My how drastically things can change in one year. A little over two years ago another edition of England’s highly successful and thriving Barclay’s Premier League began the 2007-08 campaign with loads of potential and promises of excitement, tension and thrills to last a lifetime. And it certainly delivered in spades. From the very beginning we witnessed a resurgent and very young Arsenal squad jump out of the starting gate and spend almost three quarters of the season looking behind and laughing at it’s pursuers. Chelsea the financial kings of football received a shocking jolt within weeks of the new campaign when their highly successful and very controversial manager, the self proclaimed “Special One” Jose Mourinho up and quit the team. Or was he fired? Nevertheless, taking his place was the highly controversial and inexperienced enigma known as Avram Grant. Stamford Bridge and the millions of Chelsea supporters were in uproar and threatening anarchy.
On a more local front Manchester United began the season quietly as defending champions of the Premiership. Struggling to score goals and having to survive the start without Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo was a difficult task to be sure. Times were tough and the club fell behind several clubs before it found it’s form and once Cristiano Ronaldo hit his incredible stride which was going to lead him to an amazing 42 goals in all competitions as well as winning every individual player award that he was eligible for. With the help of Ronaldo, Manchester United roared into high gear and on it’s way to their second straight Premier League title, they also found the form and the quality to lift the highly coveted and prestigious Champions League trophy as well in an epic final against English rivals Chelsea in Moscow. A memorable season to be sure.
So what went wrong and why does the title of this rant paint a picture of impending doom? Many may feel it has to do with the author himself. Grognard has not often been accused or mistaken for Mr. Positive Energy. On the contrary, quite often he is known as Mr. Doom and Gloom or the Prince of Frakken Darkness. So what exactly is he fuming about this time? Specifically speaking, I am very concerned over the future of the English game due to internal factors as well as the severe economic downturn and how I feel it will affect not only the English Premier League, but how I feel it will affect professional sports throughout the globe.
In the past four months the world’s economy has fallen quicker than a Cristiano Ronaldo dive at full speed. Multi million dollar corporations have folded like tents and the stock markets throughout the world experienced cataclysmic crashes virtually every day and they continue to do so. People were losing their jobs, their homes and self-respect in record proportions and it almost feels like there is no end in sight. Even the change in the American presidency with the election of a positive and intellectually minded Barack Obama replacing a corrupt and seemingly incompetent George W. Bush and his Rogues Gallery of subordinates has not been able to stem the tide of financial ruin which has spread well beyond the US borders.
So what does this have to do with football many may ask? Plenty. In this day and age we are seeing an increasingly large shift in the economic fortunes from the West to the Middle East and Asia. In football, we are seeing more and more foreign investment within the English Premier League and more and more advertizing and licensing being targeted to an audience that is far from the shores of the United Kingdom. Many teams in England are already experiencing hard financial times and the great disparity between the “haves” and “have-nots” is rapidly growing. Large clubs are feeling the pinch too. A club like Portsmouth who had just been relegated but had just compteted in the FA Cup Final had gone into receivership. Many like Manchester United have had to severely curtail their summer spending to a more workable and financially tolerable amount. In fact, the debt load of English clubs in the Premier League is more than all the clubs in all of Europe combined. Scrambling and guerilla accounting practices are presently saving the day but it won’t be long before many of the big clubs have to answer for their wild and irresponsible spending.
How long will it be before the average season ticket holder at Old Trafford, or Stamford Bridge or Anfield finally says you know what, I can’t afford this anymore? I love my team but the ticket prices are going up and my wages are not going up or I just lost my job? How long before supporters start to stay away in droves due to the lack of entertainment dollar being offered by a League that is primed to take your money, but unwilling to give you your money’s worth in quality entertainment, goals, and competent officiating? How long before the disparity in finances forces the League to instill a salary cap or God forbid a quota on foreign talent? Yes I am very aware of the Bosman ruling and the present employment laws in place in Europe but even they are prone to change if the economic downturn forces revisionism in order to save the sport.
