Friday's Moronic Uwaffa B*ll*x

[MaineRoadMemories]

And the draw for the 2012 Champions League is...

Fulham v FC Basel
SK Brann v Blackburn Rovers
Wigan v Valletta FC
Birmingham City v CD Tenerife

Haha not even Europa standards. There's not a chance some of the biggest clubs in Europe can get into profit making circumstances within 3 years. There's also not a chance that UEFA would run the Champions League with teams that finished in the bottom half of the tables.

[Ted Hughes]

I hope the Behrami thing is a joke. Don't rate him at all. And how has he been "revelation"? Hasn't scored single goal or given single assist this season. That's some winger. Well worth 15m.

He has had one or two decent hard working type games recently but I can't see where we'd use him. Agent stirring up shit probably.

I know mate but I just wish these journos and agents would have at least some effort. What next, Titus Bramble reveals that despite city looking for him he is committed to Wigan?

They need to liven up the window so I expect they'll link us with some kind of huge, multi million, totally impossible deal just before the deadline. Sky can have that pig faced bloke stand outside a deserted COMS in total darkness with an old geezer sweeping the pavement behind him saying "no sign of David Villa yet but..."

[ronk]

I'm starting to come around to the UEFA proposals. The latest incarnation could actually come out in our favour.

Looking at some of the stories emerging it's clear that the Premier League is badly broken. We might be safe but it won't do much good if everyone else goes to the wall. There are a lot of clubs in danger, and it's the business model that's broken.

This won't just tighten our purse strings, it will affect Liverpool, scum, Chelsea, Spurs. What this will do is constrain the ability of players to take in huge pay packets and inflate wages constantly, especially fringe players like Sturridge.

Our plan is not to lose money indefinitely, the simple fact is that we were always going to have to make these changes at some point regardless. We can already see teams cutting back, they're going to find it a lot harder to hold onto any star players they find.

What we need to do now is start to reign in our expenditure a little. We've picked up a reputation for paying a premium, continuing gung-ho in the transfer market will only make that worse. Now is as good a time as any to start looking for better value (even if we're still spending big).

Naturally Arsenal will become the people to watch.

[Ted Hughes]

I'm starting to come around to the UEFA proposals. The latest incarnation could actually come out in our favour.

Looking at some of the stories emerging it's clear that the Premier League is badly broken. We might be safe but it won't do much good if everyone else goes to the wall. There are a lot of clubs in danger, and it's the business model that's broken.

This won't just tighten our purse strings, it will affect Liverpool, scum, Chelsea, Spurs. What this will do is constrain the ability of players to take in huge pay packets and inflate wages constantly, especially fringe players like Sturridge.

Our plan is not to lose money indefinitely, the simple fact is that we were always going to have to make these changes at some point regardless. We can already see teams cutting back, they're going to find it a lot harder to hold onto any star players they find.

What we need to do now is start to reign in our expenditure a little. We've picked up a reputation for paying a premium, continuing gung-ho in the transfer market will only make that worse. Now is as good a time as any to start looking for better value (even if we're still spending big).

Naturally Arsenal will become the people to watch.

Imo it's a load of bullshit designed to stop clubs like Aston Villa from taking the place of clubs like Liverpool. The main effect it will have on us is that they'll stop us from doing what Real Madrid have done ie; signing everybody for huge sums of money. As we didn't want to do that anyway, it won't make that much difference. It's there to safeguard the elite & if they can't get in the CL every single season it at least keeps the competition down to a minimum so they'll get there regularly & won't slip into oblivion like Leeds did.

[gillie]

So when we win the Prem but our books wont balance Uefa will have to call it the almost champions league as we will be forbidden fron entering.WHAT A CROCK OF SHITE.

[ashton287]

talking about players wages though it would mean that foreign clubs could offer alot more because of our higher tax and we end up not being able to compete with them in salary because to match them post-tax we have to pay them like an exta 20%, so this would just improve european football and fuck the premier league up in terms of competing for euroean honours, its retarded how were the richest club in the world and we'd be affected more by this then clubs in huge amounts of debt, makes no sense, mansour is our owner and he should be able to put as much of HIS money into HIS club as he wants

[Socrates]

Uefa will struggle to fill all the loopholes.

