Premier League chairmen set to vote at Thursday's fair play showdown meeting

[Lastfootstamper]

I can see why man city are against this. The really big money will only be generated by the clubs in the CL after this season, primarily those which consistently qualify for the knockout stages. They simply do not yet generate sufficient income from other sources to compete. Their attending fan-base could not cope with arsenal-type pricing. A ground expansion would seem expensive, much like building yet another new, bigger one. Their pull with overseas sponsors/"supporters" (I'm of the opinion that most of the rest of the world is currently quite surprised to learn that there's another club from Manchester) is quite minimal, hence the DIY ground-naming, with man u, arsenal, 'The Mighty Reds YNWA', chelski with ten years of blatant cheating, even spuds, seeming a more attractive place to put your hard-earned dollar, be it for sponsoring a shirt or just buying one. The drawbridge is pulling up, and the equivalent of £35m a season isn't enough to leap the ever-widening moat. Recent results now leave a pack of clubs chasing them down in the league, with CL qualification nowhere near a foregone conclusion. Failure to do so could lead to a very interesting summer at the new Maine Road. Perhaps they'll be the ones making the rallying cry for a euro league.

[ktvillan]

The Premier league, ever since its inception, has always been about naked self interest. Indeed, if I remember correctly it only came about following a threat of a break away by the usual suspects here, in Spain, Germany, Italy et all to form their own league closed to all outsiders.

Despite Sky continually telling us its 'the greatest league in the world', its probably as uncompetative as its ever been, with 2/3 clubs competing at the top, 2/3 sniffing about for 4th place and the rest trying to avoid relegation.

This decision is clearly designed to maintain the status-quo and will do so very well.

Indeed, the inception of the Premier League was the beginning of the death of football as a genuine competitive sport.  I think this deal doesn't change much, it just underlines how many clubs are willing to do no more than make up the numbers just to keep their fingers in the financial pie.  If you think about it, it's only the influx of money from  Abramovich and then Mansour,  that has given any semblance of genuine competition to the Premier League title recently. Without those it would have been a procession for United every year since Wenger lost his magic touch at Arsenal.  To say it's a competitive league is a joke. 

[dave.woodhall]

Indeed, the inception of the Premier League was the beginning of the death of football as a genuine competitive sport.  I think this deal doesn't change much, it just underlines how many clubs are willing to do no more than make up the numbers just to keep their fingers in the financial pie.  If you think about it, it's only the influx of money from  Abramovich and then Mansour,  that has given any semblance of genuine competition to the Premier League title recently. Without those it would have been a procession for United every year since Wenger lost his magic touch at Arsenal.  To say it's a competitive league is a joke. 

You only have to look at the attitude of clubs such as Sunderland and Albion, who haven't won a trophy since God was a lad, to the cups to realise the only things that matter to them are minimising any chance of relegation, no matter how slim it may have been to start with, and finishing as high as possible up the Premier League. 

[David_Nab]

http://www.sport360.com/football/man-utd-pen-%C2%A3160m-training-ground-sponsorship-deal

Fair play you say ...