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Is The Championship underperforming ?

After the fancy but meagre portions of international haute cuisine we now return to much more nourishing and hearty domestic fare.

However, despite the fact that The Championship is a truly fearsome and exceptional competition, it continues to remain in the relative shadows.

Our Beautiful Game is controlled respectively by the sordid plutocrats of FIFA, the ambitious wannabees in UEFA, the hapless do-gooders at The FA, and the EPL - the elephant that tramples everything else in the room.

Yet The Football League and its 72 member clubs can demonstrate astonishing longevity, not just in sporting terms but also as commercial, professional organisations. The 12 founders of 1888 are pretty much all still around, as are the second wave of 1892, the others who joined before WW1 and finally the surge of 1920 and 1921, a mere 93/94 years ago.

Speaking for the moment only of The Championship, does it not still lay claim to be the fourth biggest league in the world, behind Bundesliga I, the EPL and La Liga? In which case, why does it lag so far behind the prosperity of the Prem? Why is it the three clubs that manage to escape the Champ's awesome gravity each May only then fall back to Earth 12 months later, too often burning up on re-entry?

These days Division Two is steadily becoming as polyglot as its distinguished superior. Many of its owners have real acumen and solid net worth, unlike one-day flies such as Simon Jordan. In our own case you can even buy one and get five free, but what will it take to get Roland known in Poland and for CAFC to get its share of global adMeirers? Will this new generation of shrewd and resourceful owners ever be able to get The Championship punching its true weight?

It needs to step aside from the asphyxia of the Prem and the stupefying claustrophobia of our self-serving media. The Champ surely needs to do itself proper justice and receive its rightful reward. It's somewhat fanciful to think of the FL and its Super Six Dozen pulling out (incidentally leaving promotion/relegation between the Prem and the Conference!), but surely things can be arranged much better than the totally unreasonable situation we've got right now?

Just asking ....

Comments

  • I think pulling out is the only option. Leave the Premier League with no relegation and the fans of the also-rans will soon get bored with finishing near or at the bottom every year, what would there be to play for, for clubs like ours without the threat of going down?

    Trouble is the ramifications that has on international players, if they are not under the auspices of an officially recognised FA they will not be able to play for their country.

  • edited October 2014
    Good post GHF, love that line "the EPL - the elephant that tramples everything else in the room". I think you're right we do have a totally unreasonable situation at the moment. As I see it, money is ruining football. But I'm not sure what the answer is as long as there are millions of somnolant spectators prepared to pay £25 a month to sit in their armchairs whilst never seeing their local team. It's like a came of cards where the Premiership has a full house of aces and kings and the Championship just has a couple of twos.

  • That money is the issue is the point. The new generation have plenty of it, and in developing their own businesses they've clearly not been afraid to spend it. What hurts is when they waste it (the Fulham guy must be in agony.)

    Collectively there is expertise (I would guess in many fields) and there is money - why not take their present investment and resources to the next level ? We've seen from our Valley visitors this season that The Champ has a lot to offer - it's a good product but one that currently suffers from chronic, wilful, negligent under-exposure.
  • I would suggest that the Championship is competitive because of and not in spite of the prize. The owners of Wolves have held it together in order to attempt a return. The Pozzo family and M.Duchatelet have acquired clubs because of the opportunity to reach the Premier League.
    It is great that we are proud of CAFC for being our club whatever division we are in but how many thousands would walk away if there was no chance of ever playing in the Premier League again?
    We know the difference this season as we hope we can stay in the mix and realise we are just one goal away from the top slots.
    So I say we push on in the knowledge that one potential promotion is why we have attracted a new owner...and one actual promotion would secure our financial future for five years minimum.
    The longer we are away from the Premier league the more detached we become from the rediculous sums paid for top players. But we should also remind ourselves that these sums are paid because of the global audience.
    And finally not all clubs going up come straight back down...unfortunately Palace have broken that trend :(
    And not all clubs coming down go into freefall... I have no sympathy for Fulham, Cardiff, QPR Bolton because they have shelled out excessive amounts and show little for it. One can argue that excessive money kills the competition but these clubs show that poor use of resource still takes you nowhere. Sure it's more complicated than the 70s but CAFC is on the up and is perhaps just two or three players (and another year together) away from being a top championship club.
    I don't care if we came straight back down again for we would have a chance to play top clubs in front of a full house week in week out. When I was a kid it was once a season vs QPR, West ham spurs or Chelsea and the rest was 10,000 fans watching from sparsely populated terraces.
  • To play devil's advocate a bit, you can easily make the argument that the rational change would be to create the EPL 1 & 2 as proposed and let everything else go part time. Because of the amount of TV coverage (and attendant money), and with collective viewing happening as much in pubs as it does at grounds, the significance of attendances at grounds is as much to do with atmosphere as anything else - a nice backdrop to the event. A lot of lower division clubs have been around for a long time, but how many of them have gone bust at one time or another? Their longevity is due to their insufficient but guaranteed (because of fan loyalty) income stream. All the 'new' money goes to the EPL because that is what people pay to see, in the UK and abroad. The number of clubs in England, all of them based notionally on communities that no longer exist, is anachronistic and not really sustainable in its current form.

