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I apologise in advance for uttering the obscenity of the words Pr****** Le**** but reading this really shows that football at the top level no longer belongs to the people. It is even more obscene than the PL.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is being paid £143,000 by Manchester United for scoring a goal on top of £367,640 per week.

How can proper football fans possibly identify with clubs and players that do this? They are taking the p!ss out of you and me. It's Sky money just disappearing out of the game. I know it is a question of supply and demand. If someone offered me such a deal I'd take it as well. But this is the PL clubs bleeding the game dry and putting bu99er all back in.

The only good part of this is that their gamble hasn't paid off in the league and I for one will definitely be supporting Ajax in the EC final.

Tax the lot of them 99p in the pound Tax and put a wage cap and then see if they like playing football in their own countries

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

I apologise in advance for uttering the obscenity of the words Pr****** Le**** but reading this really shows that football at the top level no longer belongs to the people. It is even more obscene than the PL.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is being paid £143,000 by Manchester United for scoring a goal on top of £367,640 per week.

How can proper football fans possibly identify with clubs and players that do this? They are taking the p!ss out of you and me. It's Sky money just disappearing out of the game. I know it is a question of supply and demand. If someone offered me such a deal I'd take it as well. But this is the PL clubs bleeding the game dry and putting bu99er all back in.

The only good part of this is that their gamble hasn't paid off in the league and I for one will definitely be supporting Ajax in the EC final.

Agree with most of this but...
I will be supporting Man UTD in the final as I always support the English teams when playing against European opposition unless it's Hull City of course.

Man utd pay what they think he is worth, you cannot blame a player for making as much as he can. It is supply and demand and despite all the money in the premier league there are less than a dozen who will score 20 goals year in year out, if Manure qualify for the champions league because of Zlatans goals it will be seen as a good investment

Its not Zlatans fault.

Personally feel the money men are taking advantage of the beautiful game.Fans should vote with their feet and things would change

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

I apologise in advance for uttering the obscenity of the words Pr****** Le**** but reading this really shows that football at the top level no longer belongs to the people. It is even more obscene than the PL.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is being paid £143,000 by Manchester United for scoring a goal on top of £367,640 per week.

How can proper football fans possibly identify with clubs and players that do this? They are taking the p!ss out of you and me. It's Sky money just disappearing out of the game. I know it is a question of supply and demand. If someone offered me such a deal I'd take it as well. But this is the PL clubs bleeding the game dry and putting bu99er all back in.

The only good part of this is that their gamble hasn't paid off in the league and I for one will definitely be supporting Ajax in the EC final.

RRFC I don't want to send you over the edge but when you see that Zllatan, Pogba and Mikatarian (spelling) all have the same agent who made stupid money out of Manchester Utd in the last close season it just underlines the top level football world has gone mad, well to be fair it's been bonkers for a few years now.

The Zlatan wage is higher though as he went there on a free with no fee involved. Man U are part of what is a circus which on a day by day basis is becoming less accessible to low/average wage earners and the fan demographic that actually over decades helped put them where they sit.

Quoted from Rick12

Its not Zlatans fault.

Personally feel the money men are taking advantage of the beautiful game.Fans should vote with their feet and things would change

No I don't blame the player. Nobody in their right mind would turn it down though it would be nice to hear that he was using a bit of it to do something for the benefit of the game.

But things won't change unless the money dries up. Most PL teams don't care if there are no spectators in the ground, gate money makes up a small proportion of income in the PL especially to the top clubs. So a boycott wouldn't bother a club financially. The owners have no stake in the community anyway. Look what has happened to Blackburn over the past 3 seasons. They pay lip service to the fans but they only need them to come to the ground to buy the crap sold by their franchise and the big income comes from TV.

Quoted from golfer

Tax the lot of them 99p in the pound Tax and put a wage cap and then see if they like playing football in their own countries

Good idea it will be the 1970s again under labour .... oh wait😩

Worth every penny the guy is a legend ( I hate manu Utd as well)

That's just how things are with huge franchise teams and the TV revenue they generate along with merch. They have an interest to find the biggest names and best players in the world because most people will pay to see that and to pay for the name on the shirt because they see it on TV all the time.

That's just how the world works, people pay to watch Hollywood films despite there being many great independent productions out there,people prefer big PPV MMA and Boxing matches over amateur stuff because those fighters are advertised as the best in the world and the biggest names.

