Platini up to his old tricks again??

[Leyton388]

UEFA will try to persuade Premier League clubs to accept a cut in their share of Champions League revenues, which was £102million last season.


Figures made available by UEFA showed that Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal earned a combined £102million from Champions League television and sponsorship cash - a figure that does not include gate receipts or matchday revenue.

European champions Manchester United, unsurprisingly, were by far the biggest earners in Europe with £33.9m while beaten finalists Chelsea were next with £28.7m, Liverpool took £21.1m and Arsenal £18.3m.

Those four were also the biggest earners from the Premier League and UEFA are conscious that Europe's top club competition has created a wealth gap in domestic football.

The current system is in place until 2012, but UEFA will seek to win backing for changes via the European Strategy Council, the consultative body representing clubs, leagues, players and associations.

William Gaillard, UEFA communications director and special adviser to the organisation's president Michel Platini, said: "We are well aware there are some imbalances in the revenue distribution which have a negative effect in national leagues by widening the gap between the rich and not so rich.

"We will talk to the clubs and see how they feel, and try to convince them that in the longer run it is not in their interest if, because of the way money is distributed, national leagues become too imbalanced.

"This is something we have to bring to the strategy council and find a consensus, but we will have a very wide consultation policy."

Gaillard said Platini's approach would be to win a broad agreement rather than impose the new system on the clubs.

He added: "We have a situation that is fixed until 2012 so that gives us plenty of time to review it."

The four English clubs earned a total of £102m and Celtic and Rangers picked up a further £18m meaning that 26% of the £462m total Champions League television and sponsorship revenues ended up in British hands.

The financial success is due all four English clubs making the quarter-finals at least, and reflects the fact that the ITV/Sky Champions League deal is the biggest of any country in Europe.

Simon Chadwick, professor of sports business strategy at Coventry University, said the Premier League clubs were benefiting from a "virtuous circle".

"The more money you earn, the better the players you can sign, and the more success you have, and then you earn even more," said Chadwick.

"But increasingly the big thing in the Premier League and in Europe is this issue of competitive balance. You don't want over-domination because that adversely affects the product."

Chadwick said, however, that UEFA would be loath to upset the Premier League clubs because they added so much glamour to the European competition.

He added: "There is a global turf war for television sports fans going on - for example the NBA in China have been much more proactive than football, and the Champions League need the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea - and the clubs need the Champions League too for their own profiles."

UEFA's figures showed Celtic benefited from their second qualification for the knock-out phase to the tune of £10.3m while Rangers earned £7.7m, though they also brought in £4.1m from their run to the UEFA Cup final.

Outside of Britain, the biggest earners were Roma, the Italian club who made it furthest in the competition, with £22.9m while Barcelona, the only non-English club in the semi-finals, were slightly behind on £21.7m.

The lowest earners among the 32 were Shakhtar Donestsk of Ukraine who earned £5.6million.

The difference compared to the sums earned from the UEFA Cup is stark. Apart from Rangers, who made the final, Everton's income from the competition was £400,000, Tottenham and Bolton each earned £352,000 and Aberdeen just £265,000.


He is determined to screw the Premier league over. Never in a million years will liverpool, Scum, chavs and arse agree with this. This ****er is going to force g14 to get back together and tell UEFA to shove the champions league and setup a new competition.

[wavydavy]

Arshavin? Villa? Maybe Deco! Huntelaar perhaps! Sorry lads. I was just trying to work out who Everton were gonna splash their 400 grand on!!

[Tatterdemalion]

Platini is a socialist half wit.

[Ataturk]

I agree with gallaird.

The champions league money has made the premier league stale. Its less competitive than ever. Dominated by the richest clubs, with the exception of arsenal from 2002-04.

The distribution of money in the game makes it increasingly more difficult for the villas and evertons of this world to compete. They can't hold on to their best players because the best want to play on the biggest stage.

Unlike many reds I don't hate everton, I preferred it when they challenged for trophies and the 89 cup final is one of my favourite games of all time. They aren't the only club out there with bitter fans. Many people I know think the premier league is becoming a tiresome affair. There is too much money with the big 4.

Another reason why I would like to see less money given out from the cl is because that money has pricked up the interest of leeches like our own george and tom. They can secure their loans and pay themselves tidy dividends with that cl money in the can. Maybe they might care about investing in the team and backing the manager if winning the premier league meant more than finishing 4th did. And if there wasn't so much cash coming in from europe they might have built that ****ing stadium they have been going on about since they walked through the doors.

