[Osborne again]

philly8mt, on 21 January 2024 - 07:25 AM, said:

Don’t care really.

The more they ****** about with these competitions/leagues and the more people see the greed and lack of relevance to our game, hopefully the more they will settle down to watch teams that they have an affinity with.

I didn’t watch a single match of the last World Cup. All the virtue signalling and grasping for money alongside the dubious employment/health and safety practices made me feel slightly nauseous tbh.

I take in the odd match,but I certainly wouldn't get upset if I missed one or two. The World cup doesn't hold the excitement it once did for me.

[Osborne again]

sophocles, on 21 January 2024 - 11:00 AM, said:

I've got a feeling that more and more football fans will turn to their local clubs and away from the ludicrously overpaid performers who have zero relevance to most ordinary people's lives. In my view, the continual over-the-top hype via tv etc is separating supporters more and more from the few superclubs with obscene budgets. I've thought throughout this season that people getting tired of the overhyped big money circus could be a factor in the amazing attendance figures we achieve in the fifth tier. I can see more and more football lovers turning away from pay-per-view tv and going along to support their local team watching players they can relate to as ordinary people on decent but not ridiculous wages.

Greed at the top is mirrored throughout society mate. Someone playing for a premier League club for five years of his career will have amassed a sizable bank balance, and most spend more time than that at the top. Then, for some, it's management or punditry work, while others drop down the leagues. By this time they'll have banked a fortune, and if they can't live on what they have, then it's a joke.
The odd player from our league will climb up the divisions but others will end up on a production line alongside the supporters who once sung their praises. The money coming into the game needs spreading around more evenly, so those broken-down stadiums can be repaired and we don't need to rely on crowdfunding any more and young players get a chance of learning another career if their footballing career fails. The Royalty of the premier league compared to the hand to mouth of our league is the difference between chalk and cheese.

[JonB]

Interesting to see that with, Saudi owned, Newcastle up against some FFP issues and it stopping them making signings to cover a few injuries that all of a sudden there is interest in one of their players from a team in Saudi Arabia that would help them massively to work within FFP restrictions!