Football over the next 10 years

[Guest]

Professional Football seems to have changed more in the last decade than in the previous century. How do you see it changing over the next 10 years?

 

I'll start us off with the league structure. I fear that we will get a "European" league via the back door. We have already moved from a two leg knockout European cup to a group phase then knockout section Champion's league (even more complicated in the Europa league) and there is now talk of a third European competition and a second CL group phase which will add 4 more games onto the schedule. Clubs in the Prem are already complaining about the number of fixtures and most European leagues have moved towards a short "winter" break. In England we see most prem teams and all the top teams putting out weakened sides in the League cup and now it's also becoming commonplace in the FA Cup, with many putting out only their reserves in earlier rounds. The extra European games will lead to teams putting out weaker sides in Prem games on certain weeks which will lead to the need for the "Big" clubs to change how European places are obtained. I think we'll find that teams qualifying for the second group phase in the CL will get automatic selection to the following year's competition which in turn will mean that the premier league becomes more inconsequential as the domestic cups have already become. From here it is only a small step to the European league set-up.

 

It is romantic to believe that this couldn't happen because winning your own country's title is the most important goal in football but we can already see that "nationalism" in football is dying unlike nationalism in countries. Football is truly international and is breaking the idea of "national culture". The clubs are owned by non-nationals and the players are from many nations, now even the support base is international, and, for the big clubs, overseas income is far greater than national income. Football is about money. Playing Juve twice a year will bring in more than playing Bournemouth twice a year.  So my prediction is that by 2030 we will have a European league which will include English teams that will not play in the English divisions.

 

This will have further consequences to football during the decade. The league cup will become more like the FA Trophy, where the highest level teams will not compete or will play their reserve teams (initially). The FA Cup will lose it's European spot (or become entry into a third level competition) and will start to resemble the League cup in its present form. Money (particularly TV revenue) will be diverted from the Prem towards Europe and therefore money in the lower leagues will also diminish. The third and 4th tiers will become semi-pro or at least not necessarily full pro and will be re-organized geographically so that we have two regional divisions where promotion to the higher level is earned through playoff against the top teams of each section - another money generating ploy to help clubs survive. Many lower level teams will go out of business during the next decade which given the number of "non-league" teams that exist will not cause the anticipated stir as their places will be taken by smaller clubs who already know how to survive on low revenue. Finally I believe that before the end of the decade the top Scottish Prem teams will join the English (perhaps renamed UK league) with Rangers and Celtic replacing teams like Manchester and Liverpool, who move to the European league, in the Prem (probably getting a couple of seasons in the FA Cup first) as they will not be deemed good enough to be considered for the European league. The other Scottish teams (like present Welsh teams) will move into the northern region lower level league or become a Scottish regional semi-pro team.

 

Predictions:

1. A new European league

2. A weakened UK league setup

3. Regional semi-pro lower leagues

4. Scottish teams joining the UK league

5. Marginalisation of domestic cup competitions

 

Other football changes over the next decade:

Rule changes?

Referees?

AI?

Fan interaction?

 

What are your thoughts and predictions?

 

 

[urban.spaceman]

1. One of the big, big teams will get relegated to the Championship. I honestly hope it's Arsenal. Most likely probably Everton though.

 

2. Forest or Derby will finally get their shit together and become a mid-table Premier League club.

 

3. After Pep leaves in 2022, Man City are finally punished for all of the things.

 

4. Liverpool sadly dominate for the next 5 years. Everyone else's enthusiasm for football sort of disappears.

 

5. Ole gets sacked and is replaced by Giggs. Who gets sacked after winning the League Cup and finishing 15th, and is replaced by Nicky Butt. Who is sacked after winning the Championship play-offs, and is replaced by freshly retired Kasper Schmeichel in 2028.

 

6. Spurs still haven't won a trophy.

 

7. Frustrated about still not being allowed back in the country, Chelsea end up getting sold by Abramovich for a quid to some crackheads.

