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IAN RIDLEY MAKING SENSE SHOCKER

and1inthetree

By and1inthetree
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and1inthetree Newbie

and1inthetree

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Shepherd's mad dogs are out again.

 

Ian Ridley

Sunday December 5, 2004

The Observer

 

I know I shouldn't, because it is just too easy a target, but what the heck, even Thierry Henry accepts a tap-in every now and then. The Newcastle United chairman Freddy Shepherd has been in Dubai at the Soccerex international business forum (catchphrase: 'The beautiful game must also be the beautiful business') and delivering his views on football in this country.

'It's dog eat dog,' he said. 'The big fight will be for the Premier League to take over the running of the other leagues. The time will come... Many of those clubs will have to go part-time. When we have got 52,000 fans at each home game, the last thing we are worried about is clubs in the Third Division. There is no sympathy here.'

 

Something seems to happen to Wor Freddy when he gets a bit of sun. You may recall six years ago, in a sting by the News of the World, he and another Newcastle director Douglas Hall were caught on tape bragging about the amount of money they made on replica shirts, that Alan Shearer was like Mary Poppins, that Kevin Keegan could be a funny bloke and that Newcastle women were 'dogs'.

 

Shepherd had to resign from the board and serve a time out of the limelight before returning. You can't keep a wrong man down. Where once it used to be benevolent, if autocratic, butchers and bakers running football clubs, now it is men to whom the bottom line is the balance sheet and the cut of their tailored trousers. They pay themselves sums that could keep lower-division clubs going for a season.

 

Peter Kenyon, currently chief executive of Chelsea, echoed Shepherd's statement a while back that half the Football League clubs could go out of business. The Premiership would barely care. I used to think that Brian Glanville was exaggerating when he called it The Greed Is Good League, but you can only agree with him now. Actually, the Premiership had better beware.

 

They have sought to ridicule my colleague Denis Campbell's excellent exposé in these pages recently about their condition, including falling gates and potentially decreasing TV revenue, as well as increased disillusionment among ripped-off fans, but the Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein was also at it in Dubai, almost conceding the points. The game, he said, was in 'intensive care'. The Premier League had to be careful about the saturation of television and its effects on gates. He might have added kick-off times and prices, too.

 

When only 14,000 watch a Fulham v Chelsea cup tie (live on TV, naturally), and Charlton Athletic are sending back half their tickets for a local derby, even the Prem suits' bottom lines must be twitching. Now I know that the presence of West Ham and Leeds have had an effect, but Championship gates are rising. (And I am one of those who agree with the Football League making the most of their assets by calling it the Championship; there was, after all, 100 years of the game before the Premiership.) So, too, are attendances increasing in Conference National.

 

It may well be adding up to the early days of a trend. Many fans are becoming turned off by the Premiership, not only through its marketing of a product that is becoming less competitive, but also because of the drip-drip in recent seasons of tacky stories involving overpaid, too-much-too-young players.

 

Thus are supporters looking back to their local communities, to places where tickets, programmes and refreshments are affordable and the whole event is more down to earth and real. They will still view the Premiership on television, perhaps at the pub, but for their watching experience they go somewhere where they can park at less than a fiver and actually move about and get closer to the action.

 

I won't criticise Shepherd for calling it the Third Division. I am still known to call League Two the Fourth. But he had better watch out. Increasingly sharper and recovering from the effects of the ITV Digital collapse, the Football League could one day be taking over the Premiership and returning the English game to its traditional four-division format.

 

But I will criticise Shepherd, and Kenyon, for the crassness and ignorance of their comments. In the Conference, more clubs are going full-time, and able to afford it, rather than more going part-time. The case of Wrexham is a shame, but I have little doubt that, due to fans' efforts and finance, they will emerge stronger after administration.

 

Northwich Victoria in the Conference are; sometimes administration is a blessing in disguise. Should a restructuring occur - and it surely must, with champions of regional leagues playing off for promotion - the lower divisions will reassert themselves. They could even become a breeding ground as of yore, which Shepherd and his ilk will do well to recognise. New Uefa and Fifa regulations in the pipeline talk of clubs being forced to field more home-grown players and they have to come from somewhere.

 

The sheer arrogance of it, anyway. Newcastle were but a defeat away from the old Third Division not much more than a decade ago, until Keegan rescued them. I suspect were Mr Shepherd consequently involved, he would have been looking for a share of trickle-down wealth.

 

English football has a deep, rich and unique fabric, from which the Premiership ultimately benefits. It is, or should be, a fraternity. And Shepherd and Co would do well to familiarise themselves with the Cain and Abel story of contemptuous fratricide.

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and1inthetree Newbie

and1inthetree

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that Freddy Shepherd is a tit & that the premiership is losing power and fans to the lower leagues.

 

It may well be adding up to the early days of a trend. Many fans are becoming turned off by the Premiership, not only through its marketing of a product that is becoming less competitive, but also because of the drip-drip in recent seasons of tacky stories involving overpaid, too-much-too-young players.

 

Thus are supporters looking back to their local communities, to places where tickets, programmes and refreshments are affordable and the whole event is more down to earth and real. They will still view the Premiership on television, perhaps at the pub, but for their watching experience they go somewhere where they can park at less than a fiver and actually move about and get closer to the action.

 

You have to agree with him - look at the eastside -

 

we have arsenal, west ham, spurs, newcastle, charlton, crystal palace, man city ( <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> ) fans stood there every week now, who would rather watch hornchurch than their more sucessful team.

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Hornchurchmag O30crew Newbie

Hornchurchmag O30crew

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Top shout A1ITT.....Got to agree Mr Shepherd does make a PR$CK of himself sometimes when he shouts his mouth off. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

One thing that does puzzle me & i`m sure you will enlighten us all. You mentioned Seven teams which fans of the Eastside that you know (follow or support). You then mention the word sucessful. <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

 

ARSEnal.....Cant disagree on that one mate(Ba$tard$)

 

Charlton......10th

Man Shitty....11th

Toon Army.....12th.....Even tho the latter are in Europe at the moment, all 3 teams will struggle to qualify for Europe next season...

 

The Front Wheel(rent a crowd)Skids & C Palace..Both teams will be fighting to stay in the Prem for the rest of the season...

 

Last but not least

WEST SPAM <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif" alt="" /> will struggle to make the 1st Div (Ooooops Sorry) The COCA-COLA LGE CHAMPIONSHIP playoffs.

 

Please dont be a Stato & give me a load stats as to who won what & when..BTW.. NUFC..Last trophy we won was in 1969....

 

Look forward to your reply A1ITT....

 

P.S. Bridgeeeeeeeeey..Take the hook out coz i can feel my ROD starting to twitch already <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

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