Let's Overhaul Football PROPERLY

I've been thinking about what Man City are playing at (and let's face it, they may be the worst offenders but they're not the first and they can only pave the way for more). Also been thinking of everything being wrong with FIFA, and to a lesser extent the FA. And the way the Premier League bully the Football League and all the problems that go with inflated wages, price hikes, the control that broadcasters have over the game.







On my mind is more or less everything that makes us wish we could revert to how things were in 1991 (I bet there are plenty of Wimbledon fans nodding in agreement at that one, though my fellow Rs may resent my wishing away New Year's day 1992 - maybe we could call it compensation to Manchester United for the sacrifice they'd be making towards a level playing field).




And I've come up with some changes that I'd implement if I were in charge and always got my way. They're not realistic since there's far too much vested interest for any of them to happen. But were they to happen I believe the game would be far better for everyone (well everyone who has the right to benefit from football).




It's very much centred around fan power, cutting out the financial idiocy and the corruption it spawns and making sure that no club has to struggle to exist over an amount of money equivalent to the weekly wage of a player another club in the same country.




So here are the 11 changes (yep, just half time in an England friendly). They're pretty severe, and hence unrealistic but they're all to serve the purpose of fixing football from a fan's point of view.


1) Total amount each club can spend per transfer window is £20m 


2) Maximum transfer fee a club can spend on any individual player is £10m 



There's simply no need to be spending large amounts of money on transfer fees. If you have more money than another club, within reason, fine go ahead and use it to outbid your rivals for a particular player. But do so at the cost of not being able to sign other players the same window. I've heard so many complaints of clubs who play in Europe saying they play too many games. Their proposed solution is to have fewer games in the league by making the top division even smaller (the Premiership is too small as it is if you ask me which is a big factor in the lack of competition compared to each of the Football League divisions). They've got it the wrong way around. They want to boast about winning a double or a treble and call it a massive achievement. But they don't want to have to work hard for it by playing all those extra games. You can't have it both ways. The alternative is to have bigger squads, and you do that by spending £20m on six players instead of just one. Allow them to register a different 25-man squad for Europe compared to the Premier League with players allowed to be included in both if the manager so wishes and the problem is solved without interfering with everyone else's season.


3) Wages to follow a strict structure based on the number of years you have been at each club. The structure is the same for every club in each division, with a 25% increase from one division to the next. Every time a player signs for a new club he slips down to the bottom of the pay scale and starts again. For example: In the premier league each player starts on £2000 per week, and their salary increases by £1000 per week with each successive season spent at the same club. 




It's obvious to everyone now that football players are simply payed too much. Stupid amounts of money are coming in from broadcasters and from rich owners and stupid amounts of money are going straight on fancy cars and multiple houses that simply aren't needed.

4) The TV money covers far much more than this so should be automatically distributed across the 92 clubs to ensure everyone can afford to follow this wage structure right down to the bottom of league 2. 


5) Ticket prices to be capped in line with the limits on expenditure. The extra TV money to be directed to subsidising ticket prices and improving training, youth and stadium facilities. 


6) Domestic matches always to take precedence over European games. No more moving playoff finals away from Wembley or having FA Cup Finals on league matchdays. 






7) All FA, UEFA and FIFA, and League governors required to have supported a club and attended games for a minimum of 10 years before being appointed evidenced by club database records and references from other loyal supporters, or alternatively be an ex-professional from a league covered by that body. Also required to attend six non-top flight games in at least 3 different divisions per season. 


8) If fans ever feel stitched up in any way, they have a right to take the matter to the appropriate body for an immediate hearing upon achieving 5000 signatures, that avoids the risk of the club being charged with bringing the game into disrepute, unless the complaint is about the actions of club itself. 


9) Any actions or law changes from FIFA, UEFA, FA etc. must first be approved by a majority vote across all clubs that would be affected. Each club's individual vote must be based upon the result of polling its fans. Yes or No. 


Football is run by non-football people. People who don't know what it's like to spend a fortune they've just about scraped together to follow their team everywhere and continue building up to their next big disappointment as the saying goes. Seriously, what did Sepp Blatter ever do to merit his current position as the combined Thatcher and Murdoch of football?



10) Revert European competitions and internationals to how they were structured in the 70s and 80s. Resize the English divisions to 23 teams each with similarly even distribution across other countries' leagues.




As things are with so few midweek games in the Premier League and international breaks going on all the top players stay match sharp through internationals and midweek european games giving them even more of an advantage over the other teams. It's madness. The UEFA competitions have too much influence over the domestic game, as do the internationals. Bring back the old style European Cup and Cup Winners Cup.



In England, maybe Premier League teams shouldn't enter the Football League Cup. It's the Football League cup after all. Premier League teams can save on fixtures and concentrate on the league until January, fitting in a few extra midweek games there, and then be able to take the FA Cup seriously. Meanwhile Football League Clubs have a chance to have a real taste of European football through the Cup Winners Cup.




Cut down international friendlies except on international matchdays for teams who are the odd ones out in their qualification groups. Make an international cap a rare thing to be proud of, and at the same time, make the focus on playing for your club week in week out. This also should reduce the problem managers face when they risk losing players to injury over frequent international games of questionable importance and the consequential problem of managers responding by discouraging their players from playing internationals, making a mockery of international matches.

11) Copy the Rugby Union model of refereeing games.




Microphones on referees so all conversations between referees and players are overheard by broadcasters and monitoring officials will get to the bottom of the issue of how much respect is being shown by players towards officials and vice versa. It will also allow fans, coaching staff broadcasters and other officials to clearly follow the reasoning of officials behind all of their decisions and understand clearly what the referee did and didn't observe.




The use of video replays when, and only when, the referee requests it to assist him in making the correct decision can only be good for the game. It doesn't need to be perfect. It doesn't need to be broadcast quality and if a video replay doesn't help then the referee can revert to his discretion, but the higher profile (and the more important therefore) the match, the more coverage there will be, so the big decisions will always have the best chance of support for the officials. This is the only technology needed. "Special Goal-line Technology" whatever that may be, which supposedly is prohibitively expensive for too many clubs to be practicable is really not needed.




Players other than the captain may not approach or communicate with the referee unless called. It's perfectly simple and would save far more currently wasted time than would be lost by the use of video replays to aid difficult decisions.







So there you have it. What I'd do if by some miracle I suddenly had godlike powers over world football.