This is why Tony and Gus are fairly desperate to get into the Premiership this year

[Pavilionaire]

It's eyeball goggling stuff, but goes to show how hugely successful the Premier League has been. One of Britains great success stories.

Are you serious? Practically every club makes a loss and those clubs that compete at the highest level do it on borrowed money.

And look at those "big" clubs chewed up and spat out after their Premier League experience - Leeds Utd, Derby County, Coventry, Bolton Wanderers, Sheffield Wednesday, Blackburn Rovers, Middlesbrough, Charlton Athletic, Birmingham City, Ipswich Town, Portsmouth. 11 team, a combined 108 seasons in the top flight yet none of them in the Championship Top 7 or in serious contention for promotion.

 

[Wozza]

Said it before, and I'll say it again: clubs should only be allowed to spend parachute payments on wages of players/staff they signed prior to their relegation from the top flight. Any unused money should be split among other Championship clubs.

 

[Lush]

Said it before, and I'll say it again: clubs should only be allowed to spend parachute payments on wages of players/staff they signed prior to their relegation from the top flight. Any unused money should be split among other Championship clubs.

That's a very good idea.

 

[father_and_son]

The sooner everyone cancels their Sky subscriptions for a year and follows Championship football for a season, the better.

Good idea but the attraction of the premier league goes much much further and I'd bet the house that it could divorce itself completely from the UK TV audience and still flourish because of the overseas interest. Just spent a few days in Kuala Lumpur and the second anyone finds out you are English they immediately start talking about the PL. it's back page of all their local papers ahead of any other league or sport. My understanding is this is the sae throughout Asia.

 

[Brovion]

The sooner everyone cancels their Sky subscriptions for a year and follows Championship football for a season, the better.

There's more to Sky Sports than Premiership football. I'm a Sky Sports subscriber and I very very rarely watch Premiership football, or any non-Brighton or non-England game come to that. Cricket, Rugby and American football are my three main interests.

 

[crodonilson]

Are you serious? Practically every club makes a loss and those clubs that compete at the highest level do it on borrowed money.

And look at those "big" clubs chewed up and spat out after their Premier League experience - Leeds Utd, Derby County, Coventry, Bolton Wanderers, Sheffield Wednesday, Blackburn Rovers, Middlesbrough, Charlton Athletic, Birmingham City, Ipswich Town, Portsmouth. 11 team, a combined 108 seasons in the top flight yet none of them in the Championship Top 7 or in serious contention for promotion.

Those ‘big’ clubs were a victim of dreadful inner management, their own fault more often than not chasing the dream than the fault of the Premier League.
For every big clubs failure there are huge success stories like the likes of Swansea City, West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City.

Lets be honest football in Britain has flourished in the past two decades. Football stadia has finally been bought up to scratch, fantastic stadiums with magnificent facilities for the paying audience.

Many of the top players in the World gracing our shores, how many top world players did we manage to attract prior to the Premier League?
Audiences up 50%+ on the 10 years prior to the Premier League, a testament to the success and longevity of the Premier League now in it’s 21st year, it is no flash in the pan.

Worldwide TV audiences and revenues continuing to climb, showing the appetite of people from far flung corners of the globe to see the greatest league in the world.

However you want to dress it up the FA Premier League has been a resounding success and is one of Britains greatest exports.

 

[Pavilionaire]

I totally disagree with you. The Prem makes a lot of TV money that goes straight to the players. You either lose money or become the play thing of a rich tycoon. Some of the clubs have no chance of repaying their debt, absolutely none.

There is no real competition for the title now that the spectre of Financial Fair Play looms large. In reality the relegation battle holds more fascination for the ordinary football fan. Except the reality is desperate clubs like Reading sack their manager and pinch ours when we're on the brink of a possible rreturn to the top flight after 30 years. Reading FFS!

And I haven't even mentioned the detrimental effect of this "success story" on the England side.

 

[crodonilson]

I totally disagree with you. The Prem makes a lot of TV money that goes straight to the players. You either lose money or become the play thing of a rich tycoon. Some of the clubs have no chance of repaying their debt, absolutely none.

There is no real competition for the title now that the spectre of Financial Fair Play looms large. In reality the relegation battle holds more fascination for the ordinary football fan. Except the reality is desperate clubs like Reading sack their manager and pinch ours when we're on the brink of a possible rreturn to the top flight after 30 years. Reading FFS!

And I haven't even mentioned the detrimental effect of this "success story" on the England side.

The majority of the money goes to the players, and rightly so, they're the stars we all tune in to see. Not the Chief Exec or the owner of the club.

As for the detrimental effect on the England team, well judge the national teams performance in the past twenty years since the inception of the PL and compare it to the twenty years prior to this....

 

[Pavilionaire]

There were ony 4 teams at the Euros in 1976 so it was a bit half-arsed, but I'd say England's performances from 1980-1990 were certainly no worse than they've been 1992-2012, so these foreign imports haven't noticeably made our domestic players any better. How many of today's crop would get into the Bobby Robson WC side of 1990?

And no, it isn't right that so much of the money goes to the top players. Should Michael Owen be earning 3 times as much as the Prime Minister for little more than turning up for training at Stoke?

 

[crodonilson]

There were ony 4 teams at the Euros in 1976 so it was a bit half-arsed, but I'd say England's performances from 1980-1990 were certainly no worse than they've been 1992-2012, so these foreign imports haven't noticeably made our domestic players any better. How many of today's crop would get into the Bobby Robson WC side of 1990?

And no, it isn't right that so much of the money goes to the top players. Should Michael Owen be earning 3 times as much as the Prime Minister for little more than turning up for training at Stoke?

He's only worth what people are prepared to pay. He earns money that the club gets through TV, Sponsorship, Gate Revenue. If it doesn't go to him it'll end up in the hands of some filthy rich owner who has done nothing to deserve it.