageable.

I would ban parachute payments, as that has created a whole pile of issues right through the leagues, and have total spend caps at each level, rather than individual salary caps. The money should be distributed more fairly, it is wrong to see a relegated club get handed 2x a competing clubs total budget when they spectacularly screw up. Ipswich, Bolton, Blackpool, Portsmouth, Sunderland... Rest my case!

I would also do a root and branch review of the owners, and provide grants to encourage clubs to be owned by supporters trusts, with a paid CEO who works for the fans, rather than the current, one man ego trip ownership, which as we know can be pretty murky. Without the corrupt ownership models that are out there, football can return to its rightful place in each community.

I don't think you can do this overnight either. Asking the billionaire prem clubs to give up their huge salaries and their greedy culture won't be an easy sell. Turkey's don't vote for Christmas, do they!

 

[stewart]

I would definitely bring back division3 south and division 3 north,that would
cut expenses.Made up from league1 and 2 teams,Agree with a salary cap. I wouldnt care if the prmiershite went their own way, Championship would revert to div1 league 1 becomes 2nd div ,and north and south can be made up from div2and national league

 

[Mad Cyril]

outlaw things like goal and clean sheet bonuses.

Our players did a pretty good job at enforcing this.

 

[Green Wizard]

If the Premiership went their own way would they take the Championship with them? I'm sure a majority of Championship clubs would like the idea.

 

[RobM]

The salary cap - do you mean individual salaries or total salary budget? e.g. £10,000 a week max for a league one player, or £250,000 a week total player budget?

 

[Medway Blue]

Not one agent would agree and it is not legally enforceable

Then get rid of agents.

Footballers higher up in the game don’t need their over-inflated wages and the longer they continue to take them, the more unsustainable it gets. If they want to improve and maybe even save the game, they will agree. The clauses are essentially performance-based. If you want to keep your inflated wage then you’ll work hard to help your club stay in the top division.

 

[ESG]

Don't get me started on agents?

Whilst on the over paid prima madonas subject. How do all Premiers***e clubs have covid19 testing kits by the bucket load but the areas seriously in need still go without?

 

[BriggBlue]

You say that but a lot of footballers have been tapped up at a young age and have nothing to fall back on! I have worked with people doing trade apprenticeships from the bigger clubs but that is quite rare!

The players only have themselves to blame on that one, they have enough spare time to gain qualifications and train for a second career, it would definitely help their mental health when they stop playing as they will have something to do, at the moment a player like Simon Cox, (just an example of a player that has been at L1 level most of his career but had forays into higher leagues and therefore has most likely earned a lot of money), will probably be able to retire and not need to work again leaving a gaping hole in his life to fill, if his income throughout his playing days meant that he would have to continue working once he hangs up his boots then he'd be smart enough to start transitioning into a new career and the change won't be as abrupt.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

I can see too many problems with the North and South League idea,
Simple examples are distance to a South Plymouth is much more than a North Mansfield, and many clubs in Midlands will be "missing" closer Midland clubs which fall either side of the line.

If there is to be change how about some innovative moves and having more smaller large group leagues leading to cup style play off ?

 

[camden shrimper]

I can see too many problems with the North and South League idea,
Simple examples are distance to a South Plymouth is much more than a North Mansfield, and many clubs in Midlands will be "missing" closer Midland clubs which fall either side of the line.

If there is to be change how about some innovative moves and having more smaller large group leagues leading to cup style play off ?

It's a torrid idea and just robs clubs of opportunity and ambition in my opinion.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

It's a torrid idea and just robs clubs of opportunity and ambition in my opinion.

24 Championship clubs?
Top 8 vie for promotion.
Middle 8 safe
Bottom 8 join play offs with 8 clubs that are going for promotion from 4 regional leagues of 20 teams.
For us we could be in a league with Col, Ipswich, orient, Dons, Cam, Dags, Barnet, Steve, Gills, Creepy, Dover Boreham and a few other Conference side. Top 2 go up and next 8 do mini cup for play offs against Champ sides, maybe a mini league?
This is all just a quick idea but current system and pyramid isn't very balanced imo.
Could give some opportunities?

 

[camden shrimper]

24 Championship clubs?
Top 8 vie for promotion.
Middle 8 safe
Bottom 8 join play offs with 8 clubs that are going for promotion from 4 regional leagues of 20 teams.
For us we could be in a league with Col, Ipswich, orient, Dons, Cam, Dags, Barnet, Steve, Gills, Creepy, Dover Boreham and a few other Conference side. Top 2 go up and next 8 do mini cup for play offs against Champ sides, maybe a mini league?
This is all just a quick idea but current system and pyramid isn't very balanced imo.
Could give some opportunities?

Selfishly /personally I love travelling to new places and I don't really have that tribal local opposition thing, I still come to games but haven't lived there for decades. I look at that list and don't get excited about any of those. It also feels like the quality of the opposition, and by extension, matches, would go down. It's the promotion side that doesn't appeal to me either.
On an aside I don't think they'll go back to relegation play offs.

 

[Jai]

You can put almost all the problems in football down to the split of television money through the divisions.

Make it 40% PL, 30% Champ, 20% L1 and 10% L2 and you'd solve almost everything. Even a less even split would solve an awful lot.

Unfortunately, that will never happen.

 

[camden shrimper]

You can put almost all the problems in football down to the split of television money through the divisions.

Make it 40% PL, 30% Champ, 20% L1 and 10% L2 and you'd solve almost everything. Even a less even split would solve an awful lot.

Unfortunately, that will never happen.

And as much as I want an even playing field that's because the money is split against what is shown /viewing figures. Ultimately the top clubs should realise they need to support the grass roots but in the short term it always suits them to have the t power split to pick up bargains from the lower leagues and creates a bit more self preservation

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

And as much as I want an even playing field that's because the money is split against what is shown /viewing figures. Ultimately the top clubs should realise they need to support the grass roots but in the short term it always suits them to have the t power split to pick up bargains from the lower leagues and creates a bit more self preservation

This is where it goes wrong, the top clubs just want to win trophys, get in Chumps League, AND the No1 priority, make loads of money which they can give back to the owner via a tax exempt scheme.
They don't give a toss about lower leagues as there is very little money in it, it won't sell merchandise or viewing rights in Malaysia, or lucrative sponsorship or tour deals. End off, full stop #hellonahandcart.

 

[camden shrimper]

This is where it goes wrong, the top clubs just want to win trophys, get in Chumps League, AND the No1 priority, make loads of money which they can give back to the owner via a tax exempt scheme.
They don't give a toss about lower leagues as there is very little money in it, it won't sell merchandise or viewing rights in Malaysia, or lucrative sponsorship or tour deals. End off, full stop #hellonahandcart.

I concur, they would pull the drawbridge up without a second thought.