The end of football as we know it or the re-birth?

[KRS]

Does the contract with UEFA and FIFA that ends in 2014 have any relation to Premier League clubs contracts with the FA? If not, would this simply mean an end or change to current European competitions with the domestic leagues carrying on?

[Toronto Villa]

I read this last night. I'd happy if they split away. If it meant what was left and teams could compete again with each other then that's fine by me. If they split, they should go for good with no chance of return. I'd be more than happy if the league was 4 or 5 teams less, if we had a much better chance of winning things by good management, and hopefully some sort of salary cap.

[LeeS]

If they did go then it would be a good opportunity for those who remain to completely overhaul the league. We could bring in genuinely strict financial regulation and a US style salary cap. Not a cap relative to income. An actual £s amount cap. It would mean the best players being spread out amongst all the teams.

Obviously we wouldnt see the very best players in our league because they'd all have followed the money to the breakaway Super Intergalactic Champions League. But its all relative. I'd love it and almost certainly get my season ticket again.

[Damo70]

It won't happen, they will come to some agreement. I can't see the CL usual suspects setting up a league independent of UEFA and FIFA. They would have to have a league and knockout cup competition just amonst themselves. UEFA and FIFA wouldn't let them compete in their domestic leagues, the players would probably be banned from international football and even transfers in and out could be a problem. It would be interesting to see whether an Ashley Young or Luca Modric would choose to stay with one of the top clubs left and have a good chance of winning things and be able to play for their country or go and compete in the 'new' league and no longer be able to play international football.

[Rigadon]

Heart echoes Dave's "see yer later then" comment but....  Head says what we'd be left with would be Championship MrkII.  The quality of football would be shit, there would be likely be no squad size limit for the elite clubs and certainly no wage cap so every single last player of quality would be off. 

We'd be left with a little league scenario like in baseball and clubs like Villa would really struggle to stay afloat because the TV revenue would disappear faster than you could say Scottish Premier League. 

In short, I think it would be a disaster, especially for 'second tier' clubs like ours.

[russon]

Most fans of Scottish clubs other than Rangers & Celtic would love the Old Firm to bugger off to a Euro or English league so they could all scrap it out on a level playing field (or as close as you can get to one given some clubs will always have more cash than others, but properly administrated it's achievable). Similarly, the Premiership would be a better spectacle without the mega monied big clubs involved, I'd drive them to the airports myself.

[Rigadon]

While i do get the whole level playing field thing, I worry about the revenue drop.  How would clubs like Villa, Everton, Sunderland, Spurs etc fund the massive operations they currently do?  43,000 seater stadiums, club shops, everything geared towards the big time.  It would be a huge scaling down required and certain clubs would, and there is no doubt of this, perish.  It'd be OK for the smaller clubs.  For us it would be a disaster I think.

[Simba]

Apalling thought. IMHO.

What? Travelling to Spain or Germany for an away game? It is once again -like the Premier League- a chance for the big guys to run the circus. Guess what ,a circus only survives if the punters pay to watch.

And we won't.  Sky might but we won't. Can't afford it. We don't earn 200k a month.

This is a reach too far. They all want to make out on the worldwide success of the Premier League. That is fine if twenty Million Chinese support Man U - they might buy a shirt once a year  but they don't but tickets every second week.

Financially, and that is all this is about. It doesn't compute. Again IMHO

[Billy Walker]

While i do get the whole level playing field thing, I worry about the revenue drop.  How would clubs like Villa, Everton, Sunderland, Spurs etc fund the massive operations they currently do?  43,000 seater stadiums, club shops, everything geared towards the big time.  It would be a huge scaling down required and certain clubs would, and there is no doubt of this, perish.  It'd be OK for the smaller clubs.  For us it would be a disaster I think.

