[Football] Would the Premier League be better off without Manchester City?

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Yes it is obviously discriminatory, that's the whole point. But that doesn't mean it can't be implemented through law. The fact that the bone saw scumbags run Newcastle show that something a bit more definitive and discriminatory needs to be implemented.

So you would introduce a rule. You acknowledge it's obviously discriminatory. You believe that this is a positive thing and that no person or body seeking to buy a club would take the PL to court to have the rule struck out? Presumably you believe that because you think there's no domestic or international laws against an organisation having discriminatory procedures?

And you thought my comment was feeble? Do I have all that correct?

 

[TugWilson]

No. You know the Champions League format everyone is moaning about? Well, it would be that every Saturday if teams like City left the Premier league. We know the big Spanish and Italian clubs are itching for a Super league, this would just bring it all a step closer.

Leaving the Premier league to the likes of us sounds great in principle but it wouldn't have the financial backing, TV deals and it certainly wouldn't have the best players.

The Super League would find it very hard to survive imho , yes it would have the financial backing from TV deals and sponsors but those "best players" aren`t home bred they come from teams such as us , all the lower leagues provide the next De Bruyne or Haaland MacAllister Caicedo and it`s teams down the pecking order who would earn from those sales .

As the saying goes - steak is great but sometimes it gets boring and you want a burger for a change . How many lads and lasses on here enjoy watching a lower league game (this weekend for instance) as it makes for a refreshing change , and reminds us of the true game without the plastic wrapper ?.

Football is cyclical and i hope all these rich pain in the arses that want to run it to their own personal specifications end up getting bored and the league will return to a recognizable format that imho means no more carabao cup draws to benefit those poor clubs in Europe by making sure they cant be drawn against each other for instance .

 

[The Fifth Column]

So a businessperson couldn't own a club on the basis of what country he / she was from?

Yeh, that one will last a long time

Well Russians are effectively barred from PL club ownership and thats working and fine by me. I'd have zero objections to barring the likes of the Saudis and other murderous and sketchy middle eastern governments using the PL as a pissing contest.

 

[Hugo Rune]

Every PL club ranked by their annual wage bill - the difference between 1st and 20th is crazy

Manchester United should be doing so much better considering how much they spend on wages 💰 😳

www.givemesport.com

??

A good reminder that our ‘par’ position in terms of wages is 15th, the position Leicester currently occupy although you could argue that had they not signed such a good player on loan from a top six team, they’d be lower.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Well, because it's obviously discriminatory to have a rule like the one you suggest which bars people from particular countries from owning a club. The first hint of a legal challenge and the whole thing would collapse

Fit and proper owners teste have been talked about for ages but never implemented. Why? The problem as I see it is who would be excluded? Maybe you could put something in place which would exclude Putin as he’s globally sanctioned. Also someone with an unspent conviction for fraud in this country.

But how could you go wider than that? How can you introduce subjectivity in a way which couldn’t be easily challenged? Remember the PL have allowed someone to own a club who its widely understood to have ordered a journalist to be murdered in an embassy and cut up with a bonesaw

It doesn’t have to be a particular country, although boycotts have always occurred in sport.

Ban owners money laundering, for example.

The problem the PL has, is getting FIFA on board. Money talks.

 

[Blue3]

No the premier league would be much worse off if Man City were not an active member but that’s not to say the way clubs are owned financed and support other teams and leagues needs an overhaul led from The premier league however the clubs with vested interests would just put a stop to it.
kicking Man City out would just reopen the European super league option which the top 5 of English clubs would likely join
Keeping Man City in the premier league would only confirm what we already know and so eloquently sung by The Adventurers of Stevie V when they said “money talks“ in dirty cash

 

[The Fifth Column]

So you would introduce a rule. You acknowledge it's obviously discriminatory. You believe that this is a positive thing and that no person or body seeking to buy a club would take the PL to court to have the rule struck out? Presumably you believe that because you think there's no domestic or international laws against an organisation having discriminatory procedures?

And you thought my comment was feeble? Do I have all that correct?

The thing about rules is that by their very nature they are often discriminatory, thats the point of introducing a rule. Sometimes its good to discriminate to deny undesirable people or countries the opportunities to continue their unfair and criminal practices, you make it sound like a bad thing, its not. You think the Saudis would let me stroll in and buy a Saudi football club and start pissing on their chips? Plenty of countries have laws to prevent foreign ownership of businesses and state interference and that is what we have now in the PL. Man City and Newcastle are both effectively owned and run by nation states at least one of which has stated they are happy to use sportswashing to further their aims, if you think thats fine and we should just let them get on with it because of your short sighted view on rules and discriminination i don't think many on here if anyone at all will agree with you.

 

[BadFish]

I'd like them to stay, but would like them to go back to being the kings of 'spursing shit up'

That man city was a lot more fun and their fans a lot more likeable.

 

[pigmanovich]

Well Russians are effectively barred from PL club ownership and thats working and fine by me. I'd have zero objections to barring the likes of the Saudis and other murderous and sketchy middle eastern governments using the PL as a pissing contest.

Sadly I don't think we can rule out any British government, be it a Labour government or a Conservative one with more integrity than Johnson's, approving a club takeover by a human rights abuser *if* the two countries are on good terms.