    Obviously we don't live in a rational economic world, and football is less rational than most of the entertainment business, but other than for old times sake, or purely as a charitable act, the only argument for a redistribution of money that really holds water from the EPL perspective is 'there but for the grace of God' - hence the increase in parachute payments, and I think the logical extension of that argument is EPL 1 & 2. Which is OK by me, as long as we're in it.
  • Great post GHF and totally agree that the PL is ruining it. Now is probably a great opportunity to pull the plug and restart football. It'll only take 3/4 years for the PL and sky to realise this and the redistribution of tv money to be equally shared through all football clubs. THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE as it should be branded will have at least 10 of the 20 asking to join within a few short years as their crowds dwindle and the fans won't be able/afford to go to away games in Paris, Madrid & Milan.
    Make THEM know we won't accept it anymore, it's our game not theirs.


  • Is the EPL already a virtual closed shop?

    Has the top EPL echelon outgrown the Lower Sixteen/Fourteen and would it be better served by a European League?

    If there is EPL 1 and 2 - should it still be connected to the FL?

    As Division 1 side-stepped the FL to form the Prem, what if Division 2 were now to contemplate doing the same?

    I know almost nothing of motor racing. How does it work between Formula 1 and Formula 3 (and any other competitions)?

    Is FFP a fair or, deep down, even a relevant consideration?

    Just asking !!
  • FFP will be implemented in just six weeks. At that point we will see if any championship clubs are handed sanctions and whether the premier league has anything to say about it.
    We have an FAPL two emerging as the number of clubs increases every season. But guess what parachute money doesnt guarantee a top six finish, let alone promotion back to the Premier league. Wigan, Blackburn, Fulham, Cardiff and blackpool are all struggling along despite having vastly higher budgets than CAFC. They are struggling with underperforming squads while we have started afresh with 20 departures and 10 new arrivals.
    Some think that giving more tv money to the Championship is the answer but surely this is just stoking up the arms race with more cash going to the same pool of players.
    I really think some form of FFP is the way forwards so that promotion to the Premier league is won on merit and not the ability to run up £20-30m losses year on year.
    In some way FFP locks in the advantage of being a bigger club with bigger revenues but this is not really much different to any other decade - Liverpool and Everton weren't especially good as club in the 80s it's just that they had the Moores family backing them.
    Ironic that it was sky money which broke up this duopoly. So I say play the game and win with the rules in place today - they aren't so bad and a club with decent management, decent academy plus the ability to acquire and dispose of players with precision will thrive and prosper.
  • Great post.
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  • what I'm asking is why the sky money can't be equally shared between every club, all 92 teams instead of the staggered payments?
    Once all teams are getting an equal share apply ffp on top of this and surely it'll go some way to evening up the clubs.
  • edited October 2014


    Yet The Football League and its 72 member clubs can demonstrate astonishing longevity, not just in sporting terms but also as commercial, professional organisations. The 12 founders of 1888 are pretty much all still around, as are the second wave of 1892, the others who joined before WW1 and finally the surge of 1920 and 1921, a mere 93/94 years ago.

    This doesn't change the general thrust of your argument about the Championship, but many of the clubs are not the same clubs as 90+ years ago, CAFC being a prime example. Many have survived because the authorities, including HMRC, have allowed them to be routinely resurrected in a way that wouldn't be tolerated in probably any other type of business, and that includes other sports and the entertainment industry in general.

