How the Champions League is Killing the Premiership
Written by Phil McThomas on April 1, 2008 – 2:41 amIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
If there’s one thing that’s fundamentally flawed about organized football, it’s the following:
1) Teams that win competitions are rewarded with lots of money.
2) Teams are allowed to spend unlimited money on improving their playing squad.
3) The teams with the best squads win the competitions.
4) Repeat steps 1-3 until everyone is thoroughly bored.
So a few clubs get their noses out in front and never look back.
The reward structure of the Premier League is actually quite reasonable - the top club gets less than double that the bottom club earns. The problem comes with the Champions League - the top four effectively double their Premier League earnings with a decent run in Europe, and therefore end up with four times as much as the bottom club (table).
This has the predictable result of making the top three or four clubs untouchable in their domestic competition.
They say that money is the root of all evil. Well, it’s certainly at the root of much that is wrong with the Premier League. How can they hope to run any kind of even competition, when a handful of the clubs are getting a huge leg-up from a competition that the others are not even able to enter?
Posted in Rethinking Competition |
April 1st, 2008 at 3:57 am
Hey Phil,
I just found out about this. Glad to see you back blogging!
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:26 am
Thanks Ty.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
I couldn’t agree more. And to be fair, the Premiership is ruining the CL. Liverpool-Chelsea again. Who cares.
April 15th, 2008 at 6:59 am
I totally agree. But it is the same everywhere. So long as money is involved, the rich will get richer.
The Big Four, from their involvment in the CL can go out and buy the next Torres, Ronaldo, Drogba for next season.
So what is left for the others in the PL ?
Same old story.
The PL is more exciting on the other end of the table. As least that is less predictable!
May 5th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
More sense from Phil. Good stuff here, and again I agree 100%.
I just concluded an interview with a Scot who is now in the US working in USL, and he told me the EPL to him is the least interesting league in the world. This comes after he was reared on the Premier League and is good friends with David Moyes, Craig Brown and others.
His thinking is the league isn’t any way compelling. He thinks the football is better than other leagues but that the league is so predictable that he is better off following and tracking more competitive leagues with a lower standard like MLS and second tier European leagues.
It was a pretty damning indictment.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Kevin Keegan recentley said that the Premier League was boring. I disagree really. Yes the best teams dominate - but that is just the way it is. It has been a close fought thing this season at the top and we had one of the most thrilling final days for a while.
Think we need to stop moaning about the Premier League and the money involved and just enjoy what is the most entertaining league in the world.