Hundreds of English League players likely available this summer!
"Hundreds of players in the Championship, League One and League Two are in danger of being out of work this summer as up to 10 clubs could go bust because of the economic crisis. (Daily Mirror)"
Taken from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...rs/default.stm
Looks like the MLS mid season transfer window could be interesting... It could be a great year for TFC and other MLS clubs to strengthen their teams.
when does the 6+5 rule come into effect?
I imagine that will make for a busy transfer window with a lot of foreign players coming free
Clubs are fighting for survival as credit crunch takes its toll
Daily Mirror
The eye of the storm is the one place the tempest is calm.
But even though Lord Mawhinney believes the Football League over which he presides will survive the greatest economic threat the game has known, he admits the worst is yet to come.
The apocalyptic warnings of wholesale redundancies and clubs going out of business are the sort of doom-laden forecasts he has heard ever since taking the job when the League was still reeling from the ITV Digital disaster.
Yet while Mawhinney is confident there will still be 72 League clubs when the economic chaos eventually subsides, he does not try to pretend there may not be casualties on the way. I'm not sure everybody really has a sense of how bad things are and how hard they're going to get," he admitted.
"I've said to all the owners and shareholders that they've been protected from the worst of what's going on. They sold this season's tickets and executive boxes in the commercial market 12 months ago.
"But the world has changed hugely since then and it's over the next three months they will discover how much it's changed. What has happened so far is only the tip of the iceberg. I have told the clubs that I believe life will be extremely tough through to the end of the 2011-2012 season.
"That's a scary prospect for all businesses - and clubs have to understand they are not protected from the real world."
The Ulsterman added: "What I would say to every club is simple. If your attitude is that it can't happen to you, then you do not have a realistic business plan. This is the time to batten down the hatches. Directors must have realistic business plans.
"They have to control all their costs and of course wages are the single biggest outlay for most clubs.
"I've been exploring with owners and shareholders if they'd like to put in place some sort of limit on wages but different clubs take a different attitude. It's a dog eat dog world."
Financially, Mawhinney and his board have done plenty, increasing sponsorship deals for the Carling Cup and the Johnstone's Paint Trophy while the new BBC/BSkyB deal from next season will see more than a doubling of revenues to £88million per season.
That will work out at around £2.9m for each club in the Championship, £440,000 for League One sides and £300,000 for the teams in the bottom tier.
But Mawhinney admits the time for harsh decisions for football is here. He said: "Clubs are already under pressure so they have to think deeply about ticket prices.
"If unemployment is going to rise to three million over the next year, a lot of those people will be football fans and they will just not have the disposable income to come to games.
"But one of the things we do not have the power to do is see the clubs' books. Most of the time we only know about clubs getting into serious trouble when they tell us and Darlington didn't tell us they were going into administration until an hour beforehand."
SEVEN CLUBS IN TROUBLE
CHARLTON
Seemingly they are doomed to League One and with debts of around £21million.
SOUTHAMPTON
Under a cloud. A 10-point penalty now would kill off any chance of beating the drop.
STOCKPORT
Chief executive Sean Connelly last week placed an embargo on a statement about the club's plight.
CHELTENHAM
Manager Martin Allen has been told all his playing squad are effectively for sale now.
BOURNEMOUTH
A new consortium is attempting to take over.Players have only had 40 per cent of last month's wages.
DARLINGTON
Already in administration over debts of £6m but need to average gates of 6,000 to break even.
CHESTER CITY
Look to be safer now with Liverpool-based property developer in the process of a buy-out.
MLS is so Mickey Mouse! Get rid of the salary cap! Get rid of single entity! Look at how the rest of the footballing world is doing it!Originally Posted by flatpicker
Oh wait...
I have absolutely no complaint about what Garber is doing...Sure we could raise the salary cap SLIGHTLY but at least they're erring on the side of caution...All these people screaming for more Canadian teams (especially Ottawa which IMO can't support a team longterm) just don't seem to get it.
