Originally Posted by Simonutd

oh.....ok then.........i will leave this thread alone then

Aww shucks, I was only kidding

Originally Posted by Kasper

I don't know the exact statistic, but I think it's something like if each Premier League club put 1% of their earnings into a pot and this was distributed evenly to all the Football League teams, it would wipe all 92 clubs' debts out, give them a few million each to spend on transfers, and a few million each left over. So it would work if the clubs agreed to it.

Only slight problem is that I don't think this would be allowed. I know we cannot play a particular Russian team - even in a friendly - because Roman Abramovich is the majority shareholder in their shirt sponsors. So on that basis I don't think any Premiership teams would be allowed to bail out lower league teams. It would wreck the Cup draws if nothing else.

I was originally going on the very rough estimate of a football club with an average home gate of 35,000 at £30 a head which at 1% would give a lower club around £10,000 per week.
And the bigger club would honour the lower club throughout the season so that it wouldn’t really matter if they were drawn together in a cup competition, if that’s what you meant.

Originally Posted by gb

And the bigger club would honour the lower club throughout the season so that it wouldn’t really matter if they were drawn together in a cup competition, if that’s what you meant.

No, I'm on about the rules regarding conflicts of interest. If we cannot even play a friendly against this Russian team I can't remember the name of because our owner is the majority shareholder in their shirt sponsors, I doubt very much that Premier League teams will be allowed to be drawn with a lower league team they've donated money to. That would wreck the Cup draws.

Originally Posted by Kasper

No, I'm on about the rules regarding conflicts of interest. If we cannot even play a friendly against this Russian team I can't remember the name of because our owner is the majority shareholder in their shirt sponsors, I doubt very much that Premier League teams will be allowed to be drawn with a lower league team they've donated money to. That would wreck the Cup draws.

Yes right, I follow you now. How about if a Premiership club were to pay out an agreed sum at the end of a season and/or loan out a player. Disregarding any conflicts of interest of course.

Originally Posted by gb

Yes right, I follow you now. How about if a Premiership club were to pay out an agreed sum at the end of a season and/or loan out a player. Disregarding any conflicts of interest of course.

You'd have to ask the authorities. I only know we can't play that Russian team. Anything on top of that is an assumption I'm making. I don't know the facts.

Originally Posted by Kasper

You'd have to ask the authorities. I only know we can't play that Russian team. Anything on top of that is an assumption I'm making. I don't know the facts.

Well I didn’t want to go too deep into it It was just an idea but let’s say that FIFA and the Premiership gave permission for Man Utd to ‘look after’ Darlington for the 2010/11 season.

Man Utd could, at their own discretion, decide which area of financial profit the payout would come from be it gate receipts, merchandise sales or whatever.

Some small clubs are already involved in an annual friendly fixture with a bigger club with the former benefiting from the gate receipts.

Couldn’t this already in use system be used alongside other ways to help out troubled clubs?

Putting aside all the commercial, financial and legal complications, the main objective would be to save the smaller club from going under.

If done the right way, could it work?

i dont want Villa doling out cash to Who-Gives-a-**** United just because we're better off financially. i want that money to be used towards furthering Villa's interests, and Villa's interests alone. they can loan out our youngsters, no problem. but if i was going to a match and i knew some of my ticket money was going to another club id be pissed off. and dont call it greed, if part of the money was going to some war orphan charity or something, id be more than glad to give a little. just not to another football club.

its regrettable whats happening to some of the small clubs, it really is. but thats just the way the world goes round.