The debate on football regulators and ownership.

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Foshiznik
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The debate on football regulators and ownership.

Post by Foshiznik » Wed Jun 16, 2021 7:53 pm

Those of you who live under a rock may not have seen the petition regarding a football regulator and the other for the idea of a “50+1” system after the European Super League show of brown stuff. The debate took place in Westminster this week and the video of that debate and transcript is available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zNR1ypT6iw

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2 ... Governance

It looks like this ESL coup ironically could actually finally sort our beautiful game instead of their vision of the opposite.

The fans survey summary is here too:
https://committees.parliament.uk/writte ... 3/default/

Thoughts? I’m glad to see literally everyone involved wants most of the same things. That can only benefit the speed in which change happens.

Chester Perry
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Re: The debate on football regulators and ownership.

Post by Chester Perry » Wed Jun 16, 2021 8:54 pm

a few thoughts for people to chew on

An Independent football regulator to pass judgement over distribution of monies in the game is a fundamentally flawed concept

Neither this or any other UK government has ever had any interest in football, the initiation of the manifesto pledge fan led review of the game was only initiated on the populist wave of feeling against ESL - it was not in line to start before that event.

There is tangible evidence that Boris Johnson and the government gave explicit backing to ESL in the week or so building up to it's announcement - The President of FIFA has been backing the concept for over two years - both did an about turn when they saw the strength of public feeling came into being

Any review that commences with the reviewer already having solutions in mind and a de facto working assumption that a regulator is in place and the object of the review is to determine what that individual will regulate when that is not in the published remit of the review is deeply flawed.

FIFA is trying to create continental Super Leagues around the world and pushing a 24 team world club cup financed by either private Equity and or a specific state so that it can draw economic power from UEFA to further cement the power base of the President, it is necessary to understand what that means for domestic leagues (less games and cups for the domestic top flight. What can an independent regulator do to influence and control that.

UEFA has expanded the format of the Champions League post 2024 to such an extent that it is now recommending that it's feeder leagues reduce to 18 teams and 1 cup - Germany already complies, France voted to reduce to 18 in 2024 two weeks ago and Italy is set to vote on it later in the year - how does an Independent football regulator influence and control that? - yes 18 teams and 1 cup was part of Project Big Picture

UEFA prize money particularly the co-efficient payments mean that there is a virtuous circle between taking part and qualifying for UEFA competitions the following year, such a self fulfilling prophecy leads to greater commercial revenues and so on. It is a fact that finishing in eighth place in the Premier League is just as disadvantageous as not having a parachute payment in the Championship as a result of UEFA prize monies and the virtuous circle they create, a club in full UEFA competition is more likely to qualify for UEFA competition in the following season than a club with parachute payments is to gain promotion. the revenue differences are just the same in ration between highest and lowest in the league - How is an independent football regulator going to influence and control that.

UEFA earns substantially more revenue from it's club competitions in the four year cycle than FIFA does from the world cup and confederations cup. UEFA is able to do this because it effectively guarantees broadcasters and sponsors that most if not all the biggest clubs will take part in it's competitions, think 4 champions League places etc. The clubs sensed this a long time ago and have been pushing for more of a share for themselves. It is true to say that UEFA distributes more money than ever before to member associations and leagues, it is also true to say that 32 clubs each year see a greater proportion of that revenue than ever before. - How is an Independent football regulator going to influence/ control that.

The crushing of the ESL is likely to make the Premier League a de-facto Super League - In a recent interview with Sports Business Journal, Professor Stefan Syzmanski, author of Soccernomics, said “The English Premier Leagues revenues are almost double those of the next biggest league, enabling them to attract a significantly higher quality of player than rival leagues. In a global market, this advantage will tend to grow, since in sports there is a general trend towards the dominant league”. It is necessary that such a league utilises it's wealth to continually make itself stronger as Sysmanski suggests. Were an Independent football regulator to break that it would hand the opportunity to another league to become the Super League (at the moment that would be La Liga who are by far the best organised and placed rival. Will HM government appreciate a regulator breaking that pre-eminent role, those huge inward revenues and significant loss of soft power influence that such a league provides to a post brexit state? (for all the government doesn't like football it utilises it endlessly around the world - such as the fan parks in China it is paying for over the duration of the Euros).

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