Sad Day

I know many will argue otherwise, but for me yesterday was a very sad day for sport with the chequebook Charlies excelling.

Man City will now win the Premiership and Toulon may retain the Heineken Cup.

There's neither justice nor romance when sporting teams whose success is manufactured by merely having far more money than the rest, succeed.

And there's a report out today showing the disparity in Formula 1 where Ferrari were awarded £80M prize money last season (they didn't even win the constructors championship) and Marussia had £6M for finishing last. Contrast this with the Premier League where Man Utd took £60.8m as Champions and QPR had £40m as bottom - a ratio of just 1.5 : 1.
On top of this, only 5 teams in F1 are allowed to sit on the governing committee (Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and Williams).

In tennis, the top players are paid to appear in the tournaments outside the Grand Slams whilst the lesser players have to pay to enter. Hardly conducive to fair and equal competition.

There must be true sports left out there where taw talent prevails?



Edited by Abbey - 28 April 2014 at 8:23am

The common denominators are benefactors dominating in a de-regulated sport, with a governing body that has commercial advancement ahead of sporting integrity.

BPL, Top14, an F1 are impressive commercial juggernauts to be fair.

As for talent prevailing. Mmm.

Always been reasonably impressed by the NFL (to a point) in respect of bowing to the inevitable commercial realities but keeping a degree of fairness with draft picks etc.
Albeit that platform has been re-visited and tweaked umpteen times in the last 20 years to get where it is today.

Abbey wrote: KID A wrote: Toulon have the 4th biggest budget in French rugby. The bulk of their money comes through sponsors, cafes, restaurants and merchandise, and the council. To compare them with Manchester City is a bit bizarre. They're exactly like Man City. They remind me of Little Britain's Lou and Andy.. "I want that one"

Talk me through how they are exactly like Man City.

KID A wrote: Abbey wrote: KID A wrote: Toulon have the 4th biggest budget in French rugby. The bulk of their money comes through sponsors, cafes, restaurants and merchandise, and the council. To compare them with Manchester City is a bit bizarre. They're exactly like Man City. They remind me of Little Britain's Lou and Andy.. "I want that one" Talk me through how they are exactly like Man City.

Both teams have a proud history but mainly as "also rans". Man City have been perceived in the past two decades (or arguably longer) as the second team of Manchester.
Toulon have had scattered minor success over their 104 year existence.

Both were in the lower tiers of their respective leagues with precarious finances when taken over by millionaires (Man City were initially bought by Thaksin Shiniwatra but afterwards by an Abu Dhabi based investment group).
Toulon were taken over by comic magnate Mourad Boudjellal.

Man City's new investors started buying big name stars (an immediate £100M outlay on players), Toulon's owner convinced several of the world's top players including Tana Umaga and Gonzala Queseda to join what was a second division team.
Afterwards Man City started to accumulate some of the world's top names such as Carlos Tevez and Robinho
Toulon have acquired the services of Habana, Andrew Mehrtens, Jonny Wilkinson, George Gregan, Carl Hayman, Bakkies Bohta ......

Both have had former international managers in charge - Man City have had Keegan and Erriksson whilst Toulon took St Andre away France.

Now, you're either being obtuse or are a Man City fan.

As I've answered your question, perhaps you can tell me why Toulon and Man City are miles apart in their approach because I, frankly, neither agree nor can see any justification in your argument.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees both Man City and Toulon as plastic teams.

Thanks. some good info.

[QUOTE=Abbey]


As I've answered your question, perhaps you can tell me why Toulon and Man City are miles apart in their approach because
[quote]

I will.

-Manchester City's debt last year was £51m
-Toulon are debt free
-Manchester City's owner cleared £300m debt
-Toulon's owner has never done anything of the sort.
-Toulon's owner has put in around 600k a year since joined in 2005. That's probably not far off what some Welsh and English club benefactors put in.
-Toulon's operating budget was 9m Euros when he joined in 2005. It is now 22m Euros
-Toulon receive 9.2m Euros a year in sponsorship through companies like Volkswagen. That is a tremendous amount to get. They also get about 5m Euros from their council for stadium costs etc. That's 14.2m of money raised through good business nous and good working relationships with local organisations. Add on the merchandise, restaurants and ticket sales and THAT is what pays for the best players in the world - not Mourad Boujelall's wallet.
-Who pays Sergio Agearo's wages?

There's no doubt that money plays a big part in Toulon's success. But to have transformed the club from generating less than the current salary cap to 2.2 x the current salary cap is some achievement.

I think Mourad steps down next year, and the next president will unlikely be a multi-millionaire in the same bracket as him. So if they continue to turnover 22m Euros, win the league and the Euro cup - will they still be a sugar daddy driven plastic team?

Abbey wrote: I suppose it depends on whether they continue to sign the Dan Carters rather than the James Hooks. Obviously players go to where the success is but I find it strange that Toulon get the stars where Toulouse don't (as much). Toulon aren't as plastic as Racing, I wholeheartedly agree!!

Where would you go if you were Dan Carter? Toulon or Toulouse?