Are football fans part of the reason there clubs are struggling?

[jammag]

Now I know what you are probably thinking, of course not, but I was thinking is it partly fault of the fans for these clubs going into administration and folding.

There is such a big expectation now from fans that they have to be successful. How many times do you hear fans saying the owners need to plow more money into clubs so they can buy more players. Which in turn means higher wages then when the owners leave it leaves the club struggling to pay for things. Same as when fans are chanting for managers to be sacked, this means compensation to be paid and then paying for another manager.

Do you think if expectation wasnt as high as it is now would there be a lot less debt in football?

I know there are plenty of other things but surely the fans must realise for some of these clubs that not spending and consolidating for a year or two that it could be beneficial for them in the long run?

 

[bluewolf]

The problem is that for every club that's run responsibly, another is run as a rich mans plaything. This means that the responsibly run clubs will sink like a stone. This encourages clubs to gamble their futures against success in the present. Leeds is the perfect example. They took massive gambles, were run by ignorant morons, and may never fully recover. Preston were a responsibly run club, and look where they are.

The answer would appear to be some sort of salary capping, but that will never fully happen as the top clubs are more powerful than the FA.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I'm a Fulham fan. I have no expectations

 

[stevie_r]

I'm a Fulham fan. I have no expectations

wolves fan, my expectation is Championship football next season

 

[Dodger]

No,I am pretty sure none of the fans where holding a gun to mintymoonbeams heed while he signed the cheques for Dick Advocat while they tried to live the dream.

In the Rangers case they only have themselves to blame that Murray spent way beyond his means then did a runner when the saviour came along and pledged to produce a further war chest.

The only surprise to me is that there have not been more clubs gone tits up before Rangers.

With regards to this particular team,they have only just scratched the surface so far......this story is set to run and run with a myriad of shocking revelations about to hit the public domain....

 

[daymond]

Football companies ( I refuse to see them as clubs ) seem to be treated as a different species to normal plc entities.

 

[In_The_Rough]

Wages and nutty owners are more to blame than supporters. Look at Chelsea talk in some quarter it will cost big Rom £16 Mil to sack AVB which is looking very likely what will happen. Whatever happens with Rangers is anyones guess as I am sure more skeletons will come out of the closet.

 

[jammag]

yeah I know owners are more to blame. I was thinking that all levels not just premier. I know following a non league team that fans always berated the owners for not doing this and that and they were trying but had no funds and the club ended up folding. Seems a shame we are losing so many clubs due to clubs over spending.

 

[Captainron]

Why haven't any clubs in the football leagues been closed down? It seems that they are always 'saved' by a write off from the tax man. If those were ordinary businesses they would have gone the way of Woolworths. Leeds and Portsmouth are two clubs that spring to mind.

 

[Laughing Gravy]

The OP is right in a way.

Because fans are asked to pay more to watch the game, buy a programme, but merchandise, buy food thus spending a load of cash every matchday I think they do want more in return. Bad move of course because as we know only so many clubs can enjoy the success and the rest of us (95%) will always hover around the mediocrity level with the bief glimmer here and there of a cup win, Euro qualification perhaps.

I'm a Leeds fan and had a season ticket late 80's and right through the 90's. Great times but win lose or draw it was always a great day out - top atmosphere and a memorable day. Pisser if we'd lost but after a few hours you get over it and that was that. Nowadays only a victory counts as a good day. Anything less and it's who can we blame for this one - the ref, the manager, the overpaid players ect etc. Phone-ins and forums are there it seems to hang the culprits and have a right old moan about the people who are against the club this week etc.

Route of all evil is cash of course - too much cash at the top end of the game and things will never change until that gets sorted out. We're stuck with this horrible business where once we had the most wonderful sport in the world.

 

[Marshy77]

I'm a Bradford fan and going through Admin was easily the worst time as a fan of your club. Being hours away from being shut down was horrible, the 2 Premiership years were brilliant, some of the best times of my life and the six weeks of madness with the signings of Carbone, Hopkins etc was both surreal and very exciting.

Would I swap them times for say safety and security in mid table Championship/League 1 - I'm not sure. As football fans of even poor League 2 sides you always expect the new season to be the season to get you promoted and expectation go through the roof but you have to be real. This is difficult times for clubs, more and more will continue to run at a loss or very close to a loss and in reality you have to realise that surviving is almost as good as progressing. Sad times but the love for the game will always be there whether your hovering above relegation or pushing for promotion. Thats football.

 

[19thagain]

I support a most wonderful wee SPL club, Inverness CaleyThistle and my enjoyment is realising that each game is a BIG lottery!!

To quote our manager when we 'hammered' Hearts three weeks ago .. 'I don't know where that performance came from, they(the team) were rubbish at training yesterday!'

However some fans have great difficulty with what I see as enjoyment and look for more consistent results which is impossible to attain on our shoestring budget.

"Get behind Butcher, get behind the Team
Go home Butcher, you doddery, bumbling, inept old English Hun tw%t".

The above two quotes came off the club forum in the space of 14 days - BY THE SAME FAN!!

Supporters may use cost as a reason to demand performance but for me, I think it is the love of the club and the magic feeling when it is all right on the night or the utter hurt when the object of your love let's you down.
When the latter happens and some fans become very vocal and phone in programmes stir it all up, boards up and down the country react too quickly, in my opinion and take drastic action, resulting in a massive financial loss for the club.

So, yes, I do think fans reap what they sow, in many cases.

 

[One Planer]

Stoke fan here.

Non of us Stokies have any expectations. We can play rugby with the best of em' tho' :thup:

 

[DaveM]

ManU fan here. They tend to buy youngster on the cheap and bring them on. Dont seem to do to bad doing it.

 

[JohnnyC]

Now I know what you are probably thinking, of course not, but I was thinking is it partly fault of the fans for these clubs going into administration and folding.

There is such a big expectation now from fans that they have to be successful. How many times do you hear fans saying the owners need to plow more money into clubs so they can buy more players. Which in turn means higher wages then when the owners leave it leaves the club struggling to pay for things. Same as when fans are chanting for managers to be sacked, this means compensation to be paid and then paying for another manager.

Do you think if expectation wasnt as high as it is now would there be a lot less debt in football?

I know there are plenty of other things but surely the fans must realise for some of these clubs that not spending and consolidating for a year or two that it could be beneficial for them in the long run?

I would say this applies much more to the national team than to the EPL. Every time England plays at a major tournament we expect a trophy. We seem to have no regard for our potential, or reality. England has a good team, we are not bad but there are sadly at least 3 or 4 teams in the world that outclass us by a lot. Maybe if we showed some humility and actual support for the boys, we could surprise many. The way the things are now, though, our players feel so much pressure that it is no wonder that, instead of playing, they go around having scandals with prostitutes.....