Corruption in English football?

[lonestay]

Imagine the sky hype.

They could have one trophy on the "Sky Plane" hovering between Brentford and the Emirates ready to land at either to present the trophy.

They could have a sky roving reporter at Battersea heliport talking us through such exciting things as the helicopter being refueled , the pilot has just gone for a piss and all the other mundane stuff sky call exciting !

 

[SebastianBlue]

Agree with most of that, except for the bit that the PL would want a "new" name (ie. other than City) on the trophy. They may LIKE a new name, but what they really want is the best supported teams in the mix, wherever possible, and a contest for the title. I doubt they care whether Arsenal or City win the title as long as it goes down to the last few games, wherever possible.

I agree they will want a title chase down to the last day, if possible. And we have usually given them that.

But I think they very much want a new name from the traditional top six, as our continued dominance over the clubs that have more fans worldwide (both individually and most certainly collectively) has negative impacts over time.

The key nuance here is ‘continued dominance’ by us. Our dominance up until recently has had significant benefits. But we are now entering the realm of diminishing returns.

I have posted about this many times, so I won’t go in to a longer explanation, but the summary is that I don’t actually believe they are doing this because it is Manchester City and they hate us (even though a few brass in the league might). Their work to try to prevent us from continued dominance is a matter of what they believe is best for the long term growth of the league, with primary concerns for viewership, advertising, sponsorship, and licensing. Those are ultimately financial goals that heavily influence the leagues overall mission and, subsequently, their operations.

City winning a few titles, especially in hotly contested races with Liverpool or United, were a boon. City continuing to win the league nearly every year, regardless of whether another well-supported team keeps it close to the end, is not especially helpful to its longterm mission. It leads to growing disinterest amongst neutrals and, more concerning, falling engagement amongst the fair weather fans of the other top six clubs, which make up a fairly large portion of each clubs global fan base. That in turn eventually impacts viewership, advertising, sponsorship, and merchandising revenues. We are never going to be supported as well as the other ‘top six’ clubs combined, so degradation of their support has very real impacts on the league’s wellbeing.

I can say with 100% certainty—mostly because league executives have said it themselves—that the league do not want us winning the title every year (or even 5 out of 6 seasons). They want the top six clubs to win it in cycles (which now includes us), with the occasional Leicester City in the mix to give the appearance any half decent club could win it in any given season. That maximises viewership and engagement—and thus revenue—and supports the long term mission of growth.

From a league mission standpoint, they were happy with our initial success, especially the way we went about it (Aguerooooooo and the turn around against Liverpool were great narrative and entertainment). It helped the Premier League become even more dominant in the global football market.

But it’s gone too far now. It’s threatening the longterm health of their cash cow clubs. It’s making lucrative American owners/investors unhappy. We may eventually join that group of cash cow clubs ourselves, but we aren’t there yet, and the league has to do something before things get out of hand. Hence the charges, attempts behind the scenes to curtail our operations, and what I believe are attempts to aid Arsenal in winning the title.

I believe you and I agree they can only do so much without drawing far too much attention to themselves (it becoming blatant corruption to even City haters), which is why their efforts can usually be overcome with sheer will and cunning.

And we may be successful in that this season. But it doesn’t mean the playing field is fair (or that they are doing this because they “hate” us).

Most of this is just business.

 

[sincity]

There were actually 9.45 minutes they gained an extra 1.45 minutes on the 8 minutes extra shown on the board at 90.00 minutes. Where did that come from to be added on.

Because two of the Southamptom players had 'cramps' aka timewasting, the ref decided to add extra to the extra time. You don't see this logic applied in the City games!

 

[TinFoilHat]

They could have a sky roving reporter at Battersea heliport talking us through such exciting things as the helicopter being refueled , the pilot has just gone for a piss and all the other mundane stuff sky call exciting !

"With both games 0-0 we go over to Bianca Westwood wearing the Sky Sports Bra and G string for breaking news from outside the Champion's Chopper. As you can see it's a rare cold day for May..."

"I'm here with Dave the pilot. Who do support?"

"Spurs."

"So you got closer to the trophy than Harry Kane?"

"I'd rather crash the chopper than land at the Emirates..."

