OPINION: Football finances

Football (soccer) finances in the UK have been a mess for decades now. Clubs overspending on players who receive gargantuan salaries, underwritten by sugar daddies as hobbies, few clubs, in their current state, are sustainable.

Television money, instead of helping the situation, has made things worse with the bulk going to hyper-inflate the greed of players and their agents and most times, it seems, a club gets into financial difficulty there's an outcry and everything is done to keep the club going. New owners, new money (often temporary and with no guarantees) and just a few years until the same problems happen.

Other clubs, like Manchester United, are in so much debt that if they were any other business they would have been buried long ago.

The troubles at Rangers, probably the biggest UK team to go into administration, have, surely, given a number of clubs a wake up call. It is only a matter of time before a major club, or two, ceases to exist.

Yes, it would be sad if some clubs go to the wall but if they are not sustainable then that should happen. A few clubs going out of business would be a good thing for football because it might mean that the rest get their Ccounts in order and learn to live within their means, or, at least, within reasonable overdraft facilities.

But is the current system sustainable in the long term? I don't think so.

I maintain that the UK, not just England, can only really sustain 16 top flight teams. Too many at the bottom half of the Premier League spend heir time going up and down between the Championship and the Premier League. It could probably be argued that there are only 10 or 12 genuinely Premier League teams. This is a nonsense and, added to the financial chaos that is found at man clubs, it is not a sensible way to continue.

I think it's time that the F.A. took a look over the Atlantic and seriously considered a franchise system.

A franchise system would require financial certainty and propriety, and would be a positive way to ensure no more Rangers or Portsmouthhs happen.

Yes, those teams who don't make the cut will be upset but, hey, that's life. the clubs could continue as semi-professional or amateur teams and, consequently, have a much stronger and safer future.

As part of the franchise system, I think it's important that we move to a UK league. Having separate leagues and FAs for each constituent part of the UK is just a nonsense.

So I'd suggest a Franchise Premier League would have 3 London clubs, geographically spread around capital and neighbouring counties, a Welsh team, a Northern Irish team, possibly 2 Scottish teams, a team in North East of England, 2 or 3 North West teams, a southern team and a south west team. One team in East Midlands and 2 in the West Midlands.

And that's it.

If a club develops financial problems they lose their franchise, simple.

A franchise system would demand greater financial openness.

And, to help the clubs, I'd suggest an "average salary" cap for the first team squad.After all, it is the greed of the players that has caused many, if not quite all, the financial woes of clubs.

COMMENT: Rangers FC goes into administration

With the ongoing financial worries for many clubs it was, perhaps, thought that the major problems were restricted to the likes of Portsmouth and Darlington. No one, it seems, was prepared for a big club to get into trouble and go into administration, but that's exactly what's happened today.

Rangers has a long and successful history in the Scottish League and many would see them and their fierce rivals Celtic as clubs who were surely safe from financial woes. The past couple of years have, though, been financially problematic for Rangers, despite big crowds and revenue being generated. Today they have announced that they're going into administration. This could save them or it could end with the club going out of business.

Surely, Rangers are too big a club to go bust?

It's time football sorted itself out. The UK can only really sustain 16, maybe 20, fully professional clubs. Players have to play their part and accept that their excessive wage demands are at the heart of many team's worries. And we need a UK league.

A UK league has been discussed many times before and, in all reality, it would be an Anglo-Scottish league, but that could the one saving grace for Rangers.

Alex Salmond won't like this because it shows how fragile many Scottish businesses already are. How many will go to the wall if he manages to win independence?

Personally I'd favour a franchise system for UK football, as in American sports, so that each part of the UK was guaranteed a team. Sure, it bucks with history but a new approach is what is needed. After all, if Rangers go bust, how long til Celtic follow? Liverpool? Manchester United?

Rangers would, in all likelihood, struggle in the English Premier League but the television money might help savd their scalp.

The FA and SFA need to act now to stop the implosion of lots of clubs on dodgy financial footing, or being propped up by one wealthy benefactor who could turn their back on a whim. HMRC would be doing the future of football a lot of favours if they forced some of the clubs with huge tax bills hanging over them out of business. It's time for a professional game fit for the 21st century.