Premier League 2020/21

[rez9000]

Thats not a daft suggestion, but I’d strongly argue that having 2 teams reduce 2 games to 60 minutes (from 90) would do far more damage to the integrity of the competition than asking a team to call on its U23s to fulfill a single fixture. Everything that is happening in football in its response to the pandemic just smacks of a complete vacuum of leadership where no governing body has the balls to accept and publicly acknowledge that something has to give.

So what else is new? This is built-in to every monolithic institution and always has been. It's exacerbated by the untrammelled pursuit of green (and I'm not talking soylent) that they think is the foundation for all their work, from FA level right up to FIFA.

Anyone with an ounce of sense in the brainbox knows, and has known for years, that the way the sport is currently structured is ultimately unsustainable. The only attempt to try and inject at least some semblance of a stabilising factor, FFP, started off weak, was left gapingly open to abuse, and at the very first attempt to enforce it, got shredded faster than a wet paper bag in a typhoon. That was down to the football framework not understanding how slow they really are - another characteristic of monolithic structures.

The whole football structure is too big, too centralised and too focused on money. However, the pandemic won't bring about its end. Individual clubs will suffer perhaps, but not the overall framework. The collapse of the current structure will take time. But it will happen and the very thing you've mentioned above will be a key contributing cause.

 

[mattdefoe]

Man city getting the Everton game has ruined it and taken away any consistency. They must have pressure the premier league

they would have had enough players to play the fixture but ended up getting a nice rest and look fresh and on form again .

 

[Tucker]

If they let Villa skip the game on Wednesday it will be an absolute travesty.

 

[Reece]

How will our players be holding up Corona wise now it's been reported the Brentford manager has it? You would've thought he'd have transmitted it to some of his staff and players. Someone mentioned at the end of the game there weren't too many safety protocols followed...

 

[Yid-ol]

How will our players be holding up Corona wise now it's been reported the Brentford manager has it? You would've thought he'd have transmitted it to some of his staff and players. Someone mentioned at the end of the game there weren't too many safety protocols followed...

All tests done in the last few days have come back negative. You still need to be around that person for a good amount of time (15 minutes off the top of my head) to really have a chance of catching it, would be more worried if it was their players that had it than the manager.

 

[C0YS]

So what else is new? This is built-in to every monolithic institution and always has been. It's exacerbated by the untrammelled pursuit of green (and I'm not talking soylent) that they think is the foundation for all their work, from FA level right up to FIFA.

Anyone with an ounce of sense in the brainbox knows, and has known for years, that the way the sport is currently structured is ultimately unsustainable. The only attempt to try and inject at least some semblance of a stabilising factor, FFP, started off weak, was left gapingly open to abuse, and at the very first attempt to enforce it, got shredded faster than a wet paper bag in a typhoon. That was down to the football framework not understanding how slow they really are - another characteristic of monolithic structures.

The whole football structure is too big, too centralised and too focused on money. However, the pandemic won't bring about its end. Individual clubs will suffer perhaps, but not the overall framework. The collapse of the current structure will take time. But it will happen and the very thing you've mentioned above will be a key contributing cause.

tbf I'll defend FFP it has worked in practical terms in how clubs are run, and Man City was not even close to the first attempt to enforce it. The rule didn't exist for Man City anyway, it exists for the Parma's and Leeds' of this world. I also don't really know what UEFA could have done differently regarding the Man City case, they don't control CAS and Man City's biggest problem was the lying which prevented it being dealt with swiftly, CAS upheld the lying part but thought the rest was time-barred, creating a real worry that if the punishment for Lying is so weak that that's just the future way to go. But UEFA had little to do that.

I do agree with the fact that football is terribly organised, and unsustainable, in multiple ways though.

 

[rez9000]

tbf I'll defend FFP it has worked in practical terms in how clubs are run, and Man City was not even close to the first attempt to enforce it. The rule didn't exist for Man City anyway, it exists for the Parma's and Leeds' of this world. I also don't really know what UEFA could have done differently regarding the Man City case, they don't control CAS and Man City's biggest problem was the lying which prevented it being dealt with swiftly, CAS upheld the lying part but thought the rest was time-barred, creating a real worry that if the punishment for Lying is so weak that that's just the future way to go. But UEFA had little to do that.

I do agree with the fact that football is terribly organised, and unsustainable, in multiple ways though.

But even then, the inability to do anything was inherent in the powers that UEFA gave themselves as part of the regulations. I've worked on legislation for the government, actually worked on the drafting of new law and managing the passage of bills through Parliament. And in every instance, the most important aspect has been analysing how new laws will work when actually implemented. The UK government has a specific unit of lawyers whose only job is to check and help draft clauses in bills to ensure they have the effect intended. In order to do so, the relevant Bill team has to liaise with policy teams and tease out to the finest details to find precisely what outcome the new law is designed to bring about. And UEFA would have, or at least should have, done the same.