    Football in the UK has been given huge latitude to run itself in an appalling way, especially in the last 25 years or so, because of its unique historical position in the culture of the British working man. Leaving football to ruin itself is a case of the ruling classes not understanding the culture and preferring to look the other way.

  • Yet The Football League and its 72 member clubs can demonstrate astonishing longevity, not just in sporting terms but also as commercial, professional organisations. The 12 founders of 1888 are pretty much all still around, as are the second wave of 1892, the others who joined before WW1 and finally the surge of 1920 and 1921, a mere 93/94 years ago.

    This doesn't change the general thrust of your argument about the Championship, but many of the clubs are not the same clubs as 90+ years ago, CAFC being a prime example. Many have survived because the authorities, including HMRC, have allowed them to be routinely resurrected in a way that wouldn't be tolerated in probably any other type of business, and that includes other sports and the entertainment industry in general.

    Football in the UK has been given huge latitude to run itself in an appalling way, especially in the last 25 years or so, because of its unique historical position in the culture of the British working man. Leaving football to ruin itself is a case of the ruling classes not understanding the culture and preferring to look the other way.
    Indeed. Football is a classic example of Trigger's Broom Syndrome. Even the most moribund of clubs can be kept "alive" by a combination of fantasy economics, stalwart supporters and sentimental benefactors. And as if The Championship's road were not rocky enough already it's further ploughed up by the distortions of parachute payments.

    It surely doesn't have to be this way. Division Two and its smaller buddies offer a superb product that tragically is being undersold. Prudent though many clubs try to be we have long since left the era of Burnley butchers, and the current generation of sugar daddies has a powerful and global reach. They've got the product and they've got the means - for a start, it's well overdue that they back the FL and its marketing dept up against a wall and demand much better results.

    It makes no sense for a vibrant and attractive organisation to consistently sell its services for substantially less than the cost of their production. Must try much harder!!
  • The thing is that the losses are measured. Chairmen / benefactors are paying, well lending clubs between £3M and £12M a season. Some like Leicester and QPR considerably more. It is only lending if the directors sell up leaving the club still in one piece so they get their money back. In the case of Palace we've seen not one but two chairmen lose their shirts! Lol
    Limiting losses effectively and then increasing tv revenue makes sense to improve the playing pool and even reduce gate prices...
    But increase tv money on its own and one is just pumping cash into an unreformed system and clubs carry on as they are.
    What I like about CAFC right now is that we are improving without spending a lot of money. The next step up will cost more but it will put us in the top six and we will still be running a balanced ship with debts repaid through either promotion or player sales.
    So does one give more money to the likes of Forest and Bournemouth or do we freeze them out of the transfer market for they are the ones inflating wages. Bournemouth get 10,000 crowds and lose well in excess of £10m a year. And yet they lure away our striker with an offer reported to be 50% above his existing rate.
    There are a lot of things at play here but as long as we recognise that football at the Valley is improving along with other fans then we stay in the game and gradually climb up the slippery pole... Again!
  • Yes the Champinship is a good product. Underrated ? Just ask RD. Are enough people outside of the supporters of Championship clubs interested in that product ? I don't believe so. The Premier League is up its own arse and I rekon 50% of their supporters wouldn't have a clue or any interest in Championship clubs. As for the rest of the world ? If their was even the slightest interest then Sky would be flogging it.
  • I think you're wrong SHG the prem fans apart from maybe 3 or 4 teams know all about the champs as they know they could be playing in it soon
    As for the rest of the world look at Moscow
  • Yes the Champinship is a good product. Underrated ? Just ask RD. Are enough people outside of the supporters of Championship clubs interested in that product ? I don't believe so. The Premier League is up its own arse and I rekon 50% of their supporters wouldn't have a clue or any interest in Championship clubs. As for the rest of the world ? If their was even the slightest interest then Sky would be flogging it.

