[Archived] Two Tier League And Celtic And Rangers

[modes98]

Personally, I would do away with payments for TV appearances and share that equally. The increased media payments frm overseas broadcasts are going to be shared equally- £6m per club per year from next season.

I don't know why they don't do that anyway? It makes sense that the TV companies pay for the right to screen matches involving all the teams and so the same money should be given to each team. Why increase the gap between the top 4 and the rest? Surely the idea of the PL is to be competative.

[PAFELL]

There is a chance that there will be something done to narrow the financial gap created by the Champions League as there are 16 Prem clubs that don't get into the CL and "only" 14 votes are needed to change things around.

Personally, I would do away with payments for TV appearances and share that equally. The increased media payments frm overseas broadcasts are going to be shared equally- £6m per club per year from next season.

Bolton's two tier proposal would probably increase the fear factor by spreading the parachute payment around 22 clubs instead of three.

At least the Celtic/Rangers nonsense has been killed. Bring them in only if they bring a CL and a Europa League place with them. Otherwise, forget it.

What do you think they have in mind? Even if they did spread the tv appearance money more fairly - that is only one thing. It needs more than that to reshape the money side of fairness.

[thenodrog]

I thought that was why the Celtic/Rangers thing was thrown in there along with the two tier idea - that was a way of generating significant extra revenue to support the two tier system, and also give a good reason to watch the Premier League second tier.

Just as an aside why would the Prem clubs bother with gaining extra revenue? They all simply hand it (and more) all over to players and agents as fast as ever they can. Take the phenomenon that is Man City out of the equation and you'll find that the 'richest' clubs i.e those with the most income are also wallowing in (and weighed down by) the biggest debt!

[JAL]

Gartside has had his brainwave kicked into touch.

The majority overwhelmingly rejected the heathen hordes rampaging through the EPL.

Dont think Gartside realises that introducing Celtic and Rangers into our league will only strengthen their hand at a time when they are finding it harder to compete on a European level.

Gartside must have the short term view that he sees them being introduced in order that Boltons short term value rises and he can then make a killing by selling Bolton pdq - what a muppet.

Its got to be a unaminous NO to the Glaswegians.

[neekoy]

If they break the league into two tiers then it should be odds and evens finishes.

Tier One 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19,21,23,25,27,29,31,33,35,37,39

Tier Two 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20,22,24,26,28,30,32,34,36,38,40

Teams who finish in top four in each conference play round robin, top 4 teams in 8 go to Champions League.

Teams finishing in bottom two of each tier are relegated. Placings at the end of year decide conference for following year.

You should be able to distribute the cash between all 40 clubs and still allow four new clubs to join each year.

Makes the big games in the top 8 be blockbusters.

[Eddie]

I like that, but make it playoffs rather than round-robin. Top 4 from each make the playoffs, semi-finalists all make champions league, maybe try and get 4 Europa league spots so that it all balances nicely (not sure if that is possible, but seeing as my idea isn't going to happen may as well say it anyway. Gives everyone a bit of a realistic shot at Europe and even at wining the "league".

[Shaddy]

If they break the league into two tiers then it should be odds and evens finishes.

Tier One 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19,21,23,25,27,29,31,33,35,37,39

Tier Two 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20,22,24,26,28,30,32,34,36,38,40

Teams who finish in top four in each conference play round robin, top 4 teams in 8 go to Champions League.

Teams finishing in bottom two of each tier are relegated. Placings at the end of year decide conference for following year.

You should be able to distribute the cash between all 40 clubs and still allow four new clubs to join each year.

Makes the big games in the top 8 be blockbusters.

I get the sentiment. But never going to happen. The top tier will be, and must always be in my opinion, Home and Away fixtures between all the participants, with the champions decided at the end of the regular season.

[Majiball]

I can see the idea behind that Neekoy, but from a personal point of view if my team wins the league then I expect to win the league not to have to play them all again.

We should just scrap the league cup and create the british cup or some such like and include every team possible from the bottom up. An idea like that would float my boat.

But if its purely more money we're after then the brazilian format would be good as neekoy suggested.

[Hughesy]

How would you decide the teams number though? And what happens if you get a lucky league?

If it went off the current alphabetic set-up of the league teams from 1-20 using alpha order (just based on the prem)..

The tiers would be -

Tier 1 - Arsenal, Brum, Bolton, Chelsea, Fulham, Liverpool, Man Utd, Stoke, Tottenham, Wigan

Tier 2 - Villa, Blackburn, Burnley, Everton, Hull, Man City, Pompey, Sunderland, West ham, Wolves

Hardly fair! All the big 4 in 1 league....Biggest teams in our group - City, Villa, Everton & Sunderland

[Claytons Left Boot]

How would you decide the teams number though? And what happens if you get a lucky league?

If it went off the current alphabetic set-up of the league teams from 1-20 using alpha order (just based on the prem).

Not like that Hughsey!

For the first year, you simply take the top 40 teams from the PL and Championship (on placings from the previous season) and put them in two tiers as neekoy said, evens and odds. Completely fair. Then, at the end of that season, the placings from the Rugby League style finish and league placings thereafter determine the set up for the following season.Therefore, you won't have the true PL1 & Pl2 format until after the first season.

[4ever&ever]

Maybe make it a Northern league and a Southern league?

