The death of competition

[Meanwood Villa]

When seeing the horrific sight of Man Utd celebrating yet another title it got me musing on the complete and utter mundane predictably of "the greatest league in the world" (c Sky).
Since 1995 3 different teams have won the league. This compares unfavourably with the leagues in Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria. Basically every major league in Western Europe. Except Scotland.
We are constantly told that it is the most exciting title race in years but really, is it? When only 2 teams can win it? We're supposed to be excited that perhaps Man City can make a go of it next season but what their's and Chelsea's emergence has shown is that you need to be unfathomably rich to even compete with the spawn of Satan (well they are called the Red Devils!)
So, another modern football is rubbish rant perhaps but do people think this matters? Any suggestions on how to change it? And, given that those suggestions won't happen, how long can it go on? Perhaps Rangers and Celtic's financial woes might serve as a lesson to the current duopoly that they can't steamroller the local opposition without it eventually biting them on the arse.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Rangers and Celtic's financial woes are mainly down to the lack of TV revenue. Here, the rich just get richer and the rest just make up the numbers. It's what Sky want.

[john e]

its the single biggest fault in football,
money doesnt gurantee succes, but without it you can guarantee you wont compete for the top 4 places

when Man Utd, Chelsea win against most other teams in the league, its the equivalent of a grown man beating shit out of a 10 year old, then bragging about how hard he is, pathetic

[VillaZogmariner]

It's not worse than Portugal though, these are the winners since the league started -

Benfica - 32 times
Porto - 25 times
Sporting - 18 times
Beleneses - 1 time (1946)
Boavista 1 time (2001)

[Concrete John]

Rangers and Celtic's financial woes are mainly down to the lack of TV revenue. Here, the rich just get richer and the rest just make up the numbers. It's what Sky want.

The Sky money isn't really a problem in terms of competition, although their choice to mainly broadcast games of certain clubs doesn't help.  In reality it's the money and profile of the CL clubs that makes the difference.  That vastly increases turnover and allows you to attract the better players, to the point that anyone outside of that elite has no chance of winning the league.

Which I'm sure comes as no great surprise to anyone.

Maybe the question is what are the likes of Italy and Spain doing differently that prevents this happening in their leagues and spreads the trophies around more evenly?

[Meanwood Villa]

Rangers and Celtic's financial woes are mainly down to the lack of TV revenue. Here, the rich just get richer and the rest just make up the numbers. It's what Sky want.

But will there become a point where the "making up the numbers" lot become so far behind and the league becomes so skewed that the TV money dries up? I would say we're close to it, in terms of genuine competition for the title we are there but stadiums still sell out and sky subscriptions still get sold so I suppose we're nowhere near. Personally I'd love to kick Man U out of the league for any reason going but someone would only take their place. That's capitalism I guess

[Meanwood Villa]

It's not worse than Portugal though, these are the winners since the league started -

Benfica - 32 times
Porto - 25 times
Sporting - 18 times
Beleneses - 1 time (1946)
Boavista 1 time (2001)

The way we're going the English roll of honour of the next 77 years will be similar

[UsualSuspect]

Having watched the Villa quite a bit over the past 2 seasons after a 5 year sabbatical what has struck me more than anything is apart from probably 3 teams how rubbish the quality of football is.

I think this season has been exciting due to the amount of equally matched shit teams.

As far as changing it goes, it will only need a hint of a salary cap, or suchlike and the clubs will be in the high court crying about restrictions of trade, bullying etc.

[Meanwood Villa]

Rangers and Celtic's financial woes are mainly down to the lack of TV revenue. Here, the rich just get richer and the rest just make up the numbers. It's what Sky want.

The Sky money isn't really a problem in terms of competition, although their choice to mainly broadcast games of certain clubs doesn't help.  In reality it's the money and profile of the CL clubs that makes the difference.  That vastly increases turnover and allows you to attract the better players, to the point that anyone outside of that elite has no chance of winning the league.

Which I'm sure comes as no great surprise to anyone.

