The restructuring of Football finance: Transfers - Some recommendations

 1. Footballs challenging issues that have come to the fore recently are fundamentally caused by a single club being able to outbid others for the contract of a desired player. This with influence of agents causes transfer and subsequent wage inflation which causes distorting costs and debts on ambitious clubs.

2. A solution would be to cap according to international caps won transfer fees; to introduce an affordable maxim transfer fee (that increases with inflation) and underneath bands of transfer fee ranges (according to international caps won).

3. Alternatively, introduced a progressive transfer ban based on the position each club finishes each preceding season. To take the premier league as an example; the Champions are not permitted to buy any player in the following two transfer windows); a team in 10th position is allowed to buy 4 new players, the team promoted from the Championship play off final is allowed to purchase 8 players (or what ever the maximum number of transfer allowed for that division. An advantage of this approach is that over time the "poorer" clubs acquire the better players and chance of sporting success becomes more equalised; reducing the desire to outspend rivals to gain success. Also the clubs with restricted transfer allowances will be forced to give opportunities to British players from their own academies in preference to buying players from other countries; who will have gone to clubs who finished in a lower position in the league the previous season.

Premier League 'Masters and Futures' Championship

A championship for all Premier League (PL) Clubs to help them develop their academy players.

Participants;

• Each PL club enters two teams
• One team is composed of players aged 29 years and older; their 'Masters Team'
• The other team is composed of players aged under 23 years old; their 'Futures Team'

Format;

• The forty teams are subdivided into 4 groups on a regional basis
• A club cannot have their Masters and Futures teams in the same group
• The top three teams in each group qualify for a second knock out stage
• The final 'qualifying place' is decided by play-off between the teams finishing forth, fifth, sixth and seventh.
• The sixteen qualifying teams compete in a two legged knockout tournament ending in a single final game at neutral venue.
• If a European 'Masters and Futures' championships develops the champion team would represent the PL in such competition.
• The above format is subject to variation.

© S C Low 2016

Non interuptive subsitution

To not delay play, when a team want to make a substitution they notify the 4th official in the normal way and a board indicating the intended play to be subsituted is made public. Then;

• The substituting play enters the field of play wearing a coloured bib and they cannot participate in play until it is worn by the player to be subsituted.
• The substitte and the player being substituted exchange the bib, so that the subsitute can now enter play.
• The substituted player now wearing of if unable to through injury, now holding the bib, exits the field of play being unable to participate in play in any way. 
  
  The penalty for a player entering play when wearing or owning the bib will be a sending off, even if the player has been substituted.

Drawn knock out matches - Deciding a Victor

In the event of a match ending in a draw at full time a period of extra time is normally played. At the end of this period the winning team is (in order of selection);

• The team who has scored the highest number of goals during extra time
• The team who has hit the opposition goals stanchion ("Woodwork") the most during extra time
• The team with the highest number of shots on target during extra time
• The team who has the highest number of corner kicks awarded during extra time

If the teams are still equal then the match is decided using the traditional penalty shoot out method.

© S C Low 2014

Cumulative Yellow Card Penalty

To prohibit the accumulation of yellow cards being used as a tactical tool during a game the following proposal is made;

• On the occasion of the third yellow card being awarded to a team during a match a penalty is awarded to the offended team (the opposition).
• On the occasion of the sixth yellow card being awarded to a team during a match a penalty is awarded to the offended team (the opposition).
• On the occasion of the ninth yellow card being awarded to a team during a match a penalty is awarded to the offended team (the opposition).
• On the occasion of the 12th, 15th  etc. yellow cards being awarded to a team during a match a penalty is awarded to the offended team (the opposition) on each occasion.

© S C Low 2014

FIFA World Cup Finals - Awarding of host nation; democratization

Proposal to make the awarding of the host nation of future FIFA World Cup finals more 'democratic' as far as football fans perceive it.

• Any person becoming a member of a football club affiliated to FIFA automatically becomes a member of 'Club FIFA'; receiving benefits such as newsletters, exclusive web content, and priority ticket application rights for FIFA tournament tickets.
• After final candidates for World Cup Final hosts are announced;

1. 'Club FIFA' members securely vote for their preferred host nation
2. Their preference cannot be the nation of their club, residence or their nationality (if different).
3. The host nation chosen by 'club FIFA' automatically receives the equivalent of 8 FIFA executive member votes (thereby making the total number of votes to be 30), or
4. The host nation chosen by 'club FIFA' automatically receives the equivalent of 56 FIFA affiliated association votes (thereby making the total number of votes to be 264)

© S C Low 2014

Allocation of places in Confederation wide Club tournaments

To reward the 'competitive' member association domestic leagues with a greater number of places in confederation wide club tournaments e.g. UEFA Champions league.

'Competitive Leagues' will be defined by the match day (e.g. 1 to 36/38) on which the club that finishes in 6th (sixth) place cannot finish in 1st (first) place, The later the date this occurs; the higher the number of the match day it occurs, e.g. match day 35 compared to match day 29, indicates that a domestic club league is in relative terms 'more' competitive that rival national leagues in its member confederation whose 6th place confirmation match day is earlier.

Using this indicator of domestic competitiveness, places in a confederation wide club tournament can be apportioned to reward the most competitive leagues (rewarding sporting performance), either solely or together with other established measures of ranking relative domestic leagues within a confederation.

© S C Low 2014