The Future of Football - 2015

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

Looking at all the clubs in financial problems makes me wonder what kind of football league will exist in the future.

With the more money at the top than ever, but more debt at the bottom, how will the structure change by 2015?

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

One missing option here is European League for top clubs - slimmed down Prem - pro second tier and the rest semi pro. Assume that to be included in option 2 please.

 

[Gwylan]

I'd like the European Super League to take off so that the big four clubs can sod off and let the rest of us carry on with watching real football. I think that there'd still be interest in the teams that were left and that there might be even more live football on terrestial TV.

I just wonder how much fans' interest there'd be in a ESL. It would have some novelty value but league football needs promotion and relegation to keep it interesting and I reckon the novelty would wear off after a while.

 

[Nemesis]

I just wonder how much fans' interest there'd be in a ESL. It would have some novelty value but league football needs promotion and relegation to keep it interesting and I reckon the novelty would wear off after a while.

A European Super League comprised of teams and supporters used to winning things suddenly finding themselves bottom of the table on a regular basis...that should work really well.

It would only be a couple of seasons before some of the Big Clubs' fans start getting bored following a losing team.

Let them go and then when they come back, cap in hand, make them start at Conference level.

 

[withdeanwombat]

I'd like the European Super League to take off so that the big four clubs can sod off and let the rest of us carry on with watching real football. I think that there'd still be interest in the teams that were left and that there might be even more live football on terrestial TV.

I just wonder how much fans' interest there'd be in a ESL. It would have some novelty value but league football needs promotion and relegation to keep it interesting and I reckon the novelty would wear off after a while.

Agreed,though I think the clubs left behind when the top 4 sod off will be jealous,and want to join in any such European League.

I imagine Everton would prefer their local derby to be Liverpool rather than Wigan,and anybody would prefer Arsenal at home rather than,say,Middlesbrough.

Makes the away supporter costs staggering I suspect,every other weekend in Spain or Germany,Italy or Albania.

Course,Sky would want it,the Premiership would go to Setanta,and the Albion would still be charging £23.50 to watch Oldham!

 

[Storer68]

There will be a European Superleague of 20 clubs with no promotion/relegation/admission

The Football League will have ceased to be as clubs will have gone out of business

 

[Stinkers Bridge]

I just hope that come the year 2015, football is the winner and everyone is having a nice time.

 

[Storer68]

I'd like the European Super League to take off so that the big four clubs can sod off and let the rest of us carry on with watching real football. I think that there'd still be interest in the teams that were left and that there might be even more live football on terrestial TV.

I just wonder how much fans' interest there'd be in a ESL. It would have some novelty value but league football needs promotion and relegation to keep it interesting and I reckon the novelty would wear off after a while.

Fans interest has no place in the plan. its all about Tv and blanket TV coverage. Grounds will still be full , just full of "consumers" rather than "fans". For an example of how its going, look at Arsenal and how they fil;l the Emirates

this is what the premierleague is doing now, one can watch as many FAPL games living in Australia as you can in the UK

 

[Gwylan]

Fans interest has no place in the plan. its all about Tv and blanket TV coverage. Grounds will still be full , just full of "consumers" rather than "fans". For an example of how its going, look at Arsenal and how they fil;l the Emirates

Sorry. I didn't make myself clear. When I said "fans" I meant those who watched on TV as well. At the moment, Man U versus Juventus would be a big crowd puller - but that's because they only play once every couple of years or so and that in a cup decider. Would there be the same interest if they were two mid-tiered teams playing in a league where they met twice a year?

 

[Brovion]

I think below the Premier League the system in its current form is unsustainable. The number of clubs going into Administration - and then getting into financial difficulties AGAIN a few years later (Leeds, Bradford City and Bournemouth to name but three) is proof of that. Sooner or later people are going to get wise to it and stop offering credit etc. I'm not sure what will replace it; either we'll all be owned by large conglomerates or we'll all be part time.

An unlikely saviour MIGHT (and it's a big 'might') well turn out to be the Premier League. For the last few seasons in the Prem the excitement has been at the bottom not the top, however that will eventually pale if the 'punishment' for relegation is simply that you spend a year off in the Championship battering all comers due to your financial strength. If the same few clubs are winning everything and the same few clubs are yo-yoing between the two divisions even Sky will have a job selling that as 'exciting'. The FA then may try and re-structure football to make it more competitive.