If one looks through the actual FFP regulations, when it comes to income and expenses, some of the definitions are very loosely defined - this provides wiggle room. It may not have necessarily applied to the Man City case, but it still provides enough space around the specifics for someone to try and take advantage. OK, in Man City's case, perhaps the limits on time may have been the determining factor, but in a way that makes it worse. Any regulation should view time limits as a key priority and draft them in a way to ensure that clubs can't simply 'count down the clock' to escape punishment.

But we can debate the coulda, shoulda, woulda's of the case until the cows come home, but the main point isn't about specific cases. It's about the weakness in action of large monoliths. UEFA's attitude when it came to FFP smacked of "we are UEFA, we are the LAW!", but almost immediately there was analysis from many quarters showing how weak it actually was and how it favoured the big clubs, the very entities that FFP was designed to police. And then Man City, in the same crass, vulgar, scummy way they do everything simply said, "you may be the law, but we've got the money, so fuck you".

A strong organisation is one that is agile, that relies on real-world analysis instead of bureaucracy, that can foresee problems before they happen. UEFA, the FA, the Premier League, all of these organisations demonstrate that they are none of those things. And their monolithic thinking is exacerbated by every single one considering the making of money as the primary priority, with every other consideration, including the sport itself, so far behind that they're barely visible. And a crisis like the current pandemic shows just how slow, ponderous, detached from the realities of the sport they govern (let alone the wider world), and ultimately unfit-for-purpose they actually are.

 

[G Ron]

I just got a message from a mate saying “Inside info, the Villa game on Wednesday is off and we’re playing the rearranged Fulham fixture instead.”
I’ve asked where that’s come from as he’s not ITK but he has a couple of close contacts of Bale. Fingers crossed common sense has prevailed!

 

[Yid-ol]

I just got a message from a mate saying “Inside info, the Villa game on Wednesday is off and we’re playing the rearranged Fulham fixture instead.”
I’ve asked where that’s come from as he’s not ITK but he has a couple of close contacts of Bale. Fingers crossed common sense has prevailed!

Fulham also play Friday, would they arrange it that close to another game just now?

 

[glacierSpurs]

Really don't like that arrangement... We want to take points off Villa.

 

[Tonio]

Really don't like that arrangement... We want to take points off Villa.

We will, just later than planned

 

[G Ron]

Fulham also play Friday, would they arrange it that close to another game just now?

That could well be pushed back as part of the re-jig, but that wasn’t mentioned. Also, plenty of teams had two matches in the space of two days over the festive period, so it can happen.

 

[TheChosenOne]

"Alleged" Midweek Fixtures
.

 

[wirE]

Did I read correct, that our game against Villa on Wednesday were to be postponed and instead play Fulham? Don't they have a game in 4 days time?

 

[Hakkz]

Did I read correct, that our game against Villa on Wednesday were to be postponed and instead play Fulham? Don't they have a game in 4 days time?

On friday yes.

 

[srups34]

Did I read correct, that our game against Villa on Wednesday were to be postponed and instead play Fulham? Don't they have a game in 4 days time?

Yes its looking likely we will play Fulham on Wednesday evening and their Friday night game switched to Saturday @1730

 

[wirE]

Yes its looking likely we will play Fulham on Wednesday evening and their Friday night game switched to Saturday @1730

Ok, but that's not too bad imo. It's like playing the Champions League then

 

[Gspurs11]

Did I read correct, that our game against Villa on Wednesday were to be postponed and instead play Fulham? Don't they have a game in 4 days time?

There's actually talk of fixtures being rearranged so Fulham play us Wednesday and their game with Chelsea moved to Saturday. All seems too sensible to me.

Though Fulham are complaining because they played 120 minutes in the cup over the weekend so

 

[Hakkz]

There's actually talk of fixtures being rearranged so Fulham play us Wednesday and their game with Chelsea moved to Saturday. All seems to sensible to me.

Though Fulham are complaining because they played 120 minutes in the cup over the weekend so

Maybe they should have won the game in normal time then. We have to deal with fixture pile ups all the time, they can deal with it once because of something they caused (it was their players being sick that postponed it).

 

[Shadydan]

Someone was always going to end up on the losing side here and it's Fulham, we have to play them on Wednesday because we literally don't have anymore space to play that match, we still don't have space to play the rearranged Villa match unless we drop out the cup comps. I don't think they can complain that much, it's just one of those things out of everyone's control.