No matter how much you whinge and moan very few people care about things on a local level,they don't care about much beyond the top league certainly not about lower league local teams. As long as people want to see the top players playing for the top teams on TV they will pay crazy money to get them to play for their team. Think Beckham probably made way more than that to go play in America and players make crazy amounts to play in China or Turkey so it's not just the UK that overpays players.

Quoted from Grim74

Good idea it will be the 1970s again under labour .... oh wait😩

I thought you were against globalisation? What RRFC is talking about is a facet of globalisation. What Golfer is proposing is a brake on globalisation.

Quoted from TheRonRaffertyFanClub

But things won't change unless the money dries up. Most PL teams don't care if there are no spectators in the ground, gate money makes up a small proportion of income in the PL especially to the top clubs. So a boycott wouldn't bother a club financially. The owners have no stake in the community anyway. Look what has happened to Blackburn over the past 3 seasons. They pay lip service to the fans but they only need them to come to the ground to buy the crap sold by their franchise and the big income comes from TV.

I'm not so sure about this. Tottenham and Chelsea are spending a fortune on a new stadium to increase gate (executive box) revenue.

A boycott would also piss off TV companies as a load of empty seats makes their 'product' look crap.

No chance of it happenning though, the theatre of wet dreams will always have a queue of Malaysians/Thais/Martians wanting to get in.

After the boycott, the next stage is fan organised games and fan owned clubs (there's a growing number of these). Ultimately if football returns to its roots and people are enjoying it and giving the money-game the cold shoulder, does it matter if Old Travesty is full of foreigners watching and playing, with foreign billionaires owning the whole shebang? Let em. They'll get bored sooner or later because it'll mean nothing and move on to something else.

He is out of contract now but Utd offered to pay him about £13 million while he recovered from his injury,

He turned it down,

So Utd have money to throw away and he has enough money he does not need any more,

Crazy world.

Quoted from grimsby pete

He is out of contract now but Utd offered to pay him about £13 million while he recovered from his injury,

He turned it down,

So Utd have money to throw away and he has enough money he does not need any more,

Crazy world.

He's just made the rich list and you need over 100 million to get in.

Roberto Firmino
£190,000 bonus for assists FFS

http://www.sportbible.com/football/news-roberto-firminos-incredible-bonuses-have-been-revealed-20170511

Quoted from TAGG

Roberto Firmino
£190,000 bonus for assists FFS

http://www.sportbible.com/football/news-roberto-firminos-incredible-bonuses-have-been-revealed-20170511

Proud to say I've never even heard of him.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

Proud to say I've never even heard of him.

It's amazing how many have said that 😂😂😂

See that Spurs player saying they are worth double their wages one word.

SPOILT!!!

I am not a racist,sexist or any ist but 66.7% of players in the premiership are foreign-FFS----I suppose you could call it another form of Overseas Aid

With the wife away lonely Rooney went to the casino last night,

He only lost £500,000 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Crazy.

Quoted from grimsby pete

With the wife away lonely Rooney went to the casino last night,

He only lost £500,000 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Crazy.

This visit took place in the middle of March but the journo's have dragged it out as Prem stars wages are the current hot topic in the media, they dredge up all the subjects they can as the season winds down.

£500K is an obscene amount to gamble away but to be honest if you go down any casino from time to time you can see people blow a weeks and a half's basic salary in one visit.

Quoted from HertsGTFC

This visit took place in the middle of March but the journo's have dragged it out as Prem stars wages are the current hot topic in the media, they dredge up all the subjects they can as the season winds down.

£500K is an obscene amount to gamble away but to be honest if you go down any casino from time to time you can see people blow a weeks and a half's basic salary in one visit.

That's why I stuck to the 5 cent machines when I went to Vegas ;D

Quoted from golfer

I am not a racist,sexist or any ist but 66.7% of players in the premiership are foreign-FFS----I suppose you could call it another form of Overseas Aid

I am not racist but,,......always the first words of racists

Quoted from codcheeky

I am not racist but,,......always the first words of racists

It is the reason the England team is crap though.

I bet when the England manager goes to watch a game he can only look at 2 or 3 players that are on the pitch in most games.

Re Grimsby Pete's comment above, so why does the manager go watch Man U v Liverpool, he knows the 3 players involved anyway, he would be better going to some of the lesser games even top of the championship.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

After the boycott, the next stage is fan organised games and fan owned clubs (there's a growing number of these). Ultimately if football returns to its roots and people are enjoying it and giving the money-game the cold shoulder, does it matter if Old Travesty is full of foreigners watching and playing, with foreign billionaires owning the whole shebang? Let em. They'll get bored sooner or later because it'll mean nothing and move on to something else.

