[Archived] French Threat To English Football

[USABlue]

Maybe Platini wabts to get into Blatters pants, so much focus on the English game. There was none of this when the other European leagues were better than ours. I have not heards any rumblings about Real Madrid being prepared to go over 100m for Ronaldo, long before Kaka and City were mentioned in the same breath.

I support the cause of creating a level playing field for each club in their domestic leagues but if one Country has dominance so be it. No one was whining when English clubs were not good enough to win the European Cup, I don't recall any concern about creating level playing field back then.

Now, here we are, the English are dominant and a Johnny Foreigner wants to "fix it" Fixed squad size would help, however there is a risk in my mind that reducing squad size may further inflate transfers and wages since the big clubs will scramble to make sure that ALL of their squad is top quality. If they can drop 10-15 players from their squads surely they can and will simply re-direct those monies to the reduced squad to improve overall quality.

Throw in a team salary cap, not based on wealth but a flat, set amount and you might have a real means of making things competitive.

[yoda]

Again one assumes you are a recent convert to the blue and white cause.

Rovers fans who were around during the 80's and before will know that despise our Bob as they might, Burnley football club never failed to be in the Black under Lord. We bankrolled ourselves by developing and selling players. That includes building 2 new (and at the time top drawer) stands. Oh for a return to those times.

So nothing selctive about my memory. As I say, I don't say these things to have a go, for all the posturing I don't think one Burnley fan would complain if we found our own Jack Walker. Nonetheless, no clubs fans has less right to complain about overspending based upon a rich benefactor than Rovers - it was your club that really started the ball rolling in this country.

1st game 1965 Rovers V Manu at ewood

and yes I remember well the gloating of the dingles in those days about how many consecutive years in the top div, having shirts printed with it on, then it changed, we started to win our encounters and then JW came along and the rest is history

[neekoy]

Maybe Platini wabts to get into Blatters pants, so much focus on the English game. There was none of this when the other European leagues were better than ours. I have not heards any rumblings about Real Madrid being prepared to go over 100m for Ronaldo, long before Kaka and City were mentioned in the same breath.

I support the cause of creating a level playing field for each club in their domestic leagues but if one Country has dominance so be it. No one was whining when English clubs were not good enough to win the European Cup, I don't recall any concern about creating level playing field back then.

Now, here we are, the English are dominant and a Johnny Foreigner wants to "fix it" Fixed squad size would help, however there is a risk in my mind that reducing squad size may further inflate transfers and wages since the big clubs will scramble to make sure that ALL of their squad is top quality. If they can drop 10-15 players from their squads surely they can and will simply re-direct those monies to the reduced squad to improve overall quality.

Throw in a team salary cap, not based on wealth but a flat, set amount and you might have a real means of making things competitive.

Of course there is, there has always been at one point of another player restrictions in Spain and Italy, this is not about damaging the Premier League but ensuring the long term survival of other leagues around the world, discounting the big five.

Ensuring long term development of players in Asia and South America instead of youngsters getting plundered at ages of 12.

This will actually work better for the Premier League because the players with outstanding quality will still be bought and sold but the run of the mill foreigner as seen with many of the bottom teir teams will remain in their homeland in which they could actually improve the standard of their domestic leagues. Mokoena is pretty ordinary but could be a crowd drawer in his homeland.

What Platini is targeting is the big clubs who continue to get richer and richer and are now big enough to buy the bottom six clubs entire squads if they wanted.

All this talk of past history though is short memory stuff, could you ever imagine Eusebio, Pele or Maradona playing for the clubs they did if it was 2009?

Tell me how Red Star, Hamburg, Steaua or Forest are going to ever have a chance at winning it again otherwise?

[neekoy]

Why is it only now though?

Just an update to Platini's plan

[dave birch]

Whether you like Platini or not, something has to (must ) change to equalise the (professional) game. The way it's going it will drown in its own money.

[dingles staying down 4ever]

Whether you like Platini or not, something has to (must ) change to equalise the (professional) game. The way it's going it will drown in its own money.

More like......in somebody else's money.

[dave birch]

Well, no, the club, any club, will be left in the situation that it will have to get itself out of. The previous owner will, no doubt, have extracted their pound of flesh.

