Shambles tbh. No one cares, it's been said since the start and how have Solihull avoided being in this? How have Braintree been included?
Joke of a competition.
I hope every fan boycotts it and it dies a quick death.
The top 16 of the NL qualify but if any opt out (like Solihull) they are replaced with the next highest club. For all the negativity, a minimum of four additional home games with 100% of the gate receipts to be kept by the club plus a million quid in prize money to be shared with just 15 other NL clubs is pretty decent incentive to take part and to advance as far as we can in this competition. It's more reliable than hoping for an FA Cup replay, which is what it replaces.
It's 8k for a win, It probably costs that to turn the floodlights on and open the hospitality.
I'm disgusted that as a club after putting out such a strong statement around the FA cup shambles have not stood up and said "f**k the PL" If York, Solihull, Southend, Barnet & Eastleigh all got away with not being involved why didn't we? The answer to that is we simply didn't put up a fight. It's one thing to vote against the competition at an AGM but we still bent over and asked "how deep Mr PL?". Why we as a club choose to bend to the will of a league that has continuously f**ked the teams in the league over and over. What happened to "we will beat you"?
It's hardly like we as a fan base have been quiet about this being a f**king disgrace of a consolation prize. Where is our solidarity with the teams lower down the pyramid also f**ked over by the no replays rule?
I will not change my mind on this competition even if we somehow win the thing without injuring a player. I will also be the first in line to berate anyone involved with this decision when we lose a player to an ACL/MCL injury that we did not need to pick up. We won't even make the gap in recovering and paying a player to be out for 12 months with the pittance of prize money on offer. ?1m is f**k all when you dilute it beyond the headline in to round prize money. Headline numbers like that are there to fool the stupid.
If anyone thinks there is value in this competition I've got some terrific chocolate fireguards for sale. I'd genuinely appreciate an honest explanation of why the Board think that we should waste our time, effort, and player safety on this non-event of a competition. Without the f**king nonsense we've put out stroking the gooch of the Premier League to completion.
I've never been more annoyed by the actions of the club before. I held this board in much higher esteem than they have shown to hold the club with this. It's probably a good job I'm nowhere near Moss Lane this weekend, I think my comments will be heavily echoed by others though.
Between this, the shirt launches, and the absolute dogsh*te social media presence we currently have I'm wondering what the f**k the club thinks it's improving on at the moment. It's not the product on the pitch (we've regressed) the matchday offering (we still dump on fans in order to get a few 100 more oldham fans in) it's certainly not borrowing our neighbouring rugby teams homework when we realised shirt designs were due to Mr Puma after registration. It's absolutely not announcing for the 7,567th time the shop opening hours on twitter, or telling us some more about the club's community activities, all while we don't know if our highest earning player will be back after a total of 10 or 12 months on the sideline.
And yeah, I think in situations like this the fans really should say it how they feel.