The Owners - FSG

Falling Asleep Dr Steve Brule GIF

What if new owners do get their act together? Come in, sack everybody from the tea lady up, appoint the world’s best DOF who goes full Harlem Globetrotters. Then money will have everything to do with it.

There is nothing to stop them getting their act together under any owners. They already have shitloads of money.

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Nothing to do with corruption. The door to a salary cap was closed by EU labour and competition law. Back when the possibility of FFP was first being raised, that was the preferred option. The only reason it is is possible in American law is a specific exemption for sport - which frankly is far more corrupt. The NFL is socialism for billionaires.

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I made no mention of the NFL. I specified the NHL for salary cap.

It is equally true of the NHL, just owned by less affluent billionaires. The NHL makes use of the sport exemption from competition law. Most businesses are not allowed to collude with one another to set a cap on the wages of their workforce. The NFL just happens to be the sport that gets one closest to the absurd logical conclusion.

The original exemption was produced for baseball, which still has the strongest version of it.

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In an ideal world we would have a rules based order and FSG would be all that we would need to compete at the top level for the duration.

Arguably the charges against Man City have emboldened FSG and moved them towards staying on for a while, as they see how it plays out.

In the meantime, a minor investor is being sought. Hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later, and hopefully it will be a shot in the arm to our summer recruitment, as we all recognize some key areas where we are short.

While I have some sympathy with the view of @Klopptimist I’m not sure if he is being serious in taking it as far as he has.

Either way, I would draw the line for Liverpool very clearly on the side of NOT cheating.

If we are willing to cheat, then the game has truly gone.

But I do think we have quite some margin to spare in regard to what is permissible to spend, while still staying within the rules. I’d like to see minor investment help us exploit that space.

There’s a difference between cheating in the actual game, buying off refs, nobbling VAR etc and financial skulduggery IMHO. I’m not happy with the latter but can ignore it if it’s needed.

I’m not so sure they do. According to Goldbridge (my only source of United info) they’re anything but flush with cash.

look at the problem the MLB is having with these massive salaries, ultimately the fans are the ones who pay for it. it’s fucking rediculous that we celebrate these massive signing of footballers and begging owners “where the XXXXX money, John?” but for the love of fucking Christ it’s reflected in what we have to pay to watch these games, whether it be on TV or at the stadiums.

government bailouts in the billions of dollars to private corporations which are funded by the tax coffers is the worst. drives me fucking insane.

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Different opinion then. I for one would find it very, very easy to walk away from the club if the only way to compete was money (and I know many who would too). As in those, who spend but are not the very richest, don’t have a chance to compete. I mean, the future you have described where we have to outspend everyone to win… is a very grim possibility.

At that time, we might as well call it the Sovereign Fund cup… and let the Qataris, Saudis and PE funds battle it out for who can spend the most money. No point in having a competition, just show their bank account.

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Be that as it may, a salary cap is not an option in European football, and it has nothing to do with corruption.

I have found the City era has worn away at my affection and interest for the game. I don’t watch nearly as much anymore, I genuinely cannot think of the last non-LFC PL game I watched. I suspect but for the FSG/Klopp era at LFC overlapping with City’s ascendancy, I probably would just find other things to do most Saturday mornings. Another five years of Rodgers just would not have been that interesting. It would not be stomping away in rage so much as the same gradual loss of interest at a much faster rate.

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I think they should be a salary cap like max 5k per week. But players are allowed to negotiate their endorsements with no competition clause so Salah can wear a Nike sock with Adidas boots, and use Gatsby gel for his hair, tattoo unicef on his arms, wear North Face gloves and use his tone body for ad space

gel for his hair,
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Guess MO really does read your posts eh @gasband :0)
Hope he doesn’t run out at the Bernabeu like this on Wednesday I wont be able to concentrate on the game

This is how football has been since the full-on commercialisation of football back in the 90’s. The club’s who can spend the most take the silverware - City, Chelsea, United, Liverpool, Arsenal and on occasion Blackburn.

I won’t quite say titles are bought because the club still needs to be run properly, recruitment team doing their job etc, but if you were worried of the direction of football in terms of teams getting a competitive advantage through monetary means (whether it’s through commercial revenue or oil money), you could probably have walked away from the game in the 90’s. It’s the same big 6 teams spending the big ££ and being the only ones in contention each year. The other 14 teams are just chopped liver.

You could imagine conversations like 'how can we compete against teams like Liverpool or United or City-what’s the point? ’ on say, a Bournemouth forum. There are all sorts of competitive disadvantages throughout football. Oil money is just one of them.

That’s not me saying that Liverpool and City are the same, or City and United are the same. One of those three teams is cheating. Two aren’t. I absolutely do not want to be taken over by an oil nation, or someone who is going to artificially fund the club by breaking the rules.

I don’t want successes of the club forever having an asterisk against it, even if that asterisk is not written down anywhere but lodged in my memory. I wished other clubs also didn’t want this but it seems like the fans of other clubs like United are happy to turn a blind eye and cheat just to win.

Would I leave the game if Liverpool began to financially dope? Difficult to say. Yes, like most others I’d lose interest. Cheating is not fun.

Would I leave the game like you suggested if the only relevant factor for silverware was money? Absolutely.

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Is it the case though? No one spoke about Spurs in such terms until the mid-2010s? Meanwhile the likes of Forest, West Ham, and Everton spend quite liberally without much notice (well, except in the latter’s case).

The way I view it is that if all clubs are run sustainably, it’s still fair competition, even though it would privilege the clubs that are already of a larger size. The commercial aspect is just yet another area where superior expertise can come into play, and an area of competition in its own right. Not the question of which country needs more sportwashing.

This reflects my own situation entirely. When you know that the playing ground within a league isn’t fair anymore to the point that some clubs cheat their way to titles, it takes away any interest.

Just like you, the only thing which has kept me around so far is the personality of Klopp (he embodies competitivity and fairness at an extraordinary level, which is somewhat ironic given the increasingly toxic environment outside of the club), and the great spirit he has forged with his lads, totally in tune with the greatest periods of LFC’s history. That is something to behold and to follow on a regular basis.

The rest? I couldn’t care less anymore.

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O this makes me so happy.

I keep eternal hope Edwards comes back…

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This is truly great news if true. :+1: