Is this a turning point? | Vital Football

Is this a turning point?

Casperimp

Vital 1st Team Regular
With a number of football clubs facing financial meltdown have we hit that high point in the football cycle?

Bury, Bolton, Notts County all in complete financial mess and many other clubs reportedly on the edge. There needs to be a sense of realism in the lower leagues. The Premier League is just obscene and there is no way that most football League clubs will ever get there! Do we have to face the fact that movement between divisions is stagnating along financial lines!

There used to be the dream that clubs down the ladder could climb to the top but the PL have destroyed that and the whole football pyramid is suffering because of those top few clubs.

Personally I hope the big six clubs breakaway into a closed shop European Super League (then they will see how many people come to watch those who finish bottom). I think that would be the best thing to happen to English Football for years. Adios take your huge pay packets and your glory hunter fans and p-ss off!
 
But the top division has always been dominated by a select number of clubs. The 70s were Leeds and Liverpool, the 80s Liverpool and Everton, the 90s Arsenal and Man Utd, the 00s Chelsea and Man Utd, 10s Man City and Man Utd. Forest did the unthinkable in the 70s, Leicester in the 10s, and a few unfashionable clubs have always had good seasons, but really the patterns have not changed for 50 years.
 
Yes I realise that but this is different it's about the financial disparity and the increase pressure it puts down the line. My fear is that smaller clubs are more than ever over stretching themselves and they will ultimately become limited to one or two divisions. Movement up and down the leagues will gradually stagnate based on finances. Also clubs are less and less likely have one or two good seasons at the top and succeed by building a team on merit it's too much about cash now! I know Leicester did it but they still have billionaire owners.

Maybe I am just getting old and cynical but I just feel that clubs at the lower level are being put in peril because of the pressure from the top.
 
With a number of football clubs facing financial meltdown have we hit that high point in the football cycle?

Bury, Bolton, Notts County all in complete financial mess and many other clubs reportedly on the edge. There needs to be a sense of realism in the lower leagues. The Premier League is just obscene and there is no way that most football League clubs will ever get there! Do we have to face the fact that movement between divisions is stagnating along financial lines!

There used to be the dream that clubs down the ladder could climb to the top but the PL have destroyed that and the whole football pyramid is suffering because of those top few clubs.

Personally I hope the big six clubs breakaway into a closed shop European Super League (then they will see how many people come to watch those who finish bottom). I think that would be the best thing to happen to English Football for years. Adios take your huge pay packets and your glory hunter fans and p-ss off!
Plenty of constructive comment there but the low point will only really hit home if one of these lower level teams in financial trouble actually go to the wall,possibly reforming 6 divisions below their current league position.
A sacrificial lamb may be a necessary reality check to these owners of football clubs who are out of touch with financial reality.Could Bury be the club to take it on the chin and disappear into the abyss?
We have just been promoted and already there are major uncertainties around some clubs in League 1,clubs expecting point deductions,Bury not sure they could play out 46 games,Sunderland losing their parachute payments and still loaded out with players on very high salaries.
It will be interesting.
The keynote moving forward is keeping a handle on overheads and trying to plan a strategy which grows non footballing revenues on an annual basis.
Key statement you made above
we need a sense of realism in the lower leagues.

IF a sugar daddy don`t turn up at the Bank then we just get on with it?
The sooner these owners of clubs in the lower echelons realise that excessive spending on its own will not bring footballing success the better and it is their foolhardy aspirations and stupidity paying inflated wages that is sending many lower league clubs into financial crisis.
 
I agree, it needs one of these financially-stricken clubs to be liquidated or expunged from the League by the powers-that-be, then maybe the message may get through to those who are constantly racking up huge debts that you are not going to get away with it, or be given a smack on the wrist, and that the penalties are going to be that severe that your club will lose its life if it carries on. There is no other way.
 
Thought this for a while, but to try and change the patterns of the divisions a bit. No more play offs. And 5 up and 5 down.
I realise it won't affect the top 6, but does allow access.
Plus put into place a squad size limit and across squad pay limit, like in USA.
 
Perhaps if a club like Bolton was the one to go it might have more impact.... Or Bolton, Bury and County...

Not that I wish them ill, nor any club, especially their fans...
 
Perhaps if a club like Bolton was the one to go it might have more impact.... Or Bolton, Bury and County...

Not that I wish them ill, nor any club, especially their fans...

A club like Bolton would have more impact, especially if they were relegated to a league with a few village teams with wealthy benefactors.
 
The answer to your question is, "I doubt it". It's not so long ago that it was reckoned the bottom two leagues of the (now) EFL ie Leagues 1 and 2, would go part time, like the 'Conference. What has happened? Not only have they remained full-time, and not only has the 'Conference become essentially full-time, but Tier 6 ie North and South now have full time teams. So pressure is not only being "pulled" from the top to succeed, but also "pushed" from the bottom to remain competitive at the lower levels

Yes, sacrificial lambs is certainly one avenue, but more has to be done by the game's managing authorities to put more governance in place. The financial fair play rules could be considered one such initiative, but appears to be a complete joke in its application
 
It does need the EFL to bring in strictly enforceable financial rules. The National League seem to at least have some teeth with their rules and regularly demote teams who are in breach.
Likewise here in Wales where the FAW oversee the leagues and require all teams in the top two tiers to be fully compliant with strict financial rules. Licences have to be obtained by clubs each and every season to stay within the leagues.
So it can be done!
Sadly the bigger clubs in the Championship are themselves run (and often ruined) by the desire to reach the Promised Land of the Premier League. So might be a vain hope that those clubs would agree to have financial constraints imposed on themselves.
Until one of those so called Big Clubs fail completely. Then and only then might something change.

As for the Premier League...those at the top end have always been there because of having more money. But now with the vast riches of the Champions League, wealth gap is just growing and growing. A team who stays in the top four for five seasons or so could easily be a billion pounds better off than the other non-European teams in the Premier League.
 
Hasn't this already happened to a league club - Darlington got expelled from the football league in 2012 on the back of the George Reynolds & stadium fiasco???? They got put down to the ninth tier of the Northern League and have had to fight their way back to the NL North, but now in a ground that only holds about 3,500 or so.
I take Exile's point about there always being one or two dominant teams in the Prem & the old first division, but I think the main reason for that was their huge fan base and their ability to attract or groom top quality largely British players under great managers. There is a world of difference these days between the cycle of one or two dominant teams back in the 'old days' and what happens in the Prem these days. The main issue seems to be the financial inequity between the big clubs being able to pay squillions of spondulicks for super stadiums and foreign players and coaches. So far its only the top six in the Prem that have succesfully and consistently consolidated that strategy while everyone else tries to play catch up, which they cant because of the lack of the mega rich investors and now the serious imbalance of money at the top level. Hope that makes sense ?
 
The PL and EFL are totally different products, operating under different mandates. I’m really not interested in what the PL has on offer, or even to see us compete there. This is not lack of ambition or belief, or a sense of realism, it is purely preference for what I see an inclusive Club to be, what it represents, and it’s place in the community. If LCFC establish themselves as a Championship side, and are sustainable there, then my wildest dreams have been met.
 
Yes I realise that but this is different it's about the financial disparity and the increase pressure it puts down the line. My fear is that smaller clubs are more than ever over stretching themselves and they will ultimately become limited to one or two divisions. Movement up and down the leagues will gradually stagnate based on finances. Also clubs are less and less likely have one or two good seasons at the top and succeed by building a team on merit it's too much about cash now! I know Leicester did it but they still have billionaire owners.

Maybe I am just getting old and cynical but I just feel that clubs at the lower level are being put in peril because of the pressure from the top.

No you're right, it's obvious the downward pressure from the bloated PL has had an effect on the also rans. But there are always three/four clubs going up, three/four clubs going down. There is always opportunity and just because a team pays its players ten times what yours are on, that doesn't necessarily mean they're ten times the player. Throwing money at a dream is the fool's road to ruin, as we have seen.
 
I think it is a turning point in respect of players wages at least at lower levels.There has been a bubble over the last few years and it looks look its popped.Unfortunately it means several clubs will have financial crises with some going into Admin., and others being liquidated and reforming at the bottom of the pyramid.