European Super League.

[upthemaggies]

Man Utd fans breaking into the training ground this morning to protest against their owners and Ollie SG having to come out and talk to them.

Getting a bit silly now. Fans also protest when owners aren't spending enough money and giving the fans success. This whole problem is basically down to insane transfer fees, agents fees and players wages, that is why these clubs are in huge debt and desperate to fill the hole.

[queenslandpie]

You’ll be aware Brizzy team initially stood alone as The Bears, one of two non Victorian teams back in 86. They merged with Fitzroy Lions some time later, can’t be ar5sed to look it up. I’m sure you knew that.

I did.

I do go down to see the Lions couple of times a season as another one of my kids is a fan, used to go a fair bit when i lived in Brisvegas

[queenslandpie]

Unsurprisingly I'm also a Collingwood fan and have been since I went to see them at The MCG Vs Hawthorn with Nathan Buckley staring in the win back in 1999.

Since that day I keep up-to-date with scorers and the AFL ladder and luckily watch them quite regularly on BT sport.

Obviously years of promise, heartbreak and disappointment but they are my team

Classic magpies

My first Collingwood game live in Australia when I lived on the West Coast was Fremantle 180 Collingwood 60 ( approx) in 2005. I am not sure if you have been to Perth but the train service there is quite something and there were several kids in Magpies shirts crying on the way home and one very drunk old Freo' fan telling them how wet they were. He didn't know what to make of my Notts shirt so I just smiled

[laddo]

I was lucky enough that they won comfortably that day 140:86 (it was in fact 2000), little did I know back then...

Along with the Maggie's I also watched my local NRL (West Tigers), the NSW Warathas in Rugby Union against The Wellington Hurricanes featuring the legend that was Jonah Lomo and finally some soccer action with Northern Spirit against some Melbourne outfit.

Will remember that game for a few reasons, their beautiful North Sydney Oval on a Friday night, getting into a little physical bother with an away fan as their was next to no separation, Italian international and famed party boy Nicola Berti being their big name signing and none other than Notts County's own and wonderfully named Gabriel 'Chi Chi' Mendez in the starting line up.

Like Notts, Spirit had real issues off field with owners/finances and ended up going busy/defunct just a few years later.

Typical that I choose them to go watch lol.

[queenslandpie]

I was lucky enough that they won comfortably that day 140:86 (it was in fact 2000), little did I know back then...

Along with the Maggie's I also watched my local NRL (West Tigers), the NSW Warathas in Rugby Union against The Wellington Hurricanes featuring the legend that was Jonah Lomo and finally some soccer action with Northern Spirit against some Melbourne outfit.

Will remember that game for a few reasons, their beautiful North Sydney Oval on a Friday night, getting into a little physical bother with an away fan as their was next to no separation, Italian international and famed party boy Nicola Berti being their big name signing and none other than Notts County's own and wonderfully named Gabriel 'Chi Chi' Mendez in the starting line up.

Like Notts, Spirit had real issues off field with owners/finances and ended up going busy/defunct just a few years later.

Typical that I choose them to go watch lol.

This would have been pre A-League. I seem to remember seeing Mendez when I lived in the UK but the memory is distant now. Given the physical bother comment are you Slav or Croat as that was the big thing in Soccer ( football ) here then.

[laddo]

No Nottinghamshire born and bred, I just unwittingly got involved when celebrating a late equaliser in an always vocal Bob Stand.

It certainly was before the A league, and it felt it (non league feel).

Unusual but lovely backdrop for football viewing with a few beers on a Friday evening. Great memories from a long time ago living and travelling in Australia

[crazyfists]

Man Utd fans breaking into the training ground this morning to protest against their owners and Ollie SG having to come out and talk to them.

Getting a bit silly now. Fans also protest when owners aren't spending enough money and giving the fans success. This whole problem is basically down to insane transfer fees, agents fees and players wages, that is why these clubs are in huge debt and desperate to fill the hole.

This. The ESL was a way to stop the bubble bursting for some of these clubs which it will if it carries on eventually unless players, clubs and agents agree to work towards a solution involving gradually reducing debt. Fat chance I know.

[MAD_MAGPIE]

Man Utd fans breaking into the training ground this morning to protest against their owners and Ollie SG having to come out and talk to them.

Getting a bit silly now. Fans also protest when owners aren't spending enough money and giving the fans success. This whole problem is basically down to insane transfer fees, agents fees and players wages, that is why these clubs are in huge debt and desperate to fill the hole.

Quite. The amount of debt some of these big clubs are in are eye watering numbers. The debts that clubs like Bury and Macclesfield had were pennies in comparison.

The problem is football is an all consuming monster of money and is going to ultimately consume itself before too long. The biggest clubs continue to pay higher and higher transfer fees, players wages therefore need more money to fund this then everyone else is just playing catch up or get blown out of the water.

Naymar for example was the first player to break the £100m figure when he went from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for £198m in 2017 the highest ever transfer fee. Overnight it was double that of Ousmane Dembélé who in the same year went from Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona for £97m.

At one time the biggest clubs must surely have survived and been the biggest based on the income from paying fans through the turnstiles and merchandise sold in the club shops. The more paying fans a club had the more money they generated. Then I presume TV income came in, sponsorship, and then as the years rolled by more TV coverage at home and abroad meaning more TV rights money, money from competitions and a more global audience. Then when they spent all this money it relied on more wealthier and wealthier owners to plug the gap.

Income for the biggest clubs must have or be reaching it's ceiling, otherwise why would they have been contemplating a breakaway super league free from the uncertainty of relegation or the fear of not getting in the champions league and thus loosing cash?

If the game in this country can't be played anymore as we know it with it's 150 years history and heritage of the pyramid system then something has got to be broken or have gone wrong somewhere. The answer is not about trying to get more and more and more money from global audiences, but to cut transfer fees, wages and let that filter down the pyramid.

But then fans always want clubs to spend to get success. Perhaps salary caps would be a start from the top down?

[uysapie]

Quite. The amount of debt some of these big clubs are in are eye watering numbers. The debts that clubs like Bury and Macclesfield had were pennies in comparison.

The problem is football is an all consuming monster of money and is going to ultimately consume itself before too long. The biggest clubs continue to pay higher and higher transfer fees, players wages therefore need more money to fund this then everyone else is just playing catch up or get blown out of the water.

Naymar for example was the first player to break the £100m figure when he went from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for £198m in 2017 the highest ever transfer fee. Overnight it was double that of Ousmane Dembélé who in the same year went from Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona for £97m.

At one time the biggest clubs must surely have survived and been the biggest based on the income from paying fans through the turnstiles and merchandise sold in the club shops. The more paying fans a club had the more money they generated. Then I presume TV income came in, sponsorship, and then as the years rolled by more TV coverage at home and abroad meaning more TV rights money, money from competitions and a more global audience. Then when they spent all this money it relied on more wealthier and wealthier owners to plug the gap.

Income for the biggest clubs must have or be reaching it's ceiling, otherwise why would they have been contemplating a breakaway super league free from the uncertainty of relegation or the fear of not getting in the champions league and thus loosing cash?

If the game in this country can't be played anymore as we know it with it's 150 years history and heritage of the pyramid system then something has got to be broken or have gone wrong somewhere. The answer is not about trying to get more and more and more money from global audiences, but to cut transfer fees, wages and let that filter down the pyramid.

But then fans always want clubs to spend to get success. Perhaps salary caps would be a start from the top down?

Too much greed in the game!

[upthemaggies]

More protests planed tonight at Arsenal and talk of swift changes being introduced regards how the English game is run. Wage caps being mentioned and more fan power.

What a week!!!