Premiership money-go-round

[albie]

With the Championship in touching distance, the money coming into DRFC to help consolidate in that league is the big challenge for next season.

Just to show the size of the gap with those falling out of the prem, the Guardian has a series of articles on football finance in dreamland;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2013/apr/18/premier-league-club-accounts-debt

This info is for the previous financial year, so the current state of play could be even more silly.

Looks like the big boys like a level playing field to have a nice slope on it, and the same thing is happening to the Championship with the parachute payments increased.

Big ask for Rovers next year, if we make it!

[Rovers-on-Thames]

It is frightening.

A club like Bolton in £137 million in debt! 12/20 clubs with more than £50 million in debt.

The most worrying thing is that despite the premiership being a huge cultural export around the world, and TV broadcasters pumping records amount of money into the PL, only 8 clubs are making any kind of profit. The reason?

(nearly) 1.6bn spent of players wages!

Didn't we all complain about players wages like 10-15 years ago? Absolutely nothing has changed this then, only got worse.

[albie]

The fightback begins;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22205419

Financial doping is just a different method of fixing the competition really.

No guarantees of an outcome on a particular game, but a very strong liklihood of that the probables will cross the line near the top come the end of the season.

[Mr1Croft]

In Germany however, it is the norm for clubs to make a profit, in the same season only 2 German Premier League clubs made a loss, and even then those losses were in line with the "overdraft" agreed at the beginning of the season.

The Bundesliga generates a lot less in revenue but makes a much bigger profit than the Premier League (A cool £130 Million to be precise), which is staggering for football clubs. Despite this and their low wages they still have attract some of the best players in the world, while investing a lot more in the youth of the nation which has resulted in a much better national side.

The main difference is the ownership model, the 50+1 rule ensures that German football clubs keep the social and community value in football while making clubs a lot more democratic and equally accountable and therefore sustainable.

Before people start pointing the finger at Murdoch here; the commercial aspect of the German game is almost identical. The Bundesliga's revenue is mainly TV Broadcasting rights sold to the German equivalence of Sky and the foreign markets, the amounts are nowhere near what the Premier League demands (almost £100 Million less each season) but without the revenue from the commercial sector they wouldn't be half as successful. The German clubs have showed that you can exploit the market forces and with the right corporate management at Board level this can be an advantage of the game, and not a disadvantage as many see it over here.

The argument normally trumped up by the Premier League is that because of Germany's tight strain on finances they have had little success in European Competitions, and they would be right. But this season 3 of the 4 clubs in the Semi-Finals are community owned (FC Barcelona, Borrussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich) and 2 of them are German, whereas all English teams were knocked out by the round of 16.

The financial management in this country is appalling, only a handful of clubs make a profit in the entire Football League and Premier League. Even our own club who we quite proudly say is run properly still operates at a loss each season for which the owners plug the shortfall, and that shortfall has been in the region of £3 Million in the last 5 seasons and we consider that successful compared to other clubs but it still a staggering amount to lose each year. But, if we didn't spend that much money (which we consider to be quite small) then we wouldn't be able to be as competitive as we would like to be, because everyone else is spending the same, if not more.

If you look at the example of Swansea, they aren't in any debt whatsoever and this is, in part because the club is 20% owned by the Swans Trust (their 'VSC') and they have a supporter on the Board, all of these factors have meant that the club has always operated at the center of the community for the last 10 years and has ensured the club doesn't lose its core values which has in turn lead to much better financial management of the club and they have shown that it is possible to achieve the dream without the fear of financial collapse and 'doing a Leeds'. The sad truth is that a club outside of England are making the the rest of the English Premier League look shameful.

Norwich is another prime example of a club being run at the heart of the community and refusing to spend high on wages. In fact Norwich were the only team in ten years to reach the Premiership with a wage bill less than their total revenue which means that most clubs are already operating high losses before they reach the Premier League, and rather than using the financial boost (a guaranteed minimum of £38 Million) to ensure they can run at a profit it is almost always re-invested back into the first team which then just increased the spending even more.

[BobG]

The FA back in the early 80's wanted shooting didn't they? And Alan Sugar? I will never, ever, forgive him. As for the rest of the motley cru....

Thank you Mr1Croft

BobG

[bedale rover]

Any body have any confidence that Greg dyke might make a difference?

Seems he was on the board at manure and voted against the glaziers
And he is the outgoing chairman of Brentford
I would like to think so

[BobG]

At least he's a better man than many who've held that position. He may try to do good - but will he be able to? Not very much will improve I fear. The vested interests and the still crazy structure of the FA will defeat anything serious he might attempt to do. It will take a government to change really things now. Nobody else has the power to push it through. Still, we can live in hope!

BobG

[Mr1Croft]

His appointment is a start, but the FA doesnt govern English football anymore, the Premier League does.

[Sammy Chung was King]

One man won't sort the chaos,and old boys looking after each other,that is the FA,there's too much money to be made,the sport isn't being governed for the good of the sport,it's being governed for the few,clubs and committee men that are raking it in,Greg Dyke is a good start,but i'm not hopeful he can do anything,the FA,Fifa the whole lot is corrupt,and needs sorting out.

We all know that IF We make it into the Championship,i know we are all confident but you never know,we will start on an uneven playing field financially,but with careful managing of the club on the finance side,and shrewd signings,there's no reason we couldn't gradually build every season.COME ON ROVERS FINISH THE JOB,GET US PROMOTED

[silent majority]

I happen to know Greg Dyke is a big supporter of Safe Standing, but keep that to yourself, don't tell anybody!!

And coming from a club that is trust owned means he understands what the community value of football is all about.

[albie]

As well as looking to at least break even, the German clubs also have much lower ticket prices for matches, so the financial security of the clubs does not depend upon ramping up costs for fans to unreasonable levels.

It is interesting that the cost of attending a game in this country has soared, particularly in the prem, at the same time that the big boys are accumulating unsustainable levels of debt.

The FSF twenty's plenty campaign is a great starting point for putting the interests of ordinary fans first. The marketing guys at Arsenal (£68 for Man City earlier this year) might need some convincing that this is the way forwards.

Truth is, football needs to rethink the entire strategy to avoid selling its soul to the devil. Faustian bargain, I think its called.