[den]

I wouldn't get drawn in by Platini's stance. If he really wanted to level out the playing field, he would propose an across the board limit. He wont though - he will want it to be as a percentage of turnover. - which wouldn't benefit anyone apart from the other football federations outside England. It also, couldn't really be described as a "cap".

[tony gale's mic]

Every club in england?? get your facts correct, at that time Manchester United spent more and came second, do not forget here, Jack was not the Mafia, he was a true fan and built the ground etc, the players were an investment, look again at the facts, profits on players, shearer 12 million, Sutton 5 million, Le Saux £4.5 million, Sherwood 4,5 million Berg 4.5 million etc

Each player bought was young and at a very reasonable cost, indeed the books balanced very nicely thank you and note most of these lads were british players, all the money went back into the british game, if Rovers bought from say Blackpool (as they did with Alan Wright, then Blackpool would buy a player from a lesser club like Burnley (which they were then)

which helped you survive the really tough times when attendances were under 2,000 at the turf!! League v Darlington!!

In fact Colne Dynamos had three better attendances than Burnley that season!!!

So Jack was different to what is happening now, totally different, remember the top price he paid was £3million some 10 years after Trevor Francis was bought for a million!! He paid only for players who could be sold on and the club made good profits on almost every palyer, thats good business!!

Tell me that Shay Given will be sold for more than £8million, Bridge for more than £12million or Robinho for more than £35 million, no they wont, that is what Platini is saying, clubs paying well above the odds with no business plant to show for it!!

Blackburn Rovers did not buy the title, you cant do that, ask Man City, you have to have a manager who can pick a player, Rovers had that in Dalglish and a coach to gel them together (Harford) its a business plan, it worked and No other club will emulate what Jack Walker did, God Bless Him, A Legend.

Well said.

[RovertheHill]

Every club in england?? get your facts correct, at that time Manchester United spent more and came second, do not forget here, Jack was not the Mafia, he was a true fan and built the ground etc, the players were an investment, look again at the facts, profits on players, shearer 12 million, Sutton 5 million, Le Saux £4.5 million, Sherwood 4,5 million Berg 4.5 million etc

Each player bought was young and at a very reasonable cost, indeed the books balanced very nicely thank you and note most of these lads were british players, all the money went back into the british game, if Rovers bought from say Blackpool (as they did with Alan Wright, then Blackpool would buy a player from a lesser club like Burnley (which they were then)

which helped you survive the really tough times when attendances were under 2,000 at the turf!! League v Darlington!!

In fact Colne Dynamos had three better attendances than Burnley that season!!!

So Jack was different to what is happening now, totally different, remember the top price he paid was £3million some 10 years after Trevor Francis was bought for a million!! He paid only for players who could be sold on and the club made good profits on almost every palyer, thats good business!!

Tell me that Shay Given will be sold for more than £8million, Bridge for more than £12million or Robinho for more than £35 million, no they wont, that is what Platini is saying, clubs paying well above the odds with no business plant to show for it!!

Blackburn Rovers did not buy the title, you cant do that, ask Man City, you have to have a manager who can pick a player, Rovers had that in Dalglish and a coach to gel them together (Harford) its a business plan, it worked and No other club will emulate what Jack Walker did, God Bless Him, A Legend.

Absolutely correct. Whilst Longsider has a point that we shouldn't be envious of other club's good fortune there is a clear distinction. When Jack was at Rovers there were probably 10 clubs that could easily compete with Rovers for the biggest transfers we did, and for most of them every club in the premier league and a good number in the championship could compete. I don't recall breaking the bank for Sherwood, LeSaux, Pierce, Berg, Atkins, Slater, Ripley or Newell for example. Name one other club in the world that can pay £90M for a player other than Man City? Name how many clubs can pay £32M for a player? The unfortunate thing these days is that most of the money flowing now goes into players and agents pockets and very little finds its way into the development of the game the way it used to.

[Eddie]

We were setting British transfer records back then and outspending the majority of clubs, probably the majority combined. There's no doubt that we were truly flexing our financial muscle and were probably quite annoying to many of the teams of a similar size. If a team were to be promoted next season and do something similar I know that I wouldn't like them. We actually put together a side rather than just buying expensive pieces, which is a big difference between ourselves and a team like Manchester City, but we still have to recognise the fact that we got out the cheque book and went to town. If you adjust the fees that we paid to today's prices they would be massive.

