Can Eibar Seal La Liga Promotion In Time?

((HT: Goal.com/Wright))

Here's one for the little guy... hopefully...

Eibar got another home win a few days ago with a win over Deportivo Alaves
((HT: LigaAdelante))


Eibar secured promotion from the Secunda League, but they have one of the smallest stadia in the competitive ranks in La Liga with a gate a little over 5,000. They need to raise almost 2-million Euros by early August to meet all the financial obligations they need to meet- and there are, apparently, a lot of them.

Sid Lowe, over at ESPN.com, has the by-law in question:

According to the law -- Real Decreto 1251/1999, which became applicable to Eibar when they were promoted to the Second Division in the summer and thus took their place in what is formally classified as professional football -- every team has to have a capital equal to 25 percent of the average expenses of all the teams in the Second Division, not including the two clubs with the biggest outgoings and the two clubs with the smallest outgoings in the division.

In theory it is a way of guaranteeing the survival of clubs but in practice, it could cripple Eibar.

Eibar is operating in the black, but might have to get some big investors (or a lot of little ones) when the shares come out.

Count the HQ in at 50 Euros a piece when available...

Blackburn-Burnley Is For The Birds

((HT: Sky Sports))

Or, more specifically, chickens...

It's no secret that, since the family that owns the Venky's franchise took over as principal owners for Blackburn Rovers, that fans have long held them responsible for the team's slide out of the Premier League.

Rovers sit in 10th in the Championship currently with Burnley fighting for a playoffs spot...

And Ewood Park became a chicken coop again just after kickoff...


The fans have had it with an ownership family that seems not to want to communicate with the community on any level about anything...

Since relegation, the club is down at least 5-million pounds in advertising revenue according to an article by ForbesIndia.

The Rovers Trust has raised 3-million of the required 10-million pounds to start the process of bidding to take the club away from the Rao family and Venky's. In November of 2013, the Lancashire Telegraph newspaper called on the family to actually start communicating with the fans and the town- something they have not done in the last few years:

Already shackled with a £54.5m debt after losing £36.5m last season, Rovers will feel the squeeze even more so next season if they remain in the Championship.

Premier League parachute payments will be halved from £16m to £8m and there is the very real prospect of the club being placed under a transfer embargo come January 2015 for failing Financial Fair Play.

It is a mess.

A mess which is all of Venky’s own doing – be it through naivety, poor advice or just rank bad decision making.

Championship clubs, under the Financial Fair Play Rules, can only lose £8m in 2013-14. Anything higher will result in a transfer embargo which would come into force on New Year's Day 2015. If a club violates FFP, but gets promoted, they'll have to pay a tax on a sliding scale- one per cent on the first £100,000 overspent to 100 per cent on anything above £10m.

All you have to do is look at the Fernandez family situation with Queens Park Rangers to see just how bad it can get for a team that spends freely.