E.p.l.

[Nuggets 56]

Just got to thinking, how would people react if in, say about 4 to 5 years time that the English Premier League, went into meltdown?

[gingermunkie 171]

Unsurprised. It's a completely unstable business model.

[Barty1884 68]

Difficult to see how it could happen, considering (at least comparing it with the SPL) it's a fairly even balance - there's no single team who's absence would dramatically lessen sponsorship/viewership.  

 

You'd need to be looking at an absolute worst-case-scenario for a 'meltdown' to occur. Relegation of 2 or 3 out of Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal & Liverpool, followed by the relegation of the balance of the sides in the following season - without any of the teams bouncing straight back up.

 

Don't get me wrong, facing a season without Man U, Arsenal & Liverpool would worry sponsors - but with the parachute payments being constructed the way they are, it's almost unfathomable that 2 of the 3 wouldn't bounce back up (either automatic promotion or via the playoffs). 

 

When you think about it, 7 of the teams playing next season have never experience life outwith the top league (since the Premiership inception) - Arsenal, Villa, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Man Utd & Tottenham, whilst Man City, Newcaslte & West Ham are established sides with large supports. 

They all (to different degrees) have large overseas support, more than enough to encourage sponsors to stick with the league should the near-impossible happen.

 

Will it reach a point where sponsorship is reined in, probably.  Will it happen anytime soon, possibly.   Will it ever reach 'meltdown' stage, unlikely. 

[Nuggets 56]

I was meaning for to the fact if the money man walk away from these clubs, it would be nice to see what would happen.

[Cagey 2,492]

I was meaning for to the fact if the money man walk away from these clubs, it would be nice to see what would happen.

That & if Sky went tits up.

[The Neutral 16]

That & if Sky went tits up.

& BT from next season

[Barty1884 68]

I was meaning for to the fact if the money man walk away from these clubs, it would be nice to see what would happen.

 

 

Which 'money man'? As I mentioned, it's much more than one club. A financial backer can walk away from any individual club & it wouldn't cause the league to go into 'meltdown'.  If the collective 'money men' from Man U, City, Liverpool etc all walked away, see:

 

 

You'd need to be looking at an absolute worst-case-scenario for a 'meltdown' to occur. Relegation of 2 or 3 out of Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal & Liverpool, followed by the relegation of the balance of the sides in the following season - without any of the teams bouncing straight back up.

 

Don't get me wrong, facing a season without Man U, Arsenal & Liverpool would worry sponsors - but with the parachute payments being constructed the way they are, it's almost unfathomable that 2 of the 3 wouldn't bounce back up (either automatic promotion or via the playoffs). 

[Nuggets 56]

Money man walks away from the big clubs, how are they going to be able to be all the sky high wage bill.

Sponsor money would not cover the wage bill for teams like Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea etc, etc.

[Das Rave 299]

I wouldn't be surprised. I've been saying for a while that if a couple of 'money men' walked away the teams could be in trouble.

 

Arabs are (and I apologise if this comes across as a stereotype) notoriously fickle with regards football. Think back to the 70's when Revie etc went out there on long deals only to be sacked after a few months. Should these guys get bored and walk away, Man City, for one, would drop like a stone.

 

As for Sky, they wouldn't hang about if there were only one or two teams left with any real chance of winning the thing.

 

This is where I think Scottish Football is years ahead of England. Our leagues and national team hit rock bottom as a result of paying foreign players big money. The money dried up, the mercenaries left and we had to start bringing through our own players. The English national team is on the way down, where ours is on the up

[Edstar101 2,937]

We are already seeing a downward slide for the EPL I reckon. It probably peaked when three English sides were in the Champions League semi finals. Like Italy before, EPL teams ruled Europe, with all the best players wanting to come and play there. It has since moved onto Spanish sides to a degree, and they may soon be challenged even more strongly by the Germans.

The top players no longer see the EPL as the pinnacle and many more are leaving these shores to sign in Spain, Germany and even Italy starting to pick up again

There will always be the crowds down south to attract TV deals though and there will be no demise....just a shift in the European power standings

As has been said, this ironically may be to the benefit of the English national team in the long run

[ANDY5565 233]

Brazil played shoite in the world cup ,most of their players play else where!

[Barty1884 68]

Money man walks away from the big clubs, how are they going to be able to be all the sky high wage bill.

Sponsor money would not cover the wage bill for teams like Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea etc, etc.

 

 

I wouldn't be surprised. I've been saying for a while that if a couple of 'money men' walked away the teams could be in trouble.

 

Definitely. The EPL would survive in it's current state if one 'money man' walked away, although the club they leave behind would be royally humped.

 

If multiples decided to up & leave then realistically, it's hard to see anything but complete 'meltdown'.

