Liverpool FC Forum

by **kazza** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:13 am

From a football standpoint, there is nothing wrong with it. Although I hate Chelsea and what their fans seem to stand for (well the front running celebs etc. anyway), I think it is not FIFA's decision to make. If I remember correctly Seth Blatter was also accused of many financial irregularities, so this seems to be a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

I believe in Capitalism and free market economy, which basically means you leave things alone, and let the market (in this case the fans) sort it out. I cannot see anything wrong with an idiot like Abramovich giving a team like Man City 24 million (or whatever) of his ill gotten gains for a player. That has got to be good for football, because Man City then spend that money within the football community. It is generally all about expansion and contraction, and right now Chelsea are going through an expansion phase. Leave them alone and the bubble will pop, and this will be the most fun to watch.

After all, the wicked shall fall by their own wickedness ( :laugh:

), so let the Chelsea fans mouth of, because it is going to make their fall that little bit harder.

As for Abramovich's "ill gotten" gains, that is an issue for the Russian people, and they will probably come looking for it.

by **bigmick** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 10:49 am

Surely though, the issue here is the game of football as a whole and not just Chelsea and Abramovich. If as many predict, the Chelsea empire implodes on the back of the Russian losing interest, being arrested, shot or an all three combo then Chelsea will certainly go bust. Now while this might be quite amusing to many, I have to ask the question, where does that leave us?
What happens next is a Chinese billionaire comes along and buys QPR. They storm through the divisions before becoming Premiership Champions and Champions League winners within five seasons. They are the biggest club in Europe all of a sudden.
Football as awhole has a chance here. It has taken a somewhat shady looking Russian to expose football for what it is. If you just wait for Chelsea to come unstuck somebody else will follow because football is ripe for raping.
What I say is, how about a Premiership of twenty teams where 12 have got a realistic chance of winning the thing? How about the difference between 1st and 10th being 12 points? Going into the last game of the season three teams being in with a chance of winning it? Think they'd fill the grounds then? Not many Benny. And it is possible, absolutely possible. Salary capping has existed in the US for years and they just get on with it. Aussie rules football, salary capped (and please don't scoff. Aussie rules for all of the fact that it is a ridiculous game is massive over there

). Football should grab this chance now, because if it was a big four rather than a big one, then nothing would ever get passed.

by **JBG** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:08 am

Can anyone see a scenario where another Abramovich comes to England?

There have been talk of tycoons buying West Ham and Villa. There was even talk of us being bought by tycoons?

What would people think if there was another Abramovich in England? Would it make matters better or worse?

by **stmichael** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:49 am

Redtribe wrote:If they really want to make a difference I think a wage cap is the best option. There is no way that any footballer deserves 100k a week I would also say that none deserve 60k a week. But that seems like something which would be more appropriate at least for now!

This works in America and to me it makes perfect sense in football aswell.

Basically, there is no "maximum wage" that a club can pay any of their players. Instead, they have a maximum wage budget which they need to distribute between their players as they see fit.

To be honest, it's Blatter and his cronies who've let the game get in this mess in the first place. Salary caps, transfer caps etc have been bandied about for years but UEFA have done f#ck all about it.

by **JBG** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 12:25 pm

I'd like to see it happening but my fear is that the big clubs - ourselves included - are getting to the stage where they could breakaway and form their own association if FIFA really starts throwing its weight about. Thats a worst case scenario, but its not implausible. The formation of the Premiership is a precedent.

by **Judge** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 12:30 pm

its strange how a little known footballer (who wasnt all that good anyway), is responsible for the situation that clubs are faced with, in terms of wage demands.

he was of course called ''bosman''

by **Ciggy** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 12:48 pm

Just been reading that Chelsea will put bids in for Andrade and Joaquin FFS how many players do they want?
You can only play 11 players this is getting beyond a joke now, I hope something is done about their transfer dealings a.s.a.p.

by **Judge** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 12:52 pm

perhaps chelsea are that paranoid they wont win owt, that they will field a full strength side for reserve games to ensure they win something

by **bigmick** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:06 pm

JBG wrote:I'd like to see it happening but my fear is that the big clubs - ourselves included - are getting to the stage where they could breakaway and form their own association if FIFA really starts throwing its weight about. Thats a worst case scenario, but its not implausible. The formation of the Premiership is a precedent.

