Beyond the Southampton Fire Sale, Football's Brave New World

[Rasiak-9-]

Hey Ladies and gents, little blog of mine if you're interested. I've not really been blogging in ages but thought I ought to try and get back into it.

 

Hopefully it strikes a bit of a chord and makes for an entertaining read at least. I'm an opinionated jizzbag but hey? aren't we all to some extent!

 

Enjoy!

 

Beyond the Southampton Fire-sale, Football's Brave New World

 

"Much like the corporate culture that we must all resign ourselves to reluctantly contributing to (if indeed we're partial to food and shelter), the structural corruption that has ingrained itself within modern football has become impossible to either extract, withdraw from or rebel against without active self-harm, no matter how many other disaffected fans feel the same way.

 

What makes the almost universal grunt of discontent that 'there's too much money in the game' so striking however, is not merely the unanimity of the complaint, but the fact that unlike vague, disjointed political movements often united only by a common enemy, an overall consensus on the practical policies that it would take to solve the inequality, injustice and lack of mobility in football is actually, fairly well-established.

 

Don't get too excited though. The introduction of a salary cap, even spread of television money in La Liga, a Champions League spot for the FA Cup winners in England, a carrot-and-stick approach to rewarding academies for developing home-grown talent, and finally, a total reform of the game's governing bodies from the FA to FIFA, are impossible to implement because, just as in the world of banal consumerism we inhabit, the institutions with the greatest influence both feed, and are fed by, the very people they repeatedly exploit.

 

Football; like music, art and every other expression of culture and community in a globalised society, has been successfully commodified as a bland, stale entertainment product; and quite simply, it does not suit the owners of such a profitable commodity to have things any other way.

 

This is it. Football's Brave New World..."

[angelman]

Nice article. I am refreshed to see more and more people thinking along these lines. I have felt it now for a good 5 or 6 years, or maybe as soon as Abramovich took over Chelsea in 2003. Before that, there was always a dominance by the big boys, and Spain is Spain, but since then the gap has grown to what it is now and as you say it is only going one way.

 

I do wonder though, what the supporters of the top 7 think of the situation. We had the Scouser come here not so long ago who wasn't happy with what is going on with football, but I imagine him not to be the majority. I suppose it is human nature to not care too much about those beneath you when you are at the top, especially when it is to do with a sport that ultimately has little affect on peoples' lives. If football didn't exist we would still go along with life quite happily and find something else to do on a Saturday afternoon, although the once sacrosanct universal 3pm slot is now a distant memory. I know that many of the supporters of these clubs complain about ticket prices, eg Arsenal over £1000, but both Arsenal and Spurs have a waiting list for season tickets of something like over 20,000. But how many supporters of these clubs actually go to the games rather than use the excuse that it is too expensive and watch it on Sky instead? (Maybe they should bin the Sky and buy a season ticket). It has become the norm now - anyone under the age of 30 would not know what the old days were like. Many over 30 don't seemingly care. Those disaffected I am guessing are over 30, but the PL/Sky has new people coming on line the whole time to replace the "old" people.

 

Looking at The Seven, I sort of pity Everton and Spurs fans. Of the big boys, they have no chance of winning the title. What are they doing at the top table? Just making up numbers, like the rest of us do to make up the PL so as to avoid the big 7 playing each other 4 times a year. Maybe that is what they would prefer? There are already reports appearing that they are begrudging the rest of us an equal share of TV money as they view it that they are subsidising the rest of us. I can see a time when clubs negotiate their own TV deals - hen that happens the gulf between them and us will be so large that there will be absolutely no point in competing. Actually there isn't much point now.

 

But the worst thing is the greed of the top 7 (a little unfair on Everton to lump them in on this). They make so much money yet they want more and more and to exclude everyone. The real losers in all this is the way that the PL have s*at on the lower leagues by blackmailing them re with holding parachute payments and other payments if they can't get their way with regards distributions. Then they blackmailed the Football League again over the Elite Player Performance Plan. Then there is Financial Fair Play. Then etc etc etc. All is done to make the rich richer, and we too as a club benefit from much of this, although it is well documented and discussed that FFP hamstrings us. And what is happening to funding at grass roots? This all suffers due to the greed of the big boys.

 

And finally, and we are guilty of this to some degree, every time an overseas player is bought, the money flows out of the English game. The balance of payments has an unhealthy deficit. Looking at the big 4 (not ManC/U, Chelsea & Arsenal), over the past two seasons they have bought from overseas clubs about £456m worth of players, whiles selling about £107m. So that is £350m from 4 clubs flowing out of the English game. It would be intersting to see what would happen if a 15% surcharge was levied on overseas players (with monies going to fund grass roots) - but of course that won't happen. The PL wants to protect its "best league in the world" status so that those in the Far East can enjoy it. And that there is the big problem. The PL is being set up to appeal to people thousands of miles away who have never had to flog hundreds of miles to a ground to make early kick off. Or go to the Emirates for a 8pm Monday evening kick off with no possibility of catching a return train because they have finished for the day.

 

Modern football is broken due to its relentless pursuit of money.

[Rasiak-9-]

Thanks buddy, and yeah I can't help but feel cynical about the whole thing.

 

Half the time I just want Man City to dominate the league so that the rest of them feel the same way we do! Re. Spurs/Everton I think part of it is plain old denial. Football fans tend to be internalised optimists insofar as they haven't ruled out the idea that they could crash the top four and actually permanently displace Arsenal or Liverpool, when if they were able to do so they'd simply lose the players responsible for getting there whilst the clubs below them would strengthen, meaning that (as happened with both), if they do somehow make it they just drop straight back out again and its nothing more than a flash in the pan.

[angelman]

Half the time I just want Man City to dominate the league so that the rest of them feel the same way we do!

 

LOL - I completely agree. When the press were orgasming last year over Liverpool winning the league, I was hoping City or Chelsea were going to do it and I was ecstatic when that happened.

[Redslo]

A well written depressing blog. I look forward to more of the same. Wait. That is not exactly what I meant.

[Rasiak-9-]

A well written depressing blog. I look forward to more of the same. Wait. That is not exactly what I meant.

 

Ha! Thanks...I suppose its a cynical way of looking at it but I've got no clue precisely how anything is going to change.

 

I suppose all you can do is take the friends, companionship and connections you get from going to the football and thoroughly enjoy it whilst ignoring all else. For me the main thing will always be getting lashed with my mates and having a laugh on a Saturday. If Saints can keep their heads above water there'll always be moments and memories to cherish.

 

Just a shame that there's not really any sort of competitive sport. I can't for the life of me see how last season isn't as good as it gets

[Patrick Bateman]

Being white text on a black background, it hurts my eyes, so I'm not reading it. Please change the colour scheme - even grey text on black would be better.

[Coldridge]

Enjoyed that Rasiak. Football is no different from the greater world. The big clubs get bigger, and the small clubs wither. I'm sure most of us are customers of Asda/Tesco/Sainsbury's and the like. Nevertheless, would we be pleased to discover that a thriving independent village shop has been bought out and sterilised into a Tesco Metro? Supporting the big guys is fine, but cheering them on as they buy out the competition must leave a bitter taste.