What the hell is the PFL?

Treeburner
Premier Football League is PFL. But thanks for help anyway.

Haha! What!? No one has EVER called it the "Premier Football League"!?

I wasn't trying to cause problems. I was simply stating that I've only heard it called the EPL and the PL.

I agree that its unpredictable than the prem but would I turn down the chance of promotion if it cam along?.............No
When you look at how Stoke are progressing and the quality of players they are signing I see no reason why that shouldnt at least be matched by Derby over the course of 4 - 5 seasons

Apart from Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City, Stoke are a good outside bet to finish 6th and qualify for Europe again and IMO Stoke should be the target for any current championship club

agree to certain extent but if we do no get promotion then the Championship will slowly become like the PREM. The money the teams relegated come down with makes them go for a quick return so it will be hard to compete against them for transfers. You can already see a gulf opening up...West Sham for instance are so much in debt, yet they still sign and keep top players for a quick return.
I would prefer to be like West Brom...go up and down and back up again. excitment guaranteed each season! The Prem is a bore...no chance of winning so whats the point!

Except it looks as though WBA may have finally found a proven formula to stay up. Get Roy Hodgson in, let him build his "own" squad and play decent football!

I'm with Barmy on this one.

The increase in both the value of the parachute payments and the length of time over which the relegated clubs receive them means that in between 2~4 seasons time there will be 6~9 clubs in this league with significantly more financial muscle than the rest.

These will be the clubs that manager to get promoted out of the Championship at least once every three years.

If Derby don't make sure they are one of those clubs, then following Derby will be just like following Blackburn in the Prem, except the quality on view will be lower all round.

That's not what I want.

U6565
Can you please enter a screen name.
Under settings at the top of the page Enter your name in the "Optional screen name".
Click Save a voila
Cheers

OK HAVE DONE

Some good points up there and yes - Stoke are a good example to follow. I can't forget or forgive Billy Davies' selfishness for puttin his personal needs before Derby's

Hi all,
first post on here..
Only 5 teams (iirc) have ever won the Premier league... EVER!
Do we really want to be in a league that we realistically, have no chance of ever winning?!
People go on about the money, parachute payments etc etc.. but where did that get us last time we were in the prem.. ?!

Think about it.. most of us play, or have played some sort of competitive sport.. imagine doing that, but knowing you have no chance of ever winning the competition you were entered into.... Would you really want to be doing it?!

It's an old chestnut, but always worthy of discussion. I often wonder whether its best just to have a great season, get in the play-offs but NOT go up. All very well in principle, but of course human nature being what it is, which of us could truthfully say, should we get to Wembley again "phew! glad we lost that play-off final!"?

A better idea would be to win the league/promotion every year and continually turn down EPL membership

It's a terrible "competition", over-hyped to the max by SKY

Marco
Agreed totally... or even better the so called top 4, or 6 even.. go off and form a european premier league with the top teams from serie A and La Liga etc..
At least then it would return the belief that a provincial club, at least could potentially win the premier league again in this country..

The problem with the 'have a great season, decline to play in the EPL' idea is that players capable of winning the league wouldn't come to play for a team with that policy.

At an individual level any player worth his salt is going to want to test himself against the best and play at the highest level he can.

Do you really want to watch a Rams side populated by players who don't want to go up?

The thing is, the EPL asks middle-ranking clubs to jeopardise financial security if they attempt to make a genuine attempt at survival.

I think both Norwich & Swansea deserve a lot of credit,particularly Swansea (going for Ayala), for the purchases they are making, which, in the worst case scenario, could see them make an immediate challenge for promotion like West Brom.

Derby's performance was abject, though we spent a reasonable amount, I think it now ranks as the third lowest budget in the history of the PL (£29m!) compared to Burnley & Blackpool.

I think the PL is now 'a casino league' asking clubs to mortgage their futures. If clubs take a prudent, pragmatic approach, then fans are unhappy about a lack of ambition.

MILF makes an interesting point, but perhaps it is the PL which needs to change itself. Rather we need to see the highly unlikely scenario of salary-caps, clubs not being allowed to spend more than their incomes & rules enforcing a number of home-grown players in squads.

Instead, we hear that this will see foreign stars desert the PL and a general lowering of quality. If anything, by being more protective of our league (in terms of financial solvency) and looking more to the well-being of our national team, this could help the PL become a fairer league. It's a complicated issue, but I get weary when I hear pundits get hysterical about top stars going elsewhere.

How many other leagues/clubs can afford the ludicrous wages our PL pays, though it appears Russia & other clubs in Europe (PSG, Malaga) are now being funded by sugar-daddies, but I reckon the PL's dominance could end and that it is very much tied to SKY & Rupert Murdoch's empire. That may sound apocalyptic, but I remember how Italy's Serie A dominated European football in terms of transfers & salaries from the early 80s to the end of the millenium before scandals and financial problems (Fiorentina, Juventus) saw it decline.