Season 2011-12 Fan Articles
An Alternative League Philosophy
By Steve Barr :: 25/09/2011
21 Comments (»Last)
I?m a long standing Evertonian and have been living in the States (Washington DC area) for 13 years now.
Like many on this site, I am becoming more and more disillusioned with our chances of competing at the top due to the financial state of the Premier League. Clearly the only route to success is money. Coaching skills, club organization, management, etc have less and less to do with success. You buy the best players; you have the best team. Even I might be a successful Premier League Coach under those circumstances!
Anyway, given I need some hope that Everton will once again be capable of competing at the top, and more importantly, for the sake of the game, I thought you might be interested in the philosophy behind how the National Football League (NFL) is run here in the USA.
The NFL is set up as a parity system to prevent long runs of ineptitude and to make it difficult to sustain a prolonged period of success.
The draft (the order of which is determined by inverting the previous season's league standings), free agency (the period in early March when any team can negotiate with players whose contracts have expired), and the salary cap (which this season capped the amount of money teams can spend on players at about $128 million) are intended to foster fair competition.
"These restraints are all put in place with the buzzword of ?parity? in mind... ie, designed to improve balance among the teams.
However, this framework does not appear to be working as well as expected, with certain teams more successful than others. Whilst this is true, no team or group of teams dominate at the top to the extent we have the Big 4 domination in the Premier League.
The reason for a certain team?s domination (or lack of) is down to more than just financial clout.
To start with, observers put it down to the quality of the coach and coaching setup in particular, along with the paucity of effective team executives or the skill of the few teams' officials who excel at navigating the maze of player acquisition and retention. There's a vast difference between the decision-makers in the NFL who know and those who don't.
The key to winning, therefore, is more about having everyone on the same page and going in the same direction. The better the coaching setup, the more stability you can get, the more you're going to win.
The unsuccessful teams might have talented players, but they often lack the support system around them or the patience to allow one to develop.
"The biggest reason why teams aren't getting better is instability," says former Bills coach and general manager Marv Levy, who coached the team to four consecutive AFC titles from 1990 to 1993. "It's always, 'Let's change, let's change.' This constant 'We have to shake it up' is causing some of this (disparity)."
Bad personnel decisions are major factors in the have-nots' plight. Big free-agent additions and premier draft choices come with expensive contracts and high expectations. If they don't pan out, the fallout can be stiff.
Whilst the NFL is a big-money league, the success of a team is based on more than just money.
I believe Everton have a few of the traits highlighted above to succeed: stability, ability to identify and develop new and young talent etc, and could probably flourish in a framework like the NFL.
Outside of the big four in the EPL, the relatively successful teams have been those that have a more stable setup, have invested in developing youth and not changing things up every season. Remember Newcastle?s crazy period when they had a different manager just about every other week!
Platini in particular is pressing hard to introduce new rules into the game to increase parity and maybe a structure along the NFL lines may provide just that.
Just a different perspective for thought!
Reader Comments (21)
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2 Posted 25/09/2011 at 19:22:41
So long as the 'spend what you earn rule' is strictly adhered to, then that's parity enough.
3 Posted 25/09/2011 at 19:36:27
4 Posted 25/09/2011 at 23:20:31
5 Posted 25/09/2011 at 23:53:24
However, I agree that as long as our 'world game' is reliant on revenue outside of the UK, things will never change and we are condemned to being 'also rans'.
The article on Toffeeweb today saying we need a new stadium is well behind the times. As if a few extra thousand on the gate and some executive boxes will change anything. We are so far behind at this point that only a millio... billio... sorry I'll get it right - trillionaire can save us now.
Saturday's match summed up the league. We should have done a lap of honour after escaping with only a 2-0 loss.Maybe they could introduce a 'sympathy point' system where teams like us get a little credit for just turning up at one of Manchester's mega stadium?
Still - let's look on the bright side. We may actually feature in the first half of the highlights programme over here tonight?
6 Posted 26/09/2011 at 01:55:54
7 Posted 26/09/2011 at 03:20:32
8 Posted 26/09/2011 at 03:32:36
9 Posted 26/09/2011 at 08:39:54
The likes of Man City have unfortunately affected the market, whereby they were competing for players on wages, not transfer fees. This has a trickle-down effect on other clubs who's players are coveted by the likes of Man City, and drives up wages. Look at how many players City have churned in the last couple of years - the likes of Bellamy going on a free just to get him off the wage bill. Expect Adebayor to go on a free at the end of the season for the same reason.
What really needs to happen is a mutli-lateral capping of salaries. It won't of course, as long as there's former Russian-state clubs able to dangle £300k/wk tax free. There's so much money in the game now, it's corrupt as hell. And that goes to the top of the global game (it's always been that way - ask yourself why Mexico hosted the World Cup twice in 5 tournaments...)
