i also notice that most of the englishmen i associate with have no interest in football. for some their public school background has led to preferring rugby and cricket, for others their veganish new agey weltanshauung leaves no room for team sports at all. of course my cross section (well educated, living in france) is anomalous, but my involvement in football should counteract that, and the french, germans, americans and italians i know have the same basic profile and these are all more football minded.
Think the Paris region is the number one problem with Ligue 1 popularity/finances. 20% of the population, 1 top club. Too many people with not enough football fans = a ton of lost exposure and revenue for the league.
Yes thats definately it. There just arent enough large urban areas outside of Paris. Lyon is 2nd but they are only 25th largest in Europe.
London is similar to Paris in the large percentage of the nation's populace that live in or around it, and look at them (~27% of Englands pop. lives in the London metro area). At the very least they have 4 clubs in the top flight, now it's 5, could even be six at times. 3 of those teams (Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs) will likely never drop out of the top flight, barring some scandal of some sort. And those three that don't drop have substantial fans outside of the UK (it's frightening how many Spurs fans I meet in the U.S.).
All is not lost since Paris is still an attractive city for foreign investors way more than St. Eienne and Bordeaux for example. Before I croak I want to see PSG, PFC, Red Star, and Racing all in Ligue 1 at the same time. Its a long shot but not impossible since people will be willing to pump money into those teams due to the attractiveness of Paris.
I believe that the only problem is the overmediatisation of football the which leads people to idealise a single format, the EPL since it's the most mediatised championship and this format should be the same everywhere on planet earth. The best way for France to be like England, or L1 to be like EPL is to visit England or to watch the EPL instead. EDIT : What I really think is that it's annoying to read the same thing a million of times like if repeating it would make it true. Whether you like it or not, saying that football is not popular in France is beyond stupidity, it's only your stereotypes speaking and not the truth. The same goes with middle class not liking it. I was too lazy to answer him but not understanding that creating debts also increase your income is also stupid and so on.
Is this in reference to my post, because I don't see how they correlate. What is this EPL format that you speak of?
well, here's one reason why spanish teams are more powerful financially. it seems the taxman there has been letting them skate on 675 M€ of unpaid taxes. which in light of the belt tightening the country is undergoing is not very sporting of them.
French teams keep saying that financial fair play is going to help them compete better but I dont believe it because I believe that the big clubs will do everything they can to circumvent and bend the rules, cheat, or whatever. Uefa/Fifa are baffoons and I dont have any faith they will catch all the cheaters.
i agree UEFA and especially FIFA will not be very good at uncovering cheating but hopefully the big clubs would be the most closely... no, that's daft, never mind. in any case if the penalties are high enough (one or more years w/o european competition, relegation to hat 4...) they may make some think twice. but if more tax authorities take this kind of stance there will be improvement, and that very well could happen; we're in a crisis you know! pretty scandalous when you think about it: over two-thirds of a billion euros and the spanish fisc just told the clubs, "no sweat dude, just pay us, like, whenever..."
I have heard from french radio in the past that there is some kind of fit & proper test that french clubs go through at the start of every season where they have to prove they can sustain their expenses for the upcoming season. From what I understood it happens at the start of every season, and the consensus among the pundits there, is that a lot of EPL and La Liga clubs would have been banned from competing in Ligue 1, if they were to go through the same requirements/test.
the DNCG makes sure that clubs present a balanced budget at the beginning of each season and verify at the end that the accounts are in the black. they don't themselves audit the books, but the expert accountants that do so (deloitte and such firms) report to them as well as to the revenue service, so besides the sustainability criteria, any irregularities like tax dodging, slush funds, kickbacks are punished in sporting as well as fiscal terms. even more basic than the DNCG (and which likely is what makes this organ possible) is the fact that sports clubs in france have always been non-profit organizations; their status has evolved in the past years, and OL had to fight hard in every court in the land to win (for better or worse) the right to float stock a few years ago. keeping a level playing field (which is what this is all about) is obviously a quixotic battle in pro sports. france has succeeded relatively better than most countries, but it's been at the price of handicapping our clubs in relation to those who don't have to play by the same rules. here's an old thread where the point was discussed starting post #21
Thank you for the explanation. So it is true that this test were to be applied in La Liga or EPL among other leagues as they stand now, a lot of clubs would not be able to start the season? How then does a team from France compete on a european level? How does the current ownership situation at PSG plays into these regulations?
Yet France has no 50+1 rule as in Germany, ensuring the pro football division of a club remains in control of the club instead of private/corporate owners. The Bundesliga's a major success story despite those self-imposed limitations. The on-pitch product is great, competitiveness highest among Europe's topleages and attendance the highest in the world. Yes, the Bundesliga has thus avoided much of the sugardaddy phenomenon which has allowed many an English, Italian and Spanish club spend exorbitantly. So Germany may not have drawn as many stars and suffered in European competitions because of it. But that's a price the Bundesliga has been willing to pay. Looks like France's Ligue1 has given up playing by different rules, given Qatar's massive investment in the league. Understandable given Ligue1's slipping competitiveness, but such a thrilling season as this one might become a thing of the past once PSG has been built up into the powerhouse its owners are aiming it to become.
Thats one thing I like about the Bundesliga is that the clubs are still mostly German owned, German coaches, and German players. That makes me like the Bundesliga more than the EPL. You still have managed to bring in some decent stars like Van Nistelrooy, Raul, Huntelaar, & Silvestre. Thats much better than what France has done. People make fun of Monaco but I always say at least they are one of the few French teams that can bring in some stars but not so much right now because they are in L2.