by Clyde1998 »
16 Jan 2024 17:10
Who Moved The Goalposts? skipper It's all motivated by greed. From the owners to the agents to the players.
And it needs to stop,
It's mostly motivated by agents as they are the ones who frame the deals. They are complete parasites, and if they could be all be wiped out in one hit, football would see some improvement, especially outside the PL. Every time the TV package is renegotiated (and every time I pray the house of cards will fall), the price TV companies are prepared to pay just goes up. This doesn't result in profits for the clubs in all cases because agents smell even more outlandish returns and ramp up wages to even sillier levels. Of course, it's down to owners to say no, but they can't for fear of relegation.
I think we've created a society that acts now, thinks later: the 'how can we maximise profits this quarter?' mentality.
The TV deal with football is the extension of that. Clubs thinking about how they can maximise revenues; players/agents thinking about who will give them the most money; broadcasters trying to see how much people will pay for their service. All forgetting about the long term consequences of their actions - especially the impact on the fans and the footballing eco-system more generally.
I believe cricket saw a major drop in kids playing and being interested in the sport once it got put behind the paywall of satellite TV, but I'm sure the short term increase in revenue was worth it.
The extent of the Premier League TV deal compared to the rest of the pyramid and allowed the big clubs to cannibalise the rest of the system - even from the point of view of people being able to follow basically every game played by Man Utd, Arsenal or Liverpool and not supporting their local/family team as a result. Financially, the clubs outside the Premier League have been left to either fall further and further behind or gamble on reaching the top flight.
These top clubs are focusing on becoming global brands now, as opposed to being football clubs - almost like football matches are being used as marketing for a fashion brand. They don't care about their supporters or even the sport, they care about making as much money as possible. The European Super League was the logical next step to protect themselves from any outside challenge.
I do feel football has managed to fly too close to the sun; the government's football bill can't be introduced soon enough. Football has proven it cannot adequately regulate itself. The thought should always be about what's best for the game, not what will generate the most money - it's a shame that it appears to be taking government action to make that happen (and even that's not certain).