Former Bolton Wanderers chairman, Phil Gartside, lost his battle with cancer yesterday. During Bolton’s 18 year Premier League tenure, Gartside wanted Celtic and Rangers in the league, as part of a reorganisation which would have seen a second tier Premier League created.
His motivation was the realisation that English football’s model was inherently dysfunctional. Teams like Bolton would over-commit to the player contracts necessary to keep them in the league, but with everyone else doing the same thing, it was only a matter of time before they finished in the bottom three. Less than 3 years since relegation Bolton face a winding-up order this month over a £2.2m debt to HMRC.
‘The Gartside Plan’ for league reorganisation found little support among his Premier League peers. Each passing TV deal poured ever-more money into the Premier League but the model remains dysfunctional. Those relegated regularly face dire consequences – and that’s before the bubble bursts.
As English and Welsh clubs who have dropped out of the Premier League continue to deal with the consequences, Europe’s mega-rich clubs are unhappy with their return from Champions League football. The relative democratisation of Champions League qualification, introduced by Michel Platini, which sees more clubs from smaller countries reach the group stage, is seen as a problem to some of Europe’s richest.
They want games against Manchester United, not Dinamo Zagreb. So do TV companies and sponsors. The football industry in Europe operates a series of EU sanctioned cartels. These sanctioned exceptions were granted on the basis that football is a sport, not a conventional business. The more top clubs act like businesses, not sporting institutions, the more reason to tear down the walls of these carters.
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TD 67
A few Barrow boys are heading to the Brazen before the game on Saturday
bus should arrive around 12:30 can not make it myself working shifts.
MICKBHOY1888 on 11TH FEBRUARY 2016 3:01 PM
maybe our aspirations should amount too reducing the number of senior clubs in Scotland competing for our pounds and amalgamation is the way forward
London with a population of 8.5 million at present sustains 14 senior football clubs whereas the population of Scotland 5.5 million attempts to sustain 42 senior clubs. That’s the economic reality of our present situation.
____
Most clubs in Scotland live within their means. Don’t see why we’d get rid of these clubs.
What Scottish football is lacking is leadership and investments in grass roots.
Young Scottish players get loads of chances to play. They just aren’t very good.
TIMALOY29 on 11TH FEBRUARY 2016 2:40 PM
People keep saying the bubble will burst. On what basis?
Just look at the NFL in the United states. Recession proof business.
That’s what the EPL and CL are becoming. The money is here to stay and teams like Bayern Munich and AC Milan simply want a bigger piece.
——–
I hear the point you make but it’s not comparing like with like
In EPL/UEFA competition the strongest are pulling away further and further every season. Essentially football will eventually eat itself.
The NFL recognised they are at present a fixed range product of 32 franchises. The draft system where the weakest teams of the season get first dibs at the best college talent ensures – ironically enough in the biggest market of them all – that there is theoretically the potential for poor teams to rise again.
4 years ago Carolina had a regular season record of 2 wins and 14 defeats. This season they were 15-1 and made the Super Bowl.
The NFL and the clubs all know that the product is the PRODUCT, not the individual clubs.
Big change in mindset needed this side of the pond.
Trad88,
There are and have been avenues for legal redress against the SFA, to date the supporters have had to lead the push on that front.
Of all those that know their place, expect those who supposedly represent us to be offering their tummy for tickling, like on here they try and bully their own whilst offering their bare arses to people they respect as masters.
SQUIRE DANAHER on 11TH FEBRUARY 2016 3:11 PM
I hear the point you make but it’s not comparing like with like
In EPL/UEFA competition the strongest are pulling away further and further every season. Essentially football will eventually eat itself.
The NFL and the clubs all know that the product is the PRODUCT, not the individual clubs.
______________
The “product” in England has only been enhanced by money.
If it wasn’t for the oil money being pumped into Manchester City and Chelsea, the English league would have ended up like Germany or Scotland or Switzerland.
Arsenal had a stadium to build and wouldn’t be able to stand up to Manchester United.
Many believe the EPL is having it’s best ever season in terms of excitement. I don’t think that it will be noncompetitive any time soon.
Football will never be as exciting as the NFL for the reasons you stated. However people will tune into the EPL and the CL to see which of the usual suspects win.
Canamalar
I know your stance and we’re all impatient on numerous issues.
But I don’t see why Lawwell would leave himself open to such ridicule by going public and claiming UEFA were more sympathetic than ever to the cause of levelling things off for the benefit of big clubs in smaller nations.
If you’re right then truly will have been taken for a ride. There’ll have to be some serious jiggery pokery involved if there is a solution that gets Man Utd in every year regardless of league position with no benefit to the likes of us and Ajax,
HH
Support for Communism continues to grow.
A wise young pioneer, going by the name of Baldrick, has a cunning five year economic plan.
