Please Sir, I Want Some More…. and How The FA Crap On Their Own Doorstep

February 16, 2019November 5, 2022 ~ july1966 ~ Leave a comment

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As my non league football teal Lewes set to address the gross inequality of the gap in prize money the FA divvy out between the men and women’s game, they seem to have not noticed that our men’s team get a very rough deal too.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47247330

The allocation of cup money is under the prose.

The reason the FA Cup has always been the nation’s cup competition is that it begins at near park football level and ends up in the Wembley showcase. Make no mistake before it descends to the rich clubs fighting out at the end, the public interest and that of the media is concentrated on the rags of non league not the ever monotonous and generic football of the riches.

Millions of fans of big clubs have a local non league club they hold dear and the FA Cup brings it all together.

The FA is supposedly committed to grass roots football. It is the beating heart of the British game.

So why do stinking rich clubs share £5,000,000 for being in the final whereas poverty stricken non league clubs in the first 4 rounds fight it out at £5-700,000 per round ? equating to £2-4,000 per club for a win.

Why do clubs who get to the final get rewarded with enough money to pay one of their players for a week, whereas at the interesting end of the competition cash strapped clubs get rewarded pro rata with ten times less ? Big clubs simply don’t need the money and augment the FA paybout further with TV revenue and other income streams.

Meanwhile Joe Bloggs FC, struggling on the breadline get a pittance. Why do the FA want to mirror society where the vast pinnacle of wealth is concentrated at the top, people who are greedy and have enough, whereas the rest of us fish for scraps ? People’s Cup my arse.

The FA are supposedly committed to investing in grass roots football for the health of the nation and the England team. So why are they starving the very clubs who through volunteers and enthusiasts are supposed to facilitate this trying desperately to keep their clubs going for the local community. Providing a breeding ground for young British talent.

It is interesting how even with the FA Cup, the People’s Cup, society is mirrored as the rich look after themselves as the poor keep the whole thing going.

Why can the FA just not allocate an equal pot of suppose £2,000,000 per round and start to address this gross inequality and start to pump some proper money into non league grass roots football ?

Extra preliminary round winners	(184)	£2,250 Losers receive £750
Preliminary round winners	(160)	£2,890 Losers receive £960
First round qualifying winners	(116)	£6,000
Second Round Qualifying winners	(80)	£9,000
Third Round Qualifying winners	(40)	£15,000
Fourth Round Qualifying winners	(32)	£25,000
First Round Proper winners	(40)	£36,000
Second Round Proper winners	(20)	£54,000
Third Round Proper winners	(32)	£135,000
Fourth Round Proper winners	(16)	£180,000
Fifth Round Proper winners	(8)	£360,000
Quarter-Final winners	(4)	£720,000
Semi-Final winners	(2)	£1,800,000
Semi-Final losers	(2)	£900,000
Final runners-up	(1)	£1,800,000
Final winners	(1)	£3,600,000

Were Lewes FC flogging a Dead Horse About The FA Cup Prize Fund?

February 14, 2019October 5, 2023 ~ july1966 ~ Leave a comment

hqdefault At Lewes FC in our seemingly never ending failing quest to pick up some serious sponsorship to cover the enormous operating losses caused by the Equality FC initiative, a lightbulb moment occurred.

Lewes FC, the great self publicists of non league football, are doing exactly that again. At the club we have a tremendous pool, of marketing and media savvy. Hence our Equality FC initiative is quite well known in the clique of women’s football.

Unfortunately, the publicity has so far resulted in ‘ongoing discussions with sponsors’ for 18 months. Secret code for failed.

Lewes FC have been perfectly honest in saying Equality FC is both a politically and business venture. The politics to help highlight the gross division in financial between the men’s game and ladies game. The business is hoping the publicity will help bring much needed sponsorship and funding to the club.

A couple of weeks ago the latest publicity stunt was revealed. An ‘open letter’ to the FA stating (I found the sickly presentation misguided) how unfair it is that the prize money over the mens and women’s tournament is split 99 to 1. Quite bloody right to highlight this. It is despicable.

https://www.lewesfc.com/article/an-open-letter-to-the-fa-board-time-to-close-the-fa-cup-prize-gap

Lewes thought they were onto something and said that we would be hearing a lot more about this. Clearly it was believed this was something everyone in football could agree with. Outrage.

Skilfully the FA swatted the letter away. The resources were allocated according to weight of sponsorship income which was practically all via the men’s. Besides, they added, we have just invested 18 million pounds in the women’s game. The furore of anger at the injustice and the accompanying publicity never arrived. It flopped.

I felt quite outraged at the gross gap in prize money and looking at the list of prize money for both men and women, yes the figures are mind boggling between the genders. But then I thought wait a minute.

Are Lewes FC forgetting they have a men’s team ? Because while the gender gap is enormous in the prize fund so is the gap between the earlier rounds of the FA Cup, which Lewes also feature in, and the finalists.

When the FA are swatting Lewes away with their gender excuse and why the men’s game deserve 99% of the prize fund why are Lewes not going back and saying in that case why the massive gap between the victors in the early preliminary rounds and the finalists. Why do the 184 winners of the extra preliminary rounds only receive £2,250. A pool of £500,000. A further 5 rounds in and it gets no better. The 40 third qualifying round winners receive £15,000. A pool of £600,000. Yet the pool for the final round is £5,000,000. A puddle of piss to the giants of the game. Not enough to pay one of their players for a year.

The finalists get ten times more prize money than the collective mass of clubs in the earlier rounds.

