Football seems to be going in the wrong direction. Liverpool, Toots, Bournemouth, Newcastle and Norwich have placed some, if not all their non playing staff on furlough. The biggest surprise of course is Liverpool who just over a year ago we’re lifting the Champions League Cup. The Mail report that the decision came from the clubs owners Fenway. A terrible decision which has heaped nothing but criticism on the club.
Meanwhile, the debate surrounding Premier League footballers taking a pay cut goes on. Apparently, or rather according to the back pages of most UK newspapers, the captain of each Premiership club have joined forces to fight against dropping 30% of their earnings. I suppose it’s easy for you, me, others to suggest what footballers should or shouldn’t be doing because it doesn’t directly affect us but I see it as them giving something back to the club which looks after them so well during the rest of the time. A chance to give something back to the fans too because the more money a club loses through this, the more chance there is that season ticket and general ticket prices will increase.
However. Whose to say fans will be able to afford the cost of a ticket as it’s priced today, let alone one which is more expensive? I read that clubs who have furloughed their staff will pay the 20% of their salary which the government here in the UK isn’t paying out so they’ll be ok but for the ordinary working man or woman, that 20% financial loss is a big one. A season ticket would be the last thing I’d buy if I had to count my pennies when all this is over. On a lesser financial scale, many people must be thinking long and hard about renewing their subscriptions to Sky and BT Sports because their fees are bound to increase too after so many will have paused the sports channels. Making a decision is easy whilst there is no football, but once it all starts up again, well perhaps that’ll be a different matter.
Then there’s the financial impact Covid-19 will have on sport and football clubs in particular, as that’s what we tend to talk about here. I will stress though that sport matters very little right now. What matters is protecting the NHS and all other key workers. People who are poorly recovering and those who have been bereaved, getting the support they need….
If this season is cancelled and declared void, there’s a whole lot of money thrown into the air. Burnley have released a statement to their fans stating that they would lose around £50 million. Other clubs could lose up to £100-£150 million. Don’t expect a busy transfer summer if that turns out to be the case.
Last season, the minimum figure a Premier League club could earn through being televised was £12.3 million. That figure was for hosting up to ten fixtures. After that, each fixture shown would earn a club an extra £1.1 million. Then there’s the ‘prize money’ – the £1.9 million for every place they finish above bottom.
PlanetFootball calculated each club’s rough earnings for the 2018-19 campaign although TalkSport put the final figures around £4 million higher. This amount does not include any revenue earned from European football.
The first thing to stick out from the above photo is how unfair the television viewing is or certainly was that season. Why should fixtures which include the likes Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Utd, Chelsea and Toots be televised three times as many times as clubs like Huddersfield, Bournemouth, Southampton etc? Sky Sports and BT Sport are pretty much saying that football fans only want to watch the ‘big teams.’ Of course there are footballing snobs who wouldn’t entertain switching on for Bournemouth v Southampton but I bet the subscribers in Dorset and Hampshire would. As would anyone who simply loves watching football. I bet the same people who moan about money ruining the game, or wealthy owners spending big money on the best players are the same people who look forward to a City v Utd clash or similar. I’ve digressed.
I’ve read articles from NN which suggest Premier League clubs, all English clubs for that matter would have to pay back monies earned from this season’s campaign should it not come to a satisfactory end which I guess means the final 9 or 10 fixtures not being played and that looks quite likely. But how can clubs pay back monies they haven’t yet earned? League positions aren’t decided yet, relegations and promotions certainly aren’t and the final run of fixtures to be broadcast on BT or Sky Sports are yet to be confirmed so in theory no club should have received a penny yet. In the real world we have to work for a week or month before picking up a salary so why should football be any different.
Also, I spend what I’ve earned throughout life, not what I might earn because I’ve never known what tomorrow might bring. Football should be no different in my opinion so any clubs who spent big last summer and based that level of spending on what they were likely to earn this season, then financial difficulties could be heading their way. Still, doesn’t FFP operate over a three year period rather than on a season by season basis?
