[Albion] Conclusions from the ESL fiasco .......

[attila]

Fan power destroyed the ESL in a day. I don’t say this often, but hats off to the Chelsea fans who delayed kick off last night by 15 minutes and celebrated when the news came through.
(Decent point, that. Should have been three. AGAIN.)

Such a ludicrous idea, created by a cabal of isolated, out of touch ‘owners’ who don’t even talk to their own players, let alone their fans, should never be allowed to take root again.
It’s time for a revolution in football club ownership. Impossible, you say? No.
Look at Germany, the most successful football nation in the world.

The reason no German clubs were involved is that they have a simple 50+1 rule. To play in the top two divisions, the majority shareholding has to be owned by the fans, who will have the club’s best interest at heart, rather than by a private investor who may not. Clubs stick to affordable budgets, wages and transfer fees are vastly lower - and as for ticket prices, a season ticket for the huge standing area at Borussia Dortmund, one of the most successful clubs in the world, is 219 euros. Think about that.

The ‘owners’ who came up with this scheme now stand alone and reviled. They must be forced, by law, to relinquish a majority of their shareholding to a fans’ trust as a punishment for what they have done.
And that should be the start of a revolution in the way football is run in this country. If the Germans can do it so can we.

My suggestion: a two tier mechanism for club ownership.
For outright ownership the 'fit and proper' test would expand and require proof of a lifelong commitment to and active support for a club, ratified by an opinion poll of supporters.
While it is still conceivable that things could go wrong it is vastly less likely.

For anyone coming in from outside a more stringent version of the current test would apply, and 51% of the shares would need to be under the control of a Supporters' Trust.
This would not mean that the wealth would change hands (against my own instincts I have to be realistic here for this to be feasible) simply that all major decisions would be subject to agreement by supporters.

Things have to change. Football is eating itself.
And, as in Germany, one of the benefits of far fewer vastly overpaid mercenaries entering the domestic league would be a much greater reliance on home player development, which massively benefits the national team, as we are all aware!

 

[Wozza]

They must be forced, by law, to relinquish a majority of their shareholding to a fans’ trust as a punishment for what they have done.

But Germany clubs have always been set-up correctly. It's a bit late in England.

I'd imagine getting half of Man United (worth an estimated £3bn) into the hands of fans at this stage would be rather tricky.

Even if it could go ahead, the club would probably end up being owned by fans in Asia. And they probably loved the idea of a Euro Super League.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Conclusions?
Every club needs a Tony Bloom.

 

[The Andy Naylor Fan Club]

Did the Spanish/Italian fans and governments kick up a shot storm like ours? Or where they quite happy to go along with it? Strange also that there is no mention, not a dicky bird of this story on EUFA's website.

 

[father_and_son]

But Germany clubs have always been set-up correctly. It's a bit late in England.

I'd imagine getting half of Man United (worth an estimated £3bn) into the hands of fans at this stage would be rather tricky.

Even if it could go ahead, the club would probably end up being owned by fans in Asia. And they probably loved the idea of a Euro Super League.

Easy to have 2 types of shares, one with voting rights and one with dividend/asset ownership rights. Just means that any decision which goes to the board, must have fan approval to pass. Doesn't need to involve the transfer of any assets, income or monies.

 

[Beach Hut]

Someone suggesting we boycott the game last night was completely misguided and wrong

 

[Swansman]

51% rule should be the long term target. Current owners should be grandfathered or it all gets messy, but when someone decides to leave/die/feck off, the clubs should be converted into the 51% rule.

It works in Germany and it works in Sweden. Its not like it rules out strong leaders, just look at Bayern where the have kept voting for the Hoeness with friends for 30 or so years because they've done a good job. The only thing it does really is to guarantee that no president/board is allowed to **** over the fans, because then you vote them out.

 

[zefarelly]

Someone suggesting we boycott the game last night was completely misguided and wrong

Oh. I had band rehearsals and missed the whole game.

 

[attila]

Someone suggesting we boycott the game last night was completely misguided and wrong

We didn't need to, it was already over, thanks to the universal revulsion. If this had gone on for a week I reckon the call for a boycott of the 'Big Six' would have been everywhere across the country.

 

[nickbrighton]

There are very few moments in history where everything aligns to enable real meaningful change for the better to occur. There has to be the public,and political will, the right economic conditions, and Im sure numerous other conditions that all have to be right at the same time. Of those times when all these come together usually nothing actually happens

Football in the UK and in the wider international scene has now reached one of those oh too few moments. Fans, Players. Managers, Owners Politicians, Media, have all finally seen the nasty underbelly of the current ownership of modern football ands where that ownership is almost unstoppably moving. There has finally been a realisation that football is more than a business, its a global community, where the whole is so much greater than its parts. That global consciousness reacted with real passion, across not just the UK, but the world and said Enough, its not your game, its ours. We want it backNo One "owns" football, football is an idea, its passion, its hope, its despair, its community and its under threat.


