From a lot of the shite I've heard from Lincoln fans over the years I'm afraid the attitude is pretty similar among a lot of lower league fans. Not that they expect to win the CL but that they want someone to come up with 'investment' - ie chucking loads of money at the club in order to move forward. The half a million quid our chairman actually has put in recently doesn't count of course, that's only keeping the club afloat not paying for transfer fees.
Exactly. & thats the case at many other smaller clubs too.
Years ago (cant remember the exact years off the top of my head), after the end of our european exile, English clubs were not doing to well in Europe & after the last club got knocked out (Forest losing 4 - 1 to German opposition ironicaly iirc) there was a big enquiry into why English football was so shit (not winning everything like they had before the European exile).
What this article deliberatly avoids mentioning is that a similar post mortem was carried out in Germany a few years back based on the perception, by many, that German football was not living up to its potential.
One of the reasons given, during that debate, was the extra constraints & rules placed on German clubs, which many felt handicapped German clubs.
Amongst a lot of German clubs this issue is a big deal with many lobbying their politicians to remove these constraints & many others lobbying UEfA for greater constraints on clubs in other countries to "balance the plating field".
Anyone bothering to check the facts knows that the facts largely makes a lie of the OP article.
Now before anyone sulks to much & starts building the usual Urban75 strawmen to attack me over these facts I should point out they are facts & not my opinion & that my reportage of facts & the views of others doesnt actually mean Im endorsing those views.
My football aprenticeship came in the pre-PL era so I remember football before the global era, when prices were lower, clubs more community orientated & men were real men & not over paid prancing prima donnas more interested in football than selling hair products.
I fondly remember a lot from that era, the thousands of locals, together as a community, supporting their local club, rather than a priveleged few flying 250 miles by helicopter to support a team of winners in a city they neither know, or like.
But to claim the German model is the answer is a lie that fails to address the needs & desires of the fans & I was playing devils advocate to point that out.
Tbh if you wanted community owned clubs the Spanish examples would have been a better example, were it not for the fact that fiscally they can be even worse than some of our examples.
I actually like the idea of community clubs but in the very real context of today I do have a deal of scepticism on how they can truly work & deliver what the fans want, which in a lot of cases is success.
I do think the issue is a lot more complicated than many would care to admit (as can be seen in this thread).