 

Saying that, is it likely that the owners could walk away from Utd, City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool without another, similar buyer sitting in the wings waiting to pick up the pieces? It certainly wouldn't be glamorous for a while, but I don't think it'd get too bad.

 

Looking at the 'smaller' clubs, Villa's up for sale, Newcastle have been on & off the market under Ashley for god knows how long, they're no longer pumping money into the club (although, did Ashley ever?!), so all I can imagine is similar scenarios (squad reductions, lower wages etc) at larger profile clubs. 

[Abernethy Saint 3,461]

I think it's mainly dependant on English working and middle class blokes being continuingly willing and able to spend a lot of money each month to have Sky (and/or BT when they start charging, as they will). The whole thing rests on the astonishing TV money - gate money is becoming less and less important. If the TV money goes, the money men will scarper. Actually, they have people who will see it coming, and scarper beforehand.

 

Sadly, I think it will last. The model has in the US.

 

I cancelled Sky years ago, because I was fed-up paying a fortune to subsidise some BNP supporters in London to watch Fulham v West Ham, in the likes of which I have no interest at all. Well that, and the completely irresponsible lack of porn channels.

[Gussie 139]

Nuggets has raised an interesting point. 

 

I sometimes wonder when Abramovitch is going to dump Chelsea - likewise the Sheikh at Man City.

 

Lpool, Man U, Aresenal are not in one man band set ups, so no knee temblers there.

[TheYellowBox 478]

I think it will fall apart, to an extent. It just takes one or two to walk away or get bored and it would all fall apart. But the main catalyst would be if fans stopped paying as much for the tv subscriptions. I think they have probably peaked with the current deals, but it depends on which clubs have a sensible policy. Man U and arsenal stand out at 2 of the best run clubs.

The warning signs are there when you look at clubs like Leeds and how much trouble they got into.

[ANDY5565 233]

all it needs are a change in the rules

[Broon 1,273]

I think the worlds best players are realising its not the best place to be anymore. The standard is slipping and when that happens the money will fall away. Long slow decline.

[Indicator 433]

Couple that with Alan Hansen retiring from match of the day... writing is on the wall I'd say.   

[slf 2,649]

Just got to thinking, how would people react if in, say about 4 to 5 years time that the English Premier League, went into meltdown?

 

it would be braw because

 

thats when they would invite sevco and smeltic into there leagues to save them with revenue from visiting religious/political nutters/fans

 

good riddance

[lmsaintee 102]

i think that the decline in is that no english players play in the big leagues

the german/french/italialn/spain/dutch

in fact do any english players play abroad

it is bit like spl  when players came up to play for big wages to clubs who have now cheated

i can think of 5

can anyone name them

give you a clue one start with d and ends in scum

or is it the other way round

[ancientsaint 1,174]

Couple that with Alan Hansen retiring from match of the day... writing is on the wall I'd say. 

 

 

YOUR KIDDING !

[lethamsaintee 455]

i think that the decline in is that no english players play in the big leagues

the german/french/italialn/spain/dutch

in fact do any english players play abroad

it is bit like spl when players came up to play for big wages to clubs who have now cheated

i can think of 5

can anyone name them

give you a clue one start with d and ends in scum

or is it the other way round

All through time Scottish/British players have rarely played abroad.

If you look at it this way - there are more Belgians at Spurs say, than there are Brits playing in Belguim I'd guess.

The reasons for that are pretty obvious to me - we are an Ignorant Island race that is either unwilling or unable to learn different languages and cultures.

Anyway to answer the original question - it'll never as such go into Meltdown unless Sponsors/Sky cut the supply.

Only really Chelsea and Manchester City spend 'gift' money and they would obviously suffer massively if their Sugar Daddy's walked away. More so Chelsea as Mansour has an agreement in place at City that secures their Financial Security if he walks away.

Most of the other clubs run with debts but they are mostly manageable.

Best way of putting it is this - Liverpool/Manchester United are men who earn 100k a year and therefore can afford a bigger mortgage than Saints/Aberdeen who are men who earn 40k a year.

It's all relative.

[HOODLUM65 2,804]

We are already seeing a downward slide for the EPL I reckon. It probably peaked when three English sides were in the Champions League semi finals. Like Italy before, EPL teams ruled Europe, with all the best players wanting to come and play there. It has since moved onto Spanish sides to a degree, and they may soon be challenged even more strongly by the Germans.

The top players no longer see the EPL as the pinnacle and many more are leaving these shores to sign in Spain, Germany and even Italy starting to pick up again

There will always be the crowds down south to attract TV deals though and there will be no demise....just a shift in the European power standings

As has been said, this ironically may be to the benefit of the English national team in the long run

The "greatest" league in the world have Nil teams left in Europe.

[Gussie 139]

SKY putting prices up later on so you can see these wonderful teams.

[sixties saintee 2,143]

When playing in EPL they are world beaters, when they come up against champs league / europa league they are found out