There is an opportunity for football to take a long hard look at itself, and decide whether or not it will commit suicide and let the dust settle and make a few cosmetic changes but allow the betting companies, and financial institutions to complete the take over and destroy the heart of football and treat it as a commodity , or whether it will actually grasp the opportunity and return to what football is all about.

I know what I would like to see happen, but I also know what I think will happen

 

[beorhthelm]

Easy to have 2 types of shares, one with voting rights and one with dividend/asset ownership rights. Just means that any decision which goes to the board, must have fan approval to pass. Doesn't need to involve the transfer of any assets, income or monies.

easy for a new company, not so for established one. for a start the value of the shares could be in their voting power, so you effect the value by any change. its possible but the existing holders would have to agree. league could set a rule for ownership change, then have balls to follow through in event a clubs current owners dont agree. then what happens if they kick them out? as the clubs are the league, unlikely they'll ever pass such a rule.

 

[clapham_gull]

It will be the EU that puts something in place to stop this happening and the pressure to do so will come from France and Germany.

Whilst UK fans were gnashing their teeth, France and Germany simply sold The Americans (and The Spanish) to do one.

 

[Half Time Pies]

As far as i can see the horse bolted on this sort of stuff decades ago. As a nation we have continued to vote for free market fundamentalists to run our country and push us in the direction politically of the US, deregulation and privatisation. Then for some reason we are surprised to find that we have sold everything off to foreign ownership and also somehow surprised that the main motivation of these foreign owners is to maximise profits!!

 

[beorhthelm]

i wonder if something along lines of Chelsea Pitch Owners is the model, with the ground or club title owned by a fan led trust. would leave the corporate side to run 99% of things, but final say on the core club impacting decisions.

 

[Randy McNob]

The German model is socialism and in general the Germans adopt more socialist principles, that's why they have a proper manufacturing sector and employment power.

In this country we support more rampant capitalism and less people power, thats why clubs are owned by people who seem them as cash cows

reap what you sow

 

[amexer]

PL may be best league in world but supporters of the 6 clubs will never be able to trust the owners again. I cannot see any of them attending a game for a long time without getting lots of stick

 

[Hamilton]

Did the Spanish/Italian fans and governments kick up a shot storm like ours? Or where they quite happy to go along with it? Strange also that there is no mention, not a dicky bird of this story on EUFA's website.

Forza Italia did a poll of fans of the 12 clubs to gauge receptivity to this league.

Interestingly, the Italian and Spanish clubs were more likely to have fans who were receptive to the idea. Amongst the English clubs, between 85-95% of the fans were against the idea, club by club.

Just one club - Juventus - showed a majority of fans in support of the idea (52%).

I'm left asking why, and the only conclusion I can reach is that fans of Real, Barca, Juve and the Milan clubs (I'll leave Atletico out of this at this stage) feel that their domestic leagues are broken. The chickens are coming home to roost. La Liga, with a few exceptions, is a two horse race every season. Perez is right - it's boring. But it is boring because they have stolen all the revenue from the other clubs.

Perez's answer is to go in search of fresh meat to feed on. He is not prepared to hand any of Real's cash back to other La Liga clubs, so the only answer is a new global league. Sadly, out teams would have just been fodder in that league. Real would have ended up buying their way to success in that league too.

It is interesting to note that the shadowy figures behind the ESL have not gone away. They have said that the project continues and they will keep probing and pushing. They will invest in a massive lobbying campaign now, influencing government ministers, pundits, media. Expect a few 'balanced' articles in The Sun, followed by a few players saying how it would have been great to play the best players in the world. Then we'll have a manager or two complaining about the quality of opposition in certain competitions. Shadowy stuff all done to undermine our leagues.

The answer when fighting money is to regulate hard and to put in place articles which no club can break. It's why the German model is so successful. No club will join, because they can't.

Our clubs - across the country - are cultural crown jewels. They need to be treated with the same reverence as listed buildings and protected for the good of their local communities and not put at risk for the sake of a global fanbase.

 

[studio150]

While the German model may be liked by some, the chances of this happening here on a mandatory basis is less than zero.
The only reason Johnson and other cabinet ministers were actually vocal on the ESL is that they believed it would give them good headlines ahead of the May Local elections and also push the sleaze headlines into the background.
With some clubs foreign owned, anti-trust lawsuits would follow immediately any change was announced. I also don't believe that with the ESL seemingly now defunt the Government will not want to become involved.
The only chance is a new independent regulatory body which sits above The FA, EPL and EFL,

But with the speed things like this take, don't expect change anytime soon.

 

[clapham_gull]

The German model is socialism and in general the Germans adopt more socialist principles

Not really, they just know what works which is why their productivity is higher than ours.

 

[el punal]

But Germany clubs have always been set-up correctly. It's a bit late in England.

I'd imagine getting half of Man United (worth an estimated £3bn) into the hands of fans at this stage would be rather tricky.

Even if it could go ahead, the club would probably end up being owned by fans in Asia. And they probably loved the idea of a Euro Super League.

Wasn’t that the prime intention of the ESL - to flog their brand to the Far East market and grab shed loads of dosh in return?