This possible downturn could get much worse before it gets better and it will affect football throughout the globe, not just England. It’s time the woefully out of touch governing bodies of the sport, FIFA, UEFA woke up to this eventuality and begin implementing rules and regulations to prevent a calamity that could derail the professional game. They need to change not only the rules of the game on the field and how they are applied, but they need to create a more even and workable playing ground for all teams that is fair and yet still competitive. My solutions are many and I will save those for another article in the near future. My point right now though is that there are seriously dark forces at work that are going to destroy the game on the pitch and off, unless all of us from the supporters to the managers, coaches, owners, right down to the players wake up and smell the coffee. FIFA needs to stop imitating Neville Chamberlain and seizing the moment to derail a potential catastrophe.
The game needs modern and major revisionism and people with the courage to not only come up with grand solutions, but implement them as well. If they avoid this and procrastinate, we will seriously see the decline of the game and the loss of control. Teams will fold while Asian or Middle Eastern interests will buy others up, and the League itself may become a catering product to those regions more so than England itself. We already have Manchester City in the hands of Middle Eastern conglomerates. Arsenal has a stadium and licensing promotion with Fly Emirates, Chelsea is owned by Russian oil czar while Manchester United and Liverpool are saddled with debt ridden American ownership and the future for most competitive teams is headed that way. Pretty soon I expect Barclay’s to review their present deal with the FA and Premier League and I can see the league being renamed the Cathay Pacific English Premier League or the OPEC English Premier League for lack of specific company names.
Is it really coming to this? Most certainly it is. The shifting tide in the world economy is going to the Middle East and China. They have the money, and the properties to make more. The greatest and largest country in the word, the United States of America has fallen into massive financial debt and they have borrowed billions and billions from China. And they seem rather reluctant to change from an oil-based energy driven society to something more self sufficient and cleaner. It’s all good news for the Middle Eastern and Russian oil czars and bad news for the economy. And it’s the Middle East and South East Asia that have the money to burn and invest in England’s number one national pastime.
Football has taken on a major metamorphosis over the past fifteen years. I remember a time when the game in England was 99% predominantly English with elements from the other countries which make up the United Kingdom. Today it is a global melting pot of ethnic diversity both in players, owners, managers and playing styles and tactics. Some of this has been very good and positive for the game, but now we are beginning to enter the dreaded Mines of Moria. Now we are going to pass through a period of transition in the game’s history that could define it’s future or forever destroy football’s look, feel and shape for generations to come.
I already see the cracks of doom beginning to show. Enormous financial gaps between a handful of teams and the rest of the league, advertizing and licensing monies that are spiraling well out of control, uncontrollable and irresponsible salary and transfer fees to players and agents that are creating disharmony and division. As well, we are seeing a negative influence this money has had on the play of the game. So much money is involved now and the difference between success and failure is so great that the sport is presently played with caution and cowardice rather than artistic flair and adventure. Small teams struggle to survive financially and keep their place in a league by inflicting tremendous esthetic damage to the game by incorporating overly defensive and negative tactics in order to survive. And even worse, the money and rewards to finish on top or with silverware is so great that the good teams also borrow from this mantra when playing each other in order to safely guide themselves to the promise land. 0-0 and 1-0 has become the flavor of the day. Long gone are the 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3 games of the past which created anticipated rivalries between teams and supporters but that never felt all these external pressures of today in order to succeed. This negative atmosphere has promoted managers with negatives tactics, lacking in imagination and courage. Their bottom line is to get a point and prevent a loss and relegation. Chess master plying their craft and sucking the lifeblood out of the beautiful game. Depressing times indeed.
In closing I would like to say that many things about professional sports are cyclical in nature. Style, substance, tactics and results never stay the same. One team cannot stay on top forever and another cannot lose forever. But the growing economic pressures and climate that has hit the globe and is going to severely affect the great game, could alter things in a manner that may be hard to correct or revise. Unless measures are taken quickly to prevent the worst from happening, and limiting the extent of much of the bad that is sure to occur, the game has the potential to become fragmented and fractured beyond repair. Football is entering a period where it is mimicking the class structure people in live in a capitalist society. And much like that society, the forces within are systematically trying to destroy the middle class and leave us with a few have’s and a lot more have not’s.
FIFA, UEFA, leagues around Europe and the English FA as well as every individual club need to wake up to the realities of the situation and start acting responsibly not only to themselves and their club’s futures, but to the legions of loyal supporters of the great game that need to be respected and appreciated much more so than what they are being shown at present. Will that Utopia ever come to fruition? God I hope so, but in the mean time, it’s going to be a tough flight through the turbulence of economic change and class struggle. Fasten your safety belts and hang on.
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