+1. I do think the cap could use a modest boost, but MLS is in great shape and if the snobs are too stupid to see what works, well they had it coming. I don't wish any club to fold, but if they don't change...
+2
I have never been opposed to the salary cap.
I also think it could be a bit higher... and hope it will be a lot higher in the years to come.
But having that control and security is good for the league!
Anyone good on any of those clubs?
I've been keeping an eye on Tommy Rowe's progress for Stockport - a 20 year old winger. He's received considerable attention from bigger clubs, not sure that he's represented England at the U-21 level though, at least, not according to Wikipedia. But for someone who's been tipped to represent England in the future, I can't see him coming over here yet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Rowe
It's extremely unfortunate, but economic reality dictates that some Football League clubs will likely disappear over the next few years. Last club I can think of that went under while they were in the League was Maidstone United, that would have been back in the early 90s. However, I don't think all 72 Football League clubs will make it through the next few years unscathed. I believe the Football League can still remain at 72 clubs though, since there are a number of clubs in the Conference who are on better financial footing than a lot of League clubs, and could potentially replace those that don't survive. However, it is sad to see any clubs go under, since they are the heart of the communities they represent.
^Interesting. Thanks for the info.
Sorry, not related, but on that BBC link:
Manchester United fear Cristiano Ronaldo could quit English football because of a lack of protection from referees. (Daily Mail)
What a baby.
MF Andrew (Andy) Surman from Southhampton. 7 goals and 6 assists in 37 games (all starts) on a pathetic team.
Last edited by Lucky Strike; 03-24-2009 at 10:49 AM.
I was thinking Michael Svensson for our D.
That's worthy of it's own thread. I wish i was a defender in the prem!Sorry, not related, but on that BBC link:
Manchester United fear Cristiano Ronaldo could quit English football because of a lack of protection from referees. (Daily Mail)
If this was last year Mo would've blown his load and signed 50 of them.
But now I think he's changed!
It would probably already have a thread, if the international football forum was up and running...
touche salesmanIt would probably already have a thread, if the international football forum was up and running...
In all likelyhood......never. FIFA rules don't supercede National laws and the 6+5 rule would cause naturalized citizens and citizens who represent other nations as inferior in their own country. I honestly can't see it ever happening.
gettt ouut of here with these teams, i rather look for players in USL and PDL then players in League 1 or 2
Great ... that's all we need, a bunch of Andy Welsh's in the league !!
As long as they're on the other teams and not ours.
Hahahaha .... true, but that would be some tuff games to watch
Also, the better players and prospects on teams like Charlton and Southampton are likely to be picked up by other Championship (or even Premiership) teams. Realistically off their rosters a team like TFC may have an outside shot a players like Svetoslav Todorov, Jonathan Fortune, Michael Svensson, Stern John or if we were really lucky Grzegorz Rasiak.
I assume when you say "72 Football League Clubs" that you are not including the 20 Premiership clubs ?.
That's right...
I know we won't be getting any super prospects but there will certainly be a lot of Darren Huckerby types out on the market this summer. Players of his calibre would certainly add productively to our league.
Most of these championship teams and lower have a sort of cap imposed on them anyway, based on their gate. This article doesnt suggest that premiership teams are in trouble.
The single entity thing and the $2 million salary cap hasn't protected individual MLS teams going under in the past, it won't protect against people being unable to afford tickets, and it wont grow the leagues pretige or attractiveness to foreign talent. Why is it so brilliant again?
IT's kind of moot. The best players -- the ones we'd want -- will be sold for the highest transfer fees they can get, to help offset debts. And MLS doesn't do big transfer fees.
The lesser players will get releases. But what would they add here? Neither scenario would suggest a lot of them winding up in MLS.
it's brilliant because it means the La Galaxy can't buy a championship
Also, the gate doesn't serve as a league cap in the championship because it varies from team to team. The point of a cap is to have a uniform limit across all teams to ensure you can't just buy a championship.
I dont know how confident I am we would pick up an imported central defender. We usually import flashy players. but (see next post)
Last edited by Calvin; 03-25-2009 at 10:10 AM.
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