Fair game initiative

It's good for the club to be at the start of something and not jump on the bus as it rolls along. It says a lot about what Jason and Andrew stand for and where they want the club to be in the future.

Quoted from arryarryarry

Plenty on here not supporters of that principle.😉

Retrospectively of course 😉

Quoted from lew chaterleys lover

I see GTFC has become a founder member of Fair game - together with a group of other clubs. The aim is to "re-boot the game."

All the buzz words are in there - transparency, openness,blah blah. I have read the article on the official website and still can't get what they are trying to change exactly.

I hope the new owners won't get sidetracked by trying to be saviours of the game; we don't need the game saving do we? The top leagues are a law unto themselves, but if we were well run, well-financed we would not have any issues with the game would we - Lincoln don't seem to be worried too much for example.

If I were them, I would try to fix all things GTFC first before being guardian angels of the game, but then I am just a miserable so and so.

Sorry but the word "dinosaur" springs to mind!

Quoted from BlackandWhiteBarmy2

I was a bit confused after initially reading about this on the clubs website, but reading the principles has made it a lot clearer.

It seems to me that they want to take the power in football away from russian oligarchs, billionaire sports franchise owners, tv companies etc. and give it back to the people, give it back to the fans.

When you think about it, it's so right. Football in this country, or any other, should not be threatened or put in danger because a small number of clubs owned by people who are in it for money, decide they have a better way of making themselves richer. The governing bodies of football should not be content to bend over backwards to make things easier for the big clubs. Such as the EFL's insistence on B teams in cup competitions designed for lower league teams. Clubs should be run as part of a community, to represent where they are from and the people that made them and support them.

Give the game back to the people.

I love it, and am quite proud that GTFC are part of it from the very beginning.

The Russian oligarchs, billionaire sports franchise owners, tv companies etc money is what has made English football the most popular product in the world and given us the closest thing to a competitive and sustainable elite football league in the world. Would you rather English football be in the same state as Germany where the title might as well be given to Bayern Munich before a ball is kicked, or more like Spain where in order to compete, the 2 biggest clubs in the world have put themselves in almost £1 Billion worth of debt.

Money at the top is obscene, but that money is what keeps the Premier League as the most entertaining football league in the world and keeps the large tv revenue that filters down and helps subsidise the entire footballing pyramid. If that money is handed out elsewhere, then English competitiveness is lost at continental level and so will viewing figures. Then tv revenue goes down and we end up with a larger slice of a smaller pie.

Be careful what you wish for, because the very things you're standing against are the things that have made English football the best in the world.

Quoted from rancido

Sorry but the word "dinosaur" springs to mind!

Fair enough - I have been called a lot worse.

I doubt whether this initiative will make any headway in the broadest sense - the better run clubs with large crowds and plenty of investment will always do well and good luck to them. You cannot turn the clock back to a bygone era where a lot of clubs are on an equal footing. I hope the Mariners will secure investment and become well run and make their way back up the pyramid as far as they can.  

If it has an impact in some areas then great, but my main reservation was surely the new owners have enough on their plate without spending time and energy on this.

I'm off to listen to T Rex.

It’s just nice for us to be involved in something positive from the start rather than always be playing catch-up.

I appreciate the fact that foreign investors have spent a lot of money on English football but it has to be better managed to benefit the whole game rather than just the chosen few.

Quoted from pen penfras

The Russian oligarchs, billionaire sports franchise owners, tv companies etc money is what has made English football the most popular product in the world and given us the closest thing to a competitive and sustainable elite football league in the world. Would you rather English football be in the same state as Germany where the title might as well be given to Bayern Munich before a ball is kicked, or more like Spain where in order to compete, the 2 biggest clubs in the world have put themselves in almost £1 Billion worth of debt.

Money at the top is obscene, but that money is what keeps the Premier League as the most entertaining football league in the world and keeps the large tv revenue that filters down and helps subsidise the entire footballing pyramid. If that money is handed out elsewhere, then English competitiveness is lost at continental level and so will viewing figures. Then tv revenue goes down and we end up with a larger slice of a smaller pie.

Be careful what you wish for, because the very things you're standing against are the things that have made English football the best in the world.

No they're not. You know where you lost this argument? It was when you said that English football was a product. You talk of a competitive and sustainable 'elite' football league, which means this initiative has gone completely over your head. It's about all of football, it's about communities not products. If all you can see is viewing figures TV revenue then as a football fan you are lost. If you think that these things made English football the best in the world, then maybe you don't understand anything at all. It's a game, for the people, not a product for business.

Quoted from BlackandWhiteBarmy2

No they're not. You know where you lost this argument? It was when you said that English football was a product. You talk of a competitive and sustainable 'elite' football league, which means this initiative has gone completely over your head. It's about all of football, it's about communities not products. If all you can see is viewing figures TV revenue then as a football fan you are lost. If you think that these things made English football the best in the world, then maybe you don't understand anything at all. It's a game, for the people, not a product for business.

And your argument is lost the second that you want the money from their 'product' to be passed down the football pyramid. If it's about football and not the product, then there won't be the same amount of money to hand down.

Times change and so has football. If you don't embrace it, then you get left behind the rest of the world.

Quoted from pen penfras

And your argument is lost the second that you want the money from their 'product' to be passed down the football pyramid. If it's about football and not the product, then there won't be the same amount of money to hand down.

Times change and so has football. If you don't embrace it, then you get left behind the rest of the world.

Now you’re making things up. Re-read what he wrote. Did he say anything about money from their ‘product’?

Does it matter if the top ‘English’ division gets left behind anyway? It doesn’t mean a thing that clubs in the EPL are doing well in Europe. It doesn’t help anyone else. It doesn’t help England. We’ve had nearly 30 years of it and England still haven’t got any closer to a major trophy than they did under the old system in 1990.

All that has happened is the gulf has got wider and the top clubs have been allowed to scoop up all the kids who might, just possibly make it, then discard them when they don’t, having had hardly any development and no match experience.

Personally I couldn’t give a monkey’s if folk in Kuala Lumpur or Shanghai decide they no longer support ‘Manchester’ because they haven’t won the Not Champions League and start supporting Bayern Madrid, or Atlético Milan.

Quoted from pen penfras

And your argument is lost the second that you want the money from their 'product' to be passed down the football pyramid. If it's about football and not the product, then there won't be the same amount of money to hand down.

Times change and so has football. If you don't embrace it, then you get left behind the rest of the world.

Surely the desire to have a football system that is balanced, takes in to account fans and at least tries to stop the top clubs hoovering up talent to then disregard them so easily is a good thing?

I don’t think people are wanting money to cascade, let’s face it, there are clubs outside of the top fligh that exploit FFP, have oligarch type owners and put players on big contracts. What people want is a fairer crack, a game that gives back to communities beyond the stadium.

Football often seems to reflect society, it’s certainly true at the minute. The rich are getting richer and the poorer are getting poorer. Is it so wrong to want a fairer game, much like those folk with a heart want a fairer society?

Nobody has questioned the modernisation of the game, sports science, sports psychology, data analysts and the like are all welcomed changes but you quote the German model as being a negative, perhaps Bayern winning the league every year is boring...premier league isn’t much better in truth. Barely a handful are able to compete and teams come up and invest excrement all and go straight down or they collect their cash and see finishing 4th bottom as success because apparently being in the premier league is all that matters.

The premier league isn’t the most exciting league in the world, most watched but not the most exciting, grounds are stale and too many times the so called big games fail to impress. The premier league, is however, the best advertised and promoted league. Doesn’t actually make it the best though. Arguably, this season the french league has been the most exciting...