Blackburn, Man U, Man City, Liverpool, Everton, Bolton, Wigan, Dingles, Sunderland, Hull, Stoke

..................................................................................................................

Preston, Blackpool, Newcastle, Boro, Sheffield Utd, Sheffield Wed, Barnsley, Doncaster, Scunthorpe, Derby, Forest.

..................................................................................................................

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Spurs, West Ham, Pompy, Birmingham, Villa, Wolves.

..................................................................................................................

Plymouth, Leicester, Cardiff, Swansea, Palace, Ipswich, Reading, Coventry, Watford, Bristol City, QPR, WBA, Peterborough.

Wouldn't work probably due to deciding who's classed as northern or southern etc. Would make the cups more interesting though as it could be northern v southern team seeding for the 1st round maybe?

[LeChuck]

It's all gone incredibly 'pie in the sky' this morning!

Nothing radical is going to happen - adding two extra teams into the system is the most that will ever happen. We're a tiny country, we don't need regional divisions!

There is nothing wrong with how the system works (four national divisions with promotion/relegation between them), it's just how the money is spread between the top two divisions that is the problem.

[Claytons Left Boot]

Maybe make it a Northern league and a Southern league?

Blackburn, Man U, Man City, Liverpool, Everton, Bolton, Wigan, Dingles, Sunderland, Hull, Stoke

Preston, Blackpool, Newcastle, Boro, Sheffield Utd, Sheffield Wed, Barnsley, Doncaster, Scunthorpe, Derby, Forest.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Spurs, West Ham, Pompy, Birmingham, Villa, Wolves.

Plymouth, Leicester, Cardiff, Swansea, Palace, Ipswich, Reading, Coventry, Watford, Bristol City, QPR, WBA, Peterborough.

I like the look of that! Sod the PL1 & PL2, just have PL North & PL South. Less travelling for the fans and surely there will be an increase in attendances overall?

At the end of the season, the top four in each PL play each other in a Rugby League style knockout to determine PL champions, European places etc.

It's such a good, radical idea that it will stand no chance!

[4ever&ever]

I like the look of that! Sod the PL1 & PL2, just have PL North & PL South. Less travelling for the fans and surely there will be an increase in attendances overall?

At the end of the season, the top four in each PL play each other in a Rugby League style knockout to determine PL champions, European places etc.

It's such a good, radical idea that it will stand no chance!

Yeah I was thinking from a selfish perspective as I've been to most of the northern grounds so I'm sure we'd take a much bigger following to those grounds.

However it would mean the big 4 wouldn't play each other so Sky wouldn't allow it lol. In my opinion I think the games against the northern teams mean a lot more to the fans than playing the likes of Portsmouth, Arsenal, Chelsea etc. I'd rather play Dingles, Notlob, Noblot and Blackpool tbh.

[Stuart]

Yeah I was thinking from a selfish perspective as I've been to most of the northern grounds so I'm sure we'd take a much bigger following to those grounds.

However it would mean the big 4 wouldn't play each other so Sky wouldn't allow it lol. In my opinion I think the games against the northern teams mean a lot more to the fans than playing the likes of Portsmouth, Arsenal, Chelsea etc. I'd rather play Dingles, Notlob, Noblot and Blackpool tbh.

But the big 4 would probably play each other at the end of the season if a 4-way comp of somesort anyway (2 Southern and 2 Northern). Skysports would cream themselves over that.

This is a really good idea from a fans perspective and it'd be nice if the footballing powers took more interest of what fans wanted than what Murdoch wants.

It would also put the likes of Stanley in the second tier of Northern football which would probably increase attendances and they would have reduced costs as a result of less travelling.

The reason I could see it not happening is it could stop their being a London big 4 (Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs and West Ham) which is what the Southern media darlings would love.

There are already regional versions of newspapers so it's not as though it would really make that much difference to the way games are reported.

Now, where would we put the midlands clubs?

[philipl]

Things looking very grim for the Old Firm. Very likely their embarassing repeated Euro faiures are going to see Scotland losing European places.

The awful sate of Scottish football is underlined by the SFA crying into its Scotch about Scotland's World Cup qualifying games being made broadcasting "crown jewels" north of the border thus losing them a bunch of TV money.

At the end of the day, Scotland still has 5 million people and a large diaspora of Scottish grannies and granddads (I would have qualified to play for them- these days I'd get a game). Scotland on that basis should be doing a lot better- countries like Ireland, Slovenia, Bosnia will be gripping us over the next few days have smaller populations whilst the Scots out number Bahrain and New Zealand combined.

To the regional divisions- you do realise that if Rovers got relegated, they'd go straight to the old Division 3 North?

And if Arsenal v Rovers is embarassing, wait until you see Arsenal v Plymouth every season, Chelsea v Watford as a standing fixture or marvel at the evenness of resources as Man City take on Scunthorpe.

I think one is as bonkers as merging bits of the SPL with the Premier League.

[thenodrog]

Things looking very grim for the Old Firm. Very likely their embarassing repeated Euro faiures are going to see Scotland losing European places.

What irony! The CL has turned every european league into a carbon copy of the scottish Prem where a couple of big clubs dominate and the rest wallow in a futile scenario of no hope, lost interest leading to falling support.

Then it goes and destroys the whole blueprint by changing scottish football so much by weakening the giants and causing things to become more competative again.