An intelligent Party member, who is known to confuse the names Rodney and Dave, from London fully believes in a Left wing utopia.
Then there is someone called Jeremy Corbyn and some loony leftie ideas on CQN.
We’re doomed, doomed ah tell ye!
Squire Danisher
The draft system in the NFL does level the playing field somewhat.
However tv still manages to influence results.
I live in The USA and it’s obvious how the officiating tends to favour the large tv market teams.
Do not think the refs are directly told to do this but make decisions that cost the tv paymasters and league money and they know their career is heading downwards.
There are so many baffling decisions for the watching neutral(me) in a sport with almost more officials on the field than players plus tv reviews of certain plays.
The decision to call an incomplete pass on Carolina that led to a fumble and touchdown against was a classic example.
Manning is one of the league and tv’s golden boys and his win was perfect for both who conspired to keep his drug taking out of news.
Basketball and hockey the large tv market teams get the same favoured calls.
Football in Europe is exactly the same and having witnessed many of the tv favoured teams progress due to some really debatable refereeing.
Sport may well be a word that will become obsolete in the future.
I’ve enjoyed Mike Mulraney’s chutzpah today.
Not only has the Alloa chairman ridiculed Sevco’s bleatings about the line changes at Indodrill Stadium but it also looks like a classic double bluff; report a change of width and print a snap of a change in length. Brilliant, Mike.
Paul67 et al
There is more chance of detecting gravitational waves than breaking up the Cartels!
@Record_Sport campaign against Ronny disgraceful. Ignoring any issue that doesn’t fit their agenda.
Interesting stats on injuries this season from Barcabhoy on twitter. Earlier he compared our injury stats to Barcelona and theirs was 9% compared to our 23%. A few of us have commented on these stats before but really we need to be getting answers to why so many of our players are getting injured so regularly.
https://twitter.com/Barcabhoy1/status/697799051970916352
https://twitter.com/Barcabhoy1/status/697580476299542528
fan-a-tic on 11th February 2016 3:29 pm
Agree 100%
FAN-A-TIC on 11TH FEBRUARY 2016 3:29 PM
Surely it would make more sense to fix the game on behalf of league MVP Cam Newton rather than soon-to-retire Peyton Manning?
With Manning and Brady soon to retire and there will probably only be a couple more years from Rodgers and Roethlisberger on top of that.
Newton is going to define his era
EDDIE……………………..
The opposition kicks us up and down the park with impunity every week, sometimes twice.
Could be something in that.
Trad88,
Many politicians spin for delays while they wait for that big graveyard train job
do Barca ever ever play on a plastic pitch ? do such things exist in Spanish top level football ?
Celtic Mac
Old Albert does it again. Only took 100 years to detect them after he had predicted their existence.
We’re being stretched and compressed even as we speak.
Fascinating news conference from Washington, even though I’ve very little idea what the ‘clever clogs’ are talking about!
Shelves being cleared to accommodate Nobel Prizes.
Timaloy29
Manning is far bigger box office than Newton plus it was his finale.
A comeback story of one of the leagues favoured players.
Everyone talks of the Manning rule as to when he fails to complete pass for 1st down refs usually oblige with a penalty flag.
The fact that drugs were used to facilitate the comeback was conveniently brushed aside.
As an aside i think Newton is choke artist.
When the pressure was on in the super bowl he returned to the Cam Newton of old.
Others will have studied his performance on Sunday and noted this.
He will have to grow a lot tougher mentally to win a super bowl.
Beatbhoy,
They are talking about hoverboards and hovermotors, maybe take a similar time to that taken to prove Einstein’s theory but that’s the practical application.
Only problem is, students :)
Canamalar it looks like OCD obsession on 11th February 2016 3:44 pm
Trad88,
Many politicians spin for delays while they wait for that big graveyard train job
=======
True.
Very public failure bordering on humiliation doesn’t look good on the CV though,
HH
beatbhoy
Einstein a go go!
Trad88,
If it keeps people quiet and waiting until it’s too late, it looks great on the CV if that’s what the employers wanted.
Mr Pastry
Not wishing to accuse you of “cooking the books ” but could you point me to where in the 2015 accounts that it states we have 46,000 season ticket sales? I can only see 40,000 and a wee bit. Must have been that lady that distracted you with her own figures? :-)
I agree that Celtic have decided on a strategy of reducing net debt each year, and this been done by repaying their loan term loan earlier than required.
There are many reasons for this and it could be seen as safe and good housekeeping . However it could be alternatively argued that a long term loan is both manageable and serviceable ( as you say it is covered by the assets of the beusiness) and a club of Celtic size and stature require this working capital funding to maintain their status and potentially compete in Europe and grow income.
The monies used to reduce this long term loan could also be freed to use on other operational areas (I.e Transfer fees, wages (including living) and bonuses are 3 that spring to mind :-)
Celtic strategy over the last couple of years has been to move towards zero debt. Over managing work capital reduction can suffocate the growth and ambitions elsewhere.