Yeah, I'm not holding my breath either. Having the top clubs bugger off into a European super-league is probably the most likely; although as has been mentioned how they will make that exciting with no relegation I don't know. It will be like the old style 'one division' County Championship in cricket with most clubs playing nothing more than glorified friendlies.

 

[Gully]

I think it will be pretty much as it is now, a Premiership full of very rich and not quite so stinkingly rich clubs, a handful of maybe 10 teams who flip-flop between that and the Championship. For the rest there is a never ending battle to stay afloat on diminishing resources, clubs will be forced to cut their cloth to suit their situation, anyone who pawns the family jewels to try and make it to the big time will surely fail.

As for the make up of the league, sadly I expect a few teams to fail and disappear, these will be replaced by well run teams who currently play lower down the pyramid...the likes of Burton Albion, AFC Wimbledon and AFC Telford, to name but a few.

 

[withdeanwombat]

I think it will be pretty much as it is now, a Premiership full of very rich and not quite so stinkingly rich clubs, a handful of maybe 10 teams who flip-flop between that and the Championship. For the rest there is a never ending battle to stay afloat on diminishing resources, clubs will be forced to cut their cloth to suit their situation, anyone who pawns the family jewels to try and make it to the big time will surely fail.

As for the make up of the league, sadly I expect a few teams to fail and disappear, these will be replaced by well run teams who currently play lower down the pyramid...the likes of Burton Albion, AFC Wimbledon and AFC Telford, to name but a few.

Didn't AFC Telford emerge from a previously bankrupt club that went out of the Conference and reformed in the Northern League div 2 or thereabouts?

 

[Pavilionaire]

The Premiership continues to attract wealthy tycoons from around the globe, and clubs are starting to turn a profit because the TV revenues are so big.

I can't see a European League working because there is not the local interest or the fixture history, plus the fact it would be too expensive for supporters to travel to away matches regularly. And I can't see many viewers tuning in to watch 9th placed Liverpool play 14th placed Panathinaikos.

The Champions League and Premiership models are both very successful, but the UEFA Cup is very much a poor relation. It needs a rethink. There are simply too many mediocre teams involved, I mean who ARE Larissa, Aalborg, Elfsborg, Mlada Boleslav, Panionios?

I don't believe that the notion of a British league will go away - if the Top 4 continue to dominate TV numbers will decrease and Prem chiefs will have to bite the bullet and go British. Certainly the Old Firm would be up for that, and it would certainly make the Prem more interesting if there were 5 Champions League spots up for grabs.

I can also see some pressure for a united Ireland team, and if there was a vehicle for getting, say, a Dublin team into the Prem the dynamics could change there.

 

[Bry Nylon]

I can see the Big 4 English clubs breaking from the Premiership and playing in a European Super League where clubs are allowed to negociate their own TV deals.

I reckon the Premiership and Championship will be the only national leagues, and League 1 & 2 will probably become League 1 (south) and League 1 (north). Each season 4 teams will get relegated from the Championship and 2 from L1 south and 2 from L1 - north will replace them.

This isn't what I would like to see, but I can't see how the current structure is sustainable with so many clubs outside of the top dozen in finacial meltdown.

 

[sonicyouth]

the same as it's been for the last 8 years...without a few established clubs, replaced by properly run and amibitious non-league outfits.

 

[Jimbo26]

Just leave everything as it is please

 

[tedebear]

I'd hope that there will be limits on international players in all English clubs (two preferably). Therefore promoting local/home grown talent and boosting the England teams pickings...

 

[B.M.F]

I like many others hope it does not change but if teams do go out of existence then I would not be surprised to see the likes of Chelsea B team in the championship like in Spain.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The Champions League is expanding all the time. By 2015, I can see all interest in the Premiership and its fifteen or so cannon-fodder nothing teams evaporating. Clubs that make up the numbers like Blackburn and Fulham will lose the unearned millions, and nonentities like Robbie Savage will stop being rewarded with country estates and gold taps in the servants quarters, Bring it on!

 

[Gully]

I'd hope that there will be limits on international players in all English clubs (two preferably). Therefore promoting local/home grown talent and boosting the England teams pickings...

Nice idea but I think you might find that restrictive working practices, that is to say deciding which nationalities you employ, goes against just about every European working directive that one could care to mention. The only way that would work is if every club regulated itself and only played a certain number of non-British players, can't really see it myself...although there is already one example of it sort of working...the resurgence in Scottish international football has been credited in part to their league clubs rethinking their youth policy and playing more home grown talent instead of half-rate imports.