In principle this is fine but unfortunately as a club becomes more successful it needs more investment. This in turn attracts the " money men " to the club and it only needs one to pay lip service to the club and fans to become a major player or owner of the club. He decides that to move forward the club has to " progress" and then the whole circus starts again.
Once the principle of the PL was established and sanctioned by the FA then it became like Pandoras' Box and unfortunately it won't change unless the FA and FL do something radical to alter it.

Quoted from golfer

Tax the lot of them 99p in the pound Tax and put a wage cap and then see if they like playing football in their own countries

You think that a Swede, playing for a club owned by Americans, actually pays UK tax?

The top level of the English game is busting at the seams.  It is simply not sustainable in this form.

The product is becoming less and less interesting and the lifeblood of the game (i.e the working class fan) is either losing interest or becoming priced out, often both,

For all the extra revenue that will be created by the likes of Chelsea and Spurs moving to the new stadium it will soon become totally reliant on tourist fans to create income, eventually the popularity of the league will switch to somewhere else or something different altogether.  The product is simply not exciting enough to keep the tourist fans coming back.

What will make the impending bursting of the bubble even more dramatic is the current bullying attitude of the Premier League, highlighted this week by basically threatening to stop the funding to the lower levels in response to Accrington chairman Andy Holt speaking out against the stupid levels of money at the top level.

The Football League is quite rapidly increasing gates, whereas the Premier League is in alarming period of stagnation.  At the minute the Football League clubs are frightened by the Premier League and feel they have to be grateful for the pitiful levels of money filtering down, however as more and more people abandon the likes of Spurs and Manchester United for Barnet and Oldham plus the pending burst bubble, they'll be much better placed to absorb the fallout.  Once the foreign TV rights are worthless, the Premier League clubs will desperately try to claw back their previous fans who are now enjoying a better experience at a League One side.  By this point the elite will be reliant on the Football League, perhaps we'll throw them a few quid here and there.  My only hope is that by this point the Premier League have achieved their ambition of cutting all ties to the Football League and are stuck with the same boring 24 team league, stupidly ignoring the fact that the relegation battle is more often than not the most exciting part of their dull season.

Quoted from diehardmariner

The top level of the English game is busting at the seams.  It is simply not sustainable in this form.

The product is becoming less and less interesting and the lifeblood of the game (i.e the working class fan) is either losing interest or becoming priced out, often both,

For all the extra revenue that will be created by the likes of Chelsea and Spurs moving to the new stadium it will soon become totally reliant on tourist fans to create income, eventually the popularity of the league will switch to somewhere else or something different altogether.  The product is simply not exciting enough to keep the tourist fans coming back.

What will make the impending bursting of the bubble even more dramatic is the current bullying attitude of the Premier League, highlighted this week by basically threatening to stop the funding to the lower levels in response to Accrington chairman Andy Holt speaking out against the stupid levels of money at the top level.

The Football League is quite rapidly increasing gates, whereas the Premier League is in alarming period of stagnation.  At the minute the Football League clubs are frightened by the Premier League and feel they have to be grateful for the pitiful levels of money filtering down, however as more and more people abandon the likes of Spurs and Manchester United for Barnet and Oldham plus the pending burst bubble, they'll be much better placed to absorb the fallout.  Once the foreign TV rights are worthless, the Premier League clubs will desperately try to claw back their previous fans who are now enjoying a better experience at a League One side.  By this point the elite will be reliant on the Football League, perhaps we'll throw them a few quid here and there.  My only hope is that by this point the Premier League have achieved their ambition of cutting all ties to the Football League and are stuck with the same boring 24 team league, stupidly ignoring the fact that the relegation battle is more often than not the most exciting part of their dull season.

I agree with the sentiment expressed but dont really see the Premiership bubble bursting anytime soon. The overseas market is growing daily with plenty of room for further growth, the Premiership clubs value this much more than Frank the dustman who grew up supporting them.

I'd also add that League attendances increased last season but how much of than was down to Newcastle and Villa replacing Hull & Boro or Town replacing Dagenham??

Expect the top players to earn even more dosh soon, as the Chinese Leagues start to kick in TV wise and the Premershite will have tough competition to keep foreign players

Quoted from Garth

Expect the top players to earn even more dosh soon, as the Chinese Leagues start to kick in TV wise and the Premershite will have tough competition to keep foreign players

It will be the Far East that damages the PL most, no doubt about that. It's not just the Chinese leagues, there's massive followings in Malaysia, Japan etc. not to mention the betting culture out there.