 

8. The Birch is frozen in carbonite and taken away by Boba Fett.

 

9. England bury 60 years of hurt and finally win the World Cup in 2026, with Jamie Vardy scoring the winner against Germany. 

 

10. Leicester City finally get a fair game against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League final after 65 years of waiting.

 

11. The offside rule has got so far from the original point of the law that no bugger understands why it exists any more nor what is or isn't offside.

[davieG]

5 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

11. The offside rule has got so far from the original point of the law that no bugger understands why it exists any more nor what is or isn't offside.

I thought we were already there with this one.

[urban.spaceman]

39 minutes ago, davieG said:

I thought we were already there with this one.

It’s going to get much, much worse.

[Leicesterpool]

 

What's going to happen in the next ten years

 

1) For the 2021-2022 will see Jurgen Klopp leaving Liverpool for Real Madrid, taking Salah, Mane and Van Dijk with him. Following this we see a dramatic fall of Liverpool, with a lot of managers coming in and out trying to sort out the mess.

 

2) VAR is scrapped from English football and only to be used in the champions league, world cups and european championships.

 

3) Pep will leave Man City at the end of next season as they once again fail to reach a champions league final.

 

4) Sin bin's will be introduced by 2026, which will see a player leave the pitch for five minutes and sit in the sin bin once they recieve a yellow card.

 

5) The Uefa Champions League final will be hosted for the first time outside of europe for 2024 final and will be taken to New York City.

 

6) England once again fail at both European Champions and the fifa world cup in 2022. Which see's England reach the final this summer and reach the semi's in 2022. Following this England decide to part company with Gareth Southgate. Bad news for us Leicester fans, the FA decide to approach Rodgers with the vacant post.

 

7) Emma Hayes becomes the first female to manage in the mens football league by taking over at Northampton Town... at some point.

 

8) Manchester United finally sort out there troubles out, as once again become a force as this summer they appoint Mauricio Pochettio

 

9) Rangers and Celtic once again explore to move to the english league, they agree a deal to enter league two... but at last minute they are rejected due to a fear of policing at that level. 

 

10) Leicester have finally lifted the FA Cup!

 

 

 

[Nalis]

Lets go for 10 points over the next 10 years:

 

1 - At most, the premier league will reduce to 18 teams. Top premier league teams wont  leave the premier league for good, the rivalries and marketing value of going to the likes of Villa / Newcastle / Leeds away offers more than enough money to foreign markets than a european league.

 

2 - However, two major leagues will merge, say, Italy and Germany to compete with the premier league

 

3 - A ex non league team currently in League 1 or League 2 will be in the premier league. Possibly Fleetwood or Accrington but I'm going to say Forest Green Rovers as they'll capture a niche marketing /cult status.

 

4 - We will win the League Cup

 

5 - We will get relegated to the championship at some point over the next 10 years.

 

6 -  The world cup will have the status quo of being dominated by European and, to a lesser extent South America in the latter stages.

 

7 - VAR will have a 30 second limit to make a decision

 

8 - Matches will be 60 minute matches with stopclock when the ball is out of play

 

9 - England will get to one major tournament final

 

10 - The transfer record will be half a billion

[RonnieTodger]

Wasn't sure what to put this but I saw that Moyes suggested combining the English & Scottish League Cups. I'd do that but just for the top flight clubs. 

 

Adds up to 32 and makes a few interesting games. At least the Scottish clubs would take it seriously, whereas no-one does in the early rounds down here. Any teams outside of the top flight play enough games anyway.

[Guest]

Was it Klopp who suggested scrapping the League Cup this week? I guess it's because he got knocked out but I really think that's going to be the trend.

[KrefelderFox666]

2 hours ago, RonnieTodger said:

Wasn't sure what to put this but I saw that Moyes suggested combining the English & Scottish League Cups. I'd do that but just for the top flight clubs. 

 

Adds up to 32 and makes a few interesting games. At least the Scottish clubs would take it seriously, whereas no-one does in the early rounds down here. Any teams outside of the top flight play enough games anyway.

