The Future.

With the top teams in discussion on how they want the future to look.

What would you like for us and fellow smaller clubs.

My thoughts are these.

All leagues to have 3 up and3 down.( That is fair in my eyes )

No cup replays games decided on the day all played mid week until semi finals.

No midweek league games  early season league cup and  later in season FA cup games to be played.

No transfer Windows so clubs can sign anybody up to six weeks from the end of season. Then no signings until season end.

Clubs encouraged to make a more family friendly match day so a offer for every game of free to under nines  and a generous discount to family groups.
This will help fill the stadiums a bit.

Do you have any thoughts of are you happy with the status quo ?

Quoted from grimsby pete

With the top teams in discussion on how they want the future to look.

What would you like for us and fellow smaller clubs.

My thoughts are these.

All leagues to have 3 up and3 down.( That is fair in my eyes )

No cup replays games decided on the day all played mid week until semi finals.

No midweek league games  early season league cup and  later in season FA cup games to be played.

No transfer Windows so clubs can sign anybody up to six weeks from the end of season. Then no signings until season end.

Clubs encouraged to make a more family friendly match day so a offer for every game of free to under nines  and a generous discount to family groups.
This will help fill the stadiums a bit.

Do you have any thoughts of are you happy with the status quo ?

With the greatest of respect to you Pete, this is rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

The future has to deal with a massively polarised game where all of the money is with the top clubs and very little gets to the bottom. 92 fully professional clubs is no longer viable. Clubs should be thrown out of the league for unmanageable debt and the fit and proper test to own and run a club should have teeth.
I think small clubs should have their own representative body because the FA and EFL are not interested in them.
The bottom 2 leagues should be regionalised to suport bigger crowds (more local derbies) and reduce costs for clubs (travel and accomodation mostly).

Quoted from grimsby pete

All leagues to have 3 up and3 down.( That is fair in my eyes )

Tricky when it goes to the conference level, and leagues split into North/South. Could maybe promote the winner from conference North and South, then a play-off between runners-up of North & South?

Quoted from grimsby pete

Clubs encouraged to make a more family friendly match day so a offer for every game of free to under nines  and a generous discount to family groups.
This will help fill the stadiums a bit.

Not sure it will. Do we ever see a substantial crowd increase when the 'kids for a quid' type offers are on?

Good to talk about this stuff, but I don't think the top teams will support anything other than what suits them best.

Kick the academy sides out of the Checkatrade Trophy or whatever it is called now and go back to it's original format.

The only 2 up from the National League is a difficult one, happy when you're in League Two, unhappy when you are trying to get back into the EFL.

Agree about having more local games by making our level regionalised .

Agree take the under 21 teams out of that cup.

Also any postponed game could be played mid week later in season when we have warmer nights with special events put on to encourage the fans to stay and spend some more money.

Also agree we need our own national authority who cares about nothing but our welfare.

We will survive because fans like us want it to survive.

Forgot to add kids for a quid never made much difference because the club chose the wrong games .

I was meaning more on the season ticket side with generous reductions to encourage families to attend.

You'll do well to get a 46 game season in with no midweek games!

Quoted from Les Brechin

You'll do well to get a 46 game season in with no midweek games!

43 weeks Les two games at Easter Christmas and New year .

So three midweek games.

Should be restructured as follows:

  Prem (2 down + relegation play-off)

Champ (2 or 3 up, 3 down)

   L1 (3 up, 3 down)

L2N L2S (2 up, 2 down)

NLN NNS (2 up, 4 down)

FA Cup and EFL Cup as now

EFL Trophy replaced with regional competitions (e.g. Yorkshire/Humbs for us)

3G pitches allowed in EFL, a massive moneyspinner for the clubs who can hire our their grounds

All pro matches streamed online from single camera angle

Quoted from GrimRob

Should be restructured as follows:

  Prem (2 down + relegation play-off)

Champ (2 or 3 up, 3 down)

   L1 (3 up, 3 down)

L2N L2S (2 up, 2 down)

NLN NNS (2 up, 4 down)

FA Cup and EFL Cup as now

EFL Trophy replaced with regional competitions (e.g. Yorkshire/Humbs for us)

3G pitches allowed in EFL, a massive moneyspinner for the clubs who can hire our their grounds

All pro matches streamed online from single camera angle

How would it work when 3 clubs are relegated from L1 but L2 N+S have 2 up?