Maybe the question is what are the likes of Italy and Spain doing differently that prevents this happening in their leagues and spreads the trophies around more evenly?

In truth Spain is going the same way, Barca and Real have been absolutely miles ahead this year. But the lack of depth at the top of our league has been going on longer.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

It's not worse than Portugal though, these are the winners since the league started -

Benfica - 32 times
Porto - 25 times
Sporting - 18 times
Beleneses - 1 time (1946)
Boavista 1 time (2001)

Portugal is a classic example of how Sky would like it to go. 66% of the football supporting population are Benficistas. They have over 200,000 paying members, club houses all over the world, they sell more in merchandising than our total revenue. They're an advertisers dream. Thankfully they've had crap/dodgy presidents since the 70's.

Porto have a president who's been in control for 30 years. He runs the place like a mafia boss, some would say he also runs the league. There's nobody in Portugal powerful enough to stand up to him, not that a few haven't tried. Even when it was proved he was paying for certain referee's holidays, arranging them prostitutes, nothing was ever done. Credit should be given though for their buying and selling policy. I doubt there any many clubs in the world that buy and sell better than Porto.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

In truth Spain is going the same way, Barca and Real have been absolutely miles ahead this year. But the lack of depth at the top of our league has been going on longer.

Barca and Real have negotiated their own TV deals for some time now.

[Woofles The Wonder Dog]

Here, the rich just get richer and the rest just make up the numbers. It's what Sky want.

If you think about it for more than two seconds, it's NOT what Sky want. Any TV company who has invested the money Sky has across the league wants "events" to sell more advertising.

A couple of years ago Arsenal vs Man City wasn't a top level event but now, thanks to the oil money it is and there's an extra two ganes a season to hype up. Sky would love nothing more than there to be many more "events" to sell. It's simply not in their interests to have four or five teams fixtures to hype up.

Admittedly, Wigan vs Stoke is never going to be a great advertising event, but if Spurs, Everton and ourselves were to join the top lot as genuine contenders Sky (and their marketing people) would be besides themselves with joy.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Rangers and Celtic's financial woes are mainly down to the lack of TV revenue. Here, the rich just get richer and the rest just make up the numbers. It's what Sky want.

The Sky money isn't really a problem in terms of competition, although their choice to mainly broadcast games of certain clubs doesn't help.  In reality it's the money and profile of the CL clubs that makes the difference.  That vastly increases turnover and allows you to attract the better players, to the point that anyone outside of that elite has no chance of winning the league.

It all starts with Sky. It would be interesting to know how many Man Utd games weren't broadcast live this season. In addition, you now have the overseas TV money where I can almost guarantee you every game they play is sold live.

Next throw in the shirt sponsorship money. How much did AIG agree to pay them? How much are they getting now?

Then you have your Champions League money. Add all these up together plus the global merchanding, match day revenue and you can see why the Glaziers decided to buy them without investing a penny. Once that debt is paid off, they'll be able to buy any single player in the world. They really will become the richest club in the world but the frightening thing is, they'll be so far ahead of everybody else, even the Real Madrids and Barcas of this world.

The TV money will never dry up until non-Man United fans stop subscribing to Sky and the like.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Here, the rich just get richer and the rest just make up the numbers. It's what Sky want.

If you think about it for more than two seconds, it's NOT what Sky want. Any TV company who has invested the money Sky has across the league wants "events" to sell more advertising.

Check the TV ratings and cross them with the socio-geo demographics of their fanbase and they're as good as it gets. An advertisers dream.

[Toronto Villa]

If Platini really wants economic fair play he'd lobby to reduce the significance of the CL. But that horse bolted out of the barn ages ago. In England, unless something quite remarkable happens, and unless another Man City come along, or the odd blip caused by Spurs/Everton we all may as well get used to the same teams competing for the CL from the major football nations to the end of time. The CL revenues have created such a divide that even in what has been a down year in terms of quality, the same teams command the top 3 spots. That shows that even at a lower ebb, they are still far too powerful for most teams to compete against on a regular basis.

Very depressing.