Dear Denise
Firstly I’d like to begin by thanking you for they way you have represented our club this week, I know I’m not alone when I say that you are a credit to Everton and we all feel so grateful that we have you in our corner.
What a week it’s been, the Sly Six have truly rocked the football world to its core. For me and all the Everton fans and football fans in general find the crocodile tears of the turncoats very distasteful, they aren’t sorry they are sorry they got caught. I feel strongly now that the fourteen clubs that have been lied to and mislead must stand together for the long term good of the game. It’s absolutely vital that these clubs are suitably punished. I don’t for a minute believe they have given up on the Idea of a Super League, if they are not suitably punished and strong legislation put in place to prevent another coup they will be at it again as soon as they think they can get away with it. I urge when you next meet with the CEO’s and chairman of the fourteen to express our feelings regarding this. In my opinion the rhetoric being put out by the media in the later part of the week “it’s not fair to punish the fans” doesn’t wash with us, did this apply to teams like Wigan and Portsmouth as well as many others when they were punished due to the actions of their owners? Rules that apply to the “smaller” clubs must be applied to the Sly Six clubs in the name of fair play, was it fair on us Everton fans when we were banned in 85’ for the actions of the fans of another club?
I strongly feel that in addition to any fines issued I believe these clubs should be hit with a minimum of a fifteen point deduction next season. In addition to this a ban of at least one year from the European competitions that they disrespected with their actions this week should be applied. They quit these competitions so in my eyes they quit the process of qualifying for them. For the clubs that are not in position to qualify for next years competition, they should be banned the next time they do qualify. I also believe that it’s not only the other premier league clubs that they have disrespected it’s the entire pyramid of the English league, therefore I would like to see the fines issued to these clubs distributed amongst the 72 clubs outside the Premier league.
Beyond the English game I would like to yourself and the other fourteen clubs to lobby UEFA to ensure that the qualification systems for European competitions is fair to all clubs in the European football pyramid. Qualification must be based on merit, I’m strongly opposed the the idea of teams that did not qualify on merit being awarded European qualification based on historical coefficients, in fact I would like to see the coefficient model scrapped completely. In my opinion the fairest and most exciting system would be a straight up draw, the element of luck of the draw should always apply to cup competitions.
I have read reports this week in relation to the distribution of revenues generated by the Champions League, it’s been reported that from the 3.5 billion euro annual revenue generated by the Champions League only 2.2 billion finds its way back to the clubs the rest being retained by UEFA, that’s ludicrous, UEFA’s role is surely to uphold and administrate the game fairly not make massive profits. If they are spending 1.3 billion per year administering the competition then the way they are practicing needs urgently reviewing. I would like to see more of this money generated passed down not only to the clubs in the competition, they already have the ability to generate plenty of revenue from the competition as well as additional sponsorships, this money should be passed down to all the clubs in the European football pyramid.
Thank you for taking the time to write to us as fans, it really means a lot to know that you care what we the fans think and makes us feel like true stakeholders in our club.
Go get em Denise! )
Best Wishes
COYB
