The cynical view is that Citeh are pushing for a deal - if you drop the 115 charges, we’ll drop our lawsuit and not destroy the EPL
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It certainly isn’t a good look when the politicos have been questioning the (in)ability of the PL and football in general to regulate itself. With enhanced US ownership of teams (oops Everton), I thought the rules would become tighter over term (ergo the post Newcastle acquisition changes) to move the financial model to something akin to the highly-regulated NFL model, which is designed to avoid ‘big wallet’ success.
Nah… but I won’t comment.
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Naughty Woy!
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Personally I think the PL need to hold firm the charging of the cheats was to show that FFP actually has some teeth and to cave in at this juncture when thing’s actually seem to be showing some improvement would be disastrous.
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It seems to me that the main effect of FFP is to stop smaller/medium size clubs competing with the big clubs. Forest, Leicester, Newcastle etc.
It seems to have very little to do with sport, competition or level playing fields.
Maybe it’s time to move to an IPl style system with draft auctions. (Wash my mouth out).
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English football died with the formation of the Premier League, spurred on by the sheer greed of the “big five”, and yes, Bob, that includes the Gooners.
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So the eradication of FFP would benefit small teams? My view is just the opposite you would actually see smaller clubs bankrupted by investors gambling with borrowed money.
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The current status prevents them from competing. Most of the big clubs seem comfortable with this, obviously.
At the moment it doesn’t seem to have much to do with ‘sport’.
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To a degree they are. But the big clubs are jealous of the wealth of, and worried that they can’t compete with, the super big clubs.
Ugly
EPL isnt great for the game imo. Worse though is the Champions League. As a proper cup competition (European Cup) it gave smaller clubs a chance. No more. It’s just a money spinner. European Cup, Cup Winners Cup and Fairs Cup were great. I don’t even know what the competitions are now other than the Champions League. By way of evidence I offer the FA Cup which has imo provided the best viewing for neutrals again this season. The big boys are doing their best to kill that now. Who’s really interested in clubs fighting for 4th place? If it hadn’t been for the Gooners this season there was no competition (again).
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That’s a bit unfair on Liverpool. It was a tight three way tussle until quite late in the season.
Include Liverpool if you like (9 points and 17 goals adrift of City). 23 points to 4th place is probably the most telling stat, that and City apparently suing the EPL over ‘fairness’?
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Aston Villa’s 4th place points tally of 68 is broadly in line with EPL history (71 points) which has actually been showing an increasing trend. Graph shows all 4th place points tallies until 2021:
EPL over the years has gone from the ‘best league in the world’ to ‘most competitive league in the world’ to ‘most exciting league in the world’. The gap to 4th in the EPL is currently greater than the gap to 4th in the so called uncompetitive Spanish top flight. The gap from LUFC (the last true champions) to 4th in 91/92 was only 10 points over more games so more opportunity to grow the gap. Was only 22 points to 7th. That’s now 31 over 4 fewer games.
The Cheats siting discrimination after winning a fourth PL in a row and six out of seven PL titles a year after winning a treble is utterly ridiculous. The audacity and arrogance of them threatening to effectually tear down the Premier League unless they are aloud to sponsor themselves for any amount they choose is actually disgusting.
I’m just hoping that those of you who yawned and laughed at me over this club’s behaviour are starting to see a tiny bit of what I meant.
And a state nation like the UAE taking someone to court for discrimination and the ‘Tyranny of Majority’ is shameful and if it where my team I would boycott them at every level.
It seems Newcastle are reluctant to at least publicly back The Cheats in their legal challenge of PL rules.
All this Gooner ranting and Closet Gooner ranting is getting embarrassing.