by under the tin »
27 Jul 2010 09:21
Once were Biscuitmen If they would just seal off the Premier league and allow no promotion/relegation it would probably save a fair few clubs in the lower divisions from destroying themselves.
Salaries would fall massively, the championship would be far more competitive and could be modelled on the NFL/NBA with clubs regulated, revenues shared equally etc. The Premiership big 4/5/whatever would never agree to this but a new 2nd tier probably would.
They may as well go the whole hog and organise the premiership as a franchise with a good geographic spread of teams. There's no financial point in Fulham, Reading etc in the top division and having no teams at all from Yorkshire. Its completely cynical but the alternative seems to be financial insanity and more and more clubs going under.
I hold a similar view of the future of the top level of the game, but I don't think it will be a franchise based
premiership, I think it will be on at least European, or even a world level. Uncle Sam has already started having a little tickle about a world gridiron league, and it's not about teaching the world how to play american football, it's about maximising television revenues. "Our" football is a bigger game, worldwide, and the ad men selling those high end 4X4's at half time will pay proper money for exposure on that scale. The likes of SKY don't truly give a flying one about football itself: they're only involved in order to make money out of it.
As I've posted before on OAE, if this happens, I will be delighted, because the "galactico" footballers will all be playing for truly plastic franchises dotted around the planet, and as a natural consequence, our domestic leagues will become a more level playing field, more competitive as a result.
Microsoft Manchester vs. Fiat Turin 20.00 EST. Bring it on.