This is Clarkeonenil’s regular comment column, cutting through the various passing issues of football and getting to the core principle in the shortest time.
Silly ideas factory.
When the PL set itself up as an independent league, pretending it was entitled to set its own regulations, it at least had the common not to actually do anything that undermined the core elements of the game, even if it did become a greed factory. However in recent years, under the stewardship of Richard Scudamore, the PL has come up with more and more bizarre ideas, mostly under the mistaken belief that the most successful revenue generating league in the world needs even more money raked in! First there was the 39th game aberration, roundly condemned and now in the very long grass and just yesterday we got the “4th Champions League place play-off” idiocy. Frankly the idea that you make finishing 7th in the top flight a passport to the CL is one that has no attraction in my book. Football is not Rugby League (yet) and thus doesn’t need falsely generated end of season entertainment.
If the overpaid little Blatter’s at the PL’s expensive London office need something to think about they should start with how they can help the members clubs curb debt, costs and wage inflation. They could also turn their mind to how to eliminate agents of players taking cuts from clubs. Another issues they might want to address include the over-reliance on foreign imports, the escalating cost of the match experience in the top division for fans, the lack of mobility of clubs leading to only a handful ever being in contention, the widening gap between the PL and the CCC in finance terms (4 relegation/promotion places isn’t a bad idea) and finally having a “fit and proper” test that actually counts for something.
If the little Blatter’s need to fiddle with qualification criteria for the CL then a play-off between the League Cup winners and the FA Cup winners is a maybe, at least the PL clubs will start to take that competition seriously again rather than seeing it as a hindrance to staying up!
Like a funny old Uncle.
L1, what a teeth gritting delight it is. Populated by a large bunch of going nowhere clubs and a select ground of declining big-boys the sooner you get out of it the better. The standard of football is dire, the stadiums mostly retro but with some decent ones, the supporters mostly moribund (with the obvious exception of the screwballs at Millwall) and over-ambition abounds. Take the example of Southend United, the fact that not one sod of grass has been cut in the 18 months since full planning permission was granted for the new ground (and two run ins with liquidation at the hands of HMRC in 3 months) hasn’t stopped the Essex yokels spitting blood at the suggestion it might not happen. They should look at Brighton, where it took the best part of a decade to fund the stadium (but at least in Falmer the work is happening, which it doesn’t even look close to doing off the A13) and stop living pipe-dreams.
Equally frustrating for the likes of us is the paucity of really competitive clubs this season. Norwich City, who looked in terminal decline in August lead the division, Leeds United, in the middle of an away form dip, sit “comfortably” in second. Third placed Charlton have hit the buffers and look like losing that 3rd spot if they don’t go on a winning streak soon. Experience tells us that one club will come from the play-off pack to either frighten to death or even displaced us from that second slot but this year they would have to be really on a roll until the end of the season to do so (that club at the moment could well be Millwall). The competition this season is surprisingly weak given how competitive it looked in August, blame the FL for the Southampton -15 points for part of that.
As Leeds fans we at Clarkeonenil shouldn’t be too disappointed in the lack of competitive edge in L1 this season, if we win all 3 coming home games and /or garner 2-5 more points in the next three games than Charlton do even the editor here is going to start to plan for getting into a proper division.
Dammed if they do, dammed if they don’t.
Its decision time this week for the Blue Square Conference (another league that mistakenly believes it can make the rules up as it goes along), do they deal with Chester City firmly or do they fudge it to the end of the season where other issues await them? Looked at coldly the obvious decision is to kick them out in the absence of a guarantee they can finish the season, however the knock on consequences of purging their record would change the promotion and relegation picture somewhat. Whilst normally I would not support such a distortion of the placings in this case, with the supporters of Chester City crying out to be liquidated, it looks like the BSC has no choice.
The BSC also has to deal with a self-imposed crises relating to how many clubs it will have to expelled for breathing their “no debts” rule. As far as we can work out the rule was slipped in whilst a whole raft of other regulations were being passed at the last league AGM. Now the owners of clubs are saying they didn’t understand the rule and would not have voted it in if a separate vote had been taken. Normally I would be in support of a rule that limits debt but it does seem ion this case the consequences of imposing it in June could be wholesale expulsions. A year-long moratorium with a realistic limit on debts would be preferable.
Personally I feel this idiocy of “independent leagues” should stop. If the “Pyramid System” is to have any meaning then it’s time the BSC conference was renamed L3 (or really Division 5) and split in North and South, with 4 clubs up every season.
