Financial regulation, such as it is, might end up killing the Premier League if we’re not careful.

If we are getting to the point where you cannot believe the table until the accountants and lawyers have ruled then the thrill of the competition becomes an illusion.

Another so called innovation, VAR, is a prime example of a good idea implemented badly. In the same way that we can no longer properly celebrate goals until the traffic wardens of the refereeing fraternity have approved them, we now can’t believe the league table until a bunch of faceless lawyers have spent months in tribunals.

Football is in danger of killing itself with all this meddling. If the game carries on down this road viewing figures and interest may dip and the sport will then be facing an existential threat. We have to be really careful with what we’re doing to our game here.

Football does of course need some form of control, basic disciplines and sporting merit consequences so while I believe some sort of financial governance is required given that clubs aren’t just businesses but also valuable community assets, I worry that the instrument being deployed is a blunt one and if it continues in this fashion it could kill the world’s most investable league.

Financial regulation, such as it is, might end up killing the Premier League if we’re not careful

Forest, along with Everton, have been handed point deductions for breaching financial rules

If we are getting to the point where you cannot believe the table until the accountants and lawyers have ruled then the thrill of the competition becomes an illusion

It is now clear that the current rules were not properly enforced and badly thought through. They’re not working. We’re seeing the ramifications of something we thought was a good idea but when it comes to enforcement, it becomes a real challenge.

Like most things in politics, from the NHS to illegal immigration and now our national sport, issues are used as political footballs to gain and garner public engagement by politicians who do not understand the economics of football.

And all in the pursuit of solving a limited number of very poor ownership examples in the EFL. But if you overregulate football you will strangle the game. Those that think an independent regulator will be victory for football and fans aren’t thinking clearly about what will happen if more bureaucratic nonsense is inflicted upon the game.

European leagues must be sniggering behind their hands as the dominant English leagues snatch defeat from a resounding victory over its continental rivals.

I make no secret of my disdain for the independent regulator but the only merit to having one is as a stalking horse, a threat to leverage more money from the Premier League to the Football league. Doing so would make up for the missed opportunities of the past and the incompetency of the EFL in years gone by when they failed to agree a more equitable distribution of TV money.

Nottingham Forest are an example of why we do need controls on how clubs operate. They spent £170million on new players after winning promotion, raised their wage bill by £70-£80m and put no shirt sponsorship on the front of their kit for the season. So they knew what the outcomes were going to be. 

They were also going to breach Financial Fair Play in the Championship so I don’t know what the fuss is about or why they claim not to trust the Premier League. They didn’t care and chose to believe that sanctions were likely to be financial rather than sporting.

Forest spent £170million on no fewer than 43 new players after winning promotion, with Jesse Lingard (left) and Jonjo Shelvey (right) both among those failing to make an impact

If you have the choice between selling Brennan Johnson for £20m less than you think he’s worth or getting relegated because of a points deduction, what are you going to do?

It was absurd to spend so much on new players. It’s nothing to do with trying to compete. Spend less, spend better, pay lower wages, sort your shirt sponsorship and there’s the end of the problem.

Back in 1985 the TV deal was £1.5m with nine live games on TV, attendances were down, facilities in the dark ages and hooliganism was rife. Roll forward to the present day and we have one of the best attended leagues in world football, 320 live games, brilliant stadiums, enormous revenues and worldwide investment.

Look how far we’ve come. There really isn’t much wrong with football besides people at times struggling to make sense of the economics of it but that has always been the case. And now people want to take drastic measures to undermine what we’ve done so well.

Yes, there are a few challenges now and finances can be better governed but when you look at the unprecedented success story of English football you realise the only thing holding the EFL back was its own incompetence and lack of unity in the leagues. So now you’re going to put a quango in to regulate it. Wow, well done us.

It’s typical of the mentality in this country. We self-flagellate and self-loath and moan about what an awful country we are when the reality is different.

VAR, is a prime example of a good idea implemented badly – we can no longer properly celebrate goals until the traffic wardens of the refereeing fraternity have approved them

Who thought our game would ever dominate world domestic football? From participation on the pitch, to investment off it, to the infrastructure around it, in every sense we are No 1 and now we’re pulling it apart.

The independent regulator, by its very nature, is not a free-thinking, clear-thinking market maker. It will control, stifle and kill the effervescence and dynamism of the industry. It’s what they do.

The people seemingly in favour think this is somehow a reclamation of the game, a panacea against bad ownership models without realising the very nature of sport engendered these outcomes. It’s part of the jeopardy of life.

We really don’t need a hammer to smash an acorn. They’ll start picking and poking and looking at things in a way that will stifle the game. Does anyone want that?

Samba boys hold no fear for England

Brazil are here for Saturday’s game against England and while they are no longer the dominant force in international football they once were, there is still something special about the Samba boys.

In the same way that Wembley is iconic the world over, the lustre and South American style of Brazil is still something we should cherish.

But while facing the five-times World Cup winners is always a massive draw, England are the new game in town. Brazil might be a bit more stylish and perhaps better technically, but we have a group of players now that stand up against any other team. We are up there with the best in the world, now it’s time to start winning tournaments.