There are loads of ways we could raise money through football related revenue so that the Sheikh could carry on subsidising he club if he wanted to. For instance, he could build himself a luxury suite in the stadium and then the club could charge him £150m a year to use it. City could also undertake ridiculously priced tours to the middle east that would earn huge fees or sell a couple of million replica kits to a "middle east" export company. Sponsorhip will also offer various outs.

Uefa would struggle to organise a piss up in a brewery cant think there will not be endless ways to get around this madness.

In the last resort the competition commission will have something to say about restrictive practices that allow CL teams to operate on unfairly exagerated budgets.

I really wish it were that simple. It isn't. What you are suggesting is tantamount to fraud and would result in instant removal of our UEFA license by the scrutiny panel. Genuine sponsorships and early Champs League qualification are our only way forward in the short and medium terms. Longer term it is the Academy and the £500m earmarked for it that will be our main hope. Basically we either get there very quickly or very slowly. There's no inbetween.

[john68]

As Ted states, the whole thing is to consolidate the cartel clubs' position as an elite. Forget UeFA for a moment and think cartel. It is they who have the financial muscle and the power and it is they who are pushing this forward. It is the cartel clubs who have created the football market, it is they who have created the big games with the big players. The market and increased revenues followed. UeFA themselves actually did nothing but create the infrastructure to suit the cartel clubs and allow this to happen.

We have already seen this in action throughout many sports including cricket with the Indian 20/20 league that had to be accepted. In Rugby Union, the RFU, under pressure, accepted the wishes of the bigger clubs. Proffessionalism was allowed, The Guinness Premier League was the infrastructure. In Rugby league, first Superleague and now the 3 year franchises were designed to benefit the big clubs at the expense of the smaller.

For those of you who still doubt the power of the cartel clubs and are pooh-poohing the latest politico/football murmurings, remember that this is NOT new to the cartel clubs and UeFA. The original change from European Cup to CL was predesigned by the cartel clubs and UeFA accepted them under pressure of a threat of a breakaway league.

When you laugh off that these new rules could wipe out many major European names, ask yourself what happened, almost overnight to all the old east European clubs that were such a European mainstay...Red Star Brlgrade, Partizan, the moscow clubs and clubs like Benfica, Ajax, Anderlecht, Bruges, PSG, Marseilles, Monaco, Feyenoord and many others that simply coincidentally faded around this time.

The cartel clubs do not give two fucks about the likes of City. we are a danger to their markets, they want to stop us.

[mr_nool]

As Ted states, the whole thing is to consolidate the cartel clubs' position as an elite. Forget UeFA for a moment and think cartel. It is they who have the financial muscle and the power and it is they who are pushing this forward. It is the cartel clubs who have created the football market, it is they who have created the big games with the big players. The market and increased revenues followed. UeFA themselves actually did nothing but create the infrastructure to suit the cartel clubs and allow this to happen.

We have already seen this in action throughout many sports including cricket with the Indian 20/20 league that had to be accepted. In Rugby Union, the RFU, under pressure, accepted the wishes of the bigger clubs. Proffessionalism was allowed, The Guinness Premier League was the infrastructure. In Rugby league, first Superleague and now the 3 year franchises were designed to benefit the big clubs at the expense of the smaller.

For those of you who still doubt the power of the cartel clubs and are pooh-poohing the latest politico/football murmurings, remember that this is NOT new to the cartel clubs and UeFA. The original change from European Cup to CL was predesigned by the cartel clubs and UeFA accepted them under pressure of a threat of a breakaway league.

When you laugh off that these new rules could wipe out many major European names, ask yourself what happened, almost overnight to all the old east European clubs that were such a European mainstay...Red Star Brlgrade, Partizan, the moscow clubs and clubs like Benfica, Ajax, Anderlecht, Bruges, PSG, Marseilles, Monaco, Feyenoord and many others that simply coincidentally faded around this time.

The cartel clubs do not give two fucks about the likes of City. we are a danger to their markets, they want to stop us.

