So our Managing Director has come out with a “diabolically evil” idea for Liverpool and other EPL team to negotiate their own international television rights that will give give the top brand teams larger chunks of revenue than the (with respect) Boltons of this world.
Wigan’s chairman came out with this statement:
“You won’t get more money by killing the heart and soul of the Premier League and killing the heart and soul of football in England. We invented the game and we have still got the finest league in the whole world and some of the finest supporters in the whole world and they want to rip the whole thing up.”
This article from my point of view aims to deal with all the negativity surrounding this idea and argue some of the points brought up by the general press and some Liverpool fans.
“It will turn the English Premier League into the boring uncompetitive La Liga model dominated by a small handful of top teams”
This line of thinking is ludicrous. If you think that the EPL is competitive as it is you are mistaken. Since Roman Abramovich’s takeover of Chelsea in 2004 only 2 clubs have won the league between them. TWO!! Manchester United and Chelsea if you didn’t know! Sound familiar? Barcelona and Real Madrid anyone? So what if we ran them close in 08/09 and Arsenal did too last season before their spectacular collapse? First is first and second is nothing!
What good is the collective bargaining deal to the smaller clubs if the like of Manchester United, Chelsea and now Manchester City can literally buy their success anyway with their owners money. Either way there is a system of haves and have-nots.
If anything the competition at the top will be even greater if Liverpool, Arsenal and to some extent Tottenham can pull themselves into the same financial stratosphere as the Real Madrids of this world by truly exploiting their global fanbases with fairly sound financial principles that will fit in with FIFA’s Financial Fair Play implementation.
“It goes against Bill Shankly’s socialist principles”
At the risk of sounding a bit controversial, just because the legendary Bill Shankly was a socialist does that mean as a collective fanbase of Liverpool we all fully believe in socialism as an ideal? The world, and the modern world of football is capitalist in nature and those that want to hang on to the past will remain in the past. Sad but true.
Do we really want to be so concerned about the so-called smaller clubs being “competitive” while we wait around for the Man City’s to overtake us financially and on the pitch? As a Liverpool fan do you not want to win every single game of the season and conquer the world? This is not to say that Ian Eyre’s idea is the answer to LFC winning the premier league but if anything can put us on the road to increasing Liverpool’s stature and power to even greater heights is it not good for the club?
Capitalism rules the modern game of football and if we don’t adapt and innovate then we as a club will be left behind.
“It will kill the heart and soul of English football”
Diving kills the heart and soul of English football! Spending 1billion pounds on players in two years kills the heart and soul of English Football! Lack of good referees is killing the heart and soul of English football!
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