by Forbury Lion »
06 Nov 2023 10:51
Snowflake Royal Forbury Lion Snowflake Royal Alright, Lenin.
Feel free to suggest a better idea.
Without the league, the club is worthless. The league have more power than they think.... as long as they don't piss all the teams off at once because without any teams the league is also worthless.
The league
is the teams.
I was just listening to a podcast about this today, the EFL don't make the rules, They are all agreed by the teams. The EFL just enforce them.
As a result, no team is going to vote for stricter F&PP tests because that will either scupper a deal to sell the club on to whoever comes along with the biggest bag of money or just cause the price to drop as fewer eligible parties will mean no bidding war.
The current F&PP tests are just to see off timewasters who can't afford to pay the owners, not to see off those who can't afford to or lack the ability to run a club.
I don't blame Sir John for selling the club, but I do believe his interests were in part driven by the desire to walkaway with a load of money (not necessarily a profit), as he had expensive declining (at the time) businesses to support (print media/property), a lifestyle to maintain and his familly to think about. Would he have really been in favour of stricter F&PP criteria other than making sure the person had the funds to complete the deal? - I suspect he would have taken a lower offer to an extent if it was someone better able to keep his legacy afloat (unless he secretly likes the idea that nobody else since has/will be as good as him?)