Will we see a new wave of mergers in the aftermath of this?

[Gangster Octopus]

GO. I saw that you had a Cas affinity on some other thread

I'm as Cas 'fan' that's never been to Castleford. First time that I ever saw them was the 1986 Cup Final. I've only watched professional league since I've lived in London.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Many of the Turkish sides are the results of mergers, for example Trabzonspor, hence their relatively recent foundation. Many were established in the 1960s.

[E10 Rifle]

What do people reckon to this, the idea of a Football Finance Authority, to buy shareholdings in Football League clubs of up to 49% to stabilise them?

All sorts of logistical issues, and it's not really massively democratic, but better than slinging cash into a black hole? And Damian Collins, perhaps the only remaining Tory MP who isn't a 100% massive cunt, does have some genuine interest in this sort of stuff.

[1974ddr]

How many percent then? 99?

[sw2borshch]

I'm as Cas 'fan' that's never been to Castleford. First time that I ever saw them was the 1986 Cup Final. I've only watched professional league since I've lived in London.

I'm a Cas 'fan' that's never been to an RL game. I was sort of assuming my first would be at the World Cup at the Riverside next year, now I am not so sure.

[slackster]

That Football Finance Authority idea is intriguing. Without something like this you can imagine a few clubs go to the wall, with the covid19 issues being the last straw in lower Leagues where the finances have been going south (overall) for some years now. Collins does know his onions on this topic, and it makes more sense to structure it as a shareholding to be passed onto fans groups/community council than just throwing cash at bailing out club owners.

[Sporting]

Damian Collins, perhaps the only remaining Tory MP who isn't a 100% massive cunt

Not completely, but:

In 2010, it was reported that Collins claimed ?4,440.90 over three months in rent for a house in London, despite declaring that he already owned a home in the capital. In his defence, he said the property belonged to his wife and was "too small to provide accommodation for my young family, and even if that was not the case, as a new Member of Parliament I wouldn't be able to claim any accommodation allowance against the mortgage on the property."

In September 2012, he came under criticism for suggesting that jobless youths should work for less than minimum wage and for suggesting that they should busk to raise money for fares to find work.

[gavc23]

Fife teams have been merging their youth set-ups as a way of cutting costs, wonder if that’s going to become more common with only the wealthier sides having their own “academy”. Can descend into a awkward squabble around cash should a pooled academy develop a valuable player though.

For non-league, Tameside supports six relatively senior clubs in Stalybridge, Hyde, Droylsden, Ashton, Ashton United and Mossley all of which have had regular brushes with financial oblivion and there’s been frequent but quickly rejected rumblings about a merger or two.

That also reminds me to check if I still have a few copies of the late, lamented “Six Tame Sides” fanzine in the loft.

[Satchmo Distel]

What do people reckon to this, the idea of a Football Finance Authority, to buy shareholdings in Football League clubs of up to 49% to stabilise them?

All sorts of logistical issues, and it's not really massively democratic, but better than slinging cash into a black hole? And Damian Collins, perhaps the only remaining Tory MP who isn't a 100% massive cunt, does have some genuine interest in this sort of stuff.

Under Corbyn, yes, this would have been great. A Johnson government would be ideologically opposed.

[ursus arctos]

The Collins idea strikes me as a sensible way to preserve something close to the current number of professional clubs, especially when one realises that forced redistribution of a portion of the Premier League's windfall is a complete non-starter for this government

[Big Boobs and FIRE!]

The Ossett merger never needed to happen, and has been the predictable disaster it was always going to be.

Albion and Town had co-existed since the 1950s, matching each others progress through the leagues.

About 5 years ago, Albion were taken over by the guys behind Unista, which is a huge youth football set up at the Warrenside complex in Huddersfield, and the two worked well as a youth and senior format.

However, town then had the issue with Reece Welsh, and finding their insurance was invalid, suddenly the directors were going to be liable for any compensation, which at the time, was rumoured to be going into the millions. They therefore approached Albion about the merger, so basically they could restructure the holding company so they were no longer liable. It also meant that they now had the asset of a spare ground to potentially flog off.

Come the rulling and the amount was 160k, which whilst a decent amount, wasnt the armageddon figures that were being thought of. Suddenly the ex-Town board became interested again, and succeeded in ousting the ex-Albion/Unita guys.

They play at Town's ground, in largely Towns colours, and overall, the outcome has been that Town have fucked over Albion. League position has not improved and crowds, once the original fuss had died down, are no larger than Town used to get.

[White No Sugar]

Put me down as another one for the moors/motors mix up. I thought they were the Motors team after a name change maybe brought on by promotion into a league that didn’t allow such blatant advertising.

This fan owned govt backed thing is the brainchild of the old Etonian prick starring in “Sunderland Til I Die” on Netflix. So I’d be very very wary around it.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Under Corbyn, yes, this would have been great. A Johnson government would be ideologically opposed.

Corbyn's Idea to take football back from the hands of the billionaires and bad owners, was to have a fan director. That was basically it. A typical corbynite proposal, long on rhetoric and good intentions, painfully thin on details embarrassingly timid in scope

Since they were printing money to beat the band, a better idea would be to first rezone every football ground as for sporting use only, to drive out the charlatans making a property play, then buy out all the clubs as they go into receivership and hand them over to supporter trusts, and impose proper financial regulation. lower league football has a strong future as community based organizations. The amount of money spent might seem large, but compared to the value to british society of local clubs, it is just a drop in the ocean