'The Association of European Leagues, the FAs and the domestic leagues^ should join common cause and

say
enough is enough"

l -KEN
THIS MADNESS MUST BE STOPPED IN ITS TRACKS
The antics of UEFA and FIFA continues unabated (no pun intended). UEFA's latest daft idea is that the European Nations Cup is played at venues throughout Europe and countries are invited to apply to stage one or more host matches. This could mean that games are staged anywhere from Dublin to Moscow, Belgrade or even Jerusalem! The logistics of implementing this idea could be horrendous, least of all for the PBF (Poor Bloody Fans). The competition coincides with the height of the holiday season throughout Europe, which will put pressure on aircraft seat capacity, trains and hotel rooms, to say nothing of the cost involved. Reasonably, you can expect two or three small countries to get a venue, thus securing their votes in the next UEFA/FIFA elections. Turning to FIFA, there have always been suspicions about staging the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Blatter claimed the reason is that by going to new countries, it is spreading the word and helps to take football to a wider audience but Australia, who lost out, has a much higher sphere of influence with a population of over 22m, compared with Qatar who has a population of approx 1.8m. Furthermore, the climate in Qatar in the summer often exceeds 100 F although originally they claimed to be contemplating airconditioned stadia which will do a lot for global warming, but now there is a suggestion that it be switched to the winter, although it will still be very hot. However, that is nothing compared with the irreversible financial damage it would do to domestic club football. This madness must be stopped in its tracks. The Association of European Leagues, the FAs and the domestic leagues should join common cause and say enough is enough. If FIFA persists with this scheme, then they should collectively boycott the event and not make their players available. The ultimate sanction will be to resign from this incompetent organisation and see it collapse. Both UEFA and FIFA speak with forked tongue, they say that clubs should reduce the size of their domestic competitions to reduce players fatigue, at the same time increasing International fixtures including fatuous friendlies, all for profit. Some fans question "where has all the money gone?". Let us examine this subject. Firstly, we pay approximately 1.8m a year in rent for Elland Road and Thorp Arch and an increased insurance cost as we are obliged to pay for cover put in place by the landlord. There are the business rates, currently at 747,950. For this we get little or no benefit at all. Education, Health and Safety does not affect us. The only benefit we receive is law and order, public safety and police protection. However, this is limited because if we want the police to supervise our football matches, we have to pay extra. Last season, we were charged just less than 1.2m which are called Special Police Services. What is clear is that it costs Leeds United approximately 3.6m for which we get little or no benefit. However, we have challenged the level of police charges and we won a High Court victory on the basis that we have been overcharged. Simply put, the police want to charge for all costs including that of the public highway, which is why we pay our rates. We won the case and the Police were refused the right to appeal. However, they found another judge who granted them the right to appeal and the case will be heard in the New Year. The amusing part of this ongoing saga is that although the Police do not accept the Judge's decision, they are trying to apply those parts of the judgement which they think is advantageous to them. Talk about "heads you