Should Scotland & other countries boycott UEFA events over Champions League plans?

[CityDave]

9 hours ago, Vollyman said:

No it is not toys out of the pram you cannot escape the facts our teams other than Celtic are always out of Europe before the end of August because our league is full of second rate players. The money being poured into English football by the tv companies have killed Scottish football  because our clubs cannot meet the wage demands of quality players

Most teams that enter in the Europa League qualifiers are out before the group stages. You do know the competition starts in June where Scottish Clubs are barely into the pre season preparations and the qualifiers end before the end of August?. I think its a mess of a competition where the full focus is entirely on the money making group stages and the qualifiers are an after thought but still have to be done to appear fair to all qualifiers, its like a hand out. Its very much a lord of the castle and peasants below scenario with UEFA or more accurately the governing bodies of the biggest football nations and their biggest clubs.

Just my opinion its a stacked deck against many of the countries further down the ranking to prevent the small teams from getting near the very biggest teams and not maximising revenue available to the tv companies and the biggest clubs, its all geared towards tv money. The tv companies want the biggest clubs playing the biggest clubs on their channels to get the most viewers they can. If you look at the way the competition is set up with the co-efficient and the seeding take a look at how many clubs enter the competition at the group stages already 26 teams out of 48 don't have to qualify.

There is a chance that there could be more teams added from the top of the co-efficient (the big 4 leagues in Europe) and the rest being squeezed out into the qualifiers making it even harder for smaller clubs from smaller nations to even get that close. I would think now even improving a countries co-efficient ranking is very very hard, it might take us more than 10 years even to get back into the top 15 if we suddenly improved.

Your last sentence doesn't make a lot of sense, but I'll try. The tv money poured into English football has nothing to do with Scottish football nor anything to do with imaginary quality players making EPL wage demands to play for Motherwell.....or Partick Thistle. Clubs look at what they can afford and I hope stick with their budgets, you should remember what happened when clubs didn't. If you want to see any comparison with England have a look at the attendances for our clubs and have a look at where you get similar attendances in England, then remember that most clubs in Scotland don't rely on tv money as a main source of income and that we have one of the highest football attending populations in Europe. Our clubs are doing well financially and Scottish football is recovering despite the negativity and the lack of urgency to sell our game from our governing bodies.

 

[sjc]

The power switch from Clubs to Players via the Bosman ruling is the reason for wages spiraling. Their Agents exploit this further.

[FairWeatherFan]

Seen yesterday the new UEFA President making noises as well as the Monaco owner/president doing the same. While you can argue French clubs historically haven't done as well as other countries. They do tend to get bundled into a Big 5 with Spain, England, Italy & Germany.

With PSG being so dominant. Monaco, Lyon, Marseille and the rest probably don't like the look of the Top 4x4 as it's going to leave them further behind.

I think it might end up being some sort of expansion we see in a couple of years instead of the plans in motion.

[HibeeJibee]

As I've said before that's the solution which keeps everyone happy. It seems UEFA's proposed solution keeps no-one happy - the Big 4 (or at least their clubs) feel it has not gone far enough, and the rest feel it has gone too far. Admittedly expanding to 40 or 48 teams doesn't appease some top clubs who apparently want a smaller CL but perhaps they'd restore a second groupstage as existed either side of 2000, IIRC.

[realmadrid]

On ‎15‎/‎09‎/‎2016 at 08:31, CityDave said:

Your last sentence doesn't make a lot of sense, but I'll try. The tv money poured into English football has nothing to do with Scottish football nor anything to do with imaginary quality players making EPL wage demands to play for Motherwell.....or Partick Thistle. Clubs look at what they can afford and I hope stick with their budgets, you should remember what happened when clubs didn't. If you want to see any comparison with England have a look at the attendances for our clubs and have a look at where you get similar attendances in England, then remember that most clubs in Scotland don't rely on tv money as a main source of income and that we have one of the highest football attending populations in Europe. Our clubs are doing well financially and Scottish football is recovering despite the negativity and the lack of urgency to sell our game from our governing bodies.

 

I'm afraid it does.

Players from Scotland all now see England as the place to play, when you can earn more playing in the 4th or 5th tier of the English system than the top level in Scotland our game is always going to get a lower standard of player. Even teams who play in front of similar crowds in Scotland cannot compete with lower level teams in England due to the TV subsidy these clubs get. As the deals get bigger and bigger I can see players leaving the likes of ICT for the 5th and 6th tiers.

Yes the clubs pay what they can afford but the standard gets lower and lower.