I bet Southampton would relish a trip up to Aberdeen.

[KingsX]

Satan will officially be revealed as sole owner of both Liverpool Football Club and Jurgen Klopp’s soul.

 

Ed Woodward will finally placate the fans by hiring the ghost of Benny Hill to be Man U’s Director of Football.

 

Megan Rapinoe will be inseminated with Ronaldo’s sperm and Chelsea will sign her son at the age of 8 for half a billion dollars.

 

Chris Kavanaugh will drop through the leagues, culminating in a move from League Two lino to cleaning the toilets at Stockley Park.

 

[Corky]

The League Cup will go. Too much talk about too many games and that will be sacrificed.

 

The Champions League will expand, can see teams playing 4-6 more matches to increase revenue.

 

England will see a £1 million per week player.

 

The 39th game, or the round of matches played around the world, will happen.

 

The bottom two divisions will become regionalised.

[Nalis]

On 18/01/2020 at 18:02, Leicesterpool said:

 

5) The Uefa Champions League final will be hosted for the first time outside of europe for 2024 final and will be taken to New York City.

 

 

This one is worryingly a great shout, whether its the States or Asia is the question.

 

Only risk of it not happening the fear of having another Porto v Monaco type final in terms of the size of club.

[spacemunky]

Notts County will shock the sporting world and finally add a second trophy to the case, ending a 130 something year drought, with a 3-1 victory over Tottenham in the Pornhub.com Cup.

 

Harry Kane will claim the Spurs goal, despite having retired from professional football the previous season.

[RowlattsFox]

1. League Cup will be scrapped unfortunately and championship clubs will join the EFL Trophy

 

2. Some sort of 'sin bin' will be introduced

 

3. Match timings will change, even if its just clock stopping at goals, injuries and substitutions

 

4. Someone currently in League 2 will be in the Premier League, Salford City?

 

5. A 'big' club is going to hit serious financial trouble

 

6. Neil Warnock will still have 'one last job' in him

 

7. Jamie Vardy wins I'm a Celeb 2028

 

8. Brendan Rodgers takes his England team to world cup in 2026

[Aus Fox]

1. A European league will be introduced 16 teams, 
2. The teams involved will seriously over estimate the desire for it. Supporters will

move along to Phoenix clubs such as FCUM - Stadiums will be fun of day trippers with no atmosphere, leading to the collapse of all 16 teams involved.

3. Meanwhile without the same teams dominating, national leagues will become stronger, with every season new teams winning competition.

4. Gary Neville will become Avery good manager.

5. VAR will introduce a captains review system similar to cricket with each team getting 3 challenges per game.

6. Port Vale will become a premier League club

7. Derby will play in League One

8. Mourinho and Levy will have a very public fallout, resulting in Mourinho going missing and Levy being charged by police in relation to his disappearance.

9. One of the major clubs in Europe will be found guilty of systematic doping.

10. The money will all dry up, and football will return to being a working class sport played by normal blokes with normal jobs.

11. A female manager will be appointed in the top 2 divisions 

[boots60]

1 hour ago, Aus Fox said:

1. A European league will be introduced 16 teams, 
2. The teams involved will seriously over estimate the desire for it. Supporters will

move along to Phoenix clubs such as FCUM - Stadiums will be fun of day trippers with no atmosphere, leading to the collapse of all 16 teams involved.

3. Meanwhile without the same teams dominating, national leagues will become stronger, with every season new teams winning competition.

4. Gary Neville will become Avery good manager.

5. VAR will introduce a captains review system similar to cricket with each team getting 3 challenges per game.

6. Port Vale will become a premier League club

7. Derby will play in League One

8. Mourinho and Levy will have a very public fallout, resulting in Mourinho going missing and Levy being charged by police in relation to his disappearance.

9. One of the major clubs in Europe will be found guilty of systematic doping.

10. The money will all dry up, and football will return to being a working class sport played by normal blokes with normal jobs.

11. A female manager will be appointed in the top 2 divisions 

All above are possible except no. 4. 

