Fulham Broadway

Extortionate. But to be fair not the most expensive by far. To abandon the Youth Season Ticket scheme as ''too expensive'' is an own goal though. You'd think the club would want to encourage future youngsters to come and watch ? ''Too expensive'', what and wasting £10 million on Mr Toad and Tea Crate for six months isn't ?

Football fans are so fed-up with the soaring cost of watching Premiership matches that many are ditching their season tickets. One in seven will not renew this year because they feel they are being priced out of the game, a new report has warned. Fans of champions Manchester United are among those angry at the rises. One in five is refusing to buy a new season ticket, which now costs up to £912. A quarter of West Ham season ticket holders will not be going back to Upton Park, according to the Virgin Money survey. ? Tickets there will cost up to £885 next season after rises of four per cent. Fa Cup winners Portsmouth have hiked prices up by 17.5 per cent, with some tickets now at £925. Fans going to just one Premiership game will fork out around £87.75 for tickets, travel, food and drink - a 12 per cent rise on the 2006 cost of £77.95. The Football Supporters Federation branded clubs greedy over the hikes. Chairman Malcolm Clarke said: "The huge amount of TV money pouring into the Premiership means there is no justification for price rises. "For too long, clubs have believed there is no limit to the extent to which they can exploit the loyalty of fans and they may find this greed will come back bite them on the backside. "In the difficult financial climate we all face, the football industry must wake up and smell the coffee." Virgin Money's Scott Mowbray added: "Fans are suffering and many are starting to vote with their feet." WADS IT WORTH? Premiership club fans not renewing their season tickets West Ham Utd 25% Reading 22% Portsmouth 21% Manchester City 20% Manchester Utd 19% Fulham 18% Bolton Wanderers 17% Birmingham City 16% Everton 14% Tottenham 12% Sunderland 12% Middlesbrough 11% Newcastle United 10% Chelsea 10% Arsenal 8% Aston Villa 8% Wigan Athletic 8% Liverpool 5% Blackburn Rovers 5% Derby County 3% Mirror Online

Blackburn manager Mark Hughes has given Chelsea a 48-hour window of opportunity to offer him the job of manager at Stamford Bridge before he signs for Manchester City. The ball is squarely in the russian Billionaires court, and a decision is likely in the next 24 hours.... from Telegraph online

Spanish and Italian football had their dominance pre TV money days, and the EPL having its foreign influx . I wouldnt like to see English football go down the pan, but it has to be looked at in context. To some extent prople are still getting off on '66 and all that -for me that went down the pan with 3 lions and the Lightning Seeds, ..England are and always will be -even with FIFAs ruling, also rans. -UK population , not England is what 60 million ? England must be 40 million tops. Its a global game -Brazils population is 190 million, Nigeria has 150 million people, even the fucking Phillipines has 88 million. In context as more countries get into the game it stands to reason that England will not have a big resource of players. FIFAS plan will not stop financial dominance, or make English football great, but it will hinder non European countries in their players coming to Europe

I dont know how it can be addressed. It's up to the individual players to want to learn Spanish or German, but it's a general trait with English speakers -a laziness in wanting to speak other languages. To my mind players picked should be on meritocracy not nationality. The roots of the problem can be seen as Sky and television coverage. The EPL is the richest, attracts oligarchs, and the best players because of TV revenue. One way for FIFA to get down off their high horse is to have more widespread televised football -including for instance African football. This would make the EPL less attractive to 'foreign mercenaries' and parasitcal investors, and the talent spread would be more even.

I cant believe the board had no one lined up knowing Grunt was out the door. The board are starting to seriously fuck me off -they seem to be relying on ''brand Chelsea'' and a huge salary as enough to attract a candidate. To me the manager should be the golden egg, it's the future, and we need continuity. If you asked ManUtd or Arsenal what's their most precious asset -it's obvious, it's not Ronaldo, or Old Trafford -but Purplenose. The candidate we appoint should be considered, and treated as a long term investment -not someone that Roman can discard and just buy another off the shelf , with a complicit nodding dog board -slaves to their inflated salaries.

Good point - i dont think there'd be many chants of ''You Dont Know What You're Doing'', and the crowd would get right behind him.

English players do not go abroad in the main because they are extremely lazy at, or do not want to learn another language. I'm all for players coming through our academy -the price to pay would be a drop in the clubs fortunes, and this proposed ruling is designed to do just that -to decrease the potencey of the EPL and improve the status of foreign league clubs.

Thats good news about Hughes -liable to change at the drop of a hat though - also typical of our board to suddenly make a move becasue Citeh might get him. I notice Scolari has suddenly gone to 25/1 rank outsider. No news on Clarke -so I gues he's staying at present -could work with Hughes in a Scottish/Welsh partnership

Best Staff Member: DavidEU Best Football Knowledge: Elliott Best General Knowledge: Tri-Blue Funniest Forumer: Esk Weston Most-Liked Forumer: Mischief Wisest Forumer: Bombay Blue Most Controversial Poster: Badboy Biggest Contributor: Blue Lion Best Graphic Designer: .Biru British Member of the Year: CM 2000 International Member of the Year: Serbian Crew

Always be the club -dont like nationalism. Chelsea or cricket ???

Well no, it's probably got something to do with the club offering them £100 000+per week as well. It's nothing more than FIFA panicking about the EPL, and curtailing the money and dominance of the top 4. Platini and Blatter have dressed it up to appeal to Spanish, French, Italian clubs, because they have a tradition of having home grown players, and as a consequence their leagues are not as strong. If it comes in (very doubtful as it breaks European Employment legislation), Chelsea, the top 4, and the EPL will in no way be as strong. At the end of the day I support Chelsea, nationality doesn't come into it.

Does the pope wear a funny hat ?

Glad to here it. Yup the club seem to know what they're doing on one hand, on the other it seems they're like Baldrick, about to announce a ''cunning plan''.

Yeah that bloody Zola and Vialli, Hasselbaink, Cech, Gudjohnsen - money grabbing bastards. Some of our best players have been English, some haven't. Nationality shouldn't come into it. It's great to have English players in the side, but they seem to get preference in things like voting , when players like Carvalho get ignored. I'd rather have a dedicated foreigner than an English scouse mercenary like Gerrard in the team.

Fergie on the bottle ?

I dont have much confidence in the club had some master plan as to who the next manager was going to be. Inter chasing our players is unlikely to be an immediatete thing, but contracts mean fuck all these days, its money that talks and agents pulling the strings. Certainly be an interesting next couple of months before the season starts....

Avram ?

Hes bound to sound a few out - not a good time seeing as we're manager less -could have been worse though, Grant could have clinched some leaving.

Gazza ?

Depends what size of wad Inter have given him, my guess a sizeable warchest. Some players definitely had an affection for him -along with most supporters -there'll be a lot of rumours guaranteed, be interesting to see what players want to join him.....

Someone sort out the boy/man http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7431283.stm

A lot of footballers are like lost children mentally,..... dada Jose calling........ Guaranteed we get Inter in the CL draw now...and they knock us out....

Aye, him and Holloway dream ticket. Hows it going Steve ?

Wish I had your certainty. He paid Aulas at Lyon whatever it took to prise Essien away -depends now how much he wants him