HH
CRC
I would assume this has already been referred to. According to the DR, Marc Rieper has claimed that Tom Boyd has only supported Ronny Deila so that he ( TB) can keep his ambassadorial role with Celtic. I only glimpsed the article as I strolled through Morrisons so do not know what Rieper actually said. The fact that the `rag` took the line that it did , though, shows just how fanatical they are about criticising Celtic. As far as I am aware, EVER ex-Rangers pundit praises their old Club. Very few ex-Celts do likewise. We then have one speaking in favour of Ronny and immediately they have to find someone who will attack that positivity. I do not care if Reiper believes what he said or not but he certainly does not have any supporting evidence . That being so, we have to wonder why he would stoop so low. Is he skint? Missing the limelight?
JJ
FAN-A-TIC on 11TH FEBRUARY 2016 3:55 PM
“As an aside i think Newton is choke artist.
When the pressure was on in the super bowl he returned to the Cam Newton of old.
Others will have studied his performance on Sunday and noted this.
He will have to grow a lot tougher mentally to win a super bowl.”
_________
Incredibly harsh. Great QB’s have lost SB’s as it’s a team sport.
Cam was league MVP for a reason. He did the business in the Play-offs prior to the SB
He flopped in SB because he came up against the best defence in the league. I felt sorry for him actually, because as a young black guy in NFL people will always question his temperament.
Guys like DaMarcus Ware and Von Miller are absolute monsters and his OLine couldn’t stop them. The Broncos secondary were also effective and made his options limited. There was a reason he had to scramble 5 or 6 times. Panthers rushing attack was pretty poor as well. Put all the pressure on Cam to deliver.
Peyton limped over the line. He wasn’t that good.
The best QB is still Rodgers. It’s a shame that the rest of the Packers offence is so poor
Philbhoy, while I agree we get kicked all over the place in SPL, so does Messy, Suarez and Neymar. So how come they are rarely out injured?
Injuries? Bad luck, genetics and too many games.
JJ
Canamalar it looks like OCD obsession on 11th February 2016 4:02 pm
Trad88,
If it keeps people quiet and waiting until it’s too late, it looks great on the CV if that’s what the employers wanted.
=============
We’ll know in 6-9 months so not long to wait.
I fear you’re right but my point is – if so, shouldnt that be the tipping point for action?
It can’t just be the end of the matter.
HH
Timaloy29
He looked good this season due to the fact the run game worked and his line game him time to make good decisions.
On Sunday he had neither but on many occasions he simply made bad throws due to being affected by pressure.
Manning was mince but the league and press love the family so only the win not the manner of it will be remembered.
No doubt Rodgers is the best!
Trad88,
Hopefully you understand I’m only playing devils advocate, I don’t know how serious any of the players are but I always think its a good idea to let them know how serious their audience are taking it.
The issue is back to my original question, what action ?
eddieinkirkmichael
Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind I remember hearing some speculation about the softness of the ground at Lennoxtown and its possible relationship to injured limbs.
I also distinctly remember Andy Hinkel citing Celtic Park’s pitch as being a reason for Celtic’s good European home record as the pitch was also softer than others around Europe and the Celtic players were used to it’s energy sapping effects.
Maybe it’s that, maybe it’s not that.
EDDIEINKIRKMICHAEL on 11TH FEBRUARY 2016 4:08 PM
Philbhoy, while I agree we get kicked all over the place in SPL, so does Messy, Suarez and Neymar. So how come they are rarely out injured?
Because the refs over there will only put up with so much to produce cards
when you compare it with our set-up how many warnings do they get here
untold before they are finally booked the proof of the evidence is in the watching
for example said players in Spain may get away with one lunged out tackle but
the same player will not get away with two then you look @ our set up oh I suppose
I’ll have to book you to increase my commision after same player committing about
half a dozen fouls sad but true
Canalamar
So 2 black holes collided and died forming a new one.
Does it keep the history of the old ones?
TIMALOY29 on 11TH FEBRUARY 2016 4:06 PM
Agree with you that many had been waiting for Newton to fall from grace and have loved the opportunity to give him a kicking after Sunday particularly from the race card perspective.
I think there’s a bit of young Cristiano Ronaldo about him. I hope he grows up because he could redefine the QB position – and is already on the way to doing so with R Wilson.
Think you are a bit harsh on GB as Rofgers was missing his favourite WR all season after Nelson’s knee injury pre-season
AKBW..,
That yellow card is usually a message to the player that he now has the freedom of the pitch to maim and maul at his pleasure, no further action will be taken against him.
Beatbhoy,
It becomes a heritage :)
Mammy hole and daddy hole make a new wane hole and the wane hole has a smelly nappy