Would football be worse off without investors?

[slother]

David Mitchell article headed 'Would football really be worse off without its big investors?'

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/10/liverpool-football-hicks-gillett

Looks at the motivations of investors such as Hicks/Gillett and how professionalism has changed the game. Especially interesting for someone my age (24) as I can't really remember pre-Premiership football. A commenter below makes the point that Gaelic football remains amateur in Ireland and the whole country is still captivated by it.

[poonthepotter]

And what would have happened without any of this investment? Would top flight football have stopped? Would tickets to matches be even more expensive? Or would Wayne Rooney just have had to settle for cheaper whores?

;D ;D ;D

[harryburrows]

Oct 10, 2010 15:55:13 GMT poonthepotter said:

And what would have happened without any of this investment? Would top flight football have stopped? Would tickets to matches be even more expensive? Or would Wayne Rooney just have had to settle for cheaper whores?

;D ;D ;D

whats cheaper than 50 year old slappers

[canadianmoose]

Oct 10, 2010 11:32:36 GMT slother said:

David Mitchell article headed 'Would football really be worse off without its big investors?'

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/10/liverpool-football-hicks-gillett

Looks at the motivations of investors such as Hicks/Gillett and how professionalism has changed the game. Especially interesting for someone my age (24) as I can't really remember pre-Premiership football. A commenter below makes the point that Gaelic football remains amateur in Ireland and the whole country is still captivated by it.

Too bad....the old Division 1 was much more interesting and much less of a media circus.

Players were paid well but not the ridiculous amounts we see now and players didn't do the diving and falling over thing. (We hadn't seen it in England until Spurs purchased Klinsmann)

Clubs coming up from Division 2 didn't feel like poor relatives and the
'top four' could be any from 9 or 10 teams.

As much as I love Stoke being back in the top flight, the PL has a lot to answer for and is why we have clubs in the position that Portsmouth, Leeds, Southampton, Charlton, Liverpool etc now find themselves in.

[supersimmo]

No

[swampmongrel]

The appeal of sport is simple: people play it because it's fun and people watch it because they enjoy being swept up in the drama of two players, or two sides, trying their best to win. Sportsmen don't need to be playing for money to authenticate that drama, they just need to care.

[lordb]

Its a tad disingenuous to suggest diving was non-existent pre Klinsmann

Crooks was a top diver & won penno's for Stoke many a time

Biggins,bless him,was a cracking player but god awful at diving

[apb1]

Diving was going on before Crooksy too - Francis Lee was renowned for it.

Klinsmann probably raised the standards, mind. ;D

If I had to choose between a war on tackling and a war on the cheats I know which way I'd go.

[staffordstokie999]

diving has now become too acceptable, you punished for not diving now- Etherington at Newcastle, Fuller against Arsenal in the cup.

Back to the original post - without the big foreign investors the English game could be more like Germany's, while we are getting excited about £20 tickets at Bolton the Germans are protesting about having to pay £19

[mica]

I thought this was a great article on many levels. I've always had the same feeling he has about moneybags investors pumping dosh into clubs, IE that it feels like they're cheating.

I remember the old Div 1 being more fun to watch than the PL. Just as much action, less diving and it didn't have the gulf between the wealthy few and everyone else (well, it did, but not to the same extent.)

Time to mobilise 5 million fans to march on PL headquarters, maybe?