Elected Supporters director's most recent Kentish Times column is covered below. All future column's will be covered by this site, following publication in the Kentish Times.
Well I for one am worried about foreign money coming flooding into the English leagues, that isn't to say it's all bad news, but it puts clubs like Charlton who stick to a budget at a disadvantage. Last year Chelsea made an £88m loss, and walked off with the title and the influx of money will create a two-tier league meaning that teams us and others who don't have a sugar-daddy will be competing, if we're lucky for a lower mid table position and maybe one UEFA place. How can we attract talented, ambitious players to the club, or retain the ones we have when everything is stacked against us? No matter what the rhetoric about loyalty and doing the right thing means we will get left behind and good players will go elsewhere.
Sooner or later UEFA will have to consider wage caps or maximum squad sizes to encourage a bit more competition. Already attendances look like they are peaking and the lack of meaningful competition is partly responsible along with ridiculous ticket prices that is pricing many fans out the game. Last week Chelsea couldn't sell out Stamford Bridge for a CL cup tie. We are perhaps seeing the beginning of the end for football, the greed of players and clubs is strangling the sport.
Interesting points BFR, and i agree with you fully with regards wage caps.
The trouble is these clubs are now multi-million pound corporations, and will always find a loophole. If wage caps were introduced, the bigger clubs will still attract the bigger players by using some form of angle, whether it being alternative bonus payments, or increased shares of image rights. Sadly i'm concerned the playing field will never be evened, if fact i can see the gulf widening at a much more alarming state in the next ten years than has been seen in the past ten.
I think I speak for all that I'd like to see the current situation remain where the Directors are Charlton fans and football fans and are doing things properly, ie to a balanced budget sheet, but already this season Aston Villa have been taken over, there are bids in for West Ham and Arsenal and rumours circulating about Newcastle. In the close season it was Portsmouth and Fulham, Man U and Chelsea have already been taken over by rich benefactors, plus the Thai PM has been sniffing around Liverpool for the last two years (he made several hundred million before going into politics). That's around the half the league that could be in the hands of sugar daddies with deep pockets within a season or two.
It's going to get to the point soon when to compete we are going to have to consider selling the club, or one day we'll make up and find the Valley has been renamed McDonald's Park or something.
The thing that gets me with all this new money coming into the game is what the people expect to get out of it. Very few clubs make anything like a profit.
In turnover terms the clubs are not big business. I worked for a startup company a few years ago that was after two years turning over more than most top football clubs and they still considered themselves a small business.
The real money is in the players and the competitions themselves. This is what worries me, these guys are not going to make too much from the clubs themselves so what is going on behind the scenes to justify all the money sloshing around.
I actually think Comrade Roman is an exception here because he seems to genuinely enjoy watching chelsea and whilst I am probably being naive I don't feel there is an ulterior motive other than wanting a team to be successful.
Richard Murray could well say that in him and the other directors (bar one obvious exception) CAFC already have wealthy benefactors. The issue for me was that the focus in the media seems to be on f"oreign" money when there are also UK investors/benefactors ie at Wigan and Reading and that there is no real difference. People keep saying that Roman et al will get bored and move on but why should he? He's not worried about losing £88m as he earns over £500m a year in interest and most likely a bit more.
IMHO There's no sugar daddy waiting in the Valley Cafe for a meeting with Varney and Murray but it is a dilema. If all other clubs have a mega-wealthy investor would Charlton be foolish to turn one away because he never went to Grimsby away or saw Killer play? On the other hand would we lose something that makes Charlton special?
Some interesting points raised by everyone here, however have you spoken to the actual supporters of these clubs. I have a few Chelsea mates & whilst they have enjoyed the almost instant success under Abramovich they say going there now is boring, we complain about 'Plastics' at Charlton well some of the stories I have heard about games at Chelsea I think we have relatively little to worry about here at lil ole Charlton.
