[Albion] The 'Big 6' and their losses

[Henfield One]

In any business, you cut your coat according to your cloth. So if your costs are spiralling out of control resulting in losses, you slash your costs.

Meaning that on player contract renewal, or on new player recruitment, you slash the player wages. So if the so called Big 6 did that, other clubs would undoubtedly follow as a way of curbing exorbitant player wages. Market forces to the fore.

Now wouldn't that be better for professional football? Just a thought.

 

[Swansman]

yes

 

[studio150]

Unlikely to catch on as its too sensible.

 

[portslade seagull]

Hopefully big contract liabilities to be paid now, greedy bar stewards

 

[Doonhamer7]

This is where Real Madrid are in big big trouble their debt is becoming unmanageable

 

[Albion Dan]

This is where Real Madrid are in big big trouble their debt is becoming unmanageable

Barcelona’s is far worse.

 

[Weststander]

There are a mixed bunch of financial situations within the 12.

Citeh and Chelsea have no real external debt, and can contrive huge sponsorship deals in the UAE and Russia as they please.

Whilst Villa, Everton and a long list of Championship clubs rack up huge losses pre and post pandemic.

 

[B-right-on]

In any business, you cut your coat according to your cloth. So if your costs are spiralling out of control resulting in losses, you slash your costs.

Meaning that on player contract renewal, or on new player recruitment, you slash the player wages. So if the so called Big 6 did that, other clubs would undoubtedly follow as a way of curbing exorbitant player wages. Market forces to the fore.

Now wouldn't that be better for professional football? Just a thought.

Please keep all sensible suggestions to yourself and remain quiet. You just don't understand how these clubs work. Its the fault of everyone else stopping the failed ESL bid as to why they are bankrupt. With the ESL being established, it shows their business skill. Failure, massive debt and huge losses has nothing to do with club mis-management. You don't know anything.

 

[Tokyohands]

That Sunderland doc is a pretty interesting insight into how badly run many other clubs must also be.

 

[timbha]

Sensible idea but no one measures the success of a football club by looking at its Balance Sheet, except the (invisible) owners

 

[AmexRuislip]

The ESL could be construde as a tontine

 

[Gwylan]

In any business, you cut your coat according to your cloth. So if your costs are spiralling out of control resulting in losses, you slash your costs.

Meaning that on player contract renewal, or on new player recruitment, you slash the player wages. So if the so called Big 6 did that, other clubs would undoubtedly follow as a way of curbing exorbitant player wages. Market forces to the fore.

Now wouldn't that be better for professional football? Just a thought.

That also shows the idea that the players are the innocent parties in this is nonsense. If they started lowering wage demands to more reasonable levels (which would still put them in the top 1% earners in the country), we could start reducing the levels of debt.

I'm really coming round to the idea of salary caps as a way of restoring some sort of sanity to football

 

[Ecosse Exile]

In a world where i have seen reports of Lionel Messi earning 1 million per week, Gareth Bale 600k per week and Kevin De Bruyne 400k per week to name just 3 no wonder these clubs are struggling financially, these figures are for 1 weeks work, let that sink in, not a lifetime or a season, every bloody week!

I assume the people in charge are all really intelligent business men, but where is the common sense? When Joe Bloggs in the street can see that is unsustainable why cant these owners?

So they thought setting up a new super league would create the extra revenue to fund their mis-management, but cant they see that the players and their agents would then want an even bigger slice of the cake? They also wanted to carry on with their domestic leagues because they dont want to lose the money that comes from that, but to do so you would need more players, not just any old player, not just players from your academies, you need the best players from the rest of the leagues because you still need to be winning or at least challenging to win your domestic leagues and you don't want the also rans like Leicester gaining an even stronger position to challenge you domestically, so sign their Maddisons and Ndidis it strengthens you and weakens them, win win.

But guess what, these players and agents know what you are making from your new super league too, so they want a slice of that cake too, before you know it, you're struggling again, so whats the answer this time? Tell the greedy players and their agents to do one? Oh no, that would weaken your product so you cant do that, i know.........Lets create a WORLD SUPER LEAGUE, and so it goes on.