The way things are happening JBG it won't be the big clubs breaking away, it'll be the smaller ones. Imagine a scenario whereby all the English teams from Man U down (that is everybody else except Manure, Chelsea and Arsenal decide to break away.) They form a league with transfer capping, maximum squad sizes etc etc. Suddenly, you have a situation whereby pretty much ALL the teams in that division have a chance. The players by definition would get paid less and contribute more. I'd go and watch that league.
Maybe I should just support walsall or somebody and have done with it

by **bigmick** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:08 pm

While we're at it, if Chelsea and Manure are going into a European super league, we'll have Celtic, Rangers etc in ours. Give it a couple of years and they'd be begging to come back in.

by **Woollyback** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:10 pm

It's nice to see Sepp Blatter going on the record and saying what many football supporters have known for a long time. Whilst any action to remedy the situation is probably a long way off at least the authorities are acknowledging there is a problem there which needs addressing

As for JBG's question about whether any more Abramovich's might be on the way over here I think definitely YES. England (particularly London) is becoming one of the top places on the planet for the super-rich to base themselves and is now seen as being ahead of even New York in that respect, the multiculturalism which exists here and the favourable tax treatment for the ridiculously wealthy (not to mention the "blind eye turning" by the authorities to shady dealings compared to the rest of the western world) mean the place is implicitly courting the likes of Abramovich and their collossal wealth. I think the London clubs are the most likely recipients of foreign mega-money but wouldn't be surprised in 5 years time if half the teams in the premiership have been bought by some billionnaire or other

As for a solution to the problem I really don't know. Wage capping would only work until the next Jean Marc Bosman takes it to Strasbourg and argues that it's illegal to arbitrarily limit his earnings, so I'm stumped as to how we could best solve the problem

by **bigmick** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 1:58 pm

Woollyback wrote:Wage capping would only work until the next Jean Marc Bosman takes it to Strasbourg and argues that it's illegal to arbitrarily limit his earnings, so I'm stumped as to how we could best solve the problem

I'm no legal beagle, or eagle or anything similar though Wools but what I and many others are proposing is an overall wage cap as a condition of competition entry. For example if you want to come into Micky's league division 1, you are not allowed to pay your players anymore than say, 25 million in total per annum. You can pay Bosman or whoever asmuch as you like but no more than 25 million per annum, or 500k per week. 'Course, if you do pay somebody that then the rest of your squad have to play for free.
The 500 k per week isn't going to happen anytime soon (he says

) so what I am proposing is the more expensive players being balanced out by cheaper ones. That allied to you only being able to use eleven of say 20 registered professionals in the league would stop the big clubs having a massive advantage. Injury problems? Play one of the youth team kids then who must be under 18 and registered also. We'd soon see who was "special" and who wasn't.

by **Woollyback** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 2:35 pm

bigmick wrote:
Woollyback wrote:Wage capping would only work until the next Jean Marc Bosman takes it to Strasbourg and argues that it's illegal to arbitrarily limit his earnings, so I'm stumped as to how we could best solve the problem

I'm no legal beagle, or eagle or anything similar though Wools but what I and many others are proposing is an overall wage cap as a condition of competition entry. For example if you want to come into Micky's league division 1, you are not allowed to pay your players anymore than say, 25 million in total per annum. You can pay Bosman or whoever asmuch as you like but no more than 25 million per annum, or 500k per week. 'Course, if you do pay somebody that then the rest of your squad have to play for free.
The 500 k per week isn't going to happen anytime soon (he says ) so what I am proposing is the more expensive players being balanced out by cheaper ones. That allied to you only being able to use eleven of say 20 registered professionals in the league would stop the big clubs having a massive advantage. Injury problems? Play one of the youth team kids then who must be under 18 and registered also. We'd soon see who was "special" and who wasn't.

aye not a bad idea, gets round the problem of the "bosman" thing

theoretically i like the idea of fans turning their backs on some of the larger/greedier clubs and watching a small loocal side instead but I went watching Bury last week and god it was f*cking DIRE

by **LFC #1** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 2:43 pm

cisses_gona_get_ya wrote:Just been reading that Chelsea will put bids in for Andrade and Joaquin FFS how many players do they want?
You can only play 11 players this is getting beyond a joke now, I hope something is done about their transfer dealings a.s.a.p.

if they buy Joaquin it would truly be a joke, and at that moment Chelsea would have gone way too far. No longer would they be buying a player to strengthen the squad, it would be to stop a rival buying him.

SWP is hardly playing as it is, and if Joaquin came in, well he'd probably just get sold for half what they paid for him. It doesn't matter to Chelsea, they can lose millions and millions, it means nothing.

by **xd3vilx** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 2:44 pm

Fifa trying to do the forumla 1 way by stopping chelsea from spending just like the f1 management stopping ferrari from winning...

Liverpool FC Forum

Fifa propose to crack down on the likes of chelsea

Who is online