Ian Ayre's comments yesterday - rich getting richer

[smooth 114]

Well rich getting richer, that is the way of the world.

Wondered what people thoughts were?

Ian Ayre has said that international football rights, in their current form, damage clubs like Liverpool and Manchester Untied as they share an equal share of that money with all premiership teams. Even though many of the international viewers have no interest in the lesser teams. It is damaging their ability to compete with the top European teams, Real Madrid and Barca.

Well I have met Ian Ayre, on a professional basis, a great fan of football, knows football business and loves Liverpool FC. I can see his angle, an area of business they can maximise very easily. Certainly in Asia, maybe not so much with the spanish speaking countries.

But I can''t believe this wasn''t knocked down by others in football, as the reasons that the share is equal is to not have super that dominate club competitions and have power over the league, you could say that is already the case.

Money talks, as we know when the premiership was formed. The idea that the extra money that prem teams had would filter down to the lower leagues is a nice dream and certainly one that they will paint so that Ian Ayre''s proposal can be considered.

But I for one can see individual deals as a further detriment to football which would allow the rich to get richer and now they are being blatant about it.

[Fromage Frais 14]

It will not make any difference to football it may even be the straw which breaks the camels back.

If every one has a billion dollars then nothing changes just the prices go up for the best players and the status quo remains the same. Do Real Madrid and Barcelona really have better players than Manchester City? I dont think so (Messi aside and man city would pay 100 million £ if they could for him) Barcelona are a once in a generation team and will be weaker once a few folk retire. Also liverpool I am sorry to say are not the force they think they are, at the moment would be in the Euro super league based on global glory hunter potential rather than actually being in the top 3 of English football. For example if Aston Villa somehow won the premier league this year a foreigner may say its better for them to be in it as you would have London (7.8million people), Birmingham (3.6 million people) and Manchester (2.6million) covered. If I was a sponsor i would probably want 2 london sides in there also.

This individualism is the reason why foreigners have bought all the large sides as they hope to break away into an international super league and it will happen. I assume it will have 6-10 sides from each league as can you imagine the fighting about who is biggest and best?

After a few years however we may even see the remaining teams make a good stab of a league as a lot of large clubs will remain and the increased competition may in fact improve the entertainment value. The champions league already is less magical than the knockout european cup and all the second and third placed teams in it...remember when winning the UEFA cup was great and even the cup winners cup?

Once we see chelsea vs barcelona every week it will become boring as it just does not have the same tribalism as manchester vs birmingham/Leeds etc.

The Spanish league is not to be admired its like the scottish league but with better teams. I admire the German league low ticket prices, more unpredictability and more germans playing.

I think however given the debts of clubs and foreign owners the short sited greed will continue until the bubble pops.

[Mahogany 0]

The English game would be better off if the top 5-6 clubs buggered off and formed a European league with Barcelona etc. The domestic game would lose a lot of money sure, but player salaries would drop in line and we''d end up with a competitive league where clubs like ours could aim to win the league rather than just hope to survive.

[exiled blue 0]

it smacks of desperation from liverpool. they can see that they are slowly slipping away from the `top table`. they can`t compete anymore with united, city, chelsea, or even spurs. this is their only hope of remaining one of the sky `top 4 ` clubs. they have all the history in the world which they point to when challenged, but history is just that. preston north end were once the top dogs...

as for a european super league, i`m a manchester city supporter, and no-way would i want a move to a league like that. when we play everton, or spurs there are long standing rivalries, i know those clubs, the type of people i`ve met who support them. playing atletico ibiza or spotweld murmansk would seem meaningless, like a trumped up pre-season friendly. no thanks.

[Fromage Frais 14]

[quote user="exiled blue"]it smacks of desperation from liverpool. they can see that they are slowly slipping away from the `top table`. they can`t compete anymore with united, city, chelsea, or even spurs. this is their only hope of remaining one of the sky `top 4 ` clubs. they have all the history in the world which they point to when challenged, but history is just that. preston north end were once the top dogs...

as for a european super league, i`m a manchester city supporter, and no-way would i want a move to a league like that. when we play everton, or spurs there are long standing rivalries, i know those clubs, the type of people i`ve met who support them. playing atletico ibiza or spotweld murmansk would seem meaningless, like a trumped up pre-season friendly. no thanks.[/quote]

The problem is its not about what you want.... Its about the folks in china, middle east etc etc and they are a bunch of glory hunters who actually in many cases follow the players more than the clubs.