England will be all right without Ben White

If Ben White doesn’t want to play for England then forget him and move on. We’re talking about a peripheral squad player who may get a game if Kyle Walker is injured.

If White doesn’t want to play for England and doesn’t respect and value playing for his country and overcome any adversity he may have experienced then he has no substance anyway.

Unless there is a massively tangible reason that is so beyond the pale that he really can’t play, then with due respect, who wants him anyway? Let him stay on his sunbed.

If Ben White doesn’t want to play for England then we should forget about him and move on

One quick-fix for problematic VAR

VAR was great idea implemented badly.

Now that football has created this problem, it needs to find a solution because waiting nearly six minutes for a decision, as we saw during West Ham’s draw with Aston Villa, is too long.

It was ridiculous and compromises the notion that the incident they were looking at was clear and obvious. The reason VAR got involved, we are led to believe, was because there was a clear and obvious mistake but if you have to take six minutes to decide, it can’t have been clear and obvious!

Maybe a time limit needs to be imposed and if a decision cannot be made in that time, stick with the on field judgment. So what if that puts officials under more pressure, we’re all under pressure. Get on with it.

Spiky Klopp was right to stand up for himself 

I like spiky managers who can stand up for themselves so I had absolutely no problem with Jurgen Klopp’s handling of the Danish journalist when he didn’t like the question he was being asked.

Journalists try and push managers around and are the first to ask if they’re going to get sacked and whether they feel under pressure.

Managers have no obligation to be diplomatic or tolerant, they’ve got an obligation to stand up their argument and take the slings and arrows of the response that they get from it.

Klopp was disappointed and frustrated by Liverpool’s defeat at Old Trafford and while there’s a part of me that thinks managers should be able to rise above it, there’s also a part of me that thinks they should be able to push back.

A furious Jurgen Klopp stormed out of a post-match interview with Scandinavian TV following Liverpool’s dramatic 4-3 FA Cup quarter-final defeat by Man United at Old Trafford on Sunday

Klopp seemingly took umbrage at a question which criticised his side’s intensity in extra-time

A robust exchange of views can be constructive and isn’t always a bad thing, it’s refreshing.

This is an emotional game. These are people who make strident observations on and off the field, so why shouldn’t they be like that when being interviewed? If you think a question is stupid, why can’t you say it, why do you have to give deference?

I didn’t think Klopp was petulant. I thought he came across as strong manager. He got asked a question he didn’t like and rebuked a journalist. If he was my manager, I’d have been thinking: ‘Get in there my son’.

Pochettino is not a bad manager despite Chelsea’s sub-par season 

Mauricio Pochettino has been on the receiving end of more fan frustration but he will only turn the corner by winning games.

You’ve got to give people something to support and if Chelsea punch their weight for the rest of the season, they can still qualify for Europe.

Chelsea have undoubtedly been disappointing this season and whilst I don’t give Pochettino a pass or believe he’ll lead them to the Premier League title, he is not a bad manager. He’s building a side and I think there should be more support for him from the stands.

Whether it’s because of his Tottenham links or style of football or not getting results, Chelsea fans have decided they’re not having him.

Mauricio Pochettino has caught a lot of flack but he will only turn the corner by winning games

It’s not that long ago these same fans were pleading for the salvation of their football club and now they’ve gone back to holding exacting standards. That’s the nature of football fans for you.

They’re not the Chelsea of old. Fans should absolutely be proud of what they achieved in the past, albeit they did it as a manufactured football club, manufactured by Roman Abramovich’s money, but singling out a player as they did with Raheem Sterling or your manager is destructive and counter-productive.

It’s their right to do that but it doesn’t necessarily make it a good idea.

Football needs to apply itself to get rid of moronic tragedy chants

Tragedy chanting reared its ugly head again during the Manchester United-Liverpool FA Cup match.

Like hooliganism, it has always been there and it still exists. But let’s be realistic about what’s really going on. One tragedy chant from a small section is one too many but it used to be entire stadiums.

We have to remember where we’ve come from and where we are. This is not a problem on the rise but we have lowered the bar of tolerance and that’s absolutely right.

I’m not remotely suggesting we should be comfortable with it but there has to be some context. We live in an imperfect society and an imperfect world. It’s like zero Covid. We were never going to get zero Covid but, absurdly, we shut the country down.

Completely eradicating bad behaviour from football stadiums is never going to happen either. You have to be realistic and strive for the best. It is incumbent on football clubs to do very best to react. Train stewards and provide enough police.

Tragedy chanting reared its ugly head again during the Man United-Liverpool FA Cup match 

If football wants to get rid of these moronic chants then it needs to apply itself better. Clubs have sufficient economic resources to pay players, managers and executives in the boardroom fortunes so should be able to make sure policing and stewarding levels and digital technology is up to scratch so you can pinpoint these miserable people, turf them out and ban for life.

If I was still at Palace I’d have been proactive about this issue. I’d zone in on sections of ground where it was coming from, ensure those areas had more stewards and eject people until I’d whittled away at the problem.

There is a balance to be struck between needing to address the problem and not over egging the pudding. I’m a great one for whacking people with a stick to concentrate minds but we’re talking about something that is on the rise.

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