Accrington Stanley? Who are they?

I'm all for clubs of any size cutting their cloth so-to-speak, but the product of the EPL is due to the whole football family/pyramid etc: they may well have re-branded it but it's essentially the top tier of English football, not an entity in its own right. Their money is largely through sponsorship rather than gate receipts, and the broadcast rights which again are themselves driven by sponsorship/advertising revenue.

If you don't look after the whole game and it falls away, whether that be by creating a financial gulf to effectively kill off the concept of relegation and promotion or by sending vast quantities of money into the hands of agents etc, then it becomes less a sport and more an entertainment package on tv. Once that happens, it's just a matter of time before people find something else to do and the golden goose is dead.

I must be getting old. I agree totally with 666. Old and wise of course is what I mean.

It might be based in England, but, as we're constantly being told its watched around the world so it's a 'global' league. None of the team's give a shiiit about anyone bar themselves. They are full of non native players and that's a conscious decision to attract foreign viewers.

The Premiership owes nobody anything just like the Champions league owes nobody anything. English teams get 4 places in that yet the majority of smaller nations champions, like Scotland, get a 2nd round qualifier, 6 games to even get a sniff of the big show.

It's unfair but as soon as big business jumped on the bandwagon it was only a matter of time before it became Europe's NFL.

Going back to basics, the market dictates who lives and who dies, fans will always follow their team big or small and English fans are amongst the most loyal and passionate out there, thousands go to watch local teams every weekend and that will never change. Whinging about big money leaving the game is a bit rich coming from a country that has been the number 1 beneficiary of money coming into the game. The FA are powerless to dictate a fairer distribution of wealth and no business man be he Russian, American or Chinese gives a fk about Accrington Stanley

It's watched around the world because it's a sport. When it stops being so and the fans aren't there anymore, then it'll lose its appeal to the foreign hordes.

Take a look at the next Wembley match. Watch what happens to the "fans" behind the dug outs about ten minutes before halftime and continuing into the second half. The faux supporters drift away, they're there to be seen not to see, and when nobody is looking anymore they'll take their cash and move on to the next fashionable trend. The obscene money awash at the top end is alienating real fans, not empowering them, and it need addressing. Those already feeding at the trough aren't interested in the good of the game and would just as soon rip the money from the game that Minola has.

80,000 plastics? The pomposity of the 'real' fan.

that aside, I hear what you're saying but what is it you want? your cake and to eat it? you apparently want a slice of the billions even though you admit its killing your game? I'd suggest you want a more Germanic model of 'community' club's but even there, with hoffenheim and Leipzig its changing because of money.

Personally I think the push for the euro super league will render this argument moot as the TV audience will get the big boys playing each other every week.

It's watched around the world because it's a sport. When it stops being so and the fans aren't there anymore, then it'll lose its appeal to the foreign hordes.

By then though the greedy barstewards will have pocketed their ill gotten gains.

I always thought an agent was supposed to do the best for their client. If he is taking such an enormous amount then it must have come from Man Utd's budget for the player. Thus the player has suffered a loss due to this deal but he wont notice it.

Agents are parasites but they have a willing host, more fool the club's that are willing to pay them. I might be wrong but wasn't it Juve that paid Rialo?

Juve would only pay from the money they received from Utd. Had the agent not been so greedy then there would have been more money for the player and the selling club. The only way the agent could negotiate such a deal is if they were actually a third party owner of Pogba's contract which I thought wasn't allowed.

Although it will never happen, all it would take for the EPL to show some humility is for EVERY fan to stay away from EVERY game for a weekend.

Have you ever watched a televised game in a virtually empty stadium? It does not make good viewing.

9,500 tickets allocated to each of Man Utd and Ajax fans in a 50,000 seater stadium for a game that their fans have had to fork out for over 15 games..... everything that's wrong with football!