I think we could form our own league and market it in a different way, based on different, more old-fashioned principles.  We could return the game to the way it was: a wage cap and so on.  We could make the game fairer and based on the virtues of true sportsmanship and genuine competition.  I think there would be a real market out there for this.  Indeed, I think, in time, this league would be looked upon as the better, "cooler", more fashionable league.  More importantly it would be a league formed for the right reasons.

[Mac]

What's the difference between this and the top 10 of the EPL?  Very little.  Or indeed NFL and that maintains interest.

Frankly I love the Villa and would want them to be at the top but don't really give a shite what happens.  As soon as EPL was formed the European version became inevitable.

[john e]

a few years ago i would have been dead against this, but now would welcome it with open arms,
we will never again be able to compete against the big money clubs in the prem, its imposible, there is absolutley no competition in the prem outside of the clubs with big money to spend,
its a totaly pointless competition to a club like Villa who are at least trying to live within there means

let them go and take the tv money and the best players, and the rest of us can get back to watching football on a levelish playing field with kick offs at 3 o'clock, and without all the hype and bullshit that surrounds the game at the moment.

yes i know crowds would probably dip, so what,
yes we wouldnt be live on sky, so what
we would be getting back to the game as it used to be,

 the main problem is that the big clubs would soon get fed up with the european league, playing in europe every week sounds fancifull, but in reality fans like there trips to West Ham, Villa, Everton, Sunderland, Fulham, Wolves, Wigan etc and the novelty would soon wear thin,

if it were to happen, and we were invited in, that certainly would be it for me, the tipping point would have arrived, no thanks

[dave.woodhall]

Let it happen, let the top four or five clubs in England go into it, then see how many want to watch Liverpool and Arsenal once the novelty's worn off and they're finishing 17th every season.

[Phil from the upper holte]

I'm sure this has been banded about before. It didn't happen then and it won't happen now

[Rigadon]

While i do get the whole level playing field thing, I worry about the revenue drop.  How would clubs like Villa, Everton, Sunderland, Spurs etc fund the massive operations they currently do?  43,000 seater stadiums, club shops, everything geared towards the big time.  It would be a huge scaling down required and certain clubs would, and there is no doubt of this, perish.  It'd be OK for the smaller clubs.  For us it would be a disaster I think.

I think we could form our own league and market it in a different way, based on different, more old-fashioned principles.  We could return the game to the way it was: a wage cap and so on.  We could make the game fairer and based on the virtues of true sportsmanship and genuine competition.  I think there would be a real market out there for this.  Indeed, I think, in time, this league would be looked upon as the better, "cooler", more fashionable league.  More importantly it would be a league formed for the right reasons.

Unless it scaled down gradually for a good 5 or 6 years, we and other clubs of our current stature would be up shit creek before this new league had a chance to be anything approaching cool.

It wouldn't be like going back to the old style league either because 5 or 6 of the teams would no longer be competing and the feel of it all would be a bit wooden spoon.

I agree that the CL is already a closed-shop and something does need to be done to rectify this, starting a new league isn't the way forward though.  I personally think it should be the winners of the league like the 'good' old days.  If this can't happen then top 2 in the league qualify and another place gets decided in a play off between 3rd to 6th.  This would at least give most teams a chance like in the Championship playoff. 

[TheSandman]

I am somewhat agnostic on this. On the one hand it would mean a more competitive and interesting league with greater opportunities for us to win things (assuming we are not in it - which I would like). I am an Aston Villa supporter and regardless of what is going on I will continue to be so and I'm sure that there are plenty who feel the same way. Regardless of the league, quality or what is going on we will still have a healthy support and be Aston Villa. I'd much rather have that than have to schlep out to Munich or Madrid for an away game. However, we may lose all our good players to the big league and we would have a financial black hole from the loss of TV money.

What I think will happen is nothing. This league will not happen and the governing bodies and the top clubs will reach a compromise which will probably involve reform of the bodies, the abolition of international friendlies and perhaps even a watering down of financial fairplay regulations.