Great article about the state of football

Be warned this is a very long read but it is brilliant. Way too long to paste into here.

Interesting how we were the first ones to sidestep Rule 34. Also interesting is that is was a spurs employee who Man Utd poached in early 1990's, Edward Freeman, who was the main driver of the merchandise plan that played such a massive part in Man Utd becoming the global club they are now

sidford said:

How football became broken beyond repair

The game is going through an unprecedented period of financial and competitive imbalance. Miguel Delaney investigates how we got here and – crucially – whether the dominance of the mega-rich is here to stay

www.independent.co.uk

Be warned this is a very long read but it is brilliant. Way too long to paste into here.

Interesting how we were the first ones to sidestep Rule 34. Also interesting is that is was a spurs employee who Man Utd poached in early 1990's, Edward Freeman, who was the main driver of the merchandise plan that played such a massive part in Man Utd becoming the global club they are now

Click to expand...

Excellent piece.

Sadly, I think we're far too far down the rabbit-hole for change to come about without destruction. It'll take a crisis (or many crises) to force change.

People talk about football as being big business but it really isn’t when you strip it back. The turnovers and profits are tiny when compared to genuine big business.

Football has some hideous people involved at the top unfortunately. Very few think of anything other then their own interests. We all have our own opinions of our glorious leader, but statements such as ‘we are only asking for what’s fair’ are very bad for the game in the long run. We’ll end up with a league of 16 clubs in it all followed by the youtube generation fanboys whilst the rest go back to ‘grass roots’ domestic stuff and let them all get on with it

Still, I’m not so sure it’s finished. The landscape will change, it always does. I’d love to see people with a real interest in the game involved and making proper decisions. Transfer and salary caps ( not based on % of turnover ), maximum foreign player numbers, no signing of foreign players under 21 etc
Proper rules brought in to create competition and give homegrown players more of a chance, without a second thought to ‘upsetting’ certain clubs

SugarRay said:

People talk about football as being big business but it really isn’t when you strip it back. The turnovers and profits are tiny when compared to genuine big business.

Football has some hideous people involved at the top unfortunately. Very few think of anything other then their own interests. We all have our own opinions of our glorious leader, but statements such as ‘we are only asking for what’s fair’ are very bad for the game in the long run. We’ll end up with a league of 16 clubs in it all followed by the youtube generation fanboys whilst the rest go back to ‘grass roots’ domestic stuff and let them all get on with it

Still, I’m not so sure it’s finished. The landscape will change, it always does. I’d love to see people with a real interest in the game involved and making proper decisions. Transfer and salary caps ( not based on % of turnover ), maximum foreign player numbers, no signing of foreign players under 21 etc
Proper rules brought in to create competition and give homegrown players more of a chance, without a second thought to ‘upsetting’ certain clubs

Click to expand...

Yeah I would like to see some of those implemented.

These days I don't really pay much attention to the top flights or european level football, beyond Spurs. I pay more attention to the lower leagues.

Plus VAR doesn't help because it diminishes the unpredictability of the game further.

And Part Two of the article for your perusal: