[Archived] Sky Bet Championship

[Moppy]

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11688/8829797/Football-League-Sky-Bet-named-new-title-sponsor-on-multi-year-deal

What do people think?

[Stuart]

I think they're getting too close to their "product".

How long before the whole shooting match is a Sky franchise?

[Guest Norbert]

I agree Stuart. There may be different 'holding comapnies', or whatever for the execs to say they are not part of the Sky TV network, but they are just a different branch of Murdoch's empire. Don't forget, Sky/Murdoch tried to buy Man Utd once so they don't care for any arguments about conflicts of interest.

Another nail in the coffin for football as a sport. In 10 years time it'll be as rigged and ridiculous as the wrestling.

And then there are the issues about the sport getting even closer to gambling companies then ever. Betting markets can be manipulated, and if you are there meeting the people who run the league and/or club board members............

[K-Hod]

Bit of a conflict of interest no?

[folkdevil]

Love these patronising promo videos Sky produce .Some faces you may recognise on here.

http://www1.skysports.com/footballleague/video/8829390/125-Years-of-The-Football-League

[Tom]

So Watford have made a mockery of the rules it seems

Signed 8 players from Udinese 'permanently' instead of loaning them, no doubt they will go back on free transfers as well

[Clitherover]

So Watford have made a mockery of the rules it seems

Signed 8 players from Udinese 'permanently' instead of loaning them, no doubt they will go back on free transfers as well

Bunch of cheating keaners!

The rule should have been players from clubs with the same owners cannot be sold/loaned or transferred in any way, I guess we'll have to wait for the 14/15 season for any rule like that to kick in, by which time Watford will probably have been promoted.

[Amo]

Fair play to them. If they've found a loophole in the system, why shouldn't they exploit it?

No one here would grumble if we had done the same.

[broxi74]

So Watford have made a mockery of the rules it seems

Signed 8 players from Udinese 'permanently' instead of loaning them, no doubt they will go back on free transfers as well

Fair play to watford, blackburn will do them though.

[Baz]

Just another glaringly easy way to avoid FFP.

Just buy a club not subject to FFP, then transfer players freely between them.

FFP is useless, surely someone must have thought through the ways teams could avoid it in order to gain a competitive advantage? Must have taken Watford 10 minutes at most to get around it.

[ABBEY]

Fair play to watford, blackburn will do them though.

Blackburn ?

[Mike E]

So Watford have made a mockery of the rules it seems

Signed 8 players from Udinese 'permanently' instead of loaning them, no doubt they will go back on free transfers as well

Such @#/?/unfair rules deserve to be made a mockery of. Good on 'em, I say!

[Brfcrule1]

Such @#/?/unfair rules deserve to be made a mockery of. Good on 'em, I say!

Mike what if come the end of the season they make it in the play offs at our expense would you still be saying good on 'em?.

Fair play to them. If they've found a loophole in the system, why shouldn't they exploit it?

No one here would grumble if we had done the same.

Amarillo maybe not people would not moan if we'd done the same but the gutter press would have battered us you remember what happened when we were battered for protesting against that very nice man Keanochio? Also take another scenario say the Glazers went on & bought Barcelona and then were transferring players freely between both do you honestly believe the rest of the EPL would sit back and say oh well they have found a loophole in the system there would be uproar riots about how unfair it is they would acquire players like Messi on loan for a season & no-one would stand a chance owners owning multiple clubs is wrong and should not happen it makes transferring players between clubs on free transfers very easy as Tom says.

Tom there is something I don't get what if hypothetically Watford get promoted to the EPL somehow by luck qualify for the Europa League and draw Udinese or Granada in European competition how will that work out what team will each one field? surely owning more than one team in different countries if they draw each other in European competition there is a conflict of interest? I was going to ask about transfer fees but on free transfers I guess that clears that up. Tom it also calls massively into question the fairness say another team want to buy players from the clubs owned by the Pozzo family & between the family they decide they want to keep the player and they decide to loan sell the player/s to one of their other clubs the club willing to put any money down would not stand a chance? how is that fair? Unless I am missing the point having owners owning more than one club even in different countries it throws up all sorts of conflicts of interests? How would this all work out?.

[Derby Blue]

Tom there is something I don't get what if hypothetically Watford get promoted to the EPL somehow by luck qualify for the Europa League and draw Udinese or Granada in European competition how will that work out what team will each one field? surely owning more than one team in different countries if they draw each other in European competition there is a conflict of interest? I was going to ask about transfer fees but on free transfers I guess that clears that up. Tom it also calls massively into question the fairness say another team want to buy players from the clubs owned by the Pozzo family & between the family they decide they want to keep the player and they decide to loan sell the player/s to one of their other clubs the club willing to put any money down would not stand a chance? how is that fair? Unless I am missing the point having owners owning more than one club even in different countries it throws up all sorts of conflicts of interests? How would this all work out?.

There is a UEFA ruling that prohibits 2 clubs with the same person or company having an 'interest' playing each other in either of their competitions. Not sure what would happen at all if both managed to qualify. I guess one would have to drop out?

[K-Hod]

Blackburn ?

Yeah, that town where the team that this forum is about is based....

[Stuart]

Yeah, that town where the team that this forum is about is based....

No Rovers fan calls us "Blackburn"... (is where Abbey was coming from).

[Sparky Marky]

Yeah, that town where the team that this forum is about is based....

Feck me, that went right over your head.

[K-Hod]

Feck me, that went right over your head.

It didn't at all lad, have a chill, I knew what he meant.