Quote: Sheldon "Every thing in football is geared to the big events, world cup, European cup, champions league.
Just because some of europes leagues are massive international football still takes precendence.'"
Please. The world cup is every 4 years and thats it. Outside of that the fans care about there clubs and thats it. The Champions league is the biggest thing in football. International games mean something at the major events and thats it. The fact that outside these major events you see a whole bunch of players pull out of squads only to be fit for the next club game tells u all you need to know. The clubs rule the roost. The biggest tv deals are dictated by the clubs. Football could easily survive without international football.
Quote: Sheldon "Currently, 30 clubs, of whom about 10% are profitable, run the game of Rugby League...whilst, Union, through a strong international leadership, is run from the top down.
League's method is aking to the tail wagging the dog IMO. 30 club owners and 2 TV companies dictating the direction the game goes in....the RLIF just do as they are told.
As for soccer....whilst club footie is important, it is not profitable at all....not at all....and FIFA don't make a penny from it....I suspect that clubs like Brentford who are treading water and probably breaking even are better for The FA than clubs like Man United and Liverpool..up to their eyes in debt. I doubt many A-League clubs make a profit.....the Phoenix cost its owner NZ$5,000,000 a year.....clubs are costly and internationals generate more revenue for the governing bodies....except in League'"
As I said totally different situations. Rugby Union has never really had a strong club culture. There was never a case where it was the clubs who took precedence and then suddenly Rugby Union changed. International rugby union has always come 1st.
Club football not profitable? Maybe in Australia but in Europe is hugely profitable. Fifa may not make a penny but as I said football could easily survive without the governing bodies. In fact Uefa got so scared that the top european clubs would break away and form there own tournament they changed the rules of the CL to allow more sides in it. The clubs could easily if they wanted break away and get a huge tv deal without the stamp of approval from governing bodies.
The English premiership broke away from the FA for the simple reason that the clubs believed they could maximise revenues and produce a better product with there own vision without the FA (governing body) calling the shots and they was right.
Even Cricket now the governing bodies are scared to death of the poplularity of the IPL. The IPL is where the money is.