I agree with the wage cap idea, but not on the players, on the clubs, i dont know what level it should be set at but would suggest at a level where if you lose your tv money, you are not going to be bust overnight, so if Barcelona want to pay Messi a million a week, go ahead, but thats probably most of your budget right there. You can fill the rest of the squad full of volunteers, i'm sure Messi wont mind when he's losing every week he can always move to another club..... Except he will have to reduce his ludicrous wage demands or nobody will sign him.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

I'm really coming round to the idea of salary caps as a way of restoring some sort of sanity to football

In principle I agree - however it has be be worldwide, otherwise players would just follow the money.

It's OK to have a salary cap in ay the NFL as there is no competing league.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

In principle I agree - however it has be be worldwide, otherwise players would just follow the money.

It's OK to have a salary cap in ay the NFL as there is no competing league.

Correct. A DULLARD will no doubt be able to explain these things much better than I can, but the quasi-communist system of the NFL can't work in an international system, and even in the USA they require anti-trust exemptions.

If we imposed a salary cap in the UK, our clubs would be up against a skewed system in European competition, where Barcelona and Real Madrid spend way beyond their means in order to fulfil their presidents' election promises to the fans and the banks are afraid to foreclose. Santander would face riots if they called in Real's debts.

Although actually this worked in everybody's favour in this case because Chelsea and Man City are so rich that they didn't need the money on offer. They were the last in, persuaded only by the fear of missing out, and the first out because they could afford to be.

 

[southstandandy]

I could probably borrow enough cash from various means to buy a Ferrari (even though I couldn't really afford it) but you wouldn't then get me bleeting that I didn't have the revenue or income streams to make the repayments.

Clubs have to start to take responsibility for their spending and if Real Madrid can't afford to pay the likes of Gareth Bale £600k a week - then don't offer such ludicrous contracts.

Most of us live within our means to a greater or lesser extent. It's about time football clubs did so too.

 

[Giraffe]

In any business, you cut your coat according to your cloth. So if your costs are spiralling out of control resulting in losses, you slash your costs.

Meaning that on player contract renewal, or on new player recruitment, you slash the player wages. So if the so called Big 6 did that, other clubs would undoubtedly follow as a way of curbing exorbitant player wages. Market forces to the fore.

Now wouldn't that be better for professional football? Just a thought.

Completely agree. I am still astonished not a single footballer in the premier league has suffered financially as a result of Covid-19. Every other business I know where the income has fallen dramatically has cut staff or reduced wages. Ridiculous that football runs in this bubble where the very thought of doing that is not considered.

 

[blue-shifted]

Completely agree. I am still astonished not a single footballer in the premier league has suffered financially as a result of Covid-19. Every other business I know where the income has fallen dramatically has cut staff or reduced wages. Ridiculous that football runs in this bubble where the very thought of doing that is not considered.

I suppose the employment status is different.

You or I don't have a contract guaranteeing us pay for the next 4 or so years.

They can't just cancel existing contracts.

Granted they can refuse to offer new ones.

 

[blue-shifted]

The issue is in the disparities of income isn't it?

So a club which qualifies for the Champs League can expect an income (through all sources) of more than double the ones that don't

A club which is in the PL can expect an income (through all sources) of 5 to 10 times the ones that aren't

A club which is in the Championship has an income approaching double that of league 1.

The multiples continue down the pyramid

Surely the way football is set up incentivises this behaviour and is what will lead Madrid, Sheff Wed and Bury and many others to insolvency.

Now I think you could make a decent argument that good performance should be rewarded. But it's levered too much. In football as it is in society. Bezos and Musk aren't 10 million times more capable than I am.

For each income stream a football club has we need to look how the money can be distributed more evenly. This is a process that will take a generation or more and lead to many more threats of breakaways and protectionism. We will have to face them down again. We will have to call their bluff again. We, Brighton, will lose more than we gain, from this process, which is hugely unfair on TB. But the overall health and future of the game must always trump narrow club based interests.

 

[clapham_gull]

The self-perpetuating success model needs looking at.

I'm not suggesting you should reward failure, but unlike individual sports (e.g. tennis) you are ahead of the game for the next year because of the money you won the year before.

You either strip the whole European thing back just to just the actual Champions and winners of the FA Cup or (as I've been advocating for years) add a play off element to qualification.

This will help to move the cash around a bit and if it works for the Championship, I can't see why it shouldn't work here.

I'd always make sure that (legally) contracts in the Premier League have proper relegation clauses audited by the authorities to ensure clubs don't go pop in such circumstances. With that I'd ditch the parachute payments.

Clubs can't have it both ways. If you want special status as a business (for example paying football creditors first) there needs to be proper legislation protecting "the game".