  DO NOT entertain the idea of including VAR i  the lower leagues , in fact get rid of it altogether.

Quoted from Ruston AT

  DO NOT entertain the idea of including VAR i  the lower leagues , in fact get rid of it altogether.

I was all for VAR, and don't remember it being as chaos as it is now, during the World cup.

I think VAR can still be used, if the rules change, and how its used changes.

Stop the stupid lines on offside, and if it's not clear and obvious, crack on

Limit squad sizes to prevent the top teams having a ridiculous surplus of players that they then loan out all over Europe.

Regionalise or localise acadamy / junior /youth football catchment areas and scrap the system that allows the top teams to cherry pick/hoover up players from these at minimal cost.  

Allow local kids to develop at a relatively local club (30 mile radius say) until at least 16 - 18yrs , then if they are wanted by bigger clubs they are subject to open market forces just like any other pro.

Two things I would like to add.

When artificial pitches first came out they were poor the bounce was far too much.Now they are very good and like GrimRob says it's a good earner and the club's would not need another training pitch.

VAR is getting ridiculous players given offside after they have scored because his big toe was further forward than the defenders.
Just stick with goal line technology and leave the rest to the ref on the pitch.

Quoted from grimsby pete

With the top teams in discussion on how they want the future to look.

What would you like for us and fellow smaller clubs.

My thoughts are these.

All leagues to have 3 up and3 down.( That is fair in my eyes )

No cup replays games decided on the day all played mid week until semi finals.

No midweek league games  early season league cup and  later in season FA cup games to be played.

No transfer Windows so clubs can sign anybody up to six weeks from the end of season. Then no signings until season end.

Clubs encouraged to make a more family friendly match day so a offer for every game of free to under nines  and a generous discount to family groups.
This will help fill the stadiums a bit.

Do you have any thoughts of are you happy with the status quo ?

Do you mean such as the F.A. Cup?

That would be a big no from me. Once this covid crap is out of the way where is the incentive when playing a big team at home to try to get a replay at a big stadium? Plus they should be played on a Saturday, playing them mid-week would penalise all those fans who can't make mid-week games.

VAR is here to stay, especially at the top level. It wasn’t a farce in the World Cup, and cruelly works relatively well on the continent. As with lots of things we seem to over complicate or take such arrogant approach to something in this country we make it excrement.

The localised youth system approach makes sense but having worked with someone involved with several youth systems in the professional game, he, along with others said it hindered them. Take clubs like ours, a 30 mile radius doesn’t give us much to choose from, even 50 miles.

I’d like cup replays to stay, once this nonsense disappears, an incentive for smaller clubs like ourselves to proceed in the cup is the chance of a big draw and and even a replay.

I think there should be some standards implemented and funding made available to ensure training facilities are of a certain standard, much like the top flight. Assuming that isn’t already in existence.

I’d scrap the salary cap.

Whilst clubs at our level, ourselves included look forward to large away followings, perhaps some limitation on ticket price for away games could be brought in. My friend is a Forest fan and he’s paid 30/40quid for away tickets, that’s just robbery. Another example of exploiting fans.

Stop the big clubs hovering up youth players from small clubs. There will be more incentive for small clubs to developed youth players without having to give them to the big boys for peanuts.

Quoted from mimma

Stop the big clubs hovering up youth players from small clubs. There will be more incentive for small clubs to developed youth players without having to give them to the big boys for peanuts.

Maybe if a youth player has come through all the development process of the club and unless the club don't want him another club can not sign him until he reached 21 years of age.

Might work.