The future of the premier league - Discussion

[Adam87]

I thought this might be an intresting disscussion and a way of getting peoples points of view. I was reading the following article the other day and it got me thinking with the continuing popularity increasing every year will the league just simply get to big worldwide.

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/special-report-world-will-soon-be-worth-more-to-premier-league-than-uk-8498204.html

Now obviously the majortiy of fulham fans wont want to play any games abroad just so that the nba and nfl teams that go around the world probably doesnt go down well with their supporters.
Sadly everything will be dictated by money and the fans wont get a say at all.
I think the premier league does lack quality, especially this year, but i think we have the most exciting league by quite a distance, hence the reason why people around the world watch the premier league and not la liga for example. The premier leagues viewing figures worldwide are increasing ever year at a dramatic rate. I know people talk about the well structured league in germany or the top two teams in la liga, but at the end of the day nobody really watches those worldwide like the premier league (our abroad fans could help me out with this view) 

My point being, i think places like United states, asia, africa, middle east and even australia can offer huge amounts of money to get premier league games abroad as they will go down a storm.

So i just want to get peoples opinion on whats going to happen as something will eventually give. It wont continue like this forever unless all fans in the country take a massive stand as one and do some sort of boycott but i just cant see that happening. On the positive side if fulham ever played in america, it would be a great experience for all our loyal american fans and i would also want to make the trip if that was ever to happen. However if we were to play somewhere remote where fulham are not as popular it leaves u scratching your head as to why we are out here.

So then lets begin...

[jarv]

A tough topic for discussion. Personally, I think the league has a few problems.
1. too predictable, same top 4 every year with a few pretenders (spurs, liverpool, everton)
2. It is 2 leagues, top 4 and mid table 5-9, and the rest fight to avoide relegation.
3. switching games to suit tv was a deliberate move as a result of hooligans back in the 80s. The powers that be do not want any away fans at games. I think that is why we see not only Fulham but many teams with very poor away records.

The good bits.
1. Plenty of pace and excitement.
2. On any day anyone can beat anyone else (that is the theory) see point 2 above, I doubt it happens that often.
3. Crowd excitement is back at the level of the 70s.
4. The quality of players is definitely very high.
5. Some fantastic top quality foreign players on show.

Personally, I think a Euro league will take place. i don't get too excited about watching a borefest like mancity v chelsea so as far as I am concerned they can bugr off. Did you see villa v qpr? Not the highest quality but edge of the seat stuff.

Like cricket and the packer circus, the game is bigger than a few clubs, it is bigger than a few players and I would love to see a level playing field where the likes of everton, spurs and even fulham have a chance of winning the league. That will only happen when fair financial play takes place.

Ferguson's retirement might help.

[Adam87]

It is a tough topic but an intresting one that i think is going to become more and more relevant to the future of our game every year.
There is not one league in europe where it is completly unpredictable.....in germany bayern and dortmund will finish 1 and 2 every year....the same goes for la liga with barca and madrid...and PSG will win the french league every year. I dont think the italian league will every get back to its former glory of the 80's and 90's...far to many problems....so there is no league that you cannot guess the places from top to bottom by the end of the season unless you were to transform the league into what they have in america....but that cant happen as clubs will play in europe and will be at a huge disadvantage.
But you have to ask yourself....why do fans around the world watch the premier league....a brilliant marketing campaign or is it because our football matches are facinating and unpredictable......we obviously have something that other leagues dont.
I do belive anyone cant beat anyone....it happens every year, what is worrying though is the gap between the top 4/5 clubs get to big comapred to the rest....that would be the worse thing for the league.

When you mean a euro league....i assume you mean the top clubs in europe.? - i just cant see this happening, there was something put forward a few years back about this and they wanted to see what the reaction was.....i think it came from barca and madrid.....and there was no support from england or germany for the idea but it could happen in the future but i still think there is too much opposition to it even though it would be amazing to watch it would have devestating consequences on the game in europe.

I still see the premier league going world wide.

[Apprentice to the Maestro]

:

I still see the premier league going world wide.