I think that had much more to do with Bosman and with massive TV money coming in to play.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

I hope the Behrami thing is a joke. Don't rate him at all. And how has he been "revelation"? Hasn't scored single goal or given single assist this season. That's some winger. Well worth 15m.

He isn't a winger though is he , more of a box to box midfield player with the emphasis more on the defensive side.£15 mill is a bit steep .

[mcfc1632]

You know what...it really would be 'Typical City' if when we finally become billionaires Platini and his fucking crew manage to push this through...it makes me livid just thinking about it

SOCS (WITH SOME HELP FROM ME) HAS BEEN TRYING TO GET THE BOARD TO TAKE THIS THREAT SERIOUSLY FOR SOME TIME NOW

[carl_feedthegoat]

You know what...it really would be 'Typical City' if when we finally become billionaires Platini and his fucking crew manage to push this through...it makes me livid just thinking about it

SOCS (WITH SOME HELP FROM ME) HAS BEEN TRYING TO GET THE BOARD TO TAKE THIS THREAT SERIOUSLY FOR SOME TIME NOW

ARE YOU HIS PERSONAL SPOKESMAN?

[Rag_hater]

As Ted states, the whole thing is to consolidate the cartel clubs' position as an elite. Forget UeFA for a moment and think cartel. It is they who have the financial muscle and the power and it is they who are pushing this forward. It is the cartel clubs who have created the football market, it is they who have created the big games with the big players. The market and increased revenues followed. UeFA themselves actually did nothing but create the infrastructure to suit the cartel clubs and allow this to happen.

We have already seen this in action throughout many sports including cricket with the Indian 20/20 league that had to be accepted. In Rugby Union, the RFU, under pressure, accepted the wishes of the bigger clubs. Proffessionalism was allowed, The Guinness Premier League was the infrastructure. In Rugby league, first Superleague and now the 3 year franchises were designed to benefit the big clubs at the expense of the smaller.

For those of you who still doubt the power of the cartel clubs and are pooh-poohing the latest politico/football murmurings, remember that this is NOT new to the cartel clubs and UeFA. The original change from European Cup to CL was predesigned by the cartel clubs and UeFA accepted them under pressure of a threat of a breakaway league.

When you laugh off that these new rules could wipe out many major European names, ask yourself what happened, almost overnight to all the old east European clubs that were such a European mainstay...Red Star Brlgrade, Partizan, the moscow clubs and clubs like Benfica, Ajax, Anderlecht, Bruges, PSG, Marseilles, Monaco, Feyenoord and many others that simply coincidentally faded around this time.

The cartel clubs do not give two fucks about the likes of City. we are a danger to their markets, they want to stop us.

Seems to me your a bit paranoid about the old G14 clubs.
The worlds moved on and they no longer have the power that they used to have.

tantamount to fraud

Its not.

[Vhero]

I'm starting to come around to the UEFA proposals. The latest incarnation could actually come out in our favour.

Looking at some of the stories emerging it's clear that the Premier League is badly broken. We might be safe but it won't do much good if everyone else goes to the wall. There are a lot of clubs in danger, and it's the business model that's broken.

This won't just tighten our purse strings, it will affect Liverpool, scum, Chelsea, Spurs. What this will do is constrain the ability of players to take in huge pay packets and inflate wages constantly, especially fringe players like Sturridge.

Our plan is not to lose money indefinitely, the simple fact is that we were always going to have to make these changes at some point regardless. We can already see teams cutting back, they're going to find it a lot harder to hold onto any star players they find.

What we need to do now is start to reign in our expenditure a little. We've picked up a reputation for paying a premium, continuing gung-ho in the transfer market will only make that worse. Now is as good a time as any to start looking for better value (even if we're still spending big).

Naturally Arsenal will become the people to watch.

Imo it's a load of bullshit designed to stop clubs like Aston Villa from taking the place of clubs like Liverpool. The main effect it will have on us is that they'll stop us from doing what Real Madrid have done ie; signing everybody for huge sums of money. As we didn't want to do that anyway, it won't make that much difference. It's there to safeguard the elite & if they can't get in the CL every single season it at least keeps the competition down to a minimum so they'll get there regularly & won't slip into oblivion like Leeds did.