In a perfect world, UEFA would take the lead and at least introduce the following rules:
- Players to pay their own agent fees
- Tightening up on illegal approaches to players
I don't agree with salary caps related to turnover either. One of the things that made the English league great back in the day, was the likes of Forest and Derby doing well, Norwich getting into Europe etc. UEFA's FFP proposals as they currently stand will just reinforce the status quo.
Sadly, we don't live in a perfect world!
10 Posted 26/09/2011 at 08:51:13
It's the Champions League TV money that is the problem. Some would argue that the riches there on offer make our league exciting - the battle to finish 4th.
Club accountants would probably argue that not finishing in the top four is more safe!
11 Posted 26/09/2011 at 11:06:42
How long do we have to wait for Liverpool's non CL finances cripple them?
12 Posted 26/09/2011 at 11:34:29
All that happens is that, each week, these teams face others who have no financial ability to do anything but park the bus in front of their goal. If one of these teams is beaten by an also-ran team, it is like a giant killing act in a cup competition. Last week, we saw brave little Fulham take a point from Man City. It reminded me of the day when Colchester knocked out the then mighty Leeds in the FA Cup. But this is not a cup competition where teams from up and down the leagues are pitted against the big boys.
The Championship League and the lower ones would be where you find parity. The Premier League is now just a joke. It needs a radical shake up. If something is not done soon, another nail will be hammered into its coffin.
13 Posted 26/09/2011 at 19:27:31
14 Posted 26/09/2011 at 21:04:35
I would love to see the game based in the UK break off from the rich bastards and get back to the simple roots of football, Everton then would/could be one of the big guns (for a bit until we completely implode and end up having to groundshare with Northwitch Victoria)
I personally hate what football has become since the inception of the Premier League, it's lost it's soul and i'd hate to see Everton swallowed up in the whole 'multi-billionaire' fiasco which is the likes of Chelsea, City etc.
Andy (13) - ........"Andy Carroll 35mill" hahahahhahah! He's such a dick! Wow 35mill, 35 fookin million, what we could do with that!!?? Start our own Sunday League??
15 Posted 27/09/2011 at 00:09:35
The idea of tanking to get better players is revolting. But a spend what you earn might spur on clubs to run like businesses rather than money pits.
But £32M cheered me up!
16 Posted 27/09/2011 at 00:24:55
At last a post I can wholeheartedly agree with...can you see that blue moon over Belfast Lough?
"A big, wooden gormless sack of shite"..applies equally to both Carroll & Dagleish!
17 Posted 27/09/2011 at 02:01:44
Brendan, there is always a blue moon over Belfast Lough. It's just that Andy can't see it above the ginger clouds that torment him ;-)
18 Posted 27/09/2011 at 09:47:24
In recent years Bill Belichick has proven that a good 'coach' in the NFL can keep his team competitive at the top all the time. Moyes has done this in a similar way for so long for us, and I agree we would be one of the 'top 4' if we had such a system in place in the EPL.
As has been said though, if we copied this system in the EPL, the big players would just go off to other countries, and if this system was forced to all countries and all leagues, the big teams would just go off and create their own world league that they played in every week instead.
Good riddance to them though I'd say.
19 Posted 28/09/2011 at 09:31:57
If EPL was like this, we'd be top. and Manure would be bottom and Man City would have to whore themselves out some other way! Ah, bliss...
20 Posted 29/09/2011 at 01:37:14
When comparing the NFL to any league, the first thing to be understood is a multi-billion pie cut up equally. It's a ton of cash before a single game is played. Automatic profit; your team could suck year in and out, and you still make a huge profit.
For perspective, however, Lerner owns an NFL franchise; the Cleveland Browns. How's his EPL team doing? About as well as his NFL team; poorly.
I'm all with we need money. We do. I'd just like to see how Moyes would do with something close (even minimally close) to a ManU/Barca budget.
21 Posted 29/09/2011 at 16:27:14
There is no logic in the world!
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1 Posted 25/09/2011 at 18:13:00
The american NFL draft system is an effective way of at least trying to level things out. Also the money distribution from television and other sources is much more even in America. As you say stability and mature management is then rewarded, rather than simply buying your way in..
Id love to see a more level playing field in England but I cant see sky and the champions league changing how they do things, after all it is commercially very successful. They cater for the armchair supporter by feeding viewers the 'top' teams as much as possible, and reap sponsors cash for doing so. This income is passed on to those teams. A self fullfiling prophecy.
Its conceivable that more and more epl teams are bought buy rich benefactors which itself would increase competition. Despite being uncompetitive the epl is an attractive commodity (if you're successful) as well as a rich persons playground. City and Chelsea have found themselves at the top table via this route.
My sense is that much of the gnashing of teeth on TW, including much of the talk on yesterdays game/tactics is as much to do with the games gross inequalities as much as individual tactics and approaches.
Money in TOP english football is generating huge 'neutral' audiences but at the same time alienating the people who used to be the focus. The fans. Most supporters know they have no chance of success, and who wants to be a perpetual also ran?