Chapter 901 Collective Carnival

Yang Huan never denied that everything he had built was based on one premise.

He is a time traveler!

Without this premise, he would not have been able to choose Bielsa, nor would he have been able to introduce a large number of outstanding potential stars at such a low price to create the Southampton of today.

These two points can be said to be crucial.

You know, in recent years, with the arms race between Barcelona and Real Madrid, and with the strong involvement of wealthy teams such as Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, the talent supply of top stars in European football has been in short supply.

This is also the main reason why the transfer value of first-line stars has been rising steadily in recent years.

According to the laws of market economy, if something is scarce, it will naturally be expensive.

So, if Yang Huan was not a time traveler, how could Southampton buy this group of stars?

Even if it can be bought, how much will it cost?

A giant club like Manchester United keeps talking about recovery and has invested so much money, but is the team they have built competitive?

This is what Yang Huan mentioned, the attractiveness of Premier League teams in terms of talent resources is declining.

So what exactly is the reason for the decline in the attractiveness of the Premier League?

Anyone who has a deep understanding of player transfers knows that there are many factors that affect player transfers, but the most important ones are just a few.

The first thing that is easily ruled out is the league level.

It is impossible for popular stars in the five major leagues to play in second-rate leagues such as the Portuguese Super League and the Dutch Eredivisie.

However, when the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 are all at about the same level, the team's performance, technical and tactical style, personal salary and benefits, as well as the position in the team have become the key factors in determining player transfers.

From this perspective, the Premier League’s problem is very simple.

The team's performance is not ideal, the overall competition in the league is fierce, and the technical and tactical style is incompatible with the mainstream in Europe. These have directly led to the lack of attractiveness of the Premier League's giants in attracting top players.

You know, in the years from 2004 to 2009, the technical and tactical level of the Premier League was still quite high.

The playing styles of Mourinho and Benítez at the time were considered advanced in Europe. In addition, the competition in the Premier League was not that great at the time, so it was still very attractive to players.

So at that time, the Premier League gathered a group of popular European superstars such as Xabi Alonso, Cristiano Ronaldo, Henry, Fabregas, Vidic, Makelele, etc., all of which relied on the overall environment of the Premier League at that time.

But in the past few years, European football has undergone tremendous changes. Has the Premier League made any progress?

There is another point that few people have noticed, and that is the increase in Premier League tax rates and the weakness of the pound in recent years.

As we all know, the European continent uses the euro, but the Premier League uses the pound for settlement. However, the trend of the pound in recent years is obvious to all. In addition, the British government has increased the tax rate, making the Premier League the league with the highest tax rate among the four major leagues.

Just imagine, with these two factors at play, how much would it cost for a Premier League team to offer a player the same salary as a player in other leagues?

Scudmore was very familiar with and clear about the points mentioned by Yang Huan.

But these are not things he can change.

Take the tax rate for example. It concerns the British government and laws. What can he do?

Also, the well-known work permit also leaves Premier League teams helpless, right?

"In fact, I personally think that the weakness of the Premier League giants is closely related to the Premier League's broadcast profit-sharing system." Yang Huan looked at Schudmore and said slowly.

Scudmore frowned and said, "I don't quite understand."

This is a serious issue. If something goes wrong and it gets out, people might say that Young Master Huan is criticizing the Premier League broadcasting rights distribution system, which would not be a trivial matter.

"Many people say that the Premier League's broadcasting fee sharing system is an innovation, but in fact, it has existed since before the Premier League was founded. At that time, the profit distribution system of the top league in England had already begun to emphasize equalization of wealth."

At that time, the distribution system of England's top league seemed quite strange.

For example, the match day revenue has to be taken out and divided between the home and away teams.

Just imagine, would the big teams be willing?

They work so hard to get sponsorship, advertise, and attract fans, but in the end, they have to share the money they earn with the small teams that come to play in the game?

Why?

Oh, just because you came to my place to play a game of football?

You hippie, it’s good enough that I don’t mind your poor level, and you still dare to ask for a share of the money?

As a result, in the 1980s, teams in England's top league began to make a fuss, and eventually the split system was abolished.

But in today's FA Cup, there is still such a tradition, so many top teams would rather play away games against small teams. Why?

Firstly, the FA Cup is not very attractive and the income is not much. If we lose one point to the visiting team, how much money can we save?

But the home facilities of the top teams are so advanced, how much does it cost to maintain them? How much is the labor cost?

All in all, let alone making any money, it would be good enough if we didn't lose money.

Therefore, when big teams play away games in the FA Cup, some simply don't want any share of the profits and just become the away team at a bargain price.

There is also the sharing of broadcasting fees.

You know, at that time, the four levels of English leagues were maintained by the broadcasting fees of the top leagues.

In other words, they can only get half of the broadcasting rights income of the English League One, the second-level English League Two will get another 25%, and the third and fourth-level leagues will get the remaining 25%.

This is enough to make the English League One teams depressed.

Because compared to the high operating costs, facility maintenance costs, and player and staff salaries of the top leagues, the money that small teams in lower-level leagues receive can almost be said to be unearned.

