Latest Opinion

So we are now into the FPP era, an era heralded by the Club’s directors balancing out the advantages of being a wealthy club as opposed to a soundly run, middle-of-the-road Club. An even playing field for all, so they said.

In truth, it is making the wealthier wealthy and leaving those less fortunate lagging behind. Unless a club has a super-rich sugar daddy all it has done is allow you an extra £4million to spend on transfers and wages - hardly balancing the league.

As West Ham followers know we are not a mega-rich Club. Moving to the Olympic Stadium (the stadium of heroes. my name for the ground) will increase our revenue but not to the extent of Chelsea, Man Utd, Man City and, debatedly, Arsenal. These Clubs will generate the sort of income we can only hope for, and in some ways aspire to.

I have come up with a fresh idea for balancing the League and Cup competitions and ending the vicious spiral of English football suffering at the hands of foreign mercenaries (as well as levelling the playing field for teams and encouraging clubs to seek the best home grown talentand developing their own). It may even lead to local lads being recruited to the Academies, rather than the importation of kids from across the globe.

West Ham have the honour of winning a European trophy with eleven (yes that’s right, eleven) Englishmen). My first idea and the others could not be implemented at the moment because of European employment law - but should we withdraw from Europe, they may easily be brought in.

1) Each Premier League club to register 25 players. 14 of these players are to be from the home countries (England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland).

2) Of those 14 home grown players, three must be under the age of 23.

3) Seven players must be home grown for Premier League fixtures, two of whom must be under 23.

4) To receive the financial reward for league placing, clubs must meet the above criteria for 100 per cent of matches. If you only manage for example 95 per cent of games then your financial reward is 95 per cent. The remaining 5 per cent is redistributed to the clubs who have managed 100 per cent.

5) Clubs will be allowed no more than two non-EU players.

6) The FA Cup and League Cup will be along the same lines and in addition to the reduction in prize money , forfeiture of a place in next season's competition. Could also be used as a sanction.

7) Should a club fail to meet the requirements over three seasons it would be handed a 15 point penalty and any further breaches would result in automatic relegation to the Championship and the fourth placed team or both play-off finalists both being promoted.

This is admittedly quite draconian, but it would lead to the development of younger players. Owners would never agree to measures like this, but how do we justify that less than 30 per cent of players on any given match day are from the home nations?




It would be an interesting exercise to look at current squads and see who comes anywhere near this. Imagine that we went with this in season 2018/19; it would give clubs time to lose their foreign imports, and give time for development of home grown players. Not only would this strengthen the England team but also aid the development of players from the home countries.

No longer would clubs be able to buy middle-of-the-road foreign imports to bolster their multi-national squads. Those recruited would be the better players. Clubs like West Ham would improve because they would encourage the development of national players.

However certain clubs would fight against this as they would no longer be able to go and buy a league-winning team from abroad. They would have to have a good national scouting system and academies would have to up their game as well.

Nothing would give me greater pleasure than Chelsea winning the Premier League and having to pass on a percentage of their winnings to a team like us. Laugh? I would dance naked down the High Street - especially if my other clause (whereby if a club is barred from competing in Europe and the next highest placed team with a 100 per cent record takes your place) kicked in too.

As I said earlier, Chairman might not go for it but reading between the lines of FA Chairman Greg Dyke's recent speech, he shares my view that something like this could be introduced for the FA Cup, at least.

* Like to share your thoughts on this article? Please visit the KUMB Forum to leave a comment.

* Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the highlighted author/s and do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy or position of KUMB.com.