The Football News Thread 2023/24

[Tony Towner]

They are suing the EFL and PL, what for seems unclear

 

[Kenny]

LCFC has been compelled today to issue two urgent legal proceedings against the Premier League and the EFL. LCFC will be seeking that each of these proceedings is determined by an appropriate and fully independent legal panel.

The Club is committed to ensure that any charges against it are properly and proportionately determined, in accordance with the applicable rules, by the right bodies, and at the right time.

While LCFC would prefer the proceedings to be in public, so its supporters and the wider world can be informed about the important issues of football governance that will be considered, the relevant rules require that these proceedings are conducted confidentially, and LCFC will therefore not be able to comment further about them at this stage.

We reaffirm the Club’s position that we will continue to fight for the right of Leicester City and all clubs to pursue their ambitions, particularly where these have been reasonably and fairly established through sustained sporting achievement.

The Club further notes that at 4pm today the EFL issued a public notification that LCFC has been placed under a registration embargo pursuant to its P&S rules. The EFL is aware that LCFC has disputed the EFL’s entitlement to impose this constraint, which is both restrictive and premature, with more than a quarter of the Club’s 2023/24 reporting period remaining.

 

[Tony Towner]

Yeah, I read that, still don't know. It's not fair wah wah, doesn't seen a very strong legal argument

 

[sycophantia]

Surely thats just gunna makes things worse for them, bigger points deduction? Would it not be better to just go along with the original charge and plead some mitigation and take a minus 6 points (or whatever) and have faith you can haul it back.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

It all seems to be a load of odd chicanery of "you (PL) can't punish us because we got relegated and aren't your problem now, you (EFL) can't punish us as none of this was under your watch", which isn't very robust. The equivalent of standing 1 yard inside the German border and shooting someone stood 1 yard inside the French border. I think you'll probably still go to jail.

 

[Kenny]

Yeah, I read that, still don't know. It's not fair wah wah, doesn't seen a very strong legal argument

It seems to be we do not recognise your authority so you can't punish us....or something.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

The Athletic make the fair point that they can't very well claim "good behaviour" when their penalty-free admin in 2002 caused points deductions to be brought in in the first place, and they then got fined for overspending when they went up in 2014.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Allegedly Brodge was on £10m a year by the end of his time there! No wonder they hemmed and hawed about sacking him last season.

 

[Sniffer]

I think that Leicester know that they have broken Premier League FFP Rules for the previous cycle but are arguing the toss that they don't apply as they are in the Championship. The Championship think that they are currently breaking the rules for this cycle but Leicester aren't being co-operative in their dealings with them.
They aren’t going to be popular with the authorities of whichever division they end up in next season. Coming clean now and not threatening legal action would be a better course of action in my opinion and will probably help them with regards to the penalty that’s coming their way.

 

[Tony Towner]

I think that Leicester know that they have broken Premier League FFP Rules for the previous cycle but are arguing the toss that they don't apply as they are in the Championship. The Championship think that they are currently breaking the rules for this cycle but Leicester aren't being co-operative in their dealings wit h them.

So they go up and they get done retrospectively by the PL, stay down and the EFLs case will stop being speculative unless they have a May fire sale

 

[AndyWolves]

To think a few seasons ago Leicester were the poster boys for being a well run club.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

To think a few seasons ago Leicester were the poster boys for being a well run club.

You can line them up. Charlton, Southampton, Swansea...

It's all fine until you make a couple of mistakes too many.

 

[Tony Towner]

To think a few seasons ago Leicester were the poster boys for being a well run club.

They did have extenuating circumstances with Covid and the owners businesses which stopped them putting money in which (without seeing the accounts) would have kept them away from issues I think

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

They did have extenuating circumstances with Covid and the owners businesses which stopped them putting money in which (without seeing the accounts) would have kept them away from issues I think

Fair but:

a) Lots of clubs can claim similar. Vlad doesn't go tonto -> Usmanov doesn't get sanctioned -> Everton don't lose 0% finance on hundreds of millions of loans. And sympathy for Everton is very thin on the ground

b) No-one made them make Brodge the 3rd highest paid manager in the league or hand Ryan Bertrand £75k a week for two years to play 4 league games

 

[Tony Towner]

No, but with our owners there's a 'there but for the grace of god' element re China and we could reel off a list of our particular crimes similar to b)

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

One of the biggest shifts in mentality has to be wages at some point soon.

I have no problem with paying the likes of Neves and Moutinho huge money but I dread to think what we paid say, Marçal for two years for that output, on no basis other than "that's the going rate".

 

[Tony Towner]

One of the biggest shifts in mentality has to be wages at some point soon.

I have no problem with paying the likes of Neves and Moutinho huge money but I dread to think what we paid say, Marçal for two years for that output, on no basis other than "that's the going rate".

It'll never happen for obvious sporting and employment law reasons, but it would be great if we had an NFL style salary cap. That can still be manipulated by those with the deepest pockets, but forces teams to make more considered choices. PSR does an element of that but whilst building in an obvious advantage for the bigger or more established clubs.

 

[Alan]

It'll never happen for obvious sporting and employment law reasons, but it would be great if we had an NFL style salary cap. That can still be manipulated by those with the deepest pockets, but forces teams to make more considered choices. PSR does an element of that but whilst building in an obvious advantage for the bigger or more established clubs.

I'd love to see it but I imagine it's similar to folks over here wanting to introduce pro/rel to the American pyramid; there are just too many stakeholders dug too deeply into the status quo to imagine how you'd actually make that work.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Problem is you need the entire world to sign up, not 32 teams in one country when there is no other proper league anywhere else

 

[Sniffer]

Birmingham leaving St Andrews?

Birmingham City FC in deal with council to buy land for new stadium

The 48-acre site, on Bordesley Park, is in the final stages of being sold off.

www.bbc.co.uk