BBC overkill on reporting proposed european super league

Maggiemaybe

JaneJudge

I remember my youngest getting a Lampard top for £3 from the charity shop and being over the moon and he doesn't even support Chelsea

Two of my DGSs are very happy to get football shirts from charity shops. They don't seem to care which team they're from or even, in one case, what name is on the back. I've had to explain to several people that DGS3's name isn't actually Sid.

JaneJudge

I remember my youngest getting a Lampard top for £3 from the charity shop and being over the moon and he doesn't even support Chelsea

Two of my DGSs are very happy to get football shirts from charity shops. They don't seem to care which team they're from or even, in one case, what name is on the back. I've had to explain to several people that DGS3's name isn't actually Sid.

So, is it true that Johnson actually spoke to someone involved in the new league a few days before it was announced? So he did know about it...

Mollygo: Of course, people should have freedom to buy what they can afford and what suits them. I hope your DD made full use of the oboe. I wish I could have made better use of my guitar (which, actually, was not very expensive).

There is no law against adults buying an expensive replica football kit, even though it was cheap to make, lasts for just one season and can make them look ridiculous. What may look cool on a young, fit teenager may look less so on a balding 50-year-old, carrying excess weight.

It is easy to see why your DD wanted an oboe. It is less easy for me to understand why people, sometimes with no great financial resources, should feel the need to identify so closely with a brand. Manchester United, for example, long since ceased to be a local football team, based in the North West of England. It is now a global brand with which people identify all over the world.

I remember my youngest getting a Lampard top for £3 from the charity shop and being over the moon and he doesn't even support Chelsea

Boys become their heroes in their heads when they have a replica kit, that’s why it’s so hard to not get it for them. I’m not sure that at any conscious level it’s the same as adults seeking the in brands. When my son was younger he had the kit as one of his Christmas presents each year, and they meant so much to him that he still has them all - and who knows, there may be retro value in a Lampard football shirt one day!

M0nica I had just the same problem with a wish from my DGS. I didn’t realise you were ‘moaning’ about the cost. I thought you were passing on information that you had learned from experience. I am ‘frankly daft’ IHO, but I like to give pleasure to my DG if I can possibly afford it. I still think the prices are ridiculously high whether that’s cased by market forces or simple greed.

Nothing to do with football, but sometimes the fewer people who buy something, the higher the price. I had that explained to me when my DD needed her own oboe because she couldn’t take the school one on to high school. Violins would have been cheaper. c. I took out a loan to buy it and I can imagine I’d have been lectured on here for doing that. Should people not buy oboes because of the cost?

I haven't read the last 5 pages but my eldest son who is mainly mute and absent with respect to communicating with his Mother TEXTED ME to say had I seen the news? god it did make me laugh

I agree about not buying the kit, but when a DGS reaslly, really wants it and a birthday is nigh - like all Grandmas I become a big softie.

However, I had decided to get him a bundle of presents for his birthday, he got one or two less.

Cunco

I agree with Suziewoozie. People do not have to spend money on high priced luxury items. I suspect many do because they want to identify with the brand. Otherwise, football supporters would limit their identification to a scarf or hat as in days of yore. Branding is a bigger part of people's lives that they often know or admit extending to class, politics and religion. It was probably ever thus but brands were less global in those days.

I think there’s an interesting debate to be had about why people are willing to pay huge sums for ( in particular) branded goods and the forces behind it. However, to simply moan about football strips is frankly imo daft without looking at the context. It’s exactly the same across Europe btw.

I agree with Suziewoozie. People do not have to spend money on high priced luxury items. I suspect many do because they want to identify with the brand. Otherwise, football supporters would limit their identification to a scarf or hat as in days of yore. Branding is a bigger part of people's lives that they often know or admit extending to class, politics and religion. It was probably ever thus but brands were less global in those days.

Loislovesstewie

M0nica

....and have you seen the cost of a replica strip. DGS wanted one for a fairly low division club and it was about £35 just for the top - for a very skinny 8 year old.

And £100 for an adult shirt for some clubs.

But no one has to buy one do they? If they didn’t sell at that price, they wouldn’t be at that price. I’m shocked at the price of all sorts of things like designer handbags and some wines but I don’t buy them .

M0nica

....and have you seen the cost of a replica strip. DGS wanted one for a fairly low division club and it was about £35 just for the top - for a very skinny 8 year old.

