If there is anyone left out in the world who manages to be a passionate supporter of both the Premier League project and the wellbeing and sporting integrity of English football, they’ll have had a difficult October. Comments from both within and without the cabal this week and last indicate the possibility of change on the top flight horizon. While the dreaded Game 39 appears to have fallen by the wayside, the club owners and officials that make up the Premier League remain intent on cutting off its nose to spite its face.
Frustration weighs heavy on the lapsed Premier League supporter, estranged from their club by the one-eyed and ruthless capitalism that drives the game. With worse to come, real supporters will continue to be marginalised while the overseas television markets dominate the thoughts and motivations of the influential people within the Premier League.
This is the reality of business-driven football and it is, unfortunately, irreversible. Those of us expecting a collapse are likely to be proved wrong. Romantic as it may be to assume that the more real supporters are driven off the terraces the weaker the Premier League will become, there’s a good chance our assumption is wrong. Demand remains high and as long as the “product” is marketed with the usual gloss and bombast that isn’t going to change any time soon.
The latest furore in Black October was instigated by Richard Bevan, the Chief Executive of the League Managers Association (LMA). Discussing the proposed FA-led licensing system for clubs, Bevan brought to light a concerning if not at all surprising problem brewing at Marble Arch:
“We’re very keen that the report is successful in helping the Football Association introduce a licensing programme for clubs because there are a number of overseas-owned clubs already talking about bringing about the avoidance of promotion and relegation in the Premier League. If we have four or five more new owners, that could happen.”
There is no point in jumping to conclusions at this stage, because if the current backing for the abolition of relegation falls short in any vote on the matter, it does require those four or five more new owners in order to happen. That’s several years away. Furthermore, if they haven’t already done it then the Premier League is likely to brush Bevan’s comments aside as a no-go, and it certainly is, for now.
In discussing Bevan’s claim it is first important to address the “foreign” issue. The problem here is not that these owners are foreign, but that they are greedy. Although it is clear that owners from certain foreign markets come from sporting cultures more used to franchises, single-entity leagues and so on, such greed is not an exclusively foreign trait. Domestic owners can be greedy too, and have been shown up as such over the years.
Although I have no problem with foreign leagues having developed along different lines, I happen to believe that the unrestricted mobility through the divisions offered by the English system is fundamental to the essence of the sport in this country. There is a lot that needs to be changed in English football, changes the Premier League is keen to resist. It’s no coincidence or shock that some owners are willing to swap that resistance for affirmative action when it comes to pulling up the Premier League drawbridge. All other clubs be damned.
While we’re on the subject of selfishness here are some of the words of Ian Ayre, Liverpool’s managing director, on the potential for removing equality from the way overseas television money is distributed around the 20 teams in the Premier League:
“The large majority are subscribing because they want to watch Liverpool, Man United, Chelsea and Arsenal. Is it right that the international rights are shared equally between all 20 clubs? Some people will say, ‘You’ve got to all be in it to make it happen’, but isn’t it really about where the revenue is coming from, which is the broadcaster, and isn’t it really about who people want to watch on that channel? We know it is us and others. At some point we definitely feel there has to be some rebalance of that because what we are actually doing is disadvantaging ourselves against other big European clubs.”
Even accounting for the obvious fact that Ayre’s job is to make money for Liverpool, the comments he made last week are horribly coloured by a sense of entitlement, a false claim of injustice (“rebalance” - really?!) and a total lack of respect for the clubs that Liverpool and the other “big” clubs play every week. This tunnel vision is quickly turning the Premier League into a circus, transforming it from a competitive and exciting league admired the world over into nothing more than an occasionally entertaining procession.
Without teams like Bolton - the club named with a dismissive tone in Ayre’s statement - Liverpool don’t have any TV rights to sell (Ayre has since denied that Liverpool are seeking a breakaway deal), or to take a larger slice of. It’s time the bigger clubs and the fans that follow them started to realise that.
One of the clubs swaggering about like it owns the place at the moment is Manchester City; how soon forgotten are the travails of recent history. It’s understandable that officials and supporters at the Etihad Stadium are flashing their plumage about to all and sundry, but as I watched their expensively assembled collection of superhumans score their fourth goal against my club on Match of the Day on Saturday night, I finally gave up; I won’t have been the only one.
Increasingly, there is no sporting point to the Premier League - it is a futile exercise designed only to crown whichever club has the deepest pockets. While it is true that money has almost always won through in English football, the fact of the matter is that today’s silly money is a different matter. The difference between a £2m summer spend and a £200,000 summer spend is not insurmountable on the field of play over a season. The difference between £100m and £10m is, no matter how good the coaching or team spirit might be. It’s pointless, so I clicked the ‘off’ button on my Freeview box and got absolutely spanked by City on FIFA 12 instead.
Add to that the wealth, greed and appalling attitude of a number of Premier League football players, and we’re left with nothing but a morally and competitively bankrupt division with no heart or soul. But hey, it’s shiny and they like it in the United States of Everywhere Else, so who cares what the local communities think?
Tags: Ian Ayre, Liverpool, Richard Bevan, Television Coverage
I think this is a wonderful article. Even as a supporter from the United States of the Premier League and one of those big money clubs, I have sympathized with many of the points in this piece. I read a substantial amount about the history of top flight football in England for an American, and I sort of wish that some of that old time spirit still permeated top flight football as it once did. In American sports, the greed stole my favorite NFL team from me when I was 10, and I think my affinity for foreign leagues and sports has been fueled by many of the unjust and absurd practices of the NFL, NBA, and MLB. It is a shame that the EPL is locked in culture war between its owners and the local supporters. I side with you, and keep up the good work.
TL;DR: Lovely stuff.
I could not have put it better myself. Personally I am sick of the dominance of a few clubs. The league is becoming predictable and boring and the sooner all those so called big clubs bugger off and make a super Euro league or whatever it is they desire, the sooner the rest of us can get back to football.