Disney Land Update. Football Regulation. Southend FC

Disney Land

New on footballs crazed blockheads, the announcement of another new intended concept with up to 80 European clubs spanning four divisions, another Super League competition leaky umbrella to challenge the Champions League competition, UEFA are not invited to the Disney ride with Pluto the Giovanni Infantino endeavouring to derail the new project, as for taking the Mickey Mouse, that’s one continuous ride.

The A22 Sports Management company are the forces behind the Disney plan. The company’s markers are to view the overall structure, operational and financial aspects of the project, to suggest the financial revenue of the plan would be the company’s driving rod to rodger football for their own gains. The company’s CO Bernd Reichart has an impressive track record, but not in football, that’s where the real money cake is, enter Reichart. If the A22 company continues to push the boundaries, then they will have to do battle with UEFA. A22 claim to have had dialogue with 50 European clubs, do they have the jurisdiction to do this? Apparently so, with UEFA’s monopoly of European club competition since 1955 being challenged in the Court of Justice for the European Union in Madrid. A22 won that battle and an injunction has been set in place to free the A22 company from the UEFA and FIFA shackles. To suggest the A22 have approached clubs in the La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 clubs, but no approach has been made to the English clubs, the leagues mentioned are dead in the water and are reaching out for desperado rafts. Surprisingly in many quarters the outspoken La Liga president Javier Tebas Medrano has spoken against the A22 company stating “Super is the wolf who disguises himself as the granny, nose and teeth, very ugly”. Perhaps Medrano is describing himself, here’s the mirror, woof, woof.

The Medrano lack of interest is because of no English involvement, that would be the train to load up the Spanish money bags. The A22 thought process is that money can be made with their agenda. During the 1980’s the Serie A and Spanish Leagues were booming and profitable, did they give a rat’s arse about the English Leagues then? No. in Italy the club’s investors, the car companies went bust, from a Ferrari to a Fiat, arrivederci, adios. Let them operate at their level, quote Reichart “The foundation of the European level is under threat”. Not in England Bernd, if the other European Leagues could take us to the cleaners, then they would do without a second glance. The peculiar Toni Kroos of Real Madrid decided to enter the fray, quote “The Super League would bring more enthusiasm, passion and emotion”. The now top rated claptrap quote, if you like drivel, eat that, as for Kroos’ balderdash, put that on your back drainer. Time to wake up for the A22 company and take a ride to Disney Land, that’s the end narrative taking the Mickey Mouse.

Regulation Update

The themed regulation debate in English football is close to being concluded with the Premiership clubs looking to avoid touch tight regulation which would defeat the purpose of regulation in part. The overall aim is to drive through on workables, not theory. A legal block is being sought to block the threat of a Super League breakaway, of the opinion that a mooted Super League is doomed. The biggest carrot which the Premiership clubs are trying to avoid is to filter twenty five percent of all television revenue to the Football League clubs and beyond, the government must force through this package. The startling figures at present of 3.1 billion pounds being piped into the Prem clubs which is more than double of the Spanish La Liga. The current Football League TV revenue is 585 million pounds which is Lilliputian compared to the Prem intake. To highlight another imbalance is last season’s Premiership bottom club Norwich City receiving 124 million pounds as opposed to the Championship’s champions Fulham on a mingy 12 million pounds pay out, does it pay to be relegated? The Football League are pushing for a twenty five percent slice of the TV revenue. A golden share for supporters in their clubs is being suggested, how operative? The foreclosure signs at Bury and Macclesfield Town in recent times is a road not to be driven, clubs need protection and regulation will offer the providence, the two clubs mentioned have resurrected to restart lower down the pyramid system, the Silkman (The Mac) have responded with an unrelenting desire to bounce back, ‘The Phoenix from the ashes’, that’s the power of football, it brings communities together, the motto “You never fail unless you give up”.

Come on You Shrimpers

Football’s proposed regulator cannot come quick enough for Southend United, with the liquidation devil lurking. A 1.4 million pound debt has been paid to HMRC, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the supporters rallied but financial issues are still pending. The Shrimpers ground Roots Hall has decayed beyond repair to resemble the return of the Ark, a time warped 1970’s stadium with lounge wallpaper to match those times, but peeling. The sandy beach could have been bucketed in from the town’s beach, having been laid on huge masses of compacted rubbish causing drainage blockages, no roots taking place at Roots Hall. The drowning shrimps in the club’s urinal system gasp for air, our club needs saving.

The club’s owner Ron Martin, a property developer, is seeking to appropriate the stadium’s land for a housing development project, no surprise there then Cilla. Martin has stripped the club of it’s assets, seizing the club’s ground and training facilities, to transfer to himself, quote the Southend ‘All at sea’ fanzine “A regulator would mean the end of football’s Ron Martins”. The fanzine has incongruously lauded a housed American come Wrexham supporter from over the pond who became connected to the club via the Hollywood club owners Reynolds and McElhenney, for donating £100 into the Shrimpers’ hungry pot (fund raising). During Wrexham’s turbulent times, the supporters could not raise a jelly bean of note, the Dragons are one of a few clubs whose supporters disappear en masse during bad times and reappear for some glory hunting if the club is on the upward trend, the perfect match up some would suggest hand in glove with the Hollywood transformers, the club’s owners, the puppet masters.

So can comparisons be made? Southend FC is forty five miles west of Chelsea, how the other half lives. Do they go rogue and support the Chelsea, no, Southend is their club, their heartbeat, their soul, their beginnings, their family generations, Chelsea no thanks, true galvanising. Southend United Football Club was founded in 1906 in the town’s Blue Boar pub which is still pulling pints. The club’s entry to the Football League was achieved in 1920, a 101 year status as a FL club became the norm and was broken with relegation to the National League in 2021. The club has snaked and laddered between the third and fourth tiers of the pyramid system, with one season in the second tier, the Championship as we know it today. Southend has a 183,000 population, with the club’s average attendance peaking at 5800, more needs to be done, the town needs to rally round with the club’s supporters, come on you Shrimpers.

The Shrimp Test