Before you jump down uefas throat about this give that some thought. Its the reason we buy so many **** players and its also why liverpool is a football club that hasn't and probably won't really challenge for the title in the near future.

[Tatterdemalion]

I agree with gallaird.

The champions league money has made the premier league stale. Its less competitive than ever. Dominated by the richest clubs, with the exception of arsenal from 2002-04.

The distribution of money in the game makes it increasingly more difficult for the villas and evertons of this world to compete. They can't hold on to their best players because the best want to play on the biggest stage.

Unlike many reds I don't hate everton, I preferred it when they challenged for trophies and the 89 cup final is one of my favourite games of all time. They aren't the only club out there with bitter fans. Many people I know think the premier league is becoming a tiresome affair. There is too much money with the big 4.

Another reason why I would like to see less money given out from the cl is because that money has pricked up the interest of leeches like our own george and tom. They can secure their loans and pay themselves tidy dividends with that cl money in the can. Maybe they might care about investing in the team and backing the manager if winning the premier league meant more than finishing 4th did. And if there wasn't so much cash coming in from europe they might have built that ****ing stadium they have been going on about since they walked through the doors.

Before you jump down uefas throat about this give that some thought. Its the reason we buy so many **** players and its also why liverpool is a football club that hasn't and probably won't really challenge for the title in the near future.

Fair play, nice post, will do.

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

Just to make a comparison between us and Everton.

so we made over £20,000,000 just from CL

Everton made £400,000 from the Uefa Cup

We Sell more more season tickets at a higher price

Our stadium is larger and we generally play more home games due to success in europe

We make more money from our main sponsor

We make much, much more than the bitters IMO, despite all this I have a feeling that we wont be outspending them by much this summer, if at all

what is going on please ?

[Darth Marty]

Platini is a cunt of Hicks proportions. Of that I have no doubt.
But.......
I really think that unless huge changes are implemented within 10 years there will be a super elite which you cant get relegated from or promoted to. Money talks and that situation will almost certainly unfold. Of course we will be a part of it but I still dont want to see that happen.
For me the easiest and quickest way to solve this problem is a cap on wages and transfer fees. An example - Say Villa was available and the caps were already implemented at say £20 mill tfr cap & £100k p.w wages. Almost certainly there would be 5-10 clubs in for him and then it would be solely up to him to decide on a footballing basis. As it stands of these 5-10 clubs 7/8 will be priced out and that leaves the super rich 2 or 3 in a highest wages war. Its senseless and can only get worse with teams constantly trying to out do each other and players getting greedier (which isnt really their problem or fault).

Legalities aside I am sure that would have a hugely positive effect on European and world football.

[Robbie-9-Fowler]

Platini is a cunt of Hicks proportions. Of that I have no doubt.
But.......
I really think that unless huge changes are implemented within 10 years there will be a super elite which you cant get relegated from or promoted to. Money talks and that situation will almost certainly unfold. Of course we will be a part of it but I still dont want to see that happen.
For me the easiest and quickest way to solve this problem is a cap on wages and transfer fees. An example - Say Villa was available and the caps were already implemented at say £20 mill tfr cap & £100k p.w wages. Almost certainly there would be 5-10 clubs in for him and then it would be solely up to him to decide on a footballing basis. As it stands of these 5-10 clubs 7/8 will be priced out and that leaves the super rich 2 or 3 in a highest wages war. Its senseless and can only get worse with teams constantly trying to out do each other and players getting greedier (which isnt really their problem or fault).

Legalities aside I am sure that would have a hugely positive effect on European and world football.

thats true but even then there will be teams that will be more attractive than others, mainly because of the amount of money they had spent in the past. Although it would become a level playing field surely a player would turn down a move for Tottenham for Madrid for example. No matter how many caps you put on players wages, IMO it would just mean the richer "more attractive clubs" would be getting these great talents for cheaper.

Right now Milan are talking about being out priced by Manchester City, a smaller club. However if these caps were in place would there really be any chance of a club like citeh signing Ronaldinho, especially when there are clubs like Milan interested ?

I agree there should be caps on things but wages and transfers prices i don't like. Maybe each club would be allocated a certain amount that they are aloud to spend during each transfer window, this would stop teams from buying success. It would be entirely up to the club if they wished to blow there entire wage and transfer budget on one player then. This would keep competition between all clubs for a transfer deal if they are willing to put all there eggs in one basket so to say

what dya think ?