*Bianca looks awkwardly at the camera...*

 

[jitsubluedan]

Agree with most of that, except for the bit that the PL would want a "new" name (ie. other than City) on the trophy. They may LIKE a new name, but what they really want is the best supported teams in the mix, wherever possible, and a contest for the title. I doubt they care whether Arsenal or City win the title as long as it goes down to the last few games, wherever possible.

IIRC Scudamore did an interview with Sky Sports after Leicester had won the title and was waxing lyrical how good it was for the PL.

He even went as far as saying that the EPL has a strategic plan to have new champions every 6 years.

The wording was specific - not “would like” new champions but “have”.

I expect he hadn’t anticipated that the arrival of Pep at City would have such a seismic affect on our team and its impact on the EPL - which has no doubt thwarted their plans to some degree - but it doesn’t stop them trying.

 

[alexmcity]

I agree they will want a title chase down to the last day, if possible. And we have usually given them that.

But I think they very much want a new name from the traditional top six, as our continued dominance over the clubs that have more fans worldwide (both individually and most certainly collectively) has negative impacts over time.

The key nuance here is ‘continued dominance’ by us. Our dominance up until recently has had significant benefits. But we are now entering the realm of diminishing returns.

I have posted about this many times, so I won’t go in to a longer explanation, but the summary is that I don’t actually believe they are doing this because it is Manchester City and they hate us (even though a few brass in the league might). Their work to try to prevent us from continued dominance is a matter of what they believe is best for the long term growth of the league, with primary concerns for viewership, advertising, sponsorship, and licensing. Those are ultimately financial goals that heavily influence the leagues overall mission and, subsequently, their operations.

City winning a few titles, especially in hotly contested races with Liverpool or United, were a boon. City continuing to win the league nearly every year, regardless of whether another well-supported team keeps it close to the end, is not especially helpful to its longterm mission. It leads to growing disinterest amongst neutrals and, more concerning, falling engagement amongst the fair weather fans of the other top six clubs, which make up a fairly large portion of each clubs global fan base. That in turn eventually impacts viewership, advertising, sponsorship, and merchandising revenues. We are never going to be supported as well as the other ‘top six’ clubs combined, so degradation of their support has very real impacts on the league’s wellbeing.

I can say with 100% certainty—mostly because league executives have said it themselves—that the league do not want us winning the title every year (or even 5 out of 6 seasons). They want the top six clubs to win it in cycles (which now includes us), with the occasional Leicester City in the mix to give the appearance any half decent club could win it in any given season. That maximises viewership and engagement—and thus revenue—and supports the long term mission of growth.

From a league mission standpoint, they were happy with our initial success, especially the way we went about it (Aguerooooooo and the turn around against Liverpool were great narrative and entertainment). It helped the Premier League become even more dominant in the global football market.

But it’s gone too far now. It’s threatening the longterm health of their cash cow clubs. It’s making lucrative American owners/investors unhappy. We may eventually join that group of cash cow clubs ourselves, but we aren’t there yet, and the league has to do something before things get out of hand. Hence the charges, attempts behind the scenes to curtail our operations, and what I believe are attempts to aid Arsenal in winning the title.

I believe you and I agree they can only do so much without drawing far too much attention to themselves (it becoming blatant corruption to even City haters), which is why their efforts can usually be overcome with sheer will and cunning.

And we may be successful in that this season. But it doesn’t mean the playing field is fair (or that they are doing this because they “hate” us).

Most of this is just business.

Think you are perfectly right. I'm a bit surprised this needs explaining, though.

Those 100 charges intend to slow us down and make the league more competitive. They won't strip us of any titles or relegate us. They want to make us less competitive. Therefore, we may expect a transfer ban, points deduction, everything to enable other teams to win the league and to stop us getting even better.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

Had they gave Arsenal a penalty = corruption

No penalty = this how corruption really works - it would look too obvious.

No.

Had they given Arsenal a penalty = OBVIOUS corruption.

That refereeing was blatantly one-sided.

 

[aguero93:20]

And he has only actually wasted time on a few occasions, and I think all but once he was immediately carded. I may be misremembering, but I think each time it was early in the second half, as well.

He's been booked in the first half twice iirc. Can't recall it ever happening to any other keeper in my lifetime.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

Not even a talking to this 'challenge'.

 

[aguero93:20]

Not even a talking to this 'challenge'.

These "challenges" are getting more and more common and it's fucking disgusting levels of cowardice from the authorities that they're seemingly waiting for someone to be paralysed or killed before stamping them out.