Boom and Bust in Scotland

Generali

chucky wrote: »

the only reason the West Ham/Spurs rivalry is there isnbecause Spurs don't have a realistic rivalry with Arsenal anymore. the next level down is West Ham...

Ha ha, maybe you're right. As I say, it seemed one-sided to me though.

I guess Ars**al's rivalries are against Man Yoo and so on these days.

chopperharris

When teams need to compete in europe to get money to stay afloat its a stark warning.

Perhaps if the got rid of tv footy for all but the euro games then stadia would get bigger , more bums on seats , and fans can actually finance the club directly rather than them being left in the lurch whne tv money is non existant or a company like setanta folds.

The scottish game , a game that has had direct influence on the english game through managers like ferguson or players for decades , suffers because these teams grow talents as a form of income.They simply cannot afford to offer the same wages , and because of these wages you cannot tell me that the national squad has played its heart out , I know I wouldnt want to lose a 50k a week income playing for my country shold I have my career cut short.

I have warned about the state of footy suffering because of things like not evolving , european involvement that only helps the eu clubs and not the uk ones.The game needs to have a 50 percent minimum nationalist squad , there is no other reason why our talents are getting less every year while that of europe gets bigger.

One of the good things that can be said about rangers is their youth programme , but as I mentioned above this can be seen as a form of income rather than a form of keeping national football alive.For christ sake we have had to change the rule and start using not only those with two generation lineage tothe country but now anyone that has had 5 years of blody high school is now elligible.Kind of flies in the face of all those that hate immigration yet chant for a foreign player.

Perhaps we need a handicap system where wages bills are on a level across europe , at the least for the very top tier , and just like f1 then only the talent itself is a limit not the bank book.

My biggest grudge about rangers , and celtic , is that they are the ruining of the scots game , and as mentioned above for the reason of bank books.The can afford to buy up players that local oppostion has then simply bench them because the smaller teams have to sell them off.

My last word , in a quite long observation or rant depending on your view is that real fans dont just buy shirts and dont watch tv on the telly....they put bums on seats and shares in pockets.If we see teams like rangers have money problems , then just like the banking collapses we will see more.The english game should be very worried indeed.

Generali

To be fair to Sky, they have a history across the world (under various names) of constantly increasing the money they pay into sports and working with sports administrators to increase the popularity of the sports they cover.

I can't think of an instance where Sky/Fox/Foxtel has gotten rid of the competition and then decreased the amount they pay to a sport.

Of course mostly that is self interest - if they pay a billion quid to the Premiership clubs and FA to cover the BPL for a few years then it's hard for a competitor to come along and compete. Just look what happened to ITV Digital and Setanta.