[Darth Marty]

Good post, yeah I think that has some good qualities to it. Say £30mill per tfr window olus £xx on wages...., sounds good to me. We should work for Fifa and get £100k p.a for these suggestions.

[dww]

I would say that caps and other limitations would have to be viewed as a long term project. As the culture is now it is certain that players would choose the bigger teams anyway as at the start of any limitations they would have the best players to choose from. You can only expect this to change after a period of time when smaller clubs have been well run and become the most successful (which is more likely with caps as they can at least compete in terms of squad depth with the bigger ones).

There are two obvious models in which caps have been applied - Rugby and American sports. In Rugby there has only been minor changes with the big teams essentially being the same year to year in general (although with more flexibility in position cf football). In American sports (as it appears to me and I admit I am no expert) a more complex picture emerges but with in general a trend that it is harder to create a hegemony of top clubs ruling the game. Both examples to one extent or another indicate that capping does have some effect in making sports more competitive in terms of the number of teams capable of competing for top honours.

I think some sort of control should be introduced but it should be done with the long term in mind and a transition period should be put in place where a sufficient time is given for all clubs to readjust. There is no reason to throw the tradition and history of the game out in order to promote competition. There is a real danger that any changes are put into place to spite some clubs/countries rather than to benefit competition. However I do think that the fact that some countries (notably Germany and France) enforce good governance by some set of criteria upon their teams should be noted and in the interests of sports fans measures should be taken to help avoid situations like what happened to Leeds as well as to make competitions more enjoyably competitive.

[barnes10]

i've never disliked platini at all. broke my heart in 85 but that aside, i've always like what he's said about football since he retired.

what he's saying is exactly right for the game and its just a coincidence that his arrival into a position of power is at the same time that the english game is at its peak and dominating the rest.

football is eating itself and is getting a bit boring now frankly.

[Resu]

i've never disliked platini at all. broke my heart in 85 but that aside, i've always like what he's said about football since he retired.

what he's saying is exactly right for the game and its just a coincidence that his arrival into a position of power is at the same time that the english game is at its peak and dominating the rest.

football is eating itself and is getting a bit boring now frankly.

[Jack D Rips]

I agree with gallaird.

The champions league money has made the premier league stale. Its less competitive than ever. Dominated by the richest clubs, with the exception of arsenal from 2002-04.

The distribution of money in the game makes it increasingly more difficult for the villas and evertons of this world to compete. They can't hold on to their best players because the best want to play on the biggest stage.

Unlike many reds I don't hate everton, I preferred it when they challenged for trophies and the 89 cup final is one of my favourite games of all time. They aren't the only club out there with bitter fans. Many people I know think the premier league is becoming a tiresome affair. There is too much money with the big 4.

Another reason why I would like to see less money given out from the cl is because that money has pricked up the interest of leeches like our own george and tom. They can secure their loans and pay themselves tidy dividends with that cl money in the can. Maybe they might care about investing in the team and backing the manager if winning the premier league meant more than finishing 4th did. And if there wasn't so much cash coming in from europe they might have built that ****ing stadium they have been going on about since they walked through the doors.

Before you jump down uefas throat about this give that some thought. Its the reason we buy so many **** players and its also why liverpool is a football club that hasn't and probably won't really challenge for the title in the near future.

This is without doubt the best and most sensible post I've read in a long long time. I totally agree. Money has ****ed up the Premiership and no doubt other leagues throughout Europe as well.

[FatTony]

This was never a problem when all the money was in the hands of the Italians and Spanish clubs though was it?

They've had decades of taking the worlds best players and who complained then? UEFA are full of jealous and petulent europeans who've always had an issue with english football.

They've had mass violence/murders of fans, players, police, big scale match fixing with minimal punishment really. If we had seen half the amount of fan violence here that we've seen in italy at our home games we'd have had the book thrown at us.

[Jack D Rips]

This was never a problem when all the money was in the hands of the Italians and Spanish clubs though was it?

They've had decades of taking the worlds best players and who complained then? UEFA are full of jealous and petulent europeans who've always had an issue with english football.

They've had mass violence/murders of fans, players, police, big scale match fixing with minimal punishment really. If we had seen half the amount of fan violence here that we've seen in italy at our home games we'd have had the book thrown at us.

I havnt heard of any violence at Euro 2008. I wonder why?

Strangely enough there was no violence at World Cup 1994 either. I wonder why?