Real Madrid and Barcelona used to have their own TV deals. They accepted a League-wide TV deal if they got most of the money. There's less disparity than there used to be. In 2014/15 Barcelona and Real Madrid each got 21% of TV revenue and the third placed team got 6%. Now they get 11% and the third placed team gets 9%. The share of the lowest placed teams is up from 2% to 3% Of course they make a shed load more from the UCL.
Wednesday is looking at getting bought up by American owner of an Aviation company this summer. Mike Ashley is also a candidate. Hugs got subbed on 70th minute vs St Pauli, and got a helpful 1-1 result that not only helps them, but helps derby rivals BMG, Scally, and Reyna.
Coventry did zero offensively until Haji came in the 62'. Since then they've been on top. Down 1-0. Edit: 1-1
Coventry and Haji officially promoted with that draw! WE ARE BACK. pic.twitter.com/tX0v52NJgN— Coventry City (@Coventry_City) April 17, 2026
Because your perception of clubs and their relevance is completely American and diametrical to the one of Europeans. Clubs overhere are part of the community in which they emerged, a way to enjoy soccer. This means clubs are restricted in their ability to compete for for instance titles by the hinterland they serve/economic strength of it. People have a bond with THEIR CLUB, that goes beyond just supporting winners. It's part of their identity. What do you want to say to the Dutch supporters of those "pointless clubs" as you call them, while all Dutch Eredivisie clubs and several clubs in our second tier have long waiting lists for a season ticket. That they're idiots and just should go all over to just supporting the top section of the Eredivisie? In Rotterdam we have a situation that wouldnot be allowed iirc in mls. We have Feyenoord, Sparta and tiny Excelsior in the Eredivisie. Mls would tell Rotterdam is only capable of supporting 1 club, and Sparta and Excelsior would/should be banned. Sparta supporters turn their head away from the sight of the Feyenoord Stadium when they drive over the bridge crossing our river, despite Feyenoord being title contenders and not so much Sparta. That's the actual point of their existance, a feeling. Glory hunters arenot part of Dutch soccer supporters, otherwise we wouldnot have long waiting lists for the never to win anything clubs.
Just to illustrate the relation of a club with it's environment I present you SC Cambuur. They just promoted to the Eredivisie for next season, had an old stadium with a capacity of 10,000 fans replaced by a new one with a capacity of 15,000 fans. The old stadium was built on the spot where the noble Frisian family of van Cammingha had their castle and the neighbourhood was called Cammingaburen and the club's logo is inspired by the family's coat of arms.
The poster's absurd viewpoint is not American, just ask a Chicago Cubs fan 11 years ago. The Cubs won back to back titles in 1907 and 1908 and did not win another title for 108 years. Did not stop generations of Cubs fans from packing Wrigley field.
Dike on the bench in a huge game at Preston. West Brom are two points clear of Oxford but face a 2 to 4 point deduction for overspending.
You can dodge overspending, by having players for a part of their income on the paylist of a sponsor.
Or building a new stand (see Wrexham), or getting $20M+ in government grants (see Wrexham), or selling stadium naming rights, or running a heavily subsidized women's team (didn't help Leicester). (I'm not sure a sponsor paying a player's salary is technically allowed under EFL rules).
If you hide it under socalled promotional activities as a player for the sponsor, it has no formal links with the club, ...I guess.
My favourite YA is back in the Netherlands (I lived for 30 years in AZ land, before returning to my Feyenoord stamping grounds, so AZ Alkmaar is my second club), so an excuse to post this: The cup bathrobe of 2026 is no longer made of fabric, but smooth and blue: 'Maybe more of a dressing gown' As soon as the last penalty is in place or the final whistle sounds, a striking metamorphosis awaits the winner on Sunday. No more heavy fabric and a green color, but a shiny blue cup bathrobe with the history of forty cup winners in the lining. "Oh yes, that bathrobe!", says former AZ striker Jozy Altidore enthusiastically when he has to pose on the Waagplein in Alkmaar in the bathrobe made for the 2026 final. The American scored in the final battle of 2013, after which he walked a lap of honour after the match with the cup in his hands in a (red) bathrobe. In the years before and after, the bathrobe was often green. And often white. And not unimportantly: made of fabric. Today's is slippery. "But not satin or anything," says clothing designer Floor Wesseling, who made the new bathrobe for cup sponsor Eurojackpot. Wesseling, who gained world fame with his project Blood in Blood Out with which he made a whole of different football shirts, finds the bathrobe a 'strange phenomenon' at its core. "It is mandatory to wear it after winning the final, but I notice that players do attach a certain value/meaning to it." Wesseling thought about it and came up with a new bathrobe. "No more bulky, heavy thing and a new color. That has become blue. It's thinner and maybe more of a dressing gown than a real bathrobe." The inside of the robe has a story. "The forty different winners have been incorporated. A kind of block from each club. That makes each jacket unique. So if NEC wins – which I hope – then a new club will be added." Altidore no longer wears the red bathrobe at home in Florida, but we know from at least one other winner that his wife still likes to wear it. Michael Mols, cup winner with Feyenoord, once confessed that. It is a tradition that has existed since 1912, as sports historian Jurryt van de Vooren once researched. Then former football player Kees van Hasselt thought it would be good to give players a bathrobe after the final of the Zilveren Bal (the predecessor of the Eurojackpot KNVB Cup). The Algemeen Handelsblad was enthusiastic at the time: 'An excellent way to prevent catching a cold. After all, after a final, everyone is sweaty and while waiting for the festive presentation of the trophy, a player just catches a cold.'
Beautiful assist by Brenden Aaronson. Weighted pass to the forward from the right wing. Leeds up 2-0 on Wolves.............................and this one has been all one-way. Looking really good here.
But you can't invest in payroll to get a better team, allowing you to do things like attract more fans or charge more for tickets. If a smaller team wants to get bigger, the most obvious way to attract more fans -- a better on the field product -- becomes much more difficult to create. And if you do manage to outsmart the big teams in scouting, the nature of soccer with transfers makes it so you might get to do that for one season and then your whole team is poached. Want to spend to keep the player you found or developed, knowing next year if your team is good you can increase revenue? Tough -- you can't. It's a system that perpetuates the existing hierarchy.
You can invest to improve commercial revenue, which would in turn allow you to spend more on players. This is part of what Liverpool did to allow them to go on that enormous spending spree.
Yes, Liverpool, that small club with a small fanbase. I'm sure most teams can just invest in what, marketing, and suddenly jump their revenue a ton to compete with the big boys. It's absurd to hold different teams to different salary caps.
If you can't invest to improve commercial revenue then you don't need to be going in debt to increase player payroll. Wrexham are an example of a small team that have successfully improved its commercial revenue.
wow really? was unaware. Dike scored, didnt see that noted. That one held up 2-0 in favor of the baggies. Venezia and Busio's magic number is 6 barring the mathematically impossible goal differential. They win two of their last three, there is nothing anyone can do to catch them. Next two fixtures are against Spezia (bottom 3) and Empoli (bottom 6). I like that situation. Last game if it came down to it is against Palermo.
One season a Notts County owner turned £18 million in debt into a bond. That counted as turnover and freed up our payroll limit for a few seasons. It didn't do any good, we were relegated, twice. The new owners just wrote off £10 million in debt to them, so I'm hoping that means more investment as we blew any chance of automatic promotion today.