And £100 for an adult shirt for some clubs.

SW ???

Mollygo

Lemongrove It certainly did.
The obscene amounts paid to and for footballers are only available because of rich owners. Nobody is worth that amount of money. Paying those footballers so highly makes access difficult for poorer fans. The high cost of a ticket e.g. £95 for Liverpool premier match is an incredible amount to pay.

Lots of people are paid obscene amounts of money but in a free market economy are judged worth it if the organisation paying them decides it makes financial sense. And lots of things are inaccessible for poor people. That’s how the market works. You can charge people what you want for a football match, a replica strip, a West End theatre ticket, a meal in a Michelin * restaurant - if demand is lower than supply, then you lower your prices, if not and demand exceeds supply, you might even put your prices up even more. In addition, of course, with football, the real money is in the broadcasting rights. So if lots of people are willing to eg subscribe to Sky Sports and Sky Sports can then get lots of advertising revenue, then the broadcasters can be asked for lots of money by the footballing organisations. Then if there’s lots of money flowing into football ( at the top end) it’s perfectly obvious the players will ( and should) get a goodly share of it. How on earth could or should it work otherwise in a market economy? In the mad crazy unfair world that is capitalism, I think it’s bloody great that footballers can be paid silly amounts of money - especially as they are disproportionally black and/or working class. If I were to get cross about people getting paid obscene amounts of money, I’d focus on commodity traders, currency speculators, asset strippers for starters.

....and have you seen the cost of a replica strip. DGS wanted one for a fairly low division club and it was about £35 just for the top - for a very skinny 8 year old.

Lemongrove It certainly did.
The obscene amounts paid to and for footballers are only available because of rich owners. Nobody is worth that amount of money. Paying those footballers so highly makes access difficult for poorer fans. The high cost of a ticket e.g. £95 for Liverpool premier match is an incredible amount to pay.

Mollygo

I’m not a football fan,and I used the off button so didn’t watch all the hoo-haa about it, but the publicity this time seems to have been a good idea.
Henetha a cap on player salaries is a great thought. Marcus Rashford could lead the way and might even be the first to say he doesn’t need his £200,000 per week.
Where would all the extra money go?
Lower prices for tickets so less well off fans could get to matches? ?
Money donated to charities? ? It could make a world of difference to a lot of people.
More money for club owners. ???

Nice idea Molly... if only eh??

All over now of course, but perhaps the club owners were ‘testing the water’ about the idea.

Like it or not though, it’s business, and without these rich owners the clubs would do badly.
Football changed when the players first started getting paid astronomical sums, it changed everything.

Nice to have something other than COVID!

It's huge for football as others have said and the game brings millions into the country, not just to the clubs.

Simple answer is not to listen to the first 10 minutes of the news, we've been doing that since the first lockdown as the Covid coverage just got too depressing

I find football OK to watch, but hearing about any kind of sport on the radio or any listening device, utterly boring, the only sport I do like to watch are gymnastics and ice skating. Cricket to me is the most boring sport in the world, I hate it with a passion and would rather watch paint dry, I don't understand any of the rules of anything other sport than gymnastics , and nor do I care to learn, I don't listen to any thing on radio other than music. If all sports were banned (not gymnastics/ ice skating) it would be fine with me. We all have our own interests, and I don't even know what the super league is. ?

Interesting that BJ should be so exercised by football when he couldn't be bothered to comment last week as 12 year olds burned busses in Northern Ireland.

GrauntyHelen I thought this thread was about the proposed football Super League?
Which, to get back on topic, as an avid fan, I was very pleased to see go pear shaped before it started.

As far as I can see, the request Dyson made was quite reasonable - if expats domiciled in Singapore ended up staying more than 90 days in the UK because of COVID travel restrictions, could the tax rules that make them pay tax in the UK be suspended.

What I do not understand is why Dyson had to do it on a private line and not through the usual channels. However having done some browsing, I think it says much about the personalities of both Dyson and Johnson.

Dyson is a brilliant engineer, but also an inveterate schemer and someone always looking for the way round things - that is probably what makes him such a good inventor. Johnson in his turn likes to see himself as the greater arranger and fixer, promises, promises, although not good at deliviering on his blether.

No sympathy for either. As they say 'Serves your right'

But the news about Dyson and the PM wasn’t hidden.

Ask yourself what news was being hidden Dyson and the PM gets my vote