Excuse moi can you direct me to the Premier league

Unbelievable as it was on Tuesday night in the match between Arsenal and Portsmouth not one ENGLISH player was in the starting 22.

I am all for foreign players playing in our leagues but this is ridiculous how does this bode for the future of the national team, in the 6901 games played since the premier leagues conception as far as I know this is the first time this has happened.

It may be that I am over reacting to a one of event, but I don’t think so, unless the FA get involved somehow the future looks bleak for the England team, let them act quickly or a few years down the line I will be saying I told you so, and I would rather be wrong on this particular subject.

DurdensView Tags: Arsenal, Portsmouth, FA

Fit And Proper

The futures of four English clubs were still in the balance last night while football’s governing bodies demanded more information from their owners.

The Premier League is investigating Ali al-Faraj, the latest “saviour” of Portsmouth, and his backers before rubber-stamping the fourth foreign takeover at Fratton Park in 11 years.

The FA apparently have to deem owners of football clubs to be fit and proper, I suppose this means that you cant be a criminal or have a dodgy financial background, and your suitability is established through a series of checks much like a financial check as done by a lender and a criminal check as done by the police.

So how can the owners of Notts County be a mystery, no-one seems to know who they are the owners are hidden behind a maze of corporations. Notts County recently hit the headlines for the vast amounts of money they have spent trying to get to the big time, the second division club have taken on ex England manager Sven Goran Erickson on a two million pound a year contract as Director of football, which does seem odd as the whole of the first team are only worth a few hundred thousand pounds.

The Notts County case underlines increasing fears that the money trail in takeovers too often leads to tax havens, where even the prying eyes of legal authorities acting in the interests of the sport are not welcome.

The other two teams in question are Leeds and Qpr, there appears to be a worrying trend developing with foreign investors taking over football clubs, as a football fan I worry where this may lead. If our clubs are being bought up for tax scams or worse money laundering, then our national game could be under threat.

DurdensView Tags: Notts County, Leeds, Portsmouth, Qpr

David Gold - David Sullivan

With so many clubs in financial trouble West Ham owners David Gold and David Sullivan have come up with a simple solution, and that is to give all the staff at the club a 25% pay cut, that’s all the staff connected to the squad, players coach’s, medical staff, these wage cuts extend upstairs to the boardroom, this may seem harsh but football is a team game.

The cut should have a trigger point and not be able to be bandied around willy nilly,  for example after 20 games any clubs in the bottom six have this rule applied, it must stay in force  for at least a month,  you may get this reversed by moving back up the table.

I am sure there are a lot of holes in this plan and it may not even be workable, but something needs to be done, pampered stars earning millions of pounds a year need to be hit where it hurts, loyalty is largely non existent in football anymore, the only loyalty is to their wallets.

West hams wage bill is in the region of Sixty million pounds a bad season can save up to 15 million pounds.

Portsmouth in their current state would have benefitted already this season to the tune of millions and that could be the difference between survival and administration.

Successful clubs will not be affected and rightly so, success should be rewarded not punished, this should be extended across all divisions, it may even help in the long run the nonsense of massive wages for mediocre players, an example being fringe player at West Ham Defender Manuel Da Costa who I confess I had never heard of  earning twenty thousand pounds a week.

This is what happens when business men run a club like a business,  good working practice is set in place, I wish the two David’s luck at West Ham and hope that they can reduce the clubs 110 million pound debt before the threat of administration creeps up on the Hammers to.

DurdensView Tags: David Gold, David Sullivan, West Ham