Where the foxes caper unmolested, the government packs your school lunch and from each, according to his wins; to each, according to his losses;
The Government is demanding a radical overhaul of English football finances to break the domination of the “big four” clubs.
Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, is calling for Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool to share their winnings in Europe with other Premier League teams.
Mr Burnham, an Everton fan, is pressing for several measures to redistribute the wealth of the richest league in the world to its lower reaches. He wants the league’s £1 billion revenue from television and sponsorship rights to be shared out more evenly among its 20 clubs. He also wants smaller squads and compulsory quotas of English players in team line-ups.
h/t old Lori
I was with him until the “compulsory number of British players per team” thing. Holy crap, what racist, non inclusionary, intolerant, pap. Next thing you know they’ll be flying the union jack at games and singing god save the queen. nationalism is a thing of the past. Niqabs and Samosas – now that’s the way to go.
“Redistribute the wealth” This Obama thing is catching on eh.
Next: Eliminate scorekeeping. Less hurt feelings that way.
This is already the case in the NFL. MLB, NHL, and NBA also, to a degree, have limited revenue sharing.
Shaun, a major difference is that in those cases, no government imposed it on them.
2 words.
salary cap.
Just as long as the minnows share the cost in acquiring the giants. Lessee, according to Forbes and in US dollars:
ManU – 1.8 bil (operating costs 160 mil)
The Arse – 1.2 bil (80 mil in costs)
The Pool – 1.01 bil (50 mil in costs)
Chelski – 800 mil (-13 in costs)
ManU, Liverpool, and Chelski are all owned by foreigners (one has the additional bad taste of owning the Montreal Canadiens). They could easily take their money to La Liga in Spain or Italy.
ALL MUST HAVE PRIZES !
In the Champions League this year of the final 8 teams, 6 of them were English. Now that’s amazing when you consider the competition. England has one of the greatest if not the greatest soccer leagues in the world right now. What better time to start enforcing socialist ideas into the mix? I mean if you’re going to wreck something, wreck something good. Then 5 years from now everyone will wonder why the English teams are so terrible and all the good players are in Spain or Italy.
Whatever is fair eh?
And I want the Flames to have all the best players too. I think its time Harper imposed a law for the NHL that Calgary gets the number 1 draft pick from now on.
redistribute the wealth of the richest league in the world to its lower reaches
They used to call that communism.
Gord, your numbers are off. Only four English teams are allowed to play in the Champions League. The other two teams played in the UEFA Cup.
I’m a fan of the Arsenal. They don’t have the disposable income of the other clubs, and instead rely on smart buys and sells of players. Their average age last week was 23 years old, and that’s only after including their mid-season buy, Andrey Arshavin, who’s 27.
Chelsea and Manchester United live in different stratas, though. Chelsea is funded by a Russian mobster who’s written off over a billion in losses because he loves to win things. He has no intention of balancing books or running a business. To him, it’s a toy. Manchester United? They are living off of credit and the belief that they are too big to fail. It’s no wonder that their shirt sponsor was AIG.
Once again the .. hey you have more than me … attitude in society rises up, and like the times before regular people need to stamp it out.
How about get some fans and increasing revenue by promoting your club by working with your fans and the community, not by crying about TV coverage and league promotional revenue.
Amazing how a sports organization is looking for a playing field advantage because they are losing, what ever happened to competition bringing out the best in people?
Wow, communism applied to soccer. I guess soon there will be no wins or losses allowed, for fear of damaging self-esteem or provoking conflict.
First of all, England sucks ballz.
Second of all, Soccer sucks ballz
Thirdly, salary caps suck ballz, and they’re unjust. Wearing my liberal hat right now I will argue that salary caps and especially rookie caps like the NBA has are a violation of human rights. Not only does it make the teams in the league mediocre, it unjustly robs individuals of their right to earn what fair market value dictates. Even worse, it’s accomplished by collusion between owners and the union. If we were talking about a Wal-Mart or any other industry there would be no discussion, it would be illegal!
Why not just redistriubute the scores and be done with it?
Hay, I seem to recall that the US Taxpayer now owns a majority share of Manchester United.