As someone else pointed out, the gulf is widening and with the type of investments being made at Chelsea, Portsmouth and Villa becoming the norm rather than the exception, could we afford to turn down such an offer if it was made and risk being left behind?
what needs to be done is clubs that overspend in a season should have points deducted at the beginning of the next one...if some billionaire wants to pump more money into his club to ensure they can carry on spending more than the club is earning then i dont have a problem with that...what we do want to make sure of is that clubs are not racking up debt that if it went under could trigger a collapse at another club or clubs...
Trying to put a more positive spin on it how long will these guys be happy with £90m a year going down the drain just so they can play "Champ Manager" (Roman aside)? If and when it does go belly up, wont clubs like CAFC be in a strong position because of our more frugal approach?
[cite]Posted By: CharltonDan[/cite] If and when it does go belly up, wont clubs like CAFC be in a strong position because of our more frugal approach?
frugal position ? not only are have we spent all of the transfer budget, we've dipped into next year. hardly frugal, particularly as we'll still have redevelopment loans to pay.
What happens if come January we're in the mire ? Will we have ANY ability at all to go out and do some business ?
Wage caps and the like are no go's the clubs wouldn't stand for it. It's restriction of trade in it's purest sense and it wouldn't hold up in a court of law, If a club has the money why shouldn't they spend it?
Rugby has a salary cap and while all the games are reasonably competitive; anyone can beat anyone on their day relegation becomes a total lottery and the teams are understrength when coming up against the French sides in Europe who have no salary cap. It's a nice idea but It'll never happen
We either hope that if the bubble bursts our more frugal approach will bring sucess or i'd start having a word with foreign investors
Comments
Sooner or later UEFA will have to consider wage caps or maximum squad sizes to encourage a bit more competition. Already attendances look like they are peaking and the lack of meaningful competition is partly responsible along with ridiculous ticket prices that is pricing many fans out the game. Last week Chelsea couldn't sell out Stamford Bridge for a CL cup tie. We are perhaps seeing the beginning of the end for football, the greed of players and clubs is strangling the sport.
The trouble is these clubs are now multi-million pound corporations, and will always find a loophole. If wage caps were introduced, the bigger clubs will still attract the bigger players by using some form of angle, whether it being alternative bonus payments, or increased shares of image rights. Sadly i'm concerned the playing field will never be evened, if fact i can see the gulf widening at a much more alarming state in the next ten years than has been seen in the past ten.
It's going to get to the point soon when to compete we are going to have to consider selling the club, or one day we'll make up and find the Valley has been renamed McDonald's Park or something.
In turnover terms the clubs are not big business. I worked for a startup company a few years ago that was after two years turning over more than most top football clubs and they still considered themselves a small business.
The real money is in the players and the competitions themselves. This is what worries me, these guys are not going to make too much from the clubs themselves so what is going on behind the scenes to justify all the money sloshing around.
I actually think Comrade Roman is an exception here because he seems to genuinely enjoy watching chelsea and whilst I am probably being naive I don't feel there is an ulterior motive other than wanting a team to be successful.
ego and publicity.
IMHO There's no sugar daddy waiting in the Valley Cafe for a meeting with Varney and Murray but it is a dilema. If all other clubs have a mega-wealthy investor would Charlton be foolish to turn one away because he never went to Grimsby away or saw Killer play? On the other hand would we lose something that makes Charlton special?
frugal position ? not only are have we spent all of the transfer budget, we've dipped into next year. hardly frugal, particularly as we'll still have redevelopment loans to pay.
What happens if come January we're in the mire ? Will we have ANY ability at all to go out and do some business ?
Rugby has a salary cap and while all the games are reasonably competitive; anyone can beat anyone on their day relegation becomes a total lottery and the teams are understrength when coming up against the French sides in Europe who have no salary cap. It's a nice idea but It'll never happen
We either hope that if the bubble bursts our more frugal approach will bring sucess or i'd start having a word with foreign investors