The TV deal and the fact that their games are shown and promoted in Scotland also does not help but there is little we can do about that.

[CityDave]

2 hours ago, realmadrid said:

I'm afraid it does.

Players from Scotland all now see England as the place to play, when you can earn more playing in the 4th or 5th tier of the English system than the top level in Scotland our game is always going to get a lower standard of player. Even teams who play in front of similar crowds in Scotland cannot compete with lower level teams in England due to the TV subsidy these clubs get. As the deals get bigger and bigger I can see players leaving the likes of ICT for the 5th and 6th tiers.

Yes the clubs pay what they can afford but the standard gets lower and lower.

The TV deal and the fact that their games are shown and promoted in Scotland also does not help but there is little we can do about that.

You paint a bleak picture of the future of our game.

So why are there a good number of young players from England coming up here and seeing playing in our Premiership as an opportunity to make a name for himself and therefore get a bigger move?

Also why do you think football clubs up here in Scotland should start living beyond their means again, I thought everyone had learned that lesson?

[realmadrid]

2 hours ago, CityDave said:

You paint a bleak picture of the future of our game.

So why are there a good number of young players from England coming up here and seeing playing in our Premiership as an opportunity to make a name for himself and therefore get a bigger move?

Also why do you think football clubs up here in Scotland should start living beyond their means again, I thought everyone had learned that lesson?

Where in the above post did I suggest the clubs spend beyond their means? ive looked a couple of times and I cannot see it. I think you hoped that's what id said.

Most Scottish teams have a budget based on gate money alone, Most English teams have a budget based on TV money with gate money being small change. That's working its way down the leagues so obviously players who in the past may have played up here now will go to league 1 or 2 and in some cases the National league despite the clubs getting similar gates.

The changes at UEFA are all about protecting the bigger leagues, not just the big 4 but the black hole these leagues create for all the national associations around them does not help, its not just a problem for Scotland. Add in TV promoting these leagues and yes it not a bright future for the game here.

Id like to know who all these young English players are as bar the revolving door at Kilmarnock how many young English players are in the SPFL as signed players (Not here on loan for 6 months). The key to building a club is consistency over a number of seasons and while its possible to build a team for a 1 off season and win a cup league consistency needs a pool of players to remain the same over a number of years, such as at Saints where a core has got us in the top 6 5 years in a row.

[TheLip69]

MacMannaman apparently believes Kompany is playing.

[Leggy Blonde]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37508373

 Fuckin Cockwomble worried about a "closed shop" 

[HibeeJibee]

I've found Doncaster's position to be slightly strange on this matter.

In the run-up to UEFA's announcement he was ringing the alarms over being "frozen out" and the big clubs taking-over an so on. After the announcement he was surprisingly receptive - cautiously welcomed the plan, happy routes for smaller countries had been preserved, etc. Now back to alarm.

[craigkillie]

His position has been entirely consistent.  He wasn't happy about the changes, but welcomed the fact that they had preserved the Champions Route.  That article talks about the possibility of the Champions Route being scrapped in a few years time, and he is alarmed about that possibility.

[Monkey Tennis]

I couldn't give a toss about the Champions' League.

It became a vehicle for the biggest clubs to get wealthier a long time ago, absolutely ceasing to be about football.  

Now that football finance has evolved to mean that it's only really the big clubs from big countries that are invited, I couldn't care less.  Only the OF are likely to be affected in our country and anything that is to their detriment must be seen as a good thing.

[Booker-T]

On 8/16/2016 at 14:52, Davie Bhoy said:

 

Well just as it says on the title. I know that just now the proposals are that the big 4 countries will be guarantee 4 places for the CL. The current set-up already frustrates & annoys a lot of people because of how many clubs they get into the tournament, and also how easy it is for their clubs not guaranteed a group place to get into it, while Champions of other countries have to play several qualifiers.

The new proposals go even further and go some way to pushing clubs from smaller countries out the picture. So what can be done about it?

Well what if the FA's of places like Scotland, Portugal, Wales, N.I, Sweden, Holland, Portugal, Rep of Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Croatia, Russia, Ukraine etc all got together & put their own pressure on UEFA to tell them that if these proposals go ahead then they will boycott any Euro Championship's & club competitions? Surely FIFA would then have to stop pandering to the big countries.

Opinions on this or what else can be done in your view?

 

Surprised i'm saying this but Dave does have a point

UEFA craves member nations so any threats would have an impact but at the end of the day, money is even more important.

my only surprise is Russia wont get 10 teams in the CL