[Hughesy]

What we did is similar to what City are doing, however Jack Built our foundations too (the same ones we survive on today).

He built OUR ground up, he built our academy (which was the best at the time) and he bank rolled big signings. We also had a top class manager and backroom staff. Hughes isnt in the same league as them!!

£74.4m was spent in the prem in 94 - 95 - We spent 7% of that money! United spent 11% - How did we buy the title???? FACT - WE DIDNT!!

Info taken from this research

Money spent in previous summer to winning title

So we spent a total £5.3m on Chris Sutton and Robbie Slater to win us the league.

Yet Manchester United spent £6m + Gillespie (Valued @ £1m) for Cole alone that season. They also signed David May from us that season for £1.2m. So a total spend of £8.2m.

[OscarRaven]

We were setting British transfer records back then and outspending the majority of clubs, probably the majority combined. There's no doubt that we were truly flexing our financial muscle and were probably quite annoying to many of the teams of a similar size. If a team were to be promoted next season and do something similar I know that I wouldn't like them. We actually put together a side rather than just buying expensive pieces, which is a big difference between ourselves and a team like Manchester City, but we still have to recognise the fact that we got out the cheque book and went to town. If you adjust the fees that we paid to today's prices they would be massive.

Have to agree and arguably injecting that sort of capital into a small club is more damaging (less sustainable) than middle eastern billions into the city of Manchester.

Now clearly Jack couldn't forsee how crazy football inflation would go and made the best provsions he could at the time with the trust but lets not be selective here, Jack wasn't trying to compete with the big boys when we were relegated was he?

[Hughesy]

If pretty sure if Jack was still alive - we would be well and truely secured in the top 6/ maybe top 4 and our stadium would pull much bigger crowds. Our squad would be much stronger and the team would probably be very similar to Villa's (Mainly British).

His business' would be worth a damn site more than it is now, as he knew how to do business better than anyone and he would be throwing cash into Rovers.

We would still be hated in the way that we were back then too. Ah the memories!!

[BRFC4EVA]

No offence but one assumes you are not a Rovers fan, or if you are your memory has gone all selective. I don't recall a single voice of dissention from the Rovers supporters when Jack started splashing his cash and giving you a huge competetive advantage over every club in England at the time? I don't recall any dissent from the thousands of fans the spending brought to Ewood either.

No offence but if there is one set of fans who really have no right to complain about wealthy clubs spending exhorbitant sums, amounts far beyond that which they can self generate it is Rover fans.

This is not a criticism, if we could find a Jack Walker I'd welcome his spending spree. It is merely a statement of absolute fact.

Incorrect. It merely put us on a competitive footing with the other top clubs in the country. In fact, often Man U, liverpool, aresnal and chelsea even back then spent more money on us (eg in 94-95 when we won the league we were joint 3rd highest spenders) in comparison to todays moneybags chairmen at Chelsea and Man City. Success was down to good management and clever bargain signings.

[bubblerrovers]

If platini has his way we will even worse off as some championship teams have a higher turnover excluding tv money

[philipl]

Platini's latest contribution to the debate. Not happy with foreign owners and foreign players. At least he chucks in the debts of Valencia and Real Madrid in this time and interestingly he highlights West Ham's problems.

[The Prof.]

So he'll stop the French players from coming over and earning big money will he. What a plonk.

I don't care about Platini and his views.

[Steve Moss]

Actually, I think Platini has some good points. I am unsure of his solutions, but he has correctly identified a problem, IMO.

[dave birch]

If he's attempting to level the playing field, I'm all for it.

[neekoy]

If he's attempting to level the playing field, I'm all for it.

Got to agree. If you look past obvious French hostilites from the Brits he has a great plan.

"And he confirmed that, within three years, UEFA will introduce regulations to the Champions League that will limit the spending on wages and ensure that the core of the squad of an English club will have to be English."

"Football has to have an identity and it is the identity of the city or the fans. If it is becoming a product that you buy and sell, that you can walk away from and sell . . . OK, maybe that’s your philosophy, but it’s not mine. I don’t like it. "

Don't see what is so wrong with those comments