Anyone involved in non league knows if there was parity of rounds and the winners of the earlier rounds received £22,500 and not £2,250 it would be an enormous boost to the development of non league.

It raises two points re Lewes FC.

Why spend all that energy just attacking the FA over the women’s prize fund when there is a fundamental case for change through the whole tournament. As brilliant as it is that we have highlighted the gross inequality in the women’s game you are highlighting a sporting injustice to a limited audience. Nobody took any notice.

Why not use some savvy with all that marketing and media talent at Lewes and get all non league clubs on side and expose the disparity here. This really would gain the momentum the ‘open letter’ failed to garner. We may even get loads of new people signing up as members too as well as maybe a larger FA Cup pot in future competitions if successful

Which leads to the second point. Equality FC. I think the Board have lost sight of what we are supposed to be. A gender equal club. Seems to me so much energy is now being spent on promoting the women’s cause, rightly so. But the men’s side of the club, as above represents, is being neglected.

The BBC are keen to promote what we are doing at Lewes but we seem to be just flogging a dead horse. With certain large media streams happy to promote our equality campaign why didn’t we chuck in the disparity of rags and riches in football.

Make no mistake. The FA Cup is the people’s cup because of the non league minnows and the interest they bring to the competition. These clubs deserve a larger slice of the prize funds.

I have posted another blog today about Lewes FC.

https://july66blog.wordpress.com/2019/02/14/lewes-fc-the-football-rebels-without-a-clue/

Lewes FC The Football Rebels Without a Clue.

February 14, 2019November 5, 2022 ~ july1966

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THE STORY

Slightly unfair title as they are not without a clue all the time, in fact quite the opposite. Before the ‘doh’ moment of course.

It takes a truly talented collection of people, like the Board at Lewes FC to initiate and set up the ground breaking political / sporting initiative Equality FC, becoming the first club in the world to pay our male and female players and equal budget. Not just that but through enormous marketing and media skills getting the project in the public gaze.

It takes a truly incompetent collection of people, also like the Board at Lewes FC to then throw a spanner in their own ‘work’ belittling their efforts and jeopardising the project.

At the start of the season Lewes had been granted a licence to play in tier 2 of women’s national football in the Championship. Amongst teams like Man U, Spurs, Leicester and the Palace. This was through amazing work from the people running the club to not only be in that division but to set up the necessary structures needed to operate under the terms of the licence, including a back room team of 9 paid employees.

It was hoped this would all be paid for by sponsors buying into what Lewes are trying to do ‘football politically’

The manager John Donoghue did brilliantly. He had been the manager since 2016 and bearing in mind Lewes had been promoted a division to a division with massive clubs it seems almost unbelievable after 6 games John has achieved a tally 3 wins and 3 losses and we sat proud as anything in mid table of a division of 11 teams of largely clubs utterly dwarfing us in stature.

He was sacked. Unbelievable.

The Board released a statement of what can only be described as an overly inflated sense of entitlement.

There is absolutely no doubting John’s coaching ability, thoroughness, professionalism and drive. However, despite some good early results, recent form has indicated that a fresh impetus is now needed for the team to achieve its potential in this League.

So let’s examine how that ‘fresh impetus’ went.

John’s record 9 points out of a possible 18, a 50% success rate

‘Fresh impetus’ success rate1 point out of a possible 24, a 4% success rate

Wow, that really is a fresh impetus of chronic rot.

After a number of managerless games which we achieved one draw and 4 defeats, Fran Alonso was appointed as the new manager, presumably to oversee the ‘fresh impetus,’

To date his record is 3 games 3 defeats in the league. Currently the only team as bad as us in the division Millwall beat us in the FA Cup on Sunday for a plum tie versus Liverpool. 4 out of 4 lost.

Oh for the senses and sensibilities of John Donoghue !

Okay, so just the old tradition of a moronic decision at a football club. But this goes much deeper than that.

THE RAMIFICATIONS

Lewes FC are skint and our excursion into budget parity is underwritten by two members of the Board for 3 years. This is to give us time to get sponsors to cover the cost. No sponsor of any gravitas has been forthcoming. As a potential sponsor are you more likely to commit to a team playing well, impressively holding it’s own as a small fish in a large pond. Or to one in seeming terminal decline ? Don’t bother with the answers on a postcard.

If Lewes FC are honourable in their commitment to budget parity they must be seen as the talismanic beacon for forwarding the interests of the women’s game. It is SO crucially important with all of the interest in our venture that we can pass onto other similar clubs the knowledge that you can have budget parity at your club and do well. All we are showing instead is that it can’t be done, thus undoing all of the hard work so many have put in. Under Donoghue we were looking a good punt to any admirers thinking of promoting the interests of their women’s team.

Operating under the new FA licence arrangement has meant enormous upheaval and expense at the club. Surely it is a rudiment of common sense the guy doing well in charge for a couple of years and getting us of to great start should be at the helm steadying the ship. It is basic sound management.

Let’s add some insult to injury as well. The Board made it implicit in their statement that John was sacked to get the ‘fresh impetus.’ Within a few weeks we are being told by the new manager there is no pressure to get results immediately as under the terms of the new licences nobody can be relegated this season. Wow, that really is an industrial contradiction. Talk about piss ups and breweries.

So John Donoghue was sacked to get ‘fresh impetus’ on the back of three defeats, we then get one point out of twenty four and all of a sudden the goal posts are moved, the shit excuses come out and poor old John Donoghue must be one hell of a perplexed and confused guy.