Is This The Death of English Football As We Know It?
Published February 08, 2008
The plan makes a mockery of the league system too. A club might well be relegated because they have to play Arsenal three times while their nearest rival faces Fulham three times. Likewise, a club may well win the league because they play Derby three times while their nearest rival faces the much-tougher Spurs on three occasions. Of course, these kind of scenarios can be imagined throughout the league, where higher positions always give greater rewards. The counter-argument would be that every club in the league would be voting for this change, so turkeys cannot complain after they have voted for Christmas. But the voting would be conducted by the chairmen with pound-signs in their eyes, rather than the managers or players who actually want to achieve things on the pitch.
The plan would certainly inject many millions of pounds into the Premiership. But any extra money the clubs would make would go straight into the pockets of the new wave of foreign billionaire chairmen. The Premiership is already easily the richest league in the world, and the gaps between clubs are increasing: the Big 4 is significantly richer than the others, who are significantly richer than the relegation fodder, who are significantly richer than the teams in the league below, and so on. This plan would continue to widen these gaps, consolidating permanent top flight status for the incumbent sides regardless of meritocratic reasons, creating a closed shop. If the top five teams were seeded, this would just consolidate their positions as the top, untouchable teams in the country. Nobody would challenge for the league title except these teams, and whoever was relegated would bounce straight back up again because they would be miles richer than the Championship teams. Eventually, it's easily foreseeable that relegation would be scrapped altogether, leaving very little motive for competition, and just a parade of consecutive showcase friendlies played out between brands.
What's more, this plan makes it easier for corruption to engineer the result of a league season. In any sport, any structural change must be calibrated so as to leave as little room as possible for parties who have multi-million pound interests in the outcome to abuse the system. It is quite obvious how a draw involving seeded sides for the final game of a league season could be manipulated so as to give a preferred outcome. For example, if the bookies stood to lose millions if Manchester United won the title, their final game could be drawn against a team like Spurs while nearest challengers Arsenal are given Derby. We should not presume that fixing only happens in cricket, or in athletics, or in tennis, or in horse racing, or in cycling, or in the football leagues of Italy, Germany and Brazil - we should instead presume that there will always be the potential for corruption in any sector (sporting or otherwise) which involves vast sums of money. As the sums increase, so does the potential for abuse. This plan involves the dangerous combination of vast sums of money and an extra mechanism for abuse.
- Is This The Death of English Football As We Know It?
- Published: February 08, 2008
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Sports
- Filed Under: Sports: Football (English)
- Writer: Ally Brown
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Yes, in theory FIFA would have to approve (they won't). However, the Premiership clubs are easily rich enough to invite FIFA to sit and swivel.
My suspicion, though, is that this, along with many other hairbrained schemes that have been floated in football over the years, won't come to anything.
You just know, without resorting to rocket science, that these games are going to go to the West Coast of the US and to Australia, don't you??
More likely South-East Asia and Dubai, I would think. Possibly Cape Town as well.
In countries like Germany,England, France,basically Europe and South America there is a reason why soccer is so popular. It is the only sport where commoners and nobles alike can sit and enjoy the game. It is the only place where people can for ninety minutes forget their troubles, low wages,poor social conditions and let loose.Europe and South America as a whole does not have a society that is wholly wealthy and happy. The rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer.In order not to focus on their meagre life their governments have allowed soccer to be the one thing that is theirs. Thats why soccer is so popular. thats why you are never too poor to go to a soccer game. The expansion will wake up the masses . they will realise that the owners and the clubs never really gave a darn about them. The good old days are gone, never to return. the days of the local managers caring about their community are gone. the clubs one interest is MONEY. Now they realise they do not have to carry on this farce of seeming to care anymore to get you to pay to come to the games. THEY DO NOT NEED YOU ANYMORE, YOU ARE OBSOLETE.THEY HAVE TAKEN ALL THEY CAN FROM YOU.THE INCOME FROM THE FANS HAVE NOW PLATEAUED AND THEY ARE MOVING ON. WAKE UP YOU BRITISH ,YOUR COUNTRY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN MADE UP OF COMMONERS AND ROYALS,PEASANTS AND LAND OWNERS. THE CLUBS ARE THE LAND OWNERS ,FANS ARE THE PEASANTS.WE AMERICANS ARE ABOUT TO CHANGE THAT. WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD.WE ARE OPENING YOUR EYES.YOU HAVE BEEN PLAYED FAR TO LONG.COMMUNITY IS A THING OF THE PAST.
What a fantastic piece of gibber. He's even managed to work in the class system.
Outstanding effort!
Again, nice piece Ally, and nice to see some more soccerball on this primarilly American site, which I am reading from Cardiff...
I'm not sure you're right to say that there was little comment on foreign owners coming in - perhaps it's cos I'm a Guardian reader - I've seen lots - almost all of it negative, and including political opinion when it comes to Gaydamark and Sinawatra. The big thing in this new and horrific proposal is the extra round of games - they've fucked with everything else - terraces, shirts, kick-off times - but never with anything as fundamental as this, and it will not pass! I've read recently that it's probably a start negotiating position to allow one regular season game to go overseas. Klydo does get a bit loony in there but, essentially he's right (not about all that government sponsored Soma stuff, or indeed about our societies) but that all clubs want now is money - any PLeague fan, or EPL as we have to call it now, who believes that their club is in some way 'special' or of their community is rapidly having their eyes opened - Scudamore is the sort of free-market or nothing loon who would prefer a game in front of 1 spectator paying one-million-and-ten to one played in front of 99,000 people paying a tenner. All this talk of expand or die is bogus, there is no danger of death, unless they do what the Italian league did and become bloated and self-satisfied, and eventually unpalatable and unpopular - and they're not far off it now.
You're right, Colin, a lot of these foreign owners have generated a huge fuss. Remember that a bunch of Man U fans even started their own club - FC United of Manchester - rather than be associated in any way with the Glazers. They're doing pretty well, too - they're already in the Northern Premier League and challenging for promotion again.
Indeed, and even they could beat KK's Newcastle United doc!
And Liverpool fans have been doing 'Yanks Out' demonstration (although I'm with those who think Benitez has more of a can to carry there - he has had time and a fair amount of money).
Such has been the outcry here that the idea will surely wither for now - although not forever. The Observer yesterday had a piece from the man who owns the Miami Dolphins (he calles critics ankle-biters you know) and he thinks it's a great idea and please come to Miami.
Well, he would. He's the bloke raking in all the cash from that NFL game at Wembley a few months ago.
Give Kev some time, Col. Anyway, you're just sore because we nicked Wisey away from you and now it looks like you're not going to win League One in your sleep any more!
You're very welcome to the evil dwarf Doc, he was always too tainted with the smell of Chelsea for my (and many Leeds fans I think) liking - I'm delighted to see Gary "Gary" Macalister there. But, the wheels seem to have come off a bit - in fact, they started to wobble when Gus Poyet left to Tottenham, so perhaps Wisey wasn't so hot - he says he wants to get away from front line management. Hey ho, we're going to the High Court now to try and get our points back, maybe that was a distraction the team didn't need. Fingers crossed though!
On a sadder Magpie note - Gazza's been detained under the mental health act according to the radio today, a genius at football but troubled, or indeed incapable, in the rest of his life.
All the best Doc.
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The fact that they're trying to distribute the good teams to international sites is the telltale sign it's mainly about money and exposure. If they did, say, a #1 vs #2 game on mainland Europe, then maybe it has some redeeming value.
And doesn't FIFA have to approve this?