Well, I’ll save you reading all this by stating first off that “yes, it bloody is”. Kevin Keegan‘s been raked over the coals for his comment on this “most boring, but great” league. Thing is, he’s spot on the money.
Richard Scudamore, the Premier League chief executive, says that’s nonsense as it’s the most-watched league in the world. But that doesn’t make it exciting. Eastenders is the most-watched soap on TV and it’s a load of **** as well. The reason it’s the most watched is for the teams at the top end. It’s not the league that’s watched worldwide, it’s ManUre, Arsenal, Chelski and Liverpool… the continual top 4.
His argument that “the numbers tell you it is the most exciting” falls down when you break those numbers down into what teams are being watched and why. ManUre fans don’t watch because they find it exciting – they watch because they know they’ve got a good chance of winning. And, this season, people will have watched them because they’ve played excellent football. Give more teams a chance of getting into the top end of the table and the League would be more exciting. Presently, it’s most exciting to ManUre, Chelski and Arsenal fans. End of.
Honestly, outside of actual fans of the teams, who “worldwide” is going to watch Fulham v Man City? Or care where they end up? ManUre, for whatever reason, have a massive worldwide following. People watch their games and – despite never having been to Manchester (fair enough as the team aren’t from the city either) – genuinely care whether they win the title or not. And, in all fairness, each season they have a chance to do so. So it’s exciting for them.
But is it genuinely exciting for roughly 12 of the remaining 16 teams? Sure, two or three will maybe push for that fourth spot. A couple will battle for the 5th place UEFA spot. Someone like Derby will be humiliated all season. There’ll be the occasional local derby to raise blood pressure. But overall is the entire league more exciting that, say, the Dutch one?
Short of the top teams going bankrupt or the manager having a shitter, there’s no way in for the other teams. Who cares about your league position if you know, realistically by game 10, that you’re going to finish somewhere between 7th and 15th? Each game may be exciting on its own merits, but the League sure as hell isn’t.
The thing is, what can be done? It’s too late to put wage capping in place. European law won’t allow us to restrict players to national or regional birth only so bang goes the “pride” aspect. The rich clubs are already stupidly rich, the poor clubs are already struggling. So many have faced financial problems for various reasons (low crowds, trying to buy success, fans being priced out) that the game’s dying in the upper leagues.
I don’t have a solution that would ever be accepted by the top clubs – including Newcastle. Frankly, if I didn’t follow a team that was in the Premiership, I’d not give a damn about the League. The Championship (old Second Division) was much more interesting this year.
Even as a Liverpool fan, I think Kev is spot on – everyone knows he is, they just won’t admit it. I don’t have a clue either how this could be remedied, it’s all about the money and clubs have too much to gain and too much to lose – wage capping just won’t happen but if it did, it would probably work. Maybe they should introduce it for new players into the EPL and then in years to come, once the players on the obscene salaries retire, the only players left will be on the structured capped salaries. But it’ll never happen. I’d love Liverpool to win the league and for Manure and Chelski to finish outside of the top 4…now that would be something different! 🙂
A rolling wage cap scheme may help, but the problem you have then is that the greedy players will then opt to play elsewhere. Why go to up-an-coming Everton (say), when you can go to Madrid and earn 10x as much?
The cap would have to be worldwide, not just in England, the UK or even Europe. And even then, how do you police it? A £1.5m a year package in the UK is not bad. A £1.5m a year package in Brazil or Estonia is enormous. It’d have to be tied to relative economies.
And there there’s the fact that it still – I guarantee – won’t reduce ticket prices, fees for watching it on TV and so on. The difference will be that the cash won’t go to the players. It’ll go to the fad greedy ******** who sit on the boards and own shares. Either way, the actual *fan* won’t benefit – except with possibly a more exciting league.
Absolutely, the cap would have to be worldwide and linked to the various economies. I believe some clubs incorporate some sort of ‘pay per play’ type wage scheme, which could possibly get rid of the lazy so & so’s who are happy raking in the money whilst sitting on the subs bench never getting a game and not really interested in getting a game either. The fans won’t benefit financially – when do they ever ? But they may get a bit more value for money by having a more exciting league to follow. I’m just so glad I now have a little non-league club to follow the fortunes of!
Someone on a website somewhere (OK, that’s vague) once mentioned a “performance related” pay packet where players were paid based on fan opinion. The BBC has a rather good – and as far as I can tell accurate – rating system for every Prem game now. I like that. No conflict with the management or board. If you have a shitter, you get punished. If you’re Mark Viduka, in his Boro days, you go home with enough to cover your pie and chips. Twice. With mushy peas.
The problem with “pay per play” is you have manager’s “favourites”. Then there’s the likes of the substitute goalkeepers – only one goalie position and you don’t chop and change them that often. A goalie who’ll warm a bench for seasons on end, I feel, deserves reward.