This is an old issue that refuses to die.

There is no doubt that football has changed:

• The step between the Championship and Premiership is more or less insurmountable unless the Club concerned has vast amounts of money to attract players.
  
  

Season after season, clubs go into the Premiership and then go straight back down to the Championship unless they have totally rebuilt their team in the off season. There is endless speculation about parachute money, but unfortunately the actual amounts received by the clubs do not begin to match the figures quoted by fans. And by and large it is about money.

The creation of the Premiership caused the gap between division 1 and division 2 to increase massively. Effectively, this has made the whole set up more static, with more or less the same group of clubs occupying the same part of the Premiership year in, year out.

This is echoing the situation in Scotland, and over the years, Scottish football hasn't benefited from it.

• Money has turned the Premiership into three divisions.
  
  

There are three distinct groups of clubs in the Premiership –

the top group who go into Europe every season,

the next group who fight over the remaining European places, but who largely spend season after season in mid table because they do not have the funds to step up to the level of the top group,

and lastly the group who spend season after season fighting to stay in the Premiership, sometimes going down into the Championship.

Unless clubs in the bottom and middle group acquire access to vast sums of money, they can never hope to join the elite.

The Premiership is not about nurturing talent. Most clubs have academies, but most clubs buy in talent from abroad because by and large it is the cheaper option.

• The days of private ownership of clubs are numbered.
  
  

Traditionally, in general, football clubs have been owned by a local businessman, or small group of local businessmen, who have made a bit of money and buy into their local club because they are fans, or want the kudos of owning a football club.

Clubs run on this basis have always survived very well. They generally have a loyal base of local fans, who follow them whether they are in the Premiership or lower divisions.

However, clubs can no longer be run as hobbies except by multi billionaires, and there just aren't enough of them to go around.

The harsh reality is that clubs now need to be run as businesses. Managers want to control their teams, but this is becoming increasingly difficult, because squads are being more and more selected by simple economics.

• The Premiership has turned into a giant money grabber.
  
  

The amounts of money generated by the Premiership are phenomenal, yet, because of television payments, the Premiership still sucks money out of the lower leagues. Because of the need to keep on the treadmill, pay for players or drop, the outgoings of clubs still spiral upwards, so the clubs never make any real profit. Over the next few years, I wouldn't be at all surprised if more clubs go bust because they simply can't keep up any more.

Tags & Keywords : football, soccer, Premiership, Championship,