Eventually the money will tell, especially for players from Africa and South America whose agents will want to get them the best cash on a contract. Before long, the stopping stage of the PL and Euro leagues will disappear for some of these players unless the clubs compete with Chinese mega bucks.

Sky is the big driver at present for the PL and the Murdoch empire is multinational so it will most likely continue perhaps in partnerships. I wonder if we will see the same franchise operating several clubs in different leagues across the world. This already happens with Man City in the USA.

So could we see the Man U franchise running sides in China and the States with players moving between them as seasons change? Probably Real Madrid. Juventus etc would have sides in the same league circus. Even without Blatter, FIFA would love the financial opportunities this would bring and love even more any dilution of European influence on the game. Maybe a good way off but it's amazing how fast money works magic.

My understanding is that the Chinese government are pumping the majority of the money into their teams at the moment because they want to stage a World Cup eventually. Once they have achieved this than I presume the government money will dry up.

I'd be more than happy to see less "stars" and a slightly weaker prem if it meant more English talent got 1st team competitive football and thus made England a bit better.

[quote=657]

I wonder if we will see the same franchise operating several clubs indifferent leagues across the world. This already happens with Man City in the USA.

Think you're on the money there RRFC - Man City also own Melbourne City in the A-League (Melbourne Heart before they bough them) and David Villa had a season there before moving across to Manchester.

One consequence of the need to call a “sudden” General Election, is that the demand for the FA to prove it is restructuring itself, has gone by the wayside.

This fits in nicely with the plan to create a European “Super” league, and to allow Premier League clubs to place “B” teams into the Football League. (Starting already with the EFL Cup).

It’s possible, that all the maneuvering, demanded by the FA and administered by PGMOL, is in fact a plot to make sure all the right English teams are invited into the EUSL, and that those teams have time to get “B” teams in position to continue in the EPL.

This, of course, will fit in with the FA's unwillingness to restructure, resulting in the loss of government grants, which of course, will affect grass roots and lower league football. Unfortunately, smaller clubs live by the seat of their pants, and 20 or 30 grand is not to be sniffed at.

It's short term gain for long term pain, I'm afraid!

£20 or £30 grand before the loss in revenue from the boycott.

I wonder how much the intangible effects will be in the long run. JF has undermined confidence in himself - the hard-earned confidence, he's taken a long time to build. The Trust is suffering in the fall-out too judging by comments.

Quoted from KingstonMariner

£20 or £30 grand before the loss in revenue from the boycott.

I wonder how much the intangible effects will be in the long run. JF has undermined confidence in himself - the hard-earned confidence, he's taken a long time to build. The Trust is suffering in the fall-out too judging by comments.

Maybe the Trust should consider purchasing shares with their £30k annual payment rather than the present donation for a seat on the board. It would be an about turn rather than those transferred to JF in exchange for him purchasing £200/300k worth of more equity

Quoted from Gaffer58

My understanding is that the Chinese government are pumping the majority of the money into their teams at the moment because they want to stage a World Cup eventually. Once they have achieved this than I presume the government money will dry up.

Could be ages away before China hosts a World Cup. 2026 will probably go to the BNorth Americas and then 2030 either South America or Europe, potentially with the non successful region getting 2034. Be surprised if China gets a World Cup until 2038.

Quoted from diehardmariner

Could be ages away before China hosts a World Cup. 2026 will probably go to the BNorth Americas and then 2030 either South America or Europe, potentially with the non successful region getting 2034. Be surprised if China gets a World Cup until 2038.

Depends how much they are willing to bribe, sorry, pay, doesn't it 😉

Quoted from diehardmariner

Could be ages away before China hosts a World Cup. 2026 will probably go to the BNorth Americas and then 2030 either South America or Europe, potentially with the non successful region getting 2034. Be surprised if China gets a World Cup until 2038.

I wont be going then , I will be 90 in 2038..

Leicester could finish anywhere from 8th to 15th after the final fixtures. That would make a difference of £11.4m in prize money.

West Ham could be 9th or 16th, a difference of £13m.

The same applies to a number of clubs in mid-table. There is a massive amount of cash to play for in these seemingly dead fixtures and that will affect their transfer budgets in the summer.

What annoys me though, apart from the fact that PL clubs don't deserve it, is that a lot of this money will go abroad in transfer and agents fees. It won't filter down the league food chain like it used to.