I was supposed to be seeing family from the north-east this weekend, that’s had to be shelved sadly. Now I see the government are floating the idea of a full national lockdown in October for a couple of weeks. Not great news.
Does it feel right to keep trying to play sport and diverting valuable resources in these circumstances?
It’s not Tottenham’s or Liverpool’s obligation to ensure Macclesfield pay their tax bill; live within your means and budget accordingly.
Maybe not directly but it doesn’t help that the Premier League refuses to share TV money properly, or that rules are consistently changed to suit the big clubs, like the EPPP scheme which undermines the academies of small clubs or the introduction of B-teams into the Football League Trophy. The list is a long one.
But the Premier League isn’t solely to blame, if Football League clubs were more united and less willing to bend over for a few pennies from the Premier League table, we wouldn’t be quite so badly off now. But there is no solidarity between clubs, everyone is solely out for themselves.
However, my point around self governance remains the same. Bury knew roughly their yearly turnover, yet they rode along with a madman’s spending spree when Beckford and co rolled into town. In no other walk of life would you get away from running a business so recklessly
Very fair point, so why don’t we govern clubs more strictly? Why do we allow owners to run up such appalling debts? The league could and should impose much tougher rules to stop them doing that but refuse to do so. Make owners post a bond each year to cover costs if the club runs into financial problems. Keep a much closer eye on finances during the season and react quicker if problems are occuring. Stop any one owner having overall majority control. These things are all possible!
I think fans have to accept some blame for the problems too, with all our endless demands of “showing some ambition” (translation: spend more money), thinking that we need to “invest in January” (translation: spend more money) or “be competitive” (translation: spend more money). It can’t keep going on like that. We need more solidarity between fans of rival clubs, for the good of the whole division, rather than just hoping that the axe will continue to fall elsewhere.
Wigan and Bolton have won the same number of FA Cups, I think.
To be fair, Wigan look a lot more likely to be salvageable than Bury were last year. After all, the club was running well before the current owners put them into admin.
The real scandal is how dubious owners are allowed to run these proud, historic clubs into the ground.
September 11, 2020 at 1:20 pm
in reply to: Turan#194553
Justin Walker was quite a good player, at times, though nothing like as good as he thought he was. Watching the re-run of the 1999 Wembley final, I was surprised just how much work he got through, he was more of a ball winner than a passer in that game at least.
The Walker I was trying to remember was a player under Knill who ended up at Gateshead I think. Turns out his name is Josh Walker, my mistake.
I think Mark Gavin was let go after a driving ban – can’t remember if it was for drink-driving or something else but it was enough to send him on his way.
I presume, BS, that they need to wait a couple of weeks so see if there’s any noticeable increase in cases in the areas where the trials have been conducted. Also, you need more than just one experiment before you can draw any proper conclusions.
Anyway, the big question is, if you are one of the few hundred allowed into GP, will you still be leaving games early to avoid the rush?
September 11, 2020 at 9:42 am
in reply to: Turan#194537
Was it Grimsby who used to have red numbers on their black-and-white stripes and no “box” for the numbers? Felt like looking at an optical illusion or a magic eye picture!
You are forgetting that what started out as a competition to benefit L1 & L2 clubs now exists to benefit the Premier League. Of course it would not get cancelled.
Exactly. For their huge youth team squads which they’ve amassed in part thanks to the EPPP scheme which ripped the heart out of lower league academies. The competition is a joke but many clubs like ours will, sadly, be even more desperate for the few pennies from the Premier League table.
No season long video pass in the uk as when crowds are allowed back saturday 3pm games won’t be available anymore.
I see. On balance, I think the 3pm Saturday black out is still probably beneficial for clubs like ours but it would have been interesting to run an experiment on it this year, given that I suspect a number of fans won’t want to return to grounds this season, even when they are allowed to.
September 8, 2020 at 11:37 am
in reply to: Ifollow#194450
A tenner for tonight’s mickey mouse cup game? No thanks.
To be honest, a tenner to watch a single game of football, with only a couple of cameras and occasional commentary issues, is not exactly the deal of the century for any game.
How much does Sky cost for the whole month? £30? £10 feels quite a lot. I might pay a fiver (although watching a Scunny game online leaves me pretty cold).
Can you get a season-long subscription or do you have to sign up game-by-game?
The only masks to are effective are those carbon filter ones which properly filtrate the air. Wearing a normal dust/face mask is more harmful, less oxygen and more breathing your own breath/carbon dioxide is downright daft.
I know I shouldn’t bother but it’s important to point out that this is complete bollocks.
“This damned virus” Five times more people are dying from seasonal flu than from covid at the moment let’s get over this silly mass hysteria. And get back to footy because if we don’t it won’t be there next year.
Is that true? It seems unlikely.
Also, tens of thousands of people have died from this virus DESPITE all the precautions taken, imagine the toll if it were left to run freely.
s we have around that amount of season ticket holders I personally think the risk is minimal, we will be told to wear masks and stay in our seats as much as possible.
We should IMO Also be allowed to bring in our own food and drink As long as you take away your rubbish after the game, follow social distancing and generally try to keep apart as much as possible I believe we would be ok.
And If we are allowed back to games it is still a personal choice if you attend or do not attend games.
That all sounds quite sensible, I just wonder how easy it will be to monitor when you look at how some people behave in football grounds. Especially if you have, say, 1,500-2,000 people. NI mentions that standing would make social distancing easier and it does in some ways but not in other – you have few real barriers to stop people congregating in stands and how many stewards are going to want to break that up?
Personally, I doubt the season will be finished with crowds in the stands. As number of cases inevitably rise during winter, I think people will be banned from grounds again. I hope I’m wrong.
Interestingly, when it comes to smoking, football grounds are generally seen as “indoor” spaces rather then outdoors, I wonder if this is how the experts will view them when it comes to the risks of transmission of this damned virus?
I’ll be honest, I’m quite surprised we’ve sold as many as we have. Given the issues at the end of last season and the lack of clarity about the next season, I won’t be rushing to hand over my money.
I don’t think I’ll be rushing back to GP come October. I’d probably go to a non-league ground like Brigg or Bottesford where there aren’t many people and plenty of open air but I don’t think I’d really be that interested in going to GP. Besides, it’s going to be such an odd experience, so different from what you’re used to, that I’m not sure I’d enjoy it anyway.
If we’ve got a saleable player and we can get a good price for him, there’s no harm in selling him, it’s the way a club like ours has to be run. If you don’t do that, you’re going to struggle to get those players to join the club in the first place.