As I wrote earlier, if this season isn’t completed and television companies don’t pay out, it’ll be a quiet old summer of transfers I’d imagine. Big money ones anyway and I can’t see that changing for a while either. Clubs in the UK and throughout the world might not have to physically hand any money back to their respective television companies, but they sure as heck won’t be receiving the multi million package they are used to getting either.
Stay safe guys, stay healthy.
Morning Rico/everyone
good points there, also thanks for keeping the blog going in these strange times.
I read that Liverpool earned £100m from their champions league win alone. Asking for a bailout from the UK taxpayer is sickening.
No wait, it’s just sick. You’ll never walk alone, what a joke.
Another thing I find in bad taste is the indecent haste with which Premier league chairman are trying to get the season finished, while hundreds of people are dying every day in the UK.
On the positive side I’ve rediscovered my green fingers, my garden has never looked so good. And the weather has been great too.
Stay safe everyone.
Morning Limey. The more time passes, the more we see footballers and football putting money before decency and people’s lives.
I really don’t like it at all.
Same here re the garden, in fact the h9me in general looks better. Lol
Good morning Rico and all.
I think the Premier League will do everything in it’s power to ensure that the season is completed. There’s just too much money riding on it to annul or otherwise cancel it. Games played behind closed doors is the likeliest wheeze. But don’t rule out shortened games or even penalty shoot outs without an actual game being played. One other option is to follow the example of ITV and the Grand National, virtual games.
The longer the football shutdown continues the more desperate the money men will become. Instead of tossing a coin to decide who kicks off, maybe the result will be decided by a coin tosser in Stockley Park. There are plenty of tossers there to choose from. 😉
I’m with Limey, well done Rico keep up the good work 👍
Kind of takes us back to the days before TV money came into the game . Go to home matches if you could and the best game in London the following week trying to see the results in the classifieds on the way out of the ground . That was the way football was followed by fans all over the country.
Who can remember the boxes in the corners with the countdown like numbers showing the half time scores ? As Alex Morgan warbled away and the marching band paraded from one penalty box to the other.
I still believe that live attendances will be down and the only way that money will be earned will be through pay to view which will on the surface will be to the advantage of the clubs with large followings No doubt Sky will do the service and payments will have to be apportioned to protect the smaller clubs and BT BBC and other broadcasters will pay their share of the costs and take their share of the profits.
One thing is certain , it will not be any cheaper for the fans except for the fact that where I would watch Southampton and Brighton as it was in my package in the future I will be a lot more circumspect about which games I would watch from now on.
With regard to Liverpool as you say the decision came from Fenway and as an American company it’s possibly it’s a decision across the whole of their group at least Stan has left Chips and Co to make the decisions here so far. It will be interesting to see how the other American owned clubs react.
Afternoon Cicero. I too think they’ll try and finish the season because the powers that be would have cancelled it by now. Until the lockdown is lifted though, they have no chance imo. It’s far to dangerous, even the weird idea of playing behind closed doors in a small group of grounds.
Thanks by the way, to you and Limey re HH.
I might go back to watching Reading Potter. ST’s are cheaper, easy to get to and even though the football might not always be brilliant, the players care and give their all.
If I do that, my football life will have gone full circle, albeit my days off standing were at Elm Park.
Agree re Stan, for all the stick he gets about being tight, at least in this situation he’s smelling or roses so far.
There are so many ifs, buts and maybes to this situation that I couldn’t guess or predict what will happen. Any rush to create an artificial end to the season that shows football up for the blatantly avaricious industry it has become could well backfire.
The sooner the clubs and footballing authorities realise that a radical re-set is a given, then things might be able to move forward and then,possibly, to grow again. There are going to be casualties along the way though.
Stay safe.
Interesting take on the resumption of events in Spain . Taken from El Pais newspaper discussion with Epidemiologists .I have concentrated only on the bits relating to sport but the rest of the article is interesting in the way that they are seeing things.