At that time, it was unknown how many owners of small teams kept their teams alive just for this money.

Because of this, the English League One teams, with the support of broadcasters, collectively rebelled and created the Premier League.

But in fact, even now, the Premier League still has to allocate a considerable amount of funds every year to subsidize teams in lower-level leagues. This is a condition agreed upon when the Premier League was founded.

From today's perspective, the glorious legend of English football history is precisely built on this distribution.

Therefore, Nottingham Forest was able to rise as a small team, was able to create opportunities for a newly promoted team to win the championship, and was able to successfully defend its title in the European arena, because behind Nottingham Forest is the equal share of match-day income from big teams and the share of broadcasting rights.

So, does this mean that this is reasonable?

Does this mean that we should go back to this time and revitalize English football?

From a small team perspective, of course, there's no doubt that's their spring.

But for big teams, it's a nightmare.

This system has certainly led to the rise of small teams and upsets, but it has also caused big teams to be complacent.

London is the most prosperous city in the UK and also the city with the highest consumption power and the hottest football market. However, it has never achieved any outstanding results in football. Why is this?

Manchester United's resurgence took place in the 1990s, and many people said it was due to Ferguson and the Class of 1992.

But is it really that simple behind all this?

Therefore, after their establishment, the Premier League teams adjusted their profit distribution model.

This directly led to small teams like Nottingham Forest having no chance to compete with big cities like London, Manchester and Liverpool, so they were eliminated.

The gap between the Premier League and teams in other leagues is gradually widening and becoming more and more obvious.

Even within the Premier League, there is a split. A group of teams with excellent management and results, led by Manchester United and Arsenal, have risen strongly and established their status as top clubs.

However, the Premier League's distribution model still retains the flavor of equalizing the rich and the poor.

Scoudmore had a different opinion on Yang Huan's analysis.

"Master Huan, what you said is certainly not wrong, but you should also see that the current distribution model of the Premier League is far more reasonable than it was back then."

After a pause, Scudmore said, "You know, the distribution of the English League One back then, in the final analysis, ignored the differences in team management and objective environment, and adopted a simple and crude method to achieve the goal of equalizing the rich and the poor. To put it simply, it was to exploit the big teams and subsidize the small teams, so that the rich would not be richer and the poor would not be poorer."

"But now, we acknowledge and encourage differentiation. Through various operational methods, we will make the big pie of the Premier League bigger and stronger, and then through reasonable distribution, let the rich get richer and the poor not be poorer, so that all teams in the league can be satisfied."

Yang Huan nodded. "Yes, Richard, you are absolutely right. But I am not doubting this distribution method. I am stating a fact. That is, when the poor in the Premier League are no longer poor, but the poor in other leagues are still poor, and our rich are no richer than the rich in other leagues, what changes will it bring?"

This time, Scudmore was silent, and he began to think about the meaning of Master Huan's words.

Exploitation, perhaps, should not be called exploitation, but differentiation, which is the foundation of the market economy.

In the La Liga, Real Madrid and Barcelona are the two giants of the Spanish Super League. The two teams occupy half of the resources and interests of La Liga, so they can take whatever they want from other La Liga teams.

The same is true for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. Backed by big conglomerates and large state-owned enterprises, they are able to attract all Bundesliga players with treatment conditions that other teams cannot afford.

But they are all products of full competition in the market economy, who can say they are not?

"We have noticed that in the past few years, even the relegated teams in the Premier League have been able to receive a staggering share of broadcast rights every year. This money allows them to buy their favorite players in the transfer market, improve their competitiveness and narrow the gap with the top teams."

"We all know that for a team to improve from the relegation level to the middle level, or even the upper middle level, and to improve from the upper middle level to the upper level, those are two completely different levels of difficulty, right?"

Scudmore finally understood what Master Huan meant.

It is well known that the top four in the league is a hurdle.

What Master Huan meant was that when lower-tier teams have sufficient purchasing power and are able to spend tens of millions, or even twenty or thirty million, on signings in the transfer market, the cost-effectiveness of their signings will definitely be higher than that of the strong teams.

Because the bigger the star, the scarcer he is, and the more outrageous the premium is often.

But the problem now is that the strong teams have encountered problems in attracting players and lack attractiveness, but the mid- and lower-level teams do not have this problem and have been recruiting players on a large scale. The strength gap between the two is getting smaller and smaller, which has directly led to the internal competition in the Premier League reaching an almost tragic level.

Yes, the competition was indeed fierce ten years ago, and the distribution was still based on this model, but the Premier League's domestic broadcasting fees were only 10 billion pounds for three years ten years ago. But now, ten years later, it has reached more than 3 billion pounds. Even the next contract is expected to be higher than this. The outside world estimates that it will definitely exceed 4.5 billion pounds.

Moreover, ten years ago, domestic broadcasting fees accounted for almost all of the revenue from broadcasting rights, but now, overseas markets account for one-third, and the Internet and other media platforms also account for a considerable proportion.

What will happen when the revenue of a relegated Premier League team catches up with that of the top teams in other leagues?

That was a very unreasonable and crazy collective carnival!