A point against that is that overseas venues would want to host Man. Utd. vs Chelsea or Arsenal vs Man. City (or other combinations of the top four or five clubs) but not the likes of Aston Villa vs. QPR or Sunderland vs Fulham.

[King_Crud]

There is not one league in europe where it is completly unpredictable.....in germany bayern and dortmund will finish 1 and 2 every year....

Actually besides Bayern Munich the Bundesliga is fairly unpredictable, five different winners in the last ten years, with another different three finishing second. Because of financial fair play.

[Lighthouse]

The Prem has or had the most exciting football to watch. A Reading can always give a Man Utd a game on their day. But yes it is painfully predictable.

I see the European Cups changing to a smaller more manageable mini Leagues set up. So we will have a European League but it can run alongside domestic leagues. Much as now but with divisions within that league.

I am no great fan of the  European Champions League and Europa cups as it is at present. But clearly the top teams and the likes of Fulham will always want a chance to play at a so called higher level. So they will have to be played at a more maneagablee level of games.

Sadly I see our domestic cups turning into reserve or youth cups for the top teams involved in European leagues.

[Adam87]

I think the major problem with a european league is getting the teams outside the top 3/4 teams in each country to agree to it - the reason why spain brought up the initial idea of it a couple years ago is down to the league being boring basically, its a 2 horse race and its getting more and more predictable each year and both barca and mardid will bail out of la liga sooner or later. Another intresting fact is the tv deal that madrid and barca have massively in their favour will not be so in the future as half of la liga is on the verge of being bankrupt, consequently might lead them to leave, this is the reason why they are the two richest clubs - they negotiate their own deals with tv companies and advertisers where as over here everything is shared equally.

I like the champions league, not a fan of the group stages which can be a bit boring unless you get a group like man citys this year which was good to watch.

Reagrding bayern munich - they should win the bundesliga every year from now on with the money they are going to invest - dortmund spend nothing compared to what they do and i have a feeling with guadiola going their as well. As a dortmund fan i hope im wrong, but that league could get even more boring than la liga over the next few years.

So dont you think the top clubs at some stage are going to have enough like barca and madrid?
I think trying to convince clubs in this country is going to be more difficult because i think the opposition to taking the premier league global or a european league being set up will be so high.

[nose]

To rebalance the league I would only allow two subs, possibly even one. The game should be 11 V 11. the 'big bench' means the bigger clubs can draw in extra reserves. I wouldn't allow substitution in the last 15 minutes except for injury, and if you are subbed in the last 15 minutes you would be obliged to miss the next game (maybe even 2 games). Something needs to be done to try and bring through indigenous talent, there are far too may overseas players of very average quality blocking the path of local players.

most inovative is i would allow fulham a three goal start in all away games.

[aFFCn_Fan]

To give an ex-pat abroad (South Africa) perspective, the clubs that are big here are: Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs. It's so rare to see any other football shirts...I saw a fella in a West Ham shirt the other day, I almost hugged him for not being one of the plastics.

We've had tournaments out here with local league clubs battle it out and a guest EPL club comes in - since I've been here Man Utd been twice, Spurs once and Man City once. The Man City one (when Sparky was boss) was the least well attended (even with some of the stars they brought). There is plenty of interest in EPL, but if it was Fulham v Villa there would be a lot less interest and attendance. As was stated elsewhere the historic big clubs are what draws interest abroad. Now if there was a big club vs a mid table, so Man U vs Stoke it would draw a crowd. The problem is everywhere (Africa, Asia) would want Man U v Liverpool, and quite honestly Fergie would moan his red-nosed face off that his team had to travel further than Arsenal, or went somewhere that was too hot. 

It's a nice idea to make it a global round to the league, but there would be huge logistical and unfair travel issues.

Most clubs do tour the world individually over the summer (when there's no International World/Euro cups) and that's where I see opportunity. If they could generate a sort of knock out cup thing (rather than an extension of the current league) in four/five locations (middle East, Africa, Far East & North Americas) with four or five EPL clubs (including one top seed in each location) that could work quite well. But ultimately, there would be a lot less attendance/support for Reading vs QPR - even if it was an exciting game - because they're not such globally-popular teams.