Lord Sugar tackles Football

[Buzzo]

Anyone watching this? Quite interesting so far, Suralan (Lord Sugar) explaining how football is bankrupting itself.

[CJ]

no surprises though are there

[Buzzo]

No, I suppose not really. Interesting all the same though.

[Buzzo]

no surprises though are there

According to Dave Whelan. Players are paid too much........! Hold the phone, stop the presses etc.

[Buzzo]

Talking about us and the Septic Tanks now...

And now the Glazers... and how they have leveraged Man U to ****. Apparently it has cost Man U £350 million servicing their debt over the last 5 years...

[wavydavy]

The thing is is that that at programmes revelatory stance will come as no shock to us lot. We know what a LBO is and we know what a lot of fans don't know. We've faced our armageddon and are now on the other side. Our owners seem to know what's what while other teams' problems may have only just begun.

[Rich]

Harry Redknapp bull****ting

[Buzzo]

Suralan says.........

1. Control Wages ie. salary cap.
2. Only borrow to build, not to buy. ie, no more leveraged buyouts. Borrow just to build stadia.
3. Tougher penalties for financial failure. ie, you go bust and doors are closed.
4. End footballs dodgy creditors rule. ie, when a club goes bust they pay all their debts, not as per current rules (players get paid first, small businesses who are due money are f***ed).
5. Invest some of the TV revenue for the future.

[paulg]

Watched this, as we've already said most of it is obvious.
Premeir League, Redknapp, Shearer and Agent all claiming nothing to do with me, guv.

Crying shame that nothing will change.

[kris90210]

Suralan says.........

1. Control Wages ie. salary cap.
2. Only borrow to build, not to buy. ie, no more leveraged buyouts. Borrow just to build stadia.
3. Tougher penalties for financial failure. ie, you go bust and doors are closed.
4. End footballs dodgy creditors rule. ie, when a club goes bust they pay all their debts, not as per current rules (players get paid first, small businesses who are due money are f***ed).
5. Invest some of the TV revenue for the future.

I thought Richard Scudamore came across extremely well and smashed Lord Alan's salary cap and tougher penalties arguments.

Sugar really didn't get very much from the agent he interviewed either. I mean at the end of the day, the agent is just doing a job. I can't believe there are many examples of an agent forcing a player to leave a club. Gerrard addressed this in his book when his agent was getting all the blame for the Chelsea ficasco. The players hire the agents and ultimately, must accept responsibility for their own actions. Do managers have agents? Probably.

In fact, I think it was pretty rich of Alan Sugar to look down his nose at that agent as though he himself isn't at least as unscrupulous in business.

[TheStig]

I thought Richard Scudamore came across extremely well and smashed Lord Alan's salary cap and tougher penalties arguments.

Sugar really didn't get very much from the agent he interviewed either. I mean at the end of the day, the agent is just doing a job. I can't believe there are many examples of an agent forcing a player to leave a club. Gerrard addressed this in his book when his agent was getting all the blame for the Chelsea ficasco. The players hire the agents and ultimately, must accept responsibility for their own actions. Do managers have agents? Probably.

In fact, I think it was pretty rich of Alan Sugar to look down his nose at that agent as though he himself isn't at least as unscrupulous in business.

[Buzzo]

I thought Richard Scudamore came across extremely well and smashed Lord Alan's salary cap and tougher penalties arguments.

Sugar really didn't get very much from the agent he interviewed either. I mean at the end of the day, the agent is just doing a job. I can't believe there are many examples of an agent forcing a player to leave a club. Gerrard addressed this in his book when his agent was getting all the blame for the Chelsea ficasco. The players hire the agents and ultimately, must accept responsibility for their own actions. Do managers have agents? Probably.

In fact, I think it was pretty rich of Alan Sugar to look down his nose at that agent as though he himself isn't at least as unscrupulous in business.

I disagree with this. Being unscrupulous is fair enough in business, but I think at least in most private sector business you accept that everyone is governed by the same rules. I think the point Sugar was making is that it seems unacceptable that the premier league, and the clubs within it seem to be able to operate under different rules to normal businesses. A club as badly run as Portsmouth should by rights have been closed down. Football clubs seem to be able to strike deals with HMRC over PAYE that simply do not exist to business owners in the private sector and if the rules were similarly ignored in the private sector the HMRC would begin proceedings to close these businesses down.

Surely the most telling point from the documentary was that (under Premier League rules) having gone into Administration Portsmouth firstly paid their players, however a local small business went without payment of £50k and has subsequently entered administration itself. Under normal rules a deal should be struck that satisfies all creditors. On top of this Portsmouth continue to be operating as a business, where as if they had been liquidated their assets would have to be sold off in order to pay back their creditors.

What Alan Sugar was pointing out was that Football needs to get its house in order, clubs cannot be allowed to be run unsustainably making no profit and spending beyond their means. Football clubs are businesses and should have to be run and play by the same rules as other businesses. Clubs with meagre means to income should not be allowed to trade if they are proven to be insolvent, and clubs that go into administration should not be allowed to pheonix or bring themselves out of administration without finding a way of satisfying their existing creditors.

Of all the people interviewed I don't think Alan Shearer or Harry Redknapp provided any insight whatsoever. Harry even went as far as to say he doesn't know how much his players earn (Bull****). I would suggest that Harry is thinking of Portsmouth when he answers this question, where it is convenient for him to have not known that the players he was signing were on wages they could not be sustained by the business. This is not actually his fault as at the end of the day he doesn't have to balance the books. But I would suggest he knew full well the basic details of the contracts players he was signing were on. Scudamore spoke reasonably well, but as he is representing the premier league and its member clubs was hardly giving an unbiased opinion... his stuttering answer when asked whether clubs should br run under stricter financial controls would attest to that.

[CJ]

According to Dave Whelan. Players are paid too much........! Hold the phone, stop the presses etc.

Thing is most football fans dont think that do they, well they do but then want their club to spend more to compete.

as a southport follower i notice how the fans hate the chairman for lack of ambition and the fact is the club runs at a loss but the fans want to spend the money to get promoted then we will get more income.

the problem is it doesnt guarantee promotion. Whilst i can see the point at Southport look at clubs that have chased the dream and folded.

I doubt that this is a unique view from fans. Also remember that the money in football doesnt flow to the lower leagues but the pressure on boards from fans to spend must be immense. Also if you dont they want you out.

There may be a point that there are too many clubs and the reality is that they are not all suportable?

where i live in an hour i can get to the following prem grounds

Anfield
woodison
Eastlands
the cricket grounds name robbing meccano set
reebok
ewood
DW
bloomfield road

just over an hour to Britannia


Champ grounds

Deepdale
turf moore
possibly elland road

thats alot of grounds and then there are all the oldhams bury stockport etc etc and then the non league grounds.

[TheStig]

the cricket grounds name robbing meccano set

[Alex]

But Marsh, the Prem Grounds I can get to in an hour are zero.

I have near me from Lower League

Colchester Utd
Southend
Ipswich

I wouldn't say it was over saturation, just that certain parts of the country have alot of teams. The North-West and London mainly.