Modern Day Football

Where to start with a view on modern day football?  The game has never had so many fans, it has never been so widely accessible and global in appeal, the players have never been so fit & athletic, yet there is an endemic problem with the global game, one that the successors of Plato and Aristotle are grappling with among numerous European nations; an insatiable appetite for debt fuelled by greed.

As we know, the issue is not isolated to football, with greed fuelling the obscene actions and behaviours of institutions and individuals alike, creating an unsustainable bubble that will leave wreck and ruin for a long time to come.  However, this wreck and ruin – as highlighted by the recent case of Glasgow Rangers – is possibly no more prevalent than in the world of football.  The desire to entertain seems to know no bounds yet only the fans of a handful of English Premier League clubs know true entertainment these days.  I know, I’m an Evertonian and have been for thirty-five years.  I’ve been through tougher times than now watching my team, for the decade I had a season ticket and for three solid seasons of not missing a game home and away when I had significantly less disposable income.  But, those dark days of Walter Smith felt more of a duty to support a truly dreadful team through a bleak period of my clubs rich history, rather than any real notion that I would ever be entertained. 

So, does the average football fan – premier league or otherwise – go and pay the ever increasing prices in the hope of being entertained on the odd Saturday (substitute for any day of the week courtesy of Sky television) a season, or is it more about the same sense of duty I used to feel when circumstances allowed me to watch my team every week?  But it’s not as simple as that in today’s world of football.  We have a new breed of nouveau riche football fan, for whom it is ‘trendy’ to support a football team and fain an interest in the sport.  They happily scoff prawn sandwiches from the comfort of a corporate box, or happily recline in their armchair in front of a fifty-inch plasma screen, with little regard for Gerrards Olympic dives or Drogbas endless sulks, content with barely ever experiencing the real thing.  And, in part, it is the latter who have contributed to this change in the football landscape, to an era of excess and indulgence when ‘real entertainment’ is limited to only a few head to heads a season, or the Champions League, a cartel for Europe’s bourgeois clubs, who in typical Marxist fashion continue to acquire and circulate wealth whilst the remainder become increasingly up shit creek without the proverbial paddle.

According to a recent article in The Guardian, English Premier League clubs lost £361m last year, despite record income of £2.3bn, yet – as with the global debt crisis – we seem to be burying our heads in the sand, kicking the can down the street, believing the problem will disappear.  It won’t.  Clubs have record levels of barely manageable debt and can’t continue to operate their businesses at a loss.  “Where’s the fucking money Lebowski?”  UEFA voted in September 2009 to begin introducing Financial Fair Play, but critics believe – myself included – that this will fuel the coffers of Europe’s bourgeois clubs, who will see the larger share of television revenues and continue to benefit from modern day footballs worst invention.  Yes, the Champions League, where an average team finishing 4^th in the English Premier League can be crowned European Champions.  Forgive me, but shouldn’t the competition, named “Champions” League be true to its name and only be contested by the “Champions” of each country, just like in the good old days?  Just a notion that may create real ‘fair play’ within the respective leagues of each competing nation.

The expectation of fans of certain clubs who believe their club has a divine right to win trophies because of their history fuels part of the problem, as do the Oligarchs who have been merrily buying up premier league clubs and saddling them with debt underwritten by their own personal fortunes.  Modern day football has become a game of who’s got the biggest cock and, by only a millimetre, the Arabs have pipped the Americans and Russians for the most recent bragging rights. 

So, with all this investment and increased access to football, surely the fans are the real winners?  Not if footballers are being paid sums of money that are virtually bankrupting their clubs, whilst regularly serving up sub standard performances.  Hugo Rodallega, an average striker, reportedly wants £70,000 a week to join a new club.  This is what is bankrupting clubs and this era of player greed and excess has to stop.  Normal businesses do not pay wages to their employees that cannot be covered by their income, minus other costs and calculating for a profit.  Why do we, the football clubs themselves, and the players ignore this simple business fact?

Arsenal fans have recently been complaining of the clubs’ lack of ambition, having not won a trophy of any description for seven years, and – once again – certain to lose their best player.  Whilst I can sympathise, there are very few clubs these days that cannot be described as a “selling” club.  However, the critical difference with Arsenal is that a) they’ve had success during the Premier League years, and b) they have wealthy benefactors and have been turning in a profit, so their fans are more expectant.  Although, said profit is – sensibly – being used to reduce the debt from a large recent Capital Expenditure, the new stadium.  Whilst most Arsenal fans may well disagree with me, I believe they’ll be in a stronger position than most within a few years, especially when Financial Fair Play takes a hold.  They’ve started to operate within their means and are trying to build a structure that doesn’t rely as heavily on new acquisitions so much as developing future talent.  Personally, I think this is a more sustainable long-term model and if Arsenal fans can be a little more patient, just may see the fruits of such a strategy in the not too distant future.  I often have the same hopes for my own club, who are operating within a tight financial framework for altogether different reasons, but – under the stewardship of a shrewd Manager – have steadied the ship and have a somewhat healthier balance sheet than a few years ago.  The Manager has also built a good production line of young talent, and that has essentially helped the club survive. 

It was refreshing to hear a Chelsea fan on TalkSport recently, who offered that he would be more content with Chelsea winning the Champions League if they hadn’t, as he put it, “bought it”.  The ever lovable and arrogant Adrian Durham instantly rubbished the claims of said fan, clearly dismissing that anyone could have any sense of righteousness these days.  And, is that not the trouble?  Personally speaking, I would much rather see hard graft and team spirit earn success as opposed to the hollow reward of “buying” success courtesy of the football cockfight.  But, there doesn’t seem to be any place in our modern world for rewarding decent, honest hard work and endeavour.  Just look at the Banking sector.