    I'll be honest when we were in the Prem I didn't have much of an idea about the other divisions , save for looking to see where palace and the scum were
    And like now I only really look at the Prem to confirm where palace are and obviously I see the top end of the table cos it's shown during Super Sunday etc
    As for league one now , I havent a clue where anyone is, I only really take a proper interest in what's going on in "our" division , whichever one that may be
  • The premier league is split between those going for Europe, a couple in the middle and the rest who were championship clubs recently and have a good chance of returning sooner or later. Leicester, QPR, Cardiff, palace all have to spend like crazy to stay competitive and that is precisely what drives the FAPL to be one of the top three media sports deals in the world.
    So to me it's up to championship clubs to compete and that is what makes our league so interesting... It's certainly not the quality of the football although that is far higher than league one. No, ever since they introduced the play-offs system it's the fact that CAFC was always just three points, one win away that kept our season alive.
    It is becoming a yo-yo club which will fill the Valley and the CAFC coffers.
    Now that we have returned to being just one win away, I think we have to ask why our own gates are not increasing before anyone asks for tv handouts.

  • I think one difficulty we have in considering the concept of the FL is that of over-familiarity. We know it inside-out. There is little interest or appeal when you think of, say, Rochdale or Northampton or Southend, just to take three names at random.

    Yet in sporting terms a tournament that's been going strong for126 years, that consists of 72 active participants plus numerous others currently on detachment to the Prem and to the Conference, that offers a grandiose treasury of endeavour, memories, tradition, diversity, heroes and villains, ferocity and spectacle - surely such an entity has limitless potential.

    Football is rightly the world's game despite the clumsy and tainted leadership of FIFA. The global sportsfan remains unconvinced by rounders, statistics and hot dogs (MLB), chess for thugs (NFL) and giants' netball (NBA). If The Championship truly is the football world's #4, then modest indeed is the present reward for our efforts.

    We are subservient to the EPL when we should be looking to take it on. We have so much to offer in our own right.

    Perhaps it will take the combined skills of a computer games genius, a Tolkienesque literary giant, an inspirational sporting legend with the stature of a Pele, a marketing wizard of supernatural talent and a media mogul of remarkable perception and audacity to present this visionary concept to a global audience that so far barely knows we exist.


  • Its a nice dream @GlassHalfFull‌, but that's what it is, a dream.

    The FL has longevity and that's impressive, but it's local popularity is a reflection of how important Football is within our culture, not the quality of its "product" or because of a wider interest in it. Rochdale's core, home support is 2-3,000 and its been that way for decades. Nobody outside the town, or without a connection to it, is remotely interested. That's not going to change.

    The Championship is very popular and enjoys high attendances, as you note above, but it benefits significantly from its ability to attract "top" players. That, in turn, is because clubs can afford to pay their wages and that's largely down to the Premier League. Clubs in the Championship receive parachute and solidarity payments from the Premier League while their owners are prepared to fund heavy losses because the financial upside of promotion justifies it. If the Premier League did not make these payments and were it not possible to win promotion to it, the Championship would be no more than a slightly better version of League One. Crowds would plummet.

    Unfortunately, the global market for televised football exhibits a winner takes all dynamic. This weekend, including Monday evening, there are four Premier League games on TV, more, potentially if you are outside the UK. Then this coming week we have a number of Champions League games. The Championship simply can't compete with that, no matter how well its marketed. Very few people would pay to watch it on TV. And I haven't even mentioned La Liga or the Bundesliga. In a winner takes all market, there is simply no prize for second place. Nobody needs you and nobody is interested.

    Its a shame that some of the romance of the game has been lost forever. Money means that many teams can longer dream about getting into the Premier League, let alone of winning it and, personally, I very much regret that. However, the standard of play in the Premier League, Championship, League One and League Two is higher than its ever been. Arguably, its more entertaining too. That's progress and, whether we like it or not, the Premier League has been a very positive, not negative force in the improvements which have taken place.

    I have never really understand why the Premier League would wish to create a Premier League II and we should be careful what we wish for. Without the risk of relegation to Division One owners in the Championship might choose to limit losses or aim to make money. Many would spend much less money, especially those without parachute payments, and the quality of player attracted to the League would probably fade and attendances with it. The Premier League is not the one-sided evil its seen to be by many fans. We enjoy the benefits it has delivered to football in this country at every Charlton home game, but a Premier League II, closed to promotion and relegation from/to League One would, in my view, be very bad news for football in this country. The entertainment at the Valley would deteriorate and our crowds with it.

