The Undeniable Logic of Football Fans!

The Undeniable Logic of Football Fans!

My last Blog “The Curious Case of Everton Football Club” was recently posted on Everton fan site Bluekipper, with my permission.

Although the number of comments posted in response was minute when you consider the number of Blues out there, and certainly in comparison to the feedback I have received via Twitter and other channels, it does strikes me just how rabidly critical some of my fellow Evertonians can be, particularly when they have a polar opposite opinion, or they’re simply ignorant to the facts being reported.  I say ignorant because there was very little in terms of an “opposing view”, so it sort of makes it a little difficult to have a sensible debate.  In fact, I asked some friends to comment on the piece because they were positive about what I’d written.  Their individual comments have not been approved and posted on the site, which has left a completely one-sided commentary in response.  It makes me wonder what the motives behind this are?

It seemed clear to me that some responders simply read what they wanted to read – making things up in their heads as they read – rather than actually reading what was written.  One or two seemed to view the piece as an attack on our love and affection for Everton, yet this was never questioned and no suggestion was ever made that one's affinity with the club should diminish because of the perceived poor running of the club.  “You can’t stick my love for Everton on a balance sheet” said one.  Who suggested you could or should?!  What have the clubs poor finances got to do with our love of the club as fans?!  Completely ludicrous statements such as this can make it difficult to formulate a logical response because it’s so far removed from the issue. I’ve always been someone able to take constructive criticism, it’s imperative to make yourself better in what you do and who you are, but when you analyse some of the pitiful comments made, you start to question the actual motivation of the commentators in respect to the context of the current situation at our football club.

“Total bollocks”, “What a load of shite”, “More conspiracy theories” (where’s the conspiracy?!), Collymore is this and Collymore is that, all really constructive commentary and offering an alternative view to the predicament many are not happy with.  Personally, I don’t care much for Collymore but he addressed a situation that is clearly of importance to at least some Evertonians.  Important enough to have a phone in devoted to the subject for more than two and half hours.  It was advised on air that both Kenwright and Moyes had sanctioned the broadcast of the responses from the “unknown source”, so again, why some Evertonians feel the need to call the figures “bollocks”, “inaccurate” or a total load of tosh is beyond me.  They’re the facts in the public domain and what we have available to make commentary upon.

Of course, a number of the reader comments were simply diversions from the core subject of the article.  Everton is for sale, it has allegedly been for sale for some years, we’re the 4^th most successful club in the country, there should be plenty of suitors, there have been suitors, but still no sale.  The simple question is why?  This appears to have been generally ignored by the 14 responders to date – all of whom are welcome to their opinions of course.  Significantly more have agreed with my view via Twitter and other channels so there certainly does seem to be a balance of opinion but there will always be doubters and ignoramus.  My childhood hero Neville Southall felt it was a “good interesting read” so that satisfied me that at least one person connected with the club understands the numbers.  

Whether you agree with my view or otherwise is not of central importance, understanding the facts of the numbers is what’s important.  It was suggested by one that I’m an accountant and it has literally been taken as a fact within the threads because one dissenting reader simply tends to agree with the words of the previous dissenting readers unable to portray any independent thought.  I’m not an accountant, a mathematician, an economist, nor have I ever had the desire to be.  I simply looked at the latest accounts filed with companies’ house and performed some very basic analysis of the differences between income and outgoings from one year to the next.  Nothing complicated or startling in that.  One laughably referred to me as a “twonk” because the “Assets were running around on the pitch”.  I know mate, I referred to them as “intangible assets” and even explained this meant players. I also explained that their values decrease over time.  The relevance being, it has a bearing on the total value of the club and what the board is asking for!  This reader for example, had simply ignored the “Tangible Assets” that I had referred to, Bellfield & Goodison.  Did you actually get the gist of what the article was about or where you too busy dreaming up insults that trumped the reader before you? For some, the analysis of numbers seems to simply be too much and is – of course – all a “load of bollocks” and “made up”.  Ghandi once said, “Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.”  I’m certainly not a minority of one, but the truth is still the truth.  The numbers are factual and you have to understand the numbers to try and draw a conclusion upon why the football club has not been sold or whether the reported value is “fair”.  This was the POINT of the whole piece and yet the response of some old windbags concentrated upon completely irrelevant factors.  So, the challenge to you dissenting voices, what’s your actual view on the valuation? 

I had a couple of responses that were – at least – critical of the method of valuation.  This I don’t mind.  After all, I prefixed my calculations with “bag of a fag packet” and asserted that there are indeed many ways to value a company.  I’m very well aware a Football Club is not a normal company, but that doesn’t mean every investor will take exactly the same approach to valuation.  Not every law firm, accountancy firm or retailer is valued in exactly the same way as their competitors, so why indeed would a football club? It’s naive to believe they would be.  The “market dictates the value,” said one dissenter, ignoring this as one of my very points!  As the market dictates the value and as the club has been for sale for quite some years, the logical conclusion is that the asking price is too high.  In the same manner that a house on the market for 2 years at the same price is more than likely “over valued”.  It doesn’t take a mathematician, accountant or financial whizz to work this sort of stuff out.

There was also a general theme in the responses that Kenwright is better than the last guy (Peter Johnson).  That may well be true, but just because he’s perceived to be better (because he’s an Evertonian) doesn’t mean he’s the right man for our club, or the best.  For a long time now, I’ve hoped that he would come good, that he would have a plan, show some business nowse and commercial acumen, but it hasn’t happened.  “Careful what you wish for” is an overused phrase in regard to this subject and whilst I believe in the mantra it shouldn’t provide for so much caution it halts progress.  It certainly doesn’t mean that fans should settle for the status quo and not strive for better.   I’m one Evertonian who will certainly never do so.  

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.