Exactly the point there mate nail on fucking head. They would slit there own wrists though doing this it will kill the competition as nobody will watch it however the upside if I had to find a couple are this.

1. Players wages would definitely come down as teams could no longer afford the HUGE wages not being in the champions league and it may sort things out however this could major league backfire and actually bust some teams like the rags who need to be in the competition to pay wages.

2. City are an anomaly in the whole thing I mean sure we wouldn't be in the cup but the cup would be pointless as nobody else would be either so we wouldn't care however we would be the only ones still be able to afford modern wages so most players would flock to us meaning we get the pick of the crop.

The whole thing could make a lot of clubs bankrupt though as they need that champs league money which is exactly why this bloody rule was made to STOP this thing from happening.

[john68]

No RH, I am not in the least paranoid mate. There is absolutely nothing that I can do personally to change any of what happens in the future, so I accept that fate and wait and see.

I do however look at the evidence and I then look at the possibilties and the implications.
The evidence now is overwhelming. The sheer weight of stuff emanating from UeFA demands analysis. The implications of this analysis is compelling.
The only power that UeFA has is the power conferred on it by those clubs it regulates. It is the clubs themselves that own the product and hold the power.
Within the clubs, it is the powerful clubs that hold the power there. The likes of RM, the rags etc. It is they that the market will follow and it is they that the TV companies, the sponsors and the advertisers will chase. It is they who hold the true power.

Their interests are being challenged not only by City but other clubs like us and they have a chance to close the door and protect their investments. They have a choice...Do it through UeFA, as they did when the CL was redesigned or break away and take the market with them.

For those who think that this is possible, I offered plenty of evidence regarding this sort of thing happening previously, not only in football but other sports...and, more pointedly, within recent history, with UeFA and the cartel clubs themselves.

You may wish to pooh pooh this and ignore it, that is your choice. I am happy that City are taking this seriously and are taking steps to defend the clubs' interests.

[Rag_hater]

No RH, I am not in the least paranoid mate. There is absolutely nothing that I can do personally to change any of what happens in the future, so I accept that fate and wait and see.

I do however look at the evidence and I then look at the possibilties and the implications.
The evidence now is overwhelming. The sheer weight of stuff emanating from UeFA demands analysis. The implications of this analysis is compelling.
The only power that UeFA has is the power conferred on it by those clubs it regulates. It is the clubs themselves that own the product and hold the power.
Within the clubs, it is the powerful clubs that hold the power there. The likes of RM, the rags etc. It is they that the market will follow and it is they that the TV companies, the sponsors and the advertisers will chase. It is they who hold the true power.

Their interests are being challenged not only by City but other clubs like us and they have a chance to close the door and protect their investments. They have a choice...Do it through UeFA, as they did when the CL was redesigned or break away and take the market with them.

For those who think that this is possible, I offered plenty of evidence regarding this sort of thing happening previously, not only in football but other sports...and, more pointedly, within recent history, with UeFA and the cartel clubs themselves.

You may wish to pooh pooh this and ignore it, that is your choice. I am happy that City are taking this seriously and are taking steps to defend the clubs' interests.

If any and it still seems a big if,any of UeFA proposals come into force it seems to me that the Sheikh along with the many other things he is doing for us has this well under control.And as the article says it will make things more difficult for him but not impossible.
The buying of the ground around Eastlands and other such incentives that we probably dont know about suggest this.
I think we have little to worry about and am sure that the Sheikh will have advisers that will enable him to overcome any obstacles.

[Niall Quinns Discopants]

I hope the Behrami thing is a joke. Don't rate him at all. And how has he been "revelation"? Hasn't scored single goal or given single assist this season. That's some winger. Well worth 15m.

He isn't a winger though is he , more of a box to box midfield player with the emphasis more on the defensive side.£15 mill is a bit steep .

the couple of times I've seen him for Hammers this season (he hasn't even been regular but can't remember if he was injured) he was playing on the wing but I'm not going to argue with you over this as I haven't really followed him closely enough. Because he hasn't made any great impression on me.

[Bianchi on Ice]

No RH, I am not in the least paranoid mate. There is absolutely nothing that I can do personally to change any of what happens in the future, so I accept that fate and wait and see.