    I'm not an apologist for the Premier League. Nor can I abide its CEO, Richard Scudamore. I do believe, however, that this is the reality we are dealing with.
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  • Sadly I cannot disagree with you, MF. There absolutely is no place for second best - the runner-up is merely the senior loser. Much of the game's romance has leached away, the extraordinary decline in the FA Cup being just one example. You outline the game's realities with great clarity.

    But - much though things have changed, so they continue to evolve. Far though the computer has brought us, without any doubt it still has far to go. Equally, globalisation is in, if not its infancy, then certainly not more than its adolescence. The world will be a very different place in 20 years, or maybe even in 10. There will be new paradigms and entirely new models. I believe there will be opportunities to look beyond our familiar surroundings and present-day circumstances, noted heretofore with such resignation and regret ....

    Before going any further, and lest I be accused of an early assault on the Christmas sherry, let me say that my current horizon stretches no further than a desperate wish for three points on Tuesday evening followed by another feast at Fulham. However, it is possible to consider another perspective.

    It is not quite true to say that what happens at Spotland stays at Spotland. In the halcyon days of the Pools Rochdale vs Exeter would have a much wider resonance amongst the general populace, a significant part of which would have no interest whatsoever in football.

    The match-fixing incidents in recent years have shed light on the colossal scale of gambling world-wide, often involving the most modest of our lower-tier fixtures. This is merely globalisation and computers at play.

    Now, suppose that FFP, for example, presents owners with too many obstacles and today's ownership model becomes obsolete. Step forward the fans, but in a multimedia world interest need no longer be confined mainly to the club's locality. What if, with (highly) imaginative and effective marketing potential supporters could engaged globally.

    We know from these pages that there is world-wide Charlton interest from the stalwarts of South-East London's diaspora and also from staunch local fans such as dear JessieAddick. Why, this week alone we have learned about those great guys flying the flag in Moscow. What's needed, of course, is a vast increase in scale.

    How all this comes about, and most important how it can be turned into actual revenue, remains to be seen but there is a long way to go on this particular journey. The Bundesliga - fan-led - is on a roll but there is no reason to suppose that the EPL in all its smug arrogance has been conferred with immortality. La Liga remains an unhealthy duopoly, and Serie A retains only a skeletal resemblance to its glory days.

    Time, then for fresh thinking and maybe for the biter in turn to be bit. Waiting on the grudging benevolence of the Prem is surely no real strategy - the time must be approaching when The Championship's new generation seize the initiative for themselves. It will doubtless take something quite astounding but don't forget - you read it here first!
  • La Liga and Serie A do not enjoy the same media rights nor the same competitiveness as the FAPL precisely because they opted some time back to allow individual club negotiations on TV rights. I refer the timing well re. Italy since during a post match beer I was talking to a group of friends about how we should push on and pick up some players from Italy in light of Italian clubs suffering the after effects of many of them suffering a reduction in revenue - yes that was after we beat Chelsea 4-2 and we were all watching the best Charlton side for several generations.
    It is all about the next game AND the bigger goal of pushing on or simply maintaining sustainability while other clubs suffer hangovers from over indulgence. If one is looking for a trigger for change then consider:
    Clive Efford - covered elsewhere
    HMRC suggested they will lobby for a change in the law to rule out the football creditors rule...would Dervite go to Bolton on a long term deal if he was wary that Bolton would be able to pay years 3&4?!
    Clubs with parachute monies not performing - several northern clubs may fall over when their deal runs out for clubs like Bolton are nowhere near returning to the Premier league.
    And finally look at Dortmund! Biggest attendances anywhere, fan involvement and super low prices with packed terraces and cheap drinks. If a club chooses not to spend all the money on second rate players it doesn't all have to be about revenue generation! If CAFC take a look at crossbars as a fan utility rather than only a profit opportunity then they could look to sell it out to thirsty fans before during and after games.

    CAFC is getting better and I expect it's sales and expenses will be down this season...ticket prices are down and unless we reach another fa cup quarter final or better then that's another £1m down. But the losses will be the same because we are part of a network sharing players - they arrive quickly without fuss...and some depart six months later to make their way at another club... Perhaps that is a way forwards in this world of cheaper airfares and eurostar?
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