[Footballwipe]

Some good shouts here. Will probably replicate some but here:

• Our cycle will come to an end and we'll be relegated, even if it's just for a season
• LCFC cheapest season ticket prices to increase to more than £600
• League Cup to go, FA Cup to go midweek only, no replays
• World Cup 2026 to be a disaster with 48 teams, following on from a surprisingly brilliant 2022 tournament
• England/UK lose bid to win 2030 World Cup to a Balkan State joint tournament by one vote
• Premier League TV rights in the UK to reduce in value. As a result PL stop selling rights, start their own subscription TV/Streaming network with every game available live
• 3pm Saturday kick off eliminated (see UCL point below) and games kicking off as early as 11am regularly for Asian audiences, now paying the lions share of the TV rights fees
• More than 10 Football League clubs go out of business, B teams to be introduced to help the finances of FL clubs
• Attendances start to drop across the country as clubs overreach on ticket prices and atmospheres suffer
• Turkey host Euro 2028, either the last tournament with 24 teams or the first with 32 teams
• Leicester's transfer record will be in excess of £100 million
• Champions League moves to Saturday afternoon/evening, shoving league games out of the slot to Sundays

Edited 28 January 2020 by Footballwipe

[Dan LCFC]

Red Bull will buy MK Dons as the easiest club to get away with rebranding, and with a decent stadium, and will have them in Europe within 10 years.

[Dan LCFC]

12 minutes ago, Footballwipe said:

Some good shouts here. Will probably replicate some but here:

• Our cycle will come to an end and we'll be relegated, even if it's just for a season
• LCFC cheapest season ticket prices to increase to more than £600
• League Cup to go, FA Cup to go midweek only, no replays
• World Cup 2026 to be a disaster with 48 teams, following on from a surprisingly brilliant 2022 tournament
• England/UK lose bid to win 2030 World Cup to a Balkan State joint tournament by one vote
• Premier League TV rights in the UK to reduce in value. As a result PL stop selling rights, start their own subscription TV/Streaming network with every game available live
• 3pm Saturday kick off eliminated (see UCL point below) and games kicking off as early as 11am regularly for Asian audiences, now paying the lions share of the TV rights fees
• More than 10 Football League clubs go out of business, B teams to be introduced to help the finances of FL clubs
• Attendances start to drop across the country as clubs overreach on ticket prices and atmospheres suffer
• Turkey host Euro 2028, either the last tournament with 24 teams or the first with 32 teams
• Leicester's transfer record will be in excess of £100 million
• Champions League moves to Saturday afternoon/evening, shoving league games out of the slow to Sundays

That is a truly depressing list, yet entirely plausible.

[Corky]

Something Cardiff Fox alluded to in the fans performance thread that I think will occur-

 

A rise in clubs being formed by disillusioned top flight and Championship fans, not the same as FC United but people fed up of high ticket prices, kick-off times being moved, sanitised matchday experiences and probable changes to the game such as Cups being marginalised and cancelled.

 

Wouldn't rule out AFC Leicester, Arsenal, Chelsea types etc in the next decade where fans want to watch football at a cheaper price, 3pm Saturday and the ability to stand up without hindrance.

[fuchsntf]

On 18/01/2020 at 12:04, FIF said:

Professional Football seems to have changed more in the last decade than in the previous century. How do you see it changing over the next 10 years?

 

I'll start us off with the league structure. I fear that we will get a "European" league via the back door. We have already moved from a two leg knockout European cup to a group phase then knockout section Champion's league (even more complicated in the Europa league) and there is now talk of a third European competition and a second CL group phase which will add 4 more games onto the schedule. Clubs in the Prem are already complaining about the number of fixtures and most European leagues have moved towards a short "winter" break. In England we see most prem teams and all the top teams putting out weakened sides in the League cup and now it's also becoming commonplace in the FA Cup, with many putting out only their reserves in earlier rounds. The extra European games will lead to teams putting out weaker sides in Prem games on certain weeks which will lead to the need for the "Big" clubs to change how European places are obtained. I think we'll find that teams qualifying for the second group phase in the CL will get automatic selection to the following year's competition which in turn will mean that the premier league becomes more inconsequential as the domestic cups have already become. From here it is only a small step to the European league set-up.