“It will be difficult to close such an important part of the economy,” says Ildefonso Hernández. “Perhaps, given that the good weather is on the way, street cafés can be taken advantage of, always with the highest levels of hygiene and the constant washing of hands on the part of waiters.”
The return to social life as it is lived in Spain is perhaps the most complicated element for specialists in public health
It’s very difficult to anticipate when all of this could happen, including concerts and sports events. “I would be incredibly cautious with social gatherings and I would not permit them during the month of May, because there is a risk that the disease could be amplified, and that’s what we want to avoid,” adds López Acuña.
“I’m sure that we will once again enjoy concerts, festivals and sporting events,” says Martin Moreno, although he adds that measures that until now were unusual will have to be implemented, such as smaller crowds, assigned seating and hygiene levels that involve the public, “who will have to be a part of the solution via the appropriate behavior.”
“This summer will be very family-based,” Trilla believes. “It is not going to be completely normal, because tourism is not going to get back to normal.” Will we be able go to the beach? The further the plans are away, the more difficult it is to predict them, but the general view is that we will. “It’s reasonable to think that we will be able to enjoy many open-air leisure activities, including the beach, provided they are not too overcrowded,” says Rodríguez Artalejo.
Martin Moreno says that this summer will be different to that of other years, with “lower density and smaller crowds, especially in closed premises. But I do hope that we will be able to go to the beach and I am convinced that we will have great opportunities to live our lives with affection and intensity and enjoy one of the benefits of this period of confinement: the better quality of air and water given the reduction in pollution.”
This is the link should anyone want to read the whole thing.
https://english.elpais.com/society/2020-04-05/the-first-steps-after-lockdown-ends-how-will-spain-return-to-normal-life.html?ssm=FB_CC&fbclid=IwAR2qHqL1rQMe-fXtK6feT5CDep6h2ztq4atnFoI9URJ0q0dU_vkzHEp0iUg
I’m surprised there’s any talk about how life can return to some kind of normality right now in any country.
There has to be hope Rico, or in the immortal words of Private Fraser “we’re doomed Captain Mainwaring, we’re all doomed”.
From what I’ve read, the Premier League are looking to restart the season in early June, therefore players will return to training in May. Apparently talks between football and government have taken place on this subject.
That would mean the season finishing some time in July, with a brief close season, transfer window, no tours I’d imagine and straight back into next season some time in September.
UEFA would obviously try and fit in it’s european competitions somehow but let’s hope that those cretins at FIFA don’t try to crowbar in any pointless internationals?
It’ll be interesting to know when season ticket renewals will start going out?
Hi Rico and All As I said before I think we will play the rest of the season out due to possible legal action taken against the premier league. money talks
I believe all matches will be played behind closed doors with 2 matches per week for ex sample
every Wednesday and Saturday and all FA cup rounds and any other small cups will be changed to straight knock out rounds and played on Mondays
European champions matches will be straight knock out rounds played between the end of this season and the start of next season with next season possible starting a bit late
I personally have no desire whatsoever to watch games behind closed doors. I’m sure Geoff and others are right, it’s going to happen, the clubs are desperate for it.
I can’t see how it’s going to be safe though, it’s encouraging people to gather together. Friends/relatives going round each others houses. I can see why TV companies want a Tournament style month of football.
Not for me. Maybe I will feel differently nearer the time.
We all have hope Cicero but then there’s the reality.
Wishful thinking for a June restart imo but where there’s money, there’s madness.
Hi Geoff, closed door matches would be awful. Clubs would lose out again if that happens as they’ll have to reimburse fans but I guess that amount would be peanuts in comparison to the TV revenue.
We saw what happened abroad when fixtures were played behind closed doors. The fans just turned up in the thousands and supported from outside..
Morning all.
In Oz, we’ve gone from 400 plus new cases per day a month back to 100 a day now, the curve has been well and truly flattened, but as quick as it hit us, it could also erupt again.