 

[Silverhatch]

Playing devil’s advocate, the original FFP rules were considered a door slamming exercise to stop another Abramovich crashing the establishment party. City have allegedly played the rules (through related party inflationary sponsorships and other nefarious off book payments) to gain a seat at the top table. Not only have they gatecrashed, but they’ve smashed the competition. They’re also incredibly powerful financially having got a now credible revenue base to launch from.

It’s a shit show

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

It doesn’t have to be a particular country, although boycotts have always occurred in sport.

Ban owners money laundering, for example.

The problem the PL has, is getting FIFA on board. Money talks.

Yes and if someone has an unspent conviction for money laundering, that's the sort of thing you can likely include.

What you can't do is stop a person owning a club who you suspect might want to money launder. They would sue the authorities and obviously they would win.

But there really aren't that many internationally sanctioned or convicted criminals wanting to buy football clubs. That's all a fit and proper person test can basically keep out. Everyone else is in.

I just think right. Surely Brighton fans should know all this stuff more than anyone? The authorities may wish to prevent incapable or malevolent people from owning football clubs. But by what mechanism can they stop this happening? How does the relevant authority prove their judgement that the person they believe to be incapable or malevolent when it's inevitably challenged?

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

The thing about rules is that by their very nature they are often discriminatory, thats the point of introducing a rule. Sometimes its good to discriminate to deny undesirable people or countries the opportunities to continue their unfair and criminal practices, you make it sound like a bad thing, its not. You think the Saudis would let me stroll in and buy a Saudi football club and start pissing on their chips? Plenty of countries have laws to prevent foreign ownership of businesses and state interference and that is what we have now in the PL. Man City and Newcastle are both effectively owned and run by nation states at least one of which has stated they are happy to use sportswashing to further their aims, if you think thats fine and we should just let them get on with it because of your short sighted view on rules and discriminination i don't think many on here if anyone at all will agree with you.

It's less about whether it's my opinion. We operate in a rules based country. Saudi Arabia is very different

For what it's worth I think the PL could have had a rule in place to prevent people with close ties to a nation state from owning a club, effectively blocking out the Saudi's and Emirates. That they didn't could be incompetence? It could be desire (I doubt it, I don't think they wanted nation states owning clubs in the league) despite the money they bring. More likely it's to do with how you prove the link between the apparent owner and the state

 

[tjg]

I was delighted when the Super League idea crashed but now I wish it had happened and that Man City and Chelsea were part of it.

 

[el punal]

It's not just them, is it? I would be quite happy to see the back of any club that isn't owned by a lifelong local fan.

That means we’ll win the PL every year - Europe again, Europe again, Europe again, ole, ole, ole!

 

[TugWilson]

If i may indulge myself with a true story that many on here will already be aware of , but that i just love and always makes me chuckle .

Back in the 50s when the USA were creating the magnificent A12-SR71 ( operation Oxcart) they needed copious amounts of titanium to build these things , purely to spy on the Russians , and the only place to acquire such large amounts of titanium were -of course Russia .

So the CIA invented a whole string of dummy companies spread worldwide to buy the titanium , to build the SR71 -to spy on Russia -delicious .

My point is that i don`t think it is possible to "vet" anyone thoroughly enough to be 100% sure they can be trusted to own an EPL club !

 

[Braggfan]

I was delighted when the Super League idea crashed but now I wish it had happened and that Man City and Chelsea were part of it.

I've said on here before, I'd be very happy with the super league going ahead if it meant the likes of Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and any of those greedy clubs disappearing never to return, and what's left of the football league restructured in a fairer and sustainable way. Obviously lots of ifs and buts in there, but essentially no problem with Man City going.

 

[AmexRuislip]

Nah, they can win it every year as far as I'm concerned, it's not like we'll ever likely win it, and if it stops either of the nation's 'darlings' - Liverpool or Arsenal - winning it that's fine by me. Football at the top end is full of odious financial and sometimes unethical shenanigans, City just a more extreme example. 'Proper' club in their original guise, as alluded to above.

If Man Citeh ever vacated the PL.
This would certainly give the credence for them to join this 'euro super league' that's been muted for years

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

I've said on here before, I'd be very happy with the super league going ahead if it meant the likes of Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and any of those greedy clubs disappearing never to return, and what's left of the football league restructured in a fairer and sustainable way. Obviously lots of ifs and buts in there, but essentially no problem with Man City going.

But it probably won't be like that. If the clubs get their way, the European Super League would run alongside the domestic competitions.

They will just run parallel squads with 50 or so "first team players", maybe in time 2 managers for the different competitions. But the name and badge of the club would be in both competitions. It would effectively be a franchise

Liverpool have already played two matches in less than 24 hours, in the Carabao and World Club Cup. That will be the model they will look to introduce if they can.

I'm just saying this as the "well they can all F off approach" is tempting. But it's the attitude those clubs want us to have. The ESL didn't happen due to fan and public opposition. They want to dilute that opposition. We shouldn't let them

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

F1 had a money problem years ago with the wealthiest teams buying success. There were some new rules put in place to limit testing etc which did help level the playing field.

Maybe the answer is to give every club a budget to buy players, a la fantasy league. Then the focus may switch to developing home grown talent. Maybe this would help stop the richest clubs paying top dollar for players who will more likely bring them success?

 

[BadFish]

That'd get rid of most clubs in the 92 and beyond. We'd definitely have a good cup run if that happened.

We'd still get knocked out in the semis.