Braintree's future in doubt - - Welling United Fans Forum

bruno

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Date: 03:19 Feb 15, 2007

Braintree's future in doubt	Permalink

Braintree are the latest Conference South side to find themselves in trouble this season. See http://devel.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk/display.var.1190979.0.soccer_braintree_plot_their_next_move.php and http://devel.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk/display.var.1191455.0.fans_fear_for_clubs_future.php. The ground development to increase the seating capacity was well under way and completion of the stand was expected before the end of March but now this would appear to be in jeopardy. With the number of clubs at this level (and above) hitting financial problems it must surely beg the question how long can the existing non league pyramid structure survive without a radical redistribution of monies within the sport. With the recent significant windfall for Premiership sides which ensures that the Club finishing bottom will get around £26 million courtesy of Sky isn't it time that Sky and the Premiership took a more rounded look at football particularly at the grass roots level in their negotiations? Yes the monies are earned by a handful of Premiership clubs but just think what a difference say £150 million redistributed to the grass roots level over a 3 year period (from a total of £2.725bn) could make without having too significant an impact on the Premier League clubs. If things carry on the way they are I can't see how the present structure can remain viable. -- Edited by bruno at 11:15, 2007-02-15 __________________ YOUTH are the future **** "The worst thing you can do is make a committment and not meet it and I understand that." Barrie Hobbins 14 August 2010

JgFc

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Date: 06:15 Feb 15, 2007

RE: Braintree's future in doubt	Permalink

Totally disagree, Why should the premiership clubs lose money that would do very little for the non league game. Some clubs would just try to buy the leagues, creating more CVA's etc when they fail, some unscrupulous chairman would syphon the money off and leave the club up the brown creek. Its not what can they do for Non league , its what can non league do for non league. Each club can and should do better to raise funds etc, simple as. __________________ Alexander O'Neal 1987 "I'm fed up cos all you wanna do is criticize " Trollspotting

bruno

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Date: 11:12 Feb 15, 2007

RE: Braintree's future in doubt	Permalink

I know what you are saying and agree with the principle that clubs should raise what they can and indeed have to as they progress up the ladder, and also that depending on how such monies were administered there could be potential for those unscrupulous and immoral individuals who exist in every walk of life to misappropriate monies. However, my stance comes from a sporting and not business perspective. Of course sport has to be financed (and don’t we Londoners appreciate this with the enforced contribution to the Olympics) even at JFC level. There are at this level clubs who have managed to provide opportunities for youngsters to play and develop their game at a minimal cost, and indeed in many cases move beyond playing on park pitches, because at Club committee level which in my experience has comprised of volunteers, they may have either been fortunate enough to have a local businessman with a passion for football who gets away from the pressures of their business by being involved and I’m sure in many cases providing anonymous sponsorship, or had people with contacts who provide routes to sponsorship, or more often had members whose commitment to ensuring the best possible opportunities for kids wanting to play football using their personal skills or in many cases through sheer effort to obtain grants and raise funds to enable the move to be made and sustained. However, in my view amongst other issues, the high cost of ground improvements necessary to meet the standards introduced for the very best of reasons coupled with the cost of players which surely is a spin off from football at the top level becoming big business has, again in my view, made football between the extremes of the Premier and JFC levels increasingly more difficult to sustain. The £50 million a year (from 0.9 bn) I suggested could be siphoned out of the Sky payments to the Premier League effectively represents in total 2 less transfer fees paid by any of the big three clubs to import foreign players. Is this asking too much to sustain the development of English players through our structures? __________________ YOUTH are the future **** "The worst thing you can do is make a committment and not meet it and I understand that." Barrie Hobbins 14 August 2010

stafford

Club Legend

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Date: 23:56 Feb 15, 2007

RE: Braintree's future in doubt	Permalink

Not a good idea for me to get started on ground grading as those who have been around since my days on the Conference forum will testify! However, to address the main point, every League needs to address the central point and not keep fudging the issue as suits (hello Boston). This is either about pure sport in which case don't deduct points if people go into administration, make illicit or undeclared payments or give two hoots if players are owned by 24 agents and not the clubs they are playing for. It is all about what goes on on the pitch... or there are rules surrounding ground grading, solvency, how you may pay and register players and these form the rules for the competition you are in. You are not in a pure football competition and everyone understandS such, AND ALL THE RULES AS CONSISTENTLY ADMINISTERED WITHOUT EXCEPTION. Otherwise you wind up in the situation where some abide by the rules and are thwarted by those chancers who think they can get away with bending them and pleading hardship if it all goes wrong. Boston would have to be the prime example of this but Graham would probably have given you a deal of comment about what Lewes were spending on their team these last two seasons, while ignoring the ground, whilst he was trying to adhere to all the rules. Not doing so well now they have to spend cash on other things are they? The best way of enforcing this is that if you ignore the rules during the season your finishing position is ignored when it comes to deciding who goes up. Finish top and the second placed side goes up AND wins the Champion's Trophy and downwards through the play off places and any prize money involved. People will soon stop disregarding the rules they don't like if there is absolutely NOTHING to gain from doing so whilst incurring extra financial cost. RANT OVER! __________________