I’m sitting here with bugger all to do, and after taking over the factory a year ago, bugger all money behind us to survive on but thus far, the family is healthy and that really is what’s important.
My wife and I will be tapping into to our super and survive now, worry about retirement later.
Fingers are crossed for your Boris, and for every person around the world suffering this!!!!
Money-evil thing, and right now, I honestly couldn’t care less if the leagues around the world proceed now, or in 6 months time.
Stay safe everyone, as that’s what matters right now.
FIFA is to confirm an indefinite extension to the 2019-20 season across the globe, allowing each country’s football authority to determine when campaigns can finish.
The game’s world governing body will also alter the dates of the summer transfer window and permit contract extensions for players whose deals run out on June 30.
The plans, which are likely to be revealed in the next 48 hours, will afford maximum flexibility with FIFA appreciating the spread of coronavirus is different in each country. This comes after UEFA last week committed to finishing the current season and was moved to deny a report that its own president, Aleksander Ceferin, had set a deadline of August 3 to complete all outstanding games.
While the decision from the highest authority in football does not take null and void off the table, it considerably reduces the chances of seasons being cancelled altogether.
From The Athletic.
Hi Scott sad to hear that you have to dip into your retirement fund so early, hope things change soon for your family and your business.
watched a match on tv of Aussie rules played behind closed doors last month after the first half turned it off too boring for me felt like I watching 2 teams train
Good morning all.
Liverpool have been shamed into doing a u turn over furloughing it’s non playing staff. Will Spuds follow suit? Or is Levy so insensitive to the current situation that he thinks he can ride out the storm?
Geoff,
Doesn’t worry me in the slightest mate.
How many countries wouldn’t give me this option?
I consider myself very lucky, to be honest.
I’ll survive mate 🙂 🙂
Chin up Scott , you will make it from what we know of you it appears that you are a fighter.
Re Boris , I am not surprised to hear words such as Karma being used it is the invective of the jealous that don’t believe that you have to work for what you get.
Lierpool have had some bad publicity and backtracked , I am not surprised at that either.
Cheers Potter,
I’m fine mate.
I really am.
Wife stresses, but I’ve always had the opinion that if I can’t control it, I won’t stress over it.
It could be so much worse…….imagine being elderly and living in Spain or Italy right now?
Then There’s the poor souls we’ve already lost, obviously.
These things make us appreciate what we do have.
Teams will need at least 15 days to recover. With the Covid-19 peak at the end of April and with different predicted finals for each country, there should be no games, at best, in June.
Wouldn’t it be better to prepare the 2020-21 season and consider this as it is?
Rantic rip.
Guardiola’s mother was a victim of covid-19.
Morning Rico and all. Strikes me that there are some very optimistic estimates coming out regarding the resumption of football. We are still behind the virus and we won’t get in front of it until the figures start to level out and even then the real situation won’t be known or understood with any real accuracy. Meanwhile we live from day to day. So, stay safe everybody.
Adam, they’re dreaming, imo.
The same things happening here with our various codes, though.
As for local sports, I guarantee they’ll go ahead, even if the season last 6 games as the $400.00 registration fees won’t be lost to those who think they deserve it 🙂
What a mess we are in.
Question is will any of the major sporting codes and player managers really learn any thing out of this I don’t think so
but I’ve always had the opinion that if I can’t control it, I won’t stress over it.
Years ago there was a programme on TV it actually followed THE BIG MATCH with Brian Moore and Jimmy Hill . It was called Kung Fu and it was about the travels of a Shaolin Monk . In it there were flashbacks to his training and his teacher who was an expert in martial arts was also blind . His mentor was prone to many sage like statements and one that stuck with me was . There is no point in worrying because circumstances don’t change.
Reckon you must have seen it too.
A few more for you :- https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kung_Fu_(TV_series)
Grasshopper
Morning all.
New post up now.
That’s how I live my life Potter. No point stressing over things I cannot do anything about.