I do however look at the evidence and I then look at the possibilties and the implications.
The evidence now is overwhelming. The sheer weight of stuff emanating from UeFA demands analysis. The implications of this analysis is compelling.
The only power that UeFA has is the power conferred on it by those clubs it regulates. It is the clubs themselves that own the product and hold the power.
Within the clubs, it is the powerful clubs that hold the power there. The likes of RM, the rags etc. It is they that the market will follow and it is they that the TV companies, the sponsors and the advertisers will chase. It is they who hold the true power.

Their interests are being challenged not only by City but other clubs like us and they have a chance to close the door and protect their investments. They have a choice...Do it through UeFA, as they did when the CL was redesigned or break away and take the market with them.

For those who think that this is possible, I offered plenty of evidence regarding this sort of thing happening previously, not only in football but other sports...and, more pointedly, within recent history, with UeFA and the cartel clubs themselves.

You may wish to pooh pooh this and ignore it, that is your choice. I am happy that City are taking this seriously and are taking steps to defend the clubs' interests.

John, I agree with and see what you are saying in both of your posts on this thread. As you mentioned, the Champions League as we know it was merely put in place to lessen the risk of the powerful clubs breaking away. They could still do that. I don't think they will but they still could, if it were merely a case of manoeuvering for an even bigger slice of the pie(havent they enough you say). I agree john, City have changed everything. I'll say now I don't begrudge any filthy rich person walking in and taking over Everton, Plymouth, Groningen, Malaga, Cagliari whoever. If its THEIR money, and if they can show its theirs and the income is theirs whats the problem? borrowed money, well thats a different matter. Can you pay it back? I assume the lender would be satisfied with the answer. Unfortunately, this is capitalism! money and the mechanisms that generate revenue govern so many facets of our lives, you either embrace it, tolerate it, or reject it. The last thing football will do is reject it. Platini and his penpushers need to give this psuedo socialist tripe about financial fair play a rest when the first four finishers in our league earn millions more every season than the rest and cherry pick players from the others when it suits them, and when the largest clubs in Italy, scared they might miss out on the fun bribe refs to ensure their snouts are firmly in the trough!.What was the punishment then? not much more than a slap on the wrists, watered down after appeal. Its so ironic that 3 years ago we would have been fairly neutral about all this, but thats the point. Its all too coincidental for my liking. City arent establishment, and if the game suffers because others can't accept true "financial fair play" but make up the rules as they go along then they don't deserve the right to call themselves football clubs.

[mcfc1632]

You know what...it really would be 'Typical City' if when we finally become billionaires Platini and his fucking crew manage to push this through...it makes me livid just thinking about it

SOCS (WITH SOME HELP FROM ME) HAS BEEN TRYING TO GET THE BOARD TO TAKE THIS THREAT SERIOUSLY FOR SOME TIME NOW

ARE YOU HIS PERSONAL SPOKESMAN?

Good one - in fact I have more often been on a different position to Socrates on a number of issues - I only comment on him in a positive sense on this topic - because I do admire someone who (when being totally right but facing a majority of people that shout him down whilst whilst they themselves have clearly not been arsed to read into the topic properly - therefore are not really qualified to comment) has the fortitude to carry on seeking to get through to people - well it deserves some respect

[Rag_hater]

You know what...it really would be 'Typical City' if when we finally become billionaires Platini and his fucking crew manage to push this through...it makes me livid just thinking about it

SOCS (WITH SOME HELP FROM ME) HAS BEEN TRYING TO GET THE BOARD TO TAKE THIS THREAT SERIOUSLY FOR SOME TIME NOW

ARE YOU HIS PERSONAL SPOKESMAN?

Good one - in fact I have more often been on a different position to Socrates on a number of issues - I only comment on him in a positive sense on this topic - because I do admire someone who (when being totally right but facing a majority of people that shout him down whilst whilst they themselves have clearly not been arsed to read into the topic properly - therefore are not really qualified to comment) has the fortitude to carry on seeking to get through to people - well it deserves some respect

Not if he is talking BS and making up lies to back up his BS.