Maybe we can make them play REAL football now, huh?
When the election writ is dropped in the U.K.,in 2010,the Labour Party is going down and going down hard.I know a few folks over there and there is no doubt the people are sick of Gordon Brown and his cohorts of socialists.
“And I want the Flames to have all the best players too. I think its time Harper imposed a law for the NHL that Calgary gets the number 1 draft pick from now on.”
Yeah, like that would help!
“Maybe we can make them play REAL football now, huh?”
Yeah, think of all the revenue savings on mouth guards.
it is still called communism.
Are the Brits now going to illegalize hitting the ball with your head? That looks like it might leave a nasty bruise. What about the shoe’s? Those are far more dangerous than clown shoes! Especially, perhaps, if thrown at a politician!
I am kind of tired of seeing them do well too, maybe he’s right.
let them all slide down to the rest of english society as of late..
Between soccer and Britian, which one dramatically fakes more injuries to appeal to officialdom?
Yukon Gold said “Gord, your numbers are off.”
You are absolutely right. I rechecked. In the Quarterfinals of 8 teams 4 were English. Still no easy feat. Lord knows where I came up with 6 teams though. Might have been the lager talking.
I don’t think they can change the English League without changing all of Europe. You never know what the EEC is up to though.
Is it still ok to call Spurs fans Yids?
They can do what they do in my kids’ soccer league. Just give everyone a trophy that says “participant”.
Socialist soccer!!
Why don’t they also re-distribute the points in the league tables so that the winners subsidize the losers and no one team is relegated or victor??
This will simply hasten the creation of a European Soccer League; these teams will not then play in the local league and there goes the taxation!!
Always with the redistribution of OTHER PEOPLE’S wealth.
Why don’t these elitist socialist toe-raggggs redistribute their own money and leave our money in our pockets.
For those drawing attention to the North American sports leagues, they are totally different animals.
The whole N. American sports leagues are a much more controlled PRODUCT with, mostly, one team per market (i.e. city).
The UK setup for soccer is much different; the sport and the teams developed before THE MARKET did, and certainly before the VARIOUS soccer bodies developed.
gord at May 7, 2009 7:13 PM
Is it still ok to call Spurs fans Yids?
Why not? Yids obviously have an excellent sense of fine soccer. Check Michael Coran.
Now I’m not a Yid, but still have an excellent taste in fine soccer 🙂 … at least now they’ve got Redknapp as manager. He is the Clouston of Tottenham!!!
RW said “Yids obviously have an excellent sense of fine soccer.”
Tottenham apparently had official scarves out for awhile which said “The Yids” on them. I tried to get one a few years back but I guess they don’t make them anymore. A pal years ago gave me a Spurs program signed by the whole team. Venables amongst them. Plus signed by a lot of the opposing team. I also have a shareholders book from when they went public. I don’t have any shares though. I was just looking at it the other day.
It always bugs me when the same teams win repeatedly. Rangers and Celtic in Scotland are another example. However, it should not be any of the government’s business.
Scratch ANY Labourite (or any NDP’er, or about half the LPC OR Democratic Party) and there’s a f*****g Communist underneath!
So now Real Madrid can take the title of the world Premier soccer club. Yeah right, I’ll believe that when I see it. There will be never be a “cap” in a sport with so many leagues…
ldfarrer
“When the election writ is dropped in the U.K.,in 2010,the Labour Party is going down and going down hard.I know a few folks over there and there is no doubt the people are sick of Gordon Brown and his cohorts of socialists.”
Yup, the [Gordon] Brown-shirts are going down to the conservative party.
Sadly, the conservative party has been infiltrated and taken over by leftards so you get socialism with labour or a softer socialism with the so-called conservatives.
The UK is a has-been failed state.
I feel as an English …no make that a Yorkshireman, that I really should contribute to this debate, but to be honest I can’t be arsed to talk or write about fooball, it long since ceased to be a sport, its a business, has been and was for most of the last century and if we are to be fair played by a bunch of whining effeminate over paid premadonnas. Cricket or Rugby on the other hand