 

It is romantic to believe that this couldn't happen because winning your own country's title is the most important goal in football but we can already see that "nationalism" in football is dying unlike nationalism in countries. Football is truly international and is breaking the idea of "national culture". The clubs are owned by non-nationals and the players are from many nations, now even the support base is international, and, for the big clubs, overseas income is far greater than national income. Football is about money. Playing Juve twice a year will bring in more than playing Bournemouth twice a year.  So my prediction is that by 2030 we will have a European league which will include English teams that will not play in the English divisions.

 

This will have further consequences to football during the decade. The league cup will become more like the FA Trophy, where the highest level teams will not compete or will play their reserve teams (initially). The FA Cup will lose it's European spot (or become entry into a third level competition) and will start to resemble the League cup in its present form. Money (particularly TV revenue) will be diverted from the Prem towards Europe and therefore money in the lower leagues will also diminish. The third and 4th tiers will become semi-pro or at least not necessarily full pro and will be re-organized geographically so that we have two regional divisions where promotion to the higher level is earned through playoff against the top teams of each section - another money generating ploy to help clubs survive. Many lower level teams will go out of business during the next decade which given the number of "non-league" teams that exist will not cause the anticipated stir as their places will be taken by smaller clubs who already know how to survive on low revenue. Finally I believe that before the end of the decade the top Scottish Prem teams will join the English (perhaps renamed UK league) with Rangers and Celtic replacing teams like Manchester and Liverpool, who move to the European league, in the Prem (probably getting a couple of seasons in the FA Cup first) as they will not be deemed good enough to be considered for the European league. The other Scottish teams (like present Welsh teams) will move into the northern region lower level league or become a Scottish regional semi-pro team.

 

Predictions:

1. A new European league

2. A weakened UK league setup

3. Regional semi-pro lower leagues

4. Scottish teams joining the UK league

5. Marginalisation of domestic cup competitions

 

Other football changes over the next decade:

Rule changes?

Referees?

AI?

Fan interaction?

 

What are your thoughts and predictions?

 

 

in ten years I will be 76, beyond caring   Build my coffin,from the wooden tops of VAR,then Burn it....

At least I can Take some unimaginative Yes-men  with me...!! 

[Manini]

On 28/01/2020 at 12:52, Dan LCFC said:

Red Bull will buy MK Dons as the easiest club to get away with rebranding, and with a decent stadium, and will have them in Europe within 10 years.

Red Bull MK **** you can see it now can’t you. 

[Dan LCFC]

33 minutes ago, Manini said:

Red Bull MK **** you can see it now can’t you. 

It's just too obvious. They are literally everything Red Bull would buy. I can't see a box it doesn't tick.

 

If they ever enter the English game, that's their passage, and they'll be annoyingly successful too.

[Stadt]

1. Domestic tv money falls, foreign TV massively increases. We get even worse kick off times as a result to suit fans in China

 

2. Several championship clubs will go bust after spending completely unsustainable amounts gambling on going up

 

3. Massive analytics movement as clubs want to waste less money

 

4. Football specials will return as the railways as nationalised 

 

5. League cup gets scrapped because there's too any games, despite being 'too many games' the big English clubs push for more European matches

 

6. A proper winter break is introduced

 

7. English clubs actually play a lot more English players

 

8. In the late 2020s China become a reasonable top 50 intl team (with a fair amount of naturalised players)

 

9. We win the FA Cup and Europa League

 

10. Us and Wolves consistently finish above Man Utd and Arsenal 

Edited 30 January 2020 by Stadt

[TiffToff88]

23 minutes ago, Stadt said:

10. Us and Wolves consistently finish above Man Utd and Arsenal 

 

The media will call it the "Big 6, plus Leicester and Wolves"