The Great GSE Smokescreen

agreed jorvik

I think it will be the end of our football leagues as we know it though. I really can't see Man U, City, Chelsea, Barcelona, Real (Rail) Madrid accepting it. Think they will just break away and form their own governing body and european league

and a good thing too

it is vidal from a pure football point of view but it's also sad how they've ruined football and we won't be playing great (and they are) teams like Liverpool and Man Utd again should we ever get there

TEG

I agree it's a shame-having been to all of these great grounds and seen Derby take them apart (aswell as get a few hidings), but those times are gone and not coming back.

Every change in football widens the gap and makes it that bit less interesting. Even relatively small things like changing the structure of the European Cup and increasing the number of subs allowed makes it that bit harder for a relatively small team to compete. There is now very little element of surprise. I used to be able to reel off League title winners from years gone by, now I couldn't name the last half dozen. Man U one year, Chelsea, who cares? There'll never be a Forest or Derby, an Ipswich or a Newcastle in that top four, or any number of other teams who feel they have a chance to get there.

Let the franchises go away and play their games and the Chinese and Indian "fans" can buy their shirts and watch it on satellite, and we can go back to watching competitive footy where genuine success can be achieved by a well-run and well-managed club, not just the faux-success of Premiership survival for a few years dependent on some dodgy foreign ownership.

Of course, that's just my opinion.

Most of Europe's top clubs are such financial basket cases that they will never be able accept the financial restrictions and will have to break away.

European football is the icing on the cake and I don't think a diet of icing sounds that good. A european league would probably be a failure in the host countries but the asian TV market might keep it alive.

A sport doesn't have to be exciting to be marketable on the television. Look at F1 for example. Has there ever been a more boring sport but it is followed by millions.

100% agree vidal my interest in football as a whole is nowhere near as strong as it used to be. Like you a few years back I could name every winner of every trophy. I was also thinking the other day about the players that clubs are linked with/signing nowadays and I haven't got a clue who most of them are (mostly foreigners)

We will go like North American sport where there are plenty of celebrities who like to attach themselves to a particular team, and where many people follow a team on TV, but where there are very few who are "fans" in the way that we think of fans, people who live and breathe the club and whose happiness or otherwise is often dicated by its fortunes.

The big clubs care not a jot of course, this is why they are always off in the far East on tours. The hardcore local fan base generates a small proportion of its income compared to the millions of followers worldwide who will never see the team play live. How long before Man U build "Old Trafford 2" in Singapore and start playing Champions League matches there? It may seem crazy but why not?

I sometimes wonder how it feels to be a fan of a team like Man United. They can't possibly feel it's "their club" in the way that we do. Say what you like about Nigel Clough (actually, don't, I haven't time) but he makes a lot of the club being part of its community and this has to be a good thing.

Or maybe we're just old fogies behind the times. Maybe all our clubs now need to be the dreaded global brand. I can't imagine ever stopping the ritual of watching Derby, even if we sink to the third or fourth division, but if the time comes when we are owned by a sheik somwhere, and play half of our home games in Qatar, that's when I go fishing on a Saturday afternoon.

I'm afraid FFP in conjunction with the increased value and timescale of the PL parachute payments will make the Championship as predictable as the PL, but without the superstar players.

My prediction is 3-4 seasons down the line there will be a group of 9-12 clubs who are the established yo-yo teams.

Each season 3 of them will be taking their turn in the PL and the rest will have the top 6 places in the champ sewn up.

FFP will mean no other club can overcome the extra financial clout the parachute payments bring to the yo-yo clubs.

The top 6 in the Champ will be as predicable as the top 6 in the PL are today.

no idea what will happen, but it is interesting how little interest i have in prem, I can watch it all time here and really cheaply too, but I am so meh to it, I mean it is more interesting than was say 4 years ago with Gunners and liverpools fall from grace allowing spurs and man city to take their places and in case of spurs can pay them respect for building up into this position in rather honourable way, but end of day, know Man U or maybe chels will win, gunners will get predictabily useless third and then Man City will get fourth.

I think the fact that watching blackpool was most exciting thing about prem last year sums it all up really, because watching relegation battle with interest and who gave two stuffs about title, that decided in feb or something.

I have a saying after our last prem tour...getting promoted is better than being promoted...I don't say because of how badly we did